Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/23

 and two other assistants, he accompanied Wyeth on that second trip in 1834. So came the missionary to the realm of the king of the Columbia. And that tall, angular Puritan, born just over the Canadian border, was just the man Dr. McLoughlin wanted for his settlement at Champoeg. The doctor set his plate beside his own, and before them all discussed the question of location.

"You have no call to go up there among the Flatheads, Mr. Lee, where we cannot protect you. We have plenty of Indians right here. Above the Falls of the Willamette there lies a beautiful valley. Besides the Indians there is a settlement of French Canadians, with their Indian wives and half-breed children. Those Canadians are your own countrymen, Mr. Lee, far from the advantages of school and church. Then, too, I can assist you here with my boats and my influence. Up there in the Flathead country you will be far cut off from a base of supplies and from communication with the civilized world."

These arguments impressed the missionary. Of course Dr. McLoughlin wanted his people at Champoeg instructed. Still more he wanted the mission a dependency of the fort.

Lee went up the Willamette and found a valley fair as the happy land of Rasselas, set between the hills. "I will build here," he said. Out of Wyeth's ship, the "May Dacre," Lee unloaded his supplies, and for a trifle engaged Indian canoe-men to transport them to the site of the future mission.

"I warn you against these missionaries," said John Dunn, a clerk in the Indian shop at Fort Vancouver. "I warn you. Look out for them. They are very meek and humble now; but the time will come when they