Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/407

Rh. To this proposal Young assented only upon Slacum's agreeing to make the purchase in his own name.

This obduracy in maintaining his self-respect compelled the admiration of Doctor McLoughlin, and when the cattle company of 1836-' 37 went to California on Slacum's hired vessel, Young went as captain, and while there secured from Figueroa the retraction of his injurious charges, as well as a settlement of his pecuniary affairs.

It is doubtful if the cattle expedition would have been a success under any other man in Oregon. The financial agent and secretary was Philip L. Edwards, of the mission, who, in the diary kept upon his journey, continually complained and lamented over the hardships encountered. In the struggle with wild cattle, wild men, and wild mountain travel, Edwards was often ready to faint. On one occasion, when "Alp on Alp" seemed to close the trail before them, it is recorded in Edwards' diary that Young said to him, "Now, if you are a philosopher, show yourself one!' But poor Edwards was fain to leave philosophizing to the mountain men whom custom had hardened for their irritating tasks. The pen of the historian can hardly honor adequately the part played in commonwealth-building by this class of men. In every great emergency they accepted the post of danger or the heavy burden. They neither shrank from peril nor asked for rewards.

Young's share in the cattle company, which was considerable, put him in a position of independence once more, and the respect which his resolute character inspired was making him one of the foremost men in the colony,