220 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPER Nathaniel J. Wyeth, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was one of those who believed there might be something in Kelley's ideas and so made two trips to Oregon where he attempted to establish a salmon-fishing enterprise. The missionary movement which played so important a part in the Oregon story begins at this time. 11 It is related that in 1831 some Indians from across the mountains appeared in St. Louis inquiring for Captain Clark and stating that their people wished religious men to be sent among them. This story was circulated in the newspapers of the day and reached, among others, the Missionary Board of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. After much discussion it was decided to estab- lish a mission among the Indians of the interior, between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains under the direction of Jason Lee and his nephew, Daniel Lee. Before preparations for the departure of these men had been completed the elder Lee learning of the return of Nathaniel J. Wyeth from his first Oregon journey and visited him in Boston in the winter of 1833-34. Here arrangements were made to send supplies by Wyeth's vessel and for the missionaries to accompany Wyeth's party overland. In September, 1834, the Missionaries and Wyeth arrived at Fort Vancouver, whence the latter proceeded to select as a site for his fishing operations, the end of an island in the Columbia just below Vancouver. From the first, however, it was felt that this project was doomed to failure, and although efforts were continued into the next year, in 1836 the establishment was broken up and Wyeth returned to Boston. In 1836 the fishing station and a trading post, Fort Hall, which had been established by Wyeth's party when they crossed the Rockies, were sold to the Hudson's Bay Company. Both the fur trading operations and the salmon fishing were looked upon by Dr. McLoughlin as business ventures directly in competition with the organization to which he owed his loyalty, consequently he used the strength of the Company ii See Bancroft, History of the Northwest Coast, II, chapters 25 and 26. Also Bancroft, History of Oregon, I, chapter 3.
