Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/121

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70
SETTLEMENT OF OREGON.

date of this volume, whose names are not herein given. There was one in particular among Kelley's companions, Ewing Young, who remained, and of whom I shall have much to say. As previously shown, Wyeth's purpose was not settlement, but traffic; his occupation at Wapato Island was fishing and trade in furs with the natives. As this did not suit the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, who were strong in the land and desired the continuance of their monopoly, but who were without the political right to drive out the people of the United States while entertaining them hospitably, as a rule, at Fort Vancouver, they so circumscribed and defeated their business efforts in this quarter that Wyeth among others was finally forced to sell to them and retire from the field. With the subsequent affairs of this history the expeditions heretofore given have little to do, except in connection with those of their number who remained to settle.

As their terms of contract expired, the Hudson's Bay Company began to retire its servants, giving them choice lands not too far removed from its benign rule. This was the origin of the French Canadian settlements in the beautiful Valley Willamette.

    give the contents further circulation through their columns, to the promotion of individual happiness and the prosperity of the country. The settlers were to carry with them their own government, as it should be formulated for them by congress. Special attention should be paid to schools, morals, and religion. No drones or vicious persons should be accepted by the society, and all proposing to emigrate must bring certificates of good character. The society would supply most of the expenses of emigration, and on arrival the emigrant was to receive town lots and land worth from $2,000 to $10,000. The person proposing to emigrate must deposit twenty dollars with the society, and swear obedience to all just regulations which at first were to be military. The route should be from St Louis up the Platte, through South Pass, and down the Columbia, and the expedition should take its departure the last of March. The funds of the society were to consist of $200,000, subscribed stock, divided into shares of $100, each share entitling the holder to 160 acres of land, besides deposit money and such donations as should be obtained from public-spirited men and the governor. Ten years after Kelley had left Oregon, hoping yet to return and realize his dreams of establishing upon the shores of the Pacific a virgin state which should grow into an empire in the progress of time and events, most of the formative ideas set forth in his circular were actually being carried out by emigrants from the United States.