Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/363



METHODIST REPORTS WILLAMETTE MISSION 313

mode of conducting the mission is considered essential to its successful operation, as there is no other way to fur- nish the mission family with provisions and other neces- saries of life. The supply thus afforded therefore is considered only as subsidiary to the main object of the mission, which is to convert the natives to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. And though but little has been done toward their conversion, yet a foundation has been laid and a beginning made, which if followed up in the spirit of the Gospel, we doubt not will eventuate in great and lasting good to the inhabitants of that country.

Already the use of intoxicants in the settlement where the mission is located, has been banished, several of the natives brought under serious impressions, a school put into operation for the benefit of children and youth, in which about thirty are now taught, several of whom are making encouraging advances in learning, and have be- come habituated to the arts of domestic life. A large farm is also brought under cultivation, well stocked with cattle, poultry, etc., by which provision is beginning to be made for the sustenance of the mission family.

A great point has been gained by Brother Lee and his associates by securing the confidence of the natives and settlers in their good intentions, so that a controlling influence may be exercised for their temporal and spir- itual benefit.

There are now employed on this mission upward of twenty persons, including minors, namely, four mission- aries, two of whom are married ; a physician, blacksmith, and a carpenter, the latter all men of families.

Twenty-first Anniversary, Green Street, 1840.

The Oregon Mission is daily increasing in interest and importance. Our last annual report announced that the Board with the concurrence of Bishop Hedding, who