232 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
I am Yours very truly
Wm. Roberts. To Rev. G. Lane Treasurer &c.
To the corresponding Secy of the Sunday School Union of the
M. E. Church. REV. D. P. KIDDER Oregon City, 18th March, 1848.
Dear Broth.: The annual Express of the Hudson Bay Com- pany starts tomorrow for Canada and I improve the opper- tunity to write a few lines in relation to the Sabbath School interest in Oregon. At this time there are but two Sabbath schools really organised in this country under the care of our Church. One at this city with one Sup. 8 Teach. 48 Scholars. & 150 volumes in the Library. This school is now in a flour- ishing condition but there have [been] no cases of conver- sion reported among the children during the past year. There were a few vol. of Books in the Library when we arrived in the country but those reported above are the set furnished by the kindness of the board in the autumn of 1846. The other school is at Salem and is held in the Oregon Institute. It has 2 Superintendents, 10 Teach., 40 Scholars, and upwards of 150 vols in the Library. I am pleased with the prospects of this School an amount of seriousness was manifest among the children at my last visit that showed the teachers are not labouring in vain.
The donation of Books which we brought to this country were I think judicially selected and will be of great advantage. As soon as the rainy season is over we expect to start a num- ber of Schools in places where it has been impossible during the rainy season. The action of quarterly conferences con- templated in the discipline in regard to the instruction of chil- dren &c was thoroughly attended to during my brief sojourn in this land. But the scattered state of the population lies directly in the way of doing much good in the way of Sabbath School labours at present. There is one way however in which as we go from place to place much good may be done. It is by distributing copies of the S. S. Advocate & suitable books for children. The Box of Advocates brought by the Whiton are almost gone. It contained only the first 12 No. of the 4 Vol., we are most thankful for them but can you send us another Box containing the remainder of the volumn, and so on with
