Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/329



CORRESPONDENCE 303

(Jan. 4, 1847).

I have repeated the request for books and clothing through fear that any former letters may have never reached you. I know it will afford many a sister pleasure to collect a few com- forts for those of us who are laboring in these ends of the earth. We make not these appeals because we think we could not meet the wants of our families should we give ourselves entirely to secular pursuits. But this we cannot do. God will have his ministers feel a necessity laid upon them and a woe too, if they preach not the Gospel. We very much expect to hear from you in the spring, so that we can feel relieved in spending the dry season strictly as missionaries. We ought to visit every large settlement and hold a meeting of two, three or more days, and gather up the scattered sheep and feed the lambs. But I must desist. My heart is full of the wants of our country. May God give us grace to do His will. You can send any boxes or letters on board any vessel that passes the Sandwich Islands, directing all such packages to me at this place to the care of E. O. Hall, Financier of the A. B. C. F. Missions at Honolulu, Oahu or Wahoo.

Your unworthy brother and fellow laborer in the gospel field,

EZRA FISHER.

N.B. Let us have an interest in your prayers and the prayers of all those who mourn over the desolations of sin, that the richest blessings of the gospel may be poured out upon Oregon.

Received July 13

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Astoria, Oregon Territory, April 2nd, 1847. Dear Brother Hill :

I wrote you three sheets by the Tulon in January, making known in some measure the wants of our country west of the mountains, and directed it by way of the Islands, but after writing, Captain Crosby determined to take a cargo