264 T. C. Elliott. sters and collecting money ; which I was enabled to do through the kindness of Mr. P. S. Ogden, the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, who advanced money enough at par to finish my duties, besides turning over to Captain Engalls (should be Ingalls) a few thousand dollars for the use of the Department. The kindness of Mr. Ogden in many instances in accompanying the officers of the department, places it under many obligations to him". A little later, Hon. Thos. Nelson, chief justice of the supreme court of Oregon, to whom the secretary of state at Washington referred special duties, wrote : "The Chief Fac- tor of this Company, Gov. Ogden, is a gentleman of high standing, and much kindness and good feeling is manifested by him on all occasions towards the people of the United States." In August, 1850, a party of distinguished people arrived in Oregon and their experience is told in the words of Gen. James C. Strong, one of the party, who wrote thus : "I came in a sailing vessel around Cape Horn to San Fran- cisco, and from there in another sailing vessel to Astoria, Oregon, with Governor Gaines and family, General Hamilton, secretary of the territory, and family, and William Strong, judge United States district court, and family; landing at Astoria about the middle of August, 1850. "Great was their disappointment on finding that the little river steamer Multnomah, the only one plying on the Columbia at that time, and which they had been told would be there and take them up the river, was laid up for repairs, and that Cap- tain Hoyt had gone to San Francisco for new machinery. The Captain of the vessel could not be prevailed upon to go up the river, so how to get to their place of destination became a serious problem to the newly appointed territorial officers. "The next day after the landing, an attache of the Hudson's Bay Company came over from Scarborough point, and on learning the situation suggested that word be sent to Governor Ogden, of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose headquarters were at Fort Vancouver, asking him to send a bateau to us. "Governor Gaines at once wrote a letter to Governor Ogden, and this man, who could speak the Chinook jargon fluently, got an Indian to take it to him.
