Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/229

 SLACUM'S REPORT ON OREGON, 1836-7 221 hope to get to the United States in April, and trust the in- formation I may be enabled to lay before the Department of State may prove useful and interesting. I have used of my private funds about $1500, as the enclosed vouchers show. I shall most probably be compelled to draw on the department for my further expenses. I have the honor to be, sir, Your most obedient servant, WILLIAM A. SLACUM. To the Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, Secretary of State, Washington. No. 6. ALEXANDRIA, September 13, 1837. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the llth instant, and beg to ask a reference to my letters of June 7th, from Petic ; of July 7th, from Guay- mas ; of July 27th, from Mazatlan ; of October 10th, from San Bias and November 24th, from Honolulu. Those letters ex- plain the difficulties I had to encounter, and the reasons which influenced my conduct in going to the Sandwich islands, as the only practicable route by which I could carry into effect the orders I had the honor to receive from the President of the United States, through the Department of State, in No- vember, 1835. Those orders, directing me "to embrace the earliest opportunity to proceed to and up the Oregon, by such conveyances as may be thought to afford the greatest facilities for attaining the end in view," in my humble opinion, fully justified my chartering the brig Loriot, to convey me to the river Columbia. On the subject of freight, I beg leave to assure you, that none was taken on board, either on my ac- count, or that of any other person. The provisions, accoutre- ments etc., of the American settlers from the Willhamett, whom I conveyed from that river to Bodega, were taken aboard the Loriot free of expense, as the agreement of the settlers, now