couver, though often tedious, is practicable, being thus described by Lieut. Howison :

"Five fathoms can be carried at low water up to Astoria, which is the first anchorage combining comfort and security; three-quarters of a mile above that is a narrow pass of only thirteen feet; but from Baker's Bay (pursuing the Chinook channel, which passes close to Point Ellice, and is more direct and convenient for vessels bound straight up) four fathoms can be carried up to Tongue Point, which is three miles above Astoria; and just within, or to the westward of, Tongue Point, is a spacious and safe anchorage. From Tongue Point the navigation, for ten miles, is extremely intricate, and some parts of the tortuous channel not over ten feet deep at low water. The straight channel which Captain Wilkes discovered has become obstructed about its eastern entrance, and nothing can be made of it. A channel nearly parallel with it, but to the southward, was traced in my boats, and I devoted a day to its examination, and carried through three fathoms at low water; but my buoys being submerged by the tide, prevented me from testing its availability in the schooner. From Pillow Rock the channel is at least three fathoms deep at the driest season all the way to Fort Vancouver, except a bar of fifteen feet at the lower mouth of the Willamette, and another about a mile and a half below the Fort. The Willamette enters the Columbia from the southward, by two mouths fourteen miles apart: the upper is the only one used, and is six miles below Vancouver. Throughout the months of August and September it is impracticable for vessels drawing over ten feet. Both it and the Columbia, during the other months, will easily accommodate a vessel to back and fill, drawing thirteen feet. The Columbia is navigable to the Cascades, forty miles above Vancouver; the Willamette up to the mouth of the Clackamas River, twenty-one miles above its junction with the Columbia, and three below the Falls where the city of Oregon is located."

It thus appears that the navigation of the Columbia is by no means impracticable. Skilful pilots stationed at the entrance, can always find a safe channel, and a steam-tug can tow vessels with facility through all the windings of the crooked channel, which, at the lowest stage, has ten feet water; and although no good harbours have as yet been discovered south of Puget's Sound, the produce of the rich valleys of the Columbia and Willamette can be easily shipped from Oregon City and Vancouver.

The population of Oregon in 1846 was estimated at nine thousand, exclusive of the aboriginal inhabitants, concerning whose number we have no certain information. This enumeration includes a very miscellaneous population-Canadian voyageurs with Indian families, Scotch, English, Irish, and citizens of the United States. Except the last mentioned, nearly all these people were formerly in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company, and, . after the expiration of their term of service, settled on the soil which then was in dispute between the United States and Great Britain. Now that the boundary-line is permanently settled, they have become American citizens. Of emigrants from the United States, the number was computed at two thousand; probably at the present time it

would not be extravagant to estimate them at twice that number, as we have an account of five hundred wagons having arrived in Oregon in the year 1847. Nearly all the inhabitants of Oregon are settled in the Valley of the Willamette; there are a few at Astoria, and perhaps twenty families north of the Columbia.

Of the Indian population, except the Shoshones, the tribes are generally small. The estimate of Mr. Parker is perhaps as nearly correct as any census we have, though, in most cases, it is thought to be greatly over the mark. He sets down the Shoshones at ten thousand; Nez Percés, two thousand five hundred; Caäguas, two thousand; Utaws, four thousand; Wallawallas, five hundred; Palooses, five hundred; Spokeins, eight hundred; Coeur d'Alene, seven hundred; Flatheads, perhaps as many more: in addition to these, Lieut. Howison mentions the Chinooks, Cowlitzes, Clatsops, and Calapooahs, all of whom together do not number over five hundred souls. All these Indians are in a destitute condition. The Shoshones are forced to subsist upon roots and berries, whence they have received the soubriquet of root-diggers. The buffaloes do not range in any number west of the mountains; game of all kinds is scarce; and the principal animal diet of the natives consists of salmon, which ascend the Columbia and its tributaries in immense shoals, and will constitute a material item in the exports of the country. At present, most of the tribes are well disposed; how long they will remain so, is a question; indeed, the developments of the last year seem to demonstrate that their friendship, like that of the savages of the plains, is a matter of great uncertainty.

With regard to missionary operations among the Indians there is little to be said, because little has been done. We have already adverted to the missionaries employed by our own Church, and to those under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Touching this subject, we present the following extract from Lieut. Howison, and we do it with deep sorrow; nevertheless, it emanates from an officer of a government friendly to religion, bears the apparent marks of truth, can easily be verified or refuted, and affords to the Church matter for deep reflection, and earnest prayer to God, that he would inspire his servants who are labouring among the heathen, with the spirit of peace and unity; that his Spirit may influence them to abstain from sectarian bitterness and prejudice, and to work cordially together as servants of the same great Master, showing to a gainsaying world that they have learned from the Gospel of Christ the beautiful lessons of truth, peace, and love. After speaking of the relaxation in the missionary enterprise, he goes on to say:

"Why their efforts came to be discontinued, (for there were at one time many missions in the field, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, and an independent self-supporting one,) would be a question which it would be difficult to have answered truly. The various recriminations which were uttered, as each member thought proper to secede from his benevolent associates in Christian duty, were not calculated to increase the public respect for their individual disinterestedness or purity. They seem early to have despaired of much success in impressing the minds of the Indians with a just sense of the importance of their lessons, and very sagaciously turned their attention to more fruitful pursuits. Some became farmers and graziers, others undertook the education of the rising generation of whites and halfbreeds, and a few set up for traders; but these last imprudently encroached upon a very dear prerogative of the Hudson's Bay Company, by bartering for beaver, and only by hastily quitting it escaped the overwhelming opposition of that all-powerful body. The French missionaries, to wit, a bishop, a number of priests, and seven nuns, are succeeding in their operations. They are amply furnished with money and other means for accomplishing their purposes. They educate a number of young Indians, principally girls, and all the offspring of the Canadians. In addition to a large wooden nunnery, already some years in use, they are now building a brick church of corre sponding dimensions, on beautiful prairie grounds, a few miles from the Willamette River, and thirty-two above Oregon City. They are strict Catholics, and exercise unbounded influence over the people of the French settlements, who are improving in every way under their precepts. The mission derives its support from Europe; and I was told that the queen of France, and her daughter, of Belgium, are liberal patronesses of the institution. It is at present in high estimation with all classes; it gives employment and high wages to a great number of mechanics and labourers, pays off punctually in cash, and is, without doubt, contributing largely to the prosperity of the neighbourhood and country around it. A few Jesuits are located within six miles of the mission, and are ostensibly employed in the same praiseworthy occupation.

"The Methodist Institute, designed as an educational establishment for the future generations of Oregon, is still in the hands of gentlemen who were connected with the Methodist mission. It is finely situated on the Willamette, fifty miles above Oregon City. As a building, its exterior was quite imposing from a distance; but I was pained, upon coming up with it, to find its interior apartments in an entirely unfinished state. Mr. Wilson, who is in charge of it, was so hospitable and polite to me that I refrained from asking questions which I was sure, from appearances, would only produce answers confirmatory of its languishing condition. Five little boys were now getting their rudiments of education here; when, from the number of dormitories, it was manifest that it had been the original design to receive more than ten times that number. I learned from Governor Abernethy, however, about the beginning of 1847, that the number of its pupils was fast increasing."

The above quoted passage is suggestive of a few reflections bearing on the subject of missionary operations. We trust, for the sake of the Church, that the observation with regard to the disagreement of the missionaries is too strongly stated: nevertheless, we believe that the statement has some foundation in truth, strange as it may appear to those who suppose, and correctly, too, that the soldier of Christ, engaged in fighting his battles against the powers of paganism and heathenism, should lose sight of all con

siderations except the accomplishment of his object of carrying the tidings of salvation to perishing souls. Melancholy indeed it is, that those whom the Church has commissioned to one of the highest and noblest trusts ever allotted to the minister of God, should so far forget their solemn calling as to enter into strife with their fellowlabourers in the same field. The world, and especially that class of men who are on the outskirts of civilization, keep a jealous eye upon the actions of the Church, and great is the rejoicing when the enemies of the Gospel detect inconsistencies in the actions of those who should be examples of Christian charity and forbearance. Again: the reports of missionary operations are often too highly coloured; there is too often a tendency to exaggeration, which must eventuate in injury to the cause. The minds of ingenuous young men are excited by glowing accounts of the success of the Gospel, and they immediately desire to quit all, and rush to the succour of the perishing heathen. On arriving at the field of their labours the reality falls so far short of their anticipations that their hearts are sick with disappointment; and after a year or two of languid labour, they return disheartened, with their confidence in the practicability of doing good among the heathen much shaken. This is not matter of conjecture; we could give names and dates if necessary. Much is said of the hardships which the missionary must undergo; but it should not be disguised that the great hardships are moral ones, deprivation of society, and continual contact with ignorant and benighted minds. It should ever be borne in mind that the evangelization of the heathen requires an assiduity of effort, and a perseverance which nothing but a high sense of duty, and a prayerful reliance upon God, can enable the Christian minister to sustain; that his progress will be necessarily slow; that he will have to encounter not only bigoted prejudice and bitter opposition, but, what are more disheartening, apathy and indifference on the subject of religion, enough to discourage the stoutest heart; that the simplest truths will have to be reiterated again and again, until the task becomes painfully wearisome; that he will have to spend years of laborious research, in order to master difficult dialects; that he will have to encounter the opposition of profligate white men, and perhaps be discountenanced by the political authorities of his neighbourhood; that he may even be misunderstood and underrated by the Church at home; and that finally, after years of wearisome labour, he may sink into a foreign grave, with only the hope and prayer that his labours will prove not in vain in the Lord. We do not draw this picture to discourage our brethren from entering the missionary service; but the worst should be known, and we have sadly misappreciated our mi

nisterial brethren if there are not many to be found who are willing to encounter all these obstacles, for the sake of winning souls. If not, there are none worthy to labour in this portion of God's vineyard.

Intimately connected with the business and interests of Oregon is the Hudson's Bay Company. This powerful mercantile association is in some way concerned with all the enterprises going forward, and, to its honour, it has seldom, if ever, made an unwarrantable use of the immense power which it possesses. The destitute emigrant, upon arriving at Fort Vancouver, found shelter and repose after his terrible privations on the route; all his wants were generously supplied, and the means furnished him for preparing him a home on the banks of the Willamette. Without such succour, numbers must have miserably perished, even after arriving at the goal to which they had looked forward with such fond anticipation. Possessing the power to fix the price of all articles of merchandise, and ruin any trader who might come into competition with them, this liberal and far-sighted company furnishes articles necessary to supply the wants of the emigrants at reasonable rates, and does not use unwarrantable means to break down traders whose resources are inferior to its own. In proof of this we refer to the report of Lieut. Howison, and the account of Mr. Palmer, the latter of whom seems to ascribe to the Hudson's Bay Company the merit of restraining the other traders from setting enormous prices on their wares. At present a large proportion of the civilized inhabitants of Oregon consists of those who have been at one time the servants of the Company. These may be naturally supposed to be much under its influence; and although the great tide of emigration annually flowing into Oregon will throw the power into the hands of our own people, yet for many years to come this body will wield a powerful influence on the destinies of the young colony. We are willing to believe that this influence will be exercised on the side of justice, honour, and truth; and sincerely hope that no difficulties will arise between the Company and our own citizens, but that all may live harmoniously together. While on this subject, however, we are sorry to notice that in some instances the generous conduct of the British traders has met an ungrateful return: many who were saved by the company from utter destitution, afterwards refused to meet their obligations, and were loud in their denunciation of the Hudson's Bay Company as a monstrous monopoly. We trust and believe that these instances are not numerous, and that the great body of the emigrants are worthy and upright men. The American pioneer is not the man to be ungrateful for assistance, or refuse to discharge a just