48 Fred Wilbur Powell, A. M.
preachers since the beginning of time, and yet man has con- tinued to migrate and to benefit thereby.
In the first of these articles, it was questioned whether the Oregon emigrants would ever get as far as St. Louis; for they must first pass through a much finer country than Ore- gon, where they could buy two hundred acres of fertile land and establish themselves among a kindred people for less than the further expenses of their journey. From St. Louis to the Columbia the proposed route was traced in detail, and if any- thing was omitted from the list of horrible contingencies, it has escaped notice. Starvation, torrential rivers, hostile In- dians, wild animals, and winter in the mountains were to con- tribute to the hazards and hardships of the expedition. Doubt was expressed as to the existence of the South Pass as stated upon the authority of Major Pilcher. Should any of the emi- grants finally reach their destination, how were they to dis- possess the Indians, how would they be governed, how would they sustain themselves until the harvest of their first crop? Should they succeed in raising a surplus of grain, where would they find a market? In Japan? "j2Lpan, quotha." Did they not know that there was only one Japanese port open, and that to the Dutch? In India? No; in India the lower classes lived on about a penny a day, and the soil was unexcelled. As to the market for limiber in the Spanish-American countries, was there not lumber in Peru and Chili? On the other hand there was New England. Said the oracle :
"We had thought that in New England, especially, sickness and unavoidable accidents were the only causes for fear. Here education is more encouraged than an)rwhere else. The help- less poor, even those whom vice has rendered so, are not suf- fered to starve. All this is well ; very well ; but it seems we can do better. At least, so say, and perhaps think, the pro- jectors of the intended expedition to the mouth of the Columbia river.
"A gentleman, for whose talents and ambition his native land does not afford sufficient scope, has been employing his
