Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/288

 established before the government survey was made, in order that they might be able to describe their boundaries by courses, distances, metes, and bounds, and to show where their lines intersected the government lines, claims being generally bounded according to the fancy or convenience of the owner, instead of by the rectangular method adopted in the public surveys.

The privilege of retaining their claims as they had taken them was one that had been asked for by memorial, but which had not been granted without qualification in the land law. Thurston had explained how the letter of the law was to be evaded, and had predicted that the surveyor general would be on the side of the people in this matter. Preston, as had been foreseen, was lenient in allowing irregular boundaries; a map of that portion of Oregon covered by donation claims presenting a curious patchwork of parallelograms with angles obtuse, and triangles with angles of every degree. Another suggestion of the surveyor general was that settlers on filing their notifications, date of settlement, and making proof of citizenship, should state whether they were married; for in the settlement of Oregon and the history of its division among the inhabitants, marriage had been made to assume unusual importance. Contrary to all precedent, the women of this remote region were placed by congress in this respect upon an equality with the men—it may be in acknowledgment of their having earned in the same manner and measure a right to be considered creditors of the government, or the men may have made this arrangement that they through their wives might control more land. It had, it is true, limited this equality to those who were married, or had been married on starting for Oregon,