Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/205



1 68 A History of the Pacific Northwest

of some western town, then in the more widely read journals of the country, with the result that Oregon took its place in the popular mind by the side of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Texas, as a territory possessing attractions for the home seeker.

The emigration of 1844. The emigrating company of 1844 numbered about fourteen hundred. The parties reached the Missouri frontier early in the spring and set out in good time. But the wetness of the season caused many delays, so that they reached the western slope very late, and mostly in want of provisions. A small party was hurried forward to bring supplies from the Willamette valley, some bought food of the missionaries on the Walla Walla, and even of the Indians, and finally, late in the fall, most of them reached their destination in a sorry state. The rains having already set in, there was no chance to provide proper shelter, and many suffered great inconvenience, if not actual hardship. The earlier settlers were forced to listen to a good deal of repining from the newcomers; but, as one of them wTote, this "only lasted during the winter. In the spring, when the clouds cleared away, and the grass and flowers sprang up beneath the kindling rays of a bright Oregon sun, their spirits revived with reviving nature, and by the succeeding fall they had themselves become old settlers, and formed a part of us, their views and feelings, in the meantime, having undergone a total change." ^

1 Quoted from Burnett's "Recollections of an Old Pioneer," New York, 1880. The portion of this book relating to Oregon,