Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/220

158 An eloquent speech made at St. Louis by He-oh-kste-kin, one of these Nez Perces, is recorded by Dr. Hines. It too has been considered mythical; not more so than the earliest claims that these "Flathead" messengers were Nez Perces, probably. This speech tells of the regret of the messengers that "they must return empty-handed to their people." They returned home disappointed, but their errand was not in vain. Three years after the meeting of the council that sent them forth, Jason Lee and his companions passed through the Nez Perces country, seeking for the "Flathead Indians" who had borne the message and the tribes that sought the light. It was for their sake that Lee undertook the mission, though his work was destined to be in a field far to westward.

The appeal of the Nez Perces was carried swiftly from St. Louis to the Atlantic states. It stirred the missionary spirit of the churches woriderfully. Dr. Wilbur Fisk, president of Wilbraham academy, (Mass.,) was one of the earliest and most active to respond. "Zion's Herald," of Boston, in issue of March 22, 1833, contained a rousing address to the Methodist churches, in part as follows:

On March 20, 1833, the missionary board of the M. E. church in session in New York city received the above communication from Dr. Wilbur Fisk, urging the sending of a missionary to the Indians. Through the bishops of the church inquiries were made and a correspondence with General Clarke followed. From him the board received valuable information of the tribe and the country, and the result was a resolution of the board to establish a mission among the Indians west of the Rocky mountains. The church had then a single mission, recently established in Liberia. Dr. Fisk, who was the president of Wilbraham academy and a great leader in the church was asked to name a man to take the proposed mission in charge. He replied: "I know but one man, Jason Lee." On July 17, 1833, Lee was appointed to the superintendency of the mission west of the Rocky mountains.

New England was alive with the spirit of colonization in the early years of the last century. From Massachusetts and Connecticut large colonies traveled to the territories of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and especially to the "Western Reserve." The sons and grandsons of some of these Yankee settlers moved westward again in the forties to the Oregon country.

In Massachusetts the idea of American occupation of Oregon first took a certain shape. This was naturally due to the discovery of the Columbia by Captain Robert Gray, a Boston sailor in the "Columbia," owned by Boston mer-