Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/550

Rh I have no doubt, from the evidence, that the visit of Park and Peel, together with the act of McLoughlin in joining the compact of the provisional government, saved the country a war, and influenced the final settlement of the boundary question. When they came to Vancouver they expected to maintain England's hold of the north side of the Columbia River; but they found the Hudson's Bay Company bound in an agreement of mutual protection with the Americans; they learned the fearless and resolute character of the colonists, and their rapidly increasing numbers, and were constantly checked in their expressions of hostility by McLoughlin, who assured them, and even wrote to England, that the country "was not worth a war."

After a few weeks Park and Peel returned to join the America, which sailed for Honolulu and Valparaiso in September; the Fisgard, Captain Duntz, taking her place on the sound, and remaining some months at Nisqually; and the Modestd anchoring in front of Vancouver, about the 1st of October. Captain Gordon, after arriving on the South American coast, received such advices from England as to cause him to gather up in haste the money of the British residents, and sail away to England without waiting for orders from the admiral. In the mean time, Lieutenant Peel was beforehand with him, taking the shorter route by Vera Cruz and Habana to London, where he arrived in January 1846, as bearer of