1843.] EMIGRATION FROM THE U. STATES TO OREGON. 391 



This last declaration from Sir Robert Peel was confirmed by the 

 president of the United States, in his message sent to Congress on 

 the 5th of December following; and, in February, 1844, the Hon- 

 orable Richard Pakenham arrived in Washington, as minister pleni- 

 potentiary from Great Britain, with full instructions to treat for a 

 definitive arrangement of the disputed points relative to the coun- 

 tries west of the Rocky Mountains.* 



In the mean time, the excitement in the United States with re- 

 gard to the immediate occupation of Oregon, as well as the difficul- 

 ties of effecting an amicable arrangement of the questions with Great 

 Britain respecting that country, had increased and become more 

 general. In each year since 1838, small parties of emigrants had set 

 out from Missouri for the Columbia ; but they had suffered so much 

 on their way, from hunger, thirst, fatigue, and a dread of Indians, 

 that few had reached the place of their destination, and those who 

 returned to the United States gave accounts of their expeditions by 

 no means calculated to induce others to follow them. On exam- 

 ining these accounts, however, it appeared that in all cases the par- 

 ties had been insufficient in numbers, or were not provided with the 

 requisite supplies, or were guided and commanded by incompetent 

 persons ; besides which, nothing like an assurance of protection, after 

 they should have made their settlements, was afforded by their gov- 

 ernment. On the faith of the promise of such protection, held out 

 by the passage through the Senate of the bill for the immediate 

 occupation of Oregon, a thousand persons, men, women, and chil- 

 dren, assembled at Westport, near the Missouri River, on the fron- 

 tier of the state of Missouri, from which they began their march to 

 Oregon, with a large number of wagons, horses, and cattle, in June, 

 1843.f They pursued the route along the banks of the Platte, 

 and its northern branch, which had been carefully surveyed in the 

 preceding year by Lieutenant Fremont, of the United States army,f 

 to the South Pass, in the Rocky Mountains ; thence through the 

 valleys of the Green and Bear Rivers to the Hudson's Bay Compa- 

 ny's post, called Fort Hall, on the Lewis ; and thence, in separate 

 parties, to the Willamet valley, where they arrived in October. Their 

 journey, of more than two thousand miles, was, of course, laborious 

 and fatiguing ; they were subjected to many difficulties and priva- 

 tions, and seven of their party died on the way, from sickness 



* Sir Robert Peel's speech in the House of Commons, February 5th, 1844. 

 t See the interesting report and map of Lieutenant Fremont, published by order of 

 the Senate, in the spring of 1843. 



