Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/364



314 CHARLES HENRY CAREY

then had charge of the foreign missions, had determined to send out a large reinforcement to this distant and rugged, though promising field of labor. From the most authentic accounts before the Board, it appeared that the natives in that territory were generally prepared to re- ceive the Gospel; and that the Mission might be prose- cuted with vigor; and to the best advantage, it was essential that it should be able to provide itself with the means of subsistence. Remote from all civilized society, except a few settlers at Willamette and the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, and at a great distance from any place where supplies of food and clothing can be procured, it was considered necessary, in order that the missionaries proper should be able to pursue their approprate work, that mechanics, farmers, physicians and school teachers, should be procured and sent out. And although this plan involved a heavy expense, it was believed that if judiciously carried into effect, it would ultimately prove a saving to the Society by putting the means of support within their own power as the fruit of their own labor. Accordingly, on the ninth of October last, a company of fifty persons, including adults and minors, male and female, left New York in the ship Lausanne, which had been chartered for the purpose of conveying them to Oregon. These included six mission- aries, their wives and children, a physician, wife and child, a missionary steward, wife and two children, two farmers, wives and children, a cabinet maker, two car- penters and a blacksmith, their wives and children and five single female teachers. As far as could be judged, from an acquaintance with them after their arrival in New York, they appeared to be a most devoted band of men and women, and had determined to brave the dan- gers of the ocean and the hazard of savage life, for the sake of promoting the cause of Jesus Christ. They car- ried with them, therefore, the entire confidence of the Board, and no doubt have the prayers of the Church for