Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/557

506 and American interests in Oregon had been consummated. Applegate urged him to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, his resignation having been accepted; but Burnett objected that he had no authority from the government to administer the oath; "and to Mr Burnett's timidity," says Applegate, "was owing the doctor's subsequent troubles with individuals and the United States government." This opinion is not mine, however. The missionary party would have found that the oath was without authority, and the result would have been the same. They made war on him after he came to Oregon City. In addition, he lost heavily through the debts of the settlers, which the company put upon him, if not wholly, at least to a great amount, and was severely attacked by English writers, notably in Fitzgerald's Hudson's Bay Company.

It was fortunate that neither the dissatisfaction of the English ministry, the Hudson's Bay Company, nor the defiant tone of the American press and con-