LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846 45
their operations. They are amply furnished with money and other means for accomplishing their purposes. They educate a number of young Indians, principally girls, and all the off- spring of the Canadians. In addition to a large wooden nun- nery already some years in use, they are now building a brick church of corresponding dimensions, on beautiful prairie grounds a few miles from the Wilhammette river, and thirty- two above Oregon city. They are strict Catholics, and exercise unbounded influence over the people of the French settlements, who are improving in every way under their precepts. The mission derives its support from Europe, and I was told that the Queen of France, and her daughter, of Belgium, are lib- eral patronesses of the institution. It is at present in high estimation with all classes ; it gives employment and high wages to a great number of mechanics and laborers, pays off punctu- ally in cash, and is without doubt contributing largely to the prosperity of the neighborhood and country around it. A few Jesuits are located within six miles of the mission, and are os- tensibly employed in the same praiseworthy occupation.
The Methodist institute, designed as an educational estab- lishment for the future generations of Oregon, is still in the hands of gentlemen who were connected with the Methodist mission. It is finely situated on the Wilhammette, fifty miles above Oregon city. As a building its exterior was quite impos- ing from a distance, but I was pained, upon coming up with it, to find its interior apartments in an entirely unfinished state. Mr. Wilson, who is in charge of it, was so hospitable and polite to me that I refrained from asking questions which I was sure, from appearances, would only produce answers confirmatory of its languishing condition. Five little boys were now getting their rudiments of education here ; when, from the number of dormitories, it was manifest that it had been the original design to receive more than ten times that number. I learned from Governor Abernethy, however, about jthe beginning of 1847, that the number of its pupils was fast increasing.
