Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/449

 f Rev. Gus-

ta\us Iliiics. Slic was an early ui'aduair of Willaiiirtlr riiivci'sily. ami liccaiiio the wilV of Professor Eniiicis II. (inililis. tci whom I am imicli imlditiMl lor informal ion here reeorded.

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Jjater, in 18J:;i, .Jason J^ee determined to go again to New York to set before the missioiiarj' board the affairs of (lie Oregon mission. He was aware that the board was not satisfied with the work in Oregon. Tlie disappointment was <hie to their laek of knowledge of eonditious there, and to the results of the work among the Indians particularly. In the most favorable cireumstauces a letter sent from Oregon in 1840 would not be answered until the end of the following year. The information of the board was always a year behind the fact. The board was hoping for conversion of thousands of Indians, and quite unaware of the splendid work the mission was doing among the whites as well as at several of the Indian stations. It w-as to inform them of these matters that Lee left Ore- gon February 3, 1844, on the British barque "Columbia" whieh sailed from Vancouver for London in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company.

At Honolulu, Lee received information that his successor had been appointed and was on his way to Oregon. After consideration of this unexpected phase of affairs, he determined to go on his intended journey. He went from Honolulu to ilazatlau, crossed Mexico to Vera Cruz, barely escaping imprisonment on ac- count of the ill-feeling due to the Texas intrigues, all his letters and papers be- ing seized.

P'rom Vera Cruz by sail to New Orleans, then by steamboat to Pittsburgh, and by stage to the Atlantic sea-board, July 1st, he appeared before the missionary board and made a plea of such couviucing power that that body expressed its renewed confidence in him and his wise administration ; but his successor was at sea, irreclaimable, and arrived in Oregon about the time Jason Lee arrived in New Orleans.

Again Lee visited AVashiugton, called upon I'resident Tyler, and was assured by him that the "Oregon Bill" would probably pass Congi'ess at the coming ses- sion. He spent two weeks at Washington at this time, but a presidential election was near at hand, and was the principal affair of the time. It was then in view of the approaching settlement of the claims of the Oregon country that the "Fifty- four, Forty or Fight" slogan was ringing through the country.

After finishing his business in New York, Jason Lee went to bis old home in Stanstead. He expected to return to the west after some months of rest and renewal of old acquaintance in his native place. On his way thither he visited AVilbraham Academy, where his student years were passed.

It seems strange, indeed, that a man of Lee's heroic frame, inured to hardshiii for ten years in all the climates of our country, should have met death in life's jn-ime, at his early home, among his dearest relatives and boyhood friends. He j>reached to them his last sermon in November. 1884, even then feeble and ema- ciated, but yet tilled with zeal and fire.

As late as February. 1845. he wrote to his friend. Rev. G. Hines, in Oregon: "Unless some favorable change in my malady occurs soon it is my deliberate con- viction that it will i.rove fatal. Should sneli a change take place I advise you