Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/9

    Volume X

The expedition of Lieutenants Warre and Vavasour to Oregon in 1845–6 has been noted by several writers, among them H. H. Bancroft in his History of Oregon. References to the same incident occur likewise in the written recollections of some of the pioneer settlers of the Willamette Valley, as, for example, those of Jesse Applegate. But the matter has never been made prominent because the fragmentary information available failed to reveal to anyone—either pioneer or historian—the real significance of that expedition which was in its very nature secret. It was known that the gentlemen concerned in it were British officers and it was supposed they were upon some secret mission to obtain information for their government respecting conditions in Oregon; it was also thought that they were spying upon Dr. McLoughlin, the local manager of the Hudson's Bay Company at the instance of Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Company's territories in America. Still, a good deal of mystery has surrounded the subject, the nearest approach to a correct interpre-