BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN OREGON and
in the
161
spring of 1831 they started eastward and reached fall. Their presence, however, did not
their destination that
seem to
attract
any
were many The hardships of the upon them, and two became dangerously special attention, since there
Indians about St. Louis at that time.
journey told heavily ill and afterwards died.
In their sickness both asked to be
Their baptized by the black-robed priests, which was done. Christian names were Narcissa and Paul, and the record is in the Cathedral of St. Louis, and both were buried in the
Roman
Catholic cemetery at that place, Narcissa on October 31st and Paul, November'l7th, 1831.
The story of the Indians going from the "Oregon Country" to St. Louis in search of the white man's "Book of Life" has been repeatdly told, but has been doubted in many quarters. The above statement with reference to the occurrence was condensed from the writings of Rt. Rev. Joseph Rosati, Bishop of
and a further proof that the Indians armay be found in the letter books of Gen. William Clark, Governor of Missouri at that time, now in possession of the Kansas Historical Society. A second deputation was sent in 1832, consisting of one Iroquois and his family. He arrived safely in St. Louis, had St.
Louis
in
1831
rived in St. Louis in 1831
his children baptized, was returning home to his people, with the hope of soon having priests in his country, but was killed by the Sioux Indians.
Dr. John McLoughlin, of Canada,
who began
his career in
North-West Company, when that company was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, was selected as chief factor to take charge of the combined 1800 as an employee of
-the
business of both companies in
Rocky Mountains.
He came
to
all
the territory west of the
Oregon
in
1824 and changed
the headquarters from Astoria to Belle Vue Point the site of the present citv of Vancouver and built a fort there. He
permitted the employees whose terms of service had expired to settle in the Willamette vallev and on the Cowlitz river.
Numbers
of these
men had married Indian
and began to wish for the presence of a
wives, had children,
priest.
