{26} Most of the work among these savages is performed by slaves, who are well treated, except in case of old age or other inability, when they are left to perish of want. Besides those who are born in this unhappy state, there are others who become so, by the fortunes of war. All prisoners are considered slaves by their conquerors, though, in general, only their children experience this hard lot. Wars are sometimes engaged in for the express purpose of acquiring slaves, which is considered a great advantage among the savages. The white population have little to fear from their attacks, except on the northern coast, where life is far from being safe, and where the natives, in some cases anthropophagi, do not hesitate to feast upon the flesh of their prisoners.
Throughout the whole country, the habitations of the Indians are rather huts than houses, from fifteen to twenty-five feet long, proportionably wide, and verging into a conical form. Cross pieces of wood are suspended in the interior for the purpose of drying their salmon and other articles of food. Fire is kindled on the ground in the centre of the cabin, the smoke escaping through the roof above. The dress of the Indians is not more recherché than their {27} dwellings. Formerly they clothed themselves very comfortably and neatly, with the furs which they possessed, but since the trade in skins has become so extensive, the natives of Oregon are much worse provided for in this respect, and the poor can scarcely protect themselves against the severity of the seasons. To this circumstance, in part, is attributed the decrease of the population, which has been observed within a few years past. Hunting and fishing are the resources on which the Indian depends for subsistence. His principal food is salmon, sturgeon, and other kinds of fish, with the ducks, wild turkeys and hares, in which the country abounds. The fruits of spontaneous growth, and particularly the root of the cammas, also afford them nourishment.[134]
Among the aborigines of Oregon there is no trace of any religious worship. They have a belief which consists in certain obscure traditions;[135] but no external forms of religion are visible among them. The juggler exercises his {28} profession, though it is almost universally done in behalf of the sick, for the purpose of curing them. If he fail in his attempt, he is suspected of having used some evil influence, and is made to pay the forfeit of his supposed offence. Though nearly all these tribes, of whom we are speaking, possess no particular form of worship, they are naturally predisposed in favor of the Christian religion, especially those who live in the interior. We shall find the most ample evidence of this in the sequel of our narrative.
At the period when the two Catholic missionaries arrived in Oregon territory, the Hudson Bay Company possessed from ten to twelve establishments for the fur-trade, in each of which there was a certain number of Canadians professing our holy faith, and in addition to these there were twenty-six Catholic families at Willamette, and four at Cowlitz. It is easy to imagine to how many dangers they had been exposed of losing their faith, deprived as they were of religious instruction and of every external incentive to the practice of piety, and surrounded by individuals who were not inactive in their efforts to withdraw them from the fold of Catholicity.
The Methodist missionaries had already formed {29} two establishments, one in the Willamette, where they had a school, and another about fifty miles from the cascade. An Anglican minister, who resided at Vancouver two years, left it before the arrival of the Catholic clergy. The Presbyterians had a missionary post at Walla Walla, and among the Nez-percés, and in 1839 they established a third station on the river Spokane, a few days’ journey south of Colville.[136] In 1840, the Rev. Mr. Lee brought with him fellow-laborers for the vineyard, with their wives and children, and a number of husbandmen and mechanics. It was a real colony. The preachers stationed themselves at the most important posts, as at Willamette Falls, the Clatsops below fort George, and Nisqualy, and thence visited the other settlements: they even penetrated as far as Whitby.[137] Nothing short of the most arduous toil and constant vigilance on the part of the Catholic clergymen, could have withdrawn so many individuals from the danger of spiritual seduction. Our two missionaries were indefatigable in their exertions, almost always journeying from one post to another, to begin or to consolidate the good work they had in view.
{30} Vancouver was the first place that experienced the happy influence of their apostolical zeal. Many of the settlers had lost sight of the religious principles they had imbibed in their youth, and their wives were either pagans in belief, or, if baptized, but superficially acquainted with the nature of that holy rite. In this state of things, which had given rise to many disorders, the missionaries found it necessary to spend several months at Vancouver, and to labor with united energies in instructing the people, baptizing children, performing marriages, and inspiring a greater respect for the Christian virtues. With this view they remained at Vancouver until the month of January, 1839, when Mr. Blanchet visited the Canadians at Willamette. It would be difficult to describe the joy which his arrival awakened among them. They had already erected a chapel seventy feet in length, which was dedicated by the missionary under the invocation of St. Paul. His ministry at this place was attended with the most signal success. Men, women and children, all seemed to appreciate the presence of one who had come, as a messenger from Heaven, to diffuse among them the {31} consolations of religion. Before his departure, Mr. Blanchet rehabilitated a good number of marriages, and baptized seventy-four persons. In April he started for Cowlitz, where he remained until the latter end of June. Here also his efforts were most successful. He had the happiness of instructing twelve savages of Puget sound, who had come from a distance of nearly one hundred miles in order to see and hear him. It was on this occasion he conceived the idea of the Catholic ladder, a form of instruction which represents on paper the various truths and mysteries of religion in their chronological order, and which has proved vastly beneficial in imparting catechetical instruction among the natives of Oregon.[138] These twelve Indians having remained at Cowlitz long enough to acquire a knowledge of the principal mysteries of our faith, and to understand the use of the ladder which Mr. Blanchet gave them, set about instructing their tribe as soon as they returned home, and not without considerable success; for Mr. Blanchet, the following year, met, in the vicinity of Whitby island, with several Indians who had never seen a priest, and yet were acquainted with the sign of the cross, and knew several pious canticles.
{32} While Mr. Blanchet was at Cowlitz,[139] his fellow-laborer visited Nisqualy, where he found the savages in the best dispositions. Having but a short time, however, to pass among them, he merely laid the foundation of a more important mission, and returned to Vancouver by the month of June,—the time when the agents from New Caledonia, Upper Columbia, and other different posts assemble there to deposite their furs. After spending a month at Vancouver, availing himself of the favorable opportunity for instruction which the concourse of visitors afforded, he set out for Upper Columbia, where he visited Walla Walla, Okanagan and Colville,[140] baptizing all the children that were brought to him in the course of his journey. He spent three months in this excursion, during which Mr. Blanchet attended to the wants of the faithful at Vancouver, Willamette, and {33} Cowlitz. Though these stations afforded ample occupation for a missionary, Mr. B. paid another visit to Nisqualy, where he was again met by a considerable number of savages from Puget sound, who hastened to Nisqualy as soon as they heard of his arrival, and listened with joy and profit to the words of life.
In October the two missionaries met at Vancouver, which was their place of residence through the courtesy of James Douglas, Esq., and on the 10th of the same month they again separated, Mr. Blanchet starting for Willamette, and Mr. Demers for Cowlitz. Their object was to spend the winter months at these points in the further instruction of their flocks. During the first year they baptized three hundred and nine persons. The following spring Mr. Demers visited the Chinouks, a tribe living below fort George.[141] From the Chinouks he repaired to Vancouver, to meet the concourse of traders who assemble there in the month of June, after which he set out for his stations at Walla Walla, Okanagan and Colville, as he had done the preceding year. About this time Father De Smet, S. J., was sent on a visit by his superior to the Flathead Indians, who had implored this favor by repeated deputations from their country to {34} the bishop of St. Louis. He found, to his great surprise, that Oregon already possessed two Catholic missionaries; he wrote to Mr. Demers, informing him that he would return to St. Louis, according to the order of his superiors, to procure further aid for the promising missions of the Rocky Mountains.
Mr. Blanchet having visited the people at Nisqualy, was soon called away by a special embassy from the Indians of Puget sound, who requested his ministry. It was on this occasion at Whitby that he met with the savages already acquainted with certain practices of the Catholic church, though they had never seen a missionary.[142] His labors among the Indians at this place were most consoling. A large cross was erected as a rallying-point, many children were {35} baptized, and two tribes, who were at war with each other, were reconciled. The Catholic ladder was passed from one nation to another, and all prayed to be instructed still more fully in the truths of salvation. After baptizing one hundred and four persons, the missionaries returned to Vancouver, and thence repaired to their respective stations during the winter season. A wide field was here opened to their zeal, not only among the catechumens who solicited baptism, but among the settlers, who were anxious to repair by their fervor the neglect of former years. In the summer of 1840 the Columbia was visited by Captain Belcher, from England, for the purpose of surveying the river.[143]