Soon sources of fresh information brought direct from Oregon became available. St. Louis was the winter rendezvous of representatives of fur companies and independent trappers who were operating in the Rocky Mountains. These came in contact with officers and employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and from them secured much information about Oregon. Nathaniel J. Wyeth conducted two expeditions overland to the Lower Columbia between 1832 and 1836. Mr. William N. Slacum, who had been commissioned by President Jackson to visit the North Pacific Coast to conduct explorations and investigations among the inhabitants of that region, reported in 1837. Irving’s Astoria was brought out in 1836, and his Adventures of Captain Bonneville in 1837. In 1838 Jason Lee, the Methodist missionary, returned to the States, and talked Oregon wherever he went. His lecture on Oregon in Peoria, Illinois, that year netted an expedition of thirteen or fourteen persons for Oregon the next. The leader of this party, Thomas J. Farnham, returned to the East, and in 1841 published a book of travels, which had a wide circulation. Dr. Elijah White, for several years associated with the Methodist mission enterprise, but who had returned to his home in New York, received an appointment in 1842 as sub-Indian agent for Oregon. He immediately began a canvass for immigrants to Oregon. His party, made up mainly of those found on the Missouri border ready to start, added one hundred and twenty-seven to the American population in Oregon. During this same year Commodore Wilkes’ naval exploring expedition to Oregon returned and reported. Early in this year, too, Fremont’s overland party was organized, and was on the trail a short distance in the rear of Doctor White’s pioneer party. On February 1, 1843, the Linn bill passed the senate. All the missionaries were sending back letters giving glowing accounts of the attractions of Oregon. The famous winter ride of Doctor Whitman from Oregon to Missouri was made in the winter of 1842–3. He did go to Washington and he urged the importance of American interests in Oregon upon President Tyler and some of the members of his cabinet. Returning west in the spring of 1843, he was at the Shawnee mission school, near Westport, Missouri, while the great migration of 1843 was forming and filing by. The sight reassured him that Oregon was to be occupied by American citizens. His thought seemed no longer mainly concerned with the pioneers getting to Oregon. There would be no trouble about that. His plans reached forward to include the conditions of a stable and progressive civilization there. His letters at this time, after mentioning the number of emigrants, turn to matters that would determine their condition as proposed settlers. He says: “A great many cattle are going, but no sheep, from a mistake of what I said in passing.” And again: “Sheep and cattle, but especially sheep, are indispensable for Oregon. * * * I mean to impress the Secretary of War