find himself posted bandit and horse-thief. Strangers were cautioned to receive none of the vagabond party into their houses. Young was furious. He tore down the notices, hurled maledictions on the California governor, and warned the Canadians against accepting such lies. Though the haughty temper and indignant denial of Young were not without effect on McLoughlin, yet official information to an official could not be disregarded.
On one occasion, being in need of clothing, Young sent some beaver-skins to Fort Vancouver with which to purchase the desired articles. McLoughlin refused the skins, but sent the goods, with some food, as a present. Thereupon Young's rage broke out afresh, and he returned every article. Then, he went to Fort Vancouver and poured forth his displeasure in person, the interview ending in rather strong words between the autocrat of Oregon and the Tennessee cabinetmaker.[1] The former modified his opinion somewhat; and when the Cadboro returned to Monterey in the spring of 1835 McLoughlin inquired of Figueroa the foundation of his charges against Young and party. A letter also went from Young demanding why he had been so maligned. But as no answer could be expected to these inquires for several months, affairs remained in statu quo, Young meanwhile locating himself in the Chehalem Valley, opposite Champoeg, where he tended his mustangs, and traded when he had aught to sell. He had some dealings with C. M. Walker, late of the Mission, but now at Fort William, as agent of Wyeth, who had returned to Fort Hall.[2]
- ↑ At the same time Kelley says that Young called on him, and threatened his life for having persuaded him to undertake the settlement of Oregon. Kelley's Colonization of Oregon, 54.
- ↑ C. M. Walker, who knew Young well in the times referred to, in January 1881, at his home in Tillamook, furnished a Sketch of Ewing Young, from which I have drawn some of these facts. See Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans. for 1880, 56–8. Walker states that Young was the first settler on the west side of the Willamette River. He calls him industrious and enterprising, and a man of great determination. See also White's Emigration to Or., MS., 3; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 205; Los Angeles Co. Hist., 34.
