that in 1844 he wrote that he was strongly inclined to leave the country, but was deterred by the thought that his presence was beneficial, and the hope of being relieved from his embarrassments. Whatever were his schemes, it is due to him to say that in opposing the introduction of intoxicating liquors, and in settling difficulties between the white inhabitants and the natives, his services to the colony were of importance.[1]
Not the least of White's embarrassments arose from the fact that the men in Washington who had become, verbally at least, responsible for the payment of his salary and expenses, were no longer in a position to befriend him. Before his accounts were settled there was a change in the administration, and persons who did not know White were in the places of Webster, Tyler, Spencer, and Linn. Being solicited by the legislative assembly of the provisional government in 1845 to go to Washington as the bearer of a memorial to the United States government, he presented himself at the capital, and was requested to continue in his office of Indian agent. He was obliged, however, to remain at the east until a bill should be passed by congress for the payment of debts due the Hudson's Bay Company, and granting him additional compensation for services. A year was consumed in waiting, during which time certain representations were made by his political enemies in Oregon which lost him the position, and closed his connection with Oregon affairs.[2] He returned in 1850 and engaged with James D. Holman to build a town on the claim of the latter, which he called Pacific City, which was afterward trans-
- ↑ Applegate's Marginal Notes, in Gray's Hist., 259.
- ↑ White's Ten Years in Or., 322–5; White's Or. Ter., 64–6; Niles' Register, lxix. 407. The occasion of White's loss of place was the belief in Oregon that he would make an effort to get a seat in congress as delegate from the territory, whenever the expected settlement of boundary was consummated, and a territorial government established. That he so intended in 1845 seems probable, from the fact that on passing through Missouri, the St Louis Era spoke of him as a delegate from the self-constituted government of Oregon, going to ask for a seat in congress.
