thousand persons. Many of them suffered more than the preceding immigrations. They also were assisted by Dr. McLoughlin as he had the immigrants of 1843 and 1844. For this he was charged with disloyalty by one of the British spies then at Vancouver. Stephen Staats was one of the immigrants of 1845. In his address before the Oregon Pioneer Association, in 1877, he said: "We reached Oregon City in thirteen days (overland) from The Dalles (two of which we were without food), and on our arrival, those of us in advance were kindly and hospitably received by old Dr. McLoughlin. He immediately furnished us with provisions, without money and without price, and extended to us favors which we were ever ready to reciprocate. I am not one of those who wish to cast reflections on the character of Dr. McLoughlin, or wish to impute to him anything wanting in the kindest feeling towards the immigrants of 1845. For well do I know, that but for him, many would have been more embarrassed in making provision for the coming winter's necessities than they were. And I have yet to see the immigrant of 1845, who, when speaking of the 'Old Man Doctor,' does not speak in high commendation of his actions towards the immigrants of that year." The wise, humane, and paternal foresight of Dr. McLoughlin was of great assistance to the immigrants of 1845. In the McLoughlin Document he says: "When the immigration of 1842 came, we had enough of breadstuffs in the country for one year, but as the immigrants reported that next season there would be a great immigration, it was evident,

if there was not a proportionate increase of seed sown in 1843 and 1844, there would be a famine in the country in 1845, which would lead to trouble, as those that had families, to save them from starvation, would be obliged to have recourse to violence to get food for them. To avert this I freely supplied the immigrants of 1843 and 1844 with the necessary articles to open farms, and by these means avoided the evils. In short I afforded every assistance to the immigrants so long as they required it, and by management I kept peace in the country, and in some cases had to put up with a great deal."

The Quality of the Early Immigrants.

The early immigrants to Oregon were not mendicants nor tramps. It is true some of them were of a roving disposition; probably a few were of the improvident class. Most of them were forceful, strong men and women, physically and mentally; strong also in their Americanism, and filled with the racial instinct to follow the western course of Empire. They came to Oregon as home-builders. Many of them had their lineage from the pioneers who first settled the Atlantic Coast, particularly the southern part of it. Descendants of these pioneers had crossed the mountains and were the hardy and courageous pioneers of Kentucky and Tennessee in the early, perilous, and heroic days of Daniel Boone, John Sevier, George Rogers Clark, and James Robertson. The ancestors of some of these Oregon immigrants had taken part in the great war of the American Revolution on the At

lantic Coast, and had then assisted in upbuilding civilization in the Middle West. These forefathers had won the Middle West. These immigrants came to win Oregon. The grandfathers and fathers of some of them had taken part in the war of 1812, and in the later Indian wars. A few of these immigrants were veterans of the war of 1812 and of these Indian wars. There were immigrants who had taken active part in the troubles with the Mormons and had assisted in driving them out of Western Missouri. It was of this stock that parts of Missouri, and especially the western part of that state, had been then largely peopled, and many of these Oregon immigrants had settled' there temporarily before coming to Oregon. A great majority of the immigrants to Oregon from 1843 to 1846, inclusive, and of some of the later immigrants, were from the Southern States. They, and their ancestors for many generations, had been born and brought up in the South. Most of them had the good qualities and were of the high type of American citizenship characteristic of the white people of the South. They were mostly plain people, but they and their ancestry were of good class. Theirs was an inheritance of indomitable will, high courage, and noble purposes. Their ancestors had conquered, settled, and upbuilded the country from the seaboards of Virginia and the Carolinas to the Mississippi River.24 Oregon was another land to conquer, to settle, and to upbuild. There were also in these early immigrations a number of men and women, descendants of 24 See Theodore Roosevelt's Winning of the West.

the sturdy peoples who settled in New England, and in other Northern States. There were a few men who were attracted to Oregon by the love of adventure incident to the journey and to the settlement of a new country. There were also a few men, born outside of the United States, who allied themselves with the Americans, and became identified with the Americans in Oregon, and subsequently were admitted as citizens of the United States.

The places these immigrants left to come to Oregon, although some of these places were comparatively new, were mostly over-supplied with unsold agricultural products - unsalable for want of markets. The early books and pamphlets on Oregon and the stirring speeches of Oregon enthusiasts, who had never been to Oregon, pictured Oregon as the traditional land of plenty and of "milk and honey." There was, too, an abiding faith in the future, a certain improvidence born of strong manhood and womanhood. They were filled with confidence in their ability to conquer all troubles and overcome all difficulties. They did not think of failure - they intended to succeed. Then, too, the journey was longer and more arduous than they had anticipated. Their greatest dangers and troubles were after they had entered the Oregon Country and reached the Columbia River. All east of that river, with its hardships, was comfortable compared with the troubles and dangers to come. They did not come seeking, nor did they seek charity or alms. The true, honest, brave-hearted immigrants wished to pay for what they obtained, and did as soon as they were able

to do so. They were met by conditions which they could not, or did not, foresee. Dr. John McLoughlin, with his great, manly prescience, appreciated all this. He sold provisions and clothing to those who could pay; equally, he sold on credit, to those who could not, without references, without collaterals. He understood the quality of most of these pioneers - he was unfortunately in error as to some of them. It was not charity on the part of Dr. McLoughlin, it was the exercise of that great quality, which he possessed in an extraordinary degree - humanity.

I regret to say that a few of these early immigrants, at times, without cause, were rude to Dr. McLoughlin and abusive of his Company, and of his Country. Some of these did not care - others had been prejudiced by false information, which they had read or heard before they left their homes, or on the way to Oregon. Some, I still more regret to say, accepted the credit extended to them by Dr. McLoughlin, and never paid. But the payment to the Hudson's Bay Company of these bad debts was assumed by Dr. McLoughlin. The aggregate amount is not definitely known, for Dr. McLoughlin suffered, in many ways, in silence. But it was a very large sum. Those who paid in full could not requite his kindness to them.

The real Oregon pioneers are these overland immigrants who came to Oregon prior to 1847. The immigrants of 1846 were a long way on their journey to Oregon when the Boundary Treaty was made. They left on their journey early in May, 1846. This treaty was signed at Washington, June