Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/442



284: THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

Lee's enterprise, for it would have been easy enough to second his own desire to go far into the interior where the difficulties in the way would have been per- haps insurmountable. McLoughlin was a Catholic, indeed, and his hearty con- currence in Jason Lee's plan to Christianize the Indians marks the liberal, magnanimous gentleman.

Wlien Lee determined to visit the locality proposed by Dr. McLoughlin, the company offered him every facility. Boats, boatmen and provisions were freely given him. At the "Willamette Palls the Indians assisted in the portage of the boat and goods, and the journey to the site of the mission in the Willam- ette valley was completed October 6th.

The season was already too far advanced for beginning such an undertaking as the construction of a mission house, but Jason Lee was resolved upon its com- pletion for winter use as a house for himself and companions, and as a school and chapel. Dr. McLoughlin had sent up oxen and a number of cows for the mission. Jason Lee was a New England frontiersman, handy with the axe and care of cattle; and the management of the clearing, hauling and building were his personal care and labor. He was a collossal man, eight inches above aver- age heighth and powerful in accord. The building first constructed was eight- een by thirty-two feet and one story high. It was occupied four weeks after their arrival on the spot, though not yet completed. This was the first Ameri- can home built on the Pacific coast or on the western side of the Rocky moun- tains.

Before the completion of the building Indian children of the prairie were receiving instruction and care. October 19th, Jason Lee preached his first ser- mon near the Mission in the house of Joseph Gervais, of French Prairie, as a large tract of land between the Willamette and the present town of Gervais was called. The location chosen was in some ways unfortunate, but all considera- tions of comfort or future advantage were properly set aside by Lee in his de- termination to perform the work to which he was called. The half-breed chil- dren of the prairie were numerous, and many Indians traveled the river and lower trails, or made their homes near French Prairie. Here was the most favorable place for reaching the people, and so the mission site was chosen near the river on land too low, as it proved later, being subject to inundation in river floods, and peculiarly miasmatic.

THE PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY

It was the intention of the church to Christianize the Indians; the mes- sage of the pilgrims to St. Louis had evoked a remarkable response from the eastern churches, and it was doubtless intended that Jason Lee should establish himself among the "Flatheads. " The people who sent him knew nothing of Nez Perces, and Lee overshot the actual mark five hundred miles, by coming to the Willamette, but the Indians of our vicinity were flatheaded as any, and as fit subjects of missionary aid as could be found anywhere. They were not the most hopeful subjects, but the first great missionary of Christianity seems not to have balanced very carefully the advantage of preaching to Greeks or Romans rather than to Hebrews.

Among the resident Indians of the Willamette were Chinooks, Multnomahs,