Friend Penn: I reached here on yesterday, and the grass is now as luxuriant as a wheat field. Provisions are abundant here, and Doctor McLoughlin (who is the most liberal and hospitable man in the world,) furnishes the emigrants with wheat to be paid for in cash or in wheat next year. At the Cascades we met provisions sent us by the Doctor, and all purchased who applied, even without money. Two boats have been sent us with provisions, and the Doctor has lent two boats to the emigrants free of charge. We find him doing everything to aid the emigrants; and those who are here in the Wallamette Valley, are as hospitable as they could possibly afford to be. Business is very brisk, and labor finds ready employment and prompt payment at high prices. Necessaries of all kinds can be procured at Vancouver.
Most of the emigrants have reached here with their cattle and baggage, and will soon have their wagons here also. We find that cattle bear a fine price here and will sell readily. Cows at from $50 to $75, oxen at from $50 to $100 per yoke; labor $1 per day; beef from 5 to 6 cents; salt salmon $9 to $10 per barrel of about 300 pounds; wheat $1; flour $4 per 100 pounds. Anything can be sold here. Butter from 25 to 37½ cents; sugar, tea, coffee, and dry goods—plenty. American horses bear better prices than they do in the States.
The country exceeds my expectations, and certainly if man can not supply all his wants here he can not anywhere. Lieutenant Fremont, who bears this, can give you further information. I must close as he leaves immediately.
PETER H. BURNETT.
Letter of Peter H. Burnett's, taken from the Ohio Statesman of October 23, 1844, which quotes it from the Globe, Washington:
Linnton, Oregon, July 25, 1844.
I am here in our new town, which we have named as above, in respect for Doctor Linn's services for this territory. Gen. M. McCalla [M. M. McCarver] and myself have laid out the town together. He is a gentleman from Iowa Territory, and laid out Burlington, the seat of government. He is an enterprising man. Our place is ten miles from Vancouver, on the west bank of the Wallamette River, at the head of navigation, and three or four miles above the mouth of the Wallamette, and twenty-five miles below the Wallamette Falls. I have no doubt but that this place will be the great commercial town in the territory. We are selling lots at $50 each, and sell them fast at that. At the falls there is quite a town already. I own two lots in Oregon City (the town at the falls). They are said to be worth $200 each. I got them of Doctor McLoughlin for two lots here in Linnton. I was six weeks at Vancouver, where myself and family were most hospitably entertained by Doctor McLoughlin, free of charge. He has been a great friend to me, and has done much for this emigration generally. I find provisions high—pork 10 cents, potatoes 40 cents, flour $4 per hundred.
But I find it costs me a little, even less to live here than at Weston. I paid for wood the last year I lived at Weston $75, for corn and fodder $50, all of which is saved here. We use much less pork here than in Missouri. The salmon are running now and will continue to run until October next. They generally commence running the last of February and end in October. I have had several messes of fresh salmon. At this point we purchase of the Indians ducks, geese, swans, salmon, potatoes, feathers, and venison, for little or nothing. Ducks, four loads; geese, eight loads; swans, ten loads; salmon, four loads of powder and shot each. Feathers cost about twelve and a half cents a pound. There are more ducks, etc., here than you ever saw; also pheasants in great numbers. They remain here all the winter. I have hunted very little, being too busy. We find it very profitable to get of the Indians, to whom we trade old shirts, pantaloons, vests, and all sorts of clothing. They are more anxious to purchase clothes than any people you ever saw. You can sell anything here that was ever sold. Stocking Cary ploughs $5 each. We have an excellent blacksmith living in our place who makes first rate Cary ploughs at thirty-one and a quarter cents a pound, he finding it. [Omitting an elaborate description of the Willamette Valley.] American cows are worth here from $50 to $75; American horses from $50 to $75; oxen from $75 to $125 per yoke. This is the finest country for grazing cattle you ever saw. They keep fat all winter. Butter sells at 20 to 25 cents. And, what I did not expect to find, this is a good country for hogs. At all events you have here plenty of grass, a root they call wappato, and also plenty of white oak mast. A first rate market can be had for any and everything, and you have never seen business more brisk. Times are first rate and everybody is busy. The manufacturing power is unsurpassed in the world. There are more fine sites than you ever saw. Such water power as that at the falls of Platte can be found everywhere. * *
[Omitting a portion of the letter describing the timber of Oregon.] I will not persuade you, nor will I any of my friends, to come to this country; but were I in the States again, I should come myself. For $300 you could purchase one hundred young heifers; and in driving them here you might lose from five to ten. When you reached here they would be worth $4,000, and in ten years, without labor or expense, would make you a splendid fortune. You can move here with less expense than you could to Tennessee or Kentucky. Your provisions, teams, etc., you have; your oxen and horses, especially your fine American mares, would be worth double as much as they would cost you there. There are very few good American horses here. The Indian horses are not so gentle as the American, nor so fine blooded. The American cattle are greatly superior to the Spanish for milk, as they give more milk and are more gentle; but the Spanish cattle are larger. Cows have calves here from fifteen to twenty months old, and sheep have lambs twice a year in some parts of territory. The reason is they are always fat and get their growth much sooner. It is my deliberate opinion that no country in the world affords so fair an opportunity to acquire a living as this. I can see no objection to it, except it be by a man who loves liquor, for he can get none here.
PETER H. BURNETT.