Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/381

Rh been laid, all else would naturally follow us a matter of course, as there were others competent to continue the work.

The obligation to support my family and pay my debts was sacred to me, and I therefore gave the larger portion of my time to my own private affairs so long as I remained in Oregon. I did not then foresee the discovery of gold in California, and for this reason my only chance to pay, so far as I could see, was to remain and labor in Oregon. I had not the slightest idea of leaving that country until the summer of 1848. Before I left I had paid a small portion of my indebtedness. I always had faith that I should ultimately pay every dollar.

In the month of July, 1848 (if I remember correctly), the news of the discovery of gold in California reached Oregon. It passed from San Francisco to Honolulu, thence to Nesqualy, and thence to Fort Vancouver. At that very time there was a vessel from San Francisco in the Willamette River, loading with flour, the master of which knew the fact but concealed it from our people for speculative reasons, until the news was made public by the gentlemen connected with the Hudson Bay Company.

This extraordinary news created the most intense excitement throughout Oregon. Scarcely anything else was spoken of. We had vanquished the Indians, and that war for the time was almost forgotten. We did not know of the then late treaty of peace between Mexico and the United States; but we were aware of the fact that our government had possession of California; and we knew, to a moral certainty, that it would never be given up.

Many of our people at once believed the reported discovery to be true, and speedily left for the gold mines with pack animals. I think that at least two thirds of the male population of Oregon, capable of bearing arms, started for California in the summer and fall of 1848. The