Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/375



METHODIST REPORTS WILLAMETTE MISSION 325

fit and proper, if not indispensable, that the superin- tendence of the mission should be left in his hands. We wish it distinctly understood that it is on these accounts Brother Lee has been superseded in the charge of this mission, and not because there is any lack of confidence in his religious and moral character, or of his entire de- votion to the interests of the Oregon Mission.

Brother Gary is invested with authority from the Bishop to use his discretion in retaining or diminishing the present number of missionaries in the field, when he shall have made himself fully acquainted with its circum- stances and condition. The Board have also authorized him, if in his judgment the interests of the mission shall require it, to curtail the secular departments of the mis- sion, to lessen the number of lay missionaries, and to dispose in the best way he can of any unavailable prop- erty now belonging to the mission.

Our new superintendent sailed in the ship Lausanne, from the port of New York, on the 30th of November last. We shall await with no small degree of anxiety for his first despatches and sincerely pray that they may be such as to revive the hopes and cheer t he hearts of those who have remained from the beginning through weal and wo, the unwavering friends of that mission.

The Board have the satisfaction to announce, that since the departure of Brother Gary they have received more full and cheering accounts from the mission than they have been favored with for a long time. Our mis- sion in that distant region occupies a section of country extending from the mouth of the Columbia River to the range of mountains forming the Dalles and Cascades, a distance of little less than one hundred and fifty miles. Pursuing the same lofty ridge for two hundred miles along the Willamette Valley, to the waters of the Umqua and Clamoth Rivers, and thence down these streams to the Pacific Ocean, and we have the boundaries of our present missionary field in the Oregon territory. Nu-