Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/237

Rh It is a matter of joy because the last we heard it was on a sandbar some 70 mi. below and we feared we should be obliged to go down for our goods. Is not the hand of Providence in all this? Would to God that I could praise him as I ought for his gracious dealings with us."

The choice of a location is now his main concern. He is immediately on his way up the Willamette. Ten days later he still writes:—

"My mind is yet much exercised in respect to our location. I know not what to do." Two days later he says: "After mature deliberation on the subject of our location and earnest prayer for divine direction I have nearly concluded to go to the W[illamette]. "

To that determination he held.

"Monday, Sep. 29, 1834. This morning began to make preparations in good earnest for our departure to the W. and after dinner embarked in one of the Company's boats kindly man[n]ed for us by Dr. McLoughlin who has treated us with the utmost politeness, attention and liberality. The Gentlemen of the Fort accompanied us to the boat and most heartily wished us great success in our enterprise." * * *

Soon the duties of establishing themselves and in beginning their work as missionaries are so engrossing that the first portion of the journal ends.

The second portion consists of a single entry on August 18, 1837:

"It is now nearly three years since I have kept any record of the dealings of God with me, or of the events that have transpired around me. Indeed, I have written exceedingly little during my life, except what I have been impelled to write, by the imperious hand of duty. Hence I kept no journal except while crossing the Rocky Mountains. And, indeed, such is my aversion to writing that when my time is chiefly occupied in worldly buisnessbusiness [sic], and in manual labor (as has been the case the three past years), it is even a burden, to me, to sit down to write a letter on buisness, or answer one of a friend. But when I have become a little familiarized to it by practice it is comparatively easy. Had I kept a regular memorandum the three years past, I could have recorded little in reference to my own conduct, that would have afforded pleasure and satisfaction to myself, in the review; or, that I should be willing to exhibit to others, for their imitation. Yet many things might have been recorded that would most strikingly have illustrated the