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340 reading and writing, and obtained some knowledge of Christianity. So far as Garry's influence was felt among this people, it was on the side of progress.

Such was the general condition of affairs at the Presbyterian missions in the autumn of 1842. The uneasiness which was felt from the first appearance of the Catholics in their neighborhood was intensified by the establishment of De Smet's missions among the Flatheads, and his visits to Colville and Vancouver, followed by the arrival of two secular priests in the Willamette Valley, and the mission of De Smet to Europe, with the avowed purpose of bringing men and means to overthrow Protestantism among the natives. While representing his situation frankly to the board, Whitman had never asked to be released from it, but on the contrary, to have his hands strengthened by a reënforcement. He saw the great number of missionaries which the Methodist church was able to throw into the field in western Oregon, and the readiness of the Catholics to furnish aid where it was required, and was reluctant to yield. Of all the independent missionaries who, it would seem, should have been willing to aid him, none remained over a few months at the station, being either alarmed by the attitude of the natives, or allured by flattering reports of the Willamette Valley for settlement. Even those who were designed to assist him fled from the post, Smith, Rogers, and Gray having deserted in 1841 and 1842, and none having come to fill their places.

To the doctor's appeals for help from the board no encouraging response was given after 1840. It appears that the board thought the mission should be self-supporting; but to this intimation Whitman replied, that it was visionary to expect a mission so isolated, which could exchange no products to obtain foreign supplies, to support itself. Besides, he asked, who was to perform the labors of the missionaries if the latter were