Hall Jackson Kelley 179
on the Indians. In 1840 he issued a prospectus of a book, then "in n6ar readiness for the press" to be called "Travels And Voyages Through Many Of The Indian And Unexplored Countries of North America; And Over The Atlantic And Pacific Oceans Made In The Years 1832, '33, '34 and '35." The book was never published, however ; for "a nervous affec- tion in the head deranged the thoughts and enfeebling the pen, disenabled him for the task." What became of this unfinished manuscript is unknown. But his literary efforts were not at an end. "He planned, however, for a less difficult work; a bode wbich would be a printed record of his manner of life; of the part he had acted in making Oregon and one of the Califomias the possession of the United States; of the facts relative to. his claim on Mexico for indemnification on account of the plunder of his property while passing through that coun- try ; and relative to a claim of certain of his countrymen to lands on Quadra's [Vancouver] Island, in which he was so largely interested, and which has been so very obnoxious to the power- ful men of the Hudson's Bay Company ; and of the interesting things concerning the ancients, and the geography and sta- tistics of the countries examined by him."* This, too, he abandoned.
In 1843 he made another attempt to obtain action of congress in favor of his colonization project. Having failed to receive a grant of land as requested in 1839, he now- presented through Rufus Choate, senator from Massachusetts, a "petition praying permission to purchase from the Indians in the Oregon Terri- tory a tract of land for the purpose of forming a permanent settlement thereon." This petition was referred to the com- mittee on private land claims.'^ It was followed in 1844 by a petition "praying for a grant of land in the Territory of Ore- gon," which was presented through Robert C. Winthrop and referred to the committee on foreign affairs.®
The grant sought in 1844 was desired not as an aid to settle-
6 Settlement of Oregon, iv n; Narrative of Events and Difficulties, preface
7 27 cong. 3 sess. S. jour., 192; Cong. Globe, XI, 311.
8 a8 cong. i seas. H. jour., 237-8. This memorial appeared in the Palmer Sentinel of December 10, 1846.
