Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/127

 ernment money expended, and nothing of value secured for the settlers or the country.

But when it came to making a report to the government, Wilkes seemed to feel the full force and responsibility of his mission, and says: "Having been well aware of the little information in possession of the government relative to the northern section of this (Oregon country I thought it proper, from its vast importance in the settlement of the boundary question, to devote a large portion of my time to a thorough survey." The value and completeness of this survey may he judged of from his report on the Columbia river, as to which he says: "The entrance to the Columbia is impracticable two-thirds of the year; and the difficulty of leaving the river is equally great." His report as to the climate, soil, crops, fisheries and timber is good. As to the Willamette valley, a region he actually examined, he reports it as the finest portion of the country with a settlement of some sixty families that appear to be industrious and prosperous, and that a man could earn three times as much by his labor here in a given time as he could in the United States. As to the missionaries. Wilkes reports that little had been effected by them in Christianizing the Indians. They (the missionaries) are principally engaged in the cultivation of the mission farms, and in the care of their own stock in order to obtain flocks and herds for themselves, most of them having selected lands. And as far as my personal observation went, in the part of the country where the missionaries reside, there are very few Indians, and they (the missionaries) seem more occupied with the settlement of the country and in agricultural pursuits than missionary labors." This is the testimony of an impartial observer as to both Protestant and Catholic, and it is probably true and just. Wilkes concluded his report on general conditions by saying: "That few portions of the globe, in my opinion, are to be found so rich in soil, diversified in surface or capable of being rendered the happy abode of an industrious and civilized community."

On the 16th day of December, 1841. Lewis F. Linn. United States senator from Missouri, introduced in congress a bill to take United States government possession of Oregon. The preamble to this bill declared the title to the country to be in the United States, that it ought not to be abandoned, that measures should he adopted to take possession of and occupy the country, and that the laws of the United States should be extended over it. On the 4th day of January, 1842. Senator Linn introduced in the senate a resolution requesting the President to give notice to the British government of an intention to terminate the treaty of joint occupancy of Oregon under the treaty of 1827.

Senator Linn's proposed act of congress furthermore authorized the President to erect a line of forts from the Missouri river into the best pass for entering the valley of the Oregon." and also a fort at or near the mouth of the Columbia river; and also granting six hundred and forty acres of land to every white male inhabitant who was eighteen years of age and over who should settle in Oregon and cultivate the same for five years. This bill of Senator Linn's never became a law; but it was the excuse to send out a military government expedition under Lieut. John C. Fremont in 1843.