"Within a few years several Americans, of whom the writer is one, have crossed the Rocky Mts., to the mouth of the Columbia, with objects entirely unconnected with trade or commerce. Mine was a desire to see a new country, a love of adventure for its own sake, and an enthusiastic fondness for natural history. The party with which I traveled left Independence, Mo., about the latter part of April, 1834, and arrived at the British Fort, Vancouver, in September, having performed the whole journey on horseback. From this time until October, 1836, with the exception of the first winter which I passed at the Sandwich Islands, my residence was in the Territory of Oregon. Dr. McLoughlin, chief factor, treated me with uniform and singular kindness, supplying all my wants and furnishing me with every facility in the prosecution of my plans. This is, I believe, the uniform character of the Superintendents of British forts in that country. Travelers, naturalists, and all who are not traders are kindly and hospitably treated, but the moment a visitor is known to trade a beaver skin from an Indian, that moment he is ejected from the community. The company has a sum of money amounting to several thousand pounds sterling, laid aside at Vancouver for the sole purpose of opposing all who may come to interfere with its monopoly, by purchasing at exhorbitant prices all the furs in possession of the Indians, and thus forcing the settler to come to terms or driving him from the country. If it be an individual who is thus starved into submission he then usually clears a piece of land on the Willamette River, takes an Indian wife, and purchases furs of the natives, which, by previous contract, he is bound to sell to the company at an advance which is fixed by the governor.
Ft. Vancouver, the principal trading post of the Oregon, stands on the north bank of the river, about 90 miles from the mouth. The fort consists of several dwellings, storehouses, workshops, etc., all of frame arranged together in quadrilateral form, and surrounded by a stockade of pine logs about 20 ft. high. The Ft. has no bastions, and contains no armament. There are, to be sure, 4 great guns frowning in front of the governor's mansion, 2 long 18s and 2 9-pounders, but two of them have long been spiked and the others are unfit for service.
The rainy season begins here about the middle of October and continues until the first of April. During this period the weather is almost uniformly dull, foggy, or rainy. Sometimes rain falls incessantly for the space of 2 or 3 weeks. Occasionally, during the winter months, there will be a light fall of snow, and in the winter of 1835-6 the river was frozen over. The intensity of cold, however, continued but a few days and was said to be very unusual. The general range of the thermometer, (Fahr.) during that season was from 36-48 degrees, but for 3 or 4 days was as low as 25 degrees.
In the vicinity of Ft. Vancouver, the cattle graze during the whole winter; no stabling or stall feeding is ever requisite, as the extensive plains produce the finest and most abundant crops of excellent prairie grass. In choosing a site for settlement on the main river, it is always necessary to bear in mind the periodical inundations. Ft. Vancouver itself, though built on a high piece of land at a distance of 600 yards from the common rise of the tides, is sometimes almost reached by the freshets of early spring. The soil here, on both sides of the river is a rich black loam, the base being basaltic rock.
The face of the country from Ft. George, (Astoria,) to Vancouver, a distance of 80 miles, is very much of a uniform character, consisting of alluvial meadows, along the river-side, alternating with forests of oak, pine, etc., while behind are extensive plains, some of which receive estuaries of the river, while others are watered by lakes or ponds. The pine forests are very extensive, the trees being of great size, and the timber extraordinarily beautiful. All the timber of the genus pinus is gigantic. I measured with Dr. Gairdner, surgeon of the fort, a pine of the species Douglass, which had been prostrated by the wind. Its height was above 200 ft., and its circumference 45 feet. Large as was this specimen, its dimensions are much exceeded by one measured by the late David Douglas. The height of this tree was nearly 300 ft., and the circumference 56 ft. Cones of this pine, according to Mr. D., were 12 to 15 inches long, resembling in size and form sugar loaves. Oak timber of various kinds is abundant along the river, as well as button wood, balsam, poplar, ash, sweet gum, beech, and many other useful kinds, but no hickory or walnut. The governor of Ft. Vancouver, who is an active agriculturist, has exerted himself for several years in raising whatever appears adapted to the soil. Wheat, rye, barley, pease, and culinary vegetables of all kinds are raised in ample quantity. Fruits of various kinds, apples, peaches, plums, etc., do remarkably well. I remember being particularly struck, upon my arrival at Vancouver in the autumn, with the display of apples in the garden of the fort. Trees were crowded with fruit, so that every limb had to be sustained with a prop. Apples were literally packed along the branches, and so closely that I could compare them to nothing more aptly than ropes of onions. In the vicinity of Walla Walla or the Ney [z] Perce's Fort, the country in every condition for many miles exhibits an arid and cheerless prospect. The soil is deep sand, and the plain upon which the fort stands produces nothing but bushes of aromatic wormwood. Along the borders of the small streams, however, the soil is exceedingly rich and productive, and on these strips of land the superintendent raises his corn and the vegetables necessary for the consumption of his people. The prong-horned antelope occasionally ranged these plains; black-tailed or mule deer is found in the vicinity; grouse of several species are very abundant, and large prairie hare is common. In autumn and winter, in the vicinity of Ft. Vancouver, ducks, geese, and swans swarm in immense numbers. These are killed by the Indians and taken to the Ft. as articles of trade. For a single duck, one load of powder and shot is given; for a goose, 2; and for a swan, 4 loads. For deer 10 loads of ammunition, or a bottle of rum is the usual price. Early in May salmon are first seen entering the river, and the Columbia and all its tributaries teem with these delicious fish. The Indians take great numbers by various modes, subsisting almost wholly on them during their stay, and drying and packing them away in thatched huts to be used for their winter store. Salmon also forms a chief article of food for the inmates of the fort, and hundreds of casks are salted down every season.
About 20 miles above this, in the Wallamet Valley, is the spot chosen by the Methodist missionaries for their settlement, and here also, a considerable number of retired servants of the company had established themselves. The soil of this delightful valley is rich beyond comparison, and the climate considerably milder than that of Vancouver. Rain rarely falls, even in the winter season, but dews are sufficiently heavy to compensate for its absence. The epidemic of the country, ague, is rarely known here. In short, the Wallamet Valley is a terrestrial paradise, to which I have known some to exhibit so strong an attachment as to declare that notwithstanding the few privations which must necessarily be experienced by settlers of a new country, no consideration would ever induce them to return to their former homes."
J. K. T. [Townsend].
Washington, Jan. 26, 1843.
St. Louis New Era, Tuesday, February 28, 1843.