Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/298

Rh One instance of so-called injustice Wilkes took occasion to right. While he was still at Fort Vancouver he received a visit from three young men, members of a party of eight, who were building a schooner to take them to California, as they were anxious to leave a country where there were no young white women to marry. The party consisted of Joseph Gale, who came with Young; Felix Hathaway, the only ship-carpenter among them; Henry Wood, who came to California in 1837 with the cattle company; R. L. Kilborne, of the Peoria immigrants; and Pleasant Armstrong, John Green, George Davis, and Charles Matts, who arrived some time between 1838 and 1840.

The company had obtained part of the material necessary to build their vessel, such as iron and spikes, by representing that they were wanted for a ferry-boat to be used on the Willamette. To obtain rigging they induced the French settlers to go to Fort Vancouver and buy cordage, pretending it was for use in their rude farm harnesses. These underhand proceedings coming to the knowledge of McLoughlin, naturally excited his suspicions. How could he know that these were not preparations for piracy on the Cali-