12 Joseph Schafer regarded as the Hudson's Bay Company view, which at this time the British officers accepted without quahfication. Why this view of the case is so radically changed in the final report,* written apparently at Red River in the month of June following, we can only surmise. But at that time they say: "In conclusion, we must beg to be allowed to observe, with an unbiased opinion [possibly they considered the earlier opinion biased by the fact of their dependence upon the Com- pany's officers at Vancouver] that whatever may have been the orders, t or the motives of the gentlemen m charge of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts on the west of the Rocky Mountains, their policy has tended to the introduction of the American settlers into the country. We are convinced that without their assistance not thirty American families would now have been in the settlement." W^ithout the help afforded them by the British traders, through motives of humanity — as the officers are willing to believe — the first American emi- grants to Oregon could not have held out against the ravages of hunger or the attacks of hostile Indians; since these were succored — that is, the parties of 1841-42 — others in ever in- creasing numbers, were encouraged to make their way to the Columbia in 1843, 1844 1845. The British party are now in the minority, and the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany have been obliged to join the organization, without any reserve, except the mere form of the oath of office. Their lands are invaded— themselves insulted — and they now require the protection of the British Government against the very people to the introduction of whom they have been more than accessory." The reports sent home by Warre and Vavasour reached the Government too late to exert an influence upon the negotia- tion with the United States concerning the Oregon boundary question. But they reflect the nature of the impression that conditions in the Oregon country in 1845 were calculated to
- See page 65.
tWe now know that their orders were to treat the American settlers in a
liberal manner. See Simpson Letters, Am. Hist. Rev., XIV, p. 70, and ff.----
