CORRESPONDENCE 59
occupying one Sabbath and I the next, alternately. 128 I preached a few Sabbaths at 5 P. M. in the south part of the plains, but it was soon found that a want of time com- pelled us to abandon the evening preaching.
Our congregations are about fifty, on an average. We have not yet taken any measures to organize a Baptist church in this place, there being no male members but myself, yet we think we shall do something on that subject this season. We meet in a little log school house, about 16 feet square, in which my daughter teaches a small day school of about 15 children. I have obtained no signatures to the temperance pledge in the form in which you published it, 129 but the frequent instances of violation of the laws by introducing ardent spirits among the Indians and selling to the Whites without license, induced the settlers to call a meeting, which resulted in every man but two or three signing a pledge that we would hold our persons and property in readiness to prevent the unlawful introduction and sale of intoxicating spirits into our county. Little is drunk in the county except by the Indians and a few Whites who are as regardless of principle as the savages themselves. Perhaps I can say with certainty that for the last four weeks we have had more than usual attention to the preaching of the Word, although we learn of no instances of hopeful conversion. We feel a strong assurance that a great change externally has taken place among the inhabitants of these plains within the last six months. A general desire to maintain good order in society is apparent.
The people generally have not been accustomed to aid in the support of the gospel, and as yet they have everything to do to open their farms and provide their families with clothing, which would be regarded very indifferent, even on the frontier territories east of the mountains. I find neigh-
128 This Presbyterian minister was probably Lewis Thompson, a native of Kentucky, who came to the Pacific Coast in 1846 and settled on Clatsop Plains Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. II: 680.
129 Temperance sentiment was strong in early Oregon. There was a pro- hibition law from 1844 to 1846 and a large proportion of the population was in favor of prohibition even after there was no law on the statute book to that effect. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. I: 281, 437, 537-9; II: 37.
