Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/299

 RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OLD PIONEER. 289 As already stated, a portion of the immigrants left their cattle at Walla Walla, This they did under an agreement with Mr. Me K inlay, thru in charge of the fort, that we should have the same munber and description of cattle in the Wil- lamette Valley from tin- herds of the Hudson's Bay Company. When we arrived at Vancouver, Dr. McLoughlin and Mr. Douglas candidly stated to us that our American tame cattle would suit us much better than the cattle of the company, and they advised us to bring our cattle from Walla Walla during the next spring. The same advice was given to all the immigrants who left their cattle at Walla Walla. We all saw at once that this advice was not only generous, but practically sound. Mr. Applegate, as I understood at the time, made the same arrangement with Mr. McKinlay that others of us did. That Mr. Applegate sold or mortgaged his cattle at Walla Walla for supplies must be a mistake. He needed but little if anything in that line; and to have mort- gaged so many cattle for so small an amount would have been the greatest of folly. He could not have needed provisions, so far as I can remember, as he must have purchased wheat and potatoes from Dr. Whitman like most of us. On arriving at Vancouver. Mr. Applegate, no doubt, found a very different state of things from what he anticipated when starting from Missouri. He did find Dr. McLoughlin and Mr. Douglas to be much of gentlemen; for it was very difficult indeed for any man. who was himself a gentleman, to keep tin- company of those two men and not find out that they were both gentlemen in the true sense of that term. Mr. Apple- u r ate no doubt concluded that, if these men were really op- posed to American immigrants, they took the most extraor- dinary way of showing it. That Mr. Applegate purchased of the company at Vancouver some supplies on credit is very probable, because he was amply gcxKl for all he engaged to pay. He was honesty personified, and was an admirable worker, both as a farmer and surveyor. lie also had a fine band of American cattle; and such cattle were then the most valuable pri perty in Oregon. .Jesse Applegate and Daniel