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
"In giving, however, this favorable testimony, so far as the first three
years are concerned, I must say, that in my opinion we should have been
informed, before commencing our labors, that the interpreters at some of
the posts would be found so inefficient as to leave us dependent on the
kindness of private individuals, and reduce us to the very unpleasant
necessity of taking mothers from their family duties, that they might
become the only available medium for the communication of Divine truth.
"But after the period to which I have referred, a very perceptible
change, _i.e._, in 1845, took place. [The company had decided to
introduce the Roman Jesuits to aid them in expelling all Protestant
missionaries and civilization from the Indian tribes.] There was no
longer that hearty concurrence with my views, and co-operation, which
had at first appeared so generally. The effect was as if the gentleman
in charge of the southern department had discovered that he was expected
to afford rather an external and professed assistance than a real and
cordial one; and, under his influence, others, both of the gentlemen and
servants, became cool and reluctant in those services of which I stood
in need, until at length the letter as well us the spirit of the
company's engagement with me failed." The reader will remember that
while Mr. Barnley was receiving this treatment at the Hudson's Bay
Company's establishment at Moose Factory, James Douglas and his
associates were combining and training the Indians in Oregon for the
purpose of relieving, or, to use the language of the Jesuit De Smet, "to
rescue Oregon from Protestant and American influence."
Mr. Barnley continues: "I was prohibited from entertaining to tea two
persons, members of my congregation, who were about to sail for England,
because I happened to occupy apartments in the officer's residence, and
was told that it could not be made a rendezvous for the company's
servants and their families." P. J. De Smet, S. J., on the 113th page of
his book, says: "_The Canadian-French and half-breeds who inhabit the
Indian territory treat all the priests who visit them with great
kindness and respect._" On page 313, he says of the Hudson's Bay
Company, just about this time: "In what manner can we testify our
gratitude in regard to the two benefactors [Douglas and Ogden] who so
generously charged themselves with the care of _transporting and
delivering_ to us our cases, without consenting to accept the slightest
recompense?--How noble the sentiments which prompted them gratuitously
to burden themselves and their boats with the charitable gifts destined
by the faithful to the destitute missionaries of the Indians!" These
last quotations are from letters of Jesuit missionaries, who were
brought to the Indian country by this same Hudson's Bay Company, and
furnished transportation and every possible facility to carry on their
missions among the Indians all over the American Indian country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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