shores of the Atlantic across the Allegheny to the valley of the Mississippi will impel them onward with accumulating force across the Rocky Mountains into the valley of the Columbia, and that the whole region drained by it is destined to be peopled by us."
Its importance not realized by Britain; new information sought. At that point, therefore, the movement of pioneers into Oregon became a factor to be reckoned with by Britain because it was changing the relative situation of the two nations that entered into the joint-occupation agreement in 1818. The British government had hardly been more than aware that such a movement was going on; and till a late hour of the negotiations they had no conception of its true importance. Sir George Simpson had reported the presence of a few American families in Oregon in 1842. But Ashburton at about the same time declared that it would be impossible for the United States to colonize Oregon "for many years to come." Pakenham held and expressed similar views. But apparently the British cabinet was not satisfied with the information its diplomatic representatives could give on that subject and they appealed to the Hudson's Bay Company as more likely to know the facts about the settlement already existing in Oregon. From Governor Simpson they learned that as early as 1843 the American population in Oregon was at least twice as numerous as the British. When the news of Polk's warlike inaugural reached London a warship was ordered to the Oregon coast and soon thereafter two
