Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/317



CORRESPONDENCE 309

Oregon City, Oregon Ten, March 29, 1850. Rev. Benj. M. Hill. Dear Brother:

Yours of July 14, 1849, addressed to me in California, con- taining a copy of the one you forwarded in June, yours under date October 15th, 1849, accompanying my commission bear- ing date Apr. 1, 1849, and yours of Dec. 10, 1849, have all been received within a few days, the last of which I hasten to answer as briefly and as directly as the complicated circumstances will admit. You may rest assured that it affords us great pleasure in Oregon to have so strong assurances that our brethren on the other side of the mountains cherish so correct and liberal views in relation to the future importance of Oregon and we are still more cheered to discover the almost impatient anxiety you manifest in our prompt action on the subject of locating and bringing into existence a school for the benefit of the Baptists in Oregon.

I have only to say that when I wrote you in Feb. and July the denomination as such in Oregon had not been consulted on the subject in any of its peculiar relations and my object in writing you from San Francisco was rather to apprise you of the course marked out in my own mind for my immediate actions than to ask our eastern brethren to aid us immediately. But God in His providence has seemed to mark out for us a course in an unexpected manner and in a relation which we had little anticipated and now we are compelled to yield to the manifest providential indications or sacrifice the most important local position in the Territory and with it the little public confidence we are beginning to secure. This is the only point in Oregon where Romanism and Protestantism can be brought to bear directly upon each other. The nuns have here a school and we understand the Jesuits contemplate establishing a college in the immediate vicinity. We have good reason to suppose that other denominations would have soon fixed upon this place if we had not secured our site first. I have already informed you that we have secured a land claim immediately adjoining the claim on which Oregon