provided that such justices of the peace should not have the right to try offenders on any charge of felony made the subject of capital punishment, or to pass sentence affecting the life of any offender, or his transportation; and that in case of any offense, subjecting the person committing the same to capital punishment or to transportation, to cause such offender to be sent, in safe custody, for trial in the court of the Province of Upper Canada. As to how far this law applied to Indians or to others than British subjects or to residents of the Oregon Country under joint-occupancy, it is not necessary here to discuss. It certainly did not apply to citizens of the United States. So far as I can learn, Dr. McLoughlin was never appointed such a justice of the peace, but he caused his assistant James Douglas to be so appointed, at Fort Vancouver.

As under joint-occupancy it was doubtful if either the laws of the United States or of Great Britain were in force in the Oregon Country, it was necessary for some one to assume supreme power and authority over the Indians, in the Willamette Valley, until the Oregon Provisional Government was established, and over the remainder of the Oregon Country, at least, until the boundaryline treaty was made. It was characteristic of Dr. McLoughlin that he assumed and exercised such power and authority, until he ceased to be an officer of the Hudson's Bay Company. He did so without question. It is true that this might have been an odious tyranny under a different kind of a man. Under Dr. McLoughlin it was a kind of despotism, but a just and beneficent despotism,

under the circumstances. It was a despotism tempered by his sense of justice, his mercy, his humanity, and his common-sense. No man in the Oregon Country ever knew the Indian character, or knew how to control and to manage Indians as well as Dr. McLoughlin did. The few severe and extreme measures he took with them as individuals and as tribes were always fully justified by the circumstances. To have been more lenient might have been fatal to his Company, its employées, and the early white settlers in the Oregon Country. They were of the few cases where the end justifies the means. The unusual conditions justified the unusual methods.

The Oregon Provisional Government was not a government in the true meaning of the word, it was a local organization, for the benefit of those consenting. It had no true sovereignty. And yet it punished offenders. It waged the Cayuse Indian war of 1847-8, caused by the Whitman massacre. It would have executed the murderers if it had caught them, although the scenes of the massacre and of the war were several hundred miles beyond the asserted jurisdiction of the Oregon Provisional Government. And it would have been justified in case of such executions. The war was a necessity, law or no law. Every act of punitive or vindicatory justice to the Indians by Dr. McLoughlin is greatly to his credit. These acts caused peace in the Oregon Country and were beneficial to the Indians as well as to the whites, both British and American, and, in the end, probably saved numerous massacres and hundreds of

lives. Dr. McLoughlin was a very just and farseeing man. I shall presently tell how Dr. McLoughlin saved the immigrants of 1843 from great trouble and probable massacre by the Indians.

Early French Canadian Settlers.

After the death of Dr. McLoughlin there was found among his private papers a document in his own handwriting. This was probably written shortly prior to his death. It gives many interesting facts, some of which I shall presently set forth. This document was given to Col. J. W. Nesmith by a descendant of Dr. McLoughlin. It was presented to the Oregon Pioneer Association by Col. Nesmith in 1880. It was printed at length in the Transactions of that Association for that year, pages 46-55. I shall hereinafter refer to this document as "the McLoughlin Document." In the McLoughlin Document he says: "In 1825, from what I had seen of the country, I formed the conclusion, from the mildness and salubrity of the climate, that this was the finest portion of North America that I had seen for the residence of civilized man." The farm at Fort Vancouver showed that the wheat was of exceptionally fine quality. Dr. McLoughlin knew that where wheat grew well and there was a large enough area, that it would become a civilized country, especially where there was easy access to the ocean. Thus early he saw that what is now called Western Oregon was bound to be a populous country. It was merely a question of time. It was evidently with

this view that he located his land claim at Oregon City in 1829. If settlers came he could endeavor to have them locate in the Willamette Valley, and thus preserve, to a great extent, the fur animals in other parts of the Oregon Country, and especially north of the Columbia River.

The Hudson's Bay Company was bound, under heavy penalties, not to discharge any of its servants in the Indian country, and was bound to return them to the places where they were originally hired. As early as 1828 several French Canadian servants, or employées, whose times of service were about ended, did not desire to return to Canada, but to settle in Oregon. They disliked to settle in the Willamette Valley, notwithstanding its fertility and advantages, because they thought that ultimately it would be American territory, but Dr. McLoughlin told them that he knew "that the American Government and people knew only two classes of persons, rogues and honest men. That they punished the first and protected the last, and it depended only upon themselves to what class they would belong." Dr. McLoughlin later found out, to his own sorrow and loss, that he was in error in this statement. These French Canadians followed his advice. To allow these French Canadians to become settlers, he kept them nominally on the books of the Hudson's Bay Company as its servants. He made it a rule to allow none of these servants to become settlers unless he possessed fifty pounds sterling to start with. He loaned each of them seed and wheat to plant, to be returned from the produce of his farm, and sold him implements

and supplies at fifty per cent. advance on prime London cost. The regular selling The regular selling price at Fort Vancouver was eighty per cent. advance on prime London cost. Dr. McLoughlin also loaned each of these settlers two cows, the increase to belong to the Hudson's Bay Company, as it then had only a small herd, and he wished to increase the herd. If any of the cows died, he did not make the settler pay for the animal. If he had sold the cattle the Company could not supply other settlers, and the price would be prohibitive, if owned by settlers who could afford to buy, as some settlers offered him as high as two hundred dollars for a cow. Therefore, to protect the poor settlers against the rich, and to make a herd of cattle for the benefit of the whole country, he refused to sell to any one.

In 1825 Dr. McLoughlin had at Fort Vancouver only twenty-seven head of cattle, large and small. He determined that no cattle should be killed, except one bull-calf every year for rennet to make cheese, until he had an ample stock to meet all demands of his Company, and to assist settlers, a resolution to which he strictly adhered. The first animal killed for beef was in 1838. Until that time the Company's officers and employées had lived on fresh and salt venison and salmon and wild fowl.

In August 1839, the expedition of Sir Edward Belcher was at Fort Vancouver. Dr. McLoughlin was not then at Fort Vancouver. He probably had not returned from his trip to England in 1838-9. James Douglas was in charge. Although