Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 29).djvu/151

 No. I

LETTER OF MR. BOLDUC, APOSTOLICAL MISSIONARY

Cowlitz, 15th Feb., 1844.

,—Nearly a year has elapsed since I had the satisfaction of addressing you. During that period, I have made many new excursions, of which I now intend giving you an account.

From the observations made by the first English navigators who visited the coasts of America towards the north of the Columbia River, it appears that the territory bearing the same name, was formerly discovered and peopled by Spaniards. Even at the present day, we find ruins of birch edifices, constructed for the purpose of drawing the savage nations to the knowledge of the gospel. Among the natives, relics have been found attesting this fact; a certain tribe has possessed for ages a brazen crucifix, bearing the appearance of great antiquity, when, how, and by whom it was brought thither, none can tell. It is probable it {52} may have been introduced at that period, when the Spaniards seized on California, and formed a settlement on Vancouver's Island, separated from Terra Firma by the strait of Juan de Fuca.[44] Gray discovered the Columbia River; Vancouver ascended it to the point whereon is built the fort that bears his name, and took possession of the surrounding country.

The vast territory extending between the Rocky Moun-*