Excerpt from The Whitman Controversy: Articles

But before Dr. Whitman arrived in Washington the pending negotiations had been cut short, by cutting the boundary line in two. The eastern portion had been settled by the Ashburton treaty - the western portion, and the portion that related to Oregon, remained to be settled. It was settled by the treaty of 1846, and it was uponthis latter treaty that Dr. Whitman's actions brought forth fruit. 1 say actions, for it was actions and not words, that finally settled the Oregon boundary, as I will try to prove further on. In 1841 the Hudson's Bay Company had started an immigration from Red River to Oregon, that reached their destination in the latter part of the year 1842. Mrs. Victor has it in 1841, but the better authority is against her. These were to settle north of the Columbia river, and Sir Geoige Simpson was to turn up in Washington about this time, to show that the English had the most numerous settlement in the country, and on this basis draw the line at least as far south as the Columbia. It appears to me that this was a plausible scheme, and one that might have had weight had the negotiations concern ing the Oregon boundary still been pending. At the time Doctor Whitman started trom here neither he nor the Hudson's Bay peo ple, in this country, doubted that such negotiations were still pend ing, and while he was fighting his way over plain and mountain, through storm and flood, to reach Washington in time to do his country a service, Sir George Simpson was approaching from the other direction. On his arrival at London in November, 1842, he doubtless learned that the negotiations had been suspended, while Dr. Whitman was still pressing on his journey through the wilder ness in ignorance of this fact. This turn of affairs made it unnecessary for Mr. Simpson to go on to Washington at that time, probably, yet as to whether or not he was there later in the winter does not appear to me to be either certain or important. But had things gone on as was expected, there is no doubt that either he, or some other agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, would have appeared on the scene to fully represent British interests on this coast.

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