Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/256

Rh while McLoughlin himself put up a small house, and matters ran smoothly until the autumn of 1842, when a report was again brought to McLoughlin that Waller intended to dispute his claim at the falls; but on speaking to Lee on the subject, the superintendent assured him that Waller had no such design.

By this time, however, McLoughlin had caught the drift of missionary operations in Oregon, and began again improving his claim, having it surveyed and laid off in lots, some of which he gave and some he sold to persons who arrived in the country that season. The first to select a lot in Oregon City, as the site of the first town in Oregon was named by its founder, was Stephen H. L. Meek, a mountain man who had desired to settle in the Willamette Valley. When Meek proceeded to select a spot on which to build, he was interrupted by Waller, who asserted that he claimed thereabout a mile square, within which limits building-lots were at his sole disposal.

Informed by Meek of Waller's position, McLoughlin appealed to Lee, who replied, modifying his former denial of such intentions by alleging that he had only stated that he understood Waller to say that he set up no claim in opposition to McLoughlin's; but that if the doctor's claim failed, and the Mission put in no claim, he should consider his right paramount to that of any other; adding "from what I have since heard, I am inclined to think I did not understand Mr Waller correctly, but I am not certain it is so. You will here allow me to say, that a citizen of the United States by becoming a missionary does not renounce any civil or political right. I cannot control any man in these matters, though I had not the most distant idea, when I stationed Mr Waller there, that he would set up a private claim to the land."

According to the recommendation of Lee, McLoughlin next sought an interview with Waller, who reiterated his former assertion that he set up no claim