to forego this indulgence, but in their efforts at social intercourse among the colonists, introduced it with a freedom offensive to the temperance sentiment so sedulously cultivated in Oregon, thereby bringing reproach upon the officers of the fur company who supplied them with liquors, and furnishing their adversaries a justifiable cause of complaint, where they were already only too eager to discover evidences of moral turpitude.[1]
The alterations in the liquor law in December made it an offence to give away ardent spirits, as well as to sell or barter; the fine being fifty dollars for each violation of the law. It made it the duty of every person, officer or private citizen, who knew of the distillation of any kind of spirituous liquors, to seize the distilling apparatus and deliver it to the nearest county judge or justice of the peace, who should issue a warrant causing the premises of the distiller to be searched, and all liquors, or implements for manufacturing them, discovered should be seized and delivered to that officer, who should arrest the offender and proceed against him according to law; the punishment being forfeiture of the property, and a fine of one hundred dollars, one half of which was to go to the informant and witnesses, and the other half to the officers engaged in arresting and trying the criminal. No more than half a pint of liquor was permitted to be sold by practising physicians for medical
- ↑ With regard to this matter Minto says: The officers of the Modeste made frequent excursions into the Willamette Valley, and did not always choose the most discreet means of cultivating feelings in favor of British subjects. The scenes enacted at the residences they visited indicated that they did not regard the laws of the colony; and even their temporary association with an American was a cause of suspicion. Early Days, M.S., 60. Roberts admits that the company furnished rum for the Modeste's crew, and that brandy was placed upon the table while her officers were at Vancouver in addition to the usual wine; not because temperance was not the rule at Vancouver, but because Douglas could not refuse to furnish to the officers and men sent there to protect the company any supplies they might require. Recollections, MS., 53. But the colonists were not disposed to make allowances for the position in which the company was placed. As an evidence of the efforts made by the Hudson's Bay Company to do away with the use of spirituous liquors, not only in Oregon but east of the Rocky Mountains, see Fitzgerald's Vanc. Isl., 211-13.
