A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
Rev. Mr. Parker, as before remarked, and as his journal shows, soon
understood all the maneuverings of this Hudson's Bay Company. He had no
confidence in their friendship or their interpreters. As a matter of
policy they could do no less than treat him kindly, or, more properly,
_civilly_, and allow him to leave the country, as he did. But mark the
strictness and care of the company to impress the necessity of
compliance with their arrangements upon the minds of those that followed
Mr. Parker. Keep the _massacre_ to which Vicar-General Brouillet refers
before your mind. _Life and blood and treasure have been expended._ The
fair land we inhabit was not secured without a struggle. The early
Protestant missions were not defeated and broken up without outside
influences. The Indians were not abandoned till they had dipped their
hands in the blood of their best and truest friend, and "become
seven-fold more the children of the devil than they were in their native
state," by the teachings they had received from _malicious_ and
_interested parties_ to make them so.
Father P. J. De Smet, from Brouillet's statements, was among the
Flatheads and at Wallawalla in 1840. This priest boasted of his
belonging to the Jesuit order of the Romish Church. He usually wore a
black frock-coat, was of full habit, arrogant and bigoted in his
opinions, and spoke with considerable sarcasm and contempt of all
Americans, and especially of the missionaries, as an ignorant set of men
to represent the American churches. He would be considered, in his
church, a zealous and faithful priest of the order of Jesus. His
religious instructions to the Indians were simple and easy to be
understood: "_Count your beads, hate or kill the Suapies_ (Americans),
_and kiss the cross_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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