Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/418



368 T. C. ELLIOTT

Letter of John McLoughlin to Edward Ermatinger

Fort Vancouver 1st Feby 1836 My Dear Sir

I have the pleasure to Acknowledge the receipt of your Esteemed favour of the 31st January 1835 By which I had the happiness to hear that you and yours were well and that you may long continue to be so is the sincere prayer of your humble Servant As to us here we go on in the Old way we have not Increased our Establishments on the Coast in consequence of the Rus- sian Opposition preventing our ascending stikine River last year But we have two Vessel in addition to the to the three posts on the coast and one Vessel Employed in taking timber to Wahou and our farm gives us Good Crops By the Bye if it was not so difficult to get here and that the Country was better Known people would prefer coming here instead of settling in Upper or Lower Canada I wrote you last year that two Methodist Mis- sionaries are settled in the Willamette and I have the pleasure to say that they are doing well they have be- gun a fine farm several Indians have joined them Who while they are receiving Religious Instruction are at the same time learning how to till the Ground Which will Enable them to live as Civilized men and which is the only Rational plan to be followed with Indians and which our Missionaries ought to follow instead of teach- ing them to Read and write and send them Back to their Lands which gives them a certain consequence in the Eyes of their Countrymen and Enables them to do harm (if so disposed) without having the power to do Good as it is impossible even if they were every so well Disposed to Receive Instruction for Natives to be Instructed and Wander about as they must necessarily do for their food No let those who wish to do good to Indians teach them to get their food in a different way than at present in short teach them Agriculture While they are instructing them in Religion