344 CHARLES HENRY CAREY
friends of the missionary cause, doubted the expediency of the measure. But it was powerfully and persever- ingly urged by the Superintendent, who had just come from the field of operations, and backed by the force of great names and an almost resistless advocacy, and was ultimately carried.
On the 6th of December, 1838, the Board decided upon sending out five additional missionaries, one physi- cian, six mechanics, four farmers and one missionary steward, with their wives and children, in all thirty-four persons, adult. They authorized at the same time the erection of a saw mill and the purchase of goods for the Oregon Mission, to the value of five thousand dollars. Dr. Bangs and Jason Lee were appointed to select the laymen, and the Bishop having charge of Foreign Mis- sions was requested to appoint the ministers. The per- sons who were to compose the reinforcement having been selected and appointed, the whole company, consisting of about fifty, including children, sailed from the port of New York on the 9th of October, for the Oregon Ter- ritory, by way of the Sandwich Islands. After a voyage of nearly nine months, they all arrived in safety at Fort Vancouver, on the first of June, 1840.
It is not surprising that such an increase of the mis- sion family, and the great outlay required to sustain it, should have produced some dissatisfaction. It was so; for in various quarters the measure was considered of doubtful expediency. But in the midst of these com- plainings, and just at a time when an unfavorable re- action began to manifest itself in many places, the intel- ligence came from Oregon of a glorious revival among the Indians at the Dalls. This glowing account had the effect to hush for a season all murmurings and to silence all objection to the great reinforcement; and yet it is a remarkable fact that the reinforcement, really, had nothing to do with the revival, as it had taken place be- fore the new missionaries had arrived.
