284 REVEREND EZRA FISHER
Should your Board continue us in their employ, I shall need a large portion of the appropriation in clothing and books purchased by you in New York, as I may designate in my reports, one of which I shall make and forward by the next return party after this, which will leave in April or May. I had forgotten to mention in the catalogue of our wants writ- ing paper, an article not now in this city. Please send me a few reams and charge it to me from the next appropriation.
Hitherto I have but barely alluded to the field before us. The present population from the States is estimated at about five or six thousand souls, and, when once settled in their homes, will extend up the river about 120 miles above this and up the varied tributaries, and from this downward to the lower mouth of the Willamette. 97 At the mouth of the Colum- bia a strong settlement is being made, and another on Pugette Sound. Our country below the Cascade Mountains is not ex- tensive; yet, as far as I have seen, I think the fertility of the soil generally will exceed the description given by Lieutenant Wilkes and Mr. Townsend. 98
The truth is, it is in a great measure an unexplored country, except by trappers who have probably but little interest in judging of the fertility of the soil and still less in publishing it to the world. I have traveled down the north bank of the Columbia on foot from The Dalles to Vancouver; from Van- couver to the Tuallity Plains ; through the Plains four times ; from the Plains through the Chahalum Valley, across the Yam Hill river and up the Willamette Valley across the Rick- reall about half the distance to the Luckymao," making a dis-
97 This estimate of the American population of Oregon seems about correct. See F. G. Young, The Oregon Trail, Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar. 1:370.
The history of the settlement at Astoria is well known. The Methodists oc- cupied Clatsop plains in 1840. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. I:i8s, 188. It was rather optimistic, however, to call the settlements here and on Puget Sound "strong." The American settlement at the latter point had only just begun, and was very small. Bancroft, Hist, of Wash., Idaho and Montana, pp. 1-5.
98 Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, commander of the U. S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-42, was in Oregon in 1841. His "Narrative" was published in five volumes in Philadelphia in 1844. A "Synopsis of the U. S. Exploring Expedition during the years 1838-41," appeared earlier. Bancroft, Hist, of N. W . Coast, pp. 670-683.
John K. Townsend was a naturalist who was in Oregon in 1834-6. His "Nar- rative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River" appeared in Philadelphia in 1839. Ibid. p. 577.
99 Probably the Luckiamute, a stream in Polk County.
