As to the actual merits of the opposing claims to Oregon City, the facts on the side of McLoughlin were these: The improvements at the falls of the Willamette were begun in 1829 for the Hudson's Bay Company. But the company objected to the location of a mill south of the Columbia River, for the reason that in the settlement of the boundary question it would almost certainly be found on the American side of the line; for at that time, and for many years thereafter, it was understood from the official announcements of the British government that England would insist only on the country north of the Columbia being conceded to her in the future boundary treaty,[1] and that no claim would be made of any territory south of the Columbia, in Oregon.
McLoughlin, however, who had a fondness for farming, after agreeing to settle some of the released servants of the company in the Willamette Valley, which he foresaw would be a great wheat-raising country, determined to build the mill with his own means for himself; but being strenuously opposed by some of his friends in the company, he decided about 1838 to relinquish the land and the water-power at the falls to his step-son, Thomas McKay. He finally yielded to his own strong inclination in favor of the place, however, and determined to keep it, putting up a house to replace those destroyed by the Indians, and openly claiming a preëmption right to the land, keeping himself informed of the proceedings of the United States congress in the matter of Oregon lands.
Linn's land bill, which was suggested by Jason Lee himself, had no clause preventing foreigners of any nation from becoming citizens of Oregon, but bestowed
- ↑ A Copy of a Document, in Trans. Or. Pioneer Assoc., 1880, 49.
with which letters and historical data were preserved by McLoughlin renders these papers of great value. They were furnished by Mrs Harvey to the fund of material out of which this history has been made. Without them, many of the secrets of missionary ingratitude would never have come to light; with them, much that was obscure is made plain.
