Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/134

Rh more than half the native children in the Willamette and Columbia valleys were infected. A fourth lingered in a scrofulous condition for two years, and then died, leaving but two of these Mission wards remaining. During the autumn the Calapooyas brought a young child, the daughter of a chief who was dying of consumption, to be cared for by the missionaries, but she soon followed her father to the grave. Of the fourteen children received the first year, five died before winter and five ran away; of the remaining four two died during the next two years, leaving two for secular and sacred ministrations. This was brave work indeed for champions of the cross. To the poor missionaries, about this time, the place seemed as profitless as that of dentist to King Stanislaus, obtained by L'Eclure the day upon which the king lost his last tooth; and Jason and Daniel talked about it, and wondered if hitherto heaven's light had come to them colored as through a painted window, for it was as clearly apparent to them now, as the mark of the avalanche on the mountain side, that their efforts were a failure. And later Daniel Lee was called upon to satisfy public inquiry by giving the reasons which caused his uncle to abandon the Flatheads and settle among Canadians and half-breeds.