Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/240

234 had preceded Lee and his associates to this far West. The missionary followed closely the path of the trapper and hunter, of the voyager and the navigator.

On October 10, 1833, a missionary meeting was held in New York to arrange to send Jason Lee and Daniel Lee to the Flatheads, and $3,000 in money was appropriated for this purpose. On November 20, 1833, in Forsyth Street Church in New York a farewell meeting was presided over by Bishop Hedding and addressed by Dr. McAuley of the Presbyterian Church. The religious spirit of New England and the Atlantic seaboard was concentrating a determined effort in the direction of the Indian country. By direction of the Board of Missions the Lees visited Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who had just returned to Boston from his first attempt to establish a trading post on the Lower Columbia River. The men chosen to accompany Jason Lee were Cyrus Shepard of Lynn, Massachusetts, thirty-five years of age, Philip L. Edwards, a Kentuckian, lately of Richmond, Missouri, Courtney M. Walker of Richmond was engaged also for a year to assist in the establishment of the mission. Edwards was only twenty-three years old. They left New York early in March, 1834, proceeding west leisurely, and Jason Lee here and there lectured as he traveled. They left from Independence, Missouri, April 28, 1834, having in their company in all seventy men divided into three distinct parties, and took with them two hundred and fifty horses. Wyeth and Sublette led the party, and with them were Townsend and Nuttall, two scientists. On July 27, 1834, they held Sunday services at Fort Hall, a fort built by Wyeth; and on September 15, 1834, the party arrived at Fort Vancouver, Lee having preceded the party. The brig May Dacre, Wyeth's vessel, was then lying at anchor at Wapato Island, now Sauvie's Island. Dr. John McLoughlin, the father of old Oregon, and whose name is revered by ProtestentProtestant [sic] and Catholic alike, sent