40
Whatever may be the justice of the claim which the company assert to the gratitude of the Indian races, and of the settlers in their territories, the United States have, at any rate, a debt which they seem inclined to acknowledge as long as the payment can be made in nothing more valuable than words. We shall presently see of how much use the company was to this country in the settlement of the boundary to the westward of Lake Superior, and that had that corporation asserted the privileges of their charter against American claims as vigorously as they have ever opposed them to British liberties, the boundary between the United States and British North America would never have been settled along the 49th parallel.
It has often been asserted, and is to a great extent believed, because there is very little general information on this subject, that the claim which Great Britain made to the Oregon territory was dependent upon, or at any rate, strengthened by the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia river. We have, in the statements quoted from the best English authors, the designs of the British government to hold possession of Oregon by the settlement of the Hudson's Bay Company.
COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENTS.
The company commenced by locating and improving in and about Vancouver, and in the Willamette Valley by locating their French worn-out servants and their families in what was called the French Prairie. There was in that settlement a few of the Astor party or company. In Sir E. Belcher's R. N. narrative "Round the World," Vol. I., p. 297—"that on the Willamette was a field too inviting for missionary enthusiasm to overlook; but instead of selecting a British subject (which the Methodist Board did do, as Rev. Jason Lee and nephew Daniel were from Canada) to afford them spiritual assistance, recourse was had to Americans, a course pregnant with evil consequences, and particularly in the political squabble pending, as will be seen by the result. No sooner had the American and his allies fairly squatted (which they claim taking possession of the country) than they invited their brethren to join them, and called on the American government for laws and protection."
On the 19th page our author says: "This much has been said in order to guard those who take interest in this question against being imposed upon by the array of authority which has been set
