at the Mission were sure to operate against the success of the school.
A meeting to organize a society for the benefit of the Calapooyas, held on Christmas-day, was well attended, as occasions for social intercourse among the settlers were rare. Moreover, the Mission being to the Willamette Valley in points of influence and prospective importance what Fort Vancouver was to the Oregon territory, great interest was felt in its projects. It was proposed to form an organization among the missionaries and settlers to induce the natives to locate at a branch mission on a piece of ground which they should be taught to cultivate, and that they should receive encouragement in their work, and assistance to build comfortable homes. About four hundred dollars were subscribed; Frenchmen and Americans contributing from five to twenty dollars each—men who themselves used dried deerskin in place of glass for windows, and who possessed few comforts beyond the actual necessities of life, and yet had farms well stocked. Much more than this would the people have done for Lee and his associates, for the visit of Slacum, the petition to congress, and the successful formation of the cattle company had inspired them with a respect and confidence in the judgment, energy, and enterprise of the Americans. The branch mission was a failure, as might have been foreseen; for though assisted with their farming, the natives were so indolent and apathetic that the attempt had to be abandoned.[1]
It was decided in missionary councils during the winter that the Dalles of the Columbia offered superior advantages for a mission station, and Daniel Lee and Perkins were assigned to that place. Gray states in his account of the Presbyterian missions, that he urged Whitman to establish a station at this point;
- ↑ Lee and Frost's Or., 150.
