Warre and Vavasour, 1845-6. 13 produce on the British mind, and since those conditions were actually brought to the attention of the Government as early as February, 1846, by the other agents whom Warre and Vavasour encountered in Oregon, we have good reason to believe that the attitude of Great Britain in the final stage of the negotiations was not unaffected by them.* [No. I.] Simpson's Memorandum in Reference to the Oregon Question.* Dated Hudson's Bay House, London, March 29, 1845. Should the recent proceedings in the Congress of the United States on the Ore.s^on question result in hostilities between the two countries, I think it would be absolutely necessary for the protection of the Company's interests in Hudson's Bay that a small military force should be stationed at Red River. Be- sides this force I think it would be very desirable that a com- pany of riflemen should be embodied in the country from our native half caste population, who are admirably adapted for guerilla warfare, being exceedingly active, and, by the con- stant use of the gun from childhood, good marksmen. It would be necessary, however, to forward from Canada along with the troops a sufficient number of officers to command and discipline this corps. The officers and men should be forwarded from Canada, proceeding by steam to the Sault St. Marie, and I would pro- vide craft to convey them from thence to Fort William, where
- Lieut. Wm. Peel, son of Sir Robert Peel, arrived in London February 9 or
10, 1846, bearing the report of the Hon. Capt. John Gordon, brother of Lord Aberdeen, in command of the ship America, which visited Puget Sound in the autumn of 1845. Captain Gordon's report contains a censure upon the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company similar to that quoted above from Warre and Vavasour's second report. Possibly this fact explains their changed attitude be- tween the first and second report.
- The memorandum found in F. O. America 440 following extracts from a letter
of John McLoughlin dated July 4, 1844.----
