Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/634

Rh same paper they learned that the frigate Congress, Commander Dupont, with Commodore Stockton on board, had sailed for the Pacific coast, her cruising ground supposed to be the Oregon coast; and also that it was rumored that the whole British force in the Pacific was making sail for the Columbia River.

There was always something to protract anxiety; yet the colonists continued the cultivation of their fields, building, and road-making, with unceasing faith that their claims to land and improvements would be protected. In this spirit preparations were made for a Fourth-of-July celebration in Salem, recently so named, and in Oregon City. At the latter place was erected a liberty-pole presented to the committee of arrangements by William Holmes; a round of thirty-one guns was fired, and an oration delivered by Peter H. Burnett, which was followed by a dinner and toasts, with cheering and firing of guns, the festivities being concluded by a ball in the evening.

At Salem the management of the celebration was placed in the hands of the newly organized military company, the Oregon Rangers. It was on this occasion that the company was presented with a flag made by Mrs Horace Holden and Miss Looney. The