THE WORKS

OF

HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT.

VOLUME XXIX.

HISTORY OF OREGON.

VOL. I. 1834-1848.

SAN FRANCISCO:

THE HISTORY COMPANY, PUBLISHERS.

1886.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1886, by

HUBERT H. BANCROFT,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

All Rights Reserved.

PREFACE.

THE more remote in Oregon affairs has been given in my History of the Northwest Coast, which is indeed a part of the History of Oregon, as elsewhere explained. The later volumes deal with events which occurred within the memory of men now living; they are wrought out from yet more original sources, a large proportion of the facts herein presented never having before appeared in print. Obviously it is more difficult to treat fully and fairly a comparatively modern epoch, from absolutely crude material, than an earlier one which has been worked over by scholars for centuries. Of the hundreds of personal narratives which have been placed before me by those who assisted in making the history, no two wholly agree; and yet to the careful student, with all the evidence before him, the truth is generally clear.

The leading features of this history are not found in bloody conquests inspired by the thirst for gain and glory united to the hope of winning heaven, but in the more gentle purpose of adding to the enjoyments of earth by commerce and agriculture, the fur company, the missionaries of different sects soon converted into rival traders, and the middle class from the United States, all contributing of their several characteristics to form a society at once individual and independent.

It is in the missionary rather than in the commercial or agricultural elements that I find that romance which underlies all human endeavor before it becomes of interest sufficient for permanent preservation in the memory of mankind. A mountain-walled plain, between the coast elevations and the northern stretch of the great Andean range, with a fertile soil, a genial climate, and picturesque scenery, through a peculiar sequence of events become the western Utopia of the American states, and kindle in the breasts of those who here lay the foundations of a commonwealth the fire of patriotism, forever sacred even when fed by fallacies. The silent conquest of this area by men and women from the border, intent on empire, is a turning-point in the destinies of the country; and it is to me no less a pleasure than a duty to recognize the heroic in this conquest, and to present one more example of the behavior of the Anglo-Saxon race under the influence of American institutions.

Nor did the people of the earlier west enter upon these achievements without a well-defined purpose. Proselyting alone was not the object; nor yet traffic, nor even broad lands. There was present, besides the desire to secure for themselves and their descendants some small portion of this earth, the determination to plant here those pure moralities and fair civilities which belong to the higher Christian civilization; and one glance at the present condition of the people is sufficient to assure us that they succeeded. Aside from the somewhat antiquated sentiments of eternal justice and the rights of man as apart from man's power to enforce his rights, the quick extermination of the aborigines may be regarded as a blessing both