Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/273



LOWNSDALE LETTER TO THURSTON 233

had thrown all into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company (published in a dispatch from the consul at Tepic, the descrip- tions of the articles or substances being kept from the public for fear of the cause of the transfer of property had to be made before it could be seen) ; the purport of the treaty was to give sixteen miles square to the Hudson's Bay Compa'ny at each trading post, but during the session of the legislature in Dec. '46 the company's express was brought over the mountains, bringing the true treaty. But he was again foiled, if he could not have time to make the papers correspond with the treaty before publication therefore, although the members of that body insisted to have the favor of looki'ng at the papers brought by the express, not a single individual American could get that favor, nor did any publication show the treaty, until an American vessel brought files by sea, and in the debate concern- ing the removal of the reservoir, the member from Vancouver cited in evidence of the facts necessary to carry their point "the Hudson's Bay Company's mill (not Doctor McLaughlin's) is a public mill." But the treaty came three days after this, and the mill and claim of land with that splendid water power belonged to John McLoughlin. A'nd the member from Lewis, alias Doct. Tolmie of the Hudson's Bay Company's chief clerk, fell from his post, and now after the true definition of the treaty giving special privileges to the Puget Sound Agricul- tural Society, he fell into the management and head of the said society but yet returned 'not only to his station in fort Nis- qually but continues to this day, as does Doctor McLaughlin, the chief governor of the Hudson's Bay Company's business as effectually as they ever did, and although the said John McLaughlin and said Tolmie have said to change positions, and intend to profit by the treaty after their avowal of their intentions to apply and take the oath of allegiance to the United States, I should not be surprised if they refuse. And the said McLaughlin is selling lots to the people of the United States, and he at the same time a subject of Great Britain the facts have so often been talked over with their admission of these facts, it is useless to refer to individual testimony, for they are notorious. How it is that they are permitted to have such a hold on our government that they should be permitted even to the throwing houses down and putting the American occupant into prison is a mystery that is hard to solve and it says not a little of the forbearance of an American people, particularly of those in Oregon.