remembers Le Breton as a young man, short in person, but very active. "He never stood still a minute.' He recollects Rev. J. S. Griffin of Tualatin Plains as present, but not as taking a very active part. Robert Shortess, with his tall, slim figure and strongly Roman profile, was also among the number. Sydney Smith, from Chehalem, was there too. Mr. Matthieu recalls of Smith that he once hired him to assist in filling out a bill of logs, contracted to be delivered at Oregon City. To Matthieu's dismay—he was inexperienced as a lumberman the first cut, which was from a white fir, that he had rolled into the river, sank out of sight in the water. Smith used a strong expression implying lack of sense on the part of the person to whom it was applied, and then exclaimed "I will show you.' Then he bored a hole in a log to be rafted and inserted a large cedar plug, or chunk, which just floated the white fir. Thomas Hubbard was also at the meeting. Others whom he recalls were Amos Cook and Francis Fletcher of the Yamhill Fords, near La Fayette; and George Gay, who was formerly an English sailor, but took leave of his ship at Monterey, California, and came to Oregon in the well known party with Doctor Bailey, and became a large landholder near Dayton, building the first brick house in the valley, and becoming famous for his hospitality to travelers. Others were G. W. Ebbert, Wilkins, Doctor Newell and Joseph L. Meek, of the Tualatin Plains, and Messrs. Babcock, Hines, Doctor Wilson, Alanson Beers, and J. L. Parrish of the Methodist Society.
Matthieu understood that there were three parties in reference to organizing a government. These were the strongly American for it, led by Gray and others, and the Canadian settlers who opposed, or at least did not favor it; and Dr. McLoughlin and his near friends, who really favored an independent government and expected
