Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/339

Rh islands assumed such proportions that greater facilities for printing became necessary; hence the first Honolulu press was laid aside.

In 1836 the American Board Mission among the Indians in Oregon was established, so as a means of encouragement, and with a view to helping on in the work of this mission as far as possible, the First Native Church of Honolulu decided to send it the unused press. Accordingly, an arrangement was effected with Mr. Edwin O. Hall, who had been one of the printers of the mission since 1835, to take it to Oregon. It was shipped with type, fixtures, paper, and binding apparatus, all valued at $500, and arrived at Vancouver, on the Columbia River, about April 10, 1839. An express was sent to Dr. Marcus Whitman at Wai-il-et-pu, six miles west of the present city of Walla Walla, Washington, and to Rev. H. H. Spalding at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, not a great way from the present city of Lewiston, Idaho, notifying them that the press, with Mr. and Mrs. Hall, and F. Ermatinger, as guide, would leave Vancouver on the 13th with the hope of reaching Fort Walla Walla (now Wallula) on the 30th. Spalding, with his wife and child, started for Wai-il-et-pu on the 24th and reached his destination on the 27th. The next day a note was received to the effect that the press and party before named had just arrived, passage having been made up the Columbia River in a canoe. On May 6th the press and escort started for Lapwai, the press on pack animals in charge of Ermatinger; Hall and wife, and Spalding and family in a canoe, and all arrived safely at their destination late on the evening of the 13th. On the 16th the press was set up, and on May 18, 1839, the first proof sheet in the original Oregon territory was struck off. This was an occasion of great rejoicing. On the 23d it was resolved to build an adobe printing office. On the 24th the first four hundred copies of a small book in