Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/823

772 munitions of war, nothing was done, or could have been done in time to have averted a crushing disaster to the colony, had the Indians not been checked. The Mexican war, which had only been brought to a close in the summer of 1848, had made a heavy draft upon the treasury, and the army was at that time small. The government was averse to enlisting men especially for Oregon, inasmuch as the rifle regiment which had been raised for service there and along the road to the Columbia would now be marched to its original destination, from which it had been diverted by the war with Mexico, so soon as its ranks, thinned by battle, deseasedisease [sic], and desertion, could be recruited. Instead of raising a new regiment, or ordering away the men in garrisons, it was concudedconcluded [sic] by the secretary of war to furnish the material likely to be required from the companies and stores already on the Pacific coast. Accordingly orders were despatched to John Parrott, navy agent at San Francisco, to forward orders to Commodore Jones to send "men, arms, ammunition, and provisions to Oregon," and also to forward by any safe conveyance $10,000, to be paid over to the governor. But this order was not issued until the 12th of October, when peace had been restored.

During the progress of affairs from May to August, the two informal Oregon delegates had been characteristically employed. Thornton, with a serious air and a real love of scholarly association, sought the society of distinguished men, profiting, as he believed, by the contact, and doubtless being often consulted upon Oregon affairs. He asserts that he was approached while in Washington by an agent of the Hudson's Bay Company who wished to sell the possessory rights of that corporation in Oregon to the United States for the sum of $3,000,000, and that he became involved