Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/219

Rh leave this country and return, for here we have health and everything else that can render a reasonable man happy. When I first looked upon the falls here I said to myself, ' This is the place for me. ' There were then but four houses. A company of settlers were building 1 a sawmill on one side of the rock islands in the river. They have since built a large flouring-mill. Doctor McLoughlin has also built since a sawmill and a very large flouring-mill, and in place of four houses, we have now fifty, and before the first of May next there will be one hundred. This may seem strange, but it is true. Lots that I was offered for $5.00 can not now be bought for $1,000. The country improves in like manner, for every man in the colony works hard. There is no new country in the world that is in such a state of prosperity as Oregon. The main reason is, we have no fire-water here. Every man pays his debts, and all are friendly. I have been here one summer and have had an opportunity of seeing the harvest, which was the best I ever saw. I do wish I could send you a sample of the large, pretty, white wheat of this country; but, in fact, everything put in the grouud grows in like manner. There is no country like this for a farmer, nor no place where a man can live so easy. We had a meeting on the fourth of July to organize and form a code of laws, which was done, and the Iowa laws adopted. All civil officers and members of the legislature, nine in number, were elected. So if Uncle Sam don't watch over us, we will do it ourselves."

From various sources we learn that the negotiation of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Pakenham in regard to Oregon have been suspended for the present. In the words of the Charleston Courier correspondent: "The British minister, it seems, had not the power to treat upon the basis proposed by Mr. Calhoun. The most open candor and energy, the first so rare with diplomacy, and both strikingly characteristic of Mr. Calhoun, have been brought to the subject. This ultimatum is said to be the parallel of 49 as the northern boundary of our territory. Instructions received by Mr. Pakenham would not permit him to accept it."

Washington correspondence, April 18, 1844:

In the senate to-day, Mr. Archer called up the bill authorizing the purchase of fifteen hundred copies of Mr. Greenhowe's "History of Oregon," at $2.00 per copy. The object of the bill is to compensate in some measure Mr. Greenhowe for the labor and expense of compiling a work that places the title of the United States to the whole territory of Oregon beyond dispute; the purchase by the government of $3,000 worth of the books insures the author a fair profit from the whole edition printed.