Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/412

Rh natives in that quarter, and hold in check the British fur companies; another at the head of navigation on the Missouri, to control the Blackfoot, and remove the British companies from that part of the territory, as well as to serve as an intermediate supply post, and a depot of trade for the Indian department. To keep open communication through the mountains, he advised the establishment of a small post between the Missouri and the Columbia; and on the Columbia and its tributaries three other posts. These, were to give protection to American traders for the time being, and when the convention with Great Britain should have expired, to remove the traders of that nation from the territory. As to the expense, it would be trifling. Once established, in a few years the cost would be greatly diminished by farms, mills, and the good grazing of the country in the interior; and the posts on the Columbia could be cheaply supplied with beef and wheat from California, and salt from an island on the Lower California coast.

Floyd's bill did not come up for discussion till the following December. In the mean time much information had been gained concerning new routes to the Columbia by passes recently discovered by American fur-traders, and other matters of interest in debate. The speech with which Floyd opened the discussion was not only in answer to former arguments, but was loaded with accumulations of facts concerning the geography and topography of the country; but more than anything else, concerning the commerce of the United States between 1804 and 1822, interesting even at this day, and intended to exhibit the existing necessity for a port upon the Pacific coast to serve as the American mart for the precious goods of the Asiatic continent and islands of the oriental seas.

The message of President Monroe had contained a recommendation of the propriety of establishing a military post at the mouth of the Columbia, or at some other point within the acknowledged limits of the