OREGON EMIGRATING COMPANIES 213
saddles, bridles, wagons, tents, camp furniture, provisions, medical attendance, and all other things needful for the journey except clothing, blankets and hunting apparatus." The society further guaranteed to each member the best possible title to a parcel of land in Oregon and one year's provisions after their arrival as well as adequate shelter and defence for the same length of time. 35 Specific regulations governing the amount and quality of the equipment were frequent. Thus the Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company required each member to provide himself with 150 pounds of flour or 200 pounds of meal and 60 pounds of bacon for every person except infants, and insisted that the wagons be capable of carrying double the amount of their loads and the teams of drawing double the amount the wagons were capable of bearing. 36 The same company, like many others, required "every (male) per- son over the age of sixteen to furnish himself with a good and sufficient rifle" and a specified amount of powder and lead. 37 The transportation or consumption of liquor except for strictly medical purposes was generally forbidden. 38
Some companies were organized on a communistic plan, each member contributing his money or provisions to a common fund which was drawn on during the journey and, at the end, divided pro rata among the members. 39
3. PROBLEMS OF GOVERNMENT.
Two serious problems were presented to all the emigrating companies and were never solved uniformly. These were, first, the difficulty of reconciling military discipline, which was deemed quite essential to the safety and general well-being
35 "Notice to Emigrants, ?, .?." Oregonian and Indians' Advocate, p. 286.
36 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, 14, 75. It was resolved by the Bloomington (Iowa) Oregon Company, "that each and every individual as an outfit, provide himself with 100 Ibs. of flour, 30 Ibs. bacon, i peck salt, 3 Ibs. powder in horns or canteens, 12 Ibs. lead or shot, and one good tent cloth to every six persons. Every man well armed and equipped with gun, tomahawk, etc." Iowa, Journ. Hist, and Pol. X, 425.
37 Constitution, Savannah Oregon Emigrating Company, /?.
38 Ibid., /5. Minto, Antecedents, Orsg. Hist. Quart., V, 45. Bancroft, His- tory of California, IV, 267, note 17.
39 Cf. Robert Shortess, First Emigrants to Oregon, O. P. A. Transactions, p. 93 and p&ssim.
