12 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
the nature of the disputed lands. Such an opportunity was not to be neglected. To Kelley it meant an objective which dwarfed all other interests and governed his thoughts and movements throughout the rest of his long life. Of his awakening, or "vision" as he termed it, he said :
"In the year 1817 *the word came expressly to me* to go and labor in the fields of philanthropic enterprise and promote the propagation of Christianity in the dark and cruel places about the shores of the Pacific. . .? The perusal of Lewis and Qark's journal, personal conference with intelligent navfgators and hunters who had visited and explored the territory beyond the Rocky mountains, and facts derived from other sources entitled to credit . . . satisfied me that this region must, at no remote period, become of vast importance to our Gov- ernment, and of deep and general interest. ... I foresaw that Oregon must, eventually, become a favorite field of mod- ern enterprise, and the abode of civilization."'
In another place, writing in the third person, he declared :
"He then conceived the plan of its colonization, and the founding of a new republic of civil and religious freedom, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean . . . and w^hout con- ferring with flesh and blood, and in despite of witreaties of prudent, worldly-wise friends, he resolved on the devotion of his life in the realization of his plans, hoping to do something worthy the sacrifice, by planting, in the genial soil of those regions, the vine of Christianity and the germ of Civil Free- dom."*
His plans developed slowly, however, for he needed first to inform himself as to the nature of the Oregon country; its climate, its soil, its natural products, and its native inhab- itants. The possibilities of trade with the Atlantic states,
a Kelley, Hitt. of the Settlement of Oregon, 124; see also Kelley, Petition. x866: X. Kelley himself was uncertain as to the exact date of the conception of his ccrfonization idea. In an earlier statement he said it was "about the year 1818." — ^Kelley, Memorial, 1844, in Palmer Sentinel, December 10, 1846.
J Kelley. Memoir, in Committee on Foreign Affairs, Territory of Oregon, emental report, 47> ^S cong. 3 sess. H. rep. loi. 4 Petition, 1866: x.
