Page:Hawaiians in Early Oregon.djvu/8

Rh among the Canadian and European servants as the Hawaiians were "by no means such serviceable people," Governor Simpson in 1824 ordered their annual stipend to be reduced to 10 pounds, "which satisfied all parties." This wage may have been raised later for in 1841 those who worked in the saw mill were said to receive 17 pounds per year.

These Hawaiian contract laborers were among almost all the company's crews and forces which were engaged in the fur trade from New Caledonia to the Sacramento Valley and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Their health was often impaired by the damp and, for them, cold Oregon climate. Many of them died on the long sea voyage which sometimes carried them to China before they reached Oregon. Their services, however, were valuable and much appreciated by their employers. A crew of them manned the Dolly, a schooner that was sent out from Astoria to meet ships coming into the Columbia. They were expert mill men. Todd, when seeking a site for a saw mill in the Nisqually country, took with him two Hawaiians as expert advisers. The saw mill located six miles up the river from Vancouver employed 25 to 30 men, "most all of whom," so observed Lieutenant Emmons, "were Sandwich Islanders." Many of the Hawaiians were employed about Fort Vancouver and the Nisqually post as cooks, gardeners, sheep and swine herders, road men and carpenters. Cowie, the head carpenter at Nisqually was able to construct buildings, boats, wheels, wagons and do all the general repair work about the fort. His helpers were also Hawaiians. When Chief Trader Alexander McLeod set out on an expedition to punish the Puget Sound Indians, Sandwich Islanders