Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/158



150 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

(Continued from page 76, March Quarterly.)

Our governor has dispatched an express to California, 141 hop- ing that the bearer of dispatches will find part of our Pacific squadron in San Francisco Bay, who may afford us protec- tion till an express shall reach Washington and our hitherto too tardy government may give us security in the midst of the heathen. It is feared by many that the Jesuit priests were obsequious to the horrid massacre of Dr. Whitman and family. 142 I hope to be able to send you the whole corre- spondence relative to this subject. By this unexpected prov- idence, it is feared that every Protestant mission to the In- dians west of the Rocky Mountains will be broken up. At least they must be discontinued for the present, while Ro- manism holds undisputed sway over all those savage minds. Should not this fact furnish an argument sufficiently power- ful to arouse the sympathies of the friends of missions to new efforts in behalf of the degraded sons of the western plains and mountains, and especially as we trust the time is at the door when our national government will give protec- tion to the lives of the missionaries of the churches? I will assure you, dear brother, as a philanthropist and a Christian minister, I earnestly desire and devoutly pray that our national government will lose no time in extending her excellent laws over our Territory. 143 Our laws, although as much respected as could reasonably be expected, are ineffi- cient in the punishment of crime. The public mind is un- settled constantly, hoping for a better and more complete code of laws; difficulties in relation to land claims will be multiplying and afford fruitful sources of litigation and our relations to the savages will be subject to repeated discon-

141 The overland passengers did not succeed in getting through to California. The letters to California were finally forwarded via the brig "Henry," which sailed after the above was written. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. 1:679.

142 The long and unfortunate debate over the question of Catholic influence in the Whitman massacre is here reflected.

143 The reference is here, of course, to the laws passed by the provisional government organized in Oregon pending the extension of the protection of the United States over the colony.