«■ 
 
 ^, 
 
 Ai;^. 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 // 
 
 ^ .^V 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 bills 115 
 £ its. 12.0 
 
 I 
 
 IL25 ng 1.4 
 
 I 
 
 1.6 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sdfflices 
 
 Corporation 
 
 a^MC^ »<\INSTRieT 
 
 WIBSTER.N.Y. USSO 
 
 (716) 873-4S03 
 
 4 
 
 a>^ 
 
 
 "^m ' 
 
CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVI/ICIVIH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endommagie 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur^e et/ou pellicul6e 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes g^ographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relii avec d'autres) documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re Mure serrde peut causr de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la mai je int6rieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela itait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 fiimies. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppl6mentaires: 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la methods normale de filmage 
 sont indiquis ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagtes 
 
 □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages 
 
 Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxec 
 Pages d6color6es, tacheties ou piqu6es 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages ddtachies 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Quality inigale de Timpression 
 
 Includes supplementary materia 
 Comprend du materiel supplimentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 I n Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 I I Pages detached/ 
 
 r~1 Showthrough/ 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I I Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 I I Only edition available/ 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont M filmdes d nouveau de fa9on A 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 Th 
 to 
 
 Th 
 po 
 of 
 fill 
 
 Or 
 be 
 th< 
 sic 
 oti 
 fin 
 sio 
 or 
 
 Th 
 sh 
 Til 
 wl 
 
 Ml 
 dif 
 en 
 be 
 rig 
 re< 
 mi 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmi au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 26X 
 
 30X 
 
 X 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 

 Th« copy filmad h«r« has b««n r«produc«d thanks 
 to tha ganarobity of: 
 
 L>brarv Division 
 
 Provincial Archives of British Columbia 
 
 L'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grice A la 
 ginArotitA da: 
 
 Library Division 
 
 Provincial Archives of British Columbia 
 
 Tha imagas appaaring hara ara tha bast quality 
 possibia considaring tha condition and lagibility 
 of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha 
 filming contract spacifications. 
 
 Las imagas suivantas om 4t* raproduitas avac la 
 plus grand soin. compta lanu da la condition at 
 da la nattatA da I'axamiilaira f ilmA. at an 
 conformity avac las conditions du contrat da 
 filmaga. 
 
 Original copias in printad papar covars ara filmad 
 baginning with tha front covar and anding on 
 tha last paga with a printad or illustratad impras- 
 sion. or tha back covar whan appropriata. All 
 othar original copias ara filmad baginning on tha 
 first paga with a printad or illustratad impres- 
 sion, and anding on the last paga with a printad 
 or illustratad impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain tha symbol •-^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Les exemplairas originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprimie sont filmAs en commen^ant 
 par la premier plat at an terminant soit par la 
 darnlAre paga qui comporta una empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par la second 
 plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras exemplairas 
 originaux sont filmte en commenpant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration at en terminant par 
 la derniire page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la 
 derniAre image da cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — »> signifie "A SUIVRE", le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 filmAs A des taux da reduction diffArants. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul clichA. il est filmA A partir 
 da Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammas suivants 
 illustrent la mAthode. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 

 »5 
 

 THE 
 
 ^ 
 
 OREGON TERRITORY. 
 
 CLAIMS 
 
 THERETO 
 
 OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONSIDERED ; 
 
 ITS CONDITION AND PROSPECTS. 
 
 -ii'^ 
 
 •^ 
 
 X 
 
 BY ALEXANDER SIMPSON, ESQ. 
 
 A LATE BRITISH RESIDENT THERE. 
 
 " Non ego sum vates, sed prisci conscius sevl." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 ^ttWia^er in ©rtinate to l^cr iWajcBtij. 
 
 1846. 
 
 [Price Half-a-Crown.] 
 
T 
 
 1 
 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed by Schulze and Co., 13, Poland Street. 
 
» 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 In the autumn of 1839, being then an officer 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company, I made the 
 descent of the Columbia, or Oregon River, from 
 a northern defile of the Rocky Mountains to the 
 Pacific. 1 spent some months of the year 1 840 
 in the Oregon country, and made visits during 
 the same year to the Sandwich Islands, and to 
 Montery, the capital town, and San Francisco, 
 the best harbour of California. 
 
 Circumstances placed me, in the year 1842, in 
 the position of political agent for Great Britain 
 at the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 I had, early, become convinced of the vital 
 importance to British interests in the Pacific, of 
 the sovereignty of that interesting group, and 
 of its intrinsic value for the purpose of coloni- 
 zation. I felt confident of the right of England 
 to this sovereignty : a right grounded on priority 
 
 ri • • ^4 /, fs 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of discovery, and repeated cession by the native 
 chiefs. Its virtual subjection to American rulers 
 was self-evident ; and the danger of its being 
 seized upon by the naval squadrons of France 
 imminent. Thus influenced, I, unhesitatingly, 
 took a prominent part in the bloodless coup de 
 main by which the sovereignty of the group 
 was, in February 1843, placed at the command 
 of Her Britannic Majesty.* 
 
 Immediately after its consummation, I took 
 my departure for Britain,! charged with the self- 
 imposed mission of personally representing to 
 the Members of Her Majesty's Government, the 
 importance of the acquisition thus made to Her 
 Majesty's dominions. 
 
 Unknown, unfriended, utterly unacquainted 
 
 * Of the circumstances connected with this affair, I have 
 given a full detail in a pamphlet, " The Sandwich Islands," 
 published by Smith and Elder, in October 1843. 
 
 t My first progress was in a very small schooner, com- 
 manded by a very young midshipman of the Carysfort frigate, 
 to Mazattan on the west coast of Mexico. I traversed the 
 Republic to Vera Cruz. There I was much disposed to have 
 taken passage vid the United States, but luckily found a 
 Spanish coaster which landed me at Cuba. I say luckily, 
 because the intense feeling excited in the States, by the 
 receipt of intelligence of the measure in which I had been 
 concerned, would have ensured me at least much insult, per- 
 chance in the Southern districts drawn upon me the tender 
 mercies of Judge Lynch. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with politics and with politicians, my represen- 
 tations, though received with every courtesy, I 
 may say kindness, by Lord Aberdeen and his 
 colleagues in the Cabinet, were without effect. 
 A recognition of the Sandwich Islands as an 
 independent kingdom (!) was the decision arrived 
 at. " That decision was taken," to use the 
 words of the organ of the Foreign Office, " not 
 from any want either of right {of sovereignty) or 
 power to defend that right ; but simply because 
 it was held to be inexpedient to found a colonial 
 establishment, and to awaken the jealousy of 
 other countries for no purpose that cannot be 
 equally secured by the maintenance of the inde- 
 pendence of the country." 
 
 I considered then — still stronger reasons have 
 I for considering now — that this was a most 
 "untoward" decision. It was, as we have seen, 
 formed avow^edly on the ground oi expediency ; and 
 was, I have the strongest reasons to believe, the 
 result of interference in the matter by the Govern- 
 ment of the United States. There the value to 
 Great Britain of this acquisition of territory was at 
 once appreciated. A naval station in the Pacific 
 which should completely command the northern 
 part of that ocean, including the western route 
 to China, and the shores of the coveted 
 
r 
 
 6 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ,1 
 
 ** Oregon" could not, quietly, be permitted to 
 come into the possession of ** grasping England." 
 The usual machinery of American diplomacy — 
 lengthy Presidential Messages to Congress, 
 excited discussions thereon, bellicose commu- 
 nications from the American Ambassador to 
 Downing Street — was brought into operation to 
 defeat my project — and with entire success. 
 
 Freed from the restraints of an official position, 
 I published my views in relation to affairs in the 
 Pacific. That these bore much reference to the 
 Oregon (then, indeed, but a very " small cloud 
 in the West") will be rendered apparent by the 
 followinp: fc<hort extracts. 
 
 "Wh the feeling on the North-Eastern 
 Boundary Question ran highest, the attention 
 of the Americans was much more earnestly, 
 though not so overtly, directed to the North- 
 West territory. The country lying west of the 
 Rocky Mountains, having an extent of coast of 
 nearly one thousand miles, and averaging in 
 breadth three hundred miles, is still open to 
 both powers. England with a good right to the 
 whole, claims only a part. The Americans, with 
 no right to any part, claim the whole ; and 
 though their Executive is willing to make a 
 division, it is doubtful whether the people — the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 
 real Government — would sanction it. Yet Lord 
 Ashburton, it was assumed, had settled every 
 point in dispute !" 
 
 "The Columbia River and the Bay of San 
 Francisco, are the outlets to the ocean of that 
 vast territory known as * the Oregon,' which is 
 fast colonizing by American citizens, and which 
 will, undoubtedly, ere twenty years are past, 
 form a powerful Anglo-Saxon state, which will 
 command the whole western coast of North 
 America and the Northern Pacific Ocean." 
 
 ** We hold the barren islands of Bermuda at 
 an immense expense, avowedly as a point of 
 command over the American coast. I venture 
 to say that the formation of a British Colony at 
 the Sandwich Islands, and the placing there of 
 two or three steam vessels of war, would be 
 fully as powerful a check on the warlike pro- 
 pensities of our American brethren." 
 
 " A restless American population is already 
 pouring by hundreds into the Oregon country 
 lying on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. They 
 will soon pour in by thousands, for a route has 
 been traced by which waggons pass, without the 
 slightest difficulty, from the Missouri to the 
 lower part of the Columbia River, and where 
 waggons can pass Westward Americans will 
 emigrate. The Oregon country is their El 
 
INTRODUCTlOri. 
 
 Dorado ; and a very few years will add to it the 
 northern part of California." 
 
 During the Session of Congress of winter 
 1843 — 44, indications were not wanting of the 
 opinions and feelings of the citizens of the 
 Republic on this question. Petitions, memo- 
 rials and addresses, were presented, in great 
 numbers, to Congress, praying for the immediate 
 abrogation of the treaty of joint occupancy ; and 
 though the ultimate decision of that body was, 
 that it was inexpedient, at that juncture, to 
 adopt this step, yet enough was disclosed, during 
 the debates, of the spirit of hostility towards 
 this country entertained by the politicians — 
 high and low — of the Union to have warned 
 our statesmen of the coming danger. 
 
 Our statesmen are, I believe, much depen- 
 dant for information of passing events, and for 
 the shaping of their policy in reference thereto, 
 on the columns of our public journals. In this 
 case, unfortunately, the information, and deduc- 
 tions therefrom, of the "leading journal" were far 
 from correct. It ridiculed the demonstration of 
 public opinion and feeling in America in favour 
 of a military possession of " the Oregon ;" and 
 instead of exciting alarm by calling attention to 
 the warlike declarations of popular representa- 
 tives, who, whatever might be their obscurity 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and stupidity, yet truly spoke the popular voice 
 — it wrote them down as the ravings of a paltry 
 and despicable clique without influence and 
 without character. 
 
 Impressed with a conviction that American 
 feelings on this subject, were too strongly 
 excited, and their tendency too dangerous to 
 allow their being thus lightly considered, I 
 endeavoured to call public attention to the 
 subject by a series of letters in " the Times," 
 which I now present in a collected form, as an 
 attempt to elucidate the unfortunate question 
 which threatens to drive into an unnatural war 
 two mighty nations having the same origin, 
 speaking the same language, and having, if they 
 truly understood them, the same interests. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 "The pugnacious Mr. Owen, whose warlike 
 declarations on the subject of the ' the Oregon* 
 you animadverted upon in your paper of the 
 20thf has, without doubt, truly represented 
 the state of feeling among a very large pro- 
 portion of the population of the United States, 
 when he said : * We must have the valley of 
 the Columbia — the Oregon is our land of 
 promise — and England must and will take 
 herself off.' 
 
 "Those sentiments are not, as you assume, 
 confined to * half a dozen provincial news- 
 papers, such as Americans only can edit, and 
 to two or three squatting or freebooting mobs. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 11 
 
 such as America only can produce,* but are 
 entertained by ninety-nine out of every hundred 
 Americans. From Massachusets to Iowa ; from 
 Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras, the cry is still 
 the same. Inspect an American map, and you 
 will observe that either a boundary line is 
 drawn from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific 
 along the pararel of 49° ; all the fine country 
 to the south being described as American terri- 
 tory, while the rugged, barren, and utterly use- 
 less tract to the north is left to * the Britishers ;' 
 or else that the geographer, anticipating the 
 declaration recently made by an influential 
 politician of the Union (General Cass) : * We 
 must have no red lines traversing the Oregon — 
 the whole is ours, and we will have it,' has 
 divided the whole of the western coast of 
 Northern America between his own country, 
 Russia, and Mexico. I do not think a single 
 map could be purchased in the United States 
 from which an observer could gather that there 
 exists such a thing as a convention between 
 England and the United States, by which it 
 is agreed that all the territory which it pleases 
 the Americans to call * the Oregon,' * shall 
 be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and 
 subjects of the two powers.' An arrangement 
 which thouiih entered into onlv for a limited 
 
12 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 term of years, cannot be abrogated by the 
 United States without the consent of England, 
 except at the risk of a war. 
 
 " The late Resolutions of Congress show that, 
 for the present, it is not considered prudent to in- 
 cur this risk ; but the people of the United States 
 having, by a certain train of reasoning, con- 
 vinced themselves that their right to the whole 
 of this * debateable land* is well-founded — a 
 conviction which President Tyler expressed 
 very strongly in his last Message to Congress 
 — will not cease from bullying and blustering 
 until their claims are fully admitted, or a 
 determination expressed by the British people 
 that the fair and liberal offers made by the 
 British Government to obtain a settlement of 
 the question, not being accepted by the Execu- 
 tive of the United States, the question must 
 now rest on its true merits. 
 
 " I venture to hope that an attempt to 
 elucidate these will find a place in your 
 columns. 
 
 "It is an admitted fact that the discovery 
 and exploration of the whole of the Pacific 
 Coast of North America was accomplished by 
 vessels fitted out by the Governments of Eng- 
 land and Spain. 
 
 •' It would be tedious, and 1 think unneces- 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 13 
 
 sary, to discuss the question as to which power 
 was the discoverer of different portions of this 
 coast; but this much is admitted, or asserted 
 by American writers, and is substantially cor- 
 rect — that in 1542, a Spanish Captain proceeded 
 as far up the coast as latitude 44" N. ; that 
 in 1578, Sir Francis Drake reached the coast 
 in latitude 48° N., and coasted it down to 
 latitude SS*" N., where he entered and refitted 
 in a port which still bears his name ; that 
 in 1774, a Spanish vessel, fitted out by the 
 Provincial Government of Mexico, saw points 
 of the coast as far as latitude 54°; and that 
 in 1778 — 9 our illustrious navigator. Cook, 
 traced the coast from latitude 43° up to the 
 Arctic Ocean, with the view of discovering 
 an inland-sea leading from the Pacific ^o the 
 Atlantic: — a survey which was more minutely 
 gone over by Captain Vancouver in 1791 — 3. 
 Much was added to the knowledge of the 
 harbours and sounds of the coast by private 
 adventurers in the fur trade sailing under the 
 English flag; while by the American Govern- 
 ment (then in its infancy, it is true,) nothing 
 was done, and the American traders who visited 
 the coast, did so stealthily, or by the connivance 
 of the subordinate Spanish officers, whose vena- 
 lity has always been notorious. 
 
 II 
 
14 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 ')i! 
 
 ** Robert Gray, one of those smuggling traf- 
 fickers, entered, in the year 1791, a bay, the 
 mouth of which had been previously examined 
 by Cook and Vancouver. This bay formed 
 the embouchure of the river called the Columbia, 
 or Oregon, (the Columbia being the name 
 bestowed on it by Mr. Gray, while the Oregon 
 is a purely fabulous name invented by one 
 Carver, in 1766, to designate a river which he 
 asserted he had visited running westward from 
 the Rocky Mountains).* Lieutenant Brough- 
 ton — Vancouver's second in command — entered 
 this river in 1792, and surveyed it for one 
 hundred miles from its mouth, taking formal 
 possession of the country on its banks in the 
 name of His Britannic Majesty. 
 
 ** Notwithstanding the prominent share which 
 Great Britain had taken in the discovery and 
 exploration of this coast, the Spanish Govern- 
 ment affected to consider the whole as exclu- 
 sively theirs ; and in enforcement of this claim 
 took possession, in 1789, of Nootka Sound — 
 a port where some English traders had estab- 
 lished themselves, and also seized two English 
 trading vessels. The news of this forcible 
 proceeding caused much indignation in Eng- 
 
 * Thus American claims to, and name of this region, are 
 alike falsities. 
 
 ■ 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 15 
 
 land. A message on the subject was sent 
 down to Parliament by His Majesty George III., 
 and cordially responded to by both Houses. 
 A large and powerful armament was speedily 
 equipped ; and Spain was forced to accede to 
 the *Nootka Treaty/ by which she agreed to 
 restore the establishments at Nootka, to in- 
 demnify the owners for the losses they had 
 sustained, and, moreover, to acknowledge that 
 she possessed no exclusive right as regarded 
 British subjects, to any part of the Pacific 
 coast ' situate to the north of the parts already 
 occupied by Spain.* The most northern settle- 
 ment then existing under the Spanish Govern- 
 ment was San Francisco in latitude 38°. 
 
 " But while Spain thus acknowledged, * on 
 compulsion,' the claims of Great Britain to a 
 participation in the North Pacific coast of 
 America, she publicly asserted against other 
 nations her exclusive claim to the coast, and 
 enforced this claim as far as her own weakness, 
 and the venality of her officers w^ould permit. 
 
 "By a Treaty executed in 1819, (the Florida 
 Treaty), Spain transferred to the United States 
 the claims of whatever nature which she pos- 
 sessed to the country on the Pacific to the 
 north of latitude 42°: the United States ac- 
 knowledging the territory south of that parallel 
 to belong to Spain. 
 
16 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 "The United States consequently possess, 
 by transference from Spain, a commensurate 
 right with Great Britain to the territory between 
 42* and 54° 40' N. latitude, (the Russian boun- 
 dary), and, as I contend, nothing more; while 
 Great Britain holds a claim to joint trade and 
 occupancy with the United States of all that 
 territory, and to joint trade and occupancy 
 with Mexico of the territory between latitude 
 38° and 42° — a region of much fertility and 
 beauty. 
 
 " Thus Great Britain, really , possesses a larger 
 interest in the unsettled country west of the Rocky 
 Mountains than the United States, 
 
 ** In future Letters I shall describe the pro- 
 gress of internal occupation and exploration; 
 and state, from personal observation, the 
 present extent and future prospects of British 
 and American trade and settlement in this 
 * debateable land.* 
 
 "lam, 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " Your very obedient, humble servant, 
 
 "A. S." 
 
 February 24, 1844. 
 
 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 17 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " Having, in my letter of tlie 24th of Feb- 
 ruary, adverted to the rights of trade and settle- 
 ment on the north-west coast of America which 
 England has acquired by discovery and treaty 
 —rights originally participated by Spain, and 
 now by her representatives in that region, 
 the United States and Mexico — 1 proceed next 
 to narrate the progress of internal exploration 
 and occupation of that country. 
 
 " Before the commencement of the present 
 century, the North- West Company of Montreal 
 — a powerful and active, though unchartered 
 body, had, in the pursuit of its business, the 
 collection of furs, explored and formed estab- 
 lishments throughout the whole of the un- 
 settled wilderness of Northern America, as 
 far northward as the region bordering on the 
 Arctic Circle, and westward, as the Rocky 
 Mountains ; the Jesuit Missionaries from 
 Canada having been, to a considerable ex- 
 tent, its pioneers. 
 
 ** In 1793, Mackenzie, one of the officers 
 of this body, pushed his way through the 
 
 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 : ! 
 
 f' .■. 
 
 northern defiles of the Rocky Mountains, and 
 by exertions almost incredible, reached the 
 Pacific Ocean in latitude 52**. Aware that Eng- 
 land had, three years before, extorted from Spain 
 the acknowledgment of the right of her sub- 
 jects to a share in the trade of this region, 
 he enters, in the published narrative of his 
 travels, into many details respecting it. In 
 those, though there is much over-estimation 
 of the value and importance of the fur-trade, 
 (natural enough from a fur-trader), there is 
 also much valuable information, and many 
 allusions, almost prophetic, to the encroaching 
 and over-reaching spirit of our Trans-Atlantic 
 brethren. 
 
 *'The field for the extension of its. commerce 
 thus opened up, was not likely to be overlooked 
 by this enterprizing association. Its establish- 
 ments were rapidly extended westward. In 
 1805 it had several trading posts on the upper 
 waters of the rivers flowing into the Pacific, 
 and had projected an expedition to reach that 
 ocean by a more southern route than that 
 followed by Mackenzie, from which purpose 
 it was temporarily diverted by the necessity 
 of concentrating its resources to meet a formid- 
 able rival association headed by that gentle- 
 man, who had been knighted for his discoveries. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 19 
 
 This new association coalesced with the older 
 company in 1804 — 5, and immediately after- 
 wards trading posts were established at several 
 points west of the Rocky Mountains, and a 
 descent made, in 1808, to the Pacific Ocean 
 by Frazer's River (latitude 49°). 
 
 *' It may be argued by the supporters of 
 American claims, that these were the proceed- 
 ings of a private association, unconnected with 
 and unchartered by the State. Undoubtedly, so 
 they were ; but the same argument would 
 effectually annul the claims which they them- 
 selves urge on the ground that a private Ame- 
 rican trader (or rather smuggler) was the first 
 to enter the bav into which the Columbia River 
 flows; and also the claims which they found 
 on priority of occupation of the country border- 
 ing on that river by the establishment of * Asto- 
 ria,' to which I shall presently refer. 
 
 "In 1804, an expedition, under the command 
 of Messrs. Lewis and Clarke was organized 
 by the American Government for the purpose 
 of traversing the country between the Missouri 
 River and the Pacific. This expedition fully 
 accomplished its object in 1805. After cross- 
 ing the wide region of the Missouri — then a 
 wilderness inhabited only by Indians, now in 
 the course of rapid settlement by the back- 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 Ijfl 
 
 « i 
 
 
 woodsmen of the west — those officers passed 
 the Rocky Mountains in latitude 46 J°, and 
 followed first a branch of the Columbia River, 
 which flowed nearly due west, and then the 
 main stream, till they reached the Pacific Ocean. 
 This river (as stated in my previous letter) had 
 been surveyed for one hundred miles from 
 its mouth by an English officer, twelve years 
 before, and the country formally taken posses- 
 sion of in the name of His Britannic Majesty. 
 
 "The trade of the coast begun by British 
 adventurers from India and China fell, soon 
 after the breaking out of the war of the French 
 Revolution, entirely into the hands of American 
 adventurers, who, without any other aim than 
 that of making the most of their present voyage, 
 and without any attempt at settlement, carried on 
 a dangerous but lucrative commerce ; while the 
 trade of the interior country, so far as it was 
 explored, was in the hands of the North-West 
 Company. 
 
 ** In 1810, Mr. John Jacob Astor, an enter- 
 prizing German settled in New York, formed 
 a project to establish a trade on the Pacific 
 Coast, by means of an inland communication 
 across the continent, a maritime communica- 
 tion round Cape Horn, and a direct intercourse 
 with China. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 21 
 
 ** The proceedings of the ill-selected indivi- 
 duals employed to carry into execution this 
 project have had the fortune to be narrated by 
 the same eloquent writer who chronicled the 
 Voyages of Columbus and his followers, and the 
 wars of the Moors and Spaniards ; and have 
 thence acquired a celebrity to which they had 
 little intrinsic claim. Such is the force of 
 genius, that the name of * Astoria,' a wretched 
 wooden stockade, utterly deserted for more than 
 twenty years, is as widely known as that of 
 Cincinnati or of Buffalo, those really wonderful 
 cities of the West. 
 
 ** Mr. Irving has descanted so eloquently on 
 the magnificent conception of Mr. Astor, and 
 described so feelingly the sorrow of that gen- 
 tleman on its failure, (worthy Mr. Astor was 
 just the man to be inconsolable when his dollars 
 were leaking out) that this failure is believed 
 by the Americans to have been quite a national 
 loss, although their government gave no sup- 
 port to the scheme. 
 
 *' By the officers employed by Mr. Astor — 
 most of whom were British subjects — a trading 
 establishment called * Astoria,* was built on 
 the south bank of the Columbia River, near 
 its junction with the Pacific (latitude 46°) ; 
 but they did not remain long in quiet posses- 
 
22 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 sion of the field. The North- West Company 
 also sent an expedition to establish a branch 
 of its trade on the same ground. An English 
 cruizer was despatched soon after the breaking 
 out of the war, with orders to capture and 
 destroy Mr. Astor's estabHshment. Of this, 
 Mr. Astor's agents had early intimation ; and 
 previous to her arrival (1813), they made a 
 sale to the local agent of the North-West Com- 
 pany of the estabHshment with the goods and 
 furs it contained ; so that the British Captf^^n, 
 on his arrival, found, much to his disappoint- 
 ment, that the whole had become British 
 property. 
 
 "The North-West Company continued in 
 the exclusive occupation of this place, and 
 of other posts which it established on both 
 banks of the Columbia River from this period 
 till 1821, when its capital and establishments 
 were merged in those of its chartered rival — 
 the Hudson's Bay Company. 
 
 ** This body has gradually extended its estab- 
 lishments along the coast to the north of the 
 Columbia River ; and after a long and expen- 
 sive struggle with American adventurers both 
 on the coast and in the interior, has, for several 
 years back, enjoyed nearly a monopoly of the 
 fur trade of this region — a monopoly which 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 23 
 
 though still maintained against traders from 
 the Atlantic States, is being fast encroached 
 upon by the progress of internal settlement 
 by Americans. 
 
 " Even were no other sources of information 
 open to me, I might trace from Custom-House 
 returns that the gross produce of the furs 
 collected in this entire region has not amounted 
 to the annual sum of £40,000, and gradually 
 diminishes. 
 
 "By a Convention between Great Britain 
 and the United States, signed in London on 
 the 20th of October, 1818, it is agreed that 
 *any country that may be claimed by either 
 party on the north-west coast of America, 
 westward of the Stony Mountains, shall, to- 
 gether with its harbours, bays, and creeks, 
 and the navigation of all the rivers within 
 the same, be free and open for the term of 
 ten years from the date of signature of the 
 present Convention to the vessels, citizens, and 
 subjects of the two powers.' 
 
 ''This arrangement was renewed in 1827 
 (when negotiations began for a conclusive settle- 
 ment of the question) for an indefinite period ; 
 each party being at liberty to abrogate it on 
 giving a year's notice of its intention to the 
 other. 
 
24 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 **This notice of abrogation it has been con- 
 sidered by Congress inexpedient for the present 
 to give. 
 
 "lam, 
 
 " Sir, 
 " Your very obedient servant, 
 
 "A. S.'* 
 
 March 25, 1844. 
 
 I 
 
 I' 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 ^i ^ 
 
 it' < 
 
 \V. 
 
 "; 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 "In my preceding letters I endeavoured to 
 trace the progress of discovery on the coast, 
 and exploration of the interior country of * the 
 Oregon.' I now proceed to advert to the present 
 position of that disputed territory. 
 
 *' You cannot have failed, Mr. Editor, while 
 perusing the lucubrations of your Trans- Atlantic 
 brethren of the broad-sheet, and while wading 
 through the lengthy harangues of the orators 
 sent to Congress from the Western States, to 
 have observed the immense importance which 
 it pleases them to ascribe to the operations 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company all over Northern 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 25 
 
 America, but particularly in the Oregon. One 
 of the recent speakers in Congress went even 
 the length of asserting that it had succeeded 
 in making away with (how, he did not explain) 
 four or five hundred American emigrants, who 
 had crossed the Rocky Mountains in 1842 ; and 
 the most moderate gravely assert that this body 
 holds military possession of this Western region 
 in the name, and for the benefit of England, 
 in the same manner that the East India Com- 
 pany holds the immense Indian empire — Mecum 
 comparatur Ulysses ! 
 
 " I stated in my last that the gross return of 
 all the trade in this region carried on by the 
 Hudson's Bay Company, docs not exceed the 
 annual sum of £40,000 — a small revenue out 
 of which to pay the expense of a military 
 possession of a country extending along the 
 ocean upwards of twelve degrees of latitude, 
 and varying in breadth from three hundred 
 to nine hundred miles ! Let me describe the 
 real position of this association as regards * the 
 Oregon.' 
 
 "In the year 1821, an Act was passed by 
 the British Parliament, (I & II Geo. IV. cap. 
 LXVI) which, after stating in the preamble 
 that ' the competition in the fur trade between 
 the Governor and Company of Adventurers of 
 
26 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 '!l i 
 
 
 §■: It' : 
 
 England trading into Hudson's Say, and cer- 
 tain associations of persons trading under the 
 name of the North- West Company of Montreal, 
 has been found for some years past to be 
 productive of great inconvenience and loss, and 
 of great injury to the native Indians, and other 
 persons subjects of His Majesty,' — enacts that 
 *it shall be lawful for His Majesty, &c., to 
 make grants, or give his Royal license to any 
 Body Corporate, or Company, or person, or 
 persons, of and for the exclusive privilege 
 of trading with the Indians in all such parts 
 of North America as shall be specified in any 
 such grants or licenses respectively, not being 
 any part of the lands or territories heretofore 
 granted to the Hudson's Bay Company, and 
 not being part of any of His Majesty's provinces 
 of North America, or of any lands and territories 
 belonging to the United States of America.' 
 This last reservation is repeated more emphati- 
 cally in a subsequent clause to the following 
 effect : * And, whereas by a Convention entered 
 into between His Majesty and the United States 
 of America, it was stipulated and agreed that 
 any country on the north-west coast of America 
 to the westward of the Stony Mountains should 
 be free and open to the citizens and subjects of 
 the two powers for the term of ten years, from 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 27 
 
 the date of the signature of that Convention ; 
 be it therefore enacted, that nothing in this 
 Act contained shall be deemed or construed 
 to authorize any Body Corporate, Company or 
 person to whom His Majesty may have, under 
 the provisions of this Act, made a grant, or 
 given a license of exclusive trade with the 
 Indians to claim or exercise any such exclusive 
 trade within the limits specified in the said 
 article, to the prejudice or exclusion of any 
 citizens of the United States of America, who 
 may be engaged in the said trade/ 
 
 In virtue of this Act, the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany has, successively, received two grants for 
 twenty-one years each (in force until 1863) 
 of exclusive trade with Indians in the extra 
 provincial portions of British America. 
 
 '* Virtually, therefore, so far as the Oregon 
 is concerned, this Company has, solely, the right 
 to exclude British subjects from trade with 
 Indians, and nothing more; against American 
 citizens it has no exclusive rights of any kind. 
 
 '* The grant thus guardedly limited by statute 
 has not been practically exceeded. The trade 
 with Indians has, indeed, been carefully followed 
 up, and by means of large resources nearly 
 monopolized — with a result which I have already 
 stated ; but except trifling delences erected at 
 
'IS 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 Hi' l! :!i 
 
 l!ili, '}- 
 
 three or four trading places (defences which 
 would be utterly useless against the smallest 
 body of white men) to guard against sudden 
 attack from the Indians, each place it occupies 
 is as unprotected as the mill of a Manchester 
 manufacturer. The whole number of its officers 
 and servants resident in this region does not 
 exceed three hundred ; and so far from the latter 
 being — as it pleases the excited imaginations 
 of the Western orators to paint them — a band 
 of fierce desperadoes, ready with their rifles 
 to pick off, at the command of their masters, 
 any intruding citizen, they are as mingled, 
 motley, and unwarlike a rabble as can well be 
 imagined. Hebrideans, Orkney men, Canadians, 
 and Sandwich Islanders, being in about equal 
 numbers ; men well-trained to work in boats 
 and to ride over the Prairies, but undisposed 
 for and untrained to warfare of any kind. 
 Nevertheless, your correspondent of last sum- 
 mer — General Duff Green (the gentleman whom 
 you happily described as having a talent for 
 impudence) made it one of his charges against 
 ' grasping England/ that the Hudson's Bay 
 Company maintained an army of fifteen hundred 
 fighting men in this region. 
 
 " Hordes of fierce savages, acting entirely 
 under the influence of this all-powerful associa- 
 
 111 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 29 
 
 tion, are also described by the imaginative 
 orators of Congress as standing ready to 
 snap up their adventurous brethren on their 
 setting foot in this Western El Dorado. 
 
 "A more abject, helpless race than the 
 natives of the portion of this region lying 
 nearest the Rocky Mountains, it is impossible 
 to conceive. Their situation is not exaggerated 
 by the traveller whom you have quoted as 
 describing them * to live naked in holes, and 
 to eat roots, lizards, and snails :' they have 
 no furs to trade, consequently have no relations 
 of any kind with the Hudson's Bay Company, 
 whose sole aim and object, notwithstanding 
 the extended views ascribed to it — is immediate 
 gain. 
 
 ** The Indians of the middle region are, 
 physically and morally, a better conditioned 
 race. They trade with the Hudson's Bay 
 Company, because there are at present no other 
 traders ; but in other respects they are much 
 more under the influence of American Mis- 
 sionaries who have settled among them. 
 
 " At the period of the formation of * Astoria* 
 the lower banks of the Columbia were occupied 
 by a numerous race of natives who were formid- 
 able from their entire submission to the dictates 
 of their chiefs. This tribe has become nearly 
 
 M! 
 
30 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 in. I 
 
 II 
 
 Hi 
 
 extinct, principally from the ravages of a deadly 
 type of fever and ague, which broke out among 
 them about ten years ago : the lower valley 
 of the Columbia does not contain five hundred 
 of the Aboriginal race ; and in a very few years 
 they will have utterly vanished, for disease in 
 its most loathsome form is rife among them. 
 
 *' On the coasts and islands of the northern 
 portion of the * Oregon,' the red men are still 
 numerous. They are here a bold, manly race ; 
 similar in habits and character to the warlike 
 tribes which disputed with the Pilgrim Fathers 
 of New England the possession of the Atlantic 
 coast. They are by no means under the 
 influence of the Hudson's Bay Company ; for 
 although it has trading establishments among 
 them, these are continually exposed to attack 
 and surprise, and are the places I have alluded 
 to where defensive precautions are adopted. 
 
 " While the Americans denounce so fiercely 
 England's monopoly of trade, and fancied mili- 
 tary possession of the Oregon, they keep out 
 of view an influence which is working strongly 
 in their own favour — the influence of Mis- 
 sionaries sent out and supported by the great 
 Presb :rian and Wesley an Societies in Boston 
 and New York. America disclaims foreign 
 colonies ; but she rejoices over the political 
 
 m 
 1 1: 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 31 
 
 influence which her Missionaries acquire in 
 the scene of their labours. The fairest group 
 of the Pacific — the Sandwich Islands— though 
 nominally ruled by its own dusky sovereign, 
 is, in reality, entirely under the sway of a 
 couple of ci-devant Presbyterian Missionaries 
 (alas, for the poor light-hearted natives whose 
 hard fate it is to be under the iron rule of these 
 sour and ignorant Calvinists!) and in the 
 Oregon there are, at this time, between thirty 
 and forty of those semi-religious, semi-political 
 pioneers ; some of whom have undeniably done 
 much for the improvement and civilization of 
 the Aborigines, while the religious mission of 
 too many has been adopted merely as the means 
 of securing snug locations for themselves and 
 families in this Western paradise. A free pas- 
 sage, an annual salary, and occasional help. 
 offerings, place an emigrant Missionary, on his 
 arrival in ' Oregon,' in far better circumstances 
 than could be his lot had he become an emi- 
 grant printer or shoemaker. 
 
 *' Several French Canadian priests labouring 
 also in this wilderness are a thorn in the sides 
 of the Protestant brethren, disputing with them, 
 not in the most friendly spirit, the right of 
 converting the Pagans, and putting to shame 
 
32 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 their efforts after self-aggrandizement by a 
 singleness of purpose, (which purpose is pro- 
 pagandism) and entire devotion thereto. 
 
 "lam, 
 
 " Sir, 
 •' Your most obedient servant, 
 
 "A. S." 
 
 |:1i 
 
 :i k 
 
 (A sudden call to the Continent prevented me 
 from continuing those letters. For some time 
 afterwards public attention seemed quite with- 
 drawn from the subject. It has now been forcibly- 
 recalled. I resume the discussion in a narrative 
 form.) 
 
 The adventurous founders of Astoria, and 
 their successors from the North-west, Were too 
 much engaged in providing for their own safety, 
 and in prosecuting the trade of furs, to pay any 
 attention to agriculture. The wild deer supplied 
 them with meat ; fish in great abundance was 
 found in the river and its tributaries ; bread and 
 vegetables were considered as luxuries, which it 
 befitted not a fur-trader to aspire after. 
 
 Thus matters went on for several years. In 
 1824, Mr. John M'Loughlin — a man who has 
 had much influence on the destinies of the 
 Oregon — was appointed by the Hudson's Bay 
 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 33 
 
 Company to the management of its affairs west 
 of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. M'Loughlin 
 brought to this task great energy, inflexible 
 perseverance, and much attachment to agri- 
 culture. Brought up in the cold district 
 forming the north-eastern part of Lower Ca- 
 nada, where, spite of an adverse climate, 
 the French Canadians raise a sufficiency of 
 corn for their subsistence, Mr. M'Loughlin 
 was unwilling to believe that the more genial 
 climate of the Oregon was unfitted for agricul- 
 ture. He entered upon it with his accustomed 
 energy, and ample crops of wheat, Indian corn, 
 and other cereals soon rewarded his exertions ; 
 while stock throve well, and, carefully fostered, 
 rapidly increased in numbers. 
 
 One of the stipulations in the Treaty of 
 Amity of 1814 with the United States being that 
 all places taken during the war should be re- 
 stored, Astoria was abandoned, and the chief 
 establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company 
 placed on the north side of the Columbia River, 
 at about one hundred miles from its mouth. On 
 this establishment the name of Fort Vancouver 
 (in honour of the celebrated navigator) was be- 
 stowed. Fields soon flourished around it ; the 
 seeds of fruit-trees brought from England sprang 
 up and formed an orchard ; even a vineyard 
 
 D 
 
 ii 
 
34 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 I • 
 
 . I ^ 
 
 was planted out from cuttings brought from 
 California. In short, Vancouver bore the ap- 
 pearance of a thriving agricultural settlement ; 
 its title to the name of * Fort* was gained solely 
 by a paling of wood of some twelve feet high 
 erected around the buildings. To this place the 
 ship bringing goods from England annually came, 
 and here the furs collected at the different stations 
 were deposited for return shipment, so that it 
 was the head-quarters of the fur-trade west of 
 the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 Of the officers and servants (principally of 
 Canadian birth) employed in that trade, many 
 had * wed a savage woman,' who had raised for 
 them ' a dusky race.' Some of them who had 
 accumulated a little money, who were growing 
 old, and wearied of their toilsome life, thought 
 that it would be better for them to take up their 
 permanent abode in the region they were in, 
 than to return to Canada, where their families 
 would be * as strangers in a strange land.' 
 
 The tract which they selected for their set- 
 tlement was on the banks of the Wallamatte, a 
 considerable stream, flowing from the south, 
 which discharges itself into the Columbia, oppo- 
 site Vancouver. Of the country watered by this 
 river, as 1 shall have hereafter occasion to speak 
 more at length, I shall here merely state that it 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 35 
 
 was admirably adapted for the purpose of settle- 
 ment, that those Canadians were, for several 
 years, its sole occupants, that it is the sole point 
 yet occupied by settlers, and that it is the only 
 tract of country possessing advantages for colo- 
 nization in the whole disputed territory. 
 
 Colonized by British subjects, this secluded 
 little colony should have lived under the British 
 flag. But it did not do so. The policy of the 
 Hudson's Bay Company over all its territories has 
 been directed solely to the monopoly of the fur 
 trade. The fur trade of this region lies almost 
 exclusively to the North of the Columbia; for the 
 South, therefore, the Company had no concern ; 
 and it affected to consider that there was an im- 
 plied understanding that the Columbia River 
 should form the boundary between the territories 
 of the two nations. Mr. M'Loughlin, from pecu- 
 liar motives, lent countenance to this impression. 
 His idiosyncrasy is a belief in grievous oppres- 
 sions practised on his brethren, the French 
 Canadians, and no Irish patriot equals him in 
 intense execration of Saxon dominion. He, natu- 
 rally, wished not that oppressive rule to be exer- 
 cised over a district where several of his own 
 descendants had taken up their abode, and to 
 which he, himself, looked as his final resting 
 place. 
 
 D 2 
 
 ■I 
 
 fe 
 
m 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 
 l!P! 
 
 11! 
 
 Undeterred by the failure of the 'Astorian' 
 enterprize, a small body of adventurers from the 
 United States again projected in 1831 a trade 
 with the Indians of the Columbia, joined with a 
 salmon fishing. The party encountered the most 
 vigorous opposition from the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany. Higher prices were offered to the Indians 
 for their peltries than the American interlopers 
 could afford to give — a higher value was offered 
 to them for their stock in trade than thev could 
 expect, otherwise, to realize. Of this they wisely 
 accepted ; and then were received and quartered 
 at the Hudson's Bay establishments. 
 
 They carefully scanned every thing they 
 there saw, including the progress of the infant 
 settlement at the Wallamatte ; and on their 
 return to the United States made reports of their 
 observations to the Executive and to the Senate. 
 These induced a course of action by the former ; 
 by the latter they were published and dissemi- 
 nated without scrutiny. The course of action 
 of the Executive was to send out emissaries 
 covertly to spy into the land : they returned 
 and made further communications, which were 
 again received and published by the Senate. 
 Missionaries from the Wesleyan and Presbyte- 
 rian bodies,* also, made their way out — the 
 
 * Much to the credit of those bodies, they determined that, 
 
 
THE OUEGON QUESTION. 
 
 37 
 
 Wesleyans round Cape Horn— the Presbyterians 
 across the continent, and corresponded largely 
 with the religious public on the state of matters 
 in the Oregon. 
 
 to avoid any risk of rivalry between their different Missionaries, 
 these should be instructed to select for themselves separate 
 fields of action, in which they should not encroach one on the 
 other. The injunction has been rigidly obeyed, and perfect 
 harmony and co-operation mark their respective proceedings. 
 The Wesleyans stationed themselves in the lower district of 
 the Columbia, the Presbyterians higher up. Their rules of action 
 were different — the Wesleyans attempted the education in 
 English, and advancement in civilization of the youthful natives; 
 the Presbyterians, whose directors enjoin upon them " not to 
 give credence to the popular error that man must be civilized 
 before he is Christianized," applied themselves to the dissemi- 
 nation of Scripture and its doctrines, by printing and preaching 
 in the native tongues. A far ditTerent feeling from this exists 
 between those sects and the Roman Catholics. On this sub- 
 ject I will here quote an anecdote, which I had already pub- 
 lished: — " The American Missionaries had first occupied the 
 field. French Canadian priests arrived a few years afterwards, 
 and gained great ascendancy among the natives by the distri- 
 bution of a Biblical tree, showing pictorially many of the Old 
 Testament histories : — the coming of our Lord Jesus, and the 
 subsequent progress of His Church through the straight gate, 
 until these pestilential heretics, Luther and Calvin, verged 
 from the narrow way leading to salvation into a crooked road 
 which (so the picture shadowed) led them and their foUow^ers 
 to eternal fire. This had wonderful effect, and the Protestant 
 brethren tried in vain to redeem their lost ground by exhibiting 
 an antagonist tree, showing the gradual divergence of Home 
 from the right path." 
 
38 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 
 li' ;■ . 
 
 W^i 
 
 ll 'I 
 
 m 
 
 Those means of drawing public attention to 
 this subject were slowly effecting their aim, when 
 they received a mighty impulse from the publi- 
 cation of Mr. Washington Irving's * Astoria.' 
 This very entertaining work was cordially re- 
 ceived in England : in the United States it 
 was the main origin of the popukr excitement 
 which has made the Oregon the question of the 
 day. If war does ensue between the two coun- 
 tries, quiet * Geoffrey Crayon' will have had no 
 small share in causing it. 
 
 1 spent several days in the Wailamatte Co- 
 lony in May, 1840. It then contained about 
 one hundred families. By far the greater part 
 of these were French Canadians and their de- 
 scendants. They formed a very respectable, and, 
 considering the country and their previous mode 
 of life, very regular congregation, ministered to 
 by Monsieur Blanchette, a most estimable and 
 indefatigable priest of the Roman Catholic faith. 
 A few Americans had also located themselves — 
 stragglers from whale- ships and trapping parties : 
 and the Wesleyan mission consisted of four 
 fan ilies, comprising a clergyman, a surgeon, a 
 schoolmaster and schoolmistress, and an agri- 
 cultural overseer, under whom the native lads 
 acquired some instruction in farming, for which 
 their labour was mo e than a recompense. 
 
 1 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 39 
 
 The settlers, aware that under American law 
 they would have a preferable title to but a limited 
 number of acres, had diligently searched the 
 banks of the river for the most fertile and advan- 
 tageous locations. Thus the settlement, even 
 then, extended for more than twenty miles along 
 the river. The people lived in a rude plenty ; 
 and seemed contented, happy, and healthy. Their 
 surplus produce of wheat, &c., they bartered 
 with the Hudson's Bay Company for goods. 
 
 The tide of emigration, to this region of the 
 extreme West had not yet set in ; but its pioneers 
 were already on the spot. One of these, Mr. 
 Thomas Farnham, has since published a narra- 
 tive of his travels across the Rockv Mountains, 
 and through this region, which has attracted 
 considerable notice. He was for some time my 
 fellow traveller; and was a character whom it 
 would delight Dickens to paint. The most per- 
 fect plausibility, much dry humour, considerable 
 intelligence, consummate impudence, and most 
 indomitable self-reliance, -^:ere mixed up in him 
 in a most amusing manner. He talked grand- 
 iloquently, and acted shabbily ; in fact, held 
 himself alike ready (and was alike fit) to be the 
 pettifogging Attorney or the Chief Justice of the 
 State in embryo. 
 
 In 1843 emigration began in earnest. The 
 
 :'f.i 
 
 
40 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 m 
 
 !l 
 
 passage of the Rocky Mountains it was dis- 
 covered could be effected in covered waggons : 
 and the journey which had been long considered 
 as practicable only by resolute men well armed 
 and organized, was effected by families moving 
 Westward, bag and baggage : three months 
 from Missouri placed them in safe quarters in 
 the Wallamatte. Such numbers flocked West- 
 ward, that in 1844 the population settled in that 
 valley amounted to five thousand souls: the 
 emigration of this year (1845) has probably 
 raised it to double that amount. And this emi- 
 gration will, in all likelihood, continue. Iowa 
 long the ultima thule of Westward emigration, is 
 become so sophisticated as to have a capital, a 
 legislature, and a Court of Justice (not presided 
 over, but occasionally assisted by Judge Lynch), 
 while its neighbour, Wisconsin, has become so 
 populous, as to have a log hut for eveiy fifty 
 thousand acres. This won't suit expansive squat- 
 ters : so * Westward-ho I' is the cry. 
 
 The Hudson's Bay Company, in accordance 
 with i.iie policy I have already adverted to, 
 endeavoured to foster a colony on the Cowlitz, a 
 small river flowing into the Columbia from the 
 north : but it succeeds not. The advantages of 
 soil, situation, and climate are strong in favour 
 of the Wallamatte, and the few who were induced 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 41 
 
 to try the northern settlement, soon transferred 
 themselves to the southern one. 
 
 Scarcely had the emigrants safely established 
 themselves, when, true to their habits of self- 
 government, they peaceably organized a Court of 
 Legislature and an Executive. And to their 
 honour be it told, the first act of the former was 
 to decree that no spirituous liquors should be 
 imported, distilled, or sold. Truly, this shows 
 that they are of the right mould of men to form 
 the elements of a great State : and further (writes 
 my respected friend Mr. M'Loughlin to me under 
 date November, 1844) ** they declare that, if in 
 ten years the Boundary is not settled, they will 
 erect themselves into an independent State." 
 
 Having thus endeavoured, concisely, to sketch 
 the progress of discovery, trade, and settlement 
 in the Oregon ; and stated my opinions as to the 
 claims thereto of England and America, I shall 
 now proceed to describe the country to which 
 those claims are made. Previous, however, to 
 entering on this subject, I shall advert shortly to 
 Russian America. 
 
 Russia laid claim to a portion of North-Wes- 
 tern America, on the ground of exploration and 
 occupation by trading parties from Kamtschatka. 
 The claim was not altogether unfounded, for 
 
 <^~ ' 
 
 m 
 
42 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 such trading parties had actually established 
 themselves at several points on the coast pre- 
 vious to its exploration by Cook and his succes- 
 sor, Vancouver, although they were incompe- 
 tent and unauthorised to make any accurate 
 survey, or to establish Russian supremacy. 
 
 Russian America was long undefined ; in- 
 deed, the Pacific Coast, altogether, from the time 
 of theNootka diffic!^>Y. and Vancouver's voyage* 
 was equally unknown d unthought of. In 1824, 
 Russia seems to have determined to obtain a 
 clear definition and acknowledgment of her 
 American territory ; for she concluded in April 
 of that year a Convention with the United States, 
 and in February following, one with England, 
 defining the Boundary of that territory. Both 
 Conventions are essentially to the same purport. 
 
 A line drawn from the Arctic Ocean (which, 
 by the w^ay, had not then been explored) along 
 the parallel of 141° W., was declared the limit 
 in the interior. This continued would have 
 struck the Pacific Coast in latitude 60° N. : but 
 a special reservation was made that the Russian 
 territory on the coast should comprehend Prince 
 of Wales' Archipelago, extending to latitude 
 .54° 40' ; and that from latitude 56° northward, 
 Russia should have possession of a tract along 
 the coast of ten marine leagues in breadth. 
 
 I think a fair inference might be drawn 
 
 i 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 43 
 
 from the United States accepting such an absurd 
 Boundary Line as the above, (England's conces- 
 si ^n on such a point is not matter to surprise) 
 that her diplomatists knew well they were con- 
 senting to a partition of what they had no real 
 claim to. 
 
 Russian America is valuable for its fur- 
 trade ; this is carried on by an imperial Com- 
 pany, of which the Emperor is governor, and 
 a principal capitalist. 
 
 I have already stated that America's present 
 right of joint trade and settlement with England, 
 extends from latitude 42° to latitude 56° N. That 
 England holds, as regards America, the same 
 rights to the same region : while, as I assert, 
 she holds, as regards Mexico, the same claim to 
 the region lying between latitude 42° and San 
 Francisco (38°). 
 
 The more moderate politicians of the United 
 States now maintain that the Boundary Line 
 between the two nations eastward of the Rocky 
 Mountains, should be extended to the Pacific 
 along the same parallel of latitude, i. e., 49° N; 
 
 It was long in discussion between the two 
 governments under what conditions the Columbia 
 River should form the line of demajxation ; and, 
 
44 
 
 THB OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 m 
 I J. 
 
 : 
 
 I believe, the proposals of America as late as 
 1842, adhered to this mode of settlement. 
 
 In describing the country it will be desirable 
 to consider it in the divisions which these diffe- 
 rent claims and propositions mark out. 
 
 There are : — 
 
 1st. The country between 56" and 49' N., 
 which were the most moderate of the American 
 propositions given effect to, would fall to the 
 share of Great Britain. 
 
 2nd. The country between 49° and the Co- 
 lumbia River, which, (yvith. a slight reservation 
 to be adverted to) might some years ago have 
 been secured for England. 
 
 3rd. The country between the Columbia 
 River and 42°, the Spanish (now Mexican) boun- 
 dary acknowledged by the United States in 1819. 
 And : — 
 
 4th. The country between 42° and San Fran- 
 cisco (38°) in which, under the Nootka Treaty* 
 England possesses the joint right of settlement. 
 
 The first of the above divisions has a coast 
 hne of about five hundred miles ; its breadth 
 is about three hundred and fifty miles. It thus 
 fdrms a territory of one hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand squares miles, exclusive of the ad- 
 jacent island — Queen Charlotte's — which has an 
 area of upwards of five thousand square miles. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 45 
 
 This extensive territory is, at present, occu- 
 pied solely by Indians, and by a few officers 
 and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company 
 engaged in the fur trade. This trade is con- 
 ducted at two positions on the coast, and 
 six in the interior country ; the coast trading- 
 houses being supplied by a coasting vessel from 
 Vancouver, while the wants of the establish- 
 ments in the upper country are supplied by land 
 transport from the northern waters of the Colum- 
 bia. The Indians of the coast are numerous, 
 fierce, and treacherous. Their natural intel- 
 ligence is considerable; and, occupying a country 
 in which deer and fish are abundant, they are 
 but little dependant on the traders. In the 
 interior country, the natives are much inferior 
 in character and position. 
 
 This extensive tract is quite unfit for agri- 
 cultural settlements. It is sterile and rocky ; 
 and its climate, though not cold as that of the 
 eastern side of America under the same lati- 
 tudes, is more than equally objectionable from 
 continual rains during six months of the year, 
 and dense fogs during the other six months. 
 
 Doubtless as an adjunct to a State peopled 
 by an energetic race, the value of this tract 
 would be great. The fur trade is even now 
 trifling, in a little while it will be exhausted ; but 
 
46 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 IP) 
 
 :■•'.■! 
 
 the numerous inlets and harbours everywhere 
 to be found on this bold coast, would give 
 shelter to hardy fishermen, whose labours would 
 be abundantly recompensed in prosecuting the 
 whale-fishery of the ocean, the white-fisheries 
 of the coast, and the salmon-fisheries of the 
 rivers, — for all of which advantages are here 
 offered, such, as I believe, were never elsewhere 
 found singly, still less united. The shores are 
 covered with forests of pines of peculiar value 
 for ship-building ; and numerous indications 
 have been observed of the existence of strata 
 of coals, and mines of iron. 
 
 The second division of territory has a coast 
 line Oi two hundred miles, and its breadth (to 
 the northern branch of the Columbia, which 
 here runs parallel to the coast) is about the 
 same, thus forming an area of forty thousand 
 square miles. 
 
 This district is also, at present, valuable 
 to civilized man only for the few furs traded 
 with its Aborigines. The agricultural settle- 
 ment at Fort Vancouver supplies merely the 
 wants of those engaged in the fur trade, and 
 another attempted on the Cowlitz River, near 
 the straits of Juan de Fuca, has failed of success. 
 The country is not so rugged as that which I 
 before described ; the climate is also better ; 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 47 
 
 and the soil, though not naturally fertile, is 
 capable of successful cultivation. * But where 
 are the cultivators to come from?* — Australia, 
 Cape of Good Hope, Canada, New Zealand, 
 surely one and all present greater advantages 
 to British emigrants ; and the sea-voyage to 
 the most distant of these is two months shorter 
 than that to the Columbia River. 
 
 To this division the extensive island known 
 as * Vancouver's,' may be considered to belong. 
 This island has an area of nearly twelve thousand 
 square miles, and it possesses far greater advan- 
 tages, in soil and natural configuration for set- 
 tlement, than the adjacent parts of the continent. 
 It is stated, I know not with what truth, that 
 the sect of fanatics called Mormons, who muster 
 several thousands in numbers, tired of the per- 
 secutions to which they have been exposed 
 in the Western States of the Union — project 
 a migration in 1846 to this island. The step 
 would be a bold, but a prudent one. They 
 would, there, have little cause to fear any in- 
 terference with their peculiar social organization. 
 
 The diplomatists of the United States would, 
 I have learnt from good American authority, 
 until the present excitement arose, have sur- 
 rendered both the above regions to England, 
 with the reservation of the tract bounded by 
 the Columbia River on the south, the Straits 
 
48 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 of Fuca on the north, the Pacific on the west, 
 and the Cowlitz River on the east. This reser- 
 vation would have given to their country the 
 command of the Columbia River for fifty miles 
 from its mouth. 
 
 If English honour can be saved, if we can 
 make such terms as will satisfy ourselves and 
 the world, that we have not truckled to America 
 in this matter, let us, by all means, make a lease 
 to the possessors of the southern bank of the 
 Columbia of the northern regions at a pepper- 
 corn rent ; or, better still, a grant thereof, free 
 and unbought. To P'-'aain they will never be of 
 value, while they will continually expose her to 
 difficulties. 
 
 In describing the third section of country, the 
 most prominent subject is the River Columbia, 
 which forms its principal outlet to the ocean. 
 This river has a course of about one thousand 
 miles (I descended its stream eight hundred and 
 fifty miles) and, though it cannot, in length, in 
 volume, or, in facilities of navigation, compete 
 with the great rivers flowing through the conti- 
 nent into the Atlantic, it is still a mighty stream , 
 having a breadth of two miles at fifty miles fronj 
 its mouth. Its navigation has acquired a bad 
 character, in consequence of there being a diffi- 
 cult and dangerous bar at its mouth, on which 
 several wrecks — the last of an American vessel of 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 49 
 
 war — have taken place. Vessels of large draught 
 of water have, certainly, much difficulty in enter- 
 ing, and Btill greater in getting out to sea, for the 
 passage is intricate and tortuous ; but the land- 
 marks of the embouchure are bold, and easily re- 
 cognized, and a steam tug would obviate all 
 risk and difficulty. The bar once passed, there 
 is good navigation for vessels of four hundred 
 tons up to Fort Vancouver. Above this the 
 navigation becomes broken by descents of the 
 river over ledges of rocks; but these are not 
 frequent, and, though dangerous to a frail boat, 
 the only craft now used, they would but little im- 
 pede a steamer of good power and light draught 
 of water, such as surmount the rapids of the St. 
 Lawrence. With such, I have no hesitation in 
 saying, that at certain seasons the Columbia 
 might be navigated from the ocean to the spurs 
 of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The valley of the Columbia for one hundred 
 and fifty miles from the sea, is to a distance of 
 twenty miles covered by a dense forest of trees 
 of gigantic growth, quite beyond the efforts of 
 puny man to clear away. Open plains do occur, 
 but they are few and far between, and not 
 adapted for settlement, in consequence of the 
 want of water in summer. The cUmate is but 
 
 £ 
 
50 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 indifferent. 1 t rainy season extends from No- 
 vember to March, and the quantity of rain poured 
 down upon the earth during that period is 
 very great. Frost and snow are unfrequent. 
 The summer is dry, and the heat intense and 
 long continued, the thermometer for four months 
 frequently attaining 100° in the shade. Great 
 inundations from the river take place in early 
 summer, and the rapid exhalation of these and 
 the wintry rains under a burning sun, make fever 
 and ague of a most severe, frequently dangerous, 
 type very prevalent. 
 
 The country higher up the river is much in 
 contrast to this. More distant from the wide 
 Pacific, rains are here unfrequent ; the woods 
 give place to plains of immense extent, and 
 health and vigour are enjoyed by the residents, 
 instead of the langour and depression felt by 
 those in the lower valley. Climate would thus 
 make it a desirable country for settlement ; but 
 its soil is indifferent in the extreme : indeed, it 
 is one wide expanse of shivered but yet unde- 
 composed''*' rock, over which a scanty grass is all 
 that grows. The Presbyterian Missionaries 
 found it most difficult to diL-cover spots on 
 
 * The marks of comparatively recent volcanic formation are 
 apparent over all this region. 
 
▼ 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 51 
 
 which there was soil enough to raise the vege- 
 tables they required for their families. 
 
 Such is the character of the wide region, 
 covering upwards of two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand square miles, between the northern branch 
 of the Columbia River and the Mexican boun- 
 dary (a narrow slip in the vicinity of the coast 
 excepted). It is tenanted by many, but not 
 numerous tribes of Indians, all pacific in their 
 character, some of whom possess large bands of 
 horses which roam at large among the scanty 
 pastures. This region, notwithstanding the dis- 
 advantages which I have described, will even- 
 tually become of immense value to the adjacent 
 agricultural district. Its adaptation for sheep 
 raising, is in every respect greater than that of 
 our Australian possessions. Who would attempt 
 to estimate the flocks that in a quarter of a cen- 
 tury hence will be fed in its inimitable pastures ? 
 
 The agricultural district I refer to in the last 
 paragraph is the valley of the Wallamatte, which 
 I have already stated to be in process of occupa- 
 tion and settlement. 
 
 For nearly twenty miles before joining the Co- 
 lumbia, the Wallamatte flows through a region 
 of dreary forest ; and, before the traveller emerges 
 into the beautiful and fertile plains bordering 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 I'' :i 
 
 * il 
 
 its upper waters, he has to pass a point where 
 the stream makes a fall over a ledge of rocks of 
 upwards of twenty feet in height.* 
 
 The country above this barrier assumes a new 
 and interesting character. The soil is a rich 
 diluvial mould, the land is unencumbered with 
 forest, but agreeably variegated by scattered 
 clumps of oak and other useful woods. The 
 country undulates pleasingly ; and at the distance 
 of a few miles from the river there are ranges of 
 green hills, behind which plains again appear. 
 The river has a swift but not impetuous descent, 
 and is, during several months, navigable for fifty 
 miles above the Falls. The climate improves as 
 we recede from the Columbia : the rains are less 
 continuous, and the summer's heat less oppres- 
 sive. I do not estimate the valley of the Walla- 
 matte at less than two thousand square miles, 
 almost all adapted for cultivation. To the south 
 of it lies a country even finer— the valley of the 
 Umqua — a river flowing direct into the Pacific 
 in latitude 43°. 
 
 * Mr. M'Loughlin, the principal British authority in the 
 disputed territory, has already obtained from the self-consti- 
 tuted Legislature ot the Oregon, a grant, for a series of years, 
 of tollage on craft at a small canal which he purposes to make 
 past this obstruction. 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 53 
 
 In fact, the whole region adjacent to (that is 
 within one hundred and fifty miles ot) the Pacific 
 coast, southward from the mouth of the Co- 
 lumbia to the Mexican boundary, presents great 
 advantages for colonization. The Wallamatte 
 River yields an entry into this fertile region from 
 the Columbia, while the Umqua and Clamet 
 Rivers flowing direct to the Pacific, give more 
 direct means of communication, although their 
 entrances are also encumbered with troublesome 
 barriers. 
 
 This is a true but meagre sketch of the 
 " Oregon," that El Dorado to reach which the 
 citizens of the United States have, in surprising 
 numbers, for the last two years, braved a long 
 and toilsome journey across the continent. And 
 who will say that their toils will not be repaid ? 
 
 That such a country, occupied by such a 
 people, is destined to become nothing else than 
 an appendage to the Atlantic States I am unwill- 
 ing to believe. Free and independent, it would 
 have a high destiny before it : and I recall with 
 pleasure a very sagacious remark made to me on 
 this subject by Lord Palmerston. I had repre- 
 sented to his Lordship (as I had previously done 
 to Lord Aberdeen at the Foreign Office) the 
 advantages of this region, had stated the rapid 
 emigration of American citizens to it and ex- 
 
1 
 
 54 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 pressed my apprehension of the undue influence 
 in the Pacific, which its admission into the Union 
 would give to the United States. He replied: 
 — ** There is no danger of that ; it will become a 
 second Texas." {Texas had not then been annexed,) 
 It requires no prophet to foretel that the nor- 
 thern part of California, (which I have classed 
 as the fourth division of undefined territory) if 
 not the whole of that Province, will fall into the 
 same hands as the Wallamatte and the Umqua. 
 Indeed, there are good reasons for anticipating 
 that, without any extraneous assistance, the 
 American residents in that Province will soon 
 have the power, as they already have the incli- 
 nation, to cast off the sway of the feeble and 
 inert Mexicans. In fact, Mexican supremacy 
 here is more in name than in reality. The few 
 military supported, the civil and revenue officers, 
 are all native Californians : to the general re- 
 venues of the Republic the province makes no 
 remittances, and from them receives no supplies ; 
 and it has not, for several years, even taken the 
 trouble to send members to the Mexican con- 
 gress. In fact, the native Californians hate the 
 Mexicans : and the system of government, weak 
 and inefficient as it is, has been supported so 
 long solely by the personal energies of a f^'v 
 officials, who, under covert of administering 
 

 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 55 
 
 Mexican laws, (particularly those of revenue) 
 minister much to their own interests. In fact, 
 Mexico might justly boast, if she so Usted, of 
 having (what England has not yet been able to 
 organize) a strictly self-supporting colony. 
 
 Having had considerable intercourse with the 
 civil and military authorities of this province, 
 I can speak with confidence of their shameless 
 venality, and of the oppressive system which 
 they administer. The revenue laws are nomi- 
 nally all but prohibitive of the importation of 
 any other than Mexican manufactures ; subjects 
 of other States are liable to expulsion unless they 
 take the oath of Mexican citizenship ; the mar- 
 riage of such with the fascinating daughters 
 of the country, is still prohibited, unless in 
 addition, they abjure protestantism and submit 
 to baptism at the hands ol a catholic priest, 
 the rites of the Protestant Church are prohibited 
 — (an almost unnecessary prohibition, for I 
 never could discover any religion at all among 
 the Anglo-Saxons there). 
 
 The people who are of a mixed Spanish-Indian 
 race, are superstitious, ignorant, and priest-rid- 
 den ; yet their leaders, under covert of Mexican 
 law, have confiscated and seized for themselves, 
 the numerous — and because well-cultivated, 
 valuable — missionary stations, which pious and 
 
56 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 energetic priests from old Spain liad establislied, 
 and for more than half a century maintained, 
 for the civilization, protection, and employment 
 of the aboriginal Indians. Well, indeed, may 
 it be said of this beautiful country that " here 
 only man is vile." 
 
 The harbour of San Francisco is unrivalled 
 in the world. A bay of many leagues in cir- 
 cumference, abounding in safe anchorages, is 
 entered from the ocean by a deep strait of less 
 than three miles in breadth. Into this bay 
 several rivers, the Sacramento — (having a course 
 of about four hundred miles) the Buena Ventura, 
 and the St. Joaquin, the principal ones — empty 
 themselves, and afford communication with a 
 wide expanse of interior country of the most 
 fertile description. The climate cannot be 
 surpassed ; it equals that of the finest parts 
 of Europe. Rains are unfrequent ; there is so 
 little cold in winter that no fire-places are to 
 be seen ; and the heat in summer is much more 
 tempered than in the region of the Columbia. 
 
 The whole tract north of San Francisco is 
 all but uninhabited. A farming establishment 
 belonging to General Vallejo, the military com- 
 mandant of the district, in the interior country, 
 and another occupied (but since abandoned) 
 by the Russian Fur Company at Bodega on 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 57 
 
 the coast, were, when I was there, the sole 
 places inhabited. An enterprizing Swiss gen- 
 tleman has since established himself — more in 
 defiance than by consent of the Government — 
 on the banks of the Sacramento, and following 
 the same method as Vallejo, i. e. employing in 
 agriculture the demi-civiUzed Indians cast adrift 
 by the breaking up of their training schools, 
 the missions — he has, as I learn from a recent 
 visitor, made most rapid progress. Several 
 of his countrymen have started for the purpose 
 of joining him. 
 
 Did I speak of the amazing crops of every 
 European grain and vegetable grown at these 
 singular establishments, I should, perchance, 
 be considered as romancing. California requires 
 no illusive descriptions, but plain naked truth to 
 recommend its value and importance. 
 
 F 
 
58 
 
 THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 m 
 
 1: 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The foregoing pages were in the press 
 before the arrival, in this country, of President 
 Polk's Message to the Congress of the United 
 States. 
 
 That message has been very generally viewed 
 by the English Press as more conciliatory than 
 the inaugural declaration of the same autho- 
 rity. Without being an alarmist, I must con- 
 fess that I regard it in a very different light. 
 I consider its tendency to be of more immi- 
 nently dangerous character than was that of 
 the previous communication. 
 
 The points of Mr. Polk's address may be 
 summed up thus : 
 
 1st. — "His own reiterated opinion of the 
 irrefragable claim of the United States to the 
 whole of the Oregon territory. 
 
 2nd. — " A declaration that he, unwillingly, 
 and in deference only to the purposes of his 
 predecessors in office, sanctioned a negociation 
 
THE OREGON QUESTION. 
 
 59 
 
 having in view a compromise, that is — a parti- 
 tion of the country. 
 
 3rd. — " An opinion that the progress of the 
 negociation * affords satisfactory evidence that 
 no compromise which the United States ought 
 to accept can be effected.' 
 
 4th. — " All propositions heretofore made by 
 the United States for a compromise have been 
 withdrawn. 
 
 5th. — " A recommendation to Congress to 
 authorize the Executive to give notice of the 
 termination, at the end of a year, of joint 
 occupancy. 
 
 6th.— "This done 'the United States shall 
 have reached a period when the national rights 
 in Oic^ m {i. e. the possession of the whole) 
 must be either abandoned or firmly main- 
 tained.'" 
 
 I must confess, I can see nothing pacific in 
 the character of such a communication : and 
 its tone, though not overtly belligerent, is ex- 
 pressive of unfaltering decision. 
 
 The support by Congress of President Polk's 
 course of policy would, of course, occasion a 
 declaration of war on the part of Great Britain ; 
 and the sole hope for the preservation of peace 
 must rest on the rejection of the President's 
 recommendations by the Congress. 
 
 F 2 
 
60 
 
 THE OREOON QUESTION. 
 
 Cau we hope for such a rejection ? — I think 
 not. The election of Mr. Davis, a thorough- 
 going Polk politician, to the chair of the House 
 of Representatives is a sign of the influence 
 of the party there; and he must be little ac- 
 quainted with the American character, who 
 is not sensible of the deep effect which several 
 declarations in the Message will produce. If 
 ** a cry'* is good in an English election contest, 
 ten-fold is its efficacy in the Western Republic ; 
 and Mr. Polk has suggested some very stirring 
 ones : — " The Oregon — one and undivided," 
 " Justice from Mexico," {i. e. a good slice out 
 of her territory,) '* No European interference 
 or colonization," ** No Old World balance of 
 power," — all these will be powerful arguments 
 with the governing body — i, e, the people ; and 
 will infallibly raise an excitement for Poi*.'s 
 policy, such as Webster, Clay, and Calhoun 
 can, if they willed, do little to temper or 
 subdue. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 '^ . 
 
 L U M) U N : 
 
 FriuteU by 6cbult« tind Co , i3, Poland btre«(.