Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/235

CHAPTER VIII.

CLOSE OF THE METHODIST RÉGIME.

1840–1841.

Settlement of Clatsop Plains—The Nisqually Mission Site—Daniel Lee Returns East—The Willamette Station—Trials of Inexperienced Pioneers—Exploration of the Umpqua Valley—White Determines to Leave Oregon—Accident at the Falls—The Oregon Institute—Plan to Drive McLoughlin from the Falls—Conduct of Waller—Parts Played by Hastings and Abernethy—Ingratitude and Trickery—Legality of Claimants to Oregon City—Lee Superseded by George Gray—Progress of Colonization.

As soon as information of the arrival of the Lausanne reached him, McLoughlin sent fresh bread, butter, milk, and vegetables to meet the vessel in the river; and on her arrival at Fort Vancouver, he invited the whole ship's company to take tea with him. The invitation was accepted by Captain Spaulding and several others. On the following day rooms were made ready for the whole fifty-three persons, who were quartered and fed at Fort Vancouver during the several weeks unavoidably spent before places could be assigned them.^[1]

Having acquainted himself with the existing condition of the Mission and the territory, Jason Lee allotted to the colonists their several fields of labor. The points selected covered the places likely to be of most importance in the country when the United States should extend jurisdiction over it.

1. Journal of Spaulding, in U. S. H. Rept. 830, 27th Cong., 2d Sess.; Anderson's Northwest Coast, MS., 263; McLoughlin's Private Papers, MS., 2d ser. 9; Hines' Oregon Hist., 90.