And your petitioners represent these means of safety to be an insufficient safeguard of life and property, and that the crimes of _theft_, _murder_, _infanticide_, _etc._, are increasing among them to an alarming extent; and your petitioners declare themselves unable to arrest this progress of crime, and its terrible consequences, without the aid of the law, and tribunals to administer it. Your petitioners therefore pray the Congress of the United States of America to establish, as soon as may be, a Territorial government in the Oregon Territory. And if reasons other than those above presented were needed to induce your honorable bodies to grant the prayer of the undersigned, your petitioners, they would be found in the value of this Territory to the nation, and the alarming circumstances that portend its loss. Your petitioners, in view of these last considerations, would represent, that the English government has had a surveying squadron on the Oregon coast for the last two years, employed in making accurate surveys of all its rivers, bays, and harbors; and that, recently, the said government is said to have made a grant to the Hudson's Bay Company, of all lands lying between the Columbia River and Puget Sound; and that said company is actually exercising unequivocal acts of ownership over said lands thus granted, and opening extensive farms upon the same. And your petitioners represent, that these circumstances, connected with other acts of said company to the same effect, and _their declarations that the English government own and will hold, as its own soil_, that portion of Oregon Territory situated north of the Columbia River, together with the important fact that the said company are cutting and sawing into lumber, and shipping to foreign ports, vast quantities of the finest pine-trees upon the navigable waters of the Columbia, have led your petitioners to apprehend that the English government do intend, at all events, to hold that portion of this Territory lying north of the Columbia River. And your petitioners represent, that the said Territory, north of the Columbia, is an invaluable possession to the American Union; that in and about Puget Sound are the only harbors of easy access, and commodious and safe, upon the whole coast of the Territory; and that a great part of this said northern portion of the Oregon Territory is rich in timber, water-power, and _valuable minerals_. For these and other reasons, your petitioners pray that Congress will establish its sovereignty over said Territory.