Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/142

In passing through the valley of the Willamette, Young's party paused at the Mission station, one of his men remaining to assist the Lees in constructing a cart. Daniel Lee says some of them had been sailors, some hunters in the mountains and in southern Oregon, and "one Mr Kelley was a traveller, a New England man, who entertained some very extravagant notions in regard to Oregon, which he published on his return," and with this notice he dismisses the party of "about a dozen persons."^[1]

Proceeding to Fort Vancouver, a somewhat peculiar reception awaited them. The Hudson's Bay Company's schooner Cadboro, which arrived there before them from the bay of Monterey, had brought a communication from Figueroa, governor of California, to Chief Factor McLoughlin, denouncing Young and Kelley as horse-thieves, and cautioning the fur company to have nothing to do with the party, as they were banditti, and dangerous persons—an accusation all the more significant because Young had between seventy and eighty horses in his possession.

This letter of Figueroa's closed the gates of Fort Vancouver against both Young and Kelley, though on account of Kelley's health, the fever having returned, he was given a hut such as was occupied by the servants of the company outside the fort, with an attendant, medical aid, and all necessary comforts for the winter.^[2] In return he vigorously plied his pen, setting forth the abuses practised on American citizens by the British company in Oregon.

Meanwhile Young returned to French Prairie to

map could hardly have called the Rogue River red had he ever seen it, as it is of a beautiful blue color. See also Cram's Top. Mem., 33.

1. Kelley resents this ignoring of himself and his efforts to establish missions in Oregon, which was a part of his plan, and says that Daniel Lee in his book, and Jason Lee in his lectures delivered subsequently in the east, assigned untrue causes for the Oregon mission, 'insinuating that they themselves were its originators.' See Kelley's Settlement of Oregon, 62–3.
2. While Kelley in his numerous pamphlets complains bitterly of the indignities put upon him at Fort Vancouver by reason of Figueroa's letter, he admits the charity of McLoughlin in providing for his wants, and acknowledges that he was presented with a small sum of money on leaving for the Islands.