Who are all, with the exception of the last two, members of the Society of Jesus.
Archbishop Blanchet lately embarked from Europe, on his way to Oregon, with ten secular priests and two regulars, three lay brothers of the Society of Jesus, and seven female religious, for the wants of the mission. The total number of clergymen is twenty-six.
{49} Our information is not sufficiently detailed, to allow us to present the religious statistics of the different diocesses into which Oregon has been divided. We can only state in general, that since the year 1845, several new stations have been formed, new churches erected, and a large number of the aborigines of various tribes converted to the true faith.
The state of religion is as follows: there are eighteen chapels, viz.: five in the Willamette Valley; St. Paul’s Cathedral; St. Mary’s at the Convent of the Sisters; St. Francis Xaverius’ Chapel; the new Church in the Prairie; St. John’s Church in Oregon City; one at Vancouver; one at Cowlitz; one at Whitby; four in New Caledonia, to wit: at Stuart’s Lake, at Fort Alexandria, at the Rapids, and at the Upper Lake; St. Mary’s Church among the Flatheads; the Church of the Sacred Heart among the Pointed-Hearts; the Church of St. Ignatius among the Pend-d’oreilles of the Bay; the Chapel of St. Paul among the Kettle-Fall Tribe near Colville. The following are stations of 1846, where chapels are to be erected, to wit: St. Francis Borgia among the Upper Kalispels; St. Francis Regis in Colville Valley; St. Peter’s at the great Lakes of the Columbia; the Assumption {50} among the Flatbow Indians; the Holy Heart of Mary among the Koetenais.
The institutions that have been commenced in Oregon, consist: 1st, of the school of St. Mary’s among the Flatheads; 2d, of a college at St. Paul’s, Willamette; and 3d, of an academy for girls at the same place, under the charge of six sisters of Notre Dame. Other establishments are soon to be commenced.
The total number of Indians in the territory is about 110,000, of whom upwards of 6,000 have been converted to the true faith. The number of Catholics among the Canadians and settlers amounts to about 1,500.
No. I
LETTER OF MR. BOLDUC, APOSTOLICAL MISSIONARY
To Mr. Cayenne.