Rev. Dr. H. K. Hines published a book in 1899 entitled, "Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest." While, as is to be expected, Dr. Hines' book is biased in favor of the Methodist missionaries, and Jason Lee is his hero, nevertheless, he has endeavored to be fair and just to all. In this "Missionary History," page 92, Dr. Hines says: "It was no accident, nor, yet, was it any influence that Dr. McLoughlin or any other man or men had over him [Jason Lee] that determined his choice [of a site for the Mission]. It was his own clear and comprehensive statesmanship. Mr. Lee was not a man of hasty impulse.... This nature did not play him false in the selection of the site of his Mission." And on pages 452, 453, he says: "Some writers have believed, or affected to believe, that the advice of Dr. McLoughlin both to Mr. Lee in 1834, and to the missionaries of the American Board in 1836, was for the purpose of pushing them to one side, and putting them out of the way of the Hudson's Bay Company, so that they could not interfere with its purposes, nor put any obstacle in the way of the ultimate British occupancy of Oregon. Such writers give little credit to the astuteness of Dr. McLoughlin, or to the intelligence and independence of the missionaries of the American Board. Had such been the purpose of Dr. McLoughlin, or had he been a man capable of devising a course of action so adverse to the purposes for which his guests were in the country, he certainly would not have advised them to establish their work in the very centers of the great region open to their choice. This he did, as we believe, honestly and honorably." Jason Lee selected, as the original site of the Methodist Mission, a place on French Prairie, about ten miles north of the present city of Salem. When he and his party were ready to leave for their new home, Dr. McLoughlin placed at their disposal a boat and crew to transport the mission goods from the May Dacre, Wyeth's vessel, on which their goods had come, to the new Mission. He loaned them seven oxen, one bull, and seven cows with their calves. The moving of these goods and cattle to the Mission required several days. He also provided and manned a boat to convey the missionaries, personally. In his diary, Jason Lee says: "After dinner embarked in one of the Company's boats, kindly manned for us by Dr. McLoughlin, who has treated us with the utmost attention, politeness and liberality."[11] March 1, 1836, Dr. McLoughlin and the other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, all British subjects, sent to Jason Lee, for the benefit of the Methodist Mission, a voluntary gift of one hundred and thirty dollars, accompanied by the following letter: "FORT VANCOUVER, 1st March, 1836. "The Rev. JASON LEE, "Dear Sir: