CORRESPONDENCE 387
of from 7000 to 10,000 souls in Oregon within two days' ride from the mouth of the Willamette, 71 speaking the English language, and that number fast increasing from the western, the eastern and middle states, without a single Baptist preacher, and will not your Board appoint this one more missionary that we may follow the example set by our blessed Saviour of sending out his disciples by two's? If no other way can be devised, will your Board not encourage Br. Johnson to circu- late in New England and raise the requisite funds during the winter? God knows what is best, and, if my importunity is too great, I know he will pardon and I trust you will do the same.
I attended the Davenport Association the second week in Oct. at Marion, the county seat of Lynn County, Iowa. The session was harmonious and one of more than usual interest and some tokens of divine favor were manifest. Collections were taken in aid of the home and foreign missions. We trust a lasting blessing will follow. On Saturday before the fourth Sab. in Oct., we organized a new association in this place known by the name of Rock Island Baptist Association, in- cluding but four churches, but an extent of territory more than 100 miles in length on the Mississippi.
Although the weather was unfavorable, the scene was truly pleasing, and on Sab. a collection was taken in favor of home missions amounting to four dollars and sixty cents. I will forward you the minutes of said association when published.
70 This number was largely over-estimated. In his letter of Feb. 27, 1846, written after he reached Oregon, the author places the population at five or six thousand, and this was after the population had been about doubled by the immigration of 1845. Deducting this, the population in 1844 would be between two and three thousand. Bancroft places it at the latter figure. Hist, of Ore. 1:508. G. H. Himes thinks it was 1,200 or 1,500. Lieut. Piel gave it as 3,000 before the coming of the 1845 immigration, and Warre and Vavasour gave it as 6,000 after the immigration came. See J. Schafer in Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar. X:53.
71 The origin and the original form of the name Willamette are obscure. G. H. Himes finds the meaning of "Green Water" given it in two early, entirely independent sources. If these sources are reliable, it is an Indian name and the present spelling closely approximates the original sound. See also in the spelling: Bancroft : Hist, of N. W. Coast II:6o, 61, where a summary of different author- ities is given.
