Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/366



the free French Canadians of the Valley Willamette had become fairly settled in their new home, they found time to turn their attention to the moral and educational advancement of their little community. Their first effort in this direction was made July 3, 1834, when they wrote to J. N. Provencher, bishop of Juliopolis in the Red River settlement, asking that religious teachers might be sent to Oregon. The arrival of the Methodist missionaries early in 1835 made the Catholics more anxious than ever to have among them instructors of their own faith, and on the 23d of February they addressed a second appeal to the bishop. To these petitions Provencher replied by enclosing to McLoughlin a letter of advice and consolation, in which he regretted that no priests could be spared from the Red River settlement, but promised to obtain help from Europe or Canada as soon as possible.

The following year the governor and a committee 2em