Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/269

218 on every white male inhabitant six hundred and forty acres of land. McLoughlin accordingly had that amount surveyed to himself in 1842, and although Linn's bill never passed the house, he with the Americans confidently believed that this, or some similar law, would follow the settlement of the boundary of Oregon, and he intended to take advantage of it. The opposition he met with in his endeavor to hold his claim occasioned increased expenditure. The improvements made by both claimants drew settlers to Oregon City, and made it more valuable as a town site. Strictly speaking, neither McLoughlin nor Waller had any legal right to the land in question. But in justice, and by a law of common usage among the settlers of Oregon, McLoughlin's claim, being the elder, was the stronger and the better claim. His right to it would be decided by the future action of congress. The greatest difficulty he experienced was that of meeting the untruthful representations made to the government, and the efforts of his enemies to mould public opinion in Oregon. As Ricord has already given the points in Waller's case, they need not be repeated here.

Lee and Ricord were within four days' sail of Honolulu when the truth was made known to McLoughlin concerning their covert proceedings. But that mill of the gods which slowly grinds into dust all human ambitions held Jason Lee between the upper and the nether millstone at that identical moment, though he knew it not. On reaching Honolulu, and before he stepped ashore, he was met by Dr Babcock with the intelligence that he had been superseded in the superintendency of the Oregon Mission by the Rev. George Gary, of the Black River conference, New York, who was then on his way to Oregon to investigate Lee's career since 1840, and if he thought proper, to close the affairs of the Mission. The reports of White, Frost, Kone, Richmond, and others had taken effect,