another dram. He does not know whether the men asked for the dram, or whether McPherson gave it of his own accord. The corpse was carried to the grave by Laperti, Pripe, Luclaire and some Kanakas, but Urbaine did not touch it; does not think it was through fear. Peter often heard Laperti say, I wish the Governor was here, to see what he would do. He also says there was no quarrel in the room where they were drinking, on the night of the murder; but he thinks there might have. been a quarrel after they left, as Pripe was put in irons after that time. He also says that the Canadians must have fixed on that night to murder him, and that Fleury told him so, which accounts for his apparent dejection of mind, and of his having shed tears in presence of his wife and Antoine, when he said, "I know that I am going to die this night." He also thinks this might have led to the outbreak, but of this he is not sure. It is a mere matter of opinion. Mr. John was a little in liquor, but knew perfectly well what he was about. He never saw him so far gone with liquor as not to be able to walk actively about, except on one occasion, the precediug Christmas Eve, when he appeared to walk unsteady, but nevertheless could mount the gallery. They only knew he had tasted liquor from the excitement and changed appearance of his countenance. He does not know who first suggested the idea of murdering Mr. John.

Since the above disclosures were made, a few other facts have come to light, which, however, do not materially effect the character of these atrocities. Mr. John McLaughlin, Jr., was doubtless intemperate, reckless, and tyrannical, and often unnecessarily cruel in the punishments inflicted upon his men; but he was surrounded by a set of desperadoes, who, for months before the arrival of the night, during the darkness of which, the fatal shot ushered him into the presence of his Judge, had been seeking an opportunity to rob him of life. Some time before this event, he flogged Peter for the crime of stealing fish. Peter was exceedingly angry, and resolved upon the destruction of his master. At a time to suit his purpose, he went to the bastion, where were fire-arms,

loaded to his hands, and rung the bell of alarm, with the intention of shooting Mr. McLaughlin when he should make his appearance. A man by the name of Perse, came out to see what was the matter, instead of the intended victim, when Peter fired, but missed him, the ball hitting a post near his head. For this offence, Peter was again seized, put in irons, and subsequently severely flogged and liberated. Nearly all the men had been flogged from time to time, for various offences, and all conspired against the life of their master. As might have. been expected, when the case was examined by Sir George Simpson, the murderers attempted to cast all the odium upon Mr. McLaughlin, doubtless for the purpose of exculpating themselves, in which attempt they but too well succeeded, in the estimation of Sir George. Whether the persons who procured his death, would be pronounced, by an intelligent jury, guilty of wilful murder, or whether, from the mitigating circumstances connected with these transactions, the verdict should assume a more modified form, is not for me to determine. But it cannot be denied by any one, that the circumstances must be indeed extraordinary, that will justify any man, or set of men, to cut short the probation of an immortal being, and usher him, with all his unrepented sins, into the presence of his God.

CHAPTER XX.

Oregon territory-History continued - Mr. Ashley's expedition-Smith, Jackson, and Sublette - Rocky Mountain Fur Company - Interesting journey-Country explored - Independent parties - Boneville - Red Wolf - Captain Wyeth - Opposed by H. B. C. Results-Immigration for settlement - Character of population - Sources whence it proceeds -- Enterprise - Portions of country occupied.

FOR eight years after the surrender of Astoria to the British, and the destruction of the Pacific Fur Company, in 1814, a British corporation held undisputed sway over the wilds of Oregon. Hordes of English trappers scoured its mountain chains upon their fleet horses, and ransacked its deepest valleys, while the Americans, worsted in the affair of Astoria, confined their operations on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The North American Company, of which Mr. Astor was also the head, explored the country of the great Lakes, the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and had established posts high up on the Yellow Stone, when another company was organized, in 1822, under the name of the Columbia Fur Company, with the design of extending its operations into those western regions hitherto under the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company. Accordingly, in the spring of 1823, Mr. W. H. Ashley, of St. Louis, fitted out an expedition for the Oregon country, crossed the Rocky Mountain chain, between the sources of the Flatte and Colorado, near the forty-second parallel, obtained a large amount of furs, and, in the fall, transported them in safety to St. Louis. In the following year he returned across the mountains with about one hundred men, whom he left in the country to hunt and trap; and, although they were opposed by the Hudson's Bay

Company in every way, yet the furs collected by them in three years, amounted to the sum of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. In these first expeditions of Ashley from St. Louis, the goods were all transported on the backs of horses; but in 1827, he sent sixty men across the mountains with a piece of cannon drawn by mules, which was planted in the vicinity of the great Salt Lake, or Lake Yauta, which lies south of the fortysecond parallel; and, after collecting the furs, and distributing supplies among the hunters, they returned to Missouri, having been absent just seven months.

In 1826, a company was formed in St. Louis by Messrs. Smith, Jackson and Sublette, and, having subsequently purchased Mr. Ashley's establishments and interests, they carried on a successful trade with the countries of the Columbia, under the name of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The first expedition with wagons to the Rocky Mountains was made by this company in 1829, and as an account of it will serve to show both the mode and the route usually pursued by the emigrants at the present day, I subjoin the following, which appeared in connection with President Jackson's Message in 1831;

"On the 10th of April last, (1829,) we set out from St. Louis with eighty-one men, all mounted on mules, ten wagons, each drawn by five mules, and two dearborns, (light carriages or carts,) each drawn by one. mule. Our route was nearly due west to the western limits of the State of Missouri, and thence along the Santa Fe trail, about forty miles from which the course was some degrees north of west, across the waters of the Kansas, and up the great Platte River to the Rocky Mountains, and to the head of Wind River where it issues from the mountains. This took us until the 16th of July, and was as far as we wished to go with the wagons, as the furs to be brought in were to be collected at this place, which is, or was this year, the great rendezvous of the persons engaged in that business. Here the wagons could easily have crossed the mountains, it being what is called the Southern Pass had it been

desirable for them to do so, which it was not for the reasons stated. For our support at leaving the Missouri settlements, until we should get into the buffalo country, we drove twelve head of cattle besides a milch cow. Eight of these only being required for use before we got to the buffaloes, the others went on to the head of Wind River. We began to fall in with buffaloes on the Platte, about three hundred and fifty miles from the white settlements, and from that time lived on buffaloes, the quantity being infinitely beyond what we needed. On the 4th of August, the wagons being in the mean time loaded with the furs which had been previously taken, we set out on our return to St. Louis. All the high points of the mountains then in view were white with snow; but the passes and valleys, and all the level country, were green with grass. Our route back was over the same ground nearly as in going out, and we arrived at St. Louis on the 10th of October, bringing back the ten wagons, four of the oxen, and the milch cow, as we did not need them for provisions. Our men were all healthy during the whole time; we suffered nothing from the Indians, and had no accident, but the death of one man, being buried under a bank of earth that fell in upon him, and another crippled at the same time. Of the mules we lost but one by fatigue, and two horses stolen by the Kansas Indians; the grass being along the whole route, going and coming, sufficient for the support of the horses and mules. The usual weight in the wagons was about one thousand eight hundred pounds. The usual progress of the wagons was from fifteen to twenty-five miles per day. The country being almost all open, level and prairie, the chief obstructions were ravines and creeks, the banks of which required cutting down, and for this purpose a few pioneers were generally kept in advance of the caravan. This is the first time that wagons ever went to the Rocky Mountains, and the ease and safety with which it was done, prove the facility of communicating overland with the Pacific Ocean. The route from the Southern Pass, where the wagons stopped, to the Great Falls of the