Page:How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon.djvu/31

 dependent company, the Puget Sound Agricultural 27 Company, sent in a more modest demand for $1,168,000. These bills were in a state of liquidation until 1864, when the United States made a final settlement, and paid the Hudson Bay Company $450,000 and the Puget Sound Company $200,000.

They also, at the time of presenting bills to the United States, presented one to England for $4,990,036.07. In 1869 the English government settled the claim by paying $1,500,000. This amount was paid from the treasury of the Dominion of Canada, and all the vast territory north of 49 degrees came under the government of the Dominion. It was, however, stipulated and agreed that the company should retain all its forts, with ten acres of ground surrounding each, together with one-twentieth of all the land from the Red river to the Rocky Mountains, besides valuable blocks of land to which it laid special claim.

The company goes on trading as of old; its organization is still complete; it still makes large dividends of about $400,000 per year, and has untold prospective wealth in its lands, which are the best in the Dominion.

Among the most interesting facts connected with our title to Oregon are those in connection with the Louisiana purchase by the United States from France in 1803. Many readers of current