Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/233

 FEDERAL RELATIONS OF OREGON 221 to drive this rival from the field, although personally he liked Wyeth and treated him and his associates with consideration. The Methodist missionaries looked over the lower Willam- ette valley and chose for their settlement a point just south of a rolling plain called French Prairie, where a number of French Canadians, retired servants of the Company, had taken their abode. With the Canadians were some Americans who were survivors of the Astor expedition of 1811. Jason Lee had been sent out primarily to establish a mission among the Indians east of the Cascades, but his choice of the Willamette valley was due to the fact that not only were there savages to be found there, but the surroundings were far more attractive than in the comparatively barren country of the Flatheads. While the Methodist were extending their work in the Willamette valley another missionary movement was on foot. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, after having looked over the field, sent out in the spring of 1836 Dr. Marcus Whitman and the Reverend H. H. Spalding, each accompanied by his wife, as missionaries among the Oregon Indians. William H. Gray was sent along as mechanic and general assistant to the others. The next year this mission was reinforced and the work somewhat extended. Although the number of Americans in Oregon was not large, the task of settling Oregon by United States citizens had begun in spite of the disinclination of the government to act. Sporadic attention was given, indeed, by one or another public personage during these years of quiescence, since those who were interested in some one of Oregon possibilities took occasion to bring their desires either before Congress or the Administrative departments. In December, 1834, J. N. Rey- nolds, of Rhode Island, presented through Congressman Pearce a petition which was backed by a recommendation from both houses of the Rhode Island General Assembly. Reynolds, who represented that he had recently returned from a voyage of exploration in the Pacific Ocean, prayed that an expedition be fitted out by the government for the purpose of surveying the coasts and islands of that ocean. Mr. Reynolds' interest