Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/132

Rh form. The first sermon in this quarter was delivered by Jason Lee on Sunday, the 28th of September, before a mixed congregation of officers and servants of the fur company at Fort Vancouver. On the 14th of December religious services were again held at the same place, when Lee baptized four adults and seventeen children, and received from the gentlemen of the fort a contribution to the Mission of twenty dollars. And now on every Sunday since their arrival at the station, a meeting of the settlers was held at Gervais' house, and a sermon preached on the duties of godliness and sobriety, an occasional meeting being appointed for the Champoeg settlement. A sabbath-school also was soon begun at Gervais for the benefit of the children in that neighborhood. But these hebdomadal efforts could hardly be regarded as regular missionary work. Three native children only were received at the Mission house the first winter, namely, two orphans, John, already mentioned, his sister Lucy, who was called Hedding after the Methodist bishop of that name, and another lad, all Calapooyas. John, being a healthy boy, was required to fell trees and perform other outdoor labor. This was directly opposed to the aboriginal idea of dignity, and contrary to taste and habit; so John soon returned to his former ways, leaving sick and scrofulous Lucy to be cared for and converted by the men-missionaries.

Alas for the wily wickedness of the savage heart! No sooner did genial spring begin to warm his blood than the other lordly young aboriginal, who had come hither naked and starving in the cold wet winter for comfort and consolation, peremptorily declined all labor, whether of the hand or mind, and marched away to his purple-glowing mountains.

Certain Umpquas in planting-time left a boy with the missionaries, to be taught farming and religion; but in the midsummer the lad died of consumption, which circumstance Hines says came near bringing