Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/552

Rh goods to the American settlers at cheaper rates than to British subjects. They had suffered themselves to join the provisional organization, "without any reserve except the mere form of the oath." Theu lands had been invaded, and themselves insulted, until they required the protection of government "against the very people to the introduction of whom they have been more than accessory," and more of a like import.

The answer made by McLoughlin, while it was intended only for the eyes of the London directors, or the ministry, contains matter of much interest to the student of Oregon history. Concerning the friendship shown the missionaries, he said: "What would you have? Would you have me turn the cold shoulder to the man of God who came to do that for the Indians which the company had neglected to do?" As to the first settlers, men from the mountains and the sea^he had tried to prevent their remaining idle and becoming destitute, and therefore dangerous to the good order and safety of the company's servants. Drive them away he could not, having neither the right nor the power. To the allegation that the trading posts of the company had been used to save American immigrants from starvation and the Indians, he replied that it had long been safe for two men to travel from Fort Hall to Vancouver, or twenty men from Fort Hall eastward, and therefore that the immigrants owed it not to the trading posts that they were spared by the savages, and as to other assistance rendered in furnishing boats, and in some instances goods, the immigrants had not come to Oregon expecting a cordial reception from him, but quite the contrary; and that while he had done some things for humanity's sake,