OREGON.

OREGON is one of the Pacific states. The name, Oregon, is from Oregano, the Spanish word for wild marjoram; and it is from this word, or some other

similar, that its name is supposed to have arisen. "But little was known of even its coast up to the latter part of the last century. Immediately after the last voyage of the renowned navigator, Capt. Cook, the immense quantities of sea-otter, beaver and other valuable furs to be obtained on the north-west coast of America, and the enormous prices which they would bring in China, was communicated to civilized nations, and created as much excitement as the discovery of a new gold region. Multitudes of people rushed at once into this lucrative traffic: so that in the year 1792, it is said that there were twenty-one vessels under different flags, but principally American, plying along the coast of Oregon, and trading with the natives. On the 7th of May, 1792, Capt. Robert Gray, of the ship Columbia, of Boston, discovered and entered the river, which he named from his vessel. He was, in reality, the first person who established the fact of the existence of this great river, and this gave to the United States the right to the country drained by its waters by the virtue of discovery. In 1804-'5, Lewis and Clark explored the country, from the mouth of the Missouri to that of the Columbia. This exploration of the Columbia, the first ever made, constituted another ground of the claim of the United States to the country.

ARMS OF OREGON,

In 1808, the Missouri Fur Company, through their agent, Mr. Henry, established a trading-post on Lewis River, a branch of the Columbia, which was the first establishment of civilized people in this section of country.. An attempt was made that year, by Capt. Smith, of the Albatross, of Boston, to found a trading-post on the south bank of the Columbia, forty miles

from its mouth. It was abandoned the same season, and that of Mr. Henry in 1810.

In the year 1810, John Jacob Astor, a German merchant of New York, who had accumulated an immense fortune by commerce in the Pacific and China, formed the Pacific Fur Company. His first objects were to concentrate in the company, the fur trade in the unsettled parts of America, and also the supply of merchandise for the Russian fur-trading establishments in the North Pacific. For these purposes, posts were established on the Missouri, and the Columbia, and vicinity. These posts were to be supplied with the merchandise required for trading by ships from the Atlantic coast, or across the country by way of the Missouri. A factory or depot was to be founded on the Pacific, for receiving this merchandise, and distributing it to the different posts, and for receiving in turn furs from them, which were to be sent by ships from thence to Canton. Vessels were also to be sent from the United States to the factory with merchandise, to be traded for furs, which would then be sent to Canton, and there exchanged for teas, silks, etc., to be ir turn distributed in Europe and America.

This stupendous enterprise at the time appeared practicable. The only party from whom any rivalry could be expected, was the British North-west Company, and their means were far inferior to those of Astor. From motives of policy, he offered them one third interest, which they declined, secretly intending to forestall him. Having matured his scheme, Mr. Astor engaged partners, clerks, and voyageurs, the majority of whom were Scotchmen and Canadians, previously in the service of the North-west Company. Wilson P. Hunt, of New Jersey, was chosen the chief agent of the operations in western America.

In September, 1810, the ship Tonquin, Capt. Thorn, left New York for the mouth of the Columbia, with four of the partners, M'Kay, M'Dougal, and David and Robert Stuart, all British subjects, with clerks, voyageurs, and mechanics. In January, 1811, the second detachment, with Hunt, M'Clellan, M'Kenzie, and Crooks, also left New York to go overland by the Missouri to the same point, and in October, 1811, the ship Beaver, Capt. Sowles, with several clerks and attaches, left New York for the North Pacific. Prior to these, in 1809, Mr. Astor had dispatched the Enterprise, Capt. Ebberts, to make observations at the Russian settlements, and to prepare the way for settlements in Oregon. He also, in 1811, sent an agent to St. Petersburg, who obtained from the Russian American Fur Company, the monopoly of supplying their posts in the North Pacific with merchandise, and receiving furs in exchange.

In March, 1811, the Tonquin arrived at the Columbia, and soon after they commenced erecting on the south bank, a few miles inland, their factory or depot building this place they named Astoria. In June, the Tonquin, with M'Kay sailed north to make arrangements for trading with the Russians. In July, the Astorians were surprised by the appearance of a party of the North-west Compa ny, under Mr. Thompson, who had come overland from Canada, to forestall them in the occupation of the mouth of the Columbia; but had been delayed too lat for this purpose, in seeking a passage through the Rocky Mountains, and had beer obliged to winter there. Mr. Thompson was accompanied on his return by David Stuart, who founded the trading post called Okonogan.

In the beginning of the next year (1812), the detachment of Hunt came into Astoria, in parties, and in a wretched condition. They had been over a year in coming from St. Louis; had undergone extreme suffering from hunger, thirst, and cold, in their wanderings that winter, through the dreary wilderness of snow-clad mountains, from which, and other causes, numbers of them perished. In May, 1812, the Beaver, bringing the third detachment, under Mr. Clark, arrived in Astoria. They brought a letter which had been left at the Sandwich Islands by Capt. Ebberts, of the Enterprise, containing the sad intelligence that the Tonquin and her crew had been destroyed by the savages, near the Straits of Fuca, the June preceding.

In August, Mr. Hunt, leaving Astoria in the charge of M'Dougal, embarked in the Beaver to trade with the Russian posts, which was to have been done by the Tonquin. He was successful, and effected a highly advantageous arrangement at Sitka, with Baranof, governor of Russian America; took in a rich cargo of furs,

and dispatched the vessel to Canton, via the Sandwich Islands, where he, in person, remained, and in 1814, he returned to Astoria in the Peddler, which he had chartered, and found that Astoria was in the hands of the North-west Company.

When Hunt left in the Beaver, a party was dispatched, which established a trading post on the Spokan. Messrs. Crooks, M'Cellan, and Robert Stuart about this time, set out and crossed overland to New York, with an account of what had been done. The trade was in the meantime very prosperous, and a large quantity of furs had been collected at Astoria,

In January, 1813, the Astorians learned from a trading vessel that a war had broken out with England. A short time after, M'Tavish and Laroque, partners of the North-west Company, arrived at Astoria; M'Dougal and M'Kenzie (both Scotchmen) were the only partners there, and they unwisely agreed to dissolve the company in July. Messrs. Stuart and Clark, at the Okonogan and Spokan posts, both of which are within the limits of Washington Territory, opposed this; but it was finally agreed that if assistance did not soon arrive from the United States, they would abandon the enterprise.

M'Tavish and his followers, of the North-west Company, again visited Astoria, where they expected to meet the Isaac Todd, an armed ship from London, which had orders to take and destroy everything American on the north-west coast.' Notwithstanding, they were hospitably received, and held private conferences with M'Dougal and M'Kenzie, the result of which was, that they sold out the establishment, furs, etc., of the Pacific Company in the country, to the North-west Company, for about $58,004. That company were thus enabled to establish themselves in the country.

Thus ended the Astoria enterprise. Had the directing partners on the Columbia been Americans instead of foreigners, it is believed that they would, notwithstanding the war, have withstood all their difficulties. The sale was considered disgraceful, and the conduct of M'Dougal and M'Kenzie in that sale and subsequently, were such as to authorize suspicions against their motives; yet they could not have been expected to engage in hostilities against their countrymen and old friends.

The name of Astoria was changed by the British to that of Fort George. From 1813 to 1823, few, if any, American citizens entered the countries west of the Rocky Mountains. Nearly all the trade of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri, was carried on by the Old North American Fur Company, of which Astor was the head; and by the Columbian Fur Company, formed in 1822, composed mainly of persons who had been in the service of the North-west Company, and were dissatisfied with it. The Columbia Company established posts on the upper waters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Yellow Stone, which were transferred, in 1826, to the North American Company, on the junction of the two bodies. About this time, the overland trade with Santa Fe commenced, caravans passing regularly every summer between St. Louis and that place. In 1824, Ashley, of St. Louis, re-established commercial communications with the country west of the Rocky Mountains, and built a trading post on Ashley's Lake, in Utah.

These active proceedings of the Missouri fur traders, stimulated the North American Fur Company to send their agents and attaches beyond the Rocky Mountains, although they built no posts. In 1827, Mr. Pilcher, of Missouri, went through the South Pass with forty-five men, and wintered on the head-waters of the Colorado, in what is now the north-east part of Utah. The next year he proceeded northwardly, along the base of the Rocky Mountains, to near latitude 47 deg. There he remained until the spring of 1829, when he descended Clark River to Fort Colville, then recently established at the falls, by the Hudson's Bay Company, which had a few years previous absorbed and united the interests of the North-west Company. He returned to the United States, through the long and circuitous far northward route of the Upper Columbia, the Athabasca, the Assinaboin, Red River, and the Upper Missouri. But little was known of the countries through which Pilcher traversed, previous to the publication of his concise narrative. The account of the rambles of J. O. Pattie, a Missouri fur trader, through New Mexico, Chihuahua, Sonora, and California, threw some light on the geogra phy of those countries. In 1832, Capt. Bonneville, U.S.A., while on a furlough,

led a party of one hundred men from Missouri, over the mountains, where he passed more than two years on the Columbia and Colorado, in hunting, trapping, and trading.

About the same time, Captain Wyeth, of Massachusetts, attempted to establish commercial relations with the countries on the Columbia, to which the name of Oregon then began to be universally applied. His plan was like that of Astor, with the additional scheme of transporting the salmon of the Oregon rivers to the United States. He made two overland expeditions to Oregon, established Fort Hall as a trading post, and another mainly for fishing purposes, near the mouth of the Willamette. This scheme failed, owing to the rivalry of the Hudson's Bay Company, who founded the counter establishment of Fort Boise, where, offering goods to the Indians at lower prices than Wyeth could afford, compelled him to desist, and he sold out his interests to them. Meanwhile, a brig he had dispatched from Boston, arrived in the Columbia, and returned with a cargo of salted salmon, but the results not being auspicious, the enterprise was abandoned.

The American traders being excluded by these, and other means from Oregon, mainly confined themselves to the regions of the head waters of the Colorado and the Utah Lake, where they formed one or two small establishments, and sometimes extended their rambles as far west as San Francisco and Monterey. The number of American hunters and trappers thus employed west of the Rocky Mountains, seldom exceeded two hundred; where, during the greater part of the year, they roved through the wilds in search of furs which they conveyed to their places of rendezvous in the mountain valleys, and bartered with them to the Missouri traders.

About the time of Wyeth's expeditions, were the earliest emigrations to Oregon of settlers from the United States. The first of these was founded in 1834, in the Willamette Valley, by a body of Methodists who went round by sea under the direction of the Rev. Messrs. Lee and Shepherd. In that valley a few retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company were then residing, and engaged in herding cattle. The Congregationalists or Presbyterians planted colonies two or three years after, in the Walla-walla and Spokan countries, with Messrs. Parker, Spaulding, Gray, Walker, Eels, Smith, and Whitman as missionaries.

In all of these places mission schools were established for the instruction of the natives, and in 1839, a printing press was started at Walla-walla (now in Washington Territory), where were printed the first sheets ever struck off, on the Pacific side of the mountains, north of Mexico. On it books were printed from types set by native compositors. The Roman Catholics from Missouri, soon after founded stations on Clark River.

About the year 1837, the American people began to be deeply interested in the subject of the claims of the United States to Oregon, and societies were formed for emigration. From them and other sources, petitions were presented to congress, to either make a definite arrangement with Great Britain, the other claimant, or take immediate possession of the country. In each year, from 1838 to 1843, small parties emigrated overland from Missouri to Oregon, suffering much hardship on the route. At the close of 1842, the American citizens there numbered about four hundred. Relying upon the promise of protection held out by the passage of the bill in February, 1843, by the U. S. senate for the immediate occupation of Oregon, about one thousand emigrants, men, women, and children, assembled at Westport, on the Missouri frontier, in the succeeding June, and followed the route up the Platte, and through the South Pass, surveyed the previous year by Fremont; thence by Fort Hall to the Willamette Valley, where they arrived in October, after a laborious and fatiguing journey of more than two thousand miles. Others soon followed, and before the close of the next year, over 3,000 American citizens were in Oregon.

By the treaty for the purchase of Florida, in 1819, the boundary between the Spanish possessions and the United States was fixed on the N. W., at lat. 42 degs., the present northern line of Utah and California; by this the United States succeeded to such title to Oregon as Spain may have derived by the right of discovery through its early navigators. In June, of 1846, all the difficulties in relation to Oregon, which at one time threatened war, were settled by treaty between the two

nations. In 1841, the coast of Oregon was visited by the ships of the United States Exploring Expedition, under Lieut. Charles Wilkes. At that time, Wilkes estimated the population to be: of Indians, 19,199; Canadians and half-breeds, 650; and the citizens of the United States, 150. The Hudson's Bay Company then had twenty-five forts and trading stations in Oregon."

Oregon was organized as a territory in 1848, and included in its boundaries the present Territory of Washington-an immense area of about 250,000 square miles, with an average width east and west of 540, and north and south of 470 miles. A state constitution was adopted in convention, Sept. 18, 1857, and ratified by the people on the 9th of November following. At the same time the question of admitting slaves and free negroes into the state was submitted to the people. The vote on these questions was: for slavery, 2,645; against slavery, 7,727; majority against, 5,082; for free negroes, 1,081; against free negroes, 8,640; majority against, 7,559. The constitution prohibited negroes, Chinamen, and mulattoes from voting; and persons concerned in dueling ineligible to offices of trust and profit. On the 14th of Feb., 1859, Oregon was admitted by congress as a state, and with greatly contracted boundaries. Its extreme extent in latitude is from 42° to 46° 12′ N., in longitude from 116° 45' to 124° 30′ W. from Greenwich. It has an average length, east and west, of about 350, and width, north and outh, of 260 miles giving an area of about 90,000 square miles. The act -f admission gives two sections of land in every township for the use of schools, grants 72 sections for a state university, and five per cent. of the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands for public roads and internal improvements within the state.

Oregon is bounded, north by Washington Territory, east by Idaho Territory, south by California and Nevada, and west by the Pacific Ocean. It is divided into three section. The first, or western section is that between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade range of mountains. This range runs parallel with the sea coast the whole length of the state, and is continued through California, under the name of the Sierra Nevada. The second, or middle section, is that between the Cascade and Blue Mountains: it comprises nearly half the state the surface is about 1,000 feet above the western section. It is generally a high rolling prairie country, destitute of timber, and but a small part of it adapted to farming. The third, or eastern section, lies south and east of the Blue Mountains: it is mostly a rocky and barren waste. Columbia is the great river of the state, nearly all others being its tributaries. It is navigable from the ocean 120 miles, for vessels of 12 feet draught: from thence its course is obstructed by falls and rapids, which will eventually be overcome by locks and canals. During freshets, it is in many places confined by dalles, i. e. narrows, which back the water, covering the islands and tracts of low prairie, giving the appearance of lakes. The Dalles of the Columbia, 94 miles below the mouth of Lewis Fork, is a noted place, where the river passes between vast masses of rock.

The

The settled part of Oregon, and the only portion likely to possess much interest for years to come, is the first or western section, lying between the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific-a strip of country 280 long, north and south, and 120 miles broad, east and west. A writer familiar with it gives this description:

Western Oregon, between the Cascades and the Pacific, is made up chiefly of three valleys, those of the Willamette (pronounced Wil-lam'-ette), Umpqua and Rogue Rivers. The first named stream begins in the Cascade Mountains, runs west 60 miles, then turns northward, runs 140 miles, and empties into the Colum