Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/401

 Peter Skene Ogden 369 birth and breeding. He was straightforward, intrepid, untiring, and devoted to the performance of his duties and obligations. These facts entitle him to the respect of all Oregon pioneers and their descendants. But there is more, which I shall now tell you, that explains our pres- ence here today, and why the Oregon pioneers and their descendants wish to honor him and his memory, and why they have erected this memorial stone, so that his grave will be identified, and we will show, in a measure, our appreciation of his brave and humanitarian actions in rescuing, in December, 1847, the survivors of the Whit- man massacre. The Boundary Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, settling the boundary line of the Oregon Country west of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, was made June 15, 1846. It was proclaimed as being in force by James K. Polk, President of the United States, August 5, 1846. By this Boundary Treaty the Hudson's Bay Company was given certain rights south of the boundary line, and the right to navigate the Columbia River south of the boundary line. But the effect was, that whereas, prior to the Boundary Treaty, the Hudson's Bay Company was not subject to import duties on its goods, it became liable to pay duties after the Treaty was made. The Hudson's Bay Company continued its posts in Oregon until some time after the Whitman massacre, in November, 1847. It should be borne in mind that many of the American settlers and immigrants in Oregon were somewhat hos- tile to the Hudson's Bay Company. It was a British cor- poration, whose chief business was collecting furs to be shipped to England. For many years it had had a prac- tical monopoly in the Oregon Country in buying furs, selling goods, buying wheat, making flour and lumber and largely controlling the activities of the country. It was this hostility which caused the Methodist mission- aries to bring, on the Lausanne, in 1840, machinery for