[2] THE COLUMBIA AND ITS BASIN. England claimed that Drake and Cook had first discovered and taken possession of Oregon, which then included the present Oregon, Idaho, Washington and part of Montana. In 1671 Saint Lusson, at Sault Ste. Marie, had taken possession of all the country west to the South Sea for France. (See preceding chapters.) Whatever rights France acquired became ours by purchase from her. But Spain had the better title on the Pacific. She, however, relinquished to us, on the cession of the Floridas, in 1819, all north of 42°, the present north line of California. We thus became possessed of all rights either power had laid claim to north of that parallel. The north boundary, between Louisiana and the British Possessions, was supposed to be fixed by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) at the forty-ninth degree. [3] ASTORIA was restored to us (1818), after much wrangling, but the Hudson's Bay Company established Fort Vancouver, ninety miles up the Columbia, so cutting off Astoria from the upper valleys. It was burnt to the ground in 1821, except a few huts. [4] THE MONROE DOCTRINE. "The American Continents, by the free and independent condition they have assumed and maintain, are not to be considered as subjects for colonization by European powers." [5] CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE'S adventures are related by Washington Irving. [6] NATHANIEL J. WYETH established Fort Hall on Lewis River, in what is now Idaho. The Hudson's Bay Company at once set up a rival post called Fort Boisé below it, so compelling Wyeth to sell out to it or be ruined by its competition. [7] THESE MISSIONARIES were Revs. Jason and Daniel Lee sent by the Methodist denomination, and Revs. Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman sent by the American Board. The Methodist mission was at the Dalles, the other at Walla Walla. This was the first introduction of Protestant missions among the Oregon tribes. WITH THE VANGUARD TO OREGON. "_This army does not retreat!_" Emigration was to be our army of occupation in Oregon. In this conviction Mr. Benton was looking about him for the means to set it in motion, when he chanced to meet Lieutenant John C. Fremont, of the topographical engineers, who had just returned from surveying the Upper Mississippi, with Nicollet.[1] Mr. Benton wanted the Oregon route surveyed in aid of emigration to the Lower Columbia. The subject led to an intimacy between the two men, in the course of which Fremont fell in love with Mr. Benton's daughter Jessie, whom a little later he married, so uniting his fortunes with the distinguished senator's family, as well as his plans. It resulted in sending Fremont (1842) to find out whether the South Pass[2] of the Rocky Mountains, the usual crossing-place, would best accommodate the coming emigration.