ated by Mr. Morrison that my feelings went out towards them closely to the relations of father or mother or brother or sister to me, according to age. I became "John" to old and young, and was pleased with it, and it lightened the monotony of the journey to me. Many of the older men besides General Gilliam had seen service against the Indians and against the British at New Orleans, but more interesting to me than the talk of these men, even, was the campfire traditions of Gilliam's sister (Mrs. Sallie Shaw, wile of our second elected captain). Among her ancestry five brothers and their friends had fought against the British as far back as the Revolution.
The historian who settles to the belief that the movement to Oregon was "a blind and unintelligent action, performed by ignorant men, groping for exciting adventure," makes a grave mistake against the truth. It was not by chance that Thomas Jefferson interested himself for long years on the possible nature and condition of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. It was not by accident that he selected Meriwether Lewis to explore that country. It was not by accident Lewis chose as his associate in the work William Clark—younger brother of General George Rogers Clark the winner of the Northwest territory from the British. It was not by chance that a generation after Lewis and Clark's exploit, one of the members of the United States senate was named Lewis F. Linn and became devoted to the occupation of Oregon by American citizens, and it was from Jefferson himself that Thomas II. Ben ton Linn's associate senator received the conception of planting 30,000 rifles in the valley of the Columbia as good American statesmanship. No! Aided by information slowly filtered from the campfires of adventurous men engaged in the fur and peltry trade from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, the character of the Oregon Country, together with its rightful ownership, was the theme of thought with leading frontiersmen passing from fireside to fireside, more by social intercourse than a multiplicity of books or papers. The few of these in use, especially on the southwestern frontiers, were more influential in producing the Oregon fever
