Pacific. Captain Bonneville of the United States
army, while on a furlough in 1832, with a hundred
men and more than twenty wagons, achieved in the
•regions round the Colorado and Columbia many ad-
ventures made thrilling and jocose by the facile pen
of Irving Captain Wyeth, of Massachusetts, about
this time entertained plans similar to those devised by
John Jacob Astor in 1809, which were to concentrate
the fur-trade of the United States, and establish unin-
terrupted communication by means of a line of posts be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific. Wyeth's project
was to establish trading posts on the Pacific slope,
and send thither manufactured goods, bring back furs
and salmon, and also ship furs to China. To this
end he made two overland expeditions to the Colum-
bia, planted Fort Hall on Lewis river, north of Great
Salt Lake about a hundred miles, and a fishing post on
Wappatoo island, near the junction of the Willamette
and Columbia rivers, and within a short distance of
the coast. Then began emigration to flow into Ore-
gon from the United States, as alone the eastern part
of our domain was then called: agriculturists and
religious teachers, founded little colonies in the
valley of the Willamette, and in the regions of Walla
Walla and Spokane methodists and presbyterians
opened schools, and Jesuits from Saint Louis, notable
among whom were fathers De Smet, Mengarini, and
Point, attempted the conversion of the natives. In
1839, at Walla Walla, was set up the first printing
press on the Pacific coast north of Mexico. Mean-
while, notwithstanding the efforts of the Mexican au-
thorities to prevent it, stragglers, — trappers, traders,
and emigrants, — percolated through the mountains
bounding California on the east, and trespassed on
her lands. These intruders would sometimes engage
themselves to work for the Californians, or to marry
their daughters, and receive grants of land, cattle, and
the catholic religion. " A party of trappers from Mis-
souri arrived at Fort Yuma in 1827, among which
