Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/409

Rh That this was the true cause there can be no reasonable doubt. In defending himself from the charge by the London company, of encouraging American colonization, he discriminates wisely and well. What right had he to discourage Christian missionaries who were doing what the company had neglected to do for the Indians? This reproof caused the company to send out a missionary of the established church, whose insubordination and impertinence soon procured him his passage back to England.

As to American traders, he could not expel them from a territory held jointly by Great Britain and the United States; but he could and did beat them in a fair business deal. Courtesy was their due, and this they received. Scientists and travelers were also welcomed at the fort. Colonists, while they were not encouraged, could not be left to suffer from illness or hunger at the very gates of Vancouver. In short, while he desired to serve the company faithfully he could not neglect to perform his duty as a Christian and a gentleman. If they did not approve of that, he would step down and out. What else he said to the "old gentleman in Ten-church Street" is not known, but it is known that he returned from a visit to London in 1838, made to meet the accusations against his loyalty, with even more liberal sentiments than those laid to his charge; and it is well known in Oregon that when the existence of the colony was threatened on more than one occasion his humanity was its salvation. Yet it was not altogether Kelley's Mexican costume that excluded Kelley from Vancouver society. Other travelers who had arrived in unpresentable apparel had been made presentable by the loan of articles from the wardrobes of the factors and partisans resident there at that time. It could not be said either that Kelley was uninteresting or uneducated.