Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/233

Rh Concerning that part of his instructions to encourage missionaries as teachers among the Indians, Dart had little to say; for which reason, or in revenge for his dismissal, Spalding represented that no American teachers, but only Catholics and foreigners were given permission to enter the Indian country. But as his name was appended to all the treaties made while he was agent, with one exception, he must have been as guilty as any of excluding American teachers. The truth was that Dart promised the Indians of eastern Oregon that they should not be disturbed in their religious practices, but have such teachers as they preferred. This to the sectarian Protestant mind was simply atrocious, though it seemed only politic and just to the unbiassed understanding of the superintendent.

With regard to that part of his instructions relating to suppressing the establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon, he informed the commissioner that he found the company to have rights which prompted him to call the attention of the government to the subject before he attempted to interfere with them, and suggested the propriety of purchasing those rights instead of proceeding against British traders as criminals, the only accusation that could be brought against them being that they sold better goods to the Indians for less money than American traders.

And concerning the intercourse act prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives, Dart remarked that although a good deal of liquor was