Morning herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1837-1840, 1840-07-29
MORNING HERALD.


ORrooN-Some six or eight weeks since, = letter
was published in most Of the papers IN tins sectsn
Of the country from Captain Farnham, dated at the
Sandwich Islands, in which he describes the ore-
you country as little better than cold dreary DESERT
almost habitable and utterly worthless for agr
cultural purposes Captain Farnham was the lead
or Of an expedition that started from ST. Louis for
the Oregon Territory about fifteen months SINCE ana
the obvious tendency Of his letter is TO deter emil
grafton that country. The St Louis Argus Is hish
y incensed against the captain, and even insnuates
that he has been retained, like Marryau, lroiiope,
and others, by the British occupants of Oregon and
the Sandwich Islands, TO SANDER the country and
keep Americans away from there That paper di-
rectlv charges. that the British Consul at the Sand
witch Islands is taking every measure within his
means, and that of his government to establish Bri
t;sb SWAY upon the waters of the Columbia, and stud
its banks with British military posts. The Oregon
or Columbia is as large river as the Ohio, and
drains one of the largest vallies of our continent
When the expedition Of Braddock, before the revo-
lutisn returned TO the Atlantic coast, after oun-
dering mongst the mountains around the sources OF
the Ohio they described the Sc backwoods, as they
called the great interior valley, bowling wilder
ness, only inhabtable by nomadic savages and wild
beasts. So erroneous the first impressions OF
traveller who wends his solitary way along blind
path, encounterpg starvation and every description
of danger at every moment, and pinng for the home
and relations he has left a thousand miles behind
him. Capt. Farnham is not singular in this. In
JeAerson's Notes of Virginia will be found many de-
scriptions of travellers who have penetrated INTO
the western wilds, now rife with cities, gloomy
as those given by Capt. Farnham of the Oregon val
lev Even Washington himself, who in his youth
made trip down the OHIO, a far as Guyandott,
gives desponding narrative in his journal, which
NAV be found in the first volume of Sparks Biogra-
ply. Timothy Flint who descended the Ohio and
Mississippi in Hat boat, previous to the year 1900
INDUCES in unbroken strain of lugubrious lamen-
tations the dangers of the voyage and the hor
rsrs which met his eye and by day and night
Capt Farnham's assertions are Of no weight at all
There is no region of the country in the world as
large in extent as the Oregon Valley, that does not
afford and all appliances and means to accom-
modatea great nation. On the Oregon and its branch
many States will day exist at least fertile
and productive the granite mountains OF PenAsyl
vana Virginia; and as well adapted to sustain a
dense and thriving population as the Allegheny
Mountains or the sands Of Jersey and Carolina Why
are the British Fur Companies so eager 10 possess
themselves Of this territory Hundreds Of Trap !
pers Of the West, who have spent many summers on
the waters flowing from the western slope of the
Rocky Mountains, directly contradict the assertions
Of Capt. Farnham. These men better judges
than man trained up a feather bed, who, founder
ing hurriedly across the Continent in straight line
casts anxious glances alternately to the right and
left, expecting to see an Indian a grisly bear
crouched TO pounce upon his shoulders from be-
hind every rock or bush.