GEOGRAPHY OF OREGON. 33 



that part of the continent. All these are, however, on a very small scale, 

 and seldom contain more than two or three clerks or traders, and a few 

 Indians or half-breed hunters. 



The citizens of the United States in Oregon, previous to 1843, did not 

 probably exceed four hundred in number, nearly all of whom were estab- 

 lished as farmers, graziers, or mechanics, in the valley of the Willamet, 

 and on the Walla-Walla; very few being engaged in any commercial 

 pursuit. Their condition appears to have been prosperous, in conse- 

 quence, there is reason to believe, of their industry, economy, and 

 morality, rather than of any particular advantages offered by the country. 

 The Protestant missionaries reside on the Willamet, at the Falls of the 

 Columbia, near Walla-Walla, in the Spokan and Kotanie countries, and 

 in some other places, where they labor for their own support, as well as 

 for the improvement and conversion of the natives. The first printing 

 press, west of the Rocky Mountains, was set up at the Walla-Walla 

 mission, in 1839; on it books are now printed from types set up by na- 

 tive compositors. The Roman Catholics, from Missouri, have also 

 several stations, principally in the regions of the Clarke River, in which 

 they appear to be laboring diligently for the advancement of their own 

 religion. 



The number of American citizens in Oregon was, however, nearly 

 quadrupled, in the latter part of 1843, by the arrival of more than a thou- 

 sand persons — men, women, and children — from the Mississippi val- 

 ey;* and a still greater number went thither in the following year. 

 These emigrants will, most probably, likewise establish themselves in 

 he Willamet valley, or on the Umqua, in which regions there is a 

 •ufBciency of good land for the support of more than a hundred thou- 

 ■and persons; and they will be able at once to obtain the means of 

 subsistence, as the majority of them have been doubtless accustomed 

 from their childhood to the labors and privations incident to the settle- 

 ment of a new country. Few of them will be disposed to fix their 

 residence in the territory north of the Columbia, which is claimed by 

 Great Britain, until the question of right between that power and the 

 United States shall have been definitively determined. 



The trappers and hunters from the United States have been compelled, 

 in consequence of the exclusive measures adopted by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, to quit the regions of the Columbia, and confine themselves 

 to the north-western part of California, about the head-waters of the 

 Colorado River and the Utah Lake. In the summer of each year, they 

 repair, with the produce of their labors, to certain places of rendezvous, 

 where they meet the traders, bringing clothes, hardware, arms, ammu- 

 nition, groceries, and other articles, from Missouri ; and an exchange of 

 merchandise is effected to the benefit of both parties. The principal ren- 

 dezvous is on the banks of the Sidskadee or Green River, one of the con- 

 fluents of the Colorado, situated near the western extremity of the great 

 gap in the Rocky Mountains, called the South Pass, through which all 

 the communications between the regions of the Mississippi on the one 

 side, and Oregon and California on the other, are conducted. 



* According to an enumeration made at their encampment on the Big Blue River, 

 soon after their departure from the Missouri, the numbers of the emigrants in 1843, 

 were 558 males and 442 females, of all ages, making a total of 1000. They car- 

 ried with them 121 wagons, 296 horses, 698 oxen in draught, and 973 loose cattle. 



