* * * * *
Letter of Peter H. Burnett's, taken from the _Ohio Statesman_ of
October 23, 1844, which quotes it from the _Globe_, Washington:
LINNTON, Oregon, July 25, 1844.
I am here in our new town, which we have named as above, in
respect for Doctor Linn's services for this territory. Gen.
M. McCalla [M. M. McCarver] and myself have laid out the
town together. He is a gentleman from Iowa Territory, and
laid out Burlington, the seat of government. He is an
enterprising man. Our place is ten miles from Vancouver, on
the west bank of the Wallamette River, at the head of
navigation, and three or four miles above the mouth of the
Wallamette, and twenty-five miles below the Wallamette
Falls. I have no doubt but that this place will be the great
commercial town in the territory. We are selling lots at $50
each, and sell them fast at that. At the falls there is
quite a town already. I own two lots in Oregon City (the
town at the falls). They are said to be worth $200 each. I
got them of Doctor McLoughlin for two lots here in Linnton.
I was six weeks at Vancouver, where myself and family were
most hospitably entertained by Doctor McLoughlin, free of
charge. He has been a great friend to me, and has done much
for this emigration generally. I find provisions high--pork
10 cents, potatoes 40 cents, flour $4 per hundred.
But I find it costs me a little, even less to live here than
at Weston. I paid for wood the last year I lived at Weston
$75, for corn and fodder $50, all of which is saved here. We
use much less pork here than in Missouri. The salmon are
running now and will continue to run until October next.
They generally commence running the last of February and end
in October. I have had several messes of fresh salmon. At
this point we purchase of the Indians ducks, geese, swans,
salmon, potatoes, feathers, and venison, for little or
nothing. Ducks, four loads; geese, eight loads; swans, ten
loads; salmon, four loads of powder and shot each. Feathers
cost about twelve and a half cents a pound. There are more
ducks, etc., here than you ever saw; also pheasants in great
numbers. They remain here all the winter. I have hunted very
little, being too busy. We find it very profitable to get of
the Indians, to whom we trade old shirts, pantaloons, vests,
and all sorts of clothing. They are more anxious to purchase
clothes than any people you ever saw. You can sell anything
here that was ever sold. Stocking Cary ploughs $5 each. We
have an excellent blacksmith living in our place who makes
first rate Cary ploughs at thirty-one and a quarter cents a
pound, he finding it. [Omitting an elaborate description of
the Willamette Valley.] American cows are worth here from
$50 to $75; American horses from $50 to $75; oxen from $75
to $125 per yoke. This is the finest country for grazing
cattle you ever saw. They keep fat all winter. Butter sells
at 20 to 25 cents. And, what I did not expect to find, this
is a good country for hogs. At all events you have here
plenty of grass, a root they call wappato, and also plenty
of white oak mast. A first rate market can be had for any
and everything, and you have never seen business more brisk.
Times are first rate and everybody is busy. The
manufacturing power is unsurpassed in the world. There are
more fine sites than you ever saw. Such water power as that
at the falls of Platte can be found everywhere. * *
[Omitting a portion of the letter describing the timber of
Oregon.] I will not persuade you, nor will I any of my
friends, to come to this country; but were I in the States
again, I should come myself. For $300 you could purchase one
hundred young heifers; and in driving them here you might
lose from five to ten. When you reached here they would be
worth $4,000, and in ten years, without labor or expense,
would make you a splendid fortune. You can move here with
less expense than you could to Tennessee or Kentucky. Your
provisions, teams, etc., you have; your oxen and horses,
especially your fine American mares, would be worth double
as much as they would cost you there. There are very few
good American horses here. The Indian horses are not so
gentle as the American, nor so fine blooded. The American
cattle are greatly superior to the Spanish for milk, as they
give more milk and are more gentle; but the Spanish cattle
are larger. Cows have calves here from fifteen to twenty
months old, and sheep have lambs twice a year in some parts
of territory. The reason is they are always fat and get
their growth much sooner. It is my deliberate opinion that
no country in the world affords so fair an opportunity to
acquire a living as this. I can see no objection to it,
except it be by a man who loves liquor, for he can get none
here.