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Rh remained for a time as guests of Dr. McLoughlin and where she had not been permitted to do anything. Referring again to the kindness of the Doctor and his officers to herself and husband, she invited me to amuse myself with the new books, which were evidence of that kindness, until her husband's return. One of the books was Pope's poetical works with Dr. Johnson's estimate of Pope as a poet, and the other a plea for the Roman Catholic Church as the only true Christian Church — so profound that I was unable to follow its author for the little time I bestowed on it, but I have never had any doubt that Dr. McLoughlin was the chief agency in making Mr. Burnett and his noble wife devout members of the Roman Catholic Church. I never saw the gentle lady but that once, but, I have never seen the day since that I would not have staked all I am on the honor of P. H. Burnett and his wife in choosing the Catholic church and being remarried under its ritual in 1845 or 1846. At this time the M. E. Church was apparently and prospectively the ruling religious power in Oregon, and Peter Henderson Burnett nearly if not quite the head of its jurisprudence, while as an individual he was away in advance of any member of the M. E, Church then in Oregon, unless we except George Abernethy, the least demonstrative of his sect in Oregon.

A few words of personal history may be written at this point. On the day before election in 1845, Judge Burnett, a young man named Mason, (who told me he was reading law) and myself were on the hotel porch at Oregon City. Mason, as new to the voting privilege as myself, said: "Judge, whom do you consider the best man to vote for, for Governor?" Mr. B. with short hesitation answered: "I consider George Abernethy the best read man in Oregon." I did not see young Mason again until December, 1847, DUt I cast the first vote of my life for George Abernethy—one of Nature's noblemen, I think, as was Mr. Burnett; a life long friend of Dr. McLoughlin after they met in Oregon. They were the two most conspicuous men to join the Catholic Church in Oregon during