13th. The sending of American immigrants from Fort Hall and Oregon to California.
14th. The attempt to supply the Indians in the interior, by the aid of Romish priests, with a large amount of ammunition.
15th. The implacable hatred implanted in the mind of the Indian against Americans, through the influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Jesuit missionaries brought to the country for that purpose.
16th. The strict rules of the company, and the continued effort to enforce those rules to the destruction of life and property.
We now come to the thoughts which originated and caused the foregoing acts.
These American missionaries have done more to defeat us, to settle the country, and defer the establishment of the boundary line, than all other efforts and causes combined. We must make another effort to destroy their influence, and drive them and their settlements from the country; and thus secure it to the British crown, for the use of the company, at the risk of a war between the two countries.
It will be remembered that Messrs. Lee, Parker, Whitman, Spalding, Gray, and other missionaries, had their passports from the Secretary of War of the United States, giving them permission to travel through, and settle as teachers in, the Indian country; and that all military officers and agents of the government were instructed to facilitate their efforts, and, if at any time it was necessary, afford them protection. These passports had been duly presented to the Hudson’s Bay Company at Vancouver, and had the effect to prevent a direct effort to destroy or drive them from the country, as they had done to all who preceded them.
Hence, an extra effort must be made to get rid of this American missionary influence, and the settlements they were gathering around them.
We will now proceed to give historical facts as connected with results.
Two intelligent, jovial, yet bigoted priests had been brought to the country by the company. They had traveled all through it, and had actually discovered the pure silver and golden ores of the Rocky Mountains, and carried specimens to St. Louis and to Europe. These priests fully understood the licensed rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the efforts they were making to secure it to the British crown. They were also assured that, in case the American Protestant influence could be driven from it, the Papal would become the prevailing religion, as in California and Mexico. They knew that the English Episcopal effort was an early and utter failure, and that no renewed effort would be made in their behalf by the company, and that they were then using their influence to drive the Wesleyan missionaries from Moose Factory. Hence, they and their associates entered upon their work with a zeal and energy only equaled by him who was their first victim.