tution and the Guerriere} Farther up the river were observed "many small farms of from fifty to one hundred acres, belonging to the old servants of the company, Canadians, who [had] settled here; they all [appeared] very comfortable and thriving." Twelve miles above Champoeg dwelt the Catholic priest, Father Blanchet, "settled among his flock, . . . doing great good to the settlers in ministering to their temporal as well as spiritual wants." The traveller passed a few more farms before reaching the first of the buildings belonging to the Methodist mission. Wilkes was entertained by Mr. Abernethy, whose family was one of the four living in the "hospital "erected by Dr. White — "A well-built frame edifice with a double piazza in front, . . . perhaps the best building in Oregon." A ride of five miles brought him to "the mill," ^ where he found "the air and stir of a new secular settlement; . . . the missionaries [had] made individual selections of lands to the amount of one thousand acres each, in the prospect of the whole country falling under our laws." He was convinced that they were now more interested in building up the country than in labouring further among the few remaining Indians. Neither did they care to leave the Willamette valley in order to find a more hopeful mission field, but preferred to remain here and direct the future development of the new colony they had done so much to create. Among these
- Johnson afterward built the first house in the city of Portland.
2 This was near the present site of Salem.
