Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/135

84 Besides harvesting a plentiful crop, an addition was made to the house more than equal in size to the original structure, and fifteen acres of land additional were ploughed for sowing the labor being performed by the Lees and Edwards, Shepard acting as housekeeper and nurse. With his own hands Jason Lee salted six barrels of salmon, then the chief food of the country.

By the time this was accomplished the Mission was approaching a state of dissolution. Edwards had joined the Lees in the first instance from love of adventure, and to benefit his health, which being accomplished, he was desirous of returning home. The fur company's vessel, the Ganymede, Eales commander, was about to sail for the Hawaiian Islands, and Edwards bade farewell to the Mission superintendent. He was accompanied to Fort Vancouver by the younger Lee, who was in need of medical advice for a disease of the throat which threatened consumption.

But on arriving at Fort Vancouver Edwards' plan of returning to Missouri was changed by the verdict of McLoughlin upon the case of Daniel Lee, who he