Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/292

Rh Some weeks after the missionaries had left Fort Hall a council was held there by certain hunters and trappers, now without occupation and destitute through the dissolution of the American Fur Company. This corporation had broken up that same year without making provision of any kind for their servants. Most of these men had adopted their vocation in youth, and now, in the prime of life, were almost as poor as when they took to the mountains—a fact due in part to the policy of the company, but in a large measure to their own improvident habits.

As it was now absolutely necessary to seek the settlements in order to live, seven of them determined to go to Oregon with their Indian wives and children, about their only worldly possessions, and begin life anew. Their names were Robert Newell, C. M. Walker, J. L. Meek, William Craig, Caleb Wilkins, William M. Doty, and John Larison. Newell, Meek, and Wilkins decided to make for the Columbia River by the route discovered the previous year, and already spoken of. Newell had two wagons, which he had taken as payment for guiding the Clark party from Green River to Fort Hall; Wilkes had another which had been left by Walker, and these they resolved to take with them. Ermatinger approved the plan and purchased one of Newell's wagons, which he