Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/362

352 In the work on the Northwest Coast, we again see Bancroft's predilection for early voyages. The first half of Volume I, including the Spanish explorations of the coast, belonged to Oak's field, and was written by him. Bancroft wrote most of the remainder of the two volumes, which included the maritime fur trade, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the Astor enterprise, the Northwest and Hudson Bay companies, and the later American fur trade.

A hundred pages on the "Oregon Question" written by Mrs. Victor for Oregon were incorporated in the second volume of the History of the Northwest Coast. She had taken the American side of the case, a view with which Mr. Bancroft was not in sympathy. By his order, Mr. Oak rewrote the subject from an English standpoint. He added chapter fifteen, but to some extent made use of her work in preparing chapter sixteen. Mrs. Victor always claimed that he merely altered it, Oak himself that he rewrote it. The remainder of her manuscript was retained and printed as chapter eighteen.

The volume on Washington, Idaho, and Montana, was written wholly by Mrs. Victor, a task for which she was fitted by her work on early Oregon history.

The History of Oregon was also her work, a fact which has been known and fully recognized by prominent Oregonians since the day of its publication. She had contemplated writing such a work even before the beginning of Mr. Bancroft's project, and it was only a realization of her inability to compete single handed with the capital and other resources at his disposal which caused her to enter his employ. In collecting material within the state, she had the assistance of such pioneer families as her friends the Applegates and McBrides, and among others, of Judge Deady and Elwood Evans. Valuable data concerning Hudson Bay rule in Oregon were fur-