THE PACIFIC NORTH-WEST.
History of the Pacific North-West. By Joseph Schafer. (Mac- millan and Co. 5s.)—The interest attaching to the growth of tho Pacific seaboard of America is perennial, and Mr. Schafer's littlu book gives us the outline of the adventures of the early pioneers and the picturesque migration over the Oregon trail which another pen has touched with such skill. Nor is the organisation of the first Provisional Government of the Oregon Territory less interesting. The Oregon colonists had in their ranks a larger number of good men and true than has been the lot of most emigration schemes. Some sort of selection was doubt- less exercised, but certain it is that no similar enterprise before or since had such excellent material, used it so well, or succeeded so thoroughly as did the Oregon emigrants of 1843. One must suppose the dread of international complications alone prevented the United States blessing these adventurous children, for a Bill for the establishment of territorial govern- ment, and the granting of land to settlers, was rejected by the House of Representatives,—the Oregon question being still unsettled. Nor did the settlers have an authorised Government till 1849, three years after Great Britain had settled the Oregon question by proposing the very boundary she had refused. The story of the navigators, and the gradual elimination of other interests, Russian and Spanish, is succinctly told. The dealings with the Hudson's Bay Company afford a capital illustration of the quiet struggle between two great forces, private and public enterprise. But Dr. McLoughlin was a man of excep- tional tact, and Mr. Schafer recognises this. The author's tone and treatment are admirable, and we can highly commend this most lucid history of the Pacific North-West.
Previous page
