WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 355 



instruction, if so it may be called, twenty-five at the Willamette 

 station ; at the Dalles, and occasionally on the Klackamus river, are 

 the only places where divine service is attempted. I would not have 

 it understood that by these remarks I have any desire to throw blame 

 on those who direct or are concerned in this missionary enterprise, or 

 to make any imputations on the labourers ; but I feel it a duty I owe 

 my countrymen, to lay the truth before them, such as we saw it. I 

 am aware that the missionaries come out to this country to colonize, 

 and with the Christian religion as their guide and law, to give the 

 necessary instruction, and hold out inducements to the Indians to quit 

 their wandering habits, settle, and become cultivators of the soil. This 

 object has not been yet attained in any degree, as was admitted by the 

 missionaries themselves ; and how it is to be effected without having 

 constantly around them large numbers, and without exertions and 

 strenuous efforts, I am at a loss to conceive. I cannot but believe, 

 that the same labour and money which have been expended here, 

 would have been much more appropriately and usefully spent among 

 the tribes about the Straits of Juan de Fuca, who are numerous, and 

 fit objects for instruction. 



At the Rev. Mr. Hines's I had another long conversation relative to 

 the laws, &c. The only instance (which speaks volumes for the good 

 order of the settlers), of any sort of crime being committed since the 

 foundation of the settlement, was the stealing of a horse ; and a settler 

 who had been detected stealing his neighbour's pigs, by enticing them 

 to his house, dropping them into his cellar, where they were slaughtered 

 and afterwards eaten. The theft was discovered by the numbers of 

 bones frequently found around his premises. He was brought to a 

 confession, and compelled to pay the value of the stolen hogs, simply 

 by the force of public opinion. 



We took leave of Mr. Raymond and his party, wishing them success 

 in their labours, and rode back over the fine prairies at a full gallop, in 

 the direction that seemed most convenient to save us distance. We 

 stopped for a short time to take leave of Mr. and Mrs. Abernethy, and 

 then passed to the site of the old mission on the banks of the Willa- 

 mette. The river here makes a considerable bend, and has undermined 

 and carried away its banks to some extent : a short distance beyond, it 

 is making rapid inroads into the rich soil of these bottom lands. The 

 log houses have the character that all old log houses acquire, and I was 

 warned, if I desired to pass a comfortable night, to avoid them. 



This is the usual place of crossing the river, which is too deep to be 

 forded, and about two hundred yards wide. Its banks were twenty 

 feet high, and composed of stratified layers of alluvium. On the shore 



