OREGON (ante). The name Oregon originally applied to all the w. part of the United States possessions 31. of the Spanish province of California. The Columbia river was once known as the Oregon. Bryant, in " Thanatopsis," alludes to it under that name in the line— etc. The Greek navigator Dc discovered its coast in 1592; the Spanish admiral Polite, in 1640; and Spain, for a time, claimed it. She ceded her rights. such as they were, to England by treaty in 1790. The American capt. Robert Gray of Boston explored the great river in May, 1792, named it after his vessel, the Columbia, and by the atten tion called to it in a circumstantial report to the United States government gave the color of an original title to a claim by the United States to the valley of the river. France then held at shadowy claim to all the continent w. of the Mississippi and n. of the Span ish possessions, under the name of Louisiana. The United States acquired all of that by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. The report of capt. Gray was made the basis for a continental exploring expedition ordered by Jefferson and made by captains Lewis and Clarke in 1804-6. Their really original surveys up and down the Columbia and its great tributaries gave the United States its best title to the country. In 1811 the Ameri can Pacific fii• company, of which John Jacob Astor was the director, established a trad ing-post at the mouth of the Columbia, and called the place Astoria. In the war of 1812 its property was sold to the Northwest fur company (a British company, subsequently merged into the Hudson bay company) to prevent its seizure by British war-vessels. These companies maintained their fur depots at fort Vancouver, 60 m. above Astoria, up 'to 1860. In 1832 a few settlers came from the United States. Overland immigration from the states commenced in 1833 on a very small scale; Only made possible across the vast plains and numerous ranges of intervening. mountains through the thorough knowledge of the country which lad been acquired by the hunters and trappers employed by the Hudson bay company in all the country between the Mississippi and the Pacific.
missionary colony, headed by Dr. Marcus Whitman and rev. Mr. Spaulding, arrived in 1834. The first considerable immigration was caused by the gold excitement in Califor nia in 1849, which, by establishing the overland route, placed the rich valley of the Wil lamette within reach of exploring parties from California, as well as direct immigration down the Snake river. An organization for it territorial government had been effected by the few settlers in the state in 1843, and a territorial constitution adopted by their votes in 1845. A treaty with Great Britain, concluded in 1846, settled a disputed bound ary question. Congress passed the act to organize the territory of Oregon Aug. 14, 1848. It then embraced all of the region claimed by the United States n. of the 42d parallel, and w. of the Rocky mountains. The territorial government was inaugurated March 3, 1849, on the arrival of the first appointed governor, Joseph Lane. Washington territory, organized Mar. 2, 1853, took from Oregon that part n. of the Columbia river and lat. 46'. A state constitution was framed and ratified in 1857, and Oregon was admitted into the union as a state Feb, 14, 1859, with its present boundaries. In 1850 congress passed the "donation law," giving 320 acres of public lands on the Pacific slope to any actual settler upon it, and 320 acres more to the wife, ou all lands entered previous to December of that year; and from Dec. 1, 1850, to Dec. 1, 1853, the right in like manner to enter 160 acres each. Under that law 8,000 acres were registered in Oregon, including what is now Washington territory. It mostly fell into the hands of speculators. The following have been her governors, provisional, territorial, and state: In 1843 there were about 400 white colonists in Oregon, and as many more hunters analrappers.