224 LESTER BURRELL SHIPPEE statements were largely instrumental in causing the settlers to draw up a memorial to be presented to Congress, a document made use of by Dr. Linn in his Oregon propaganda. 15 The settlement begun in 1832, said the memorialists, had prospered "beyond the most sanguine expectations of its first projectors" on account in part of the extremely favoring nat- ural conditions of the country. The advantages as to position, soil, climate were pointed out although, said they, "the winter rains, it is true, are an objection." However, these pioneers were imbued with the true spirit of the country when they added, "but they are generally preferred to the snows and intense cold which prevail in the northern parts of the United States." In later years the real Oregonian never found it necessary to apologize for the winter damps ; rather were they to be preferred above all other varieties of weather for the season in which they were (and are) accustomed to prevail. To the benefits derived from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company the memorialists paid a grudging tribute and then went on to voice their fear that in the future it could not be hoped that things would be so satisfactory. They spoke of the lack of civil institutions without which a desirable popula- tion could not be expected to fill the land; instead of the hardy pioneer of the west, if the United States did not hasten to afford protection, the country would be filled by "the Botany Bay refugee, by the renegade of civilization from the Rocky Mountains, by the profligate, deserted seamen from Polynesia, and the unprincipled sharpers from Spanish America." Just after the departure of Slacum there arrived the first considerable reinforcement of the Methodist mission, so that by the end of 1837 instead of three white persons, as Slacum found, the settlement numbered thirty. Nevertheless Jason Lee thought that the needs of the institution must be put before the eastern brethren more emphatically than was pos- sible by letter, and for that purpose went to the States early in 1838. He was able, therefore, to be in Washington when 15 The Memorial is printed in the Globe, VII, 148. See Ch. 5 below.
