Prior to the Donation Land Law, there were no lawful titles to lands in Oregon, except lands given to Missions by the law establishing the Territory of Oregon. The Donation Land Law was passed by Congress, and was approved by the President September 27, 1850. Prior to the organization, in 1843, of the Oregon Provisional Government, the only law, or rule of law, in Oregon was the Golden Rule, or rather a consensus of public opinion among the few settlers in Oregon. When a person settled on a piece of land and improved it, or declared his intention to claim it, all other settlers respected his possessory rights. Each settler thought that on the settlement of the boundary line between the United States and Great Britain, his land claim would be recognized and protected, which he had thus claimed while there was joint-occupancy under the Conventions of 1818 and 1827. It was in 1829 that Etienne Lucier, one of the Hudson's Bay Company's servants, of whom I have spoken, settled in the Willamette Valley at French Prairie, now in Marion County. Other servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, as their terms of service expired, and a few Americans, had settled at or near French Prairie prior to 1834, so that when the first missionaries came, there was a thriving, although small, settlement near where Jason and Daniel Lee established their first mission in 1834. This mission had no title to the land where the Mission was established, yet its rights were recognized and respected. In 1829 Dr. McLoughlin for himself took possession of the land and water power at the falls of the Willamette River on the east side of the river at and near what is now Oregon City. In his land claim was the valuable, but small, island containing about four or five acres of available area in low water, and two or three acres in ordinary high water. It was separated from the east bank by a part of the river, in summer not more than forty feet wide; it was situated near the crest of the falls. Its location made it valuable for convenient use of water power. This island was afterwards known as "Governor's Island," but was called "Abernethy Island" in the Donation Land Law, and is now known by the latter name. This island is now owned by the Portland General Electric Company. It lies partly in the "Basin" at Oregon City. On it is now erected a large wooden building called, by that Company, "Station A." As I have said, in 1825 the Hudson's Bay Company knew that England did not intend to claim any part of the Oregon Country south of the Columbia River, so it did not want for itself any permanent or valuable improvements in the Willamette Valley.