Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/226

164 seated, as also six gentlemen, beside the tall, white-headed one." The narrator was the clerk of the visiting missionaries. He was invited to the quarters ot the company's clerks, and makes unfavorable comment upon the discrimination. He gives us description of the fort, which was as Jason Lee found it and knew it for many years, and is worth repeating:

"Fort Vancouver was a stockade, built with fir logs about ten inches diameter, set four feet in the ground and rising twenty feet above, enclosing at that time two aCres of ground. The storehouses were all built of hewn timber. Floors were mostly rough boards, except the governor's house and office, which were planed. The doors and gates were all locked from the inside and a guard stationed over the gate. In front of the governor's house was a circular double stairway leading into the main hall. In the center of the semicircle was a twentyfour pound cannon mounted on a ship's carriage, and two smaller pieces, with shot piled in order about the guns, which were pointed toward the main entrance. "At noon the fort bell rang; clerks and gentlemen all met at the common dinner table, which was well supplied with salmon, potatoes, wild fowl, and usually with venison and bread. Dinner over, most of the gentlemen passed a compliment over a glass of wine, and then retired to the social hall to smoke their pipes, sometimes filling the room full as it could hold with smoke. At one o'clock the bell rang again and all went to business.

"The party had no sooner arrived than the carpenter was ordered to make an extra table, which was set in the governor's office. Usually one or two of the head clerks or gentlemen traders were invited to dine at this table with the ladies, for whom it had been specially prepared. . . . The utmost cordiality was manifested, the kindest attention paid, and such articles as the missionary party wanted were supplied. These goods were to be paid for at double the cost in London." (The italics are Mr. Gray's, and go to show how small a matter became in his eyes an extortionate robbery. Even now English goods sell for more than double their London value in Vancouver or Portland.) A point of which Mr. Gray makes much complaint is the "oppressive monopoly," exercised by the company in its terms regarding cattle and stock, of which there were none in 1834 save those belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, and in 1836 the few additional head which had been driven across the plains by the party of Spalding and Whitman, and in 1834 by Jason Lee. These hard terms are given in Mr. Gray's statement: "Dr. Whitman concluded that more cattle than the mission had were necessary, and that a few cows were wanted. The proposition was made to Dr. McLoughlin. 'Certainly, you can have what cattle you want on the conditions we supply them to the company's servants and the settlers in the Wallamet.' 'What are those conditions?' asked Dr. Whitman. 'Why, in case of cattle,' said McLoughlin, 'you can take what you want from our band, break them in, and when the company requires them return them. Cows we will let you have, that you may be supplied with milk. When you return the cows you also return any calves.' "The question was asked also what would be expected in case any of the borrowed stock was lost or killed, and Dr. McLoughlin replied that they could be paid for or replaced by cattle from the missionaries' herd. These terms are considered most oppressive by Mr. Gray. The company had, it is true, more cattle than the missionaries, and required more. The cattle were their own, and evidently the company might have made harder terms in these circumstances. Probably there is not a wealthy stockman in Oregon today who will make as liberal arrangements with a poor neighbor. No compensation for the use of the cattle was mentioned.

This digression may be excused because the conditions Jason Lee met at Vancouver were identical. He was received as hospitably as man could be, and with the respect and deference due him as a clergyman. He was not quite sure that his mission met Dr. McLoughlin's approval at first, but his frank kindness soon won Mr. Lee's confidence. The appeal of the four Indians who had gone to St. Louis still rang in his ears, and he counseled with the Doctor about going