Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/231

THE VANCOUVER RESERVATION CASE. 223 of the river. In 1838 the license of the Hudson Bay Company had been extended by the British government for twenty-one years; this would make its privileges terminate in 1859. So, when the military came, the Chief Factor claimed a right for the company to remain and carry on its business under a provision in the treaty of 1846, by which the United States agreed to respect the possessory rights of the company until the termination of its license. Our government claimed its right of sovereignty over this region, not from the treaty of 1846 but from antecedent discovery and occupancy. It fol- lowed, therefore, that its donation and pre-emption statutes were enacted for American citizens and not for the gentlemen and adventurers of the Hudson Bay Company. In the meantime, the priests had been acting as chaplains at Vancouver while missions had been established at the Cowlitz, Nesqually and on the Tualatin plains. Until Dr. McLoughlin .left the service of the Hudson Bay Company, the priests had held their services within the stockade ; but Sir James Douglas, who was a zealous Church of England man, moved the Catholic congregation outside the fort, and read church services to his Protestant followers in his own quarters. At the same time he built a chapel for the priests and continued to pay them their 100 a year. There were also a number of Kanakas working for the company, and they also had a preacher, Kanaka William, who held services for his dusky followers in a cabin near the Catholic chapel. When Clark County was organized in 1850, some citizens tried to locate their county seat within the limits of the post. They divided the lower grounds of the garrison into town lots and sold them at public auction for $1.60 each, and then applied to the first territorial court for an injunction to restrain the Post Commandant (Major Ruff) and the Post Quartermaster (Captain Ingalls) from constructing the post. The injunction, after due argument, was refused, and the city of Columbia was not built. Prior to the treaty of 1846, Catholic church administration was under the Bishop of Quebec, subsequently it was trans-