382 EZRA FISHER
and gathering up churches and at the same time bless Zion, their own families and their own souls . . . the labors of such brethren would be appreciated. Perhaps more than all, we need wise lay brethren to move to our Territory for the sake of doing GOOD. Men of prayer, good works, and FAITH too, who are well established in the doctrines of the gospel, who know well how to sympathize with the ministry and devise and execute plans by which the ministry may be kept constantly employed in their peculiar calling. Now let us ask you, Will our ministers and deacons and churches in the older and more favored portions of our land compare our destitution and prospects for usefulness with their own and then, in the fear of God, ask what they can do for us? By order of the convention. EZRA FISHER,
Chairman of the Committee.
N. B. I learn that 1500 souls have crossed the Rocky Mountains this summer for Oregon. 67 Please let me know if the Board will appoint Br. Johnson to go out with us next spring? We have a promising young Br. in this place from Mass, by the name of Stone, whom I think this Church will invite to become their pastor when we leave.
Yours, E. F.
Rock Island, 111., Sept. 16, 1844. Dear Br. Hill:
Should providence open the door, we expect to leave for Oregon early next spring with the companies that will then go out to Oregon and California. I should like to know whether the Board will be willing that the appointment shall be so made that the services shall commence at the time of our departure.
67 McLoughlin placed the number of the immigrants of 1844 at 1,475. Ban- croft, Hist, of Ore. 1:448.
George H. Himes, as. a result of extensive researches, believes it to have been only 600 or 700. British officers in Oregon in 1845-6 placed it at about 1000. Documents Relative to Warre and Vavasour's Military Reconnoisance in Oregon, 1845-6, ed. by Joseph Scrafer, in Ore. Hist. Soc. Quar. X:u.
