Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/320



"Forty Thousand Miles to Oregon" might very appropriately be the title of Mr. Bradbury's narrative. His way of coming illustrates the manner in which Oregon gained some of her best people—the restless sailor element to which she has owed so much in a commercial way. Without the pioneer seamen, the farming people from the interior, remarkable as they were on land, would probably have remained comparatively torpid so far as trade and navigation were concerned, and thus been unable to develop a truly progressive industrial community.

Mr. Bradbury, it should be said, has not been personally identified with commercial enterprises in this state, but his recollections throw light upon the experience of his class of pioneers, and now given in some detail by him at the age of eighty-two, form a valuable contribution. The story illustrates how Oregon from the very first acted as sort of a magnet, attracting hither many of the most unsettled of persons, from sea as well as land; but once getting them, kept them as permanent citizens, and offered them, on the whole, the best environment for development of personal character, as well as social usefulness. One can hardly repress the thought, either, that there was something of a subtle providential selection bringing citizens to a community that even more positively than the old thirteen states was dedicated to the doctrine of human liberty and equality.