way to success, when an unlooked-for check was received in the loss of a good portion of the year's crop, by late rains which damaged the grain in the fields. This deficiency was followed by the large immigration of that year which raised the price of wheat to double its former value, and rendered unnecessary the plan of exporting it; while the Cayuse war, following closely upon these events, absorbed much of the surplus means of the colony.
Previous to 1848 the trade of Oregon was with the Hawaiian Islands principally, and the exports amounted in 1847 to $54,784.99.[1] This trade fell off in 1848 to $14,986.57; not on account of a decrease in exports which had in fact been largely augmented, as the increase in the shipping shows, but from being diverted to California by the American conquest and settlement; the demand for lumber and flour beginning some months before the discovery of gold.[2]
The colonial period of Oregon, which may be likened to man's infancy, and which had struggled through numerous disorders peculiar to this phase of existence, had still to contend against the constantly recurring nakedness. From the fact that down to the close of 1848 only five ill-assorted cargoes of American goods had arrived from Atlantic ports,[3] which were partially
- ↑ Polynesian, iv. 135. I notice an advertisement in S. I. Friend, April 1845, where Albert E. Wilson, at Astoria, offers his services as commission merchant to persons at the Islands.
- ↑ Thornton's Or. and Cal., ii. 63.
- ↑ The cargo of the Toulon, the last and largest supply down to the close of 1845, consisted of '20 cases wooden clocks, 20 bbls. dried apples, 3 small mills, 1 doz. crosscut-saws, mill-saws and saw-sets, mill-cranks, ploughshares, and pitchforks, 1 winnowing-machine, 100 casks of cut nails, 50 boxes saddler's tacks, 6 boxes carpenter's tools, 12 doz. hand-axes, 20 boxes manufactured tobacco, 5,000 cigars, 50 kegs white lead, 100 kegs of paint, ½ doz. medicine-chests, 50 bags Rio coffee, 25 bags pepper, 200 boxes soap, 50 cases boots and shoes, 6 cases slippers, 50 cane-seat chairs, 40 doz. wooden-seat chairs, 50 doz. sarsaparilla, 10 bales sheetings, 4 cases assorted prints, one bale damask tartan shawls, 5 pieces striped jeans, 6 doz. satinet jackets, 12 doz. linen duck pants, 10 doz. cotton duck pants, 12 doz. red flannel shirts, 200 dozen cotton handkerchiefs, 6 cases white cotton flannels, 6 bales extra heavy indigo-blue cotton, 2 cases negro prints, 1 case black velveteen, 4 bales Mackinaw blankets, 150 casks and bbls. molasses, 450 bags sugar, etc., for sale at reduced prices for cash.' Or. Spectator, Feb. 5, 1846.
