# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 3/Documents (Number 3)

DOCUMENTS.
A copy of the orders to Captain Biddle, United States Navy, to command the U. S. S. Ontario when sent out and to resume possession for the United States of the post and territory at the mouth of the Columbia; also an extract from the log of that vessel covering the period from June 30, 1818, when she sailed from Lima, Peru, to August 30, 1818, the date of the commencement of her return voyage to that port, after her cruise to the Columbia River; and Captain Biddle 's official report of his work:
   Navy Department, May 12, 1817.
   Capt. James Biddle, Philadelphia:
   Sir: Proceed to New York and assume the command of the U. S. ship Ontario destined for immediate service. This order is given with a desire to meet your wishes, as frequently expressed, for active employment.
   B. W. Crowninshield.
   EXTRACT FROM LOG OF THE U. S. S. ONTARIO, CAPT. JAMES BIDDLE.
   I sailed from Lima on the thirtieth of June (1818) and arrived off the Columbia River on the nineteenth of August at daylight. The entrance to this river is rendered difficult to vessels so large as the Ontario by the shoalness of the water on its bar, by its sinuous channel, and by the strength and irregularity of its tides. As it was not indispensable to the service I had to perform that the ship should enter the river, I anchored outside the bar, and proceeded in with three boats well armed and manned with more than fifty officers and seamen. I landed at a small cove within Cape Disappointment on the north side of the river, and here, in the presence of several of the natives, displaying the flag of the United States, turning up a sod of soil, and giving three cheers, I nailed up against a tree a leaden plate in which were cut the following words:
   TAKEN POSSESSION OF IN THE NAME AND ON THE BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES, BY CAPTAIN JAMES BIDDLE, COMMANDING THE UNITED STATES SHIP ONTARIO. COLUMBIA RIVER, AUGUST, 1818.
   As it was impracticable to bring wood and water in our boats to the ship without the bar, it became necessary to go into some neighboring port for a supply of these articles. The want also of fresh provisions, which can not be procured at the Columbia River, and which it was not prudent the crew should be longer without, rendered it advisable to enter a port in the vicinity. I therefore sailed for Monterey, where I arrived on the twenty-fifth of August. At this point I met the Russian sloop of war Kutusoff.
   Having completed wooding and watering, I sailed for Monterey on the thirtieth of August, and arrived on the twenty-second of October at Lima.
   U. S. Ship Ontario, Aug. 19, 1818.
   Sir: I have the honor to inform you I have this day taken possession, in the name and on the behalf of the United States, of both shores of the river Columbia; observing in the performance of this service the ceremonies customary upon the like occasions of setting up a claim to national sovereignty and dominion.
   I have the honor to be with great respect, sir,
   Your most obedient servant,
   J. Biddle.
   The Hon. The Secretary of Navy, Washington City.
Letter from Iowa Territory, dated March 4, 1843, and signed "H.," in National Intelligencer, April 18,1843. Copied from the New Haven Palladium:
   I suppose you of the East consider the present residents of Iowa the very pioneers of the West. Never was a greater mistake; the true western pioneers have pushed on beyond us, or if here and there one still lingers, it is only that he may dispose of his farm and "improvements "to push for a "new country."
   Strange, restless beings are the genuine pioneers. Among them you may find some who have helped to lay the foundations of every state from the "old thirteen" hither; men who have successfully held seats in every legislature, from Virginia to Iowa, inclusive, but who are now moving to a new country again to ' ' make a claim; again to act a conspicuous part in the community in which they live; ​to run the political race, become the members of the legislature of some future state, find themselves thrown in the shade by those of greater attainments who follow in their wake, and again to push for the "new purchase."
   Fearlessness, hospitality, and independent frankness, united with restless enterprise and unquenchable thirst for novelty and change, are the peculiar characteristics of the western pioneers. With him there is always a land of promise further west, where the climate is milder, the soil more fertile, better timber and finer prairies; and on, on, on, he goes, always seeking and never attaining the Pisgah of his hopes. You of the old states can not readily conceive the every-day sort of business an "old settler "makes of selling out his "improvements," hitching the horses to the big wagon, and, with his wife and children, swine and cattle, pots and kettles, household goods and household gods, starting on a journey of hundreds of miles to find and make a new home.
   Just now Oregon is the pioneer's land of promise. Hundreds are already prepared to start thither with the spring, while hundreds of others are anxiously awaiting the action of congress in reference to that country, as the signal for their departure. Some have already been to view the country, and have returned with a flattering tale of the inducements it holds out. They have painted it to their neighbors in the brightest colors; these have told it to others; the Oregon fever has broke out, and is now raging like any other contagion. Mr. Calhoun was right when he told the senate that the American people would occupy that country independent of all legislation; that in a few years the pioneers of the West would overrun it and hold it against the world. "Wilson," said I a few days since to an old settler, "so you are going to Oregon." "Well, I is, horse. Tice Pitt was out looking at it last season, and he says it is a leetle the greatest country on the face of the earth. So I'm bound to go." "How do the old woman and the girls like the idea of such a long journey?" "They feel mighty peert about it, and Suke says she shan't be easy till we start."
Extract from a lecture by George L. Hillard, on "The Connection Between Geography and History," delivered before the American Institute of Instruction at Hartford, Conn., August, 1845:—
   There are no considerable tracts of land wholly unfitted for agricultural purposes within the limits of the United States. Between us and the Pacific there is an extensive region of this kind of about 800 miles in length and 600 miles in breadth, including the Rocky ​mountains, which run through it; a sandy, rocky tract not capable of supporting- a stationary agricultural population, and only to be safely traversed by persons in considerable numbers. Of the validity of our claims for this territory, I have not carefully informed myself, but all past history gives its testimony against the probable success of any attempt to combine into one political whole two great members thus disjoined. Nature interposes her veto by rearing her rocky walls and spreading out her dreary wastes of separation. She forbids the bans of such a union, and in this point of view alone I should hold our claim upon Oregon to be dearly maintained at the cost of one dollar of treasure or one drop of blood.