Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/273

Rh of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was obliged to sell all his interests. in the company to that all-powerful corporation; the historian relates that when Wyeth left and this whole region seemed to fall under British influence and dominion, Jason Lee, the missionary, remained. From him and his religious associates soon radiated a moral and educational influence that afterward became a light that illumined the darkness that over-shadowed this then almost barbarous region.

The country was still in the possession of wild Indian tribes, and was then the hunting preserve of the Hudson's Bay Company, which every year sent out its trappers and traders and gathered in a rich harvest of furs, which had built up the enormous wealth of that great monopoly—which then dominated and seemed destined to control the future destiny and sovereignty of the whole region west of the Rocky Mountains and north of California.

When, in 1834, Jason Lee had made his difficult and perilous journey from St. Louis to Fort Vancouver, Doctor McLoughlin, who then ruled this country with imperial sway, being familiar with its physical condition, well knowing that the country was rich in agricultural resources, and believing its future sovereignty secure to the crown of Great Britain, saw in the person of Mr. Lee a devout Christian, an educated and energetic man—one especially qualified to enlighten, develop, and improve the settlement of his Hudson's Bay employees, which he had planted on the rich prairie lands in what is now the northern part of this county.

The Doctor therefore encouraged and finally persuaded Mr. Lee to establish his mission near this infant settlement. The acceptance of the friendly suggestion and advice of Doctor McLoughlin, and the planting of his mission in the Willamette Valley, was a fortunate move for