36 MAYNE, PALMER, AND BEGBIE [Dec. 12, 1859. 



At length, when a suflScient number had become located (a body, he believes, 

 came across the Eocky Mountains), they petitioned the American Government 

 to afford tlie necessary protection to American citizens, and thus it was that 

 British rule was ousted from the Columbia or Oregon River.* Immediately 

 subsequent to this he visited Monterey, California, where an insurrection had 

 taken place, and they had declared themselves independent of Mexico. The 

 American Consul there had married the daughter of the then President. He 

 had informed him that *' his instructions fully warranted him in stating that 

 the American Government expected the Oregon question was in my hands, 

 that it was to be settled that year, and that if the British Government was dis- 

 posed to meet the question in a fair spirit, the American Government would 

 not offer any objection to California being held by Great Britain for the 

 Mexican debt" (at this period the revolutionary chiefs were disposed to ally 

 themselves to England), 



On his reaching San Bias the Vice-Consul informed him that he had been 

 requested by the Minister at Mexico to apply to him for the fullest information 

 on all these matters, and he was assured by him (Mr. Barron) that the tenor 

 of his despatch to the Home Government — a copy of which was furnished to 

 him — would prove most satisfactory (this was as from confidential communi- 

 cations with the Embassy). It was subsequently intimated to him, " That as 

 he was a Commander in the Navy, and had travelled out of his province in 

 communicating direct on such subjects, no notice would be taken of it." The 

 result fully verified the remark. England lost California, the Oregon, and 

 was, to use a nautical phrase, " fleeted up " to the 49th degree. 



If the British Government had acted with becoming prudence in 1838, and 

 had viewed well the ground before ceding the Hudson Bay territory, the 

 San Juan difficulty never would have presented itself. We had literally been 

 shouldered out of the Oregon territory by the over-zealous desire of this Sub- 

 Governor of Fort Vancouver to introduce American missionaries into the rich 

 lands of the Wallamette. 



Dr. Hodgkin, f.r.g.s., was struck with the statement of one of the writers 

 that the Indian population were destitute of forethought, and made no provision 

 for winter and coming wants. He thought that if the gentlemen employed by 

 Government in these distant services had previously made themselves better 

 acquainted with ethnology, their rejiorts would have been somewhat modified. 

 The early accounts of the natives of North-Western America showed that in 

 the construction of their dwellings and in the curing of fish, &c., they were 

 both disposed and able to provide for their wants. He was, therefore, forced 

 to conclude that their present improvidence was the result of their deterioration 

 by the more recent increased communication with whites (fur- traders and 

 gold-seekers). The fact that some were now employed in work proved that 

 they might be useful to themselves and others in this important but too long 

 neglected portion of the British empire. 



He was glad to be able to say that the present Secretary of State for the 

 Colonies, and his predecessor Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, had taken a warm 

 interest in the aboriginal tribes in that quarter, and he felt assured that, if 

 properly treated and instructed, the native population would prove of great 

 advantage to the settlers who now, whilst seeking gold, can only obtain the 

 means of subsistence at exorbitant prices. 



Intimately connected with this territory was the proposed railway passing 

 through British North America, and connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific 

 Ocean ; and if England did not throw away her money in rifle-clubs and the 

 like expenses, she might easily find the means of making this line, which 



* Vide p. 297, Voyage of Sulphur, 1837 to 1842 ; and for a complete history of 

 the Oregon, vide Washington Irving's ' Astoria.' 



