Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/205



EWING YOUNG AND His ESTATE 193

consented to go and settle in Oregon, with, however, this ex- press understanding that if I had deceived him, woe be to me.'

"33

AN IMPEDIMENT is INTERPOSED THAT NEARLY BRINGS TO

WRECK AND RUIN THE CAREER OF YOUNG AND THE

PROSPECTS OF THE AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

ON THE WILLAMETTE

On the 8th of July the party set out for Oregon. Young had fifty horses, each of his men one or more, Kelley had six with a mule. They bought more as they passed through the settlements, so that when leaving the last settlement Young had 77 horses and mules. Kelley and the other five men had twenty-one. Young was taking leave of California. He had during four years of almost continuous activity as trapper and trader consistently met all the requirements made by the authorities there of foreigners to carry on these operations within its borders. He had in fact gone out of his way to uphold the forces of law and order. He was in good stand- ing. When he returned three years later he was able to secure concessions in the way of permission to purchase and drive out a considerable drove of cattle, while a representative of the Hudson's Bay Company with a similar purpose failed. 34 But on his arrival in Oregon in the fall of 1834 he was to pass under a cloud that was not fully lifted until this return. It was an ordeal so severe that not only was his own career dangerously near to being wrecked, but Samson-like he would in his blindness have pulled down to ruin the Oregon com- munity with him. A band of marauders with their booty of stolen animals attached themselves to the party of Young and Kelley as it moved northward. These horse thieves had been operating in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay. A vessel, the Cadboro, was at this time leaving San Francisco for Fort Vancouver. Through this means the governor of California despatched a careless and cruel charge against Young as the

33 Ibid.

34 Bane

34 Bancroft, History of California, v. IV, p. 86.

34 Bancroft, History of California, v. IV, p. 86. / Calif 01 ' " T "'