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                             THE QUARTERLY
                                OF THE
                      OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

               VOLUME I]      JUNE, 1900      [NUMBER 2




CONTENTS


  THE OREGON QUESTION—_Joseph R. Wilson_                            111

  OUR PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM AND ITS RELATION TO EDUCATION IN THE
    UNITED STATES—_Frances F. Victor_                               132

  GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN EARLY OREGON—_Mrs. William Markland
    Molson_                                                         158

  NOT MARJORAM.—THE SPANISH WORD "OREGANO" NOT THE ORIGINAL
    OF OREGON—_H. W. Scott_                                         165

  REMINISCENCES OF LOUIS LABONTE—_H. S. Lyman_                      169

  DR. ELLIOTT COUES—_Frances F. Victor_                             189

  DOCUMENT.—A Narrative of Events In Early Oregon ascribed to
    Dr.  John McLoughlin                                            193

  REVIEWS OF BOOKS.—"McLoughlin and Old Oregon"—_Eva Emery Dye_     207
    "Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest"—_H. K. Hines,
      D. D._                                                        210

  NOTE.—A Correction                                                212


  PRICE: THIRTY-FIVE CENTS PER MONTH, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR

  Entered at the Post Office at Portland, Oregon, as second-class matter
  May 5, 1900.




THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY

ORGANIZED DECEMBER 17, 1898


  H. W. SCOTT               PRESIDENT
  C. B. BELLINGER      VICE-PRESIDENT
  F. G. YOUNG               SECRETARY
  CHARLES E. LADD           TREASURER

  GEORGE H. HIMES, Assistant Secretary.


DIRECTORS

    THE GOVERNOR OF OREGON, _ex officio_.

    THE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, _ex officio_.

  Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1900,
  H. W. SCOTT, MRS. HARRIET K. McARTHUR.

  Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1901,
  F. G. YOUNG, L. B. COX.

  Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1902,
  JAMES R. ROBERTSON, JOSEPH R. WILSON.

  Term Expires at Annual Meeting in December, 1903,
  C. B. BELLINGER, MRS. MARIA L. MYRICK.


    _The Quarterly_ is sent free to all members of the Society. The
    annual dues are two dollars. The fee for life membership is
    twenty-five dollars.

    Contributions to _The Quarterly_ and correspondence relative to
    historical materials, or pertaining to the affairs of this Society,
    should be addressed to

  F. G. YOUNG,
  _Secretary_.

  EUGENE, OREGON.

    Subscriptions for _The Quarterly_, or for the other publications of
    the Society, should be sent to

  GEORGE H. HIMES,
  _Assistant Secretary_.

  CITY HALL, PORTLAND, OREGON.




  VOLUME I.]      JUNE, 1900.      [NUMBER 2.


THE QUARTERLY

OF THE

OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.




THE OREGON QUESTION.


I.

Ascending the Columbia River to the junction of its two main branches,
and each of these branches in turn to its source, a point is reached to
the north well toward the fifty-fifth degree of latitude, and another
point to the south not far from the forty-first degree. Lines drawn
through these two points directly west to the Pacific Ocean would
divide the Pacific Coast of North America approximately into three
great historic divisions. Previous to the year 1792, the coast north
of the fifty-fifth degree had been explored and in some sort settled
by Russia, and the sovereignty of Russia over it recognized; the part
south of the forty-first degree had been explored and settled by Spain,
and the sovereignty of it had been conceded to Spain; the middle part
of the coast having been explored by both Spain and Britain, but
settled by neither, the sovereignty of this was yet in abeyance. If the
lines supposed to be drawn from the utmost north and south sources of
the Columbia to the Pacific now be extended eastward to the crest of
the Rocky Mountains, the territory included between these two lines,
the Pacific Ocean and the crest-line of the Rocky Mountains, will
embrace the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, with a considerable
part of the states of California, Wyoming, and Montana, together with
the greater part of British Columbia. It is the settlement of the
question of sovereignty over the region thus roughly defined that is
the subject of this paper.

During almost the whole period when its sovereignty was in question
this region was commonly known in this country and in Europe as
Oregon, the Oregon Country, or the Oregon Territory, and the question
of its sovereignty as the Oregon Question. The country took its name
from a legendary name of the river that defines it, a name given the
river even before it had been seen by any white man. For many years
previous to 1792 the existence of such a river in this region had been
conjectured by explorers along the coast from signs they had observed
in an indentation in the coast line, and by explorers in the interior
from reports of such a river that reached them through native tribes
supposed to dwell near its sources. It is to Jonathan Carver, a native
of Connecticut, that we owe, as it is still thought, the name Oregon.
In his journal of travels in the regions of the Upper Mississippi he
speaks of four great rivers, flowing in as many directions, which
took their rise, as he had heard from native tribes, somewhere in
the mountains to the west. One of these was, as Carver writes in his
journal, "the river Oregon, or the River of the West, which falls into
the Pacific Ocean." Already, in Carver's day, and before the time of
his travels, maps had appeared with a river marked in the region of
what is now the Columbia, which bore the name, among others, of the
River of the West, or the Great River of the West. Whether Carver
thought of this river as the river of his tradition cannot now be
known, but it is certain that the name which he heard or invented came
before long to be attached to this river for a time at least, and for
all time to the region defined by the river.

At the beginning of the year 1792, the United States had no claim
to the region of the Oregon, but by an event of this year they were
destined to become one of the chief parties to the question of its
sovereignty. This year Capt. Robert Gray, of Boston, was for the second
time on the coast, trading and exploring, under sanction of congress.
At some time during his previous voyage, or in the earlier part of
his second voyage, while sailing close in shore, Gray had discovered
in a bay or indentation of the coast in latitude 46° 10´ what seemed
to him to be the mouth of a large river. Under this impression, he
had remained in the neighborhood nine days, making repeated attempts
to cross the bar and effect an entrance. But every attempt had been
without avail, on account of the violence of the breakers which reached
across the opening; he had been obliged to relinquish the attempt and
sail away, unable at this time to verify his discovery.

Captain Gray had spent the winter of 1791-92 in Clyoquot Sound, on
the west coast of Vancouver Island, with his ship Columbia. Resuming
his voyage in the spring, and sailing southward, on the morning of
April 28, in latitude 47° 37´, he fell in with Captain Vancouver, at
anchor off Destruction Island. In answer to Vancouver's inquiries as
to what discoveries he had made, Gray reported to him his discovery in
latitude 46° 10´ of what he took to be the mouth of a large river. This
Vancouver recognized as the Deception Bay of Captain Meares, which he
had himself passed and examined on the morning of Friday, April 27,
scarcely twenty-four hours before. Of his observations in this bay
Vancouver had at this time made this record: "The sea now changed
from its natural to river- water; the probable consequence of
some streams falling into the bay, or into the ocean to the north of
it through the low land. Not considering this opening worthy of more
attention, I continued our pursuits to the northwest, being desirous
to embrace the advantages of the now favorable breeze and pleasant
weather, so favorable to our examination of the coast." Vancouver's
estimate as here given of the importance of this opening is confirmed
by an entry in his journal Monday, April 30, two days after meeting
with Gray. After parting from Vancouver, who continued his course to
the north, Gray sailed on along shore southward, stopping here and
there to examine the coast or trade with the natives, but evidently
keeping in mind the bay which he had taken to be the mouth of a river.
In the log-book of the Columbia, for May 11, there is this entry: "At
4 A. M., saw the entrance of our desired port bearing east-south-east,
distance six leagues; in steering sails, and hauled our wind in shore.
At 8 A. M., being a little to windward of the entrance to the harbor,
bore away, and run in east-north-east, between the breakers. * * * When
we were over the bar we found this to be a large river of fresh water,
up which we steered."

Captain Gray remained in this river for nine days, during which time he
explored it to a distance of thirty miles from the mouth. After filling
the ship's casks with fresh water from the river, on May 20 he sailed
out over the bar, having first given to the river his ship's name, the
Columbia, which name the river has since borne.

From the mouth of the Columbia Gray sailed northward, and a few days
later, having suffered some injury to his ship, put into Nootka Bay
for repairs. Here he found Quadra, the Spanish commandant, to whom he
communicated his discovery, and gave a chart of the mouth of the river.
This title of Gray to be regarded as the discoverer of the Columbia
River was then, by this immediate publication of the discovery, made
secure, and it has never been successfully questioned. The existence
of such a river had long before been conjectured; others, before Gray,
sailing along the coast had remarked the same indentation, had noted
its latitude, and observed signs of fresh water issuing from it; but it
remained for Gray to surmount the obstacles to entrance and actually to
sail in and cast anchor in the river.

It was this discovery of the Columbia River by Robert Gray, a citizen
of the United States, sailing under the American flag, and with the
sanction of congress, that first gave the United States a claim to
the Oregon region. It was not, however, to be the only ground of that
claim. Some years before the discovery of the Columbia by Gray, an
exploration of the Oregon region had been projected by Americans. The
project seems to have originated with Jefferson, and may be regarded
as a fitting prelude to the later achievement by his administration
of the Louisiana Purchase. In the year 1786, six years before Gray's
discovery, while Minister to France, Jefferson became acquainted
with John Ledyard, of Connecticut, who had been with Captain Cook in
his last voyage in the Pacific, and who as corporal of marines had
gained some reputation for enterprise and daring. Ledyard had come to
Paris in search of an opportunity to engage in the fur trade of the
Pacific, and, failing in this, was ready to enlist in almost any other
enterprise of daring. Jefferson suggested to him the exploration of
the northwest region of America. The plan was, as Jefferson himself
gives it, that Ledyard "go by land to Kamchatka, cross in Russian
vessels to Nootka Sound, fall down into the latitude of the Missouri,
and penetrate to and through that to the United States." Jefferson's
proposal was accepted by Ledyard, and steps were at once taken to
secure from the Empress of Russia permission for him to cross her
dominions. Failing to secure permission of the Empress, she being
absent from her capital in a distant part of her dominions, Ledyard,
impatient of longer delay, set out on his own responsibility, and got
to within two hundred miles of Kamchatka, when he was arrested by an
order of the Empress and taken back to Poland, where he was released.
"Thus failed," writes Jefferson, "the first attempt to explore the
western part of our Northern Continent."

The attempt failed, but Jefferson's interest in the exploration of this
region did not die with it. Of a second attempt some years later he
writes: "In 1792, I proposed to the American Philosophical Society that
we should set on foot a subscription to engage some competent person to
explore that region in an opposite direction—that is, by ascending the
Missouri, crossing the Stony Mountains, and descending the nearest river
to the Pacific." This plan too was attempted, but the seriousness of the
projector's purpose was severely tried by the delay of years in raising
the necessary funds. When at last, under the leadership of Captain
Meriwether Lewis, later of the Lewis and Clark expedition, the explorers
were well started on the way, the expedition failed through an order of
the French minister recalling the botanist of the expedition, who was a
citizen of France. "Thus failed," writes Jefferson again, "the second
attempt to explore the Northern Pacific region."

Jefferson's interest in the exploration of the Northwest did not die
with the failure of this second attempt. Delay in raising the necessary
funds for the expedition had brought the setting out of the explorers
down to the eve of an event that placed Jefferson in a position to
further such an enterprise to a successful issue, and of another event
which was to furnish a new motive to its undertaking. Early in the
year 1801, when Jefferson had but just taken his seat as President,
Rufus King, Minister of the United States to England, wrote to Madison,
Secretary of State, that the opinion at that time prevailed both at
Paris and at London that Spain had ceded Louisiana and the Floridas to
France. Immediately on receipt of this information Madison wrote to
Pinckney, American Minister to Spain, advising him of the rumor, and of
the President's urgent wish that he make the whole subject the object
of early and vigilant inquiries. Instructions to the same effect were
given later to Robert R. Livingston on his departure as Minister to
France. After more than a year of persistent inquiry on the part of
both ministers it was ascertained that Louisiana had been transferred
to France, and that the transfer probably included the Floridas.
Uncertainty on the latter point, as we now know, arose from the
uncertainty of the governments of France and Spain as to the limits of
Louisiana. Meanwhile the government at Washington pressed its ministers
at both courts to use every effort to secure to the United States the
Floridas and New Orleans, with the Mississippi as our western boundary,
and the free navigation of the river to its mouth. Events of the latter
part of the year 1802, and especially the Spanish intendant's order
excluding the United States from New Orleans as a place of deposit,
together with France's open preparations for the occupation and
colonization of New Orleans and Lower Louisiana, made the President yet
more urgent in pressing for this end. So far, Jefferson's thought seems
not to have gone beyond the limits of Madison's dispatch to Pinckney
of May 11 of that year, "that every effort and address be employed to
obtain the arrangement by which the territory on the east side of the
Mississippi, including New Orleans, may be ceded to the United States,
and the Mississippi be made a common boundary." The sentiment of the
Atlantic States was at this time strongly averse to the extension of
our territory west of the Mississippi River, and there is nothing
in the government's dispatches up to the close of the year 1802 to
indicate that Jefferson did not share in this sentiment. But there is
that in Jefferson's action shortly after this that shows him to have
been singularly open-minded to the suggestion of events, and to have
been prompt to prepare to avail himself of whatever the rapid movement
of events might offer of advantage to his government.

In October of this year, 1802, in a conversation with Livingston
concerning Louisiana and the Floridas, Joseph Bonaparte put the
question to Livingston pointedly whether the United States preferred
the Floridas to Louisiana. Coming from this source, the question was
felt by Livingston to have significance. Though he shrank from the
thought of such an extension of our territory as the purchase of
Louisiana would involve, he promptly communicated the substance of
the conversation to the government at home, in a letter addressed to
the President in person. This letter dated Paris, October 28, was
due in Washington about the first of January. On the eleventh of
January Jefferson sent a message to the Senate nominating "Robert
R. Livingston to be Minister Plenipotentiary, and James Monroe to
be Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, with full powers to
both jointly, or to either on the death of the other, to enter into a
treaty or convention with the First Consul of France for the purpose
of enlarging and more effectually securing our rights and interests in
the River Mississippi and the territories eastward thereof." Since the
possession of these territories was understood to be still in Spain,
Pinckney and Monroe were nominated with like powers to enter into a
treaty with Spain to the same end. The words with which Jefferson
prefaced this nomination of Monroe as Minister Extraordinary are worthy
of note in this connection, and in view of what presently emerged in
the negotiations in Paris. "While my confidence," writes Jefferson,
"in our Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris is entire and undiminished,
I still think that these objects might be promoted by joining with him
a person sent from hence directly carrying with him the feelings and
sentiments of the nation excited on the late occurrence, impressed by
full communications of all the views we entertain on this interesting
subject, and thus prepared to meet and to improve to an useful result
the counter propositions of the other contracting party, whatsoever
form their interests may give to them, and to secure to us the ultimate
accomplishment of our object."

Whether Jefferson had in mind when he wrote these words any such
"counter proposition" as was afterward actually made, we do not
certainly know, but if he had had such in mind he could hardly have
better provided for its prompt improvement to a useful result.
Meanwhile events in Europe were shaping the suggestion of Joseph
Bonaparte into a formal proposition from the First Consul. The renewal
of hostilities between France and England was now imminent. In the
event of war it was manifest to Napoleon that he would be unable to
hold Louisiana against the sea power of England. Rather than that this
valuable possession should fall into the hands of his enemy he resolved
to sell it, if possible, to the United States, and thus win back the
nation which his policy of colonization had well-nigh alienated, and
at the same time recruit his depleted treasury. Negotiations to this
end were already begun when Monroe arrived in Paris, and were continued
after his arrival with scarcely a halt to their successful and
memorable issue.

A third scheme of Jefferson's for the exploration of the northwestern
region of the continent was coincident with these latter steps that
led to the purchase of Louisiana. The message nominating Monroe as
Minister Extraordinary was sent to the senate, January 11, 1803.
January 18, Jefferson, taking occasion of the expiration of the term
of an act establishing trading houses with the Indian tribes, writes
to the senate on the subject of its renewal. In the course of the
message, having touched upon the fact that the maintenance of such
trading houses by the government deprived certain of our citizens of
a lucrative trade, he suggests for the senate's consideration whether
the government might not rightly do something to encourage such
persons to extend their trade in the regions beyond the Mississippi,
then proceeds to outline a plan for the exploration of a trade-route
up the waters of the Missouri and through to the Western Ocean. "The
interests of commerce," he urges, "place the principal object within
the constitutional powers and care of congress, and that it should
incidentally advance the geographical knowledge of our own continent
cannot but be an additional gratification. The nation claiming the
territory, regarding this as a literary pursuit, which it is in the
habit of permitting within its dominions, would not be disposed to view
it with jealousy, even if the expiring state of its interests there did
not render it a matter of indifference. The appropriation of $2,500
'for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United
States,' while understood and considered by the executive as giving
the legislative sanction, would cover the undertaking from notice and
prevent the obstructions which interested individuals might otherwise
previously prepare in its way."

Thus skillfully did Jefferson in a confidential message, as a matter
incidental to the main purpose of the message, put before the senate
a well reasoned scheme for the exploration of the territory for the
purchase of which ministers already appointed were soon to negotiate.
One can hardly read this message and weigh its carefully worded terms
in the light of what was already in the knowledge of the President,
without its awakening more than a suspicion that the possibility of
the purchase of Louisiana by the United States was distinctly present
to Jefferson's mind as he wrote, if it did not indeed lend urgency to
his argument. It is worthy of note, at any rate, that the measures
for the carrying out of this proposed scheme of exploration of the
territory kept pace with the progress of the negotiations for its
purchase, and quite outran the business of its transfer; for while the
transfer of Louisiana was not consummated until December of that year,
the commander of the expedition had been selected and commissioned,
and the expedition organized as early as midsummer. Thus closely
joined in time, if not otherwise intimately connected, were these two
measures of Jefferson's earlier administration, the Louisiana purchase
and the Lewis and Clark exploration. The promptness, energy, and
efficiency with which the exploration was carried out under the able
and courageous leadership of the man placed in charge, were altogether
worthy of its distinguished projector. The two stand together, the
purchase and the exploration, as worthy counterparts in what must
forever be regarded as one of the most daring yet at the same time
farsighted projects of statesmanship in American history.

These two measures have been dwelt upon thus at length because of their
material importance to the ultimate settlement of the Oregon Question.
The purchase of Louisiana brought the territory of the United States at
the crest of the Rocky Mountains in contiguity with the Oregon region
through seven degrees of latitude, while the Lewis and Clark expedition
explored a continuous route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific
Ocean, through the very center and by the central artery of the region
in question. These two events together made the second ground of our
claim to the region of the Oregon. Furthermore, they made possible
for the first time that movement of population across our border into
this adjacent and unoccupied territory which by the law of nations was
essential to the validity of our title,—that immigration of American
families upon which, in spite of every earlier attempt at settlement,
the final settlement of the question of sovereignty was destined to wait.

Louisiana had been purchased by the United States from France, or,
rather, from the First Consul, who at the time embodied in himself the
government of France. Spain, however, though by a convention three
years before the sale having agreed to retrocede the territory to
France, had remained in possession almost to the day of its transfer to
our government, so that possession of the territory virtually passed
to the United States immediately from Spain. The transfer left Spain
still with possessions within the present boundaries of the United
States of vast extent and of immense value. East of the Mississippi
were the Floridas, and west of that river was a great region extending
from the ill-defined western boundary of Louisiana westward to the
Pacific. These were conceded possessions of Spain. Besides, Spain was
a claimant, on the grounds of discovery and exploration, of the Oregon
country.

Spain had long claimed exclusive sovereignty over this region, with
the right to forbid the encroachment of other nations, on the ground
that it belonged to that region allotted to her by the bull of Pope
Alexander VI. England had never recognized Spain's claim to exclusive
sovereignty based upon papal authority, but had asserted her right to
settle upon any lands included within the limits prescribed by the
papal bull, even if discovered by Spain, if, after a reasonable time
allowed for settlement had passed, such lands remained unoccupied. This
attitude of England's appeared in her policy as early as the reign of
Elizabeth; it appears in the Queen's reply to the Spanish ambassador
on occasion of his remonstrance against the expedition of Drake, "that
she did not understand why either her subjects, or those of any other
European prince, should be debarred from traffic in the Indies; that
as she did not acknowledge the Spaniards to have any title by donation
of the Bishop of Rome, so she knew no right they had to any places
other than those they were in actual possession of; for that their
having touched only here and there upon a coast, and given names to
a few rivers or capes, were such insignificant things as could in no
way entitle them to a propriety further than in the parts where they
actually settled, and continued to inhabit." This principle, thus early
enunciated, of actual settlement as essential to ultimate validity of
title, is important to note, not only for its bearing against Spanish
pretensions at this time, but because of its ultimate and decisive
effect as against England herself in the settlement of the Oregon
question. The same principle emerged again in 1770, in the affair of
the Falkland Islands, and again still more distinctly ten years later
in the Nootka Convention. The point at issue in each of these cases was
that Britain claimed the right to make settlement upon a part of the
American coast claimed by Spain but remaining unoccupied by her, while
Spain denied this right and asserted her exclusive sovereignty over
all such places. In order to give effect to this claim of exclusive
sovereignty over the Northwest Coast of America, Spain had, within
a few years previous to the Nootka Convention, given orders that the
coasts of Spanish America should be more frequently navigated and
explored, and, in view of the recent encroachment of navigators and
traders of other nations in those parts, her "general orders and
instructions were, not to permit any settlements to be made by other
nations on the continent of Spanish America." It was in carrying out
these orders that the Spanish Commandant Martinez, in the summer
of 1789, finding two British vessels in Nootka Sound, attempting a
settlement there, captured the vessels and broke up the settlement.

In the course of the negotiations that followed on this act of Spain's,
the full extent of the Spanish claims appeared. As given by Count
Nunyez, Spanish Ambassador at Paris, to M. de Montmorin, Secretary of
the Foreign Department of France, June 1, 1790, it was claimed, "that,
by treaties, demarkations, taking of possessions, and the most decided
acts of sovereignty exercised by the Spaniards in those stations from
the reign of Charles II, and authorized by that monarch in 1692, all
the coast to the north of Western America, on the side of the South
Sea, as far as beyond what is called Prince William's Sound, which is
in the sixty-first degree, is acknowledged to belong exclusively to
Spain." Not feeling sufficiently strong in herself to enforce this
claim, and unable to secure the support of allies, Spain yielded this
pretension so far as to make, July 24, 1790, a declaration to Great
Britain in which the King of Spain engaged to make full restitution of
all British vessels which were captured at Nootka, and to indemnify the
parties interested in those vessels for the losses which they should
be found to have sustained. "It being understood," the declaration
concluded, "that this declaration is not to preclude or prejudice
the ulterior discussion of any right which His Majesty may claim to
form an exclusive establishment at the port of Nootka." The same
day the British Minister at Madrid presented a counter declaration
accepting the declaration of the Spanish King as offering "full and
entire satisfaction" for the injury complained of, in which counter
declaration, however, it was added at the same time "that it is to
be understood that neither the said declaration, nor the acceptance
thereof in the name of the King, is to preclude or prejudice, in any
respect, the rights which His Majesty may claim to any establishment
which his subjects may have formed, or should be desirous of forming
in the future, at the said Bay of Nootka." The exchange of this
declaration and counter declaration in July was followed in October
of the same year by the conclusion of the Nootka Convention between
Spain and Great Britain. The third article of this convention is:
"And in order to strengthen the bonds of friendship, and to preserve
in future a perfect harmony and good understanding between the two
contracting parties, it is agreed that their respective subjects shall
not be disturbed or molested, either in navigating or carrying on their
fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, or in the South Seas, or in landing
on the coast of those seas, in places not already occupied, for the
purpose of carrying on their commerce with the natives of the country,
or of making settlements there; the whole subject, nevertheless, to the
restrictions and provisions specified in the following articles."

After all the restrictions of the later articles of this treaty are
taken into view Britain may be regarded as having maintained her
main contention: That she had a right to any establishment which her
subjects might have formed, or shall be desirous of forming in future,
in any unoccupied places on the islands or the coasts of the Pacific
Ocean. The restrictions still left this clear, at least in respect
to the Oregon region. In so far as Britain succeeded in maintaining
in this convention this claim to the right of settlement, in so far
was Spain's claim to absolute sovereignty to this region practically
modified and limited. Unless Spain speedily made good her reserved
right of sovereignty by actual occupation of the region in question,
she must consent henceforth to hold her right of settlement as limited
by a similar right now conceded to Britain. It is at this point in
history, at the Nootka Convention, that the Oregon Question takes
definite form: Whose shall the territory be? Shall it be Spain's? or
shall it be Britain's? or shall it be divided between the two?

The story has already been told of the entrance of the United States
into the question as a third claimant, through Gray's discovery, the
Louisiana Purchase, and the Lewis and Clark expedition. The story of
how the United States succeeded to the modified claim of Spain to the
Oregon region belongs to the sequel of the Louisiana Purchase. The
purchase of Louisiana left the United States with a group of intricate
and delicate questions to settle with Spain, and with Spain in no
mood for a speedy and amicable settlement. The transfer of Louisiana
had not carried with it a clear definition of its boundaries. This
was in part true of its boundary on the east, and especially true
of its western boundary. Almost immediately on the transfer of the
territory negotiations were begun with Spain on questions arising out
of the transfer, or intimately connected with it. Two main objects
of the negotiations on the part of the United States were, to secure
from Spain, by purchase or otherwise, the cession of her remaining
possessions east of the Mississippi, and the settlement of the boundary
of Louisiana to the west. Any question in respect to the Oregon
country seems not at first to have been present to the thought of
either party. Negotiations were begun in 1804, and were continued,
with intervals of interruption, until February 22, 1819, when, by a
convention of that date, the Floridas were ceded by Spain to the United
States, and a boundary line west of the Mississippi agreed upon. This
western boundary line, after striking latitude 42° near the supposed
source of the Arkansas River, was to run west on this parallel to the
Pacific Ocean. Article III of this convention, after particularly
describing this line, concludes: "The two high contracting parties
agree to cede and renounce all their rights, claims, and pretensions
to the territories described by said line: That is to say, the United
States hereby cede to his Catholic Majesty, and renounce forever
all their rights, claims, and pretensions to the territories lying
west and south of the above described line; and, in like manner, his
Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States all his rights, claims,
and pretensions to any territories east and north of the said line;
and for himself, his heirs, and successors renounces all claim to the
said territories forever." Thus the Florida treaty, though making no
mention of the Oregon Territory, incidentally carried with it the
final delimitation of that territory on the south, and the transfer to
the United States of the Spanish claim to Oregon. By this treaty the
earliest claimant to the Oregon Territory ceased longer to be a party
to the question of its sovereignty.

The question of sovereignty was not left to Great Britain and the
United States alone, on the withdrawal of Spain. More than two decades
before, Russia had entered this region with an assertion of her right
to make settlement on unoccupied territory, and recently had grown
somewhat imperious in the tone of her assertion of that right. This
intrusion of Russia followed close upon the Nootka Convention, and was
the logical consequence of the principle for which Great Britain had
secured recognition in that convention. It will be remembered that
Great Britain did not base her right to make, and to have restored to
her, the Nootka settlement so much on priority in discovery of the
region in which the settlement was made, as on the broader principle of
her right to settle in any place by whomsoever discovered, which after
a reasonable time she might find unoccupied. This principle could not
be valid for England alone, and Russia was not long in discovering its
wider validity. After England's previous assertion of this principle,
in the affair of the Falkland Islands, Spain had taken alarm, and had
sent explorers along the Northwest Coast with the intention of making
good her claim to it by the northward extension of her settlements. In
like manner Russia now began to extend her claim into new territory
by availing herself of this same principle. The grant of Emperor Paul
I to the Russian American Company in 1799 gave the company exclusive
possession from latitude 55° northward to the Arctic Sea, with the
right to extend their settlements south of 55°, if they did not thereby
encroach on territories occupied by other powers. In the spring of 1808
the Russian government opened a correspondence with the government
of the United States in relation to what Russia was pleased to term
the illicit traffic of American traders with the natives inhabiting
Russian territories. It appeared in the course of this correspondence
that Russia claimed the coast at this time as far south as the Columbia
River. The right to make settlements, or at least to establish trading
posts, it seems she did not confine to this southern limit, for in
1816, a Russian trading post was established as far south as latitude
38°, in Northern California.

In this later and more aggressive policy of extending her claims
southward, Russia is thought to have been influenced by the publication
in Paris in 1808 of Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain, in which
such a destiny for Russia had been hinted at. However this may have
been, it is certain that the accounts of Humboldt's travels were
eagerly read by the Russian Emperor, and an increased boldness and
aggressiveness are observable in Russian policy after the publication
of this work.

The extreme of Russia's pretensions in the matter of extension of
territory was reached in 1810, when the subject of the encroachment of
American traders was brought again to the attention of our government.
Mr. Adams, American Minister at St. Petersburg, in reply to the
Russian Minister, suggested that, since it did not appear how far
the Russians stretched their claim southward along the coast, it was
desirable that some latitude be fixed as the limit, and that it should
be advanced as little southward as might be. The answer of Russia
was, that the Russian-American Company claimed the whole coast of
America on the Pacific, and the adjacent islands, from Bering's Strait
southward toward and beyond the mouth of the Columbia River. With this
declaration of Russia's claim negotiations were broken off, and were
not resumed until September, 1821, when Emperor Alexander issued a
ukase, in which he declared all the Northwest Coast of America north of
latitude 51° exclusively Russian, and warned all other nations against
intrusion within those limits. The extent of the territory claimed in
this imperial ukase was less than that of the territory claimed by
Russia in 1810, and in particular the extent of the claim was not so
great southward. Several events had occurred since 1810 to limit the
extent of Russia's claim, though scarcely to modify the imperiousness
of her tone. To this intervening period belong the settlement at
Astoria of the Pacific Fur Company in 1811, the exploration of the
Upper Columbia the same year by David Thompson, an agent of the
Northwest Company, with a view to the extension of the posts of his
company far to the westward; the purchase two years later by the
Northwest Company of the establishment of the Pacific Fur Company at
Astoria, and its transfer a few days later to the British flag with
the change of name to Fort George; the surrender of the fort in 1818
in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Ghent; the extension
westward of the Hudson's Bay Company into this region, and its union in
1821 with its rival, the Northwest Company; and finally the extension
over the settlements of the united companies, by an act of parliament
in the same year, of the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada.

These events had so changed the aspect of affairs on the Columbia at
the time of the Russian Emperor's decree in 1821 as to leave him no
alternative but to resort to the middle line, and drawing a line midway
between the Anglo-American settlement at the mouth of the Columbia and
the southernmost Russian settlement to the north of that river, to stand
for a southern boundary for his possessions at the fifty-first parallel.

This decree, though it withdrew the line of territory claimed thus
far northward, was yet offensive in tone and arbitrary in many of the
regulations it sought to enforce against the citizens of other nations.
Besides, it still encroached upon territory claimed by both Britain
and the United States. Both England and America protested, and opened,
each in her own behalf, negotiations with Russia which resulted in
establishing in 1824 the line of 54° 40´ as the boundary between the
territories claimed by Russia and those claimed by America, and in the
following year the same line, with modifications to the east, as the
boundary between the claims of Russia and those of Britain. These two
conventions may be regarded as the final acts in the delimitation of
the Oregon Territory.

  JOSEPH R. WILSON.


  (_To be continued._)




OUR PUBLIC LAND SYSTEM AND ITS

RELATION TO EDUCATION IN

THE UNITED STATES.


Local historians seem inclined to overlook some of the most interesting
subjects included under the general term of history. One of these is
the origin of land titles. I do not propose in this article, limited
as to space, to do more than indicate by slight touches the growth of
land titles on the earth, and the steps by which we as a nation became
endowed with the ownership of land in parcels large or small. Further,
the object of this brief review is to fix in the mind of the student of
history, and especially of Oregon history, the connection between land
and educational privileges in his state.

By way of introduction I would put forth the proposition, by no means
original, that God-made things are eternal, and belong to the children
of men equally and forever. Such is man himself. There can be no human
ownership of men except that of brotherhood. The dominion of man
over all other life is for his use only. He cannot claim collective
ownership of any particular genus or species, but only individual
ownership by conquest. Of the great divisions of inanimate nature,
earth, air, and water, individual man cannot own more than he uses,
because they belong equally to all men, and to all living things. For
the needs of these they were created, without preference for races or
single representatives of races.

Men in their primordial condition blindly recognized this principle
as to the earth, and for thousands of years did not become owners of
land in severalty. Divided into tribes they contended with each other
for the possession of certain countries because they were born there,
or because it held the graves of their fathers. To "sleep with their
fathers," or to continue to breathe the air which had borne abroad over
the land the sacred ashes of their ancestors was with them a religion.
The same earth furnished pasturage for the animals upon whose milk
and flesh they subsisted, and nourished the fruits they found most
agreeable. Hence they contended for its use against the covetousness of
other tribes. The long and persistent war carried on by the descendants
of Abraham to regain the land which held his burial place is an example
of the ancient sentiment of ownership in land, a sentiment which we
honor most highly under the name of patriotism. Metes and bounds could
not be closely observed in a pastoral country, neither could they
in a wooded one where game furnished the chief subsistence of the
inhabitants. Everything depended upon the strength and valor of the
predatory and the resisting tribes, and the division of lands acquired
in war was settled, as in this world most things still are settled, by
the most active securing to themselves the most desirable places.

The common desire to save from invasion the country of their birth,
and the necessity of captains in war, led to chieftainship, and
chieftainship led to the accumulation of such wealth as the conquered
lands afforded, whether in flocks and herds, in other subsistence,
or in such personal property as the subjugated nation possessed. War
makes a people nomadic in their habits. The young and the strong were
trained to fight, the feebler remained in such homes as they were able
to maintain in a state of continual dread of the enemy. The cultivation
of the ground at this stage of civilization was as uncertain as it was
unscientific. To the majority the land could have only a sentimental
value; to the higher classes it was a source of income through the
enforced labor of the enslaved class by whose toil they were enabled to
pay their military taxes to petty Kings.

Continental Europe was at this stage of development centuries after
the Christian era, and England long after the crusades. It was in the
eleventh century that the Norman conqueror, William, having fixed
himself upon the English throne, in order to secure the military tax in
its entirety, caused the lands held by the feudal lords to be surveyed,
and a description of them recorded in his Domesday Book. Hitherto lands
were held under grants from barons or lords; but the Conqueror claimed
that, as the representative of the people, he, and he only, could give
a legal title to land, thus indirectly recognizing its ownership by the
people. Under William, all land owners, great and small, were known as
"the King's men," a policy which made the feudal lords his supporters.
In return for their support he gave them offices. An office presupposed
property, and property insured office. The first social effect of this
was to lower men hitherto free, although in time it tended to raise
the condition of the slave class to that of freemen by removing the
distinction between these two classes. But it left a peasantry attached
to the soil with no voice in its disposal. A law of primogeniture
prevented the division of the great estates conferred upon "the King's
men," who could neither sell nor give away their landed property.

How much of the colonizing spirit of Englishmen is due to this
exclusive occupation of England by a class, we might very naturally
inquire. But that is aside from the subject under consideration. It was
my intention to point out that the land system of the United States is
directly descended from the practice of William the Conqueror, whose
policy of binding the most active and influential men of the Kingdom to
his throne by gifts of land was imitated by his successors down to the
period when English subjects began to colonize America.[1]

At the time when Englishmen made this important movement, Spain and
France had already laid claim to extensive tracts of country lying
upon the great rivers debouching into the Gulf of Mexico in a southern
latitude, and into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in a northern latitude,
which ultimately became possessions of the United States, either by
purchase or treaty, after our war of independence. Between these two
indefinite boundaries the English colonies were located. Wherever the
Englishman went he carried his loyalty to his King and his country's
laws. His presence on the soil of Virginia made it English soil,
conveying to it the sovereignty of England, and the King's right to
confirm to him whatever he had already taken, provided both of them
together could hold it against the native occupants. [2]The grants
from James and Charles I were described in terms more imaginative than
accurate, the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, being the western limit
of some of the earliest charters. But when the thirteen commonwealths
on the Atlantic Coast asserted their right and ability to govern
themselves, proving it by the arbitrament of the sword, and securing
a treaty of peace with the mother country, such discoveries had been
made, and so many remained to be made, that it was thought expedient to
adopt the apparently natural boundaries of the United States, namely,
the Saint Lawrence and Great Lakes on the north, the Mississippi on the
west, the Spanish possessions in Florida on the south, and the Atlantic
Ocean on the east.

In 1779, three years after the declaration of independence, and four
years before the treaty of peace, the American Congress recommended
to the several states in the union to make liberal cessions of their
respective claims for the common benefit of the union, including the
state making the cession. Thus early did our government assert the
principle that the lands not held by occupancy belonged to the people
for their use. The people on their side were quite willing to assist
the union, burdened as it was with the debt of the revolutionary war,
and other claims. But the unsettled boundaries of the several states
made it a matter of some difficulty to convey land to the government
in definite measure, some of the older grants, like Massachusetts and
Connecticut, extending "from sea to sea." Disputes had arisen between
the colonies over their boundaries, as when the Dutch had established
New Netherlands on the Hudson River, cutting in two the grant of
Connecticut. It was not until 1733 that the boundary of New York
(formerly New Netherlands), was settled, and Connecticut still claimed
the lands west of New York. From Maine to Georgia there were boundaries
to be settled.

New York was the first to respond to the suggestion of congress, in
1781, by ceding all her title to lands west of a line drawn north and
south twenty miles west of Niagara River, without conditions. Virginia
followed, and on March 1, 1784, conveyed her territory west of the Ohio
River to the United States. Massachusetts, in 1785, also renounced
her claim, unconditionally, to any lands west of the Hudson River.
Connecticut, in 1786, ceded to the United States all the lands claimed
by her west of a north and south line drawn one hundred and twenty-five
miles west of the western boundary of Pennsylvania.

Virginia's first charter having been withdrawn, the second, dated in
1609, gave this colony all the territory for two hundred miles north
and south of Point Comfort, on the Atlantic Coast, and westward to
the "South Sea," or Pacific Ocean, with all islands lying within one
hundred miles of either coast. The extension westward only to the
Mississippi of the northern line of Virginia, by the Treaty of Peace,
left nearly half of that state on the northwest side of the Ohio
River. This territory Virginia, in 1783, offered to cede to the United
States, upon condition that it should be divided into states of not
less than one hundred nor more than one hundred and fifty miles square,
"or as near thereto as circumstances will admit, and that the states
so formed shall be distinct republican states, and admitted members
of the federal union, having the same rights of sovereignty, freedom,
and independence as the other states."[3] The expenses incurred by
Virginia "in subduing British posts, or in maintaining forts and
garrisons within or for the defense, or in acquiring any part of the
territory so ceded or relinquished" should be fully reimbursed by the
United States. The French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers
who had professed themselves to be citizens of Virginia, were to have
their possessions confirmed to them, and be protected in the enjoyment
of their rights and liberties. A quantity of land, not exceeding
one hundred and fifty thousand acres, was required to be granted "to
General George Rogers Clarke and the officers and soldiers of his
regiment, who marched with him when the post of Kaskaskia and Saint
Vincent were reduced, and to the officers and soldiers that have been
since incorporated into the said regiment," to be laid off in one
tract in such shape as the officers should choose. Also, in case the
land reserved by law on the southeast side of the Ohio River for the
bounties of the Virginia troops should prove insufficient or of poor
quality, then the deficiency should be made up from the lands on the
northwest side of that river. All the land within the ceded territory,
not reserved or appropriated to the purposes named, was to be a common
fund for the use and benefit of such of the United States as had
become, or should become, members of the confederation, "according to
their respective proportions, in the general charge and expenditure."

In July, 1786, congress recommended to Virginia to revise her act of
cession so far as to empower the United States to divide the territory
northwest of the Ohio River into not more than five nor less than three
states, as the situation of that country and the circumstances might
require, which states were to become in the future members of the
federal union.

In September of the same year, Connecticut ceded to the union the lands
she still claimed west of the State of New York, known as the Western
Reserve, extending one hundred and twenty miles west of the western
boundary of Pennsylvania. In accepting the gift congress required a
deed relinquishing the jurisdictional claim of Connecticut to the
Western Reserve to be deposited with the deed of cession in the office
of the Department of State of the United States; and provided that
nothing contained in the deed of cession should involve the government
in the dispute between Pennsylvania and Connecticut which had been
settled in the federal court. Neither should anything contained in the
deed pledge the United States to extinguish the Indian title to the
ceded lands. All of this being agreed to, the Western Reserve was added
to the Northwest Territory. On the other hand the "military tract" was
reserved, and even added to, but did not become United States donation
lands. They were considered as Virginia's bounty to the men who had
defended and preserved the country. The jurisdiction, however, was in
the general government.

In 1787 South Carolina ceded unconditionally such land as she laid
claim to between the mountain range by which her territory was
traversed, and the Mississippi River. In 1790 North Carolina made her
cession similarly, except that neither the lands nor the inhabitants
west of the mountains should be "estimated" for the expenses of the
Revolutionary War; that soldiers should receive the bounty lands
promised them; that certain entries already made might be changed; that
the ceded territory should be formed into a state or states, with all
the privileges set forth in the ordinance of the late congress for the
government of the Western Territory of the United States; _provided_,
always, that no regulations made, or to be made, by congress should
tend to emancipate slaves. The inhabitants of the ceded territory
were to be liable to pay their proportion of the United States debt,
and the arrears of the debt of North Carolina to the Union. The laws
of this state should be in force in the territory until repealed or
altered, and nonresident proprietors should not be taxed higher than
residents.[4]

For various reasons Georgia was not ready to renounce any territory
claimed by her before 1798, and the deed of cession was not made until
1802. Georgia, like North Carolina, desired to have the state formed
from her territory enjoy the privileges granted to the Northwest
Territory by the ordinance of 1787. Out of the lands relinquished
to the general government by the states south of the Ohio, and the
territory subsequently acquired by treaty and purchase from France and
Spain, were formed, in the early part of the nineteenth century, the
several territories afterwards admitted as states with the rights and
privileges guaranteed in the compact between the United States and the
people of the Northwest Territory.

Hitherto I have sketched the political history of the lands of the
United States with the object only of pointing out the change that
had occurred in men's ideas of natural rights in the soil. They had
also progressed greatly in their understanding of political rights.
The struggle of the American colonies to achieve independence had
served as an object lesson of immense importance even to the colonies
themselves, and they were prepared to guard their new-found freedom
with a jealous care. Next to the Declaration of Independence in justice
and dignity stands the compact entered into between the people and
congress in giving and accepting the territory first ceded by the
original states to the United States, and known as the Ordinance of
Seventeen Eighty-Seven. By this ordinance the people of the Northwest
Territory were assured that no person demeaning himself in a peaceable
and orderly manner, should ever be molested on account of his mode of
worship, or religious sentiments. The people should always be entitled
to the benefits of the writ of _habeas corpus_, and trial by jury;
of proportionate representation in the legislature, and of judicial
proceedings according to the course of common law. All persons should
be bailable, except for capital offenses, the proof of which was
evident, or the presumption great. All fines should be moderate, and
no cruel or unusual punishments inflicted. No man should be deprived
of his liberty but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the
land. No man's property should be taken for the public service without
full compensation. Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary
to good government, and the public happiness, schools and the means of
education should be forever encouraged. The utmost good faith should
always be observed towards the Indians. Their lands and property should
never be taken away from them without their consent, nor their rights
and liberty invaded except in lawful war, but laws for their protection
should be enacted. There should be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in the territory, otherwise than for the punishment of crimes
whereof the person should have been duly convicted.[5]

Comparing this noble framework of the new state with the laws and
the restrictions imposed upon the colonies from their beginning, our
admiration cannot be withheld. But it is to its effect in furnishing
the means of education to the whole people that attention is here
directed. Schools and education were "forever to be encouraged."
It is true that under the colonial system a few colleges had been
established. Six years after the settlement of Massachusetts, Harvard
College was founded. Virginia and Connecticut were equally in haste to
provide educational advantages for their young men; but it was only the
sons of clergymen and the best families who in those early days found
admittance. Humble people had to be content if they could read, write,
and cipher; and rules of grammar, with the sciences, were beyond their
ambition.

In 1785, two years only after our independence was secured, and six
years after the congress of the states had suggested to the several
commonwealths the propriety of contracting their boundaries in order
to enable the United States to clear themselves of debt, and to be
possessed of a public domain, when only New York, Massachusetts, and
Virginia had ceded any territory, an ordinance was passed providing for
the survey of these lands, and the uses to which they should be put.
One seventh part was to be drafted for "the late Continental army," and
the remainder allotted among the states. The only reservations made
were for the officers and soldiers entitled to bounties from the lands
of Virginia; four lots in each township for the United States, and "lot
No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools within
the said township; also one-third part of all gold, silver, lead, and
copper mines to be sold or otherwise disposed of as congress shall
hereafter direct."[6]

As the other states made their contributions to the public domain,
changes were made in the appropriation of land for educational
purposes, but without affecting the reservation first determined upon
of one thirty-sixth part of all the government lands for school
purposes. As our land system developed, and states were parceled
off one after another, the propositions offered to them more and
more contained large donations for schools of different grades. The
proposition to the State of Ohio, and the appropriations actually made
in 1803, named the sixteenth section in every township in that part of
the territory purchased of the Indians; the thirty-sixth part of the
United States Military Tract; fourteen townships in the Connecticut
Reserve; one thirty-sixth part in the Virginia Military Tract, and
also one thirty-sixth part of all the United States lands in the State
of Ohio to which the Indian title had not yet been extinguished, to
be purchased of the Indians, to consist of the sixteenth section in
each township. One entire township in the District of Cincinnati was
offered for the establishment of an academy. John Cleve Symmes and his
associates, who had purchased a tract in Ohio supposed to contain one
million acres, received from congress, in addition, one entire township
"for the purpose of establishing an academy and other public schools
and seminaries of learning."

When the public lands in Louisiana were offered for sale there was
excepted "section number 16 in every township, and a tract reserved
for a seminary of learning." When Tennessee relinquished her claims
to certain lands, the state was required to appropriate one hundred
thousand acres in one tract for the use of two colleges, one to be
located in East and one in West Tennessee. Another hundred thousand
acres was to be appropriated for the use of an academy in each county
in the state, the land not to be sold for less than $2 per acre; and
the state should, in issuing grants and perfecting titles, locate one
section in every township for the use of schools for the instruction
of children forever. Mississippi was required to reserve section 16 in
each township for the support of schools within the same, "with the
exception of thirty-six sections, to be located in one body by the
Secretary of the Treasury, for the use of Jefferson College." Other
grants were made for religious purposes, and for military services.
Lewis and Clark, for their services in exploring the continent to the
Pacific, received land warrants calling for one thousand six hundred
acres of land each, and the men who accompanied them three hundred
and twenty each, to be located on any of the public lands offered for
sale west of the Mississippi. None of these donations could be made
except by the consent of the representatives of the people in congress
assembled. Thus our government set out with the highest ideal then
possible of community rights in land. If since then we have gambled
away our common heritage, or sold it to non-resident speculators, we
have in so far departed from that ideal.

The largeness of the subject prohibits any attempt to furnish a history
of the land laws of the United States in a single article. It is in
fact the history of this nation. Our land system settled the country
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It drew to us all the nations of the
earth; it gave them homes, and educated their children; it was "Liberty
enlightening the world." But just because the government was so rich
in lands, it grew careless, speculative, even profligate. It lavished
soil enough to make several states upon corporations without honor,
forgetting that it was only the trustee of the people, whose consent
had never directly been asked. It sold to adventurers, who never
intended to make homes, immense tracts contiguous to watercourses, from
which the buyers excluded citizens of the United States. It winked at
the wrongful acts of its agents in selecting swamp and overflowed
lands, and mineral lands. One thing it never did, however; it never
permitted the school lands to deteriorate in value, but when the legal
sections fell upon worthless ground, lieu lands were permitted to be
selected from any unappropriated good land most contiguous.[7]

       *       *       *       *       *

In the first quarter century of the republic there was added to its
public lands, by treaty and purchase, the Floridas and all the vast
region known as the Louisiana Territory, reaching north to the British
Possessions and west to the Rocky Mountains. One of our navigators had
discovered the mouth of the mythical Oregon River, and a party of our
explorers had discovered the headwaters of the same, following its
course to the sea. An American fur company had erected a fort near the
mouth of the river, which it lost, first through the treachery of the
British members of the company and a second time by the fortunes of
war, and finally recovered through the victory of our arms on the high
seas. These were wonderful achievements for a nation in its infancy.
But the people were prosperous and satisfied, pressing undauntedly
forward, and filling up the new states. The secret of the prosperity
and content was the equal distribution of land, at a price within the
reach of any, and the reservation in all the townships for common
schools.

We claimed by right of discovery and first occupation, the Oregon
Territory. Great Britain disputed our claim with enough show of
rights to furnish some ground for the contention. Neither government
was prepared to go to war over it, and for nearly thirty years after
the convention of 1818 by which a joint occupancy was agreed upon, a
perpetual irritation was kept up between the two countries through
the determination of the western pioneers to stretch their boundaries
to the Pacific, taking the land surveyor along with them. In 1846 the
question was finally settled, and not unjustly.

The pioneers who for several years had been toilsomely journeying
across two thousand miles of wilderness to reach the Land of Promise,
now looked for immediate congressional action to be taken which should
give them formally the territorial rights and privileges conferred by
the Ordinance of 1787. But in this they were disappointed. That same
ordinance, it was, which delayed the organization of a territorial
government, the people of Oregon having expressly petitioned to be
organized under it in the same manner as the Northwestern States. The
opposition to their petition came from the representatives and senators
of the slave states, who saw in the rapid increase of northern free
states a loss of the balance of power in congress, and the threatened
destruction of slavery, or of the Union. The struggle had been begun a
quarter of a century earlier, when by a compromise between the north
and south, Missouri had been admitted as a slave state under a compact
that no more slave states should be organized north of the parallel of
36° 30´.

The prospect of a large body of free states being formed above that
line, extending even to the Pacific, was one to which southern senators
opposed their most skilled diplomacy, their object being to gain time,
by statecraft or otherwise, to extend slave territory westward at
an equal rate. But the friends of Oregon in congress, who cared not
overmuch about the question of slavery or of free soil, were touched
by the fidelity to the government of the United States of the Oregon
settlers, and anxious to have them rewarded as congress had, year
after year, proposed to do—by liberal donations of land. The Linn
bill had done its work in populating the Wallamet Valley, and the
population of this valley had determined the title to the country. So
much was granted. Thomas H. Benton had written his congratulations on
the settlement of the boundary, and promised the early organization of
the territory under the most favorable conditions. President Polk had
spoken most flatteringly of the loyalty and patriotism of the pioneers.
Stephen A. Douglas had drawn up a bill containing everything for which
the pioneers had ever asked, and something more. That something more
was the thirty-sixth section of land in every township for school
purposes, in addition to the sixteenth.

I am aware that there are some writers who represent that this addition
to school land was a special favor to Oregon; and at least one Oregon
man who claimed to have secured it by his personal efforts.[8] But
the records of congress disprove such pretensions. It was sometimes
objected in congress that the new states were receiving too much
land gratuitously.[9] In a speech on this subject by Woodbridge, of
Michigan, delivered April 29, 1846, that gentleman said: "Now, a
very great error prevails on this subject. It is a common opinion,
I believe, that the school lands, amounting, as the gentleman from
Connecticut says, in some instances, to an enormous amount, are
gratuitously conveyed to the new states. Sir, I do not so read my books
at all. There is no gratuity about it! This appropriation of section
sixteen was made in order to secure an accelerated sale of your wild
lands. I do not say that there were not other and higher motives, but
this was one, and an efficient one. * * * You published to the world
your terms of sale. You pledged your faith to all who should buy land
of you in any surveyed township, that one thirty-sixth part of it,
namely, section number sixteen, should forever afterwards be applied
toward the support of schools. * * * It is true that you afterwards
affected to transfer these school lands to the states; but what passed
by that transfer? Nothing, sir, but the naked title only, subject
always to the use, and I am not prepared to admit the competency of
your doing even that." So there were in congress, in 1846, men who
contended that the western people, and not the government which had
solemnly renounced it, held the right to the educational reservations
in the public lands from the beginning.

In August, 1846, a bill being before congress to enable Wisconsin to
form a state government, it passed through the usual routine, and was
reported from the territorial committee by Douglas, February 9, 1847.
On the fifteenth, the question of engrossing the bill was about being
put, when John A. Rockwell of Connecticut, moved to amend by adding
the following: "And be it further enacted, That in addition to section
numbered sixteen, section numbered thirty-six, in each township of
the public lands of the United States in said state, not heretofore
otherwise disposed of, be, and the same is hereby appropriated to
the support of education in the said state." Certain conditions were
attached, which need not be here quoted, as the amendment failed.[10]

That it failed was not owing to any strong opposition so much as to the
fact of its not being incorporated in the original bill. Congressmen
and senators have to be urged somewhat to make changes by which their
districts gain nothing. Rockwell's amendment was crowded out by other
business concerning the disposition of the public lands then claiming
attention.

Nothing in the circumstances of the case goes to show that Mr. Rockwell
was the first to propose the additional school section. The Wisconsin
and the Oregon bills were in the hands of the same committee of the
house, and at the same time. Yet the Douglas bill contained the two
school sections in every township, and the Wisconsin bill did not. The
Douglas bill passed in the house and was sent to the senate in January,
1847, whereas the Wisconsin bill was not reported until February, which
gives Mr. Douglas precedence in proposing the change to congress. The
question might arise why, since he was chairman of the committee which
presented both bills, he withheld the additional section from one and
gave it to the other. Did he wish to show favor, or seem to do so, to
Oregon, as a reward for her long and loyal waiting? It might well be
so, and probably was so.

But Oregon was not receiving a special gift in the appropriation
of her school lands, as some suppose. In November, 1846, James H.
Piper, Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office, made a report
to Robert J. Walker, Secretary of the Treasury, "on the expediency
of making further provision for the support of common schools in
the land states."[11] The Secretary, in his report to the house of
representatives, referring to the proposed donations of land to
settlers in and immigrants to Oregon, recommended, also, "the grant of
a school section in the center of every quarter of a township, which
would bring the school house within a point not exceeding a mile and
a half in distance from the most remote inhabitant of such quarter
township."[12] In his report for 1847-48 the Secretary of the Treasury
again referred to this subject as follows: "Congress to some extent
adopted this recommendation, by granting two school sections instead
of one, for education in Oregon;[13] but it is respectfully suggested
that even thus extended the grant is still inadequate in amount, while
the location is inconvenient."[14]

William M. Gwin, Senator from California, remarking on the transfer of
the public lands from the Treasury Department to the Department of the
Interior in 1849, says: "When a territorial government was established
over Oregon, some able men contended for four sections for each
township, and they succeeded in getting two," and quotes from Walker's
report.[15] He also referred, in a speech before the State Convention
of California in 1850, to Piper and Walker as authors of the movement
to increase the amount of school land in the new states. Although not
important in themselves, these facts are interesting. It is a pleasure
to the properly constituted mind to know to whom to give credits. It
is also a satisfaction to remove from history falsehoods, whether
deliberate or accidental, which blind our vision as to the verity of
so-called history.[16]

As a matter of fact, from 1803 to 1848, in each of the twelve
territories organized from the public lands, the sixteenth section
in every township was reserved for school purposes, Oregon being the
first to receive the addition of the thirty-sixth. There has been no
fixed rule of appropriation, much depending upon the people and their
representatives. In 1812, and again in 1824 congress ordered a survey
of certain towns and villages in Missouri, reserving for the use of
schools one-twentieth part of the whole survey. When sold these town
reservations produced large sums, as in the case of St. Louis. Down to
1880 seven states and eight territories had received the thirty-sixth
section in each township. Twenty-four states had received two townships
each for the use of universities. Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and
Florida had taken more. Previous to 1882 the appropriation of land
for common schools in the land states aggregated sixty-seven million
eight hundred and ninety-three thousand nine hundred and nineteen
acres; for university purposes, one million six hundred and fifty
thousand five hundred and twenty acres; for agricultural and mechanical
colleges, nine million six hundred thousand acres—a total of
seventy-nine million one hundred and forty-four thousand four hundred
and thirty-nine acres devoted to the support of education in the United
States.

From time to time it has been necessary to make changes in the land
laws, as when the discovery of mineral lands, reserved by congress
called for the substitution of lieu lands, but there has been no
diminution in quantity or value.

Oregon has less vacant or public land than from its area might be
expected. The bounty of government in donating to the pioneer settlers
six hundred and forty acres to a family—three hundred and twenty
to the husband, and the same amount to the wife—and to single men
and women three hundred and twenty each, provided they lived upon or
improved their claims, disposed of most of the cultivable area west of
the Cascade Range. The school lands which passed with the territorial
act occupied two thirty-sixths of every township. The act of admission
passed to the state the usual endowment of five hundred thousand
acres for its public uses,[17] with twelve salt springs and six
sections adjoining each; ninety thousand acres for the endowment of an
agricultural college, and seventy-two sections for the use and support
of a state university. Subsequent grants to railroads and public
highways, with military and Indian reservations, absorbed large bodies
of land, both in the valleys and the mountains. The state devoted the
net proceeds, with the accruing interest of the five hundred thousand
acres, as an irreducible fund for the support of common schools, and
for the purchase of libraries and apparatus.[18] It also added to this
fund all gifts to the state whose purpose was not named.

The actual quantity of land allowed by congress to Oregon for common
school purposes is three million two hundred and fifty thousand acres,
at a minimum price per acre of $1.25, the management of the income
being left to a board, of which the Governor is one. I am informed by
the clerk of this board that the fund now amounts to $3,000,000, which
is securely invested at ten per cent.

In 1850 congress passed a swamp land act, the intention of which
was to enable the states subject to overflow by the Mississippi, to
construct levees, and drain overflowed lands. The law was subsequently
extended to other states. Oregon, however, had no rivers requiring
levees, nor any swamp lands. This fact did not prevent beaver-dam
lands, the most valuable in the state, from being taken up as swamp
lands. The scandal attached also the meadow lands about lakes in the
interior, and even to lands included in Indian reservation lands. Nor
is congress quite guiltless in this respect, since it has recklessly
granted principalities in the public soil to aid enterprises designed
by private companies for their own benefit, these grants being obtained
by representations, wholly unfounded, of the public utility in the
undertaking.[19] The hand of the lobbyist is visible in these matters,
while suspicion attaches to both state and national legislators, who
too frequently have other than the people's interest at heart.

The vacant public lands of the United States are still nine hundred
and eighty thousand three hundred and thirty-seven square miles
in extent, or one-third of our total area, exclusive of Alaska.
Indian reservations and forest reservations together occupy five and
forty-three hundredths per cent. The State of Texas comprises eight and
eighty-three hundredths per cent. of the area of the United States, and
owns all the public lands within its borders. Thus there remains open
to settlement the vacant one-third, exclusive of Alaska, Texas, and
the Islands. Almost all of the vacant lands are west of the Missouri
River, and include much that is of but little present value to the
agriculturist from its aridity. Yet not one rod of it is valueless
in the eyes of the political economist. Forests and mines are as
necessary to advanced civilization as grain fields and orchards. But
even were this not true, the earth needs waste places where pure air
and pure water are generated to be furnished to the lower plains. Men
will gradually accustom themselves to deserts, and will cause them to
blossom like the rose. Wherever they go, the foundation of a home is
awaiting them, and the common school is provided for their children. It
is thus we are educating the nations.

It can hardly be superfluous to revert to the obligation of the general
government and the individual state to remember and guard the people's
rights in the public domain. A wastefulness which tends to contract
free acreage beyond the convenient demands of settlement and use, is to
deprive the nation of strength and elasticity. When we have no longer
anything to offer the coming generations, it will be a pity if they
come. The power of the great land owner over the man who has inherited
nothing, and is too poor to purchase at the landlords' prices, will be,
to all intents and purposes, the same which the landlords of Europe
exercise over the peasant classes there. The ladder by which our people
have climbed to happy heights of prosperity will be withdrawn, and the
poor man will have become the slave of the rich man. It is doubtful if
the universal intelligence which we are at so much pains to cultivate
will be, in such circumstances, an unmixed blessing, since the
enlightened mind has requirements which are not felt by the ignorant,
the absence of which inflicts pain, and frequently leads to crime.

  FRANCES F. VICTOR.

[Footnote 1: The lands not held as private estates in Great Britain
were known as the "Crown lands," the revenue from which was the income
of the sovereign. This continued down to the accession of George III.
This custom continued down to Victoria, who, renouncing the crown
lands, accepted for herself and her children a fixed sum annually, but
this annuity does not descend to her grandchildren.]

[Footnote 2: The history of the early voyages, and of the immigration
to America of different nationalities, including the Dutch, is too
familiar to be repeated here, and a period of nearly three hundred
years, from 1497 to 1783, is passed over. With independence, the
American states received an inheritance of which they hardly understood
the value at the time, except for its political importance.]

[Footnote 3: It would seem from this demand of Virginia that this state
assumed to lay claim to all the Northwest Territory. However, it could
make no difference, since the other states had ceded whatever rights
they had, except to strengthen the title of the general government.]

[Footnote 4: There is much that is confusing and contradictory in the
act of North Carolina, as in the reference to the ordinance of 1787,
and the clause forbidding the passage by congress of an act tending to
emancipate slaves.]

[Footnote 5: The Constitution of the Provisional Government of Oregon
was formed on the ordinance of 1787, and the above extract is taken,
somewhat abbreviated, from Articles I, II, III and IV of that document.
When the organic act of Oregon Territory was framed by congress, it
was agreed that the laws already in operation in Oregon should be
recognized as the laws of the territory. The adoption of the ordinance
of 1787 as their Constitution by the pioneers of the state, was due to
the statesmanship of Jesse Applegate, one of the "men of 1843." Its
author was Nathan Dane, LL. D., of Massachusetts, member of congress in
1787.]

[Footnote 6: Subsequently the reservation of gold, silver, and copper
mines was discontinued, and lead mines and salt springs substituted.
The income from these sources at that period would have been greater
than from other mines. But no change was ever made from 1785 to the
present date in the grant of the sixteenth section for school purposes.]

[Footnote 7: A great deal of unwise criticism has been declaimed and
written upon the government's dealings with the Indians in the matter
of their reservations. But human wisdom has seldom been able, however
sincere the endeavor, to bridge over with peace the gulf between
savagery and civilization. The United States began by binding the
government in the ordinance of 1787 to "observe the utmost good faith
towards the Indians." During the first ten years of its existence,
treaties were made with half a hundred tribes. It was declared a
misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, for any persons, not
acting for the government, to treat with, or purchase lands from an
Indian nation—an inhibition meant to prevent trouble with the natives,
as well as frauds against the government. But Indian wars were not
prevented, and continue to this day. The United States has supported an
army to defend its citizens against savage outbreaks. Every congress
appropriates large sums for the support of its Indian wards, and for
their education. According to recent reports, the Indians of New
Mexico cost the government, in 1897, for each pupil in the Indian
schools, $167, or a lump sum of $41,750, over and above the pay of the
superintendent, and other expenses. The Indian school at Salem, Oregon,
for the same year, cost the treasury $50,100, and the support of the
establishment, $71,700. The Indian reservations, including Indian
Territory, comprise four and forty-three hundredths per cent. of our
public lands, exclusive of Alaska. The whole Indian population of the
United States is officially stated at two hundred and ninety-seven
thousand. Of these forty-two thousand five hundred and ninety-seven can
read; over fifty-three thousand can converse in English. The government
has built for them twenty-six thousand three hundred and eighty-nine
dwelling houses, besides schoolhouses, and there are three hundred and
forty-eight churches on the reservations. Religious and other societies
have contributed large amounts for school and church purposes. The
money collected in 1899 for the instruction and advancement of "the
nation's wards" was $261,515; for general church work, $119,407. New
York this year contributed for an Indian school in that state $16,016.
The senate bill this present year for an Indian school at Riverside,
California, proposed to appropriate $75,000. Another Indian school
at Perris, California, gets $167 per pupil for one hundred and fifty
pupils. The whole appropriation for the support and education of
Indians in 1900 is $8,414,000. At this rate is the nation still paying
for its public lands.]

[Footnote 8: Mr. J. Quinn Thornton, who came to Oregon late in 1846,
was appointed a judge under the provisional government by Governor
Abernethy, and was sent as a delegate to Washington late in 1847,
arriving there May 11, 1848, several times during his lifetime publicly
asserted, in written articles and in addresses delivered before the
Pioneer Association, that he was the author of the Douglas Bill. By
comparing dates it will be seen that he could have had nothing to do
with the bill, which was introduced in the house December 23, 1846,
soon after the boundary treaty. It passed the house January 16, 1847,
was sent to the senate, amended, and laid upon the table March 8,
1847. In 1848 Douglas was a senator, and Chairman of the Committee
on Territories. On the tenth of January the Oregon bill came up, was
referred to Douglas' committee, and reported, without amendments,
February 7. This was the identical bill over which senators wrangled in
so dramatic a fashion until the last hour of the session, in August,
1848. A compromise bill was devised by the southern members, by which
Oregon could come in in company with New Mexico and California, but
congress would have none of it. There was no opportunity during
Thornton's stay in Washington to alter or amend the Oregon bill, which,
when it passed the senate, was in all essential features, including
school lands, the same bill which was published in the _Oregon
Spectator_ of September 16, 1847, more than a month before Thornton set
sail for his destination. As the _Spectator_ was the only newspaper
in Oregon at that time, and owned and controlled by the Governor,
it is fair to presume that it was read by the Governor's appointee.
Notwithstanding these adverse circumstances and conclusions, Mr.
Thornton never ceased to claim the authorship of the organic act of
Oregon, nor to congratulate himself upon having bestowed upon this and
other new states the priceless benefit of school lands. "I will frankly
admit," he says in his autobiography, "that when to this section (the
sixteenth) of the public lands, the thirty-sixth was added by the
passage of this bill, the thought that Providence had made me the
instrument by which so great a boon was bestowed upon posterity filled
my heart with emotions as pure and deep as can be experienced by man;"
and goes on to anticipate being recognized as a benefactor of his race
when his toils and responsibilities should be over. See Transactions of
the Oregon Pioneer Association for 1874, and some later numbers, for
these false claims. Also the Portland _Oregonian_ of May 15, 1885, in
which he distinctly denies the facts of history, and relates incredible
occurrences with such minuteness of detail and loftiness of expression
as to deceive any but the well informed in public affairs. The ordinary
reader could not conceive such mendacity and dissembling.]

[Footnote 9: The older states made such provision as they could
for education. Connecticut reserved some of her lands for popular
education, and any state had the same right, but the "land states,"
as they were called, offered lands for seminaries of learning, and
universities, two entire townships being the usual amount granted for
this purpose, besides the thirty-sixth part set aside by compact.]

[Footnote 10: Rockwell had given notice of this amendment on the tenth
of May, one day before the arrival of Thornton in Washington. See his
"Oregon and California," vol. 2, p. 248. Therefore Mr. Rockwell's
idea did not originate with Mr. Thornton. In his article in the
"Transactions," for 1883, he makes Mr. Rockwell prophesy that he "will
not get the Oregon bill so amended as to set apart two sections in
each township, instead of one, as already provided for in the Oregon
bill"—forgetting in this instance to claim paternity to both.]

[Footnote 11: Says the commissioner: "The expediency of making
further provision for the support of common schools in the land
states has attracted much attention, and certainly is worthy of the
most favorable consideration. Those states are sparsely settled by an
active, industrious and enterprising people, who, however, may not have
sufficient means independent of their support, to endow or maintain
public schools. To aid in this important matter, congress at the
commencement of our land system, and when the reins of government were
held by the sages of the revolution, set apart one section out of every
township of thirty-six square miles. At that early day this provision
doubtless appeared munificent, but experience has proved it to be
inadequate. It is obviously necessary that at least one school should
be established in each of those townships, and to do this they have
only the section of land above mentioned, worth about $800. To invest
this sum safely it cannot be made to yield more than $48 per annum,
which will not pay the salary of a teacher for a single month; and the
whole of the principal would not enable a township to erect a suitable
common school edifice, and employ a teacher for one year. It is evident
therefore, that this provision does not go far to accomplish the
original design, and that without the aid of other means the citizens
of those growing states cannot obtain the advantages of a general
system of education. I would therefore recommend that further grants of
land be made for that object, and wherever the lands reserved for the
use of schools are found to be valueless, that the proper officer of
the state be authorized to select others in lieu of them. * * *

  "With great respect, your obedient servant,
  "JAMES H. PIPER,
  "Acting Commissioner.

  "HON. ROBERT J. WALKER,
  "Secretary of the Treasury."

  House Ex. Doc. 9, Vol. II, Twenty-ninth Congress, Second Session.
]

[Footnote 12: Ex. Doc., First Session, Thirtieth Congress, Vol. 1,
1847-48.]

[Footnote 13: This statement that congress "granted Oregon two
school sections" calls for explanation. It was only in the Northwest
Territory, subject to the ordinance of 1787 by compact, that these
sixteen sections belonged, as Woodbridge of Michigan contended, to the
states formed out of that territory. Where other states received them
it was by grant of congress.]

[Footnote 14: The Secretary urged other reasons for the additional
grants. "Even as a question of revenue," he says, "such grants would
more than refund their value to the government, as each quarter
township is composed of nine sections, of which the central section
would be granted for schools, and each of the remaining eight sections
would be adjacent to that granted. Those eight sections thus located
and each adjoining a school section, would be of greater value
than when separated by many miles from such opportunities, and the
thirty-two sections of one entire township, with these benefits, would
bring a larger price to the government than thirty-five sections out
of thirty-six, where one section only, so remote from the rest, was
granted for such a purpose. The public domain would thus be settled
at an earlier period, and yielding larger products, thus soon augment
our exports and our imports, with a corresponding increase of revenue
from duties. The greater diffusion of education would increase the
power of mind and knowledge, applied to our industrial pursuits, and
augment in this way also the products and wealth of the nation. Each
state is deeply interested in the welfare of every other, for the
representatives of the whole regulate by their votes the measures of
the union, which must be more happy and progressive in proportion as
its councils are guided by more enlightened views, resulting from more
universal diffusion of light and knowledge and education."—Ex. Doc.,
Second Session, Thirtieth Congress, Vol. II, 1848-49.]

[Footnote 15: Gwin's Autobiography, Mr. Bancroft's Hist. Cal. VI, 298.]

[Footnote 16: I must be pardoned if I once more call attention to the
willful perversion of truth by the talented but unscrupulous J. Quinn
Thornton. In the transactions of the Pioneer Association for 1874,
speaking of the Oregon bill and the school-land grants: "Up to the time
of the passage of this bill, congress had never appropriated more than
the sixteenth section for the support of common schools; and the _late_
Nathan Dane, LL. D., had labored long before he succeeded in inducing
the government to appropriate _that_ portion of the public lands." The
italics are mine: the word "late," to call attention to the fact that
Doctor Dane had been dead for thirty-nine years, having passed to his
reward in 1835, after a useful and honorable life; the word "that,"
because in another place Thornton claims himself to have induced the
government to make this appropriation. It is difficult to deal with
such constant shuffling with the intention to deceive. A different
unintentional error occurred in the course of my investigations, when,
in 1882, I wrote to the Department of the Interior for information as
to the first act of congress reserving the thirty-sixth section in each
township for school purposes, and was informed by the commissioner that
"the act was approved March 3, 1849 (U. S. Statutes, Vol I, page 154),
entitled an act to establish the Territorial Government of Minnesota."
He had overlooked the fact that the organic act of Oregon, which passed
on the fourteenth of August, 1848, contained the same appropriation.
This was probably because it was in 1849 that the affairs of the land
office were turned over to the interior department, and he had not
searched the previous records.]

[Footnote 17: Act of Congress of September 4, 1841.]

[Footnote 18: The canal and locks at Oregon City were built out of
the first proceeds of the five hundred thousand acres, when it was
converted to the school fund to prevent its appropriation to local
schemes of minor importance.]

[Footnote 19: By act of July, 1864, congress granted to the State of
Oregon, to aid in the construction of a military wagon road from Eugene
to the eastern boundary of the state, alternate sections of the public
lands designated by odd numbers, for three sections in width on each
side of the road, the United States to share in it as a military post
road. The land was to be sold in quantities at one time of thirty
sections on the completion of ten miles, and within five years, failing
which, the land reverted to the United States. The grant amounted to
one thousand nine hundred and twenty acres per mile for a distance of
four hundred and twenty miles—or more than all given to the state on
its admission by one hundred and fifty thousand acres. The company
was allowed a primary sale of thirty sections with which to begin
surveying. A road was opened from Eugene to and over the mountains in
1867, which was little used or useful. In 1873 the land grant was sold
to a San Francisco company, and this immense government gift passed to
private ownership in another state.]




GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN EARLY

OREGON.


As we travel through the Willamette Valley with the dispatch and
comfort of a well-equipped railway service, we are quickly forgetting
how our fathers and grandfathers journeyed. Pioneer experiences and
hardships are memories of long ago; another century is dawning, and we
say that "the new is better than the old."

In the early days of the settlement of this state the horse was the
only means of travel, unless one's course lay along the Willamette, and
then it was the canoe with paddles that carried trappers, explorers,
and occasional Hudson's Bay officials on their journeys. The native
grasses were luxuriant and abundant, the climate mild, and every
settler's door stood hospitably ajar. Journeying was by easy stages
and not irksome. It is pleasant to remember that there was a time when
one had time to be leisurely and greet one's friends in a kindly,
simple fashion. Civilization was gathered within the four walls of Fort
Vancouver, on the Columbia River. Our greatest friend, John McLoughlin,
was the chief factor of all the Hudson's Bay Company's establishments
west of the Rocky Mountains, and children who have been born in the
original Oregon Territory may well "rise up and call him blessed."

The good "old doctor," as he was respectfully and affectionately
called, cheered the hearts of thousands of immigrants by his deeds
of gracious humanity. With a generous hand he furnished provisions,
clothing, cattle, grain, and farming implements, taking in return the
immigrant's word that he would ever be repaid; the word was sometimes
kept and oftentimes broken. Doctor McLoughlin conducted life at Fort
Vancouver as feudal lords of old, and that, too, with strict military
discipline; the coming and going regulated by the ringing of the great
bell. The members of this large household breakfasted and supped by
their own firesides, but dinner was served in the hall for gentlemen
and visitors. All stood while the doctor said grace, and men of humble
birth "sat below the salt." Distinguished men gathered at this board.
Foremost among them we reckon Douglas, the botanist, to whom the doctor
furnished escort and transportation. As he took his way through the
Willamette Valley, and on to the Rogue River, it became a journey of
months. His investigations covered a wide stretch—the lowly flower
by the trail, the myriads of brilliant blooms on the breeze-swept
prairies, the shrubs and vines of hillside and canyon, and towering
evergreens on lofty mountain heights. In order to study plant life
he watched it from the bursting bud in April showers, through sunny
summer weather, to the autumn maturing of the seed. Be it remembered
that Douglas first made the world acquainted with the three kingliest
products of our forests—the giant spruce of the Oregon wilderness,
the solemn fir of the cloud-drift region, and the sugar pine of the
Sierras. This clever man met with a tragic death in the Sandwich
Islands, for he fell into a pit dug for wild cattle and was gored to
death by a bull.

Geologists searching the distant field, and titled gentlemen traveling
for pleasure, shared the doctor's hospitality, and were given escort
through the beautiful pastoral country. With the ingress of the
Americans Oregon City became the place of importance next to Fort
Vancouver, and when Doctor McLoughlin was called there on business, he
set out in a bateau, manned by French-Canadian voyageurs, who, clad in
their gay national dress, sang gay Canadian boating songs to the rhythm
of the paddles. The doctor sat aloft in the stern, erect and dignified,
dressed in a long blue-cloth coat, with brass buttons, buff waistcoat
and dark trousers, and a gray beaver hat. The garments were fashioned
in London, and the making of beaver hats has been a lost art these many
years. When the doctor reached Oregon City he clambered up the rocky
path and paced the single street, carrying a gold-headed cane, and with
his brilliant blue eyes and flowing white locks, his was a face and
figure never to be forgotten. This great-hearted man and friend of the
pioneers lies by the side of his wife in consecrated ground, within
sound of the Falls of the Willamette.


We can understand what a sore deprivation the absence of books and
papers was to the pioneers of the "forties." One man in the Yoncalla
Valley, who had accumulated several hundred dollars, called his
children about him and asked if he should build a house to replace
the log cabin, or buy "Harper's Complete Library," consisting of many
volumes bound in "12mo." Be it to their lasting credit, the books were
purchased, carefully read and remembered, and preserved for succeeding
generations.

Another man, troubled lest his children be cut off from civilizing
influences in their frontier life, built and furnished a house at
great expense and in a style that was not equaled for many years nor
within many miles. He lived to see his lands and house swept from
him, through the dishonesty of another, but not before the attractive
home surroundings had served their purpose. This brave man spent the
declining years of trouble and sorrow on the mountain-side overlooking
the fair valley, where once lay his own broad acres, and no man
had ever been turned from his door. The letters written through
all the years of this man's life in Oregon are marvels of style
and composition, and greatly treasured by their fortunate owners.
Especially so are those of his later years, when riper experience and
a keener insight into men and events lent greater force to his pen, so
that a man of great culture and polish once said: "They sound as if
written from a baronial castle, whereas they come from a log cabin."

On the western <DW72> of the Willamette there was another where all
books and papers were most carefully preserved, so that the third
generation of descendants is now able to read a file of the _Oregon
Spectator_, published in 1846 and 1847. The paper was placed over
a string stretched across the cabin, until they were all carefully
laid by. An English gentleman, accompanied by a guide and traveling
in pursuit of game and pleasure, once craved food and shelter at the
cabin door. He was cheerfully bidden to enter and partake of the
unvarying fare of boiled wheat and possibly beef, and the earthen
floor and a buffalo robe served as a bed. The gentleman met his host
and hostess in Washington afterward, and when the latter spoke of
the meager entertainment in Oregon, he said: "Ha, but you gave me
the best you had; the Prince of Wales could do no better." A roomy,
comfortable house replaced the log cabin, and its door, too, stood
ajar, and all were welcomed to the kind and simple hospitality. Young
officers from West Point, on first frontier duty, passing to remote
mountain garrisons and out again for brief glimpses of civilization,
had cordial greeting. Some of these died like brave soldiers on the
battle-fields of the civil war. Others attained rank and distinction in
the service, and two at least won the highest honors ever conferred by
an appreciative country.

Every governor and senator of Oregon has claimed the welcome extended,
unless it be the present incumbents, and though the master and his
gentle wife have passed out for the last time, those, too, would be
kindly greeted beneath the old roof. Preacher and circuit-rider,
humbly following in the footsteps of their divine Lord, students and
distinguished statesmen gathered about this fireside. Best of all were
the times when the earliest pioneers honored it with their presence,
and the quaint telling of tales of adventure, privation and Indian
warfare lasted far into the night, and the logs burned low on the hearth.

The lack of schools was deeply deplored by many of these hardy
pioneers, men and women, though some were more fortunate. Many remember
with affection and respect one who came from her New England home and
most conscientiously taught the fortunate children entrusted to her
care. School days under her wise and kind guidance, and ofttimes in
most picturesque spots, are bright and happy memories of many men and
women today. One family spent years of happiness and contentment on a
lonely sea shore, and were taught by a governess, while the play-time
was spent among the beautiful groves and watching the waves so full of
interest and mystery. A peaceful happy life, but in their longing for
companionship they fed sugar to two house flies on the window-sill in
stormy weather,—for house flies were not then a pest.

Sometimes the housewife was of another nationality, and claimed a
prior right to this beautiful valley. A judge once traveling across
Tualatin Plains in the winter was belated by a storm and asked shelter
at a trapper's door. He was given a place by the blazing hearth, and
the dusky housewife, busy about the evening meal, placed before them
potatoes, deliciously roasted in the ashes, venison, bread, butter,
milk and tea, while the host interestingly told of having known Captain
Bonneville and his party on the plains, as well as members of the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company. In his journeys he knew the watershed of the
Columbia and Missouri by heart, and in one night had set traps in both
rivers.

One of Oregon's most polished and charming of her earlier pioneers, was
entertained at a frugal board, and in graceful acknowledgment sent the
hostess some soup plates from the Hudson's Bay store, and a daughter
of the house exhibited them to him forty years afterward. Although
he returned to New England to spend many of the last years of his
life, his interest in Oregon never waned, and during his visits here
his reminiscences of early days were a delight to those who were so
fortunate as to hear them.

The first school opened in the original Oregon country for American
children was by Doctor Whitman at the Waiilatpu Mission, on the Walla
Walla River. The school was attended by the children of missionaries,
those who were left orphans, and the children of immigrants who were
belated by winter storms and kept from entering the Willamette Valley.

Eliza Spalding was born at Lapwai Mission in 1837, and at ten years
of age was sent to Whitman's station in charge of a trusty Nez Perce
woman. These two journeyed alone on horseback three days, and camped as
many nights by the trail. The air was cold on the table land adjacent
to the Snake River, but the child was tenderly cared for by this
faithful woman. Eliza was interpreter, owing to her thorough knowledge
of Nez Perce, but her school-time at the mission was brief. Fifty years
afterward she told of the awful tragedy that ended the life-work of
a great and good man and his wife, and those others who shared their
fate. Half a century had not obliterated the traces and impression of
the horrible crime from the sensitive mind of her who was a child at
the time of the massacre.

A little school established in Polk County, early in the forties laid
claim to the ambitious title of institute. Whether in the spirit of
true democracy, or as a deserving tribute to the great mind that
conceived the possibilities of this western land, and with marvelous
foresight planned the Lewis and Clark expedition, this little log
school house bore the name of the Jefferson Institute. The man who
presided there remembered the lore of earlier years, and equally well
had he treasured the books of that more fortunate time.

Men and women are living who owe a debt of gratitude to John E. Lyle,
and remember with deep affection and respect that he first pointed out
the narrow path that led far afield in the great world of study and
literature of today.

The theme is endless, when we begin to recall the men and events of
other days; much has been written and preserved, and much lost to the
world because the demands of later times were great, and those who
might have recorded faithfully and well went out into the great beyond
without having benefited Oregon's story by handing down such a record.

  MRS. WILLIAM MARKLAND MOLSON.




NOT MARJORAM.

  THE SPANISH WORD "OREGANO" NOT THE ORIGINAL OF OREGON.


The textbooks in the hands of our children in the public schools
continue to furnish them with the erroneous information that the name
of the State of Oregon was derived from the word "oregano," the Spanish
name for the plant that we call marjoram. This is mere conjecture,
absolutely without support. More than this, it is completely disproved
by all that is known of the history of the name. There is nothing
in the records of the Spanish navigators, nothing in the history of
Spanish exploration or discovery, that indicates even in the faintest
way that this was the origin of the name, or that the Spaniards called
this country or any portion of it by that name. There is marjoram here,
indeed; and at a time long after the Spaniards had discontinued their
northern coast voyages it was suggested that the presence of marjoram
(oregano) here had led the Spaniards to call the country "Oregon."

From the year 1535 the Spaniards, from Mexico, made frequent voyages
of exploration along the Pacific Coast towards the north. The main
object was the discovery of a passage connecting the Pacific and
Atlantic oceans. Consequently the explorers paid little attention to
the country itself. After a time, finding the effort to discover a
passage fruitless, they desisted for a long period. But after the lapse
of two centuries they began to establish settlements on the coast of
California; and then voyages towards the north were resumed by some
of their navigators. In 1775 the mouth of the Columbia River was seen
by Heceta, but, owing to the force of the current, he was unable to
enter. The fact here to be noted is that the Spaniards of that day did
not call the country Oregon, or, if they did, they have left no record
of it.

But even before the discovery of the Columbia River by Heceta the name
of Oregon appeared in another quarter. Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut,
who had served as a captain in the colonial war against the French, set
out from Boston in 1766 and proceeded by way of the Great Lakes to the
region of the Upper Mississippi, now forming the States of Wisconsin,
Minnesota and Iowa. He returned to Boston in October, 1768, and then
went over to England, where his "Travels" were published. From that
journey to the Upper Mississippi region he brought back the name of
Oregon, which he says he obtained from the Indians there. "From these
nations," he says, "together with my own observations, I have learned
that the four most capital rivers of the Continent of North America,
viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the Bourbon (flowing into
Hudson's Bay), and the Oregon, or River of the West, have their sources
in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within
thirty miles of each other; the latter, however, is rather farther west."

Carver, of course, had a geographical theory, and was seeking to verify
it. This is the first mention of the name of Oregon that has yet been
discovered. Carver either invented the word, or produced it from
imitation of some word spoken by the Indians. There certainly was no
"oregano," or marjoram, about it.

The word "oregano," it may be noted, has curious usage in Spanish
authors. One of Sancho's proverbs, literally translated, runs thus:
"Pray God, it may prove marjoram, and not turn out caraway for us." It
is said to be unexplainable why marjoram and caraway in Spain should
have been taken as types of the desirable and undesirable. In another
place Sancho says: "I would not have him marjoram (oregano), for
covetousness bursts the bag, and the covetous governor does ungoverned
justice." Here the word is used in the sense of "eager for gain."

Others have professed or proposed to derive the name of Oregon from
the Spanish word "oreja," the ear—supposing that the Spaniards noted
the big ears of the native Indians and named the country from the
circumstance. But the Spaniards themselves have left no record of the
kind; nor has it been noted, so far as we are aware, that the ears of
our Indians were remarkably large. The word "orejon" is nearer our
form; it signifies "slice of dried apple," we may suppose from its
resemblance to the form of the ear. Many years ago Archbishop Blanchet,
of Oregon, while in Peru, noted a peculiar use of this word "orejon" in
that country, which he ingeniously conjectured might throw some light
on the origin of the name of Oregon.

But it is unnecessary to formulate any fanciful theory. The name
of Oregon first appears in Carver's book of "Travels" in the Upper
Mississippi region in 1766-67. Did he invent the name? Probably. Did he
get it from the Indians? Possibly something like it. But it never has
been discovered among the Indians of that country since Carver's time,
nor anything like it. There remains a possible supposition that French
travelers who had passed through that country some years before, and
had proceeded on their westward journey far toward the Rocky Mountains,
and then returned, had been making inquiries among the Indians as
to the great western river that all geographers had postulated, and
had spoken a word that the Indians had tried to imitate—possibly
"Aragon"—knowing that the Spaniards had explored the western coasts,
and intimating that the country by discovery might belong to Spain.
But all these are fruitless conjectures.[20] We know where we find the
name of Oregon first written, when it was written, and by whom; and
the circumstances completely disprove the "oregano" and the "orejon"
theories. A notable fact it is that a slight incident of Carver's
career, so slight that he thought nothing about it—the creation of a
name, or the casual use of a name hitherto unknown—has immortalized
his own name upon the tongues of men dwelling in the region of his
"River of the West." But Minnesota has not neglected him. She does
justice to him in her records and historical transactions, and has not
forgotten to name a county for him. He died in poverty and misery in
London, January 31, 1780.

  H. W. SCOTT.

[Footnote 20: Professor John Fiske, in his "History of the United
States," says that Oregon "may perhaps be the Algonquin _Wau-re-gan_,
'beautiful water.'"]




REMINISCENCES OF LOUIS LABONTE.

  By H. S. LYMAN.


Louis Labonte (or Le Bonte), son of Louis Labonte of the Astor
expedition, who accompanied Hunt across the continent in 1811-12,
is still living at Saint Paul, Marion County, Oregon. He is now
eighty-two years old, and is in good health. His remembrance of earlier
experiences and life is still fresh and his mind seems very vigorous
for one of his age. He says, however, that his recollection of the
Indian languages that he once knew has now largely slipped away. These
were the Clatsop or Chinook, the Tillamook, Tualatin and Calapooya, of
which he says he knew a few words, and the Spokane which he understood
almost perfectly. Besides these, he talked fluently in the Indian
jargon and in French and English.

He was born at Astoria in 1818, his mother being a daughter of Chief
Kobayway, and an older sister of Celiast, or Mrs. Helen Smith. Three
years of his early life, about 1824 to 1827, were spent at Spokane
Falls, and the three years succeeding at Fort Colville. Then two years,
probably 1830 to 1833, were spent on French Prairie. His father had
removed to that place and was engaged in raising wheat on a piece of
land owned by Joseph Gervais, whose wife was a sister of his mother.
From this place he accompanied the family to the farm of Thomas McKay
on Scappoose Creek near Sauvie's Island, where he spent three years.
In 1836 he removed with the family to a location on the Yamhill River
near Dayton. In 1849, being then a well matured man, he accompanied
a party headed by William McKay to the gold mines of California,
returning the same year. During the Indian war of 1855-56 he was a
member of the Oregon Volunteers in the company of Robert Newell, which
was stationed at Fort Vancouver to hold in check the Cascade Indians
and the Klickitats to the north.

His reminiscences are important on the following: _First_, as to his
father, Louis Labonte; _second_, earliest French Prairie; _third_,
experiences at Scappoose; _fourth_, Spokane Indians and Indian myths;
_fifth_, the names of Indian places and persons; _sixth_, the primitive
Indian articles of food; _seventh_, on some of the Indian tribes and
customs and traditions; and _eighth_, of the original white men.


I.

LOUIS LABONTE SENIOR.

Concerning his father, he says that this member of the Astor expedition
was born in Montreal, and was about eighteen years old when he came out
to Saint Louis, and was there engaged as an employee of the American
Fur Company for four years; at the age of twenty-two he was engaged
by Wilson P. Hunt of the Pacific Fur Company to come to Oregon, and
arrived in the following winter. Upon the disruption of that company
in 1814, Labonte took service with the Northwestern Fur Company, which
was in 1818 absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company. He had in the
meantime become acquainted with and married at Astoria the daughter
of Chief Kobayway of the Clatsop Indians, and it was in the year 1818
that the son was born. Labonte Sr. took six years for the Hudson's
Bay Company, and spent three years at Spokane and three at Colville.
He then returned to Fort Vancouver and his service terminated some
time near 1828, when he asked to be dismissed and allowed to remain
in Oregon. This was directly against the policy of the Hudson's Bay
Company, who wished none of their trappers to become settlers or free
laborers in their territory, and it was the rule that all of their
servants must be dismissed at the place where they were enlisted. But
Labonte was an astute Frenchman and contended that as he had enlisted
in Oregon and was not brought here by the Hudson's Bay Company, it was
no infraction of this rule, but rather in compliance with it that he
should be dismissed here. Notwithstanding, his request was refused and
no dismission was allowed unless he returned to Montreal. Accordingly,
he made the trip to Canada, starting in March, and receiving his
regular papers certifying to the ending of his term of service. But he
immediately began the journey back and arrived here again in November
of the same year—which may have been 1830. This shows him to have been
an independent and determined man, and a good husband and father. It
may also have had much more bearing than has yet been credited as to
the settlement of Oregon.


II.

EARLIEST FRENCH PRAIRIE.

After having terminated his service with the Hudson's Bay Company,
Labonte evidently made up his mind to become a settler in Oregon, the
country of his wife, and with which he was undoubtedly well pleased
as a home. Several of his comrades who belonged to the old Hunt party
were already contemplating this step, and some had actually begun
settlement. Etienne Lucier had first taken a place at the site of East
Portland, but, as Labonte remembers, having been informed by McLoughlin
that he himself wished to occupy this location, was now removing to
French Prairie. Joseph Gervais, however, was already at French Prairie,
having laid a claim at Chemaway, a point on the bank of the Willamette
River about two and a half miles south from Fairfield at present.
Labonte Sr. moved to the place of Gervais and engaged with him in
raising wheat, and, among other improvements, built a barn; but did not
complete a location of his own.

Louis, the son, remembers more particularly the boyish occupations of
the region, of which hunting was the most important. He describes a
method of hunting the deer (jargon, Mowich; Calapooya, Ahawa-ia) which,
perhaps, has never been placed in print. The deer were very abundant
in primitive times, and during the breeding season the bucks were
pugnacious. In order to come near to them the Indians would take the
head of a deer, including also the hide of the neck, properly prepared,
which was placed over the head of the hunter; and he then, stooping
over so as to keep the mouth of the deer head off the ground, as if
grazing, would creep up on the lee side of the herd. He would also, so
as to more closely imitate the action of a deer, occasionally jerk the
head from side to side, as if nabbing flies.

Presently a buck from the herd, observing the suspicious stranger,
would begin to stamp and snuff, and bridle with anger; or, possibly,
shaking with excitement, would edge nearer, challenging the supposed
intruder for a fight, browsing and approaching, or maneuvering for a
position. The hunter, in the meantime, would keep up his own maneuvers
until the victim was near, and then let fly the fatal arrow; though
Labonte says that before the use of guns, the Indian himself, if he
chanced to miss his mark, was sometimes so viciously attacked by the
deer as to be badly gored or trampled, or possibly killed. Young
Labonte always used a gun at this sport.

He recalls also seeing two grizzly bears on French Prairie, one
of which was in connection with a hunting party one foggy morning.
Grizzlies were not unknown in the Willamette Valley, though they were
not abundant. The Chinook jargon name for the grizzly was eshayum,
quite distinct from the name of the common black bear, itch-hoot. Both
these words are evidently primitive Indian terms (S. B. Smith) and
thus show that the grizzlies were a well recognized species in the
Willamette Valley during the period of Indian occupation.

Labonte Jr. has recollections of earliest French Prairie which are
very valuable, and give a new, or at least a clearer understanding of
settlement here, than ever seems to have been published, and shows
Chemaway on the Willamette River about twelve miles above Champoeg
to have been the first nucleus of settlement. According to these
recollections, which should of course be subjected to close examination
before being used as the basis of a final conclusion, it was Joseph
Gervais and the remnants of the Astor company, or Hunt's part of it,
who were the original pioneers of French Prairie, and thus of Oregon.
These were Joseph Gervais, Etienne Lucier, Louis Labonte, Wm. Cannon,
Alexander Carson, (Alex. Essen) and Dubruy. Whether the fact that they
had been with an American company made them any more independent and
more disposed to settle for themselves, may be questioned; but at any
rate, they formed a little company of comrades and became the first
group of independent Oregon people.

Joseph Gervais was the first, and when the Labontes arrived in about
1831, he had been upon his place at Chemaway at least three years, and
had made considerable improvements. Chemaway is situated on the bank
of the Willamette River at a somewhat abrupt point over the water and
became afterwards the location of Jason Lee, and the Methodist Mission.
It is not to be confounded with Chemawa, the location of the United
States Indian Training School on the line of the Southern Pacific
Railroad,—though this is a mispronunciation of the old name, in which
both a's are long, with a strong tendency toward long e, making the
name Chemaewae.

Gervais had substantial buildings, and Labonte's description of his
house and barn is very interesting. The house was about 18 × 24, on the
ground, and was constructed of square hewed logs, of rather large size.
There were two floors, one below and one above, both of which were laid
with long planks or puncheons of white fir, and probably adzed off to a
proper level. The roof was made of poles as rafters, and the shingling
was of carefully laid strips or sheets of ash bark, imbricated. Upon
these were cross planks to hold them in place. There were three windows
on the lower floor of about 30 × 36 inches in dimensions, and for
lights were covered with fine thinly dressed deer skins. There was also
a large fireplace, built of sticks tied together with buckskin thongs,
and covered with a stiff plaster made of clay and grass. The barn was
of good size, being about 40 × 50 feet on the ground, and was of the
peculiar construction of a number of buildings on early French Prairie.
There were posts set up at the corners and at the requisite intervals
between, in which tenon grooves had been run by use of an auger and
chisel, and into these were let white fir split planks about three
inches thick to compose the walls. The roof was shingled in the same
manner as the house, with pieces of ash bark. There was a young orchard
upon the place of small apple trees obtained from Fort Vancouver.

At the time that the Labontes came to Chemaway, Etienne Lucier had not
yet taken his own place, about three miles above Champoeg, at Chewewa,
but was living, or camping, upon the place of Gervais, probably
looking around the country and making arrangements for a permanent
home. Lucier, therefore, was not the first settler upon French Prairie,
but this honor belongs to Joseph Gervais, who must have gone there,
according to Labonte's recollections, about 1828.

William Cannon was a millwright, being an American by birth, from
Pennsylvania, and at the time the Labontes came to French Prairie, was
at Vancouver, building the gristmill. He afterwards built the Champoeg
gristmill, as stated by Willard H. Rees.

Dubruy settled subsequently about two and one-half miles south of
Champoeg.

Alexander Carson (Alex Essen, as pronounced by Labonte), was a
trapper, and spent much of his time in the Yamhill country. He seems
to have been a very independent man, but finally lost his life at a
certain butte on the North Yamhill River (still called Alec's Butte)
by the Twhatie (Tualatin) Indians, probably with the simple object of
possessing themselves of his rifle and trappings.

As to Champoeg, the historic point in Oregon history, this was
originally a camping and council ground of the Indians. It was near
the north boundary of the Calapooyas, and here various tribes came
to trade, to play games of chance and skill, and not infrequently to
intermarry.

One great sport was diving. The water of the Willamette River off the
bluff was very deep, and it became a great contest for the young men to
see who could dive deepest and remain under water longest. Some of the
bolder ones even not rising until the blood began to burst from their
noses or mouths.

Labonte recalls with great vividness the wedding ceremonies which he
often witnessed, and that were frequently celebrated here between
contracting parties of the different tribes. It was quite an intricate
ceremony. The tribe of the groom would assemble on one side and that
of the bride on the other. The groom, placed in the forefront of his
people, was dressed in his best, and seated upon the ground. He was
then approached by members of his own tribe, who began removing his
outer garments, article by article. After this was done, members of the
bride's tribe came and reclothed him with different garments and placed
him in readiness to receive his wife. The bride, in the meantime, was
placed in the forefront of her people, but was covered entirely, face
and all, with a blanket. When ready to be presented, she was carried by
women of her tribe, and brought within a short distance of the groom,
but here her bearers halted to rest. Then, probably indicating the
desire of both peoples that the ceremony should proceed, and that all
were friendly, a shout or hallo was raised by all parties, which is
given as follows: "Awatch-a-he-lay-ee. Awatch-a-he-lay-ee." After which
she was taken the rest of the way and presented, while the same cry of
applause and approbation was again raised.

A bride was purchased, and the presents were numerous and valuable.
In case that the groom and bride were descendants of chiefs, presents
were made between the whole tribes. These presents were of all sorts,
and consisted of horses (cuiton), blankets (passissie), guns (mosket),
slaves (eliatie), haiqua shells, or, as the small haiqua shells were
called, cope-cope, which is a kind of turritella, kettles (moos-moos),
tobacco (ekainoos), powder (poolallie), bullets (kah-lai-ton), knives
(eop-taths), or other articles.

The name Champoeg, says Labonte, is not derived from Le Campment Sable,
the French name, but is purely Indian. "Cham," the hard _ch_, not
_sh_, is of the same character as the universal _Che_ prefix of the
Calapooyas; as Chehalem, Chewewa, Chemaway, Chamhokuc, or Chemeketa;
and the latter part, "poeg," or poek, was for a certain plant or root
found there by the Indians, and called po-wet-sie. That this is the
true derivation, and it is not from the French term, meaning the sandy
camp, is evidenced by its similarity to the other Indian names just
given above.


III.

AT SCAPPOOSE.

When young Labonte was about sixteen, and after spending about two
years at Chemaway, the family was employed by Thomas McKay to take
charge of his farm on Scappoose Plains, across the Willamette Slough,
or Multnomah, from Sauvie's Island—McKay being one of the most
energetic and intrepid captains of the Hudson's Bay Company, and being
at that time detailed for special service in the Snake River country,
where competition with American companies was setting in with much
vigor. On this farm the Labontes raised wheat, oats, peas, potatoes,
and various garden products, and had cattle and hogs, but no sheep. On
the farm with the Labontes there was a Frenchman named Antoine Plasier.

It was during this period that Wyeth—whom Labonte recalls as White,
from a mixture of the English aspirate and the French non-aspiration
of th—made his second visit to the Columbia. It was, however, more
with the trim brig May Dacre that the lad had to do. He remembers that
he was at that time just as tall as a musket, which he indicates would
reach about to his chin as a man. On this craft, which lay anchored in
the stream not far from the farm, he was often invited to go visiting,
particularly Sundays, and was well treated by the sailors and Captain
Lambert. He remembers once being asked by the captain whether he could
climb a mast, and he immediately proceeded to show that he could, and
ascended to the topmast on the bare pole, climbing hand over hand. It
happened to be a windy day, and the brig was rolling somewhat in the
swell, and when the boy looked down from his lofty elevation, he was
made almost dizzy by observing how small the vessel below him looked in
the wide stream. But upon reaching deck again, he was complimented by
both sailors and captain as being made of stuff fit for a sailor.

Indeed, Lambert seems to have been very well pleased with him, and
offered him a passage on his ship to Boston, and a return, either by
land or sea, and to this his parents were almost persuaded to give
their consent, but at the last moment could not quite bring themselves
to do this. Sometimes he was invited by the captain to take dinner,
and amused the officers by his sturdy refusal to take anything to
drink—perhaps as much from suspicion as from set conviction—though
the better class of men on the Columbia at that time greatly deprecated
the use of intoxicants and were largely temperate, and the boy very
likely had imbibed these ideas.

He remembers Lambert as large and powerful, and full bodied; of dark
hair and complexion, and "a good man." Nathaniel Wyeth, whom he also
saw, was florid, light-haired and blue-eyed, but also large, and
perhaps even finer looking than Lambert.

Game at Scappoose and on the ponds of Sauvie's Island was very
abundant, consisting of deer, elk and bear, and panthers and wildcats;
and beaver were still plentiful; but the waterfowl of the most
magnificent kind, at their season of passage, and, indeed, during much
of the year, almost forbade the hunter to sleep. Labonte remembers
one winter season in particular when there was a snowfall of about
sixteen inches, and in the early morning he went forth to hunt swan.
These splendid birds of the white species, like the innumerable ducks
and geese, assembled at the island ponds to feast upon the abundant
wapatoes. On this particular morning the youth soon discovered his
flock of swans upon the surface of a shallow lake, eating the roots,
and being such an immense flock that they were not to be disturbed
even by the immediate presence of the hunter. Then, disrobing to
his shoulders,—for the water was too deep to reach the flock
otherwise,—he simply waded in, bringing down two or three birds to a
shot, until he soon had as many as he could carry. Indeed, the lake was
so covered by the flock as almost to conceal the water. However, upon
reaching home he was rather chided for his performance by his father,
who told him that by such cold bathing he would be likely to get the
"rheumatism," which was his first acquaintance with that term.


IV.

SPOKANE INDIANS AND INDIAN MYTHS.

When taken to Spokane Falls, Labonte was a small boy of about six
years. His parents made their residence there from about 1824 to 1827.

He was much with the Indians, and learned their language like a native,
and was often present at their religious services, and heard them tell
their myths. One of their meetings he describes as follows: At the
lodge of the greatest chief there was a picture, from whom obtained he
does not know, but in all probability from some member of the Hudson's
Bay Company. When worship was held, this picture was spread out on the
floor, and, kneeling before it, the chief began a prayer to the Great
Spirit, or the Hyas Ilmihum, who was addressed also by the name of
Creator; the expression "Quilen-tsatmen," meaning Creator, or, more
exactly, "He made us." The prayer was a petition to be made pleasing
to God, to be kept under His care, to be taken to Him at last, and to
be kept from the "Black fellow." After the chief had finished, others
also followed, kneeling down and uttering a shorter petition until all
at last took their place and followed along in an orderly manner. Those
who had any offerings left them before the picture. Then they began a
hymn or chant, and after that was finished, all joined in a dance.

Labonte recollects the names of some the Spokane chiefs: Ilmicum
Spokanee, or the chief of the moon; Ilmicum Takullhalth, the chief of
the day; and Kahwakim, a broken shoulder. He also recollects a Colville
chief, whose name was Snohomich, a white-headed old man.

The Spokane Indians had the legends of the coyote, or Tallapus, but
his name was Sincheleep. In his breast he carried certain knowing
creatures, which were his spirits, or wits, and when he wished to take
council with himself, he would call them forth. They gave him the
answers he needed, and then went back into his breast. Sincheleep, the
coyote, was quite different from the fox, Whawhaoolee, though the fox
was also a knowing beast. The big gray wolf was Cheaitsin; the grizzly
bear, Tsimhiatsin, and the black bear, N'salmbe.

A story of Tallapus, or Sincheleep, that Labonte remembers was the same
in substance as that of Tallapus and the cedar tree; although Spokane
is almost a thousand miles from the region of the story of Tallapus.
This illustrates to what a wide extent the folklore of the primitive
Indians extended. Sincheleep was once traveling and was not entirely
certain how he should obtain his meals upon the way. However, in order
to look as well as possible he decided to dress up nicely; to comb his
hair, and paint his face becomingly. In the course of time he was met
by two women who carried baskets in which they had some camas bread and
other Indian dainties. He came forward and addressed them and said very
pleasantly, "Sit down, sisters; sit down. I will sing to you and tell
you stories." So they sat down while he sang and told them stories,
and they enjoyed his society so much that when at length he remarked
casually, "What have you in your baskets, sisters?" they very kindly
opened their stores and treated him; which, of course, he enjoyed, and
began at once to contrive for another treat. He bade them good-bye
and went on, but when out of sight took a circle about and coming to
a stream washed himself and painted another way, and also combed his
hair differently, and met the two women again. He addressed them as
before, saying, "Sit down, sisters; sit down, and I will sing and tell
you stories." This they did, and were again so charmed that they opened
their baskets and treated him as before. He then went on, but circled
about again so as to meet them once more, being now combed and painted
still differently. He sang and told stories and was again treated. But
about the fifth or sixth time that this happened, the women began to
suspect that the cunning creature was no other than Tallapus, and when
he saw that he was discovered, he bade them a final good-bye, and went
off to the wooded hills. Then began the story of the tree, which as
told by Labonte, runs as follows: "He saw a tree with a crotched root,
leading to a hollow within, and thinking this a fine resting place,
went inside. He then asked the tree to close, and it did so obediently.
This was some time along in the fall. After it was closed, he asked it
to open, and it did this also. Then he asked it to close and it was
closed. It opened or shut whenever he asked it to, but by and by when
he asked it to open, it would not. Then he was very sorry and sat down
inside the tree and cried. But he was compelled to remain there all
winter."

Some time along in the early spring the birds came at his request to
peck him out; but the first, the second, and many others that tried
only broke their bills and were unable to make even a small hole, until
this was done by a woodpecker; and through the opening Tallapus was
able to gaze abroad and see the blooming flowers and the green grass.

But still he could not go through the opening, and finally concluded
that the only way was to take himself to pieces and put himself out,
piece by piece. His eyes were the first parts that he thus placed
on the outside, but they were seized upon by a raven who carried
them away. Finally the various sections of his body were all out and
collected and put together properly, except that his eyes were gone
and he was blind. But he smelled the scent of flowers and felt around
until he found some of the flowers, which he placed in each eye. Then,
feeling his way along laboriously, and staring about as if seeing
everything, was at length directed by smelling smoke. Following this
odor, he was led to a lodge where there were some women. By these his
misfortune was ridiculed, and they engaged in laughter as he felt for
the door; but he answered, "I am only measuring your house." He was
moving around in the meantime and trying to find a place to sit down,
which only increased their merriment; but he answered, "I see; I see;
but I am only measuring the ground."

Then one of the women said, "Can you indeed see?"

Then he, staring off, replied, "Do you see that fire?"

"Where?" they asked.

"Far off," he answered, and described the distance as far away, beyond
the limit of their vision.

"No," they confessed, "that is too far for us."

Then he answered, "I can see what you do not." By which one of
the women was so impressed with the strength of his sight that
she immediately wished to swap eyes, and he promptly accepted the
proposition; as a result of which he could see even better than before,
while she became blind. He then transformed her, for her folly, into a
snail, which even to this day feels its way along the ground.


The following are some of the Tallapus stories, which Labonte
remembers, found in the Willamette Valley:

According to the Calapooyas, who occupied this valley from near
the Pudding River southward, Tallapus came originally from the
Rocky Mountain country and went down the Columbia River, and thence
southward along the coast and finally over the coast mountains into the
Willamette Valley; though his exact birthplace or origin is still a
matter of doubt.

Arriving by the Willamette River, he found the tribes of that region
in very unhappy circumstances; chiefly from the absence of any good
place for catching fish, and also, owing to the depredations of certain
gigantic skookums. In order to remedy the first evil, he determined to
make a fall in the Willamette River where the salmon would collect and
be easily captured. He found a place at the mouth of Pudding River,
the Indian name of which is Hanteuc, and here he began erecting the
barrier, but finding it not suitable, went further down, leaving only
a small riffle. At Rock Island, he began in earnest, but upon further
investigation found this also unsuitable, and leaving here a strong
rapid, went down to the present site of the Willamette Falls, where he
completed his task and made the magnificent cataract which is not only
a scene of beauty, but a model fishing place.

After having provided the fishery, he decided to invent a remarkable
trap which would obviate the labor of fishing. He succeeded and
produced a marvelous machine which not only caught the fish, but also
had the power to talk, and would cry out, "Noseepsk, noseepsk," when it
was full.

Determining to try his invention for himself, Tallapus set the trap and
went immediately to his camping place to build a fire in order to cook
the fish. But scarcely had he begun when the trap cried out, "Noseepsk!
Noseepsk!" and going down he found it full of fish sure enough. Then,
returning, he began once more to prepare his fire; but the trap called
out again, "Noseepsk! Noseepsk!" He obeyed its summons and found it
full, and went back once more to start his fire; but the trap called
for him again, and now, out of patience with its promptness, he said to
it crossly, "Wait until I build a fire, and do not keep calling for me
forever." But by this sternness the trap was so much offended that it
instantly ceased to work, and the wonderful invention was never used by
men, who were obliged as before to catch the salmon with spears or nets.

THE STORY OF THE SKOOKUM'S TONGUE.

However, in the course of time the Indians became very prosperous,
and a large village was built on the west side of the river. But
while they were thus prospering, a gigantic skookum that lived upon
the Tualatin River began to commit fearful depredations. His abode
was on a little flat about two miles from the Indian village, but so
long was his tongue that he was in the habit of reaching it forth and
catching the people as he chose. By this, of course, the village was
almost depopulated, and when, after a time, Tallapus returned, he was
very angry to see that the benefits of his fishery had gone, not to
the people, but to the wicked skookum. He therefore went forth to the
monster and cried out to it, "O, wicked skookum; long enough have you
been eating these people." And with one blow of his tomahawk cut off
the offending tongue, and buried it under the rocks upon the west side
of the falls; after which the people flourished. But so persistent is
Indian superstition that even yet some of the old Indians say that when
the canal was cut around the falls, that this was nothing more than
laying bare the channel made for the tongue of the skookum.

THE SKOOKUM AND THE WONDERFUL BOY.

On the east side of the falls at about the site of Oregon City the
Indians also made a large village, being nourished by the fishery, and
had among them a great chief. But from the mountains on the east there
came a frightful skookum, who destroyed the entire village and even
the old chieftain and all the people, except the chief's wife and her
unborn son.

The woman desiring that her son should be great and strong, took him
after his birth to the various streams or lakes that were haunted by
Tomaniwus spirits, and bathed him in the waters. From these he absorbed
the strength of the water and of the spirits, and in consequence, grew
prodigiously. In the course of time, he returned to the old village
where he found his mother, and looking about the lodge, he began to
ask her what were the various articles that he saw. She replied: "This
is the spear with which your father used to catch the salmon; and this
is the tomahawk with which he used to kill his enemies or to cleave
wood; and this is the bow with which he used to shoot arrows." Taking
the tomahawk in his hand, the boy went out to look abroad but was
almost immediately met by the skookum returning. Thereupon driving his
tomahawk into a gnarly log of wood so as to make a crack, he cried
out to the giant, "If you are so strong, hold this crack open while I
take another stroke;" and into the opening the witless skookum placed
his fingers, but the tomahawk being instantly withdrawn and the crack
closing, was held fast, after which he was easily killed by the boy.
Then taking his father's bow, the youngster went forth and shot an
arrow into the sky, calling out at the same time, "As the arrow falls
let those who died come to life;" and this also was done. Scarcely had
the arrow fallen before the old chief and all his people were seen
coming up the river in their canoes; and landing at the rocks, they
began fishing as if nothing had happened. The wonderful boy being
rejoiced to see his father, whom he had never looked upon before, went
down among the fishermen; but when he was seen by the old chief, was
accosted rudely with the question "Who are you? I am chief here." And
the old chief not knowing his son, accompanied his rough language with
an even rougher blow.

By this the wonderful boy was greatly affected, and thinking that he
could benefit his tribe no more, retired to the rocks above the falls,
and began weeping; and, indeed, wept so copiously that his tears
falling on each side of the falls wore two great holes in the solid
rock, which may be seen there to this day. Finally deciding that he
would no longer live as a man, the boy changed himself into a fish in
order that he might rest in the quiet waters. But he was disturbed by
the roaring of the river to such an extent that he swam upward as far
as the Tualatin. But neither here could he rest on account of the
roaring of the water. He proceeded thence to the mouth of the Molalla,
and of the Pudding River, and of the Yamhill, successively, but had
no resting place, until finally he reached the clear Santiam. Here he
found what he desired, and went to sleep in a still pool; but being
discovered by Tallapus, was changed into a rock, having the form of a
salmon. And this accounts, say the Indians, for the fact that no salmon
that ascend the falls at Oregon City ever turn aside into any of the
streams until they reach the Santiam; but there seeing the rock, they
take a circle and swim near, and then saluting it with a flip of their
tail proceed up the crystal clear river until they reach the pebbly
bars suitable for their spawning grounds.

THE HAUNTED LAKE.

In addition to the above, Labonte tells an Indian story of a haunted
lake in the hills to the northward of Newburg. The waters of this lake
are exceedingly deep and still, and it has the name of the skookum
water.

Long ago, said the Indians, there was one man who, although he knew
that this was a tomaniwus water, determined recklessly to reach it
in his canoe, and disturb its placid surface with the strokes of his
paddle. Making his way thither, in his little craft in which he also
had his dog as his sole companion, he at length came to the shadowy
lake. He directed his strokes toward the center, which he had scarcely
reached before the water grew darker and became greatly disturbed.
Finally, it began revolving round and round, and the man with his canoe
and dog were whirled along in the stream until a vortex was developed
and opened, into which all sank. Then the lake was pacified, and again
became serene. But even at the present time, upon a foggy morning, if
one gazes over the rocks upon Skookum Lake, he will see a white object
whirling round and round on the surface of the water, and may, perhaps,
hear whines and cries; this is the spirit of the dog, which thus
returns.




DR. ELLIOTT COUES.


The untimely passing of Dr. Elliott Coues, scientist and historian,
has deprived the Historical Society of Oregon of the pleasure of
making acknowledgments to the living man of its appreciation of the
invaluable work he has done, touching the history of the Northwest,
and particularly of Oregon, in the latter part of the eighteenth and
early part of the nineteenth centuries. Doctor Coues' personal bias
was towards the natural sciences, in which he was distinguished, both
as to the quantity and quality of the matter produced, on ornithology,
mammalogy, herpetology, comparative anatomy, natural philosophy,
psychical research, etc.[21] Incidentally, through his researches in
natural history, which led him to explore wilderness regions, he became
a historian of more than ordinary value, for he was never satisfied
with his work until he had gone to the very bottom of his subject. The
books and manuscripts which he edited became original histories in his
hands, from his almost incredible industry in bringing to light facts
to verify or disprove the author's statements. With all the care of a
genealogist he followed a clue leading to the identity of the persons
mentioned in the writings before him, or the places named. His insight
into, and industry in exploiting the fading records of the past was
extraordinary, amounting to genius. His editorial revision of the
journal of Lewis and Clark, has added immensely to the value of that
work, so interesting to Oregonians, and should revive our zeal for the
study of early history.[22]

But of all the work done by Doctor Coues none has interested me more
than his abridgment of and notes upon the journal of Alexander Henry
and David Thompson, two of the leaders of the Northwest Fur Company,
almost a century ago, extending over a period of fourteen years, and
covering the ground from Lake Superior to the mouth of the Columbia,
whose ruthless waters at the last swallowed up Henry, May 22, 1814.

This journal was at Astoria at that date, and we hear in it of the
carpenter making an oak chest for it, or "for my papers," as Henry
writes it. Covering so long a period, it was very voluminous. It was
carried to Hudson's Bay, but perhaps because of this, and because its
author was dead, it was never made public. When Doctor Coues found
it the paper was much worn, and the writing in places illegible; but
that did not deter him from entering upon the task of preparing it for
publication. Not only is the journal itself of great interest, but the
notes and explanations attached to almost every page are wonderfully
complete. The enormous bulk of Henry's matter is reduced by its editor,
together with his notes, to 916 pages, in two volumes, without the
sacrifice of facts, giving us a clear account of the country's history
not obtainable in any, or all other, writers.

A little more personal notice may not be out of place here as
significant of the man. In January, 1898, I received a letter from
Doctor Coues desiring me to send him a copy of the _River of the West_,
"with any erroneous passages it may possibly contain corrected in your
(my) own hand," and asking me to give him information on some subjects
which he named, and among them, the origin of the name "Lawyer," as
applied to a Nez Perce chief; also asking the meaning of the word
"Lo-Lo," whether it was a personal name, etc.[23] He understood that
an author is pretty sure to find "erroneous passages" in books that an
honest writer must be willing to correct; besides, he wished to avoid
quoting others' errors.

From that date to his death we were in frequent correspondence, and
when the Oregon Historical Society was formed, he was made acquainted
with the fact, on which he expressed a desire to be made a member. It
is not too late to thus honor the man who has given the state a chapter
of its history hitherto unrevealed.

Mrs. Coues, in a letter replying to one of mine, says: "His home life
and ways would hardly interest the public, they were so simple and
quiet, with a wonderful appreciation of any little thing that was done
for his comfort. I think the one characteristic that stands out the
most prominently was, 'Now, I have finished that piece of writing. I
have begun another.'" To finish a work was not an occasion for rest,
but to put forth fresh energy for other effort. Francis P. Harper,
his publisher, says: "He had a capacity for work that was almost
beyond belief, and was always prompt and business-like. He was a
firm and trustworthy friend, and an ideal author for a publisher to
have business relations with." His printer (in the Osprey office,
Washington), adds: "I have had years of experience with various
authors and editors, and can truthfully say his genial friendship
and appreciation stands out markedly beyond all others." "He never
neglected a letter," says Mrs. Coues, "although from a total stranger,
asking for assistance. He gave it if he could, most generously, and if
unable, gave a courteous answer, and a reason. I myself have counted
sixty letters he had written in about six hours—not merely a reply of
a few lines. His one great desire in life was a search after truth, and
kept his mind receptive to all that could give him a clue."

Doctor Coues spent the summer of 1899 in New Mexico, making researches
in his usual energetic fashion—"forgetful of his fifty-seven years" as
he wrote me after returning home ill. It was not years, however, that
bore so heavily upon him; but the crowding of five years' work into
one. This it was that deprived the world of his incomparable services
in the very fullness of his intellectual powers.

Doctor Coues was the son of Samuel Elliott Coues and Charlotte Haven
Ladd Coues, born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, September 9, 1842. His
literary tastes were inherited from his father, who was a writer on
scientific subjects. He was educated at Ganzaga College and Columbia
University, Washington, D. C., from which he graduated in 1861. He
continued to reside at the capital, and his life was spent in contact
with all that was strongest and best in a nation which his talents
helped to make conspicuous in the fields of science and literature.
His death occurred at Johns Hopkin's Hospital, Baltimore, December 25,
1899. The State of Oregon cannot fail to place his name high among the
fathers of her early history.

  FRANCES F. VICTOR.

[Footnote 21: Principal Works: "Key to North American Birds," '72;
"Field Ornithology," '74; "Birds of the Northwest," '74; "Fur-Bearing
Animals," '77; "Monographs of North America Rodentia (with
Allen)," '77; "Birds of the Colorado Valley," '78; "Ornithological
Bibliography," '78-'80; "New England Bird Life (with Stearns)," '81;
"Check List and Dictionary of North American Birds," '82; "Avifauna
Columbiana (with Prentiss)," '83; "Biogen, a Speculation on the Origin
and Nature of Life," '84; "New Key to North American Birds," '84; "The
Dæmon of Darwin," '84; "Code of Nomenclature and Check List of North
American Birds (with Allen, Ridgway, Brewster, and Henshaw)," '86; "A
Woman in the Case," '87; "Neuro-Myology (with Shute)," '87; "Signs of
the Times,"'88. Also author of several hundred monographs and minor
papers in scientific periodicals, and editor or associate editor for
some years of the Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey,
Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, American Naturalist,
American Journal of Otology, Encyclopædia Americana, Standard Natural
History, The Auk, The Biogen Series, Die Sphinx (Liepsig), The Century
Dictionary of the English Language (in General Biology, Comparative
Anatomy and all departments of Zoology), The Travels of Lewis and
Clark, &c.]

[Footnote 22: See the "American Explorers Series," published by Francis
P. Harper, for Coues' work in this line. His last was "On the Trail of
a Spanish Pioneer."]

[Footnote 23: I have since learned that Lolo is not an Indian word, but
is the Indian pronunciation of the word Lawrence—the letter _r_ not
being sounded in the native tongue. A mingling of the French sound of
the other letters in the word produces the word as pronounced by the
Indians.]




DOCUMENT.

  THE ORIGINAL OF THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENT IS IN THE POSSESSION OF
  MRS. FRANCES FULLER VICTOR, PORTLAND, OREGON. IT WAS SECURED
  FROM MR. HARVEY, A SON-IN-LAW OF DOCTOR MCLOUGHLIN,
  AND SEEMS TO BE A DEFENCE BY DOCTOR MCLOUGHLIN
  OF HIMSELF, ADDRESSED TO PARTIES IN LONDON.


The first Americans since 1814 who crossed to the west side of the
Rocky Mountains was (at least to our knowledge) Mr. Jedidiah Smith with
five trappers, who, having met some of the Hudson's Bay Company on the
headwaters of Snake River came with them to the Hudson's Bay post at
the Flat Heads, where they passed the winter.

In 1825 he returned to join his people, and in 1826 he brought a large
party of his countrymen to hunt in the Snake country, where they have
been ever since. In 1826 and up to 1828, there were constantly five
or six hundred. But now, that beaver are scarce, there are only about
fifty. In 1827, Mr. Smith pushed his trapping parties to the Bay of
San Francisco, in California, and, in endeavoring to make his way here
from California in 1828, fifteen of his men were murdered by the Umpqua
Indians when he with only three of his men reached Vancouver from
whence, spring 1829, he proceeded to join his countrymen in the Snake
country.

The first American vessel that entered the Columbia River to trade
since 1814 was the Oahee, Captain Dominus, in February, 1829. The
Convoy, Captain Thompson, came a while after. These two vessels
belonged to the same party, a merchant in Boston. In summer, they
went up to the coast. Returned in the fall. The Oahee wintered in the
Columbia River, but the Convoy proceeded to Oahoo. Returned spring
1830, and in the summer both vessels left and never returned.

In 1832 a Mr. Wyeth came across by land from Boston with eleven men,
with the intention of establishing a salmon fishery and expected
to have met a vessel which he had sent from Boston, but he learned
afterwards she had been wrecked on an island in the Pacific, and the
nonarrival of his vessel obliged Mr. Wyeth to return to the United
States, but his men remained in the Wallamette.

In 1834 Mr. Wyeth returned with a large number of men whom he left
in the Snake Country to trap beaver, where he built the present Fort
Hall, and brought about twenty men with him to prosecute the object
of his first voyage in 1832, for which purpose he had despatched the
May Dacre, Captain Lambert, from Boston in 1833, and which entered
the river a few days after Mr. Wyeth arrived at Vancouver, who built
on Wapatoo Island. Collected in 1835 about a half cargo of salmon
when the May Dacre sailed in 1835, and in 1836 Mr. Wyeth broke up his
establishment on Wapatoo Island. Returned to the states, offered the
remains of his property in the country for sale to the Directors of the
Hudson's Bay Company in London, but they referred him to their officers
in the country at Vancouver, who bought Mr. Wyeth's property and his
establishment of Fort Hall in 1837 from Mr. Wyeth's agent, and he left
in one of the Hudson's Bay Company's vessels for Oahoo in 1838. But
his labouring men dispersed in the country. The Rev. Jason and Daniel
Lee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with three laymen came overland
from the states in company with Mr. Wyeth in 1834. They brought horses
and cattle with them, but their supplies came by sea in the May Dacre.
Messrs. Lee left the states with the intention of settling in the
Flat Head Country as missionaries to those Indians but changed their
minds and settled in the Wallamette Country, and as they had left
their cattle at Walla Walla and they were rather weak after their long
journey, they asked and obtained the loan of cattle from me.

In 1834 one Kelley came from Boston by way of California, accompanied
by Ewing Young and eight English and American sailors. Kelley left the
states with a party intending to come here by way of Mexico, but the
party broke up on the way and Kelley alone reached California, and
with one man overtook our California trappers on their return about
two hundred miles from San Francisco, and Young, a few days after,
with the rest of them; but as Gen. Fiqueroa, Governor of California,
had written me that Ewing Young and Kelley had stolen horses from the
settlers of that place I would have no dealings with them, and told
them my reasons. Young maintained he stole no horses, but admitted
the others had. I told him that might be the case, but as the charge
was made I could have no dealings with him till he cleared it up.
But he maintained to his countrymen and they believed it, that as he
was a leader among them, I acted as I did from a desire to oppose
American interests. I treated all of the party in the same manner as
Young, except Kelley, who was very sick. Out of humanity I placed him
in a house, attended on him and had his victuals sent him at every
meal till he left in 1836, when I gave him a passage to Oahoo. On his
return to the states, he published a narrative of his voyage in which,
instead of being grateful for the kindness shown him, he abased me
and falsely stated I had been so alarmed with the dread that he would
destroy the Hudson's Bay Company's trade, that I had kept a constant
watch over him, and which was published in the Report of the United
States Congress. In 1835 five English and American deserters having
lost two of their companions murdered by Indians made their way from
California to the Wallamette. The same year the Revd. Samuel Parker of
the Presbyterian Church, was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston
to examine and find proper places to establish missions. He came with
the American Fur-Traders to their rendezvous in the Snake Country,
from whence he sent his companion, Dr. Whitman, to the states for
missionaries and came alone to Vancouver. The Rev. Mr. Parker appears
to me to be a man of piety and zeal, but is very unpopular with the
other protestant missionaries in the country, for which I see no cause
except that acting differently from them, he has published to the world
the manner some of their countrymen act toward Indians, and the very
different manner we treat them as may be seen by reference to his work.
He left in 1836 by way of Oahoo.

In 1836 Dr. Whitman with his wife, and accompanied by the Rev. Mr.
Spalding and his wife, and laymen, returned to the country. Dr. Whitman
established himself in the vicinity of Walla Walla. The Rev. Mr.
Spalding in the Nes Perces Country. In the fall Mr. Slocum [Slacum]
came in a vessel from Oahoo, which he hired for the purpose. On
arriving, he pretended that he was a private gentleman, and that he
came to meet Messrs. Murray and companions who had left the states to
visit the country. But this did not deceive me, as I perceived who he
was and his object, and by his report of his mission published in the
proceedings of the Congress of the United States, I found my surmises
were correct. This year the people in the Wallamette formed a party and
went by sea with Mr. Slacum to California for cattle, and returned in
1837 with 250 head. In 1836 the Rev. Mr. Leslie and family, accompanied
by the Rev. Mr. Perkins and another single [man], and a single woman,
came by sea to reinforce the Methodist Mission. In 1837 a bachelor and
five single women came by sea to reinforce the Methodist Mission, and
three Presbyterian ministers came across land with their families,
while their supplies came by sea. Two of these missionaries settled in
the vicinity of Colville, the other in the Nes Perces Country. In 1838
two Roman Catholic Missionaries came from Canada. This year the Rev.
Mr. Griffin of the Presbyterian Church, with his wife, came across land
from the states by way of the Snake Country. There came with him also
a layman of the name of Munger, and his wife. They came on what they
called the self supporting system, that is, they expected the Indians
would work to support them in return for their teachings, but their
plan failed. Mr. Griffin is now settled in the Wallamette as a farmer,
and Mr. Munger joined the Methodist Mission, where he became deranged,
threw himself on a large fire, saying it would not hurt him, but was
so seriously burned that in a few days he died. In 1839 a party left
the State of Illinois, headed by Mr. Farnham, with the intention of
exploring the country and reporting to their countrymen who had sent
them. But four only reached this place. Three remained, but Mr. Farnham
returned to the states by sea and published an account of his travels.
Messrs. Geiger and Johnson came this year, sent as they said by people
in the states to examine the country and report to them. Johnson
left by sea and never returned. Geiger went as far as California and
returned here by land. He is settled in the Wallamette. In 1840, the
Rev. Mr. Clarke of the Presbyterian Church with his wife, and two
laymen with their wives, came across land on the self supporting
system, but, as their predecessors, they failed and are now settled in
the Wallamette. In 1840 the Rev. Mr. Jason Lee, who had gone in 1838
across land to the United States, returned by sea in the Lausanne,
Capt. Spalding, with a reinforcement of fifty-two persons, ministers
and laymen, men, women and children, for the Methodist Mission, and a
large supply of goods with which the Methodist Mission opened a sale
shop. In 1841 the American exploring squadron, under Capt. Wilkes,
surveyed the Columbia River from the entrance to the Cascades, and sent
a party across land from Puget Sound to Colville and Walla Walla, and
another from Vancouver to California. At same time the Thomas Perkins,
Capt. Varney, of Boston, entered Columbia River for the purpose of
trade. She was the second vessel that came for that object since the
May Dacre in 1834. The first was the Maryland in 1840, Capt. Couch, of
Boston, who came to endeavor to establish a salmon fishery, but did
not succeed. The Thomas Perkins had a quantity of liquor, and as this
was an article which, after a great deal of difficulty, we had been
able to suppress in the trade, to prevent its being again introduced, I
bought up Varney's goods and liquor, and it was still, spring 1846, in
store at Vancouver. Spring 1842 the Americans invited the Canadians to
unite with them and organize a temporary government, but the Canadians,
apprehensive it might interfere with their allegiance, declined, and
the project, which originated with the mission, failed. This spring
the Chenamus, Capt. Couch, came from Boston. Capt. Couch opened a
store at Oregon City and left a Mr. Wilson to do his business when he
sailed in the fall for Boston. The ——, Capt. Chapman, of Boston, came
also, who traded for a cargo of salmon, sailed in the fall, but never
returned. In the spring the Rev. Father Desmit of the Society of Jesus
came to Vancouver from the Flat Head Country where the year before he
had established a mission from St. Louis. He came for supplies, which
he purchased, and with which he returned to his mission. In August,
the Rev. Messrs. Langlois and Bolduc [?] came by sea. The month of
September 137 men, women and children arrived from the states. They
came with their wagons to Fort Hall, and from thence packed their
effects on horses and drove their cattle. They passed, without visiting
Vancouver, from The Dalles to the Wallamette over the Cascades by the
road which the Methodist Mission had opened to drive cattle from the
Wallamette to that place. Dr. White who had formerly been a member of
the Methodist Mission, but disagreeing with them had left them in 1840,
came with these immigrants. He gave himself out, at a meeting which
he called for the purpose, as being appointed Sub-Indian Agent by the
American government for Oregon Territory. But of course the officers
of the Hudson's Bay Company did not acknowledge his authority, and the
immigrants brought the printed copy of a bill brought into the Senate
of the United States by Dr. Linn, in which it was proposed to donate
640 acres of land to every white male inhabitant, the same to a male
descendant of a white man, 320 to a wife, and 160 to a child under 18
years old. This year my difficulties began with the Methodist Mission,
but as I have already given a full detail of it, I will not repeat it
here. In 1843 the Americans again proposed to the Canadians to join and
form a temporary government, but the Canadians declined for the same
reason as before.

In the summer a number of the immigrants of last year, headed by Mr.
Hastings, not being satisfied with the country, left for California.
As they were destitute of means, I made them advances, which they were
to pay to the late Mr. Rae, at San Francisco, but few did so. But in
the fall, 875 men, women, and children came from the states by the same
route as those of last year, and brought 1,300 head of cattle. These
came to The Dalles, on the Columbia River, with their wagons, drove
their cattle over the Cascades by the same route as those of last year
to the Wallamette, and when the road was blocked up by snow, along
the north bank of the Columbia to Vancouver, where they crossed the
river and proceeded to the Wallamette, and brought down their wives and
children and property on rafts, in canoes which they hired from the
Indians, and in boats belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, lent them
by me. Yet with the assistance I lent them, they still suffered a great
deal of misery, and spent a great deal of time, and the last passed
Vancouver only at Christmas, and if, as some years is the case, the
Columbia had frozen on the beginning of December, these immigrants were
so destitute of provisions, and so poorly clad, many of them would have
perished.

The Rev. Father Deros, [Demers] of the Society of Jesus, came this
year with two other fathers of the same society and three laymen and
established a mission in Colville District. Lieut. Fremont, of the
United States service, came with a party to examine the country. After
purchasing supplies from the Hudson's Bay Company, he rejoined his
party at The Dalles, and proceeded across land to California.

In 1844 the immigrants amounted to 1,475 men, women, and children. They
came by the same route, and were assisted by me with the loan of boats,
as their predecessors of last year.

The Americans applied this year again to the Canadians in the
Wallamette (who were about settlers) to join them and form a temporary
government, to which they acceded, as they saw from the influx of
immigrants it was absolutely necessary to do so to maintain peace and
order in the country. We had the pleasure to see her Majesty's ship,
Modeste, Capt. Baillie. She anchored opposite Vancouver. The Belgian
brig, Indefatigable, also anchored there. She was the only vessel that
hitherto came under that flag, and brought the Rev. Father Desmit,
with four fathers of the Society of Jesus, and five Belgian nuns of the
Society of Sisters of our Lady. The fathers came to reinforce their
mission in the interior in the Flat Head Country, and to establish
others, and the nuns to build a convent and open a school for young
females in the Wallamette. Spring, 1845, an American of the name of
Williamson built a hut half a mile from Vancouver, on a piece of ground
occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company. As soon as I was informed of
it, I ordered the hut to be pulled down. A few days after, Williamson
returned with a surveyor to survey the place, and finding his hut
pulled down, and on inquiring, found it was pulled down by my orders,
he called on me and asked the reason of my doing so. I told him it was
because it was built on premises occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company,
who were carrying on business in the country under a license from
the British Government according to a treaty between the British and
American Governments, which implies a right to occupy as much ground
as they require for their business. But this was disputed, and he said
he would persist and build. One of his companions went so far as to
say if he was disturbed, he would burn the finest building in Oregon.
Not wishing to enter into an altercation with this fellow, I told him
in the presence of Chief Factor Douglas, and several of the Hudson's
Bay Company's officers, and several Americans, and of Dr. White, who
happened to be present at the time, that if he persisted in building,
he would place me under the disagreeable necessity of using force
to prevent him. He went away saying he would build. Although none
of the Hudson's Bay Company's people, or any from the north side of
the Columbia, had joined the organization, yet as Williamson was an
American citizen, as a matter of courtesy to them, the accompanying
letter of the 11th of March was addressed to the members of the
Executive Committee of Oregon Organization with an address to the
people, which on receipt was to be posted up for public perusal in
Oregon City.

I also addressed them on the 12th, informing them that Williamson had
desisted from his design of building on the premises in question.

In the summer a meeting of the people in the Wallamette was called in
which the organization was new-modeled, and a clause put in by which
it was provided that no man could be called to do any act contrary to
his allegiance. It struck me this was done to enable us to join the
organization and I mentioned this to my colleague Chief Factor Douglas,
who thought, as I did, that in our present situation and the state of
the country it would be advisable to do so, and I was not surprised
to find a few days after on my visit to Oregon City that my surmises
were correct, as the originator of the clause who was a member of
the legislature then in session, called on me and proposed to me to
enter the organization on the part of the Hudson's Bay Company. After
conversing on the subject and being aware the organization could afford
assistance to none but its own members, I told him I would proceed to
Vancouver, consult with my colleague, Chief Factor Douglas, and the
other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at that place, which I did,
and Chief Factor Douglas coincided with me in the expediency of our
doing so. I returned to Oregon City and on the legislature writing
me a letter inviting me to join the organization on the part of the
Hudson's Bay Company, in a written reply I informed them I did so; and
on my way back to Vancouver, I was informed of the arrival of Chief
Factor Ogden with dispatches from Sir George Simpson, Governor in Chief
of Rupert's Land, in which I was happy to see that my proceeding in
the case of Williamson had been approved. I have stated that Chief
Factor Douglas coincided in opinion with me that in our situation,
and in the present state of the country, it was evident for us (since
none of us could be called to do any act contrary to our allegiance),
to join the organization, as it resolved itself by this clause merely
into an association of the people of the country to maintain peace
and order among themselves, and in the present state it was not only
necessary, but absolutely our duty, as in 1843, seeing the large number
of immigrants of that season, and seeing from the public papers it
was expected the numbers would be greater next year, and as they came
from that part of the United States most hostile in feeling to British
interest which was greatly excited by the perusal of Irving's Astoria.
Kelley and Spalding's letters, several copies of which were among
them, in which our conduct and proceedings were represented in the
blackest and falsest colors, had worked so much on the minds of these
immigrants that I found out they supposed we would have set the Indians
on them, and that they had frequently talked among themselves that
they ought to take Vancouver. They now knew these reports were false,
but as prejudice takes a strong hold of people's minds, and of which
others might avail themselves to form a party to make an attack on the
Hudson's Bay Company's property—of which it may be said they were
encouraged by the public papers stating that British subjects ought
not to be allowed to be in the country, by the expectation held out by
Linn's bill that every male above eighteen years of age would have a
donation 640 acres of land, a wife 320, and all under 18 would have 160
acres in any part of the country—I wrote, fall 1843, to the Directors
of the Hudson's Bay Company that it was necessary to get protection
from the government for the security of the Hudson Bay Company's
property, and to which in June 1845 I received their answer stating
that in the present state of affairs the company could not obtain
protection from the government, and that I must protect it the best way
I could, and as I had sent an account of Williamson's attempt to build
on the premises of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of my proceedings on
the occasion to her Majesty's Consul, Gen. Millar, at Oahoo, calling
on him for protection for the Hudson's Bay Company's property, and to
which he did not even reply, though he could have done so by the vessel
which conveyed my letter. Therefore,—[seeing our situation, and that
an incendiary in the dry weather in the summer and fall might easily
destroy Vancouver and fly to the Wallamette where we could not touch
him. Indeed at that very time, there was a man at Vancouver on his way
with Dr. White to the states whom we knew had repeatedly said among his
countrymen that his only object for coming to this country was to try
a change of air for the benefit of his health, and to burn Vancouver,
and I heard afterwards on his way back he had expressed his great
regret at not having perpetrated his atrocious intention, and wanted
to return from Fort Hall to endeavor to carry it into effect, but his
countrymen and Dr. White persuaded him to continue his journey to the
states with them; and there are plenty such characters in the country.
One Chapman got up at a Methodist Camp Meeting and confessed publicly
that he had belonged to a celebrated band of robbers in the State of
Arkansas headed by the notorious —— whom the United States Government
had a great deal of trouble to catch and break up his band, and Chapman
declared there were several of his former associates in this country,
and if they reformed he would not expose them, but if they persisted in
their former evil course, he certainly would. Even in 1844 a man agreed
at this place to erect a building on the opposite side of the river.
After it was erected, they differed about the payment. It was referred
to arbitration, and the builder lost his case. A few days after, the
building was burnt in the night, and though every person about the
place is convinced who did it, yet there is no evidence to convict, and
if there was, it would afford no indemnification to the owner of the
property that was destroyed. I also had been informed that an American
had proposed to form a party to take Vancouver by surprise. To deprive
evil-doers of a place of refuge, as the organization could only assist
its own members]—I considered it our duty to join the organization, as
already mentioned. It may be said why not place sentries? It is because
I know from experience that common men cannot be depended on for such
a purpose beyond a few nights, and there were so few officers at the
fort, to have employed them on that duty we must have put a stop to the
business of the place which would derange the whole business of the
department, and I therefore considered it best to act as I did. I was
much surprised a few days after the arrival of Chief Factor Ogden, by
the arrival of Lieut. Peel and Capt. Parks, who handed me a letter from
Capt. Gorden of Her Majesty's Ship America, from Nisqually, and stating
he was sent by Admiral Seymour, who wrote me to the same purport to
assure her Majesty's subjects in the country of firm protection, and
which was most unexpected after what the Directors of the Hudson's Bay
Company had written me. But more particularly from the silence of Her
Majesty's Consul, Gen. Millar, at Oahoo, which led me to suppose at
the time, though I was mistaken, that the British Government had cast
us off and we must take care of ourselves the "best way we could." I
do not mention this to find fault with others, but merely to state
my feelings, and the responsibility I felt for the property under my
charge. I was still more surprised on the return of Chief Factor
Douglas from Nisqually, where he had been in company with Mr. Peel,
to see Capt. Gorden, to receive a letter from Capt. Baillie of Her
Majesty's Ship Modeste, informing me he was sent by Admiral Seymour to
afford protection to her Majesty's subjects in the Columbia River if
they required it. At first I thought we would not, as we had joined
the organization, but on the suggestion of Chief Factor Douglas I
thought it well to accept Capt. Baillie's important offer, and I am now
happy I did so, as I am convinced it was owing to the Modeste being
at Vancouver, and the gentlemen-like conduct of Capt. Baillie and his
officers, and the good discipline and behavior of the crew, that the
officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at Vancouver have had less trouble
than they would have had, and which (though they have had a great deal
more than I expected) certainly they have done nothing to incur, but
the reverse. They have done everything they could to avoid it, but
after all of which I am not surprised when I am certain there are many
ill-disposed persons among these immigrants who think they are doing a
meritorious act by giving trouble to British subjects.

The immigrants in 1845 amounted to 3,000 persons, men, women and
children.




REVIEWS OF BOOKS.


_McLoughlin and Old Oregon._ By EVA EMERY DYE. (Chicago: A. C. McClurg
and Company, 1900. Pp. VIII, 381.)

The incidents, personalities, color, and sequence of events in the
growth of Oregon from 1832 to 1849 were never before portrayed as they
are in Mrs. Dye's "McLoughlin and Old Oregon." Had the present day
kinetograph and phonograph been at hand and in operation for recording
the dramatic scenes and sayings of that period of wonderful changes in
the Valley of the Columbia, we should have had more of the foibles,
limitations, and obliquities of human nature, but Mrs. Dye's minute
study, sympathetic assimilation, and unique strength in constructive
imagination have given us an exceedingly interesting series of pictures
almost as vivid as real life.

The book opens at Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia, the center of the
Hudson's Bay Company's widely extended operations west of the Rocky
Mountains, and the home of its chief factor, Dr. John McLoughlin. The
time, 1832, marks the revival of the movement of American enterprise
for the occupation of Oregon in the person of Nathaniel J. Wyeth.
Nineteen years had passed since the Astor venture had suffered dismal
discomfiture in that region. From 1832 on, however, the United States
was to have representatives, in one capacity or another, of its
interests in Oregon. Slender was its hold during the first half of
this period, but its preponderance was overwhelming in the latter
half. Wyeth failed with his commercial venture. Physical obstacles
taxed his resources, and he had to meet the determined monopoly of
the Hudson's Bay Company under its competent and benignant chief
factor, Dr. John McLoughlin, backed by the millions of the company,
and a disciplined host in possession of the good-will and salutary
respect of the Indians. But the American missionaries remained on the
ground, established stations, accumulated stores, formed nuclei of
settlements through their lay helpers, and correctly conceived policies
of inuring the Indians through example and precept to a status of
settled agricultural life. Then come strong mountain men, who had had
their fill of experience as solitary trappers in the wilds of the Rocky
Mountains. Beginning with a band of one hundred and thirty-seven in
1842, and rising immediately to eight hundred and seventy-five in 1843
there rolled in the mighty tide of pioneer home-builders.

In such an entourage of events the author correctly conceives of
the motive that is primary in this culminative course of events.
A lower race is to be dispossessed by a higher, though Wyeth's
plans contemplated advantage from the Indians' retaining their
native employments, and the missionaries vainly hoped by a summary
procedure to elevate them from lowest barbarism to civilization.
Doctor McLoughlin holds the key to the situation, at least as to the
immediate outcome. As representative of the fur trading monopoly, his
interests are linked with the interests of the Indians in remaining in
undisturbed possession of their imperial domains. It would have been
so easy to have hustled back home the first forerunners of the great
immigrations, and, if this had not deterred others from coming on in
larger numbers, these in turn, utterly without resources after their
long marches, could easily have been thrown into consternation and
wrought havoc with by the chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company.

The issues in this great drama of the Pacific Northwest turn then,
first, upon the qualities of heart and character of the Indians that
came under the influence of Lee, Whitman, and Spalding. Will they
have the faith and fortitude to sacrifice a world in which they are
the leaders for a possibly better world in which leadership is with
the white man? Secondly, the outcome of this second movement of the
Americans on to Oregon lies with Doctor McLoughlin. Will the depth of
his humanity suffice to rescue, shelter, nourish and shield year after
year those who would have perished but for his intervention and whose
survival is bound to result in the appearance of invading hosts who
will wrest the sceptre from him? Mrs. Dye has thrilling issues and two
real heroes, Whitman and McLoughlin, in this epoch of Oregon history,
and she makes the most of them.

The secret of her remarkable success in making the characters and
conditions of that time live again lay in her getting the confidence
of the principal surviving actors of that period and securing from
them the fullest impress of the traditions of stirring times, with all
the halo that half-a-century would naturally invest them with. Through
these sources she attained an understanding of the actors and spirit
of the times so intimate that her pretension to supply the words used
on all important occasions does not become a mockery, but through this
dramatizing the author attains the unique element in her success.
In this role her inimitable power of vivid representation, through
successions of pictures, has its best application.

The stock of reminiscences that Mrs. Dye exploited with such rare skill
and energy needed corroboration from contemporary documents. As the
material for Oregon history is brought together, many lapses, more or
less important, in matters of fact will no doubt be disclosed. As an
instance: The magnitude of Wyeth's second expedition is stated in
figures at least four times too large, both for the number of men and
the amount of money.

The author has, however, kept herself remarkably well poised between
the partisan bickerings that have characterized so much of the writing
in Oregon history. The search of the author for indubitable evidence
has been rewarded in the finding of some valuable material, notably the
Whitman papers; and clues that she came upon have yielded treasures for
others.

Towards the closing chapters the author swerves farthest from history
towards romance. Instead of bringing the vigorous young Oregon
community into the foreground, she leaves the stage empty. "Old
Oregon," with its life had, of course, departed, but it was crowded out
by the thronging of the new.

This book is by far the best that the general reader can select for an
introduction to the life of early Oregon.


_Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest._ By H. K. HINES, D. D.
(Portland: H. K. Hines, San Francisco: J. D. Hammond, 1899. Pp. 510.)

As the sub-title indicates, this is rather the "Story of Jason Lee"
than a missionary history of the Pacific Northwest. There would have
been no impropriety in giving it the title of "Jason Lee and the
Methodist Missionary Effort in the Pacific Northwest." The title is
positively misleading as it stands, for forty pages only are devoted
to an account of the work of the missionaries under the "American
Board," while some four hundred and fifty are taken up with the story
of the Methodist Missions. The Methodist denomination was first in this
field with wisely chosen representatives. It sustained and reinforced
its movement to christianize the Indians of Oregon most munificently,
considering the conditions of the times. As a memorial of these efforts
conceived with such grand and consecrated spirit, nothing would have
been more fitting than a volume by Doctor Hines.

No one could have been so unfair as to demand of Doctor Hines a cold
and critical account of these missionaries and their work. A panegyric
on Jason Lee and his colaborers was becoming from him. He was the
man prepared through life-long schooling and natural inclination to
do this, and Jason Lee's work deserved it. But for the title and an
invidious comparison that crops out all too frequently, Doctor Hines
has done in this book just what God had prepared him to do.

It is a pity that a work of so high general character, the best product
of such fine literary ability as Doctor Hines possesses, could not have
been one of some famous series by a strong publishing house of the East
that would have pushed it into the markets of the world.

The fact that the critical historian will take issue with the
conclusions of this book almost from the beginning constitutes no
disparagement of the real worth of the author's work. It was a labor
of love for a character and for a denomination. This, however, may
be said: The Methodist missionary project in the Pacific Northwest
was, soon after its inception, at all but one or two points, not
distinctively a missionary station at all. But it was a colony with a
strong secular spirit and exercised a most salutary influence upon the
affairs of the Oregon community. This fact the work of Doctor Hines
unwittingly proves.




NOTE—A CORRECTION.


  _To the Editor Oregon Historical Quarterly_:

In the article upon F. X. Matthieu in the March Quarterly there appears
one inadvertence which should be corrected: Doctor White is mentioned
as having first come to Oregon on the Lausanne. He came in 1837 _via_
Honolulu, leaving Boston on the ship Hamilton, and reaching the
Columbia in May, on the brig Diana.

  H. S. LYMAN.




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QUARTERLY OF THE OREGON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

CONTENTS NO. 1, VOL. I, MARCH, 1900.

  THE GENESIS OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND OF A COMMONWEALTH
  GOVERNMENT IN OREGON—_James R. Robertson_                            1

  THE PROCESS OF SELECTION IN OREGON PIONEER SETTLEMENT—_Thomas
  Condon_                                                             60

  NATHANIEL J. WYETH'S OREGON EXPEDITIONS—"In Historic Mansions
  and Highways Around Boston"                                         66

  REMINISCENCES OF F. X. MATTHIEU—_H. S. Lyman_                       73

  DOCUMENTS—Correspondence of John McLoughlin, Nathaniel J.
  Wyeth, S. R. Thurston, and R. C. Winthrop, pertaining to claim
  of Dr. McLoughlin at the Falls of the Willamette—the site of
  Oregon City                                                        105

  NOTES AND NEWS                                                      70


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Transcriber's Note

  The order for "Contents No. 1, Vol. I, March, 1900" has been retained
  as published in the original publication. Other apparent typographical
  errors have been repaired.

  Footnotes placed at end of the respective chapters.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical
Society (Vol. I, No. 2), by Various

*** 