Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/544

Rh the district of Vancouver, which embraced all that part of Oregon north and west of the Columbia River. But now arose the question of apportionment and other matters connected therewith; a point in legislation upon which Applegate and a few others regarded as most important, to wit: Would the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company become parties to the articles of compact by the payment of taxes, and complying with the laws of the provisional government, which only promised protection to its adherents? Should they refuse their support, they would become outlawed, and the objective point if not the prey of any turbulent spirits of the next immigration, who like Alderman might choose to settle on their lands, or like Chapman, threaten to burn Fort Vancouver.

The committee on apportionment was composed of I. W. Smith, H. A. G. Lee, B. Lee, Applegate, and McClure. Applegate proposed in a private session of the committee to get the sentiments of the Hudson's Bay Company on the question of the compact, and was deputized by them to hold a private inter-