Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/297

Rh Intercommunication would at first appear to be difficult between the different parts of the country, but I take a different view of it. Stocks of all kinds thrive exceedingly well, and they will in consequence always abound in the Territory. The soil affords every advantage for the making of good roads, and in process of time transportation must be comparatively cheap.

They consist principally of those belonging to the Hudson Bay Co., and where the missionaries have established themselves. They are as follows: In the western section Fort Simpson, Fort McLaughlin, Fort Langley, Nisqually, Cowlitz, Fort George, Vancouver, and Umpqua; Fort St. James, Barbine, Alexandria, Chilcouten, Kamloops (on Thompson River), Okanogan, Colville, and Walla Walla in the middle; and in the eastern Kootenai and Fort Hall. Fort Boise has been abandoned, as has also Kaima, a missionary settlement on the Kooscooske.

These are all small settlements, consisting of a palisade or picket with bastions at their corners around the houses and stores of the company, sufficient to protect them against the Indians, but in no way to be considered as forts. A few Indians have lodges near them who are dependent on the fort for their food and employment.

These forts, being situated for the most part near the great fisheries, are frequented by the Indians, who bring their furs to trade for blankets, and so forth, at the same time they come to lay in their yearly supply of salmon. Vancouver is the principal depot from which all supplies are furnished and returns made. At Vancouver the village is separated from the fort and near the river. In addition to its being the depot of the Hudson Bay Co., there is now attached to it the largest farm of the Puget Sound Co., the stockholders in which are generally the officers and servants of the Hudson Bay Co. They have now farms in successful operation at Vancouver, Cowlitz, Nisqually, Colville, Fort Langley, and the Fualtine