A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
It is a most singular fact, that while Mr. Greenhow was writing the
above high commendation of the conduct and policy of the Hudson's Bay
Company, in relation to their treatment of Indians and missionaries
under their absolute control, that that company were driving from their
posts at Moose Factory and Vancouver, their own Wesleyan and Episcopal
missionaries, and doing all they could to prevent the settlement or
civilization of the Indians, or allowing any missionary intercourse with
them, except by foreign Roman Jesuits, and were actually combining the
Indians in Oregon to destroy and defeat civil and Christian efforts
among the Indians and American settlements then being established in the
country. Page 390, Mr. Greenhow further says: "The course pursued by the
Hudson's Bay Company, with regard to American citizens in the territory
west of the Rocky Mountains, was equally _unexceptionable_ and
_politic_. The missionaries and immigrants from the United States, or
from whatever country they might come, were received at the
establishments of the company with the utmost kindness, and were aided
in the prosecution of their respective objects, _so far and so long as
those objects were not commercial_; but no sooner did any person,
unconnected with the company, attempt to hunt, or trap, or trade with
the Indians, than all the force of the body was turned against him."
The statement in the last part of the foregoing paragraph can be
attested by more than one hundred American hunters and traders, who have
felt the full force of that company's influence against them; as also by
missionaries and settlers on first arriving in the country. But Mr.
Greenhow says: "There is no evidence or reason to believe that violent
measures were ever employed, either directly or indirectly, for this
purpose; nor would such means have been needed while the company enjoyed
advantages over all competitors, such as are afforded by its wealth, its
organization, and the skill and knowledge of the country, and of the
natives, possessed by its agents." This is simply an assertion of Mr.
Greenhow, which our future pages will correct in the mind of any who
have received it as truth. It is unnecessary to pursue Mr. Greenhow's
history of the Hudson's Bay Company respecting their treatment of
American or English missionaries or American settlers; the statements we
have quoted show fully his want of a correct knowledge of the practices
of that company in dealing with savage and civilized men. We only claim
for ourselves close observation and deeply interested participation in
all that relates to Oregon since 1832, having been permitted to be
present at the forming of its early civil settlement and political
history. This work of Mr. Greenhow's appears to be peculiarly political
as well as strongly national, and in the passages we have quoted, with
many other similar ones, he seems to us to have written to catch the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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