352 WILLAMETTE VALLEY. 



there was an evident want of the attention required to keep things in 

 repair, and an absence of neatness that I regretted much to witness. 

 We had the expectation of getting a sight of the Indians on whom they 

 were inculcating good habits and teaching the word of God; but with 

 the exception of four Indian servants, we saw none since leaving the 

 Catholic Mission. On inquiring, I was informed that they had a school 

 of twenty pupils, some ten miles distant, at the mill ; that there were 

 but few adult Indians in the neighbourhood; and that their intention 

 and principal hope was to establish a colony, and by their example to 

 induce the white settlers to locate near those over whom they trusted 

 to exercise a moral and religious influence. 



A committee of five, principally lay members of the mission, waited 

 upon me to consult and ask my advice relative to the establishment of 

 laws, &c. After hearing attentively all their arguments and reasons 

 for this change, I could see none sufficiently strong to induce the step. 

 No crime appears yet to have been committed, and the persons and 

 property of settlers are secure. Their principal reasons appear to me 

 to be, that it would give them more importance in the eyes of others at 

 a distance, and induce settlers to flock in, thereby raising the value of 

 their farms and stock. I could not view this subject in such a light, 

 and differed with them entirely as to the necessity or policy of adopting 

 the change. 



1st. On account of their want of right, as those wishing for laws 

 were, in fact, a small minority of the settlers. 



2d. That these were not yet necessary even by their own account. 



3d. That any laws they might establish would be a poor substitute 

 for the moral code they all now followed, and that evil-doers would 

 not be disposed to settle near a community entirely opposed to their 

 practices. 



4th. The great difficulty they would have in enforcing any laws, 

 and defining the limits over which they had control, and the discord 

 this might occasion in their small community. 



5th. They not being the majority, and the larger part of the popu- 

 lation being Catholics, the latter would elect officers of their party, and 

 they would thus place themselves entirely under the control of others. 



6th. The unfavourable impressions it would produce at home, from 

 the belief that the missions had admitted that in a community brought 

 together by themselves they had not enough of moral force to control 

 it and prevent crime, and therefore must have recourse to a criminal 

 code. 



From my own observation and the information I had obtained, I 

 was well satisfied that laws were not needed, and were not desired 



