mariner to sight the
Columbia, and the American, Robert Gray, was the first to enter its
mouth, thus proving Heceta's conjecture of a great river. Then for
Great Britain came Vancouver and Broughton; then the Americans, Lewis
and Clark and the Astorians; and finally Thompson, the British
Nor'wester and the first man to explore the great river from its source
to the sea. Then during the War of 1812 the American post on the
Columbia passed to the North-West Company of Montreal; and if it had
not been for the 'joint occupancy' agreement between Great Britain and
the United States in 1818, Oregon would undoubtedly have remained
British. But with the 'joint occupancy' arrangement leaving
sovereignty in dispute, M'Loughlin of Oregon knew well that in the end
sovereignty would be established, as always, by settlement.

First came Jedediah Smith, the American fur trader, overland. He was
robbed to the shirt on his back by Indians at the Umpqua river. There
and then came the great choice to M'Loughlin--should he save the life
of rivals, or leave them to be murdered by {126} Indians? He sent Tom
Mackay to the Umpqua, punished the robber Indians, secured the pilfered
furs, and paid the American for them. Then came American missionaries
overland--the Lees and Whitman. Then came Wyeth, the trader and
colonizer from Boston. The company fought Wyeth's trade and bought him
out; but when the turbulent Indians crowded round the 'White Eagle,'
chief of Fort Vancouver, asking, 'Shall we kill--shall we kill the
"Bostonnais"?' M'Loughlin struck the chief plotter down, drove the
others from the fort, and had it noised about among the tribes that if
any one struck the white 'Bostonnais,' M'Loughlin would strike him. At
the same time, M'Loughlin earnestly desired that the territory should
remain British. In 1838, at a council of the directors in London, he
personally urged the sending of a garrison of British soldiers, and
that the government should take control of Oregon in order to establish
British rights. His suggestions received little consideration. Had
not the company single-handed held all Rupert's Land for almost two
hundred years? Had they not triumphed over all rivals? They would do
so here.

But by 1843 immigrants were pouring over {127} the mountains by the
thousands. Washington Irving's _Astoria_ and _Captain Bonneville_, and
the political cry of 'Fifty-four forty or fight'--which meant American
possession of a