PREFACE.
The more remote in Oregon affairs has been given in my History of the Northwest Coast, which is indeed a part of the History of Oregon, as elsewhere explained. The later volumes deal with events which occurred within the memory of men now living; they are wrought out from yet more original sources, a large proportion of the facts herein presented never having before appeared in print. Obviously it is more difficult to treat fully and fairly a comparatively modern epoch, from absolutely crude material, than an earlier one which has been worked over by scholars for centuries. Of the hundreds of personal narratives which have been placed before me by those who assisted in making the history, no two wholly agree; and yet to the careful student, with all the evidence before him, the truth is generally clear.
The leading features of this history are not found in bloody conquests inspired by the thirst for gain and glory united to the hope of winning heaven, but in the more gentle purpose of adding to the enjoyments of earth by commerce and agriculture, the fur company, the missionaries of different sects soon converted into rival traders, and the middle class from the United States, all contributing of their several characteristics to form a society at once individual and independent
