had passed both houses of congress it would have been a declaration of war.[1] This belligerent attitude on both sides was also as well known to uneducated western men, who were capital Indian-fighters, and who had served under Jackson and Taylor, as it was to the scholarly officers of the British fur company.[2]
The inducement to go to Oregon was not lessened by the prospect of having to drive out the nation which had been fought at New Orleans and along the border, and a large number of people[3] collected at different points on the Missouri River, amounting in all to fourteen hundred persons. The company which rendezvoused near Weston, at a place called Capler's land- ing, was led by Cornelius Gilliam, who had conceived the idea of an independent colony, as best suited to his fancy and the temper of the men. The leaders of 1844 were hardly equal to those of the previous
- ↑ Cong. Globe, 1843-4, app. 98.
- ↑ Minto's Early Days, MS., 20.
- ↑ McLoughlin places the number of immigrants of 1844 at 1,475. Private Papers MS., 2d ser., 9. A letter in the Western, Mo., Expositor of May 18, 1844, and dated at 'Oregon Camps' May 15th, says: 'Our company when joined with yours will be very large—much the largest that has ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. There are in the Independent Oregon Colony, at this date, 1 minister, 1 lawyer, 1 millwright, 3 millers, 1 tailor, 1 ship-carpenter, 2 blacksmiths, 1 cooper, 1 tailoress, 2 cabinet-makers, 5 carpenters, 4 wheelwrights, 2 shoemakers, 1 weaver, 1 gunsmith, 1 wagon-maker, 1 merchant, and the rest farmers. There are 48 families, 108 men (of whom 60 are young men) 323 persons; 410 oxen, 160 cows (16 of which are team cows), 143 young cattle, 54 horses, 41 mules, and 72 wagons. Many men from the adjoining counties are on their way to join us.' This letter was written by Captain Cornelius Gilliam, who was encamped with his company nine miles below fet Joseph, Mo., to Captain Nathaniel Ford, who was at Independence with another company. S. I. Friend, Nov. 1, 1844; N. Y. Express, June 7, 1844; Niles' Reg., lxv. 160. John Minto, who joined Gilliam's company, thinks the immigration of 1844 numbered about 800. Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1876, 42. A correspondent of the S. I. Friend, of June 2, 1845, says there were over 600. In the message of the executive committee of December 1844 the number is estimated at upwards of 750 persons. Gray's Hist. Or., 382 Elwood Evans in Or. Pioneer Assoc. Trans., 1877, 26, places the number at 475. We can count 300 of Gilliam's company, before the accession of all the 87 wagons comprising it. Ford's company swelled the host to about 800, and there was still another company under John Thorp, which started from near the mouth ot the Platte River, and travelled on the north side of that stream. As they would not come together until the different organizations had been much broken up, it would be difficult to judge of each other's original numbers. No count would again be made until they reached the Dalles, from which point the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company would be on the alert to ascertain their strength, for obvious reasons.
