The Selkirk settlement was soon made to feel the withering influence of the company that had located it in the country for a specific purpose, _Neither, however, was there any compromise_ till its inhabitants had been driven from their homes, its Governor (Semple) and seventeen of his followers killed. Then a compromise was effected between the rival companies, and they were united by an act of Parliament, under the title of Honorable Hudson's Bay Company, in 1821,--a license given to Messrs. William and Simon McGillivray, of the Northwest Company, and Edward Ellice, of the Hudson's Bay Company. These corporate members and their associates "were to share the profits arising from the fur trade, not only from the Indian territories, but also from the Hudson's Bay Company's proper territories of Rupert's Land." The privileges of this company were limited to seven years. This carried them forward to 1828, in which year their license (called a charter) was renewed for ten years. Our Indian missionary and American history commences in 1832, six years before this combined Northwest and Hudson's Bay Company's license of exclusive privileges to trade in British Indian Territory, and, jointly, in the Oregon Territory, would expire. Our English historian and Sir Edward Belcher are both mistaken when they attribute to the company the asking for, or in any way encouraging, the American missionaries to come to the country. This was an event wholly unknown to them, and brought about by the Indians themselves, by sending a delegation of four of their number to St. Louis, in 1832, to ask of the American people a religious teacher. Lee, Parker, and Whitman heard the request, and volunteered to make the effort to establish missions among them. These missionaries all came across the Rocky Mountains unasked and uninvited by any one in the service of that company. CHAPTER III. English Hudson's Bay effort to secure Oregon.--British claim to Oregon.--Dr. McLaughlin's relation to the company.--Treatment of Red River settlers.--A mistake.--Sir Edward Belcher.--Duplicity of the Hudson's Bay Company.--A noble man.--An Englishman's opinion of the Hudson's Bay Company.--Sir James Douglas's testimony.--J. Ross Browne.--Duty of an historian.--Cause and effect. Since commencing this work we have, by the kindness of friends who have taken a deep interest in all that relates to this country, been furnished with many valuable and important statements, documents, pamphlets, papers, and books, all relating to its early history. Of the whole catalogue, the most valuable information is contained in a work entitled "An Examination of the Charter and Proceedings of the Hudson's Bay Company, with Reference to the Grant of Vancouver's Island. By James Edward Fitzgerald. London." Published in 1849.