CORRESPONDENCE 305
not far distant when we shall have such relief sent us from your Board as will enable me to reach more remote portions of the settlements and devote my whole time to the appropriate duties of a gospel minister.
In the abstract I think this county presents as much present prospect of permanent usefulness as any part of the country, if we except the immediate vicinity of Oregon City and the country accessible from that point. We feel a strong confi- dence that the first national work by way of fortification and the facilitation of navigation must be done at this great outlet of travel and commerce, and but a few months will be sufficient to decide this- 123 I cannot therefore think of leaving this point unless the seat of commerce should be fixed at another point and Providence should plainly indicate a more advantage- ous situation. We % have three Baptist sisters [married] in Clatsop Plains and there is a general desire manifested that we shall remove there for the present. I learned by Captain Kilborn of the Brig Henry that he had sent a letter for me to the Willamette Falls (Oregon City). I suppose it is from your pen, but have not had the satisfaction of seeing it. Rest assured we wait with great anxiety some communication from you. At present we have here only two American families besides my own, and a few bachelors, and besides the Hud- son Bay Company's servants, and it is not probable towns will improve much in Oregon beyond the absolute necessities in business transactions, should our Government make grants of lands to the first settlers and require each family to reside for a term of years on his land to perfect his title.
I have received no direct communication from Brother Johnson since I left Tuality Plains, but occasionally hear from him. I can assure you that to all human appearance our use- fulness would be increased ten fold were we only placed in such circumstances as we were in the Great Western Valley, and yet our labors as ministers are as greatly needed as they
123 The first defensive works at the mouth of the Columbia were besrun in 1863. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. 11:510. No work on the channel was done until much later.
