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XXIII

AN AMERICAN EXPLORING SQUADRON 1841

THE New Year of 1841 opened a new act in the drama on the Columbia. In his lonely cabin on the Willamette, Ewing Young, the Tennesseean, lay dead. Outside, his herds grazed on the hillsides, without a visible heir. The little handful of Americans, scarce thirty-six all told, gathered at his funeral. Jason Lee deeply felt the situation. No law, no court, no government, nothing from the Spanish land to Sitka, but the arbitrary will of Dr. John McLoughlin. "He is a good man," said Jason Lee, "but the one man power is not American."

They carried the Tennesseean out and buried him under the oaks on his ranch, and then returned to discuss the disposition of his property.

"We must have some sort of organization," said Jason Lee. "We must draft a constitution and frame a code of laws."

The committee sat, with pens in hand, when, presto! change! an American exploring squadron came sailing into the Oregon waters bearing the banners of Uncle Sam.

The Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia had paid little attention to the young republic at the east, they sometimes forgot there was a United States; but this sudden apparition startled them with its possibilities. Conciliatory, urbane, troubled, the