CORRESPONDENCE 445
business towns must rise up in their vicinity, one on the Wil- lamette about 15 miles below Salem, the other on Pudding River, eight miles east of the landing on the Willamette.
In looking over the field 1 which God in his providence has seen fit to assign us, we are constrained to say, "Ours is a goodly heritage," and we feel no inclination to abandon it for others, yet we think your Board do not fully appreciate all the embarrassments under which we, as missionaries and churches, labor. Our field is as truly a missionary field as any portion of the great field which was contemplated in the first organization of the A. B. H. M. Soc. Imagine for a mo- ment 200 or 300 American citizens who have been gathering upon the waters of Puget Sound 252 (the future naval depot for Oregon) for the last seven years, and for all this time have never been visited by a Protestant minister. Now sup- pose you were to meet one of these citizens and hear him re- late to you the fact that they trade with foreigners and go to the Roman church 253 for Sabbath instruction and then ask, "Why can you not come over and preach to us, for I verily think ours is missionary ground?" What would be the feelings of your heart when you are compelled to turn them away with an indefinite reply? This is but one case. The people settled upon the banks of the Columbia River (the great thoroughfare of trade for the valley of Willam- ette and the Northern gold mines of Rogue River) from Van- couver to Astoria, a distance of 90 miles, 254 have never had preaching of any order save in a very few instances. But a few days since an acquaintance of mine residing near a rising town which, at no very distant period, will not fail to be a place of some importance, asked me if I could not sometime come and preach to them, saying he was a wicked man, but he had children and had raised them to respect the gospel
252 See note 247. The trade on the Sound increased largely in 1852-3, and several small towns were springing up. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore., 11:250.
253 This church was near Olympia at a place now called Priest's Point Park. George H. Himes.
254 The towns of St. Helens, Milton, Westport and Rainier, were all spring- ing up about this time. Bancroft, Hist, of Oregon, 11:251, 252.
