Warre and Vavasour, 1845-6. S3 bank of the river, an American Methodist Mission is estab- lished, having one resident minister, a large school house and dwelling house. We regret not being able to give so prosper- ous an account of the Methodist Missionaries as of the Roman Catholic Brethren. In this instance, the school house was in wretched repair, and but few pupils seemed to attend for instruction. They are but ill supplied by the society in the United States, and we fear that religious instruction gives place to personal aggrandizement with the members of this society. There are ferries established across the river, which is wide, and navigable for small boats and canoes, at the above men- tioned stations. Below the Falls the river is said to rise 20 to 25 feet during the high waters in the Columbia in the month of June. Above the Falls the rise is also very great, from the quantity of rain falling during the winter, and the melting of the snow on the mountains, during the spring. The total number of inhabitants in the Valley of the Wil- lamette is about six thousand, of whom about 1000 may be considered as subjects of Great Britain.* Notwithstanding the advantages to be found in this valley, many of the American emigrants become dissatisfied, and remove to California, where the climate is more salubrious and their possessions unlimited. During our absence in the Willamette settlement, Mr. Ogden proceeded alone to Cape Disappointment, at the mouth of the Columbia River, to take possession of that headland according to the instructions he had received from Sir G. Simpson, but finding it was claimed by two Americans, he entered into negotiations for its purchase, which are not completed, his
- Lieut. Peel's report, dated September 27, 1845, just one month earlier than
the Warre- Vavasour report, gives the total population of the Willamette settle- ment at about 3,000 inhabitants, including women and children, of whom about 600 or 700 are Canadians and half-breeds, retired servants of the Company. If both reports are approximately correct, it follows that the emigration of 1845,
arriving after Peel wrote, amounted to 3,000.----
