Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/226

Rh "we shall seek such points of settlement as will afford the greatest facilities for intercourse with the tribes; for agriculture, manufactures, and commerce; and also for defence, in case of hostilities from any quarter. For the benefit of the Indians, we propose to establish schools in which instruction in elementary science will be connected with labor; the males being made acquainted with farming, or some useful mechanical art, and the females with household duties and economy. . . . For our own emolument, we shall depend principally upon the flour trade, the salmon fishery, the culture of silk, flax, and hemp, the lumber trade, and perhaps a local business in furs. We shall establish a regular commercial communication with the United States, drawing supplies of men and goods from thence; and ultimately, we shall contemplate the opening of a trade with the various ports of the Pacific. A few years only will be required to fill the plains of Oregon with herds as valuable as those of the Spanish savannas, and various sources of profit will reveal themselves as the increase of the population shall make new resources necessary. We shall wish that no person in connection with us may have a claim upon any tract of land unless he shall actually settle upon and improve that land. . . . We shall, of course, be very unwilling to settle in a savage wilderness, without first having obtained a sufficient title to the land we may occupy, and without being assured that political obstacles will not be thrown in the way of our prosperity.

"We are confident that our settlement, more than anything else, would subserve the purposes of our government respecting the Oregon Territory. Our relations with the Indians will give us an influence over them which Americans will hardly obtain by any other means, and which, at a future day, may be found an advantage to the United States. We shall by the same means, as well as by our local situation, be prepared to hold in check the avarice of a foreign power,