Note 284 — LETTER XV
Reading edition
It was not the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company to encourage settlements. Dr. McLoughlin, however, permitted some of the retired servants of the company to settle at French Prairie (or Chemayway) in the Willamette Valley. There, by 1830, a considerable group of farmers were found, mostly of French-Canadian origin. Among the earliest settlers were Louis Labonte, Etienne Lucier, and Joseph Gervais.