sufficient for five hundred rounds, and a butcher-knife, with pistols and the requisites for procuring fire.
The company should be divided into messes of six each, and one hunter and his assistant should be assigned to every two messes. Each mess should be provided with three pack-mules, exclusively for the transportation of its baggage and provision, and at least one loose animal for extra service.
It should be further furnished with two camp-kettles, a tomahawk, a large tin mess-pan, and a tin-cup and plate for each of its number.
A light tent might also be taken if deemed necessary; though such an article is of little use. A robe and a blanket for bedding, four shirts and a single change of clothes are as much baggage as any individual should think of taking for his own use. By these means his movements will be free and unincumbered, while the whole company pursues its way with ease and rapidity.
On reaching his destination the emigrant may procure everything in the line of dry goods, groceries, and the implements of husbandry, at less prices than in the States; hence the folly of burthening himself with extra baggage for a long and tiresome journey.
The immense importance of Oregon to the United States is doubtless apparent to every one. The facts upon which this inference is based, may be briefly presented as follows:
First. By the occupation of this country we shall secure to our own citizens the best trade of the whole world.
Second. We shall preclude the dangerous supremacy of foreign powers upon our western frontier, and place our relations with the intermediate Indian tribes upon a safer and more permanent footing.
Third. We shall retain to the Union a vast territory, unexcelled in climate, rich in soil, and exhaustless in its various resources; and thus lay open for the general welfare new channels for commerce and fresh fields for enterprise.
Fourth. We shall (in the event of the proposed rail road) greatly enhance the prosperity and wealth of the Western States.
Fifth. We shall prevent the annual sacrifice of an immense amount of life and property in the navigation of a dangerous sea, for a distance of some twelve thousand miles.
Sixth. We shall afford to our whalemen and ships engaged in the China and East India trade ports for supplies and repairs, and thus save to ourselves the yearly amounts now paid to foreign nations.
Seventh. We stand in actual need of some point upon the coast of the Pacific as a rendezvous for our navy.
There are many other weighty reasons that might be adduced in support of this inference, but why should we further review the subject? A candid perusal of the preceding pages will have suggested them to the reader's mind without greater amplification on our part.
In conclusion we need only to add, time will usher forth the embryo greatness and glory of Oregon; but whether that greatness shall increase the strength, or that glory commingle with the glowing lustre of our Federal Union, while she figures as one in the proud family of States, or whether
