the society. In the numbers of this magazine we find a large amount of information concerning the Oregon of eighty years ago.^ The editor grew eloquent in the effort to set before his readers the possibilities of this great country. He called it "the future home of the power which is to rule the Pacific, . . . the theatre on which mankind are to act out a part not yet performed in the drama of life and government." Oregon's "far-spreading seas and mighty rivers [were] to teem with the commerce of an empire "; her "boundless prairies and verdant vales [were] to feel the steps of civilized millions; . . ."
Colonizing plan fails. Such enthusiasm, supported by much valual^le information, must have produced considerable effect, since the magazine reached a circulation of nearly eight hundred copies, and in addition to this the society also sent an agent into the western states to enlist emigrants, who were to go to Oregon in the spring of 1840. This scheme of colonization failed. Since the magazine suspended publication in the year 1839, we do not have the society's explanation of the failure. But probably they found impracticable the plan of enlisting well to do persons in a scheme of colonization which was more or less missionary in its aims, particularly since they proposed to secure the political and social equality of the Indians. In a word, the plan was too visionary to succeed.
1 Apparently only eleven numbers were printed. It begins with October, 1838, and ends with August, 1839. Complete files of this paper are very rare.
