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
Another of the English missionaries writes in this manner: "When at York
Factory last fall (1848), a young gentleman boasted that he had
succeeded in starting the Christian Indians of Rossville off with the
boats on a Sunday. Thus every effort we make for their moral and
spiritual improvement is frustrated, and those who were, and still are,
desirous of becoming Christians, are kept away; the pagan Indians
desiring to become Christians, but being made drunk on their arrival at
the fort, 'their good desires vanish.' The Indians professing
Christianity had actually exchanged one keg of rum for tea and sugar, at
one post, but the successive offers of liquor betrayed them into
intoxication at another."
The Rev. Mr. Beaver, chaplain of the company at Fort Vancouver, in 1836,
writes thus to the Aborigines Protection Society, London, tract 8, page
19:--
"For a time I reported to the governor and committee of the company
in England, and to the governor and the council of the company
abroad, the result of my observations, with a view to a gradual
amelioration of the wretched degradation with which I was
surrounded, by an immediate attempt at the introduction of
civilization and Christianity, among one or more of the aboriginal
tribes; but my earnest representations were neither attended to nor
acted upon; no means were placed at my disposal for carrying out the
plan which I suggested."
Mr. Greenhow says, page 389: "Particular care was also extended to the
education of the half-breed children, the offspring of the marriage or
the concubinage of the traders with the Indian women, who were retained
and bred as much as possible among the white people, and were taken into
the service of the company, whenever they were found capable. There
being few white women in those countries, it is evident that these
half-breeds must, in time, form a large, if not an important portion of
the inhabitants; and there is nothing to prevent their being adopted and
recognized as British subjects.
"The conduct of the Hudson's Bay Company, in these respects, is
worthy of _commendation_; and may be contrasted most favorably with
that pursued at the present day by civilized people toward the
aborigines of all other new countries."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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