Warre and Vavasour^ 1845-6. 47 There is sufficient depth of water in the river for boats of any size, for a distance of twenty miles, when a shallow, strong rapid, at the mouth of the Clackamas River, impedes the navigation (except in the seasons of high water) to the Falls, about three miles above, where the village or settlement (com- monly called Oregon City), inhabited principally by Ameri- cans, is situated. This settlement was commenced in 1829-30 by Dr. Mc- Loughlin, the chief resident of the H. B. Company west of the Rocky Mountains, who cleared land on the right bank of the Falls, intending to avail himself of their immense water power by erecting saw mills, etc. In the same year, 1830, four Canadians, retired servants of the Company, settled in the country above the Falls, and were followed during the succeeding years, 1831-32-33, by several of their countrymen. The H. B. Co. gave every encouragement to their undertaking by supplying them with horses, cattle and implements of hus- bandry. In 1833 a fur and fishing company to trade in the valley of the Columbia was formed in Boston, and a vessel despatched from thence arrived at her destination. But having failed in their dealings with the natives and being deserted by many of the crew, who became settlers, the Company was broken up and the remainder of the party returned on the following year to their native country.* In 1834 a large party of missionaries sent across the conti- nent by the Methodist Missionary Society in the United States, arrived at the Falls of the Willamette, where they obtained from Dr. McLoughlin the timber he had prepared, but not made use of, for the saw mills, to build a church and dwelling house. ; • These missionaries remained at the Falls till 1842, when they quarreled among themselves and sold the greater portion of their lands and improvements to Dr. McLoughlin, who
- The reference is to the Wyeth enterprise, which is fully illustrated by the
Journals and Letters of Nathaniel Wyeth, published in 1899 under the editorship
of Professor F. G. Young, Eugene, Oregon.----
