Hall Jackson Kelley 129

may have thought this harsh. Our people did not know, or care for, the equality he had perhaps been accustomed to. It should be borne in mind that discipline in those days was rather severe, and a general commingling would not do." Again, "Kelley was five feet nine inches hig^, wore a white slouched hat, blanket capote, leather pants, with a red stripe down the seam, rather otUri, even for Vancouver."^ To such straits had our dreamer come! But his "vision" had at last become a reality, and the lordly chief factor himself was soon to face it and to be overcome by it.*^ Somewhere it is written, "Some- times we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit."

26 Bancroft, Northwest Coast, 11, 5S0.

2/ "I early foresaw that the march of civilixation and i>rogres8 of peopling the Anftencan Territories, was westward and onward, and that but a few years would pass awajr before the whole valuable countij b^ween the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, then used as hunting and trapping grounds, and as the resting place of native tribes, must become the abode ox another race — ^American. This could neither be successfully resisted, nor did I deem it politic or desirable to attempt it. In this spirit I prepared myself to encourage, hasten, and further what I thought would be not only attended with good, but inevitable ....

"From 1834 to the present hour, I have spared neither time nor means, but liberally used both, to facilitate the settling of Oregon by whites; and that it ' ' * * ' ' ■ relieve distress and

has been my good fortune to do much in years stone by to relie ^

promote the comfort and happiness of immigrants, I may fearlessly assert, and for

proof need only to refer to the candi<f —^'-^ * ' 1.- *

country." — McLougfalin, letter to Or^i toricsl Society, Quarterly, VIII, 295-9*

proof need only to re^ to the candid and just Americans who first came to the country." — McLougfalin, letter to Oregon Statesman, Jnne 8, xSs^t Oregon His*

CHAPTER EIGHT In Oregon — ^An Unwelcome Guest

It is difficult to account for Kelley's surprise at finding him- self unwelcome at Fort Vancouver. For ten years he had lost no opportunity to assail the Hudson's Bay company, and he had every reason to believe that Dr. McLoughlin was fully informed as to his past activities and his plans for the future. The success of those plans would work irreparable loss to the company and the nation for which it exercised civil jurisdic- tion over the Northwest Coast. Yet he seems to have expected the chief factor to treat all differences between them in a lofty and impersonal manner^ and to accord to him all the courtesies due to an accredited diplomatic agent. Indeed he was not without credentials of a kind. In his baggage were papers showing him to be the attorney of the claimants to the lands on Vancouver Island bought of the Indians by