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Oregon wears an aspect of insanity." ^ When they reached the Columbia in safety, proving that loaded wagons could be taken through without serious difficulty, a great change instantly came over the thought of the country with respect to Oregon. It was a startling thing to eastern people to be told, by a man who had made the trip, "You can move here [from Missouri] with less expense than you could to Tennessee or Kentucky." Moreover, many prominent pioneers wrote home giving favourable accounts of the country. Burnett said, "If man cannot supply all his wants here, he cannot anywhere." Another declared: " The prospect is quite good for a young man to make a fortune in this country, as all kinds of produce are high and likely to remain so from the extensive demand. The Russian settlements in Asia [Alaska?], the Sandwich Islands, a great portion of California, and the whaling vessels of the Northwest coast procure their supplies from this place." McCarver found "the soil of this valley. . . equal to that of Iowa or any other portion of the United States;. . •" and T. B. Wood wrote, "The prairies of this region are. . . equal to any in Missouri or Illinois." Such letters were commonly printed, first in the local paper

1 New York Tribune, July 22, 1843. He feared that their provisions would give out, their stock perish for want of grass and water, their children and women starve. "For what," exclaimed Mr. Greeley, "do they brave the desert, the wilderness, the savage, the snowy precipices of the Rocky Mountains, the weary summer march, the storm-drenched bivouac and the gnawings of famine? "