FARNHAM'S LETTER. 235

Tongue Point, above Astoria, where they had built a house, 20 and referred to the English surveying squad- ron, and a report that Captain Belcher had declared England's claims to the Columbia River to rest upon priority of discovery. Though not all true, there was much in his communication of interest to the United States.

Among other things, he stated that the Canadian settlers in the Willamette and Cowlitz valleys were favorable to the American claim, and would yield willing obedience to American law — an assertion that required modification. The French Canadians were by nature an amiable, light-hearted, industrious, and well-disposed people, ready to submit to authority, and fond of a quiet life. They were by training ren- dered obedient to the officers of the fur company, and even more so to the teachings of their Catholic priests. They were friendly to the American settlers, and looked up to the missionaries. They had been prom- ised a square mile of land when the United States should extend jurisdiction over them. So far they were favorable to American institutions ; but should McLoughlin and their priest counsel them to withhold their support, they would obey notwithstanding the temptation of free farms. Such was the character of all the company's servants who settled in the country. 21

It was not true that the British company controlled by law the Russian possessions in America, or strove to govern the American settlers in the Willamette Valley. 22 By an act of parliament the laws of Can-

20 Mr Birnie had a potato-field on Tongue Point, but whether simply to raise potatoes, which did not grow well at Astoria, or to hold this promontory for some other purpose, is not known.

21 ' They are now all out of service and renewing their endless lives on the plains— part American, part English, some Indian, and still all French. Blessings on the Jeans, the Jaques, the Baptises, the Jeromes ! ' Portland Oregonian, Nov. 11, 1854; Or. Pioneer Assoc, Trans., 1870, 3G.

"Farnham sail in his Travels, 175-G, what he did not venture to say to the secretary of war, namely, that the American settlers ' were liable to be arrested for debt or crime, and conveyed to the jails of Canada, arrested on American territory by British officers, tried by British tribunals, imprisoned in British prisons, and hung or shot by British executioners ! '