Hall Jackson Kelley 29
fortifications, and cultivated farms. The domicile is made the abode of domestic comforts — ^the social circle is enlivened by the busy wife and the prattle and sport of children. In the convention of 1818, England secured for her subjects, the privileges of a free trade, that of buying furs of the Indians ; but, at first, they practiced trapping and hunting; now, they practice buying and improving lands, and assiduously pursue the business of the farmer and mechanic. Their largest town is Vancouver, which is situated on a beautiful plain, in the region of tide water, on the northern bank of the Columbia. At this place, saw and gfrist mills are in operation. Three ves- sels have been built, one of about 300 tons, and are employed in the lumber trade. Numerous herds and flocks of horses, homed cattle, and sheep, of the best European breeds, are seen grazing in their ever verdant fields. Grain of all kinds, in abundant crops, are the production of the soil.
"Everything, either in the organization of the government, or in the busy and various operations of the settlements, at this place, at Walla Walla, at Fort Colville, and at DeFuca, in- dicate the intentions of the English to colonize the country. Now, therefore, your memorialists, in behalf of a large number of citizens of the United States, would respectfully ask Con- gress to aid them in carr3ring into operation the great purposes of their institution — ^to grant them troops, artillery, military arms, and munitions of war, for the defense of the contemplated settlement — ^to incorporate their Society with power to ex- tinguish the Indian title, to such tracts and extent of territory, at the mouth of the Columbia, and at the junction of the Mult- nomah with the Columbia, as may be adequate to the laudable objects and pursuits of the settlers ; and with such other powers, rights and immtmities, as may be, at least, equal and concur- rent to those given by Parliament to the Hudson's Bay Com- pany ; and such as are not repugnant to the stipulations of the Convention, made between Great Britain and the United States, wherein it was agreed, that any cotmtry on the Northwest Coast of America, to the westward of the Rocky Mountains,
