Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/115

Rh in 1836. Roman Catholic missionaries began their work in Oregon in 1838–39. From year to year there were additions to the various missions, and small parties of independent settlers were coming in. There was also in the country a considerable body of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, some still in active service under the company's direction, others who had left its service voluntarily or had been discharged. These were mostly French-Canadians, who had taken Indian wives and settled down in the country. Thus there were two sentiments—one American, the other British; and as the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company was well established before the Americans came, the latter were looked upon very much as intruders—though in fact Great Britain had never made a serious or definite claim to that part of Oregon lying south of the Columbia River.

At this first meeting nothing was done beyond advising the selection of a committee for the purpose of drafting a code of laws for the government of the country. But an event soon occurred that hastened action.

This was the death of Ewing Young. He was a native of Tennessee; he had visited California as early as 1828, and in 1834 he came to Oregon, in company with Hall J. Kelley, who had long been known as an enthusiast in all that related to Oregon. Kelley was a citizen of Massachusetts. For years he had been indefatigable in his efforts to awaken interest in Oregon and to induce congress to take action for encouragement and promotion of settlement here. Finally he decided to visit Oregon himself, and see with his own eyes the land about which he had written and spoken so much. He. came by a circuitous route through Mexico and California, and in California he fell in with Ewing Young, whom he induced to come with him to Oregon. With a party of about sixteen persons picked up about Monterey and San Jose, they set