Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/107

Rh "1. One preacher be sent to join them to labor at Waiilatpu—and that

"2. A company of some five or ten men may be found of piety and intelligence, not to be appointed by the Board or to be immediately connected with it, who will go to the Oregon country as Christian men, and who, on some terms to be agreed upon, shall take most of the land which the mission have under cultivation, with the mills and shops at the several stations, with the most of the stock and utensils, paying the mission in produce from year to year, in seed to the Indians, and assistance rendered to them—or in some similar manner, the particulars to be decided upon in consultation with the men. The result of this would be:—

"1. Introducing a band of religious men into the country to exert a good religious influence on the. Indians and the White population which may come in especially near the mission stations.

"2. Counteracting papal efforts and influences.

"3. Releasing the missionaries from the great amount of manual labor, which is now necessary for them for their subsistence, and permitting them to devote themselves to appropriate missionary work among the Indians, whose language they now speak.

"4. Doing more for the civilization and social improvement of the Indians than the mission can do unaided.

"5. It would afford facilities for religious families to go into the country and make immediately a comfortable settlement, with the enjoyment of Christian privileges,—both those who might be introduced upon the lands now occupied by the mission and others who might be induced to go, and settle in the vicinity of the stations.

"6. It would save the mission from the necessity of trading with immigrants. Those [who] now enter the country expect to purchase or beg their supplies from the mission for a year or two, and it would be thought cruel to refuse [to] provide such supplies."