I have no doubt, from the evidence, that the visit of Park and Peel, together with the act of McLoughlin in joining the compact of the provisional government, saved the country a war, and influenced the final settlement of the boundary question. When they came to Vancouver they expected to maintain England's hold of the north side of the Columbia River; but they found the Hudson's Bay Company bound in an agreement of mutual protection with the Americans; they learned the fearless and resolute character of the colonists, and their rapidly increasing numbers, and were constantly checked in their expressions of hostility by McLoughlin, who assured them, and even wrote to England, that the country "was not worth a war."[1]
After a few weeks Park and Peel returned to join the America, which sailed for Honolulu and Valparaiso in September; the Fisgard, Captain Duntz, taking her place on the sound, and remaining some months at Nisqually; and the Modestd anchoring in front of Vancouver, about the 1st of October. Captain Gordon, after arriving on the South American coast, received such advices from England as to cause him to gather up in haste the money of the British residents, and sail away to England without waiting for orders from the admiral.[2] In the mean time, Lieutenant Peel was beforehand with him, taking the shorter route by Vera Cruz and Habana[3] to London, where he arrived in January 1846, as bearer of de-
- ↑ Says Roberts: 'The doctor counselled those about him to peace, saying that all that could be done in Oregon in the event of a war between the United States and Great Britain could not affect the final issue, and it was better to remain friends.' Recollections, MS., 61.
- ↑ It is said that Gordon, when questioned, agreed with McLoughlin, that 'the country was not worth a war,' but on entirely different grounds. He was speaking literally, because he found the Nisqually plains a bed of gravel; and because, being fond of angling, the salmon would not rise to the fly. A country where the fish were not lively enough for his sport was in his estimation worthless. But the salmon were not the only fish in Oregon that refused to rise to the fly of the British angler.
- ↑ This information was communicated by letter to the N. Y. Journal of Commerce, and copied in the S. I. Polynesian of April 25th, whence it found its way into the Or. Spectator, July 4, 1846.
