Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/304

296 , DOCUMENTS. As is well known, my lot was cast, a long time ago, in the service of the Hudson Bay Company*. Twenty-eight years since, I found myself on the soil of Oregon, in a responsible capacity, under that company, and called upon, from my peculiar relations to them and my sympathies with the American government, to discharge many delicate duties. As a subject of Great Britain, up to 30th of May, A. D. 1849, the date of declaring my intention to become a citizen of the United States, I claim to have discharged all just obligations to the govern- ment of my birth; and, as an officer of the H. B. Co., up to the year 1846, the period of my disconnection with it, I know that I was faithful to its interests as far as I could be without compromitting my s'ense of justice to others or turning a deaf ear to the calls of humanity. I early foresaw that the march of civilization and progress of peopling the American Territories, was westward and onward, and that but a few years would pass away before the whole valuable country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, then used only as hunting and trapping grounds, and as the resting place of native tribes, must become the abode of another race American. This could neither be successfully resisted, nor did I deem it politic or desirable to attempt it. In this spirit I prepared myself to encourage, hasten, and further what I thought would be not only attended with good, but inevitable. The absence of a cold and chilling policy calcu- lated to check and embarrass immigration to Oregon has subjected me in Europe to 'strictures as untrue as they have been unjust, but this I cannot wonder at or complain of, for it is the province of selfishness and conservatism to frown upon and discourage all liberal ideas and efforts from whatsoever source they may proc'eed. SucTa things do not, therefore, annoy me, and, if I can truly feel that in my day ar.d generation I have done something, however slight, to advance the cause of civilization, freedom and true progress, I am abundantlv repaid all the injury which the illiberal and unjust, in other lands, may have heretofore cast upon m'e, or may hereafter find it in their hearts with which to blacken my name and character. From 1824 to the present hour, I have spared neither time nor means, but liberally used both, to facilitate the settling of Oregon by whites; and, that it has been my good fortune to do much in year 3 gone by to relieve distress and promote the comfort and happiness of immigrants, I may fearlessly assert, and for proof need only to refer to the candid and just Americans who first came to the country. And I may add with equal confidence, that by the policy pursued by me and the earliest cultivators of the soil in Oregon, mostly foreigners, this country was more easily reclaimed from the Indians and settled by whites, and with less loss of life than any new territory of the United States. In this manner nearly a quarter of a century passed