Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/121

Rh 1850, and Nelson, in April 1, 1851—from the interference of one district court with the processes of another. Thus it was impossible, for a time, to maintain order in Judge Pratt's district (the second) in two instances, sentences for contempt passed by him being practically nullified by the interference of the judge of the first district.

Among the changes occurring at this time none were more perceptible than the diminishing importance of the Hudson's Bay Company's business in Oregon. Not only the gold mania carried off their servants, but the naturalization act did likewise, and also the prospect of a title to six hundred and forty acres of land. And not only did their servants desert them, but the United States revenue officers and Indian agents pursued them at every turn. When Thornton was at Puget Sound in 1849 he caused the arrest of Captain Morris, of the Harpooner, an English vessel which had transported Hill's artillery company to Nisqually, for giving the customary grog to the Indians and half-breeds hired to discharge the vessel in the absence of white labor. Captain Morris was held to bail in five hundred dollars by Judge Bryant, to appear before him at the next term of court. What the decision would have been can only be conjectured, as in the absence of the judges the case never came to trial. Morris was released on a promise never to return to those waters.

But these annoyances were light compared to those which arose out of the establishment of a port of