Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/74



"The Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer," by Peter H. Burnett, has become a very scarce book. It contains what is probably the most valuable single account of some six years of the pioneer epoch of Oregon. It was written by a painstaking, fair and able observer, who had a prominent and creditable part in the history he narrates. He had the great advantage of a journal and other notes which were faithful, contemporary records. Upon these he based his "Recollections." Mr. Burnett's great activity as a correspondent, and his concern to be just and true, naturally resulted in "his material, even, partaking of the definite, clear and complete character of history. will reprint Chapters III, IV, V, and VI, which cover the portion of the book pertaining directly to Oregon. Editor.

In the fall of 1842 I moved to Weston, in Platte County, having purchased an interest in the place. During the winter of 1842-43 the Congressional report of Senator Appleton in reference to Oregon fell into my hands, and was read by me with great care. This able report contained a very accurate description of that country. At the same time there was a bill pending in Congress, introduced in the Senate by Doctor Linn, one of the Senators from Missouri, which proposed to donate to each immigrant six hundred and forty acres of land for himself, and one hundred and sixty acres for each child. I had a wife and six children, and would, therefore, be entitled to sixteen hundred acres. There was a fair prospect of the ultimate passage of the bill.

I saw that a great American community would grow up, in the the space of a few years, upon the shores of the distant Pacific; and I felt an ardent desire to aid in this most important enterprise.