Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/384



334 CHARLES HENRY CAREY

port from Oregon which, if judgment had been allowed to preponderate over excited feelings, they must have seen had no bearing whatever upon the propriety or im- propriety of the course which had been adopted. The conclusion, then, to which we arrive in relation to this whole matter, is that in this, as in all other cases, we must learn wisdom by experience, and instead of indulg- ing in a spirit of crimination and recrimination, we should endeavor most assiduously to improve upon past errors and remedy as far as possible, existing evils.

If affords us great pleasure to learn that the Super- intendent of this mission had already done much toward adapting the agencies employed to the work to be per- formed. Nor are we less gratified with the intelligence that a considerable amount of property, consisting of lands, cattle, mills, etc., had been, or soon would be, dis- posed of. 1G For however advantageous some of this property might have become to the society in future years, in a pecuniary view, it was evident to the pene- trating eye of the Superintendent that the secular char- acter of the mission had already excited suspicions and heart burning among the newly arrived emigrants, which threatened an almost entire loss of confidence in the purity of our motives in its establishment and prosecu- tion. This would have been a loss for which no amount of money could compensate. The hopes of the mission, for the future, depend principally upon the success of the Gospel among the emigrants. The Indians are com- paratively few in number and rapidly wasting away. The Territory, however, is fast filling up with whites from the States, and the future character of this colony must depend greatly upon the impress it may receive in its infancy. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance that whatever has a tendency to injure the influences or

16 The Indian Manual Training School property, one mile square, at Chemeteka (Salem) was sold for $4000, and became Oregon Institute, afterwards Willamette University. (Gustavus Hines, Wild Life in Ore- gon, p. 241.)