[15] Farnham forwarded the petition to Congress from Honolulu, in January, 1840, accompanied by a letter of his own in which he sharply criticized the conduct of the Hudson’s Bay Company—see Senate Docs., 27 Cong., 3 sess., 102. The petition or memorial, which is largely the work of Farnham, was presented to the senate June 4, 1840, by Senator Lewis Linn of Missouri. It may be found in Senate Docs., 26 Cong., 1 sess., 514, signed “David Leslie and others;” Cong. Globe, 26 Cong., 1 sess., 440, reports seventy signers. The memorial requests Congress to establish a territorial government, notes that the British are, through the Hudson’s Bay Company, granting lands, surveying harbors, bays, and rivers, cutting and shipping timber, and preparing to hold all the territory north of the Columbia. It describes the country south of that river as “of unequalled beauty and fertility,” “a delightful and healthy climate,” and “one of the most favored portions of the globe;” and concludes by praying for the “civil institutions of the American Republic,” “the high privileges of American citizenship; the peaceful enjoyment of life; the right of acquiring, possessing, and using property; and the unrestrained pursuit of rational happiness.”—Ed.
[16] An act of parliament was passed (about 1837) at the instigation of Dr. McLoughlin, extending the jurisdiction and civil laws of Canada over the British subjects of Oregon territory. Under this law James Douglas was commissioned justice of the peace for criminal matters and for civil suits under £200 in value. Imprisonment was possible either in the forts of the Hudson’s Bay Company or the jails of Canada.—Ed.
[17] W. H. Wilson had in early life been a cooper on a whaling vessel. Having been converted to Methodism, he came out to Oregon in 1837 as a lay helper, and studied medicine with Dr. Elijah White. In 1840 he married Chloe A. Clark of the mission, who afterwards became first teacher of the Oregon Institute, of which her husband was for some time agent. They made their home in Salem, where he died suddenly of apoplexy. Wilson was the treasurer of the first provisional government of Oregon.—Ed.
[18] For Ewing Young see our volume xx, p. 23, note 2.—Ed.
[19] The reader will take notice that this is an ex-parte statement.—English Editor.
[20] For the origin of this northern boundary, see our volume xxviii, note 1.—Ed.
[21] For David Thompson, a former North West explorer, see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, p. 253, note 61. Exclusive of the Alaskan mountains, there have been no peaks measured in the Rocky Mountain system exceeding 14,500 feet in height.—Ed.
[22] Mount Brown is in British Columbia, about latitude 52° 28′ north, not far from Athabasca Pass. It was formerly thought to be above 15,000 feet in height, but recent measurements have reduced it to less than 10,000.—Ed.
[23] This is Athabasca Pass, first discovered by David Thompson in 1811—see Elliott Coues, Henry-Thompson Journals (New York, 1897), ii, pp. 668, 669. Mount Hooker lay south of the pass, and Mount Brown to the north; the former is about 10,500 feet above sea level (once supposed to be more than 15,000 feet). For a description of the passage of this gap see Franchère’s Narrative in our volume vi, pp. 352-357.—Ed.
[24] The first of these passes is now known as Maria’s, and is that taken by the Great Northern Railway in crossing from Missouri waters to those of the Columbia. The second pass is probably intended to designate that taken by Lewis and Clark, who used not one, but several passes through the network of mountains in western Montana and eastern Idaho. The third is the pass from Henry’s Lake to Red Rock, the source of the Jefferson (not of the Big Horn), over which De Smet went with the Indians—see his Letters in our volume xxvii, pp. 252, 253, notes 128, 130. The last is South Pass, for which see Wyeth’s Oregon in our volume xxi, p. 58, note 37.—Ed.