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I trust I may be able to present the theme on which I am to speak to-night, through my treatment of it will necessarily he inadequate, in a way that will possess some interest for this audience. My discourse is to be devoted to the discovery and exploration of Oregon, and to the first settlement in Oregon, of which Astoria was the seat. I can give the subject but slight treatment, yet I indulge some hope that I may present some parts of the history in a way that may entertain you.

Man, says the poet, is given power to look before and after; and he adds that surely this power was not given "to rust in us unused." Another remarks that if we are indifferent to our ancestors and to what we have derived from them, we are not likely to look to the welfare of our posterity.

I believe it is with satisfaction that our people note an increasing interest in the history of the "Origins of Oregon." Attention to this history must become, more and more, a part