laborer to pass into Oregon the following year, Rev. F. N. Blanchet left Canada at the appointed time, and joined his companion at Red River, whence they both started on the 10th of July, and after a perilous journey of between four and five thousand miles, and the loss of twelve of their fellow-travellers in the rapids of Columbia River, they arrived at Fort Vancouver, the 24th of November, of the same year.[11] On their route the two missionaries were treated with the utmost courtesy by the traders whom they met, and at Vancouver they were received with every demonstration of respect by James Douglas, Esq., who commanded that post during the absence of Mr. McLaughlin in England.[12] On seeing the missionaries at length among them, the Canadians wept for joy, and the savages assembled from a distance of one hundred miles, to behold the black gowns of whom so much had been said.
Before we follow the ministers of God in their apostolic labors, we shall allude as briefly as possible to the aspect of the country, to the difficulties and dangers it presents to the missionary, {19} and to its commercial and agricultural resources.
We shall observe, in the first place, that the Columbia River stretches from its mouth about 290 miles to the east, as far as Fort Walla Walla; it then takes a northerly direction 150 miles, to Fort Okanagan; thence it extends 170 miles easterly to Colville. Fort Vancouver, the principal post in Oregon, is situated in 45° 36['] N. latitude, about one hundred miles from the mouth of the Columbia, and on its western bank, in ascending the river. The Willamette is a tributary of the Columbia, falling
