A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho, Part 13

Author: Eells, Myron, 1843-1907; Atkinson, G. H. (George Henry), 1819-1889
Publication date: c1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : American Sunday-School Union
Number of Pages: 300


USA > Idaho > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 13
USA > Oregon > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 13
USA > Washington > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 13


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13


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been absent from the tribe many years, yet they retained all the forms of worship which he had taught them. Many of them have prayers night and morning in their lodges. In my opinion, Mr. Spalding by his own per- sonal labors has accomplished more good in this tribe than all the money expended by Government has been able to effect."


The Golden Age, of November 16th, 1874, published at Lewiston, Idaho, also says : "Through the self-abnegating labors of this good old man (Mr. Spalding) these aborigines, we feel safe in saying, have been benefited more than by all the thousands of outlay by Government."


And Rev. C. Eells wrote in May, 1866, to the Missionary Herald : "The Nez Perces are a large and powerful tribe. They have been ill- treated and grievously wronged by Americans, and, had they at any one of several critical pe- riods combined against the whites, they might have caused incalculable injury. Under such circumstances I know not how to account for their marked patience and continued friend- ship, but by attributing both to the influence of the Gospel."


IV. The War with the Snake Indians .- This was waged mainly in Southern Idaho. It is hardly known when it began, but probably


On the Pacific Coast. 247


some time between 1850 and 1860, and for a long time consisted mainly of skirmishes be- tween emigrants and Indians. When the mines of Southern Idaho were opened in 1862, the trouble increased, and one company at least of miners was raised to settle the difficulty. Al- though something was thus done, yet the trou- bles did not remain settled, so that, after the close of the civil war in 1866, General George Crook was sent out to take matters in hand. He soon found that his regular soldiers could not successfully cope with the Indians, and de- termining to fight fire with fire, called for Indi- an scouts from the Umatilla and Warm Springs reservations. Most of these came from the latter reserve, where Captain John Smith had, a few months previously, taken charge. With his aid about one hundred of them were enlist- ed, dressed in United States uniform, and sent to the front in charge of Dr. William McKay, an educated half-breed, while his brother, Donald McKay, had charge of those from the Umatilla. The Snake Indians had learned how to manage the regular soldiers quite easily ; but when they saw the blue-coats dismount from their horses and fight in true Indian style, they were surprised ; when they were pursued into their mountain fastnesses they grew des- perate ; and when General Crook, advised by


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the Mckay brothers, was wise enough to fol- low up his success with a winter campaign, they surrendered.


According to the report of Hon. J. W. P. Huntington, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon for that time, these Indians fought in five battles, in only one of which they were supported by the regular soldiers, killed seventy-eight of the enemy, and also as- sisted in other engagements.


It is, doubtless, too much to say that all this aid was secured because of the christian instruc- tion which these Indians from the Warm Springs reservation had received from Captain Smith, for he had been appointed as their Agent only a few months previous to their en- listment. The Warm Springs Indians had often been plundered, and some of them had been taken captive and killed by the Snakes, hence they were fighting partly for themselves ; yet it is probably just as true that, if it had not been for Captain Smith's help in the matter, these Indian scouts could not have been ob- tained, as the Superintendent of Indian Affairs was strongly opposed to their enlistment.


V. The Modoc War .- This was carried on in Southern Oregon in the celebrated lava beds, and fairly began November 30th, 1872, between thirty-five regular soldiers and twenty-five vol-


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unteers on one side, and twenty-eight Modoc men aided by their women and children on the other. Ten whites were killed and five wounded, while the Indians lost one man, one woman, and one infant, and finally obtained possession of the field. This was followed in January, 1873, by a battle between four hundred regular soldiers and volunteers and fifty-three Modocs, which lasted ten hours, and in which not an Indian was killed, while thirty-five soldiers lost their lives, and the rest retreated. Such a de- feat set the authorities at Washington think- ing, and they resolved to try the peace com- mission, which failed by the sad massacre of General Canby and Doctor Thomas, on Friday, April 11th, 1873, and war to the bitter end was determined upon.


About a thousand soldiers were then gath- ered around those lava beds, but they were hardly ready for the fight. Why? They were waiting for the scouts from the Warm Springs reservation. General Canby had tele- graphed to their agent, Captain Smith, for them before his death, and in six hours after the request was received at the agency, they were enlisted and ready to move. So depend- ent was General Canby on them that he had determined, in case of his failure to make peace, not to begin fighting until they should arrive,


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and immediately after his death General Gil- liam would not follow the Modocs to their den because these scouts were not there, nor did he dare to do it until after they came. They arrived the next day after the massacre, seventy-two in number. The tribe had been compelled to take their reservation at Warm Springs, unfit as it was and is for farming, and give up the Tygh valley, which they wished, because of the presence of soldiers when the treaty was made. Afterwards they were cheated out of their fishery at the Dalles; but ready still to show their loyalty to the Government, they went to the Modoc War, under Donald McKay, with the prayers of their Agent, with whom they had regularly joined in worship on the Sabbath for several years.


Monday morning after the massacre dawned, and amidst the noise and din of camp life a strange sound was heard. What was it? Those scouts, born in the wild camps of East- ern Oregon, were joining in praise to God, and uniting in prayer for his protection ; a thing, according to Hon. A. B. Meacham, not one of the five hundred white men had the courage to do. And God heard their prayers, all but two of them coming out of the battle alive. J. L. M'Creery, in the Council Fire, for 1881, has versified this incident in the following language:


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BEFORE LAVA BEDS, MONDAY NIGHT, APRIL 14, 1873. " Midnight reigns, and darkness hovers O'er a martial garrison, Which our nation's ensign covers, In the wilds of Oregon; But the foe, that flag defying- Savage Modocs now at bay- In the lava beds are lying, Waiting for the dawn of day.


" Near the white men, camped beside them, Are their native red allies,


Come to fight for them or guide them, Or to guard them from surprise. White and red are brave and daring, And, amid the starless gloom, White and red are both preparing For the fray that is to come.


" Well they know that of their number Some must soon confront their God- This to be their final slumber Till they sleep beneath the sod. Yet in what a varied manner Those who wait the coming fight, Sheltered by that starry banner, Spend this dark and awful night !


" Hark, the sound of many voices From the white men's camping ground, And the wild discordant noises As the festive cup goes round; Voices maudlin and unsteady, Raise the bacchanalian cry- 'Here is to the dead already And to him who next shall die !'


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" There are other echoes floating On the midnight breeze afar- Vague, familiar sounds, denoting Where the Warm Spring Indians are; 'Tis the voice of prayer ascending From their camp upon the knoll, With the simple music blending- ' Jesus, lover of my soul.'


" Hear the whites in drunken revels, Frenzy-fired and reckless men- ' Death to yonder savage devils ! ' ' Fill the flowing bowl again !' See the Indian warriors kneeling, Listen to their humble plea, And their hymn to Heaven appealing, ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me !' " On the morrow came the battle; Slaughtered in the Modoc snare, White and red men fell like cattle, Leaving half their number there. O self-righteous, proud Caucasian, Look upon them side by side- Tell me which in nobler fashion, White or red man, lived and died !"


We have not space to follow them through all the battles of the war, but will note a few, to show how useful they were to our soldiers and the necessity of their aid. Fourteen Modocs started for water; a company of soldiers was sent to capture them, but the Modocs killed three of the soldiers and drove the rest back to camp. The command was given to shell them, but they dodged behind the rocks until the sol-


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diers, tired of that mode of fighting, ceased, when the Modocs came out from behind the rocks, organized a mock battery, fired their guns into camp, insulted all the soldiers, and re- tired without losing a man. " Where are the Warm Springs scouts all this time ? " asked one. They had been sent off to the other side of the lava beds to keep the enemy from escaping, and so could take no part in this encounter.


The Modocs were afterwards starved out of their stronghold, and took refuge in a new place in the lava beds. Their whereabouts were discovered by the Indian scouts, and a reconnoissance was ordered April 26th. Four- teen scouts were sent in one direction and 66 soldiers in another, who were ordered by no means to bring on an engagement ; but they were too careless, fell into a Modoc trap, and only 23 out of the 66 returned to camp, the Indian scouts having hurried to the scene in time to prevent the entire annihilation of the party, while not one of the 24 Modocs engaged was injured.


The enemy subsequently left the lava beds, and were pursued by the companies of Captain Hasbrouck and Jackson, with the Indian scouts. While thus pursuing, the soldiers were surprised by an attack from the Modocs near Sorass Lake, 'May 10th, but the Warm


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Springs Indians turned up at just the right time to save our soldiers from defeat and from massacre, according to their Agent, and turned the surprise into a victory-the first real vic- tory of the war. In this battle the scouts lost two of their number.


Thus they served during the whole cam- paign. Says Captain Smith, " Their services cannot be exaggerated. They were the cap- tors of the lava beds, and, in fact, did all the successful fighting that was done, and never forgot their duty as christians during the whole time." Yet only two of them were killed and two wounded, while not far from a hundred white soldiers lay down to rise no more. When the war was ended they returned to their homes, and settled down to a peaceful life as quietly as if there had been no war.


VI. The War with Joseph's Band of the Nez Perces .- The main cause of this has been hint- ed at in the third section of this chapter in re- gard to the Nez Perces mining trouble. The first treaty was made with the tribe in 1855. By the treaty of 1863 the reservation was cur- tailed, and among the portions surrendered was the Wallowa Valley, in Oregon, the home of Joseph. While the head chief and many sub-chiefs and head men agreed to the treaty, Joseph and those living in the valley did not.


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In 1873, by an executive order of the President, a reserve was made for them in the valley, but in 1875, by the same authority, it was restored to the public domain. In 1877 an attempt was a made to remove the band to the remaining portion of the Nez Perces reservation, and the result was a war, which began with a massacre, June 13th of the same year, at White Bird Creek, in Western Idaho, near the reservation, and continued in that region until the last of July, when the Indians fled into Montana, where they were captured by Generals Miles and Howard, October 5th, and afterwards taken to the Indian Territory.


During this war the effects of christianity on the tribe were very marked. Those acquainted with Indians have learned that their bond of relationship is quite strong, and that it is espe- cially so in any difficulty with the whites. But in this war not only was the tribe divided, but, strange to say, family ties were sundered, while the dividing line was christianity. If this ' had done nothing more than to keep five-sixths of the tribe out of the war, the fruits would have been very great. Those who engaged in hostilities were those who steadily refused to come under christian teaching, while not a Protestant Christian Indian was found among the hostiles.


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Besides this, the friendly portion of the tribe furnished valuable aid to us from the beginning of the war to the time when it was transferred to Montana. A small company of scouts aided in the first battle, June 17th, in a canyon of White Bird Creek, when two of them were captured, but they afterwards escaped. About the Ist of July, when General Howard left Lap- wai in person, with three hundred soldiers, the friendly Nez Perces, at his request, furnished him with sixty horses to mount his officers. James Reuben was one of the most prominent of the scouts. He, Old Levi, Noah, James Conner, John Levi and Jacob carried most of the dispatches: sometimes by night, in the rain, swimming their horses in the dark, cold and wet; or, discovered by the hostiles, escaping to warn both settlers and soldiers; or engaging in the battles, in one of which one of them fired twenty-five rounds against members of his own tribe.


When the enemy escaped from the region and started for Montana by the Lolo trail, they were soon followed by the cavalry with thirty Nez Perces scouts under James Reuben, all be- ing under the command of Colonel Mason. This was a very dangerous road for an ambush, the trail being so narrow that two persons could not ride abreast, with timber so thick and mountains


On the Pacific Coast. 257


so steep on both sides, as to prevent all skir- mishing. The scouts knew it, so that they said: "Every man may say to himself, now my life is ended in this world, for I will soon go down into the grave." Having proceeded about six- teen miles, they were moving along with three scouts ahead, seven more a short distance be- hind, and the rest about three hundred yards back with the cavalry. At that place the ene- my laid an ambuscade, and suddenly surround- ed the first three, disarmed them, took their horses away, and retired into the woods with their captives, without noise, ready to serve the next seven in the same manner, and then sur- prise the main column. The seven, being off their guard because of the three ahead, fell into the trap, but began fighting, broke through the enemy and reached the soldiers, not, however, until John Levi had been killed, Abraham and James Reuben wounded, the latter also having eighteen bullet holes through his clothes; but our troops were saved.


Who was this James Reuben? He was a nephew of Chief Joseph, the leader of the hos- tiles, but he was a christian. He had studied under Miss McBeth in order to become a teach- er. Evidently on account of his relationship with Joseph, he was suspected by some whites of being a spy for the enemy, and on one occa-


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sion, while carrying an express from General Howard to Lapwai, he narrowly escaped being shot three times by parties of white men on the road. At another time, when a company of soldiers had just arrived at Lapwai, and were ready to go to the front, he was put in charge of twenty scouts to go with them. Having reached Mount Idaho, two friendly Indians from Lapwai overtook him, who told him he must not go any further, as they had been told that all the white men were against him now; and it afterwards proved that white men who were with the command were waiting to see him away from the command so that they might dispatch him to the happy hunting grounds. His men advised him to return, and offered to guard him if he would do so; but he told them not to go back but to go on, saying : "Why should I flee ? I have done nothing of the sort. The Word of God says: 'The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.' God is my strong protec- "tion and shield in the days of my calamities. If God has anything against me, in whom I live and have my being, He will do as it please Him; but if not, why should I fear man ? I will soon set these white men aright-those who are suspicious of me-and they will find their mis- take." He did so, as we have already seen,


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afterwards shedding his blood on the Lolo trail in defense of our soldiers. After the war he went as a missionary to Joseph and his band when they had been taken to the Indian Ter- ritory.


While the war was going on the Indians at Kamiah, about sixty miles from Lapwai, under James Lawyer, head chief, guarded the gov- ernment property there ; and when the hostiles were fighting about twenty-five miles from that place, he formed a company of thirty-five of the native christians, and escorted their teacher, Miss McBeth, and the government employees, with their families, to Lapwai. " This," as it has been said, "they did at the risk of their own lives, as they well knew; but the love of Christ constrained them." The same Indians also removed many articles from the govern- ment buildings at Kamiah, and hid them in their corn-fields, fearing that the enemy might burn or plunder the houses. These articles were afterwards returned. After the war Miss McBeth wrote: "Not one of the treaty Indians joined the hostiles, and none of the old familiar faces are missing from their places here. I have more trust in them now than I ever had before the war."


After the enemy escaped into Montana, two of the Nez Perces went with our troops as


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scouts, and continued with them until the end of the war, October 7th, in Northern Montana. Our troops during that time marched 1,320 miles in 75 days. These scouts traveled, neces- sarily, very much farther, and are highly com- plimented by General Howard for their faithful services.


Government so recognized the services of these friendly Indians, that in May, 1878, they received over five thousand dollars for the sup- plies, horses and services which they furnished during the war.


Says General Howard, the commanding offi- cer during the war, "What glorious results would have been effected could these non-treat- ies [the hostiles] have received the same direc- tion that the worthy missionaries were in early days able to give the remainder of their tribe."*


VII. The Bannack War .- This began in Southern Idaho in June, 1878, when the Indians were pursued westward into Eastern Oregon, destroying much property during their raid. They attempted then to go north and cross the Columbia River into Eastern Washington, but were prevented, a decisive battle having been fought near Pendleton, and at last they were broken into small bands and driven back


* Chief Joseph, p. 274.


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into Idaho, where most of them surrendered, and the war was closed in August.


The aid received by our soldiers in this war from christian work among the Indians was more of an indirect, preventive kind, than of di- rect service. When the hostiles reached Ore- gon, strong inducements were offered to the Umatilla and Yakama Indians to join them, it being stated, on good authority, that at one time two thousand horses were offered them by the hostiles for this purpose.


One " who wishes to be understood" wrote a letter, in August, 1878, to The Oregonian, in which he spoke very harshly against the chris- tian work on the Yakama reservation. He said : "We, who daily come in contact with the Indians, cannot be made to believe that prayer-books, praying generals, Methodist preachers (or any other preachers), are a good safeguard against the tomahawk or scalping knife. We believe that the foolish attempt to christianize diggers annually costs too many lives and too much treasure to be persisted in longer ; and the pseudo-philanthropists, the christian mongers of the east, who are paying thousands to send missionaries among these barbarians, would do us a favor if they would keep them away, and they would more truly serve God by giving their money to the poor of


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the great cities. And if the United States Government would be less influenced in its con- duct towards the Indian by the advocates of christianity, our wives and children might annu- ally be spared the sight of murdered husbands and fathers ; our farmers would not yearly be driven from their fields until their growing crops again go back into the ground ; our stockmen would not every summer see their fine horses and cattle stolen and slaughtered by the thousand, for then we could rely on the strong arm of the settler, aided by the army, and could protect ourselves. We have reliable information that some of the dead Indians found after the battles near Pendleton had on their persons passes from Wilbur."*


Now it is probably a fact that some of the Umatilla Indians, and perhaps some of the Ya- kamas, were engaged in aiding the enemy. There are always some renegade Indians con- nected with every tribe (as well as some rene- gade whites and tramps). As tribes, however, they did not engage in the war, and compara- tively few individuals did.


Why was this ? In the war of 1855-6, before Father Wilbur went among the Yakamas, they were the leading spirits, and it was the most wide-spread war that has ever devastated the


* Indian Agent on the Yakama Reservation.


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Pacific coast. To say nothing of any ideas of the wickedness of such a course, which some of them may have received from the Bible, it may be said in reply that they had too much perma- nent property in homes and farms to allow them to engage in war, for they knew that, if they should do so, they would in the end cer- tainly lose all. This is undoubtedly so; and yet, when Father Wilbur went among them, they had none of this kind of property, but only movable property, which they could carry with them, as the Bannacks did. It is a fact that christianity gave them this property.


It may again be said that they were thoroughly whipped in 1856, and were afraid to engage in war again. They were thus conquered, and the remembrance of it may have done them good, - even in 1878. But in 1867 General Cook, the noted Indian fighter, just as thoroughly conquer- ed the Indians in Idaho, in precisely the same region where the Bannack war began, and the praise of his effectual work was in the mouths of the citizens there for years afterwards. This was eleven years later than the Yakama war, and so much fresher in the minds of the Indians. It was christianity that made the Yakama In- dians remember. Bancroft Library


Hence, whichever way we turn, we are obliged to say that christianity had a great


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restraining power over those Indians, and thus, in an indirect way, gave us great assistance.


General Sheridan is said to be the author of the statement that the only good Indian is a dead one, and he has also said that to make one such good one costs about twenty thousand dollars, and the lives of half a dozen soldiers. Hon. J. W. P. Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon in 1867, wrote : “ I am painfully conscious that extermination will cost the lives of ten whites for every Indian, and, besides, cost many millions of money. The Gov- ernment would probably have saved many dol- lars if it could, fifteen years ago, have taken every Snake Indian to a first-class hotel, and boarded them for life; it is also said every hostile Indian killed in the Modoc war cost the Government about a quarter of a million of dol- lars." Such statements as these, taken in con- nection with the statements made of the assist- ance received by us in these wars from the christian Indians, prove the truth of the remark made at the beginning of this chapter, that if Government had paid the expenses of all the missions in the region, the money would have been wisely expended, even if nothing had been accomplished, except to give us the aid which we have received in the Indian wars, from the influence of christianity on the Indians.


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CONCLUSION.


THE Annual Report of the Board of Method- ist Missions for 1848, says that Mr. Gary thinks it a mistake to have sent so many secular per- sons to Oregon in connection with the mission, because of the expense, and because the settlers looked on it as a money-making concern.


In 1863 the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions published an octavo volume of four hundred and sixty-four pages, entitled, Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Yet in all that work all that is said of the mission in Oregon is contain- ed in the following sentence, under the head of "Resultant Literature ": " Rev. Samuel Park- er's ' Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Moun- tains, made under the Direction of the Board in 1835, 1836 and 1837,' brought to light no field for a great and successful mission, but it added much to the science of geography, and is remarkable as having first made known a


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practicable route for a railroad from the Missis- sippi to the Pacific."


Thus the result of these missions appeared to their Missionary Boards then, and if so to them, what could not others say who did not believe in missions ? But at this later period let these discouraging remarks be answered by four prominent men of this coast, some of whom are not professing christians.


Says Hon. W. H. Gray with reference to the trading companies a generation or more ago : " All of them, including the North-west and Hudson's Bay Companies, have retired from it; but the American missionaries are residents of the country, and their influence and labors are felt, notwithstanding other influences have par- tially supplanted and destroyed the good im- pressions first made upon the natives of the country by them. Still, civilization, education and religion, with all the improvements of the age, are progressing, and the old pioneer mis- sionaries and settlers that were cotemporary with them, with a few exceptions, are foremost in every laudable effort to benefit the rising generation."


" They formed the nucleus around which the American pioneer, with his family, gathered, and from which he drew his encouragement and protection ; and a part of these mission-


On the Pacific Coast. 267


aries were the leaders and sustainers of those influences which ultimately secured this coun- try to freedom and to the great Republic."


" It is obvious that to the American mission- aries our nation owes an honorable record, and their names .... should find a prominent place in the catalogue of noble men and women who not only volunteered to civilize and christianize the Indians, but did actually save this western golden coast, to honor and enrich the great republic in the time of her greatest peril."*


Says Hon. H. H. Gilfry, commissioned by her Governor as Oregon's orator at the centen- nial celebration in Philadelphia in 1876 : “No regularly organized system for peopling this Territory was entered into until about the year 1834, when zealous christians in the Eastern States turned their attention to the West as a favorable soil for planting the standard of the Cross, and for religious labor among the Indi- ans ..... Yet these missionaries cannot proper- ly be called the true pioneers of settlements, as they did not go west to attack the forests and cultivate the soil for the results of hus- bandry, but their going opened up the way and attracted the pioneer to follow, overcoming the rigors of a new country, and planting the tree


* History of Oregon, pp. 40, 66, 602.


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of liberty at the farthest outposts of the bor- der."*


Says Hon. M. P. Deady, Judge of the United States District Court for Oregon : "After the lapse of years we can readily see how these simple men were really the unconscious instru- ments of HIM 'who hath made the round world,' and ruleth the destiny of all nations that dwell thereon. Although their mission to the Indians was substantially a failure, they were of great benefit to the country. They wisely settled in the heart of the great Willa- mette valley, and formed there a nucleus and rallying point for the future American settle- ment, and thereby attracted the after-coming emigration to the Goshen of the Pacific. From the first, lay element and secular spirit was sufficiently strong among them to cause them to take root in the country, and gradually be- come a permanent colony, rather than remain mere sojourners among the Indians. Before long they began to build and plant, as men who regarded the country as their future home. Comparatively they prospered in this world's goods, and when the immigration came flowing into the country from the west, they found at the ' Wallamet Mission' practically an Ameri- can settlement, whose influence and example


* Centennial Address, p. 33.


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On the Pacific Coast. 269


were favorable to order, industry, sobriety and economy, and contributed materially to the formation of a moral, industrious and law-abid- ing community out of these successive waves of unstratified population.


" True their Indian school had no permanent effect upon the aborigines of the vicinage,


" ' His soul their science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way ;'


but it was of great advantage as a seat of learn- ing and a means of education to the white youth of the country. 'As the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,' it attracted to its vicinity those who were desirous of protecting themselves as far as possible from the wither- ing atmosphere of an ignorant and uncultivated community. Around it, and largely on ac- count of it, grew up the town of Salem, now the wide-spreading capital of the State."*


Says Hon. R. P. Boise, for many years one of the Judges of Oregon : "History will record that these holy men were the nucleus around which had been formed and built the State of Oregon. They builded well, for they laid their foundation on that rock which bears up and sustains the superstructure of the civilization of


* Address before the Oregon Pioneer Association in 1875, page 26.


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the last eighteen hundred years. And fortu- nate indeed is it that such men were here in that early time-men who knew the wants of a christian community ; men who were learned in the sciences and literature, as well as theo- logy, and knew and appreciated the value of labor and industry, and who were willing to, and did build with their own hands; men who knew how to plant in the virgin soil the seeds of virtue and knowledge, and cultivate them as they germinated and grew into churches, schools and colleges."*


These words seem to be a fitting answer to the statement made by the Missionary Boards, and to the feeling which some christians even have had, that Providence made a mistake in sending missionaries to the Indians, but show that when missionaries offered the prayer, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" it was wisely answered. They proved the wisdom of Christ's command : "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."


* Address before the Oregon Pioneer Association, 1876, pages 26, 27.


THE END.


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