Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/374

 ^^^62 FEDERAL REPORTES. �But it is broad enough, in my judgment, to cover more, if more there were, and ought to have effect accordingly, unless there is some controUing reason to the contrary in the circum- stanees of the case. If it had been the intention of congress to limit the grant to one station to each society, such inten- tion would have been more naturally expressed by saying, "the land occupied as a missionary station to each religions society to which such station belongs." And this construc- tion is strengthened rather than otherwise by reference to the surrounding circumstances. For some years prier to the passage of the act of August 14, 1848, there were three religions societies engaged in missionary labors among the Indians in Oregon — the Methodist Episcopal, the Presbyte- rian, and the Eoman Catholie. The first missionaries of the former came to Oregon with Weyth, in 1834, and established a mission at Wallamet, below Salem, which was afterwards removed to the latter place. Subsequently their numbers were increased, and they established missions at The Dalles, Nesqually, and Clatsop. The Presbyterian missionaries came to the country under the auspices of the American board in 183Q, and established a mission at Wailatpu, near what is now called WaUa Walla, with Marcus Whitman at its head. Afterwards they established missions at Lapwai and Spokan-^all east of the Cascade mountaii^s. The Eoman Catholie missionaries came from Canada with the Hudson Bay train in 1838. They established the mission of St. Paul, in the Wallamet, near Champoeg, and Cowlitz, on the Cowlitz river. Later they established missions in eastern Oregon, and held occasional missionary services among the Indians at many points in the country. In June, 1848, they estab- lished a mission at The Dalles, to the west and adjoining the land in controversy, �The country in which tjiese grants were made was an im- mense territory, extending from the forty-second to the forty- ninth parallel qfnorth latitude, and reaching from the Eocky mountains to the Pacific ocean. Outside of these missions and the Hudson Bay posts, practically, it was unoccupied, •except sparsely in the Wallamet valley. The missionaries ��� �