veyed his claim and offered lots for sale. The pot began to boil.
"What right has Dr. McLoughlin to this town-site?" asked the jealous immigrants. "He is head of a foreign monopoly and he doesn't live here. There is no question that he is holding this town-site and waterpower for the Hudson's Bay Company."
"Fur that matter," chimed in a mountaineer, "ther ain't a town-site er water-power in all the valley wher the company ain't built a shed an' sent a man to hold it daown."
"Yes, and if they dared they would set up a great 'No thoroughfare' board to keep us immigrants out," added another. "Were it not for that Joint Occupancy Treaty, a settler would have no more right to enter Oregon than to trespass on the lawn of a private gentleman in Middlesex, England. The company designs to hold Oregon, as it holds all British North America, like a vast estate, exclusively in the interests of the fur trade."
"Don't be too hard on the company," suggested one of the more conservative. "We live here under its protection and in comfort."
"We live here! "exclaimed a tall, gaunt man astride the counter. "Yes, as the lamb lives with the lion, to be swallered up. Under their protection? Yes, because our own country refuses to give it. Like a great octopus the Hudson's Bay Company has us in its claws. No private trader has ever ben able to compete with this 'ere monopoly. They claim every fish in the stream, every beaver in the dam. Look at Wyeth, Bonneville, and the trappers that venture to cross the Rockies defeated every time."
"I move that we draw up a petition to Congress to
