USA > Idaho > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 8
USA > Oregon > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 8
USA > Washington > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 8
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Spain had reserved, thus cutting the United States off from any sea-coast on the Pacific.
So strong were the claims of each party that they found it impossible to settle the question ; hence in 1818, soon after the United States had bought from Spain, Florida and her other rights, a treaty was made between Great Britain and the United States, by which joint occupancy was allowed for a period of ten years. In 1828 this was renewed for an indefinite period, to be terminated by either party on giving twelve months' notice. Various attempts were made to come to some agreement, but none were success- ful until 1846. Previous to that time each party had given up some of its claims. The United States were willing that the forty-ninth parallel of latitude to the ocean should be the dividing line, and Great Britain had become willing to follow the same line to the north-eastern branch of the Columbia, and thence down that river to the ocean.
Probably neither party was entirely free from wrong. By arbitration the line was at last set- tled where it now is, and we are not disposed to question the justice of that decision. If this is right, then the claims of the United States north of it were wrong, and the attempts of Great Britain to keep that portion of the coun- try were right. Likewise the claims of the lat-
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ter nation south of that line were wrong, and the efforts of the United States and her citizens to keep that part of the country were right. Let us now follow these latter claims of Great Brit- ain, and the opposing efforts of the United States, to their final settlement, as missionary work had much to do in regard to the question.
The second period, that of joint occupancy, as far as the United States were concerned, fairly began with the treaty of 1818, but this could not last always. The United States was not disposed to press what she considered her rights too far, for fear that Great Britain would resist with war, and for a similar reason Great Britain did not dare to press too far what she claimed as her rights. Thus each nation was disposed to recognize in a measure the claim of the other, although there were prominent indi- viduals in each nation who did not do so, as Senator Benton, who said : "The claims of Great Britain are nothing but a naked preten- sion founded on the double purpose of benefit- ing herself and injuring the United States ; while Murray, an Englishman, in his British America (vol. 3, p. 93), said: "The Americans have no right whatever to the region northward of the Columbia River." Hence both nations were waiting for something to "turn up" to settle the matter.
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And something did "turn up" on the Pacific coast, at first in a business way, having refer- ence mainly to individual and company inter- ests, but which after a time took on a national character.
In March, 1811, the Pacific Fur Company, with John Jacob Astor at its head, made the first permanent settlement in the country by building Astoria, for although in 1808 the Mis- souri Fur Company had built a post on the headwaters of Snake River, yet it was aban- doned in 1810. In May, 1813, the North-west- ern Fur Company entered, but finding the mouth of the Columbia occupied, they went up the river, and built Fort Okinagan. Owing to the war of 1812 with England, Astoria was sold to the North-western Fur Company in October, 1813, and the Americans retired, not soon again to obtain a foothold as traders or settlers.
The Hudson's Bay Company were at that time trading mainly in the country bordering on the waters which flow into Hudson's Straits. The North-western Company were also in the same country as well as on the Pacific coast, and there were continual feuds and quarrels between them, which at last resulted in such bloody battles that the British Government interfered, and in 1821, by act of Parliament, consolidated the two companies under the name of the Hudson's
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Bay Company, the Pacific coast being at the same time added to their territory.
When that company began trading on the Pacific coast, they did what any other powerful company would probably have done, either American, British, or of another nation ; they tried to keep all other fur traders out of the country, and were successful.
About 1824 or 1825 the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, composed of Americans, crossed the Rocky Mountains and trapped on the head- waters of Snake River, and in 1827 they de- termined to push the enterprise to the Pacific coast. J. Smith, one of the partners, led a party, by way of Santa Fe, to the Bay of San Francisco. From thence they proceeded north- ward along the coast, with the intention of reaching the Columbia River, but they were attacked by the Shasta Indians in the Umpqua valley, all but four of the party being killed and twenty thousand dollars' worth of furs lost.
In 1832 Captain Bonneville led an expedi- tion of one hundred men into the trapping grounds of the Rocky Mountains, where they remained nearly three years; but he made noth- ing and retired.
The same year Mr. Nathaniel Wyeth came overland with a company to establish a salmon cannery at the mouth of the Columbia, but the
On the Pacific Coast. 153
vessel which he had sent around with his goods was wrecked, and he returned East. Two years later he again came, having sent another vessel around Cape Horn, but for various reasons he found the business unprofitable, and sold out to the Hudson's Bay Company, satisfied that no company less powerful could long sustain itself. Other companies and expe- ditions, eleven of which are enumerated in Gray's History of Oregon, also made the at- tempt to trade in the country, but all failed, and with them ended American efforts to trade with the Indians on the north-west coast.
The few attempts to settle the country, which were made by the Americans, were equally disastrous.
President Jefferson, who sent Lewis and Clarke across the continent in 1804, accounted the establishment of American settlements as of great national importance. As early as 1817 Hall J. Kelly, of Boston, conceived the idea of colonizing Oregon, and after years of labor « succeeded in obtaining from the Legislature of Massachusetts an act incorporating the " Amer- ican Society for encouraging settlement in the
Oregon Territory." Both British and Ameri- can Fur Companies, however, discouraged at- tempts to settle the country; and although two young men were sent across the country, and
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Mr. Kelly attempted to load a ship to come by water, this enterprise also failed because of the inaction of the general Government, and for the causes from which Captain Wyeth was unsuc- cessful. He then endeavored to open a trade between Mexico and Oregon, but in Mexico he lost nearly all his goods by the revenue officers, so that when he reached Oregon, he had so little left that he soon after retired, having lost a fortune of more than thirty thousand dollars.
The Hudson's Bay Company thus remained in actual possession. At first they evidently attempted, from business motives and in order to prevent competition and make money, to keep other companies out. As long as joint occupancy was likely to be the rule they were satisfied, for they had made it to mean occu- pancy by the Hudson's Bay Company. But they knew that this state of matters could not always last, and that one nation or the other would finally possess the country; hence, from a mere business point of view, even if they had no patriotic views in favor of their own govern- * ment, it was natural they should desire that Great Britain should own the country.
They, therefore, began to work for this end. One way to secure it was to represent the country as of but little value, and a wagon road
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to it from the East an impossibility. This was done in order that when the matter should come to be finally settled by treaty the United States might be led to care but little for the country.
That the country was valuable, not only as a fur-producing country, but also in mineral, agricultural and other resources, the Hud- son's Bay Company was well aware at an early day; nevertheless it sought to suppress information on these points. Says Rev. C. Eells, in a letter dated May 28, 1866 : " If I re- member correctly, I had not been long in this country before the statement was made that gold had been found on the Columbia River, taken to England, made into a watch seal, brought back here, and worn by a gentleman connected with the Hudson's Bay Company. In the autumn or early winter of 1843, a German botanist was traveling with em- ployees of the Hudson's Bay Company, and hav- ing had some knowledge of mining operations in Germany, he expressed to his fellow travel- ers the opinion that precious metals existed in a designated locality. He was particularly in- terrogated as to the reasons for such an opinion, and when they were satisfied that it was an in- telligent conclusion, they replied : ‘We know such to be the case from actual observation.'
" But while the resources of the country were
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measurably appreciated, special effort was made to produce the impression that the country was of small value, and that much of it was worth- less. In entire accordance with such repre- sentations, Chief Factor A. McDonald express- ed himself distinctly and fully to me. He also gave it as his opinion, that if England should obtain the desired portion of Oregon (then in- cluding Washington Territory), it would be made over to the Hudson's Bay Company."
In 1839 Rev. J. S. Griffin and his missionary associates traveled from the western frontier to Fort Hall with wagons. They were told by agents of the Hudson's Bay Company that it was impracticable, if not impossible, to take their wagons to Walla Walla. Consequently teams and wagons were exchanged for pack animals and fixtures. In 1840 Rev. H. Clarke and other missionary laborers performed the same journey in like manner. At Fort Hall [in Eastern Idaho] they were induced to leave their wagons.
In 1842 the same misrepresentations were again successful with a small company of emi- grants, led by Dr. E. White; and in 1843 it was tried again, as we shall afterwards see, with the emigration which was led by Dr. Whitman. Before Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding crossed the mountains in 1836, the Hudson's Bay Com-
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pany had said that neither wagons or women could cross the Rocky Mountains.
Mr. John Dunn wrote a work on the Oregon Territory, about 1843 or 1844. He was for eight years a resident of the country, in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company; first for a year as assistant store-keeper at Vancouver, and then as trader and interpreter on the whole north-west coast ; and, after that, he was in charge of Fort George, at Astoria.
In his preface he says: "On my return [to England], although I was, from my knowledge of those Americans that traded on the coast. or had squatted in the south-west part of Ore- gon, or have lately been employed by the com- pany as trappers, prepared to hear any mon- strous assumption of right set forth by the American populace, I did not expect that the respectable portion of the press, much less their functionaries or ministers of state, even up to the President, would echo the opinion of the rabble that controls the Legislature. But, to my surprise, I found that the subject was viewed by them through democratic spectacles. Hence, I imagined that a true and dispassionate account of the whole country would tend to place the whole question on its proper basis."
In giving this true and dispassionate account
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he says : " As a whole, the country is not favor- able to agriculture, though there are many fer- tile districts in it. It is, in a word, chiefly val- uable for trade." The Americans know that it is a highway to China, " hence their extraordi- nary anxiety and exertions to effect a lodgment there. Hence, too, their exaggerated claims, their misrepresentations, contemptible bluster and impotent menaces, though they know it is valuable mainly for trade." Again. "Although . several parties have penetrated into the Ore- gon Territory, from the United States, through the gorge, and over the towering heights of the Rocky Mountains, yet it may be safely asserted from the concurrent testimony of traders, trap- pers, and settlers, who have themselves passed these natural barriers, that the difficulties are so numerous and formidable, and the time nec- essary for the passage so long, that there is no secure, expeditious, or commodious track, which can ever be used as a highway, so as to afford facilities for an influx of emigrants overland.
"None but the wild and fearless free-trappers can clamber over these precipices, and tread these deserts with security. It is true there have been published more favorable accounts, within the last year or two, by parties who have made the journey safely, and who encour- age others to make a similar experiment, but
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these accounts are mere bravado." And after these remarks he gives a terrible description of that portion of the country.
The Edinburgh Review for 1843 also says : "However the political question between Eng- land and the United States, as to the owner- ship of Oregon, may be decided, Oregon will never be colonized overland from the United States. The world must assume a new phase before the American wagons will make plain the road to the Columbia, as they have done to the Ohio."
Although as a general thing the English were inclined to acknowledge the rights of the United States south of the Columbia, yet ef- forts were made to obtain even that. As early as 1828 they took possession of the Willamette Falls, at Oregon City, with a view, as Sir George Simpson, their Governor-General, said, to the establishment of a British colony of their retired servants in the valley above, and this colony was settled about Champoeg or French Prairie. He also said, in 1841-2, that the col- onists in the Willamette valley were British subjects, and that the English had no rivals but the Russians; that "the United States will never possess more than a nominal jurisdiction, nor long possess even that on the west side of the Rocky Mountains; and supposing the coun-
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try to be divided to-morrow, to the entire satis- faction of the most unscrupulous patriot in the Union, I challenge conquest to bring my pre- diction and its own power to the test, by im- posing the Atlantic tariff on the ports of the Pacific."
Chief Factor McDonald also said to Mr Eells, in 1842, that in fifty years the whole country would be filled with the descendants of the Hudson's Bay Company. Dr. John McLaugh- lin, the Superintendent of the Company in Ore- gon from 1824, was generally kind to the Americans, and did much to assist the poor emigrants of 1842, 1843, and 1844, by loaning them seed, and furnishing them with provisions. For this, in 1844, he was called to account by the Directors of the Company, who insisted upon the enforcement of their stringent rule, to starve or drive every American from the country. But his heart was too tender for this, to see human beings, even if they were Amer- icans, starving when he had under his control the means to help them, and so he resigned, telling them: "If such is your order, gentlemen, I will serve you no longer."
Probably Americans, if they had been in the same circumstances, would have done the same thing. In, fact the commission which finally settled the boundary, and condemned Great
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Britain for claiming the country south of the present line, also condemned the Americans for claiming as far north as " fifty-four degrees, forty minutes, or fight." Still the passages quoted in regard to the value of the country, and the difficulty of crossing the continent, seem strange in the light of later years.
Thus it will be seen that the English had possession of the country as traders and as settlers, and by these representations were en- deavoring to obtain it by treaty. This was the result of joint occupancy, when, in 1834, a new element arrived-the missionaries. When an old trapper saw Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding on their way across the mountains in 1836, he said: " There is something which the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company cannot drive out of the country, " and his words were prophetic.
The missionaries did not come to the coun- try to save it from falling into the hands of Great Britain. They had higher motives; love to God, and to savages with immortal souls. They were not, however, devoid of another vir- tue, which perhaps comes next to this-love of country. When they were in Oregon, they, as intelligent persons, could not help learning something of the value of the country, nor some of the efforts which were being made by the
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Hudson's Bay Company to obtain it, and as patriotic men it was not strange that some of them should have strong feeling on the subject, and endeavor to counteract these efforts, espe- cially when they believed it could be done, while at the same time their reputation for truth should not suffer.
Some statements made by Chief Factor Mc- Donald to Rev. C. Eells have already been quoted. Mr. Eells also wrote : "In 1842, if I mistake not, the same gentleman asked me who, fifty years hence, would probably com- pose the inhabitants of this country ? He an- swered the question himself, by saying sub- stantially, 'The descendants of the Hudson's Bay Company.' Dr. Whitman said, with ref- erence to the same class of persons (of mixed blood), 'fifty years hence they will not be found.' In those early days Dr. Whit- man made in my hearing the following state- ment : 'There is no doubt that this country abounds in precious metals.' . . He under- stood, with a good degree of correctness, appa- rently, that it was the plan of the Hudson's Bay Company to secure the country to the English Government. Undoubtedly he felt strongly with reference to this subject. At that time his missionary associates judged that he was disturbed to an unwarrantable degree.
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The result has furnished accumulative evidence that there was sufficient reason for determined earnestness on his part. An unyielding pur- pose was formed by Dr. Whitman to go east. The mission was called together to consider whether or not its approval could be given to the proposed undertaking. Mr. Walker and myself were decidedly opposed, and we yielded only when it became evident that he would go, even if he had to become disconnected with the mission in order to do so."
According to a later statement of Mr. Eells, the call for this meeting was received at his station in September, 1842, with a statement of the proposed business. Promptly Mr. Walker and himself reported themselves at Dr. Whit- man's station, and there were also present Rev. H. H. Spalding, Mr. W. H. Gray, and Dr. Whitman, all the male members of the mission. " After an extended discussion, it was voted unanimously that Dr. Whitman have the ap- proval of the mission to attempt to make the journey as hereinbefore indicated. The con- trolling object was to make a desperate effort to save the country to the United States. It was also expected that the opportunity would be improved for the transaction of business re- lating to the mission. The fifth day of the fol- lowing October was set as the day on which
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Dr. Whitman would start. Letters were to be prepared and forwarded accordingly. Probably events transpiring in the intervening time has- tened his departure, so that he left on the third of October."
Let us now turn and see what these events probably were. It has been seen that up to 1834 all efforts for colonizing the country, or trading in it, by the Americans, had failed, and that the Hudson's Bay Company were mon- archs of all they surveyed. At that time the Methodists began their mission in the Willa- mette valley. The policy of this mission was somewhat different from that of the American Board, in that it used far more lay members. By May, 1840, when their last reinforcement arrived, twenty-six male workers had come to the country, of whom only nine were clergy- men, the rest being farmers, mechanics, physi- cians, and the like, and the whole number con- nected with the mission, including women and children, was about seventy-five. This was quite a settlement of Americans, and numbered more than all other American efforts combined had been able to gather. There were also a number of American free trappers and adven- turers, who had settled in the valley, and who, although they by no means agreed with the members of the mission on religious points, yet
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did politically combine with them as a nucleus, and thus the Americans outnumbered the Brit- ish settlers.
Here, then, was an entering wedge which the Hudson's Bay Company could not get rid of in any reasonable way. The members of the mission had not come to trade for furs, nor with the primary object of making a settlement, but to teach the Indians. The Company understood the dilemma in which they were placed-either to let a settlement of Americans remain, or in some way drive out a band of missionaries. It was discussed at their forts. They saw, says Mr. Dunn, that the mission, as far as the Indi- ans were concerned, was likely to prove a fail- ure, for they were fast disappearing, and that the result would be an American settlement. There were two parties at the forts, one of which thought that they ought to get rid of the Americans in some way, but the other, which was by far in the majority, knew that this could not be done so easily as it had been done in the case of rival fur companies, for the Americans had as good a right to remain, ac- cording to the treaty, as the British, and there was no reason to be given, which would look well, for driving out missionaries. Mr. Dunn, as a Protestant, thought that the English So- cieties ought to send missionaries to these In-
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dians, and were to blame for neglecting them, but the Company knew that it would be as useless for English missionaries to enter the Willamette valley to labor for the Indians as it had been for the Methodists.
One way remained. It was to bring an emi- gration of British subjects to the country, and so outnumber the Americans. Both parties now began to see plainly that without actual occu- pation, the claims of neither nation amounted to much. To plant "thirty thousand rifles in the Valley of the Columbia " had long been ad- vocated by Senator Benton, of Missouri, and a few others, as the surest ground of title. On the other hand, as late as 1844, an able writer in the North British Review earnestly called the attention of his countrymen to the impera- tive necessity of prompt organized efforts to colonize Oregon, and thus secure the title to the country; and he claimed that even then there was time, and only time, for the necessary action.
But previous to that time, in order as quickly ' as possible to counteract the settlements of Americans already in the Willamette, in 184I an emigration was brought through from the Red River settlement, north of Minnesota. This was done by direction of their Governor- General, Sir George Simpson. It numbered about one hundred and fifty persons.
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After Dr. Whitman had decided to go East, the immigration of 1842 arrived from the West- ern States. From it, and especially from Hon. A. L. Lovejoy, of that immigration, he learned that the United States was about to exchange Oregon, or a part of it, for a share in the cod- fisheries of New Foundland, because of repre- sentations made by the Hudson's Bay Company that the country was a barren waste. Know- ing the value of the country, Dr. Whitman went to Fort Walla Walla (now Wallula), to learn about the proposed trade. He was in- formed that this was the expectation, and was reminded of the Red River immigration of the year previous, as a witness to that expectation. He soon returned home, engaged Mr. Lovejoy to accompany him on his trip, who was also anxious to see the trade stopped, and they started October 3d, 1842. Dr. Whitman saw that one way to counteract this movement, if no better one should present itself, was to in- duce an immigration of Americans to come to the country, which should be so large that the Hudson's Bay Company would relinquish all efforts in that direction, when it should see its own immigration far outnumbered. He also purposed to attend to business connected with the mission, though this was a subordinate affair, and it alone would not have induced him to go east.
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