Page:Journal of John H. Frost, 1840-42 part 1.pdf/12

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Journal of John H. Frost, 1840-43
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tion we found that the ball had entered her arm below her shoulder, and passed out at her back. After she was brought in I applied a poultice to the wounds, and administered such medicine as I supposed might benefit the poor creature, but all in vain. She is beyond the reach of her heathen masters, and although she has died in heathenism, yet her case is far preferable to that of those who die under the full blaze of gospel light, and whose hearts have, notwithstanding their superior privileges, remained unsanctified through the truth. I cannot but utter the prayer of the Psalmist in this place. "Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end."

29. This morning Dr. McLaughlin came down from pillar rock with his men, bringing with them an Indian who was with the slave, one of the murderers who was shot on the 27th, and as there was no doubt that this Indian was as deeply implicated as the slave he was consequently adjudged worthy of death according to the laws of Great Britain & America. He was therefore, by order of the Governor, hung by the neck until he was dead, at 1 Oclock P. M. This was the first execution of the kind I ever witnessed, and I hope it may be the last.[1] Two of the companies' vessels came in this morning, and are lying near us in company with the Maryland, so that this has somewhat the appearance of a maratime port.

30. Sabbath. Preached from Ps. 97.1. My congregation consisted of the usual number with the addition of Capt. Dunkin of the Vancouver, and three men from the Maryland, and Doctor Tolmie. What effect my discourse had upon the minds of my hearers the Lord only knows, but I trust it will not be labour lost. I would bear in mind that the great head of the Church has promised that "He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

[Some pages of the journal are missing, but Frost's activities at this time may be learned from Lee and Frost's Ten Years in Oregon. On September 1 he left Astoria with Dr. Tolmie and

  1. Frost was the only white man present who did not take an active part in the hanging of the murderer; Hines, Oregon, 391.