Many of the immigrants of 1842 were disappointed in Oregon. The country was then very new, and they became discontented. Dr. McLoughlin engaged many to labor at fair wages, and furnished goods on credit to those who could not make immediate payment. Some of them were of a roving or adventurous class, ever seeking new places. In the spring of 1843 nearly half of them went to California, leaving on their journey May 30, from Champoeg. Dr. McLoughlin furnished these emigrants to California with supplies, upon their promise to pay for the same to W. G. Rae, the Hudson's Bay Company's agent at Yerba Buena (now San Francisco). Most of them did not pay, and Dr. McLoughlin personally assumed the payment of this indebtedness. _Immigration of 1843._ In 1843 came the first great immigration to Oregon. As if by a common impulse, and without preconcert, the immigrants met at Independence, Missouri, leaving there for Oregon, May 20, 1843. Peter H. Burnett, afterwards a Chief Justice of the Oregon Provisional Government, and the first Governor of the State of California, was the first Captain. J. W. Nesmith, afterwards United States Senator from Oregon, was Orderly Sergeant. About eight hundred and seventy-five men, women, and children composed this immigration. Of these there were two hundred and ninety-five men, over the age of sixteen years. In this immigration were my grandfather, John Holman, and his son, Daniel S. Holman, then nearly twenty-one years old. After first arriving at the Columbia River, they straggled and struggled along the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver--a few driving cattle, going overland by the Indian trail from near The Dalles to Oregon City. There was not then any way to take wagons by land from The Dalles to the Willamette Valley. A few of the immigrants went down the Columbia River to The Dalles in boats. In one of these parties three persons were drowned by the capsizing of boats. The rest of the immigrants went to The Dalles overland with their wagons. From The Dalles to the Cascades some of them went by boats, others went on rafts, which they constructed. There was great difficulty in going from the Upper Cascades to the Lower Cascades. The rafts could not be taken over the rapids. It took about two weeks to cut a trail around the Cascades. The rains set in. The position of the immigrants was desperate. Some did not arrive at Fort Vancouver until about Christmas. They had not anticipated such hardships and privations as they were then suffering. Few had sufficient food or raiment, many were absolutely destitute. Dr. McLoughlin sent supplies to be sold to those who were able, and to those who could not buy, the supplies were furnished on credit, or given to them. He furnished boats to carry them from the Cascades to Fort Vancouver. He caused the sick to be attended to, and nursed at the Company's hospital at Fort Vancouver. He furnished them every assistance as long as they required it.