Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 14.djvu/37



LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846 29

choice of his future home, from the midst of situations the most advantageous and lovely. Here stood the ash, the pine and the poplar the ready materials which an Illinois man, axe in hand, wants but a few hours to convert into a family domicil; the river teemed with fine salmon, and the soil was rich, promising fruitful returns for labor bestowed on it.

But throughout the winter these enterprising people were, with few exceptions, dependent on the Hudson's Bay Company for the bread and meat which they ate, and the clothes which they wore ; stern necessities, and the clamors of suffering chil- dren, forced them to supplicate credit and assistance, which, to the honor of the company be it said, was never refused. Fear- ful, however, of demanding too much, many families told me that they lived during the winter on nothing more than boiled wheat and salted salmon ; and that the head of the family had prepared the land for his first crop without shoes on his feet, or a hat on his head. These excessive hardships have been of course hourly ameliorating; the emigrant of 1843 has pre- pared a house and surplus food for his countrymen of the next year ; ahd two roads being opened directly into the Wil- hammette valley, rendering a resort to the Columbia unneces- sary, has enabled the emigrants to bring in their wagons, horses and cattle, and find homes among their own countrymen.

The apprehensions of want are no longer entertained; the new arrivals improve in character and condition; a cash cur- rency is likely soon to bd the law of the land, and the houses are more and more fashioned to convenience, with an occasional attempt at nicety. The Hudson's Bay Company is no longer begged for charity, or besought for credit; but is slowly re- ceiving back its generous loans and advances.

But I am sorry, in connexion with this subject, to report that the conduct of some of our countrymen towards the company has been highly reprehensible. The helping hand held out by the company to the early American emigrants not only relieved them from actual distress at a critical moment, but furnished them with means to make a beginning at cultivation, and un-