There is a marked difference between the people who came to the Pacific coast by sea and those who crossed the continent, that is not accounted for by the fact that one class came from the Atlantic seaboard, and the other from the western frontier; because the origin of both classes was the same. These western men came in larger numbers, and Americanized Oregon, stamping upon its institutions, social and political, their virtues and their failings. There was an almost pathetic patience and unlimited hospitality, born of their peculiar experiences rather than of any greater largeness of heart or breadth of views.
The immigration of 1845 did not differ essentially from the previous ones, except that it was drawn more from the middle states, or rather less from the Missouri border. Like their predecessors, they unexpectedly became indebted to the charitable offices of the British fur company, whom they had intended at the outset to drive from the country, and had their views much modified; though as events afterward proved, they accepted the modification with reluctance and even opposition.
Most of these adventurers had left comfortable homes, and the position they occupied on first reaching Oregon was humiliating and discouraging. The shelter afforded in the rude dwellings of the colonists, although bestowed with true hospitality, involved heavy cost and much discomfort on both sides. The community was suddenly divided again into old and new settlers, and the new were often peevish and unreasonable.[1] They had recently endured so much that they could not realize that the settlers of a year
- ↑ Burnett's Recollections of a Pioneer, 175.
they were reduced to an allowance of half a pint of corn a day, and had just three bushels left in the general store. Emmet kept a jealous watch over the remainder of his company to prevent them from taking passage on the General Brooks for the settlements below. One young man and his wife contrived to elude his vigilence and were taken to St Louis by the steamer. What became of those who remained with Emmet is not known, but they were intending to hunt buffalo, and with this food supply to prosecute their journey to Oregon. Niles' Reg., lxviii. 339-40.
