there were many otlicrs, even women, who crossed the mountains late in the year of 1845 on pack horses, barely escaping starvation through the exertions of I^arlow and Hector in getting through to Oregon City and forwarding to them a pack-train with provisions. The wagons, which it was impossible to move be- yond Rock creek, were abandoned, the goods cached, except such necessaries as could be packed on half starved oxen, the men walking in the snow and all often soaked with rain. Children with feet almost bare endured this terrible journey, the like of which can never again occur on this continent.
Some of the more thoughful men of the colony, taking into consideration the peculiar inaceessibilty of western Oregon from the east and the possibility of war with England, asked themselves how United States troops were to come to their assistance in such a ease. The natural obstacles of the Columbia river pass were so great as to be almost positively exclusive in the absence of the usual means of transportation, and the stationing of but a small force of a single battery, at the Cascades, would effectually exclude an army.
The colonists were still expecting the passage of Linn's bill, and with it the long promised military protection ; but there was the possibility that the very moment of greatest need, they might be left at the mercy of an invading foe, and its savage allies, while the troops sent to their relief were fenced out and left to starve east of the mountains, or to die exhausted with their long march and the effort to force the passage of. the Cascades.
And such were the hardships of the brave men and women who came to Oregon with ox teams; who blazed the way for civilization and everything that goes with it ; who made it possible for their descendants, and 1912 immi- grants, to ride to Oregon in palace cars, with dining cars, comfortable couches, and colored servants; and greater than all other things — saved Oregon to the United States.
HOW MANY CAME BY THE OX TEAM TRAIN?
Professor P. G. Young, secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, and ]\Ir. Elwood Evans, author of the "History of the Northwest," substantially agree on the following estimates :
The estimate given below for 1842 and 1843, are well founded, but the others, especially from 1847 on, are from no very tangible basis.
At the close of 1841, the Americans in Oregon numbered possibly four hun- dred.
The Immigration of 1842 estimated from 105 to 137
The Immigration of 1843 estimated from 875 to 1000
The Immigration of 1844 estimated about 700
The Immigration of 1845 estimated about 3000
The Immigration of 1846 estimated about 1350
The above figures are taken quite closely from those given by Elwood Evans in his address before the Pioneer Association in 1877. I (Young) make the Im- migration of 1844, however, seven hundred, instead of four hundred and sev- enty-five as he gives it.
The Immigration of 1 847 between 4000 and 5000
The Immigration of 1848 ab
