44 LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846
evidence upon which his claim rests, and I need therefore say nothing more on the subject.
A sixth spot dignified with the name of town is Salem, high up the Wilhammette, of which too little exists to be worthy of an attempt at description. It would seem from this sorry cata- logue that Oregon cannot yet boast of her cities. Even in these, however, her improvement has been great and rapid, and pop- ulation comes into the capital faster than the gigantic fir trees, which have lately been its sole occupants, can be made to dis- appear.
The American missionaries were the first persons to attempt any establishment in Oregon, independent of the Hudson's Bay Company. They have doubtless done much good in past years, but are now disunited ; and with the exception of Mr. Spalding, a worthy old Presbyterian gentleman who resides on the Koos- kooskie river, I could hear of no attempts going on to educate or convert the aborigines of the country by Americans. Why their efforts came to be discontinued, (for there were at one time many missions in the field, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Babtist, and an independent self-supporting ohe,) would be a question which it would be difficult to have answered truly. The various recriminations which were uttered, as each mem- ber thought proper to secede from his benevolent associates in Christian duty, were not calculated to increase the public respect for their individual disinterestedness or purity. They seem early to have despaired of much success in impressing the minds of the Indians with a just sense of the importance of their lessons, and very sagaciously turned their attention to more fruitful pursuits. Some became farmers and graziers, others undertook the education of the rising generation of whites and half-breeds, and a few set up for traders ; but these last imprudently encroached upon a very dear prerogative of the Hudson's Bay Company by bartering for beaver, and only by hastily quitting it escaped the overwhelming opposition of that all-powerful body. The French missionaries, to-wit: a bishop, a number of priests, and seven nuns, are succeeding in
