Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/102

 86 Charles Henry Carey Mon. 10. Return to the Indian School. Attend the school, have the children recite, read, spell, examined their writing. They have some aptitude in penmanship, some knowledge of geography. A few of them can read in the testament though poorly. One half of them are in the alphabet or abs. I requested the teacher to give me a list of their names and of the days they were present and absent for two or three months past. Some of these children have been in school or attached to the school for perhaps six years or more, their progress has not been rapid, but there are many reasons why their progress is slow. Their ignorance of the English Language in childhood, their poor health, frequent running away, &c, the loss of time and interruption attendant on these events are among them. The practicability of continuing this school is very doubtful in my mind. I am satisfied there has been very loose management in the business department of the school, great unnecessary waste from a neglect to take care of the various tools and utensils about the premises, which are left here and there in a manner tending rapidly to decay, but even here it should be kept in mind that those who used these tools and left or dropped them here and there, were Indian boys. Tues. 11. This Indian school is the subject of thought and topic of conversation, one of the most difficult and embarassing subjects that has presented itself to my view as connected with the Mission, designed originally as a most noble charity to educate the youth of both sexes so that they may rise in intelligence and virtue to such a degree as to enjoy life itself, and extend a helpful in- fluence among the surrounding Indians. This school has, in some form, and in some way been in progress for per- haps eight years. Formerly it was conducted in the old buildings, as they are called, about ten miles down the Williamette River. More than three years ago it was determined to move this school into this vicinity. The building erected for it is seventy-one feet long, 24 feet