474 APPENDIX, 



OreiJ:on until within a very brief period, for it was only in 

 i860 that their trac]ino--post at Fort Vancouver on tiie Col- 

 umbia, nearly opposite the mouth of the WillnmeLte, was 

 ;ib:Ji!doned. The Hu<lson's Bay Company employed many 

 Canadians among its trapper.-, and theso formed for a long 

 time the main body of the white population. Most of them 

 took Indian wives and were the fithers of numerous half- 

 breed children. Great Britain claimed all of Oregon until 

 1846, wlien the boundary tre;ity was made with the United 

 States. In 1839 the emigrations of Americans commenced 

 overland by way of the South Pass, and there were a few enii- 

 grants every year until 1845, when several hundred went,, and 

 the next year there were several thousand; in 1847 and 1848 

 there were a few hundred, and in 1849 perhaps one tliousand 

 again. In 1848, '49, and '50, however, Oregon lost many of her 

 citizens by the gold excitement in California ; but in the last- 

 named year she gained again from C^difornia in consequence of 

 the passage of the " donation law " by Congress, giving, without 

 cost, three hundred and twenty acres of public land to every 

 person settled on such land before Deecember 1, of that 

 year, and three hundred and twenty acres more to his Vvife ; 

 and to tliose persons who should settle between Deceml)er 1, 

 1850, and December 1 , 1 853, one hundred and sixty acres to each 

 man, and one hundred and sixty acres to his wife. UndiT this 

 law 8,000 claims were registered in Oregon. It was a condit ion 

 of these grants tliat the settler should reside on the land for 

 four years. The donation induced nearly all the inhabitants of 

 Oregon to remain, and led many of the young men to marry. 

 As tlie men much exceeded the women in nu:nber, girls even 

 as young as fourteen years were in great demand ; and for 

 several years after the " donation law " went into effect the 

 Territory had a wonderfully large proportion of very juve- 

 nile wives and mothers. Oregon was formally orga'.iized as 

 a Territory on August 14, 1848, previous to which time there 

 had been a provisional government, with the capital at Oregon 

 City. On March 2, 1853, the Territory of Washington was 



