lifornia.
endent of Indian affairs in August, 1845, and bestowed it on the governor, George Abernethy. The condition of Oregon about this time was, in the minds of its white
nhabitants, full of peril, not only from possible Indian wars, but on account of the resolute attitude taken by American statesmen towards Great Britain on the question )f international boundary. Notwithstanding the fact that
he officers of the Hudson's Bay Company had joined with the Americans in a political compact, and taken an oath to support the provisional government so far as it did not interfere with their allegiance to their respective govern ments, there was the prospect, as it appeared to the colo nists, of a war between the two nations, which should force a conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and the colonists. In such an emergency it was remembered, with foreboding, that the Indian population was sure to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered of avenging all their real and imagined wrongs upon the Americans. The immigration of 1845 numbered about three thou sand persons, and almost doubled the white population of Oregon; that of 1844 having been about seven hundred and fifty. But if their numbers were small their patriotism was large, and they made no secret of the fact that some of them had come all the way from Missouri to burn Fort Vancouver. So many threats of a similar nature had found utterance ever since the first large party of 1843, that the officers of the British company had thought it only prudent to strengthen their defenses, and keep a sloop of war lying in the Columbia. What the company simply did for defense, the settlers construed into an offense, and both parties were on the alert for the first overt act.
It has already been mentioned that the passage down the Columbia was one of excessive hardship and danger, each immigration having endured incredible suffering, and also loss, in coming from The Dalles to the Wallamet valley; families and wagons being shipped on rafts to the cascades, where a portage had to be made of several miles,
