CHAPTER XXI.

Arrival of Rev. Mr. Beaver and wife.—His opinion of the company.—A double-wedding.—Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman at Vancouver.—Men explore the country and locate stations.—Their opinion of the country.—Indian labor.—A winter trip down Snake River.

Nothing of note occurred till about the middle of August, 1836. The barkNereusarrived from England, bringing back Rev. Daniel Lee, recovered from his sickness while in the Sandwich Islands, and Rev. Mr. Beaver and lady, an English Episcopal clergyman, as chaplain to the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. Mr. Beaver was a man below the medium height, light brown hair, gray eyes, light complexion, a feminine voice, with large pretensions to oratory, a poor delivery, and no energy. His ideas of clerical dignity were such, that he felt himself defiled and polluted in descending to the “common herd of savages” he found on arriving at Vancouver. “The governor was uncivil, the clerks were boors, the women were savages. There was not an individual about the establishment he felt he could associate with.” This feeling was shared largely by Mrs. Beaver, who, from the little I saw of her at a double-wedding party at her own house, I concluded, felt she was condescending greatly in permitting her husband to perform the services.

She appeared totally indifferent to the whole performance, so far as giving it an approving smile, look, or word. The occasion was the marriage of the youngest daughter of Dr. McLaughlin to Mr. Ray; and of Miss Nelia Comilly to Mr. James Douglas, since governor of Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

While at Vancouver, I met Mr. Beaver once outside the fort, with his dog and gun. From what I could learn of him, he was fond of hunting and fishing;—much more so than of preaching to the “ignorant savages in the fort,” as he called the gentlemen and servants of the company. “They were not sufficiently enlightened to appreciate good sermons, and to conform to the English church service. However, as he was the chaplain in charge, by virtue of his appointment received from the executive committee and governor in London, he had rights superior to any half-savage, pretended gentlemen at this establishment, and he would let them know what they were, before they were done with him; he didnot come to this wilderness to be ordered and dictated to by a set of half-savages, who did not know the difference between a prayer-book and an otter skin, and yet they presumed to teach him morals and religion.” This tirade, as near as I could learn, was elicited from his reverence soon after he arrived, on account of some supposed neglect or slight offered by Dr. McLaughlin, in not furnishing his quarters in the style he had expected. On reaching the post, in place of a splendid parsonage, well fitted up, and servants to do his bidding, he found what in early California times would be called an ordinary balloon house, made of rough boards, the floors (I think) not planed, and no carpets upon them, and none in the country to put upon them, except the common flag mats the Indians manufacture; and these the Rev. Mrs. Beaver considered “too filthy to step upon, or be about the house.” In addition to these very important matters (judging from the fuss they made about them), “the doctor and all the pretended gentlemen of the company were living inadultery. This was a horrible crime he could not, and would not, put up with; he could scarcely bring himself to perform the church service in so polluted an audience.” We had never been confirmed in the English church, and, consequently, did not feel at liberty to offer any advice after listening to this long tirade of abuse of the members of the Hudson’s Bay Company by his reverence. A short time after, Mr. Beaver met Dr. McLaughlin in front of the house, and commenced urging him to comply with the regulations of the English church. The doctor had been educated in the Roman Catholic faith; he did not acknowledge Mr. Beaver’s right to dictate a religious creed to him, hence he was not prepared to conform wholly to the English church service. Among other subjects, that of marriage was mentioned, Rev. Mr. Beaver insisting that the doctor should be married in accordance with the church service. The doctor claimed the right to be married by whom he pleased, and that Mr. Beaver was interfering and meddling with other than his parochial duties. This led his reverence to boil over and spill out a portion of the contemptuous feelings he had cherished from the moment he landed at the place. The doctor, not being in the habit from his youth of calmly listening to vulgar and abusive language, especially when addressed to his face, laid aside his reverence for the cloth, as also the respect due to his position and age, and gave Rev. Mr. Beaver a caning, some say kicking, causing his reverence to retreat, and abruptly suspend enforcing moral lessons in conformity to church usage. Rev. Mrs. Beaver very naturally sympathized with her husband, and they soon made arrangements and left the country, to report their case at head-quarters in London. Dr. McLaughlin chose to comply with civil usage, and as James Douglas had receiveda commission from her Majesty as civil magistrate under the English law, acting as justice of the peace, he united Dr. John McLaughlin in marriage to Mrs. Margaret McKay, whose first husband had been lost in the destruction of the barkTonquinsome years previous. This wedding occurred at Vancouver, about the end of January, 1837. The doctor was married privately, by Esquire Douglas, either a short time before, or a few days after, I have not yet learned which.

Rev. Mr. Beaver and lady arrived at Vancouver about four weeks before Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman. The gentlemen of the company, like the rough mountaineers who paid their respect to Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding at the American rendezvous, attempted to be polite and kind to Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. They most emphatically failed. The parsonage was a terror to them. They had become objects ofcontempt,scorn, andderisionin the estimation of their religious guide and moral patron. Their wives and children were looked upon as filthy savages, not fit to associate with decent people. This feeling was so strong in the chaplain and his wife that it leaked out in very injudicious and indiscreet expressions of disapproval of actions and conduct, that, in a refined and polished society, would be considered offensive; yet these traders and Indian merchants, not having been in refined society for many years, did not understand or comprehend their own awkwardness and want of more refinement. They had forgotten that, in the progress of society, six hundred years had passed since their great great grandmothers were like the women they saw about them every day. They forgot that Mrs. Beaver was an English clergyman’s wife, and claimed to belong to the best English society. They thought there was but little difference in womankind; in short, they were much better qualified to deal with Indians than with civilians. Under such circumstances, and with such feelings existing in Fort Vancouver, the reader will not be astonished at the reception of two ladies who could interest and command the esteem and respect of the savage, the mountain hunter, and the Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader. They came among them expecting nothing but rough treatment; any little mistakes were overlooked or treated as a jest. They know no distinction in classes; they were polite to the servant and the master; their society was agreeable and refining; not the least insult in word, or look, or act, was ever given them by any white man; their courage had been tested in the trip they had performed; their conversation and accomplishments surprised and delighted those permitted to enjoy their acquaintance, and, as Mr. Hines, in his history of the Oregon mission, says, “these were the first American women that ever crossed the Rocky Mountains, andtheir arrival formed an epoch in the history of Oregon.”

Our mission party, with Captain Pambrun, his two boats loaded, two-thirds of the goods for the mission, on their way up the Columbia River, arrived all safe at the Dalles. Gray took a decided stand in favor of the first location at that point, on account of its accessibility, and the general inclination of all the Indians in the country to gather at those salmon fisheries; Spalding and Pambrun opposed; Whitman was undecided; Pambrun would not wait to give time to explore, nor assist in getting horses for the Doctor and Gray to look at the country in view of a location. On we go; make the portages at La Chute; reach John Day’s River; Pambrun leaves boats in charge of Whitman and Gray, and goes to Wallawalla on horseback. In four days’ hard pulling, towing, and sailing, we reach Wallawalla all safe; find cattle and horses all improving, and every thing in order, that is, as good order as could be expected; boats discharged, goods all carefully stored. Next morning, early, a fine band of Cayuse horses came into the fort; four fine ones were selected and saddled, an extra pack animal with traveling case and kitchen furniture, tent for camping, and provisions all ready, a servant with two Indians, all mounted, off we go up the Wallawalla River about twenty-five miles. Most of the land we passed over we pronounced barren, and good for nothing except grazing cattle, sheep, and horses. In the bends of the river, saw a few acres of land that might be cultivated if arrangements could be made to irrigate. Passed the Tuchet, but did not consider its appearance justified much delay to examine it closely, though the whole bottom was covered with a heavy coat of tall rye grass; went on into the forks of the Wallawalla and Mill Creek (as it is now called), pitched our tent at the place where Whitman’s station was afterward built, got our suppers. Whitman and Gray took a look around the place, went into the bends in the river, looked at the cotton-wood trees, the little streams of water, and all about till dark; came back to camp; not much said. Mr. Pambrun explained the quality of the soil, and what would produce corn, what potatoes, and what would produce (as he thought) wheat, though he had not tried it thoroughly; or, rather, he had tried it on a small scale and failed. A few Cayuses came about camp at night. Next morning up early; breakfast over, some fine fresh Cayuse horses were brought up, ready to mount. We proceeded through the valley in several directions; rode all day and returned to camp at night, stopping occasionally to pull up a weed or a bush, to examine the quality of the soil.

At night, if an artist could have been present and taken a picture of the group and the expressions of countenance, it certainly would have been interesting: Spalding, Whitman, Pambrun, and Gray discussing the quality of the soil, the future prospects of a mission, and of thenatives it was contemplated to gather around. No white settlement was then thought of. They unanimously concluded that there was but a limited amount of land susceptible of cultivation, estimated at the place for the station at about ten acres. Along all the streams and at the foot of the Blue Mountains, there might be found little patches of from half an acre to six acres of land suitable to cultivate for the use of the natives. This, to say the least, was not an overestimate of the qualities of the soil that has proved, by twenty-five years’ cultivation without manure, to be richer to-day than soils of a different character with all the manuring they have received. The great objection and most discouraging indication to the party was the unlimited amount of caustic alkali found all over those plains and all through the valley. This fact alone proves the soil inexhaustible. All it requires is sufficient water to wash from the surface the superabundant alkali that forms upon it. Any cereals adapted to alkaline soil may be cultivated to any extent in those valleys.

A stake was set to mark the place. Next day all returned to the fort, and soon the mission tents, horses, goods, and cattle were upon the ground and work commenced. The Indians, what few had not gone for buffalo, came to our camp and rendered all the assistance they were capable of in getting a house up and covered.

In a few days Spalding and Whitman started with the Nez Percés to look at their country, in view of a location among them, leaving Gray alone in charge of the building and goods, while they examined the country up the Clearwater River, and selected a location in a beautiful valley about two miles up the Lapwai Creek, and about twelve miles from Lewiston. Whitman returned to assist in erecting buildings at his station. Spalding started for Vancouver, to bring up the ladies. About the middle of November, Mrs. Whitman’s quarters were ready, and she came to occupy them. Spalding and Gray, with Mrs. Spalding, started for the Lapwai station; arrived about the 1st of December, 1836, and, with the assistance of the Indians, in about twenty days a house was up, and Mrs. Spalding occupied it.

It is due to those Indians to say that they labored freely and faithfully, and showed the best of feelings toward Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, paying good attention to instructions given them, and appeared quite anxious to learn all they could of their teachers. It is also due to truth to state that Mr. Spalding paid them liberally for their services when compared with the amount paid them by the Hudson’s Bay Company for the same service: say, for bringing a pine-log ten feet long and one foot in diameter from the Clearwater River to the station, it usually took about twelve Indians; for this service Mr. Spalding paid themabout six inches of trail-rope tobacco each. This was about four times as much as the Hudson’s Bay Company paid. This fact soon created a little feeling of unfriendliness toward Mr. Spalding. Dr. Whitman managed to get along with less Indian labor, and was able, from his location, to procure stragglers or casual men to work for him for a time, to get supplies and clothing to help them on their way down to the Wallamet settlement.

Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman were located in their little cabins making arrangements to get in their gardens and spring crops, teaching the Indians by example, and on the Sabbath interpreting portions of the Bible to them, and giving them such religious instruction as they were capable of communicating with their imperfect knowledge of their language; Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding teaching the children at their respective stations as much as was possible for them with their domestic duties to perform.

All things going on smoothly at the stations and all over the Indian country, it was thought advisable for Gray to visit Vancouver, procure the requisite spring supplies, and a suitable outfit for himself to explore the country, having in view further missionary locations, and return to the United States and procure assistance for the mission. Gray’s expedition, as contemplated then, would not be considered with present facilities a very light one. He started from Spalding’s station about the 22d of December, 1836. There had been about twenty inches of snow upon the ground, but it was concluded from the fine weather at the station that most of it had melted off. On reaching the forks of Clearwater (Lewiston), he learned from the Indians that the snow was too deep to go by land, sent his horses back to Spalding, got an Indian dug-out, started from Lewiston for Wallawalla with two Indians to pilot and paddle the canoe; reached the Paluce all safe; camped with the Indians; found them all friendly; that night came on bitter cold;—river full of floating ice; Indians concluded not safe to proceed further in canoe; procure horses and start down on the right bank of the river; travel all day; toward night, in passing over a high point, snow-storm came on, lost our trail; struck a cañon, followed it down, found the river and camped in the snow, turned our horses into the tall grass and made the best of a snow-camp for the night. Next day start early; wallow through the snow and drifts and reach an Indian camp near the mouth of Snake River at night; leave horses; next morning get canoe, leave one Paluce Indian; Paluce chief and chief of band at Snake River in canoe; two Indians to paddle; pull down the river into the Columbia in the floating ice, and reach Wallawalla, December 26, 1836; Pambrun pays Indians what he thinks right:Paluce chief, for horses and services, one three-point Hudson’s Bay blanket, one check shirt, one knife, half a brace (three feet) trail-rope tobacco. Gray thought the price paid was very reasonable,—quite little enough for the labor, to say nothing of the risk and suffering from cold on the trip. The river all closed up; Indians did not reach their homes for eight days; no communication in any direction for ten days. About the tenth day Whitman sends orders down for goods to be shipped from Vancouver. About the 10th of January, 1837, Mr. Ermatinger arrived from Colville by boat, having made several portages over ice in reaching Wallawalla. Next day we start down the river; pass through and over several fields of ice; reach Vancouver about the 12th of January. Rev. J. Lee and Mr. Slacum had just left the fort as our party arrived. We have previously given an account of the subjects of special interest, and also of the weddings that occurred about this time at the fort.

The French and American settlers.—Hudson’s Bay Company’s traveling traders.—The Flatheads.—Their manner of traveling.—Marriage.—Their honesty.—Indian fight and scalp dance.—Making peace.—Fight with the Sioux.—At Council Bluffs.

The reader is already acquainted with all of the first missionaries, and with the governing power and policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and of the different parties and organizations as they existed. We will now introduce parties of men as we find them in the Wallamet settlement.

There were at this time about fifty Canadian-Frenchmen in the Wallamet settlement, all of them retired servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company. These men, who had spent the most active part of their lives in the service of the company, had become connected with native women, and nearly all of them had their families of half-native children. This class of servants were found by the experience of the company not as profitable for their purposes as the enlisted men from the Orkney Isles, or even the Sandwich Islanders.

They were induced to allow those that had families of half-native children to retire from the service and settle in the Wallamet. In this manner they expected to hold a controlling influence in the settlement, and secure a population dependent upon them for supplies. It was upon this half-breed population that they relied to rally the Indian warriors of the country to prevent an American settlement. As was plainly stated by one of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Mr. F. Ermatinger, in the fall of 1838, in case any effort should be made to remove them from the country, they had but to arm the eight hundred half-breeds the company had, and, with the Indians they could control, they could hold the country against any American force that could be sent into it. The Hudson’s Bay Company knew very well the power and influence they had secured over the Indians. There was then too small a number of outside Americans to make any effort to remove them, other than to afford them facilities to leave the country. With all the facilities they furnished, and encouragement they gave to go to the Sandwich Islands and to California, there was a gradual increase of the population the company did not wish to see;—sailors from vessels, and hunters from the mountains. These sailors and hunters naturally gathered around theAmerican mission; many of them had, or soon took, native women for wives; the missionaries themselves encouraged them to marry these women. This soon commenced an influence exactly like that held by the Hudson’s Bay Company through their Canadian-French settlement. The moral and religious influence of the English church had not been favorably received at Vancouver.

Gray procures his outfit at Vancouver, in January, 1837, and starts in company with Ermatinger on his return. First night camp at a saw-mill; meet a young man who had crossed the mountains with Captain Wyeth, and had remained as clerk at Fort Hall, under the Hudson’s Bay Company. This young man has never risen very high in the community where he resides. For a time he considered he was an important member of the Hudson’s Bay Company. His self-approbation was superior to the profits he brought to the company, and they found it convenient to drop him from their employ. He attempted a settlement out of the limits prescribed for Americans, and was soon compelled to locate himself under the influence of the Methodist Mission.

There was also in the settlement another young man, who about that time had taken a native wife and wished to locate at the mouth of the Columbia River. This privilege was denied him, unless he could procure some others to go with him. He had joined the Methodist class, and was considered a reliable man; he came to the country with Captain Wyeth, and had opened and taught the first school ever commenced in the country.

Ermatinger and company were detained fourteen days under the lee of a big rock just opposite Cape Horn, waiting for the east wind to subside and allow them to pass up the river. Ermatinger was a traveling trader of the Hudson’s Bay Company. That year he was with the Flathead tribe. Gray continued with him, having his own tent and traveling equipage. The route traveled was nearly that since explored and located as Mullan’s military road. We struck the Cœur d’Alêne Lake and took boats, passed through the lake and up the Flathead River, making two portages with our boats and goods before we reached Flathead House, as it was called, a common log hut, covered with poles and dirt, about 16 by 20. At this point our horses came up. Their packs and equipage were all put on board the boats, while the horses came light through the woods and along the rough river trail. At the place where we found our boats, we found a number of friendly Indians, also at the head of the lake, and a few at the Flathead House or hut. Here we found an old Frenchman in charge, with a small supply of goods, and about two packs of beaver which he had collected during the winter.

We were joined by a part of the Flathead tribe. In a few days all were ready. The tribe and trader started over the mountains on to the waters of the Missouri, to hunt the buffalo and fight the Blackfeet. Our route was along the main branch of Clark’s fork of the Columbia, till we reached the Culas Patlum (Bitter Root). A halt was made to allow the natives to dig and prepare the root for the season. The root is quite nutritious, answering the Indian in place of bread; it is somewhat bitter in taste, and to a person not accustomed to its use, is not a very agreeable diet. This root secured for the season, the camp continued over the dividing ridge into the Big Hole, or Jefferson fork of the Missouri. In this place we were joined by the balance of the buffalo Indians. All parties, persons, and property were carried upon horses. The camps usually traveled from ten to fifteen miles per day. It is due to this tribe to say that truth, honesty, and virtue were cardinal principles in all their transactions. An article of property found during the day was carried to an old chief’s lodge; if it were so light that he could hold it in his hand and walk through the camp, he would pass around and inquire whose it was. Sometimes several articles would be lost and picked up; in such cases the old chief would go through the camp on horseback and deliver them to the owner.

Their system of courtship and marriage was equally interesting. A youth wishing to marry a young miss was required to present a horse at the lodge of his intended, ready for her to mount as the camp should move. In case all were suited, her ladyship would mount the horse and ride it during the day; at night a feast was had at the lodge of the bride, the old chief announced the ceremony complete, and the parties proceeded to their own home or lodge. In case the suit was rejected the horse was not suitable; he was left for the owner to receive at his pleasure; the maid mounted her own horse and proceeded about her business.

In case of any visitors from other tribes, which they frequently had in going to buffalo, they would caution a stranger, and inform him of the propensity to steal which they had learned was the habit of the Indian visitor. This tribe claim to have never shed the blood of a white man. I believe it is the only tribe on the continent truly entitled to that honor; yet they are far more brave as a tribe than any other Indians. They never fear a foe, no matter how numerous.

Our sketches perhaps would not lose in interest by giving a short account of a fight which our Flathead Indians had at this place with a war party of the Blackfeet. It occurred near the present location of Helena, in Montana. As was the custom with the Flathead Indians in traveling in the buffalo country, their hunters and warriors were inadvance of the main camp. A party of twenty-five Blackfeet warriors was discovered by some twelve of our Flatheads. To see each other was to fight, especially parties prowling about in this manner, and at it they went. The first fire of the Flatheads brought five of the Blackfeet to the ground and wounded some five more. This was more than they expected, and the Blackfeet made but little effort to recover their dead, which were duly scalped, and the bodies left for food for the wolves, and the scalps borne in triumph into the camp. There were but two of the Flatheads wounded: one had a flesh-wound in the thigh, and the other had his right arm broken by a Blackfoot ball.

The victory was complete, and the rejoicing in camp corresponded to the number of scalps taken. Five days and nights the usual scalp-dance was performed. At the appointed time the big war-drum was sounded, when the warriors and braves made their appearance at the appointed place in the open air, painted as warriors. Those who had taken the scalps from the heads of their enemies bore them in their hands upon the ramrods of their guns.

They entered the circle, and the war-song, drums, rattles, and noises all commenced. The scalp-bearers stood for a moment (as if to catch the time), and then commenced hopping, jumping, and yelling in concert with the music. This continued for a time, when some old painted women took the scalps and continued the dance. The performance was gone through with as many nights as there were scalps taken.

Seven days after the scalps were taken, a messenger arrived bearing a white flag, and a proposition to make peace for the purposes of trade. After the preliminaries had all been completed, in which the Hudson’s Bay Company trader had the principal part to perform, the time was fixed for the meeting of the two tribes. The Flatheads, however, were all careful to dig their war-pits, make their corrals and breastworks, and, in short, fortify their camp as much as if they expected a fight instead of peace. Ermatinger, the company’s trader, remarked that he would sooner take his chances for a fight off-hand than endure the anxiety and suspense of the two days we waited for the Blackfeet to arrive. Our scouts and warriors were all ready, and all on the watch for peace or war, the latter of which, from the recent fight they had had, was expected most. At length the Blackfeet arrived, bearing a red flag with H. B. C. in white letters upon it, and advancing to within a short distance of the camp, were met by Ermatinger and a few Flathead chiefs, shook hands, and were conducted to the trader’s lodge,—the largest one in the camp,—and the principal chiefs of both tribes, seated upon buffalo and bear skins, all went through with the ceremony of smoking a big pipe, having a long handle or stem trimmed withhorse-hair and porcupine quills. The pipe was filled with the trader’s tobacco and the Indians’ killikinick. The war-chiefs of each tribe took a puff each of the pipe, passed it to his right-hand man, and so around till all the circle had smoked of the big medicine pipe, or pipe of peace, which on this occasion was made by the Indians from a soft stone which they find in abundance in their country, having no extra ornamental work upon it. The principal chief in command, or great medicine man, went through the ceremony, puffed four times, blowing his smoke in four directions. This was considered a sign of peace to all around him, which doubtless included all he knew any thing about. The Blackfeet, as a tribe, are a tall, well-formed, slim-built, and active people. They travel principally on foot, and are considered very treacherous.

The peace made with so much formality was broken two days afterward by killing two of the Flatheads when caught not far from the main camp.

It was from this Flathead tribe that the first Indian delegation was sent to ask for teachers. Three of their number volunteered to go with Gray to the States in 1837 to urge their claims for teachers to come among them. The party reached Ash Hollow, where they were attacked by about three hundred Sioux warriors, and, after fighting for three hours, killed some fifteen of them, when the Sioux, by means of a French trader then among them, obtained a parley with Gray and his traveling companions,—two young men that had started to go to the States with him. While the Frenchman was in conversation with Gray, the treacherous Sioux made a rush upon the three Flatheads, one Snake, and one Iroquois Indian belonging to the party, and killed them. The Frenchman then turned to Gray and told him and his companions they were prisoners, and must go to the Sioux camp, first attempting to get possession of their guns. Gray informed them at once: “You have killed our Indians in a cowardly manner, and you shall not have our guns,” at the same time telling the young men to watch the first motion of the Indians to take their lives, and if we must die, to take as many Indians with us as we could. The Sioux had found in the contest thus far, that, notwithstanding they had conquered and killed five, they had lost fifteen, among them one of their war-chiefs, besides several severely wounded. The party were not further molested till they reached the camp, containing between one and two hundred lodges. A full explanation was had of the whole affair. Gray had two horses killed under him and two balls passed through his hat, both inflicting slight wounds. The party were feasted, and smoked the pipe of peace over the dead body of the chief’s son; next day they were allowed to proceed with nine of their horses; the balance, withthe property of the Indians, the Sioux claimed as part pay for their losses, doubtless calculating to waylay and take the balance of the horses. Be that as it may, Gray and his young men reached Council Bluffs in twenty-one days, traveling nights and during storms to avoid the Indians on the plains.

At Council Bluffs they found an Indian trader speaking the French language, meaner than the Sioux Indian, by the name of Papeon. The party had been twenty-one days on rations that ordinarily would have been consumed in four days; they had killed and eaten parts of two of the nine worn-out horses; they had with them six. The party entered the trading establishment and requested some food and the privilege of washing, not as beggars, but expecting to pay for what they required. They waited an hour or more; no food was forthcoming; Gray went to Papeon, the trader, and inquired the reason they could get no food. The old French imp inquired, in his broken French, “Have you got any ting to pa for de tings you vant?” He was asked if gold would pay him, or a draft on his company. “Oh, yes,” he said, and in a short time food and what was required was produced.

This is only a specimen of most Indian traders of the Catholic stamp. There are honorable exceptions.

Re-enforcement to the Methodist Mission.—Re-enforcement to the mission of the American Board.

We will leave Gray and party on their way down the Missouri River, and return to Oregon to introduce to the reader a re-enforcement to the Methodist Mission, consisting of Dr. Elijah White, a man that few who have dealt with can speak well of, utterly destitute of all morality and genuine piety, assuming the garb of religion to cover his baseness of heart and meanness of life. He arrived at the Columbia River in May, 1837. He entered upon his professional duties, and in a few months boasted of the liberties he had taken with most of the ladies of the mission who were so unfortunate as to receive his medical attention. It was easy to see the influence of such a man. His words were smooth and brotherly, his acts were poison and infamy. He never had a friend but he betrayed or swindled him in some deal. He would tell a lie when the truth would answer his purposes better. This man for a time had considerable influence; his calling as a physician was necessary and indispensable to the mission. Rev. Jason Lee soon found out the character of this wolf in sheep’s clothing, and presented charges against him for his immorality, and expelled him from the mission. Previous to leaving the country, he called a public meeting and made his statements, and attempted to mob Mr. Jason Lee and get the settlers to give him a character, in both of which he failed, and left the country to impose upon the government at Washington, as he had done upon the mission and the early settlers of Oregon. We will leave Dr. White for the present, and give him all the credit due to his bad deeds and exhibitions of folly in his capacity as sub-Indian agent.

Mr. Alanson Beers, a blacksmith by trade, was a good honest man, a devoted Christian, a man whose moral worth was above price. True as steel, and honest as he was faithful, he was slow to believe others to be less true than himself. He was a pattern of honesty and piety, as well as industry and economy; the opposite of White in every respect, as was his wife when compared to Mrs. White. Though Mrs. Beers never claimed or aspired to shine or display more than she really was, yet her goodness of heart was manifested in her kind and generoustreatment of all. If this man and his wife did not leave a handsome competency for their children it was no fault of theirs. Others may have felt it their duty to appropriate the orphan’s portion and receive the miser’s paradise. Mr. Beers came to the country full-handed, with a handsome competency to commence any business he might choose, independent of missionary patronage. He was more faithful in his department than most of his brethren.

He was considered by the early settlers an honest and sincere man; by the ruling spirits of the Methodist Mission, a faithful servant of their cause.

With this company came W. H. Wilson, an assistant missionary, of whose early life we have but little knowledge. From his own statements we learn that he had been connected with a whale ship as cooper. On arriving in Oregon as an assistant missionary, he was licensed as a preacher, and commenced the study of medicine with Dr. White, and, in later years, received the title of doctor instead of reverend. The doctor was a cheerful, whole-souled, good-sort of a fellow, with a greater abundance of interesting and funny yarns than profound medical skill, which always made him agreeable, and served to gain friends and popularity in a community that, as a general thing, would prefer a tincture of humbuggery.

The Misses Ann Maria Pitman, Susan Downing, and Elvira Johnson were also of this party. The first became the wife of Rev. Jason Lee, the second of Cyrus Shepard, the third of Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, who came to the country with the second re-enforcement to the mission, consisting of Rev. David Leslie, wife, and three daughters; H. K. W. Perkins; and Miss Margaret Smith, who afterward became the wife of an Englishman called Dr. Bailey. This gave to the Methodist Mission, on the 21st of November, 1837, Rev. Jason Lee (superintendent of the mission) and wife, Mr. C. Shepard and wife, Rev. Daniel Lee, Mr. P. L. Edwards, Rev. David Leslie and wife, Dr. Elijah White and wife, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and wife, Mr. A. Beers and wife, Mr. W. H. Wilson, and Miss Margaret Smith,—nine men and seven women,—with three daughters of Rev. D. Leslie. From causes already mentioned, the moral strength of these early missionaries was neutralized. The larger portion of them had no knowledge of the influences that were sapping the foundation of their Christian effort, and tending to destroy the confidence of such as were considered ungodly outsiders. Instead of meeting sin, and vice, and lust which could not be hid, and condemning and banishing it, the attempt was made to excuse and cover up a fault in a professed brother, and reprove others for less faults,—the mote and the beam. The legitimate result followed,—though slow, yet certain.Here was a noble field, had all the men sent to occupy it been of the right stamp! Still they toiled on, or rather continued to occupy a place in the country, to form a nucleus for a settlement. In this position they are entitled to much credit. The roving sailor and the wild mountain hunter looked to this wilderness for a home. The shrewdness of these men soon detected the assailable points in the mission’s character, and adapted themselves to circumstances, and found it easy to profess compliance and receive the benefits of the association. There were few or none among this early set of missionaries that displayed much knowledge of human nature. They were totally ignorant of savage life, manners, and customs; hence were easily made the dupes of all.

In the winter of 1837-8, Gray is in the States giving an account of his trip across the Rocky Mountains in company with Messrs. Spalding and Whitman, and of his explorations of the country; the present and future prospects of the missionary efforts; the influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company and of the missions; the fact that a wagon had been taken by Dr. Whitman and his party to Fort Boise, and that it could be taken to the Wallamet settlement. Said one man in the audience at Utica, New York: “How do you get through the timber on the route?” “My dear sir, the traveler is compelled to use the buffalo chips to cook his food for a large part of the route, for want of wood; there is not twenty-five miles of timber on the route from the Missouri to the Columbia.” Of course a description of the vast plains and mountains had to be given, and the manner of travel and subsistence.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent with Gray and wife, Rev. E. Walker and wife, C. Eells and wife, and A. B. Smith and wife, to re-enforce their mission. There was with this company a young man from Cincinnati, Ohio,—Cornelius Rogers,—active and useful in every department, respected and beloved by all who knew him. After remaining with the mission a few years, he received an appointment from the Board, but he had made up his mind to become a settler in the Wallamet, and made his arrangements accordingly. Captain Sutter came with this party to Wallawalla.

They reached Whitman’s station the first of September, 1838, bringing with them to Fort Hall some fourteen cows. A majority of the party were made to believe that these could be replaced at Fort Colville with a better stock of cows, and thus be saved the trouble of driving them further, and accordingly made an even exchange of the choicest and best stock that could be found in Missouri for such California stock as the Hudson’s Bay Company might have at Colville. This was considered by thegreenhornsthat made the bargain a good trade, till they cameto receive the wild, furious, untamable California stock at Fort Colville, that required a Spaniard with his lasso to catch and hold, to get the milk for family use.

Rev. E. Walker was a tall, rather spare, stoop-shouldered, black-haired, brown-eyed, rather light-complexioned man, diffident and unassuming, always afraid to sayamenat the end of his prayers, and requiring considerable effort to speak with confidence or decision upon any subject. This might arise from habit, or want of decision of character, or fear of offending. He had no positive traits of mind, yet he was studious, and kind as a friend and neighbor; faithful as a Christian, inefficient as a preacher. His efforts among the Indians were of the negative cast. The Indians respected him for his kindness, and feared him for his commanding appearance. Not at all adapted to fill the position he undertook,—as an Indian missionary in Oregon,—yet, as a citizen and settler, one of the best.

Rev. C. Eells, a short, slim, brown-haired, light-brown eyed, fair-complexioned man, with a superabundance of self-esteem, great pretensions to precision and accurateness of statement and strictness of conduct; very precise in all his actions, and about all his labors and property; with no soul to laud and admire nature, no ambition to lift his thoughts beyond the sphere of his own ideas of right, he was made to move in a small circle; his soul would be lost outside of it. There were but two instances on the trip from Boston to Oregon in which he ventured outside of himself. The first was at Soda Springs. The day the party arrived, notwithstanding they had made a long day’s drive to reach that camp, the four ladies—Walker, Eells, Smith, and Gray—wished to go round and see the springs and drink of the water, and look at the Steamboat Spring, a place where water and gas issue at intervals of about a minute, like the blowing of steam. These places the ladies, tired as they were, must look at and admire. Rev. Mr. Eells puts up his saddles, buckles, and tents, and takes his Testament and reads his chapter, as usual, and after prayers retires to rest. Next morning all were up and admiring the grand display of nature around, drinking of the water, and enjoying its exhilarating influence. Camp all ready, on they move. Nothing would satisfy the ladies but another look at the Steamboat. All mounted their horses and rode down to it. Eells mounts his horse as usual, and comes along down where all stood watching and admiring the phenomenon, dismounts from his horse, and in utter astonishment exclaims: “Well, this is really worth coming to see!” The other instance in which he lost himself was in admiring the grandeur of the great fall on Snake River. He had no poetry or romance in his soul, yet by dint of perseverance he was a good artificial singer. Helacked all the qualities requisite for a successful Indian missionary and a preacher of the gospel in a new country. As citizens and neighbors, Mr. Eells and his family were highly respected; as a teacher he was unreasonably strict.

Rev. A. B. Smith, a man whose prejudices were so strong that he could not be reasonable with himself. He attempted to make himself useful as a missionary, but failed for want of Christian forbearance and confidence in his associates. As to literary ability, he was superior to his associates, and probably excited their jealousy; so much so, that his connection in the mission became unpleasant, and he found an excuse to leave the country in 1841; not, however, till he and Mr. Rogers had, with the assistance of the Lawyer, completed a vocabulary and a grammar of the Nez Percé language, which was the cause of Ellis’s jealousy of the Lawyer and Mr. Smith, and also of an extra effort through the Jesuits and the company to get rid of him.

Arrival of Jesuit missionaries.—Toupin’s statement about Rev. A. B. Smith.—Death of Mrs. Jason Lee.—First express.—Jesuits at work.—The first printing-press.—The Catholic tree.

A short time after the arrival of the re-enforcement to the mission of the American Board, Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Rev. Demerse arrived at Wallawalla by the annual overland boats of the Hudson’s Bay Company. While at Wallawalla, they induced a Cayuse, Young Chief, to have one of his children baptized, Mr. Pambrun being sponsor, or godfather. This was the first Indian child ever baptized in the country. It caused considerable excitement among the Indians, as also a discussion as to who was teaching the true religion. The interpreters of Wallawalla being of the Catholic faith, made free to inform the Indians that theirs was the true religion. The Indians soon came to the station of Dr. Whitman and informed him of what had been done, and that they had been told by the priest that his was the true religion; that what he and Mr. Spalding had been teaching them for two years past was all false, and that it was not right for the Indians to listen to the Doctor and Mr. Spalding. The instructions given, and the baptizing of the Indian child, were, unquestionably, designed to create a diversion in the minds of the Indians, and ultimately bring about the abandonment or destruction of the mission. I have never been able to learn, from any source, that any other Indian child was baptized by these priests on that trip from Canada to Vancouver. In fact, I see from their published works that they claim this as their first station or place of instruction.

The Rev. Mr. Blanchet was a black-haired, brown-eyed, smooth-faced, medium-sized Frenchman.

The Rev. Mr. Demerse had dark-brown hair, full, round eye, fair complexion, rather full habit, something of the bull-neck, inclining to corpulency. He was fond of good cheer and good living; of the Jesuit order of the Roman church; he seemed to have no scruples of conscience; so long as he could secure subjects for “mother church,” it mattered not as to intelligence or character.

During the year 1838, three clergymen arrived across the Rocky Mountains: Revs. Walker, Eells, and Smith, with their wives, andMr. Cornelius Rogers, Mr. Gray, with his wife, had also returned. These new arrivals gave an addition of nine to the mission of the American Board, making their number thirteen in all. The Methodist Mission had sixteen, and the Roman Catholic, two. The total number of missionaries in the country, in December, 1838, was thirty-one, twenty-nine of the Protestant religion from the United States, and two of the Roman Jesuitical order. The latter were located at Vancouver as their head-quarters. The Methodists were in the Wallamet Valley, with one out-station at the Dalles, Wascopum. The American Board had three stations, one at Wailatpu, one at Lapwai, and one at Cimakain, near Spokan.

This array of missionary strength looked like a strong effort on the part of the Christian world to convert the tribes upon our western coast. Had all the men been chosen with proper care, and all acted with a single eye to the cause which they professed to espouse, each in his distinct department; had they closed their ears to the suggestions of hypocritical fur traders, and met their vices with a spotless life and an earnest determination to maintain their integrity as representatives of religion and a Christian people, the fruits of their labor would, undoubtedly, have been far greater. As the matter now stands, they can claim the influence they reluctantly yielded to the provisional government of the early settlers of the country.

It will be seen at once that the Hudson’s Bay Company was acting a double part with all the American missionary efforts in the country. On the arrival of Rev. J. Lee and party they sent for Mr. Beaver, an Episcopal clergyman. On the arrival of Dr. Whitman and party they sent for Blanchet and Demerse, and established their head-quarters at Vancouver. Blanchet took charge of the field occupied by the Methodists, and Demerse of that occupied by the American Board. A combination of Hudson’s Bay Company Indian traders Roman priests, Protestant missionaries, and American settlers, each having a distinct object in view. Unfortunately for the American missionaries and settlers, there was no one bold enough to attempt to act against these combinations. Cornelius Rogers and Robert Shortess were the first to show signs of rebellion against the policy of the Hudson’s Bay Company; Spalding, Whitman, and Smith chafed under the Jesuits’ proceedings in the interior.

“About the year 1839, in the fall, Mr. Smith, belonging to the same society as Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, asked permission of Ellis to build upon his lands for the purpose of teaching the Indians as the other missionaries were doing, and of keeping a school. Ellis allowed him to build; but forbade him to cultivate the land, and warned himthat if he did the piece of ground which he would till should serve to bury him in. In the following spring, however, Mr. Smith prepared his plow to till the ground; and Ellis, seeing him ready to begin, went to him and said to him: ‘Do you not recollect what I told you? I do not wish you to cultivate the land.’ Mr. Smith, however, persisted in his determination; but, as he was beginning to plow, the Indians took hold of him and said to him: ‘Do you not know what has been told you, that you would be digging a hole in which you should be buried?’ Mr. Smith then did not persist any longer, but said to them: ‘Let me go, I will leave the place;’ and he started off immediately. This circumstance had been related to me by the Indians, and soon after I saw Mr. Smith myself at Fort Wallawalla; he was on his way down to Fort Vancouver, where he embarked for the Sandwich Islands, whence he did not come back any more.” This is the statement of old John Toupin, Pambrun’s Roman Catholic interpreter, by Brouillet.

It will be borne in mind that Rev. Jason Lee started with P. L. Edwards and F. Y. Euing, across the Rocky Mountains, for the United States, in May, 1838. He met Gray, and party, at the American rendezvous that year, on the north fork of the Yellowstone River. Gray and party, on arriving at Fort Hall, received the news of the death of Mrs. Jason Lee, sent by Spalding and Whitman, and not by Dr. McLaughlin, as stated by Rev. G. Hines. Dr. McLaughlin may have allowed a messenger to go as far as Whitman’s station, but made no arrangements for going any further. Spalding’s Indian messenger delivered the packages to Gray, at Fort Hall. Gray employed Richardson a young man he had engaged as guide and hunter for the party, on starting from Westport, Missouri, to take these letters, and deliver them to Lee, for which he was to receive $150.

This express was carried from the Wallamet Valley to Westport, Missouri, insixty days, forming the first data for the overland express and mail routes. The sixty days included two days’ detention at Wailatpu, and two at Fort Hall. It seems that Richardson, the messenger from Fort Hall, met Lee, and delivered his packages to him at the Shawnee mission, and received from Lee the price agreed upon. I am thus particular in these little facts, that those who claim so much credit for Hudson’s Bay Company patronage may understand what influences were in those early times bringing about results for which a combination of British fur traders now claim pay, and are awarded $650,000, in gold coin.

I have said that in December, 1838, there were twenty-nine persons connected with the Protestant missions in the country. This is not strictly true, Rev. Jason Lee and Mr. P. L. Edwards had gone to theStates; Mr. C. Shepard and Mrs. J. Lee had gone to their reward. The devil had entered the field with his emissaries, and was exceedingly busy sowing tares among the wheat, through fear that the natives would be benefited, and the country become civilized. The Hudson’s Bay Company and its servants, Indians and all, are about to become converted to Christianity. Strange as this statement may appear, it is literally true. The clerks, traders, and servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company becamecatechists, to teach the Indians to repeat the catechism presented to them by their Reverences Blanchet and Demerse. Dr. McLaughlin and Esquire Douglas were both zealous supporters of the Christian reformation in progress in the country. During the year 1839, “Rev. Mr. Demerse (Jesuit priest) spent three weeks at Wallawalla,in teaching the Indians and baptizing their children,” employing Mr. P. C. Pambrun as his catechist, and godfather to the native children. (See page 87 of Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet’s “Protestantism in Oregon.”) While the Protestant missions were struggling to improve the condition of the Indians, to teach them to cultivate their lands and become permanent settlers in their own country, and to give the Indian children a knowledge of books, the Hudson’s Bay Company and Jesuit priests were equally busy in attempting to persuade them that the instructions given by these American orBoston missionarieswere only to cover up a secret design they had to take their lands and property from them, and eventually to occupy the country themselves. To a certain extent Dr. Whitman’s statement to them would confirm this idea. As soon as those priests arrived and commenced their instructions, under the patronage of the Hudson’s Bay Company (for it will be remembered that their head-quarters were at Vancouver), their entire transportation was provided or furnished by the company. Doubtless it is to the assistance rendered these Roman missions to occupy the country, that the counsel for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Mr. Charles D. Day, alludes, in speaking of the “substantial benefits to the people and government of the United States.” Dr. Whitman repeatedly told the Indians about his station that he did not come among them to buy their land, but he came to teach them how to cultivate and live from what they produced from their own lands, and at some future time, if the American government wished any of their country, then the President would send men to buy and pay them for it. The difficulty about land had no existence in the minds or thoughts of the Indians till the fall of 1839, and after the renewal of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s license for twenty-one years. From that time forward a marked change was manifest in the feelings of most of the gentlemen of the company.

The first printing-press in Oregon was received as a donation from the mission of the American Board of Foreign Missions in the Sandwich Islands, to the mission of the Board in Oregon. It reached its destination at Lapwai, and was put in operation by Mr. E. O. Hall, of the Sandwich Islands Mission, and commenced printing books in the Nez Percé language. Both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Spalding soon learned to set type, and print the small books required for the Indian schools that had been kept at the stations. The books and instructions were furnished gratuitously to all the Indians that wished to receive them. This caused special efforts on the part of the priests to counteract the influence of the books printed by Spalding. To illustrate their ideas, and show the evil of heretical books and teachings, they had a representation of a large tree, with a cross on top, representing all religious sects as going up the tree, and out upon the different branches, and falling from the end of the branch into a fire under the tree, with a priest by the side of the fire throwing the heretical books into it. This was an interesting picture, and caused much discussion and violent denunciations among the Indians. Mr. Spalding, to counteract the influences of the Roman Catholic tree among the Indians, had Mrs. Spalding paint a number of sheets of cap-paper, commencing with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, representing the shrubbery, and all kinds of fruits, and the serpent, and the angel (after the fall) as guarding the garden; giving the pictures of most of the prominent patriarchs; Noah and the ark, and the prophets, down to Christ and the twelve apostles; showing the crucifixion of Christ by the Roman soldiers, and on down to the time when they adopted the cross as a form of worship, and the priests as kneeling to images. Spalding’s pictures were in such form, and contained so much Bible history and information, that his Indian preachers, to whom he gave them, could attract larger crowds of Indians, to listen to the instructions given by Spalding, than those who had the Catholic tree. This exasperated, or stirred up, as the Indians expressed it, all their bad feelings toward each other, and caused quarrels between those that were friends before,—a repetition of sectarian quarrels in all ages, and among every people not understanding the true principles of a genuine Christianity.

The main object of the priests was to destroy all interest in books, and thereby check the growing influence of the American missionaries in the country, substituting pictures and beads in place of knowledge.

Independent missionaries arrive.—Their troubles.—Conversion of Indiana at the Dalles.—Their motives.—Emigrants of 1839.—Blubber-Mouth Smith.—Re-enforcement of the Methodist Mission in 1840.—Father De Smet.—Rev. Harvey Clark and associates.—Ewing Young.—Names of missionaries and settlers.

In the fall of 1839, the Rev. J. S. Griffin and wife arrived at Dr. Whitman’s station. Mr. Griffin had undertaken an independent mission, in company with a Mr. Munger and wife. They had received an outfit from some warm-hearted Christians of the Litchfield North Association, of Connecticut. Mr. Griffin reached St. Louis a single man, fell in love and married on sight, I do not know whether it was first or second. At all events, Rev. Mr. Griffin and Mr. Munger and their wives consented to travel together till they reached Fort Hall, at which place Mr. Griffin, being the getter-up of the mission and claiming ecclesiastical jurisdiction, took it upon himself to leave Mr. Munger and his wife at Fort Hall, to take care of themselves as best they could. Frank Ermatinger, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, at once furnished Mr. Munger and his wife the means of transportation, and brought them to Dr. Whitman’s station, where he knew Mr. Munger could find a place for himself and wife. This transaction of Mr. Griffin injured his usefulness as a minister, and left him in the country but little inspected by any who knew of his conduct to a fellow-traveler and an intelligent Christian woman. The fact that Mr. Munger afterward became deranged, or even that he was partially deranged at Fort Hall, or before they reached that place, is no excuse for his treating a man in that condition and his wife as he did. Mr. Griffin claims that Mr. Ermatinger stole three of his horses, or had them hid, when at Fort Hall, to get Mr. Munger and wife to travel with him, and, by so doing, give the impression that he had abandoned them. From a careful review of Mr. Griffin’s lengthy defense in this case, we can not conceive that any further change or correction is required, as the facts stated are by him admitted. From Mr. Griffin’s statement we are satisfied that improper and undue influences were used to break up and defeat his Indian missionary plans and settlement by Mr. Ermatinger and the Hudson’s Bay Company, and also to destroy his clerical influence in the country. Unfortunately, Mr. Griffin gave too much cause for his enemies to do as they did.

In the winter of 1850, Mr. Griffin made an attempt to pass the Salmon River Mountains to Payette River, to establish a mission among the Snake Indians in which he failed and found his way into the Wallamet as a settler, where he still remains.

There were with Mr. Griffin’s party some four men, one by the name of Ben Wright, who hail been a Methodist preacher in the States, but whose religion failed him on his way over the mountains. He reached the Dalles, where he renewed his religion under Rev. Mr. Perkins and D. Lee.

While at the Dalles, the three clergymen succeeded in converting, as they supposed, a large number of the Indians. While this Indian revival was in progress the writer had occasion to visit Vancouver. On his way, he called on the missionaries at the Dalles, and, in speaking of the revival among the Indians, we remarked that, in our opinion, most of the religious professions of the natives were fromselfish motives. Mr. Perkins thought not; he named one Indian that, he felt certain, was really converted, if there was a true conversion. In a short time Daniel Lee, his associate, came in, and remarked: “What kind of a proposition do you think —— (naming Mr. Perkins’ truly converted Indian) has made to me?” Perkins replied: “Perhaps he will perform the work we wished him to do.” “No,” says Lee.; “he says hewill pray a whole year if I give him a shirt and a capote.” This fact shows that the natives who were supposed to be converted to Christianity were making these professions to gain presents from the missionaries. We have witnessed similar professions among the Nez Percé and Cayuse Indians. The giving of a few presents of any description to them induces them to make professions corresponding to the wish of the donor.

With Messrs. Griffin, Munger, and Wright, came Messrs. Lawson, Keiser, and Geiger, late in the fall of 1839; also a man by the name of Farnam, who seemed to be an explorer or tourist. I met him at Vancouver, where he was receiving the hospitality of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and collecting material for a journal, or history of Oregon. It is said of him that, on starting from the States, he succeeded in getting himself appointed captain of a company consisting of some fourteen men. He soon attempted to exercise absolute control of the company, which caused a division. The party voted to suspend his official functions, and finally suspended him and expelled him from the train. On returning to the States he published a book, which, as was to be expected, was favorable to himself and friends (if he had any), and severe on his opposers or enemies. The professed object of the party was to form a settlement in Oregon. In consequence of the coursepursued by Farnam, it all broke up. A man called Blubber-Mouth Smith, Blair, a millwright, and Robert Shortess were of the party. These all found their way into Oregon, while the balance of the party went south and wintered in the mountains. Mr. Farnam was furnished a free passage to the Sandwich Islands by the Hudson’s Bay Company, for which his traveling companions and those best acquainted with him have given the company credit, as one good act.

Sydney Smith—called “Blubber-Mouth,” from the fact that he was a great talker and fond of tellingbig yarns, which he, no doubt, had repeated so often that he believed them to be true, and would appear somewhat offended if his statements were not believed by others—had a tolerably fair education, and appeared to understand the lottery business, as conducted in some of the States. He was a man who had read considerable in his early days, and had he been less boisterous and persistent in statements that appeared improbable to others, would have been far more reliable and useful. As it was, in those early times, his knowledge and free-speaking became quite useful, when combined with the hearty action he gave to the objects in contemplation. He was ambitious and extremely selfish, and, when opposed in his plans, quite unreasonable.

Robert Shortess possessed a combination of qualities such as should have formed one of the best and noblest of men; with a good memory, extensive reading, inflexible purpose, strong hate, affectionate and kind, skeptical and religious, honest and liberal to a fault, above medium height, light-brown hair, blue eyes, and thin and spare features. His whole life is a mystery, his combinations a riddle. He early entered with heart and soul into the situation and condition of the settlements, and stood for their rights in opposition to all the combined influences in the country. As a politician he acts on the principle of right, without any regard to expediency. As a religious man he has no faith; as a skeptic he is severe on all alike. The country owes much to him for his labor and influence in combating slavery and shaping the organic policy of the settlements.

At the close of 1839, there were ten Protestant ministers and two Roman priests, two physicians, six laymen, and thirteen American women in the country—twenty-nine in all—connected with the Protestant missions, or under their immediate control, and twenty settlers, besides about ten men that were under the control of the Hudson’s Bay Company, yet having strong American feelings. There were also ten American children, five of them born in the country. Mrs. Whitman gave birth to the first white child, a daughter, born on this coast, who was drowned in the Wallawalla River at about two years of age;Mrs. Spalding the second, a daughter, still living; Mrs. Elkanah Walker the first boy, and Mrs. W. H. Gray, the second. These boys are both making good names for themselves. It is to be hoped that every act and effort of their lives will be alike honorable to their parents, themselves, and their native country. As to the first daughter of Oregon, I regret to say, she disobeyed the wish of her parents and friends, and married a man whose early education was neglected, but who has natural ability and energy to rise above his present position, obtain an education, and become an ornament to his adopted country, and an honor to Oregon’s eldest daughter.

On the first of June of this year, theLausanne, Captain Spalding, arrived in the Columbia River with a re-enforcement for the Methodist Mission of eight clergymen, five laymen, and one physician, all with wives, five single ladies, and fifteen children, belonging to the different families, with a full supply of goods, such as were needed and appropriate for the settlement, the various missions, and for Indian trade. September following, Rev. Harvey Clark and wife, A. T. Smith and wife, and P. B. Littlejohn and wife, arrived across the Rocky Mountains. With this company came eleven mountain men, eight of them with native wives. We now had twenty-one Protestant ministers, three Roman priests, fifteen lay members of the Protestant Church, thirty-four white women, thirty-five American settlers, and thirty-two white children—one hundred and eight persons immediately under control of the missions. Thirty-six settlers, twenty-five of them with native wives. These thirty-six settlers are counted as outside the missions and Hudson’s Bay Company. There were about fifty Canadian-French under the control of the company.

Thus we can begin to see the development of the three influences or parties. The Hudson’s Bay Company had in their religious element three Romish priests, assisted actively by all the Canadian-French Catholics and such clerks as Pambrun, Guinea, Grant, and McBean, with such interpreters as old Toupin, of whom Mr. Parker, in his journal, says: “The interpreter I had been expecting did not arrive, and consequently much of what I wished to say to these hundreds of Indians could not be communicated for want of a medium.” On the preceding page, Mr. Parker remarks: “But as I have little prospect of the arrival of my interpreter, I shall probably be left to commiserate their anxiety, while it will be out of my power to do them good.”

Old John Toupin, under the sanctity of a Roman Catholic oath, says, at St. Louis, of Wallamet, on September 24, 1848; “I have been seventeen years employed as interpreter at Fort Wallawalla. I was there when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came to select places for Presbyterian missions among the Cayuses and Nez Percés, and to ask lands for those missions. He employedme as interpreterin his negotiations with the Indians on that occasion.” Mr. Parker has just said “the interpreter I had been expecting did not arrive.” Toupin says: “Mr. Pambrun, the gentleman then in charge of the fort, accompanied me to the Cayuses and Nez Percés. Mr. Parker, in company with Mr. Pambrun, an American, and myself, went first to the Cayuses, upon the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to three chiefs,—Splitted Lip, or Yomtip; Red Cloak, or Waptachtakamal; and Feather Cap, or Tilokaikt.” Having met them at that place, he told them that he was coming to select a place to build a preaching-house, to teach them how to live, and to teach school to their children, and that he would not come himself to establish the mission, but adoctor, or medicine man, would come in his place; that the doctor would be the chief of the mission, and would come in the following spring. “I came to select a place for a mission,” said he, “but I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the doctor is come, there will come every year abig ship loaded with goodsto be divided among the Indians. These goods will not besold, butgivento you. The mission will bring you plows and hoes to learn you how to cultivate the land, and they will not sell, but give them to you.” From the Cayuses Mr. Parker went to the Nez Percés, and there he made the same promises to the Indians as at Wailatpu. “Next spring there will come a missionary to establish himself here and take a piece of land;but he will not take it for nothing, you shall be paid every year; this is the American fashion.” This statement is made by authority of Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet; vicar-general of Wallawalla.

Rev. Mr. Parker, as before remarked, and as his journal shows, soon understood all the maneuverings of this Hudson’s Bay Company. He had no confidence in their friendship or their interpreters. As a matter of policy they could do no less than treat him kindly, or, more properly,civilly, and allow him to leave the country, as he did. But mark the strictness and care of the company to impress the necessity of compliance with their arrangements upon the minds of those that followed Mr. Parker. Keep themassacreto which Vicar-General Brouillet refers before your mind.Life and blood and treasure have been expended.The fair land we inhabit was not secured without a struggle. The early Protestant missions were not defeated and broken up without outside influences. The Indians were not abandoned till they had dipped their hands in the blood of their best and truest friend, and “become seven-fold more the children of the devil than they were in their native state,” by the teachings they had received frommaliciousandinterested partiesto make them so.

Father P. J. De Smet, from Brouillet’s statements, was among the Flatheads and at Wallawalla in 1840. This priest boasted of his belonging to the Jesuit order of the Romish Church. He usually wore a black frock-coat, was of full habit, arrogant and bigoted in his opinions, and spoke with considerable sarcasm and contempt of all Americans, and especially of the missionaries, as an ignorant set of men to represent the American churches. He would be considered, in his church, a zealous and faithful priest of the order of Jesus. His religious instructions to the Indians were simple and easy to be understood: “Count your beads, hate or kill the Suapies(Americans),and kiss the cross.”

Rev. Harvey Clark was a man whose religion was practical, whose labors were without ceasing, of slender frame, black hair, deep, mellow voice, kind and obliging to all. He organized the first Congregational Church in Tualatin Plains, and one in Oregon City, and was the getter-up of the Pacific University at Forest Grove; a warm friend to general education and all objects calculated to do good to any and all of his fellow-creatures. But few who knew him did not respect and esteem him for his sincere piety and Christian conduct. He came to the country as a missionary sent out by some of the northwestern churches in the United States, without any definite organization further than sufficient to furnish the means for outfit for himself and associates,—Smith and Littlejohn and their wives,—trusting Providence and their own strong arms and willing hearts to labor and do all they could for a subsistence. Mr. Clark was perhaps the best man that could have been sent with the early settlers. He early gained their confidence and esteem, and was always a welcome visitor among them. He had not that stern commanding manner which is usual to egotists of the clerical order, but was of the mild, persuasive kind, that wins the rough heart and calms the stormy passions. The country is blessed by his having lived in it.

A. T. Smith, the associate of Rev. H. Clark was an honest and substantial farmer, a sincere and devout Christian, a man not forward in forming society, yet firm and stable in his convictions of right; liberal and generous to all objects of real worth; not easily excited, or ambitious of political preferment. His wife seemed, in all her life and actions, to be a suitable helpmeet for him. They came early to this country, and have ever been substantial and useful citizens, and supporters of morality and religion. They were among the earliest settlers at Forest Grove, and the first members of Rev. H. Clark’s church.

P. B. Littlejohn was the opposite of Smith, a confirmed hypochondriac; yet, under excitement that was agreeable to his ideas, a useful man. Owing to his peculiar temperament, or the disease with whichhe was afflicted, his usefulness, and that of an interesting and Christian wife, were cramped and destroyed. He returned to the States with his family in 1845.

At this point, perhaps a statement of all the names of persons I have been able to collect and recollect, and the year they arrived in the country, will not be uninteresting to the reader. A short history of most of them has already been given.

In the year 1834, Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and P. L. Edwards, connected with the Methodist Mission; Captain N. Wyeth, American fur trader, and of his party in 1832, S. H. Smith, Burdet, Greeley, Sergeant, Bull, St. Clair, and Whittier (who was helped to or given a passage to the Sandwich Islands by the Hudson’s Bay Company); Brock, a gunsmith; Tibbets, a stone-cutter; Moore, killed by the Blackfeet Indians; Turnbull, who killed himself by overeating at Vancouver. There was also in the country a man by the name of Felix Hathaway, saved from the wreck of theWilliam and Ann. Of this number, Smith, Sergeant, Tibbets, and Hathaway remained. Of the party in 1834, James A. O’Neil, T. J. Hubbard, and Courtney M. Walker remained in the country, making six of Wyeth’s men and one sailor. C. M. Walker came with Lee’s company. With Ewing Young, from California, came, in this year, John McCarty, Carmichael, John Hauxhurst, Joseph Gale, John Howard, Kilborn, Brandywine, and George Winslow, a colored man. By the brigMaryland, Captain J. H. Couch, G. W. Le Breton, John McCaddan, and William Johnson. An English sailor, by the name of Richard or Dick McCary, found his way into the settlement from the Rocky Mountains.

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