Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/125

 missionary work in Oregon the credit that justly was its due; for after the rush of immigration began the missionary people were, so to speak, inundated by it, and what they had dour was for ;i time overlooked. But going hack, as now we must, to the study of our "origins"—and we shall do this more and more—we are compelled to recognition of the great work which the missionaries did. I do not say that Oregon would not have been held without them; but they were a powerful factor in holding it.

The story of the toilsome inarch of the wagon trains over the plains will be received by future generations almost as a legend on the borderland of myth, rather than as veritable history. It will be accepted, indeed, but scarcely understood. Even now to the survivors who made the journey the realities of it seem half fabulous. It no longer has the appearance of a rational undertaking. Rapid transit of the present time seems almost to relegate the story to the land of fable. No longer can we understand the motives that urged our pioneers toward the indefinite horizon that seemed to verge on the unknown. Looking back at the movement now, a mystery appears in it. It was the final effort of that profound impulse which, from a time far preceding the dawn of history, has pushed the race to which we belong to discovery and occupation of western lands.

Oregon, from the circumstances of her settlement and its isolation, and through natural interaction of the materials slowly brought together, has a character almost peculiarly its own. In some respects that character is admirable In others it is open to criticism. Our situation has made for us a little world in which strong traits of character peculiarly our own have been developed; it has also left us somewhat—indeed, too much out of touch with the world at large. We do not readjust ourselves readily to the conditions that surround us in the world of opinion and action—forces now pressing in upon us steadily from all sides.

The life of a community is the aggregate life of the individuals who are its units, and the general law that holds for the