loneerkozi.et1ion; - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

ANNUAL ADTMgSfl.
then living on hia land claim two miles above Champoeg, where he had settled
in the fall of 1827."
Hon. F. X. Matthieu, residing neat Butteville, first President of your Association,
who came to Oregon in 1842, in company with Capt. Medorum Crawford,
present presiding officer of this Association, says "On my arrival in Oregon,.
I lived the following two years with Mr. Lucier, who told me he had lived upon
his farm fifteen years when I reached his home in the fall of 1842."
But to return from this departure, to the regular order of events.
In the fall following the arrival of Capt. Hunt at Astoria, Mr. McKinzie, one
of the Astor partners, (who with so much pomp, took for his wife, the Princess
Chowa, daughter of old King Comcomly the celebrated Chinook chief,) left
Astoria on an exploring expedition to the Willamette country. Among the
small party who accompanied him, were Joseph Gervais, Louis Labonte and a
brother of Comcomly, his large canoe being manned by his slaves. This expedition,
said Joseph Gervais, was for the purpose of establishing trade with the Indians,
to instruct and encourage them to capture and properly preserve the skins
of such fur bearing animals as the Company most desired. The explorers pro.
ceeded as far south as the Calapooia country. They found the natives very numerous
and friendly. Their principal towns were confined to the river where
they kept large fleets of canoes. Champoeg was the largest villuge they found
on the upper river, their cedar houses occupying both banks of the stream.
The Indians were all pressed or flatheads, except their slaves, who were owned
by the principal men generally.
They found the Willamette valley to equal in extent, beauty and wealth in
furs, the glowing description which had been given by the Chinook Indians.
After collecting a large amount of furs, distributing some beaver traps and presents
among the chief men at the principal villages, the party returned, reaching
Fort Astoria in February, 1813.
After the transfer of the Astor Companies' interest on the Pacific coast to the
Northwest Fur Company of Montreal, Canada, which took place in October, 1813,
during our late war with Great Britain, some of the Astor men, who were mostly
Canadians, refused to enter the service of the Northwest Company, preferring to
become what was known on the Atlantic side as free trappers, which position
they ever afterwards maintained. Those old voyaguers who came to the Pacific
with these two fur companies, were men who bad been selected with a view to
their courage and physical powers of endurance, as well as experience in hunting
and trapping. The consequence. was, said Gervais, many who desired to
join those early expeditions mst with a prompt refusal. In the time intervening
between the transfer just mentioned, and the date when the free trappers com-