Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/594

Rh vent the passage of the Columbia from the Dalles to and beyond the Cascades.

It was still doubtful whether the road that Barlow had undertaken to open would prove practicable; m any case it must be difficult, from the nature of the mountains near the Columbia. The passes looked for at the bead waters of the Santiam and Willamette rivers had not yet been found, and there was the prospect that if war should be declared neither immigrants nor troops could force their way to the settlements.

In order to settle the question of a pass to the south through the Cascade Mountains, the colonists offered to raise money for the purpose of paying the expense of an expedition, and the cost of opening a road in that direction, and early in May 1846 a company was formed in Polk County to undertake this enterprise; but being insufficient in numbers, after travelling seventy miles south of the Calapooya