Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/206

190 We are desired by certain members of the general committee to announce that Prof. E. D. Mansfield of Cincinnati has complied with a request to read before the Oregon Convention of July, 1843, a history of Mr. Monroe's declaration of 1823 that "The American continents were not to be considered subjects of colonization by any European powers," and of the circumstances under which it was made; also to indicate and define its proper application and extension, and set forth each vindication of the principle involved as is afforded by the laws of nature, of nations, and of necessity.

CAMP WILLIAM, SHAWNEELAND, Missouri Territory, May 13, 1843. We have had a whole week of storms since pitching our tents at this encampment and some of them of really terrific violence. The other night a man was killed by lightning in an encampment of Oregon settlers only a few miles from here. From the towns of Independence and Westport caravans are moving every day for that vast and beautiful region of our continent that is yet to be peopled and but a few years will carry the sound of the "Holy bell," even to meet the distant muttering of Pacific's surge.

The editor of the Western Missourian has been furnished with information (copied into the Saint Louis papers,) from Fort Platte, that a party of Sioux, consisting of about three hundred warriors under the two chiefs, Bull-Tail and Iron-Shell, had already left to fight the Pawnees, and another war party, to the number of fifteen hundred to two thousand Sioux, were soon to proceed against the Crow and Snakes.

A war party of Kansas Indians had attacked a party of Pawnees and killed three of their number. Three Pawnees had escaped to Sir William Drummond Stewart's party, and were protected by them from their pursuers. The informant met Sir William's party on the Big Sandy and the Oregon company near the waters of the Big Blue, two hundred and fifty miles above Independence. They were all well and getting along smoothly, having experienced no difficulty, except in crossing the Kansas River, where the Oregon company sunk their boats and came near drowning several children. The latter company, by a census, was found to contain two hundred sixty males over the age of sixteen years, one hundred and thirty females over the age of sixteen years, two hundred and ninety males under the age of sixteen years, three hundred and twelve females under the age of sixteen years, nine hundred and ninety being the whole number of persons.