1840. When Meek arrived at Fort Hall, where Newell was awaiting him, he
found that the latter had there the two wagons which Dr. Whitman had
left at the points on the journey where further transportation by their
means had been pronounced impossible. The Doctor's idea of finding a
passable wagon-road over the lava plains and the heavily timbered
mountains lying between Fort Hall and the Columbia River, seemed to
Newell not so wild a one as it was generally pronounced to be in the
mountains. At all events, he was prepared to undertake the journey. The
wagons were put in traveling order, and horses and mules purchased for
the expedition.
"Come," said Newell to Meek, "we are done with this life in the
mountains--done with wading in beaver-dams, and freezing or starving
alternately--done with Indian trading and Indian fighting. The fur trade
is dead in the Rocky Mountains, and it is no place for us now, if ever
it was. We are young yet, and have life before us. We cannot waste it
here; we cannot or will not return to the States. Let us go down to the
Wallamet and take farms. There is already quite a settlement there made
by the Methodist Mission and the Hudson's Bay Company's retired
servants.
"I have had some talk with the Americans who have gone down there, and
the talk is that the country is going to be settled up by our people,
and that the Hudson's Bay Company are not going to rule this country
much longer. What do you say, Meek? Shall we turn American settlers?"
"I'll go where you do, Newell. What suits you suits me."
"I thought you'd say so, and that's why I sent for you, Meek. In my way
of thinking, a white man is a little better than a Canadian Frenchman.
I'll be ---- if I'll hang 'round a post of the Hudson's Bay Company. So
you'll go?"
"I reckon I will! What have you got for me to do? _I_ haven't got
anything to begin with but a wife and baby!"
"Well, you can drive one of the wagons, and take your family and traps
along. Nicholas will drive the other, and I'll play leader, and look
after the train. Craig will go also, so we shall be quite a party, with
what strays we shall be sure to pick up."
Thus it was settled. Thus Oregon began to receive her first real
emigrants, who were neither fur-traders nor missionaries, but true
frontiersmen--border-men. The training which the mountain-men had
received in the service of the fur companies admirably fitted them to
be, what afterwards they became, a valuable and indispensable element in
the society of that country in whose peculiar history they played an
important part. But we must not anticipate their acts before we have
witnessed their gradual transformation from lawless rangers of the
wilderness, to law-abiding and even law-making and law-executing
citizens of an isolated territory.
In order to understand the condition of things in the Wallamet Valley,
or Lower Columbia country, it will be necessary to revert to the
earliest history of that territory, as sketched in the first chapter of
this book. A history of the fur companies is a history of Oregon up to
the year 1834, so far as the occupation of the country was concerned.
But its political history was begun long before--from the time (May
11th, 1792) when the captain of a New England coasting and fur-trading
vessel entered the great "River of the West," which nations had been
looking for a hundred years. At the very time when the inquisitive
Yankee was heading his little vessel through the white line of breakers
at the mouth of the long-sought river, a British exploring expedition
was scanning the shore between it and the Straits of Fuca, having wisely
declared its scientific opinion that there was no such river on that
coast. Vancouver, the chief of that expedition, so assured the Yankee
trader, whose views did not agree with his own: and, Yankee-like, the
trader turned back to satisfy himself.
A bold and lucky man was Captain Gray of the ship _Columbia_. No
explorer he--only an adventurous and, withal, a prudent trader, with an
eye to the main chance; emulous, too, perhaps, of a little glory! It is
impossible to conceive how he could have done this thing calmly. We
think his stout heart must have shivered somewhat, both with
anticipation and dread, as he ran for the "opening," and plunged into
the frightful tumult--straight through the proper channel, thank God!
and sailed out on to the bosom of that beautiful bay, twenty-five miles
by six, which the great river forms at its mouth.
We trust the morning was fine: for then Captain Gray must have beheld a
sight which a discoverer should remember for a lifetime. This
magnificent bay, surrounded by lofty hills, clad thick with noble
forests of fir, and fretted along its margin with spurs of the
highlands, forming other smaller bays and coves, into which ran streams
whose valleys were hidden among the hills. From beyond the farthest
point, whose dark ridge jutted across this inland sea, flowed down the
deep, broad river, whose course and origin was still a magnificent
mystery, but which indicated by its volume that it drained a mighty
region of probable great fertility and natural wealth. Perhaps Captain
Gray did not fully realize the importance of his discovery. If the day
was fine, with a blue sky, and the purple shadows lying in among the
hills, with smooth water before him and the foamy breakers behind--_if_
he felt what his discovery was, in point of importance, to the world, he
was a proud and happy man, and enjoyed the reward of his daring.
The only testimony on that head is the simple entry on his log-book,
telling us that he had named the river "_Columbia's River_,"--with an
apostrophe, that tiny point intimating much. This was one ground of the
American claim, though Vancouver, after Gray had reported his success to
him, sent a lieutenant to explore the river, and then claimed the
discovery for England! The next claim of the United States upon the
Oregon territory was by virtue of the Florida treaty and the Louisiana
purchase. These, and the general one of natural boundaries, England
contested also. Hence the treaty of joint occupancy for a term of ten
years, renewable, unless one of the parties to it gave a twelve-month's
notice of intention to withdraw. Meantime this question of territorial
claims hung over the national head like the sword suspended by a hair,
which statesmen delight in referring to. We did not dare to say Oregon
was ours, because we were afraid England would make war on us; and
England did not dare say Oregon was hers, for the same reason. Therefore
"joint-occupancy" was the polite word with which statesmen glossed over
the fact that Great Britain actually possessed the country through the
monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. That company had a good thing so
long as the government of Great Britain prevented any outbreak, by
simply renewing the treaty every ten years. Their manner of doing
business was such as to prevent any less powerful corporation from
interfering with them, while individual enterprise was sure to be
crushed at the start.
But "man proposes and God disposes." In 1834, the Methodist Episcopal
Board of Missions sent out four missionaries to labor among the Indians.
These were two preachers, the Rev. Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and two
lay members, Cyrus Shepard and P.L. Edwards. These gentlemen were
liberally furnished with all the necessaries and comforts of life by the
Board, in addition to which they received the kindest attentions and
consideration from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company at
Vancouver. Their vessel, the _May Dacre_, Captain Lambert, had arrived
safely in the river with the mission goods. The gentlemen at Vancouver
encouraged their enterprise, and advised them to settle in the Wallamet
valley, the most fertile tract of country west of the Rocky Mountains.
Being missionaries, nothing was to be feared from them in the way of
trade. The Wallamet valley was a good country for the mission--at the
same time it was south of the Columbia River. This latter consideration
was not an unimportant one with the Hudson's Bay Company, it being
understood among those in the confidence of the British government, that
in case the Oregon territory had to be divided with the United States,
the Columbia River would probably be made the northern boundary of the
American possessions.
There was nothing in the character of the Christian Missionary's labor
which the Hudson's Bay Company could possibly object to without a
palpable violation of the Convention of 1818. Therefore, although the
Methodist mission in the Wallamet Valley received a large accession to
its numbers in 1837, they were as kindly welcomed as had been those of
1834; and also those Presbyterian missionaries of 1836, who had settled
in the "upper country."
Three points, however, the Hudson's Bay Company insisted upon, so far
as, under the treaty, they could; the Americans must not trade with the
Indians, but confine themselves to agricultural pursuits and missionary
labor, and keep on the south side of the Columbia.
Not an immigrant entered Oregon in that day who did not proceed at once
to Vancouver: nor was there one who did not meet with the most liberal
and hospitable treatment. Neither was this hospitality a trifling
benefit; to the weary traveler just arrived from a long and most
fatiguing journey, it was extremely welcome and refreshing. At Vancouver
was the only society, and the only luxurious living to be enjoyed on the
whole Northwest coast.
At the head of the first was Dr. John McLaughlin, already mentioned as
the Chief Factor, and Deputy Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in
Oregon, and all the Northwest. He was of Scotch origin, and Canadian
birth, a gentleman bred, with a character of the highest integrity, to
which were united justice and humanity. His position as head of the
Hudson's Bay Company's affairs, was no enviable one during that period
of Oregon history which followed the advent of Americans in the Wallamet
Valley. Himself a British subject, and a representative of that powerful
corporation which bent the British Government to its will, he was bound
to execute its commands when they did not conflict too strongly with his
consciousness of right and justice.
As has been stated, the Methodist mission settlement was reinforced in
1837, by the arrival of about twenty persons, among whom were several
ladies, and a few children. These, like those preceding them, were first
entertained at Fort Vancouver before proceeding to the mission, which
was between fifty and sixty miles up the Wallamet, in the heart of that
delightful valley. These persons came by a sailing vessel around Cape
Horn, bringing with them supplies for the mission.
In the two following years there were about a dozen missionary arrivals
overland, all of whom tarried a short time at the American Company's
rendezvous, as before related. These were some of them designed for the
upper country, but most of them soon settled in the Wallamet valley.
During these years, between 1834 and 1840, there had drifted into the
valley various persons from California, the Rocky Mountains, and from
the vessels which sometimes appeared in the Columbia; until at the time
when Newell and Meek resolved to quit the mountains, the American
settlers numbered nearly one hundred, men, women, and children. Of
these, about thirty belonged to the missions; the remainder were
mountain-men, sailors, and adventurers. The mountain-men, most of them,
had native wives. Besides the Americans there were sixty Canadian
Frenchmen, who had been retired upon farms by the Hudson's Bay Company;
and who would probably have occupied these farms so long as the H.B.
Company should have continued to do business in Oregon.