Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-11-17

detentions at Bakers Bay reached
California in safety. Here they
went to work AMI Commanded high
wages, till the next spring, and as
soon as arrangements had been COM
pleted, hey commenced their mrrch
to the Wallamet. Under an old co.,
Onial law, the transportation Of fe,
male catt lie had been prohibited.
Messrs. Young ami + wards having
secured IL removal OF the restriction,
bought 500 head of cattle at So
per head and forty horses at So each
making are whole outlay S24 so.
Their return journey WAS full OF
hardships, in rough mountainous
country. Numbers of cattle were
drowned III swimming river. Some
strayeJ, and some We're shot 10y In,
dams. One Indian was killed 10y
the party. They reached Wallamet,
i'll October, 1887, with about six
hundred head. The horses having
been sold at public sale, the cattle
were found tQc have cost about seven
dollars and sixty cents IL piece;
of these, more than eighty head be-
longed to the Mission.
A, has been stated, that importa-
ton not only supplied the settlers
with seed cattle, IL enabled them also
10 restore to the Hudson's Bay Com
pany the borrowed cattle, upon the
most advantageous terms to them
selves. The Company thereafter nj.
lowed their stock to roam unmolested
over the extensive pastura.e ranges
north of the Columbia, their oh.
jcct being the raising of beef cattle
for their establishments and the ul-
innate expectation of hides and tai
low. Subsequent to 1888, the Com.
pany's cattle, except the few for work
and the dairy, were suffered to run
wild and were hunted as deer.
Those wild cattle were not as val
liable as domestic stock, and had
they been sold at same rates, DR..
Mclaughlin would have been more
reprehensible for extortion than
justly blamable for selling them at
q low price.
During the Fall of 1913, the
transaction known in Pioneer days
THE CATTLE CONTRACT
occurred at old Fort Walla Walla,
between certain immigrants of '43
and Archibald McKinlay, chief trader
in charge of that trading post of the
Hudson's Bay Company. 1t exhib-
its the conduct of DIR. Mclaughlin
towards American settlers, on their
arrival in the country, his liberality,
his active sympathy with them in
their necessities, bis so-called stand
ard Of right between man and man.
The correspondence which follows,
sheds light on the cattle policy of
the company. For years that trans
action was a theme of discussion
among the settlers, but the docu-
ments, originals of which may be
seen if demanded, have never before
been published.
All the actors still live except the
Chief Factor Mclaughlin. The pre-.
lininary statement is furnished in
a recent letter of Archibald McKln-
lay, Esq. now residing at Lac La
Hache, British Columbia.
Gov. Peter H. Burnett, now of
San Francisco was the comm ander
of the Migration of '43. He bur-
ried forward to Fort Walla Walla in
advance of the party, to secure for
himself and family transportation
down the Columbia. MIR. McKinlay
supplied boat which Gov. Burnett
was to leave at Fort Vancouver. He
remained over night at the fort and
had considerable conversation as to
the practicability of getting the
cattle over the Cascade Mountains
and through to the Wallamet Valley.
As McKinlay had never travelled by
land over the route, be declined to
speak how the road was beyond the
Dalles.
In the course of conversation,
Mr., Mckinley remarked that he
had shortly before sent q requisition
to Fort Vancouver for ten or
fifteen gentle COWS wanted by the
Indians. McKinlay suggested that
if any of the immigrants wished to
make an exchange of that number
for an equal number to be delivered
at Fort Vancouver, such arrangement
would save driving to both parties
McKinlay also expressed his desire
to purchase some brood mares for
bis private use.
Gov. Burnett's letter referring to
that conversation declines because
having no animals to spare. A day
or two later, Jesse Applegate
reached the Fort. He offered his
whole band upon the terms McKin-
lay had proposed to Gov. Burnett.
To this McKinlay entered a fiat re-.
fusal and even demonstrated against
Apologize sacrificing so much stock /;
that he, McKinlay, only desired a
few head to supply the small Indian
trade. Mr.. Apologize said that, as
he intended to 60 to the SHASTA
country in the Spring, he cared only
for such cattle as he could turn into
beef. Mr.. Apologize then said that
MIR. Littlejohn, (Rev. A. B., one of
the missionaries temporarily at Vail
latpn, du,ing DIR. Whitman's alb
sence on his journey to the Eastern
States, had offered sl2l per head for
the whole band and if McKinlay re-
fused, he, Apologize, would sell to
Littlejohn, who had stated he wanted
the cattle to exchange with the In
dams for furs.
After considerable talk, Mr.. Me-
kinlay hearing that Littlejohn, if
he secured the stock would embarrass
his fur trading business, accepted
Applegate's proposition, but the
contract was to be subject to DR..