316 ROBERT CARLTON CLARK
On the side of the inhabitants of the Willamette Valley, be- yond which the authority of the existing government could not be thought really to extend, there was a strong desire for an understanding with the Hudson's Bay Company that would secure its support. Those that thought of themselves as subjects of Great Britain were for the most part retired serv- ants of the Company and accustomed to look to it for direction. This is shown by the fact that they had joined the new organ- ization at the behest of Dr. John McLoughlin, its chief official at Vancouver. This element could not immediately divorce itself from a long habit of obedience and subservience. To secure itself from possible attack or submergence and from encroachment on its land by the ever-swelling tide of restless Americans it had been persuaded to join with them in sup- porting a government, but by this act they were not won away from allegiance to the Company and would consider a union that included that powerful organization a better guarantee of their own security.
A second factor that made for union from the side of the Provisional Government itself was the economic union that really existed between the Hudson's Bay Company and the Willamette Valley. The settlers of this region were very largely dependent upon the Company for the merchandise they needed and as purchasers of such surplus agricultural products as they had for sale. During this year 1845 the Willamette Valley was expected to have 50,000 bushels of wheat to market. 3
Many of the Americans had received assistance from the Company, which had furnished means of transpor- tation from the Columbia to their new homes, or had been given credit for food to tide them over the winter months and for seed to plant the first crops. Many of these perhaps owed their very lives to the generosity of Dr. McLoughlin. Not all of them were grateful for such help, and there was complaint against the Company that it was a monopoly and
3 Last Letter of McLoughlin, American Hist. Rv. 21:129.
