Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/549

498 turn. McLoughlin could not then have refused to have the company's property protected, especially after having expressed his fears, as he did in 1843. Nor did he refuse it now; although, as he says, he was at first inclined to do so, thinking himself safe through the organization; but Douglas suggested that it would be well to have the Modeste in the river, in view of the threatening aspect of the political horizon, and the large immigration expected in the autumn.

The discussions at Vancouver during the visit ot the British naval officers were often warm, Captain Park anxiously inquiring into the practicability of bringing troops overland from Canada, and saying that if It came to blows, "we will hit them a good deal harder than we would other people," to the distress of McLoughlin, who could only answer in astonishment and disapproval, "O Captain Park! Captain Park!"

Before returning to the sound, where the America was lying, near the lower end of Whidbey Island, Park and Peel made a brief tour of the Willamette Valley, visiting some of the principal men among the settlers, perhaps at the suggestion of the wise McLoughlin, who could foresee the effect of such contact. At the house of Applegate, who gave him an account of the emigration of 1843, Peel declared that such men as composed it must make "the best soldiers in the world," with a new comprehension of what it would be to fight them. "I told him," says Applegate, "that they were probably brave enough but would never submit to discipline as soldiers. If the president himself had started across the plains to command a company, the first time he should choose a bad camp, or in any other way offend them they would turn him out, and elect some one among themselves who should suit them better."