Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/411



METHODIST REPORTS WILLAMETTE MISSION 359

In view of the present and prospective importance of this Institution, to the interests both of the mission and the community, the Board have instructed the new Super- intendent to avail himself of an early opportunity, after his arrival in Oregon, to inquire into the expediency and practicability of a re-purchase of the premises, and to transmit the result of his inquiries at his earliest con- venience. They have also instructed him to use his in- fluence, immediately upon the organization of a terri- torial government, for that country by the United States, to secure a charter for the Institute, containing, in sub- stance, all the provisions embraced in the above docu- ment. It is confidently believed that the Oregon Insti- tute, which has been struggling for existence these sev- eral years, will yet, under the fostering care of the Mis- sionary Society, and that of the Church, be rendered a great and lasting blessing to that far off western region. Should the report of Brother Roberts concerning it be favorable, it is probable a competent teacher will soon be sent out as Principal. It is ardently hoped that this institution is destined to wield a powerful influence in molding the mind and heart of the medley mass with which the Valley of the Columbia is so rapidly filling up.

Twenty-ninth Annual Report, Forsyth Street Church, June 19, 1848.

OREGON MISSION. Brother Gary and his lady left Oregon in July, 1847, in the ship Brutus, for the Sand- wich Islands, to which they have an unusually short voy- age. On their arrival at Honolulu they were led to ex- pect a long detention at that place for want of a passage home. But on learning that the whale ship, William Hamilton, of New Bedford, bound to the United States, had put into that port Brother Gary resolved to procure a passage in her, and made immediate application to Captain Fisher accordingly.