A History of Oregon, 1792-1849. Gray William Henry

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СКАЧАТЬ This fact, with the malicious reports circulated about him, made him an object of suspicion and contempt on the part of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the mission. We find that Mr. Lee treated Mr. Young as an honest man, and, consequently, fell under the displeasure of Dr. McLaughlin and the Hudson’s Bay Company. With Mr. Young, Mr. Lee succeeded in getting up the first cattle company, and gave the first blow toward breaking up the despotism and power of the company. Mr. Young, as Mr. Lee informed us, was the only man in the country he could rely upon, in carrying out his plan to supply the settlement with cattle. He was aware of the stories in circulation about him, and of the want of confidence in him in the mission and among the French-Canadians and Hudson’s Bay Company. To obviate this difficulty, he suggested that Mr. P. L. Edwards, a member of the mission, should go as treasurer of the company, and Mr. Young as captain. This brought harmony into the arrangement, and a ready subscription to the stock of the Wallamet Cattle Company, all being anxious to obtain cattle. But few of the settlers had any means at command. Many of the discharged servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company had credit on their books. There were outside men enough in the country willing to volunteer to go for the cattle, and receive their pay in cattle when they arrived with the band in Oregon. This brought the matter directly to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to Dr. McLaughlin. Rev. Jason Lee received the orders of the company’s servants, went to Vancouver, and learned from the clerks in the office the amounts due the drawers, then went to the Doctor, and insisted that certain amounts should be paid on those orders.

      The Doctor very reluctantly consented to allow the money or drafts to be paid. This amount, with all the mission and settlers could raise, would still have been too small to justify the party in starting, but W. A. Slacum, Esq., of the United States navy, being on a visit to the country, Mr. Lee stated the condition of matters to him. Mr. Slacum at once subscribed the requisite stock, and advanced all the money the mission wished on their stock, taking mission drafts on their Board, and gave a free passage to California for the whole party. (As the missionaries would say, “Bless God for brother Slacum’s providential arrival among us.”) Uncle Sam had the right man in the right place that time. It was but a little that he did; yet that little, what mighty results have grown out of it!

      On the 19th of January, 1837, six days after Mr. Young had given up his projected distillery, he is on board Mr. Slacum’s brig Lariat, lying off the mouth of the Wallamet River, and on his way to California with a company of stout-hearted men, eight (I think) in all, not to steal horses or cheat the miserable savages, and equally miserable settlers, out of their little productive labor, but to bring a band of cattle to benefit the whole country. In this connection, I could not do justice to all without quoting a paragraph which I find in Rev. G. Hines’ history of the Oregon missions. He says: —

      “Mr. Slacum’s vessel left the Columbia River about the first of February, and arrived safely in the bay of San Francisco, on the coast of California. The cattle company proceeded immediately to purchase a large band of cattle and a number of horses, with which they started for Oregon. In crossing a range of mountains (Rogue River Mountains), they were attacked by the rascally Indians, and a number of their cattle were killed, but they at length succeeded in driving back their foe and saving the remainder. Contrary to the predictions and wishes of the members of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who INDIRECTLY OPPOSED them at the outset, they arrived in safety in the Wallamet Valley with six hundred head of cattle, and distributed them among the settlers, according to the provisions of the compact. This successful enterprise, which laid the foundation for a rapid accumulation of wealth by the settlers, was mainly accomplished through the energy and perseverance of Rev. Jason Lee.”

      What good have the missionaries done in the country? I do not know how Mr. Hines arrived at the conclusion that the Hudson’s Bay Company “indirectly opposed” this cattle expedition. I know they did it directly, and it was only through the influence of Rev. J. Lee, and Mr. Slacum, of the United States navy, that they could have succeeded at all. Mr. Lee, in his conversation with Dr. McLaughlin, told that gentleman directly that it was of no use for the company to oppose the expedition any more; the party was made up, and the men were on the way, and the cattle would come as per engagement, unless the men were lost at sea. The Hudson’s Bay Company yielded the point only on the failure of the Rogue River Indians to destroy the expedition. Mr. Slacum placed it beyond their control to stop it. The courage of the men was superior to the company’s Indian allies. The cattle came, and no thanks to any of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s generosity, patronage, or power. They did all they dared to do, openly and secretly, to prevent the bringing of that band of cattle into the country; and, determining to monopolize the country as far as possible, they at once entered upon the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, under the auspices of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the English government.

      Do you ask me how I know these things? Simply by being at Vancouver the day the brig dropped down the Columbia River, and listening to the discussion excited on the subject, and to the proposition and plan of the Puget Sound Company among the gentlemen concerned in getting it up.

      The mission of the American Board had no stock in the cattle company of the Wallamet, not venturing to incur the displeasure of the Hudson’s Bay Company by expressing an opinion any way upon it. The writer was picking up items and preparing for a trip to New York overland, with one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s traders, Mr. Francis (or Frank) Ermatinger. While in New York, Cincinnati, and other places, he stated the fact that the Methodist missionaries had fallen under the displeasure of the Hudson’s Bay Company in entering too freely into trade and speculation in cattle in the country. Truth and justice to them require that I enter fully into their transactions as men and missionaries.

      Rev. J. Lee, it will be remembered, was the first man to answer the call of the Indian to come to his country. The Methodist Board had been formed, and J. Lee accepted their invitation and patronage. In this expedition he gathered his associates, and at the same time made arrangements for future supplies to arrive by sea, coming around Cape Horn. Captain Wyeth was in Boston, getting up a trading expedition, and chartering a vessel for the mouth of the Columbia River, the May Dacre. On board Captain Lambert’s brig Captain Wyeth and the Methodist Board shipped their goods for the two expeditions. The goods on the way, it became necessary for the future objects of the mission to have a few horses to carry on the improvements necessary to a civilized life. Lee and associates start across the continent. Missouri is the most western limit of civilization. They reach it, purchase their outfit, and, in company with Captain Wyeth, reach Fort Hall; here they fall in with Thomas McKay and our English nobleman, Captain Stewart. Captain Wyeth stopped to build his fort, while McKay, Stewart, Lee, Dr. Nutall, Townsend, and parties all made their way to Wallawalla, on the Columbia River. The supreme selfishness of the Hudson’s Bay Company seems here to begin to develop itself. Lee and party were made to believe that the Flathead tribe, who had sent their messengers for teachers, were not only a small, but a very distant tribe, and very disadvantageously situated for the establishment and support of a missionary among them. These statements determined them to proceed to the lower Columbia, to find a better location to commence operations. Leaving their horses at Wallawalla, in charge of one of their party, they proceeded down the Columbia in one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s boats, being eleven days in reaching the fort, and one hundred and fifty-two days on the way from Missouri. They were kindly received by the gentlemen of the fort, and in two days were on the hunt for a location.

      The party that arrived just two years later, with two ladies, were not allowed to leave the fort to look for locations till they had remained twelve days, and been invited to ride all over the farm, and visit the ships, and eat melons and apples (being always cautioned to save all the seeds for planting).

      Lee and party were frank to make known to the company their object, and plans of future operations. Questions of trade and morality were comparatively new with the company. As religious teachers and Christian men they had no suspicions of any interference in trade. Mr. Lee hailed from Canada, and so did Dr. McLaughlin and a large number of the servants of the company.

      “Mr. Lee is the man we want to instruct our retired servants in religious СКАЧАТЬ