# History of Oregon (Bancroft)/Volume 1/Chapter 24

CHAPTER XXIV.
RESCUE OF THE CAPTIVES.
1847.
After all, we must give the American settlers of Oregon, in common with the British fur-traders, credit for treating the natives fairly well. Both are entitled to the merit due from the performance of a good action from necessity. The servants of the Hudson's Bay Company were likewise the most obedient servants of the lordly aboriginal; for it was by the savage skin-catchers of America that the courteous adventurers of England lived. Likewise the poor emigrant, rendered yet more respectful by the presence of wife and children, was quite humble in the presence of a fierce band of painted warriors. But fifty well-fed and mounted riflemen together could massacre with the best of them, not omitting the women and children, or even the time-honored custom of scalping.
Oregon had now at hand her first Indian war. In the message of the governor delivered to the legislature on the morning of the 8th of December, that ​body was reminded of their relations with the natives, how they were becoming every year more embarrassed, by reason of the failure of the United States to send an agent authorized to treat with them. And thereupon they recommended an appropriation enabling the superintendent of Indian affairs to take a small party in the spring and visit the disaffected tribes, making presents which would quiet their apprehensions, and also to demand from them restitution of the property stolen from the new-comers during the autumn.
On the afternoon of the same day, having received the letter of Chief Factor Douglas, the governor communicated the facts of the massacre of the 29th, and submitted the correspondence of McBean, Douglas, and Hinman. The case, he said, was one that required prompt action, and he suggested that for the funds required they should apply to the Hudson's Bay Company and the merchants of Oregon City, as without doubt the United States government would assume the debt. A resolution was immediately adopted, requiring the governor to raise and equip a company of riflemen, not to exceed fifty men with their officers, to be despatched to the Dalles for the protection of that station, according to the prayer of Hinman, who was much alarmed for his family.
On the following day a bill to that effect was passed, and was signed by the executive on the 10th. Immediately afterward a communication was received by the house from Jesse Applegate, suggesting that a messenger be sent to Washington to urge the United States government to assume control of affairs. The suggestion was at once adopted, and notice of a bill to provide for a special messenger given the same day.
The bill to raise troops required the governor to issue a proclamation to raise a regiment of mounted riflemen by volunteer enlistment, not to exceed five ​hundred men, to be subject to the rules and articles of war of the United States army, and whose term of service should expire at the end of ten months, unless sooner discharged by proclamation of the governor. The regiment was required to rendezvous at Oregon City on the 25th of December, and proceed thence to the Walla Walla Valley for the purpose of punishing the natives. The fifth section of this act authorized Jesse Applegate, A. L. Lovejoy, and George L. Curry to negotiate a loan not to exceed $100,000, for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the act, pledging the faith of the territory for the payment of the sums obtained by them, unless sooner discharged by the United States; said loan to be negotiated in gold and silver, or such goods as should be required by the army; provided, however, that the holder of such goods should deduct from the loan the value of the goods remaining in his hands at the cessation of hostilities.
A public meeting had been called by the governor immediately on receiving Douglas' letter, which was addressed by J. W. Nesmith, H. A. G. Lee, and S. K. Barlow, and at which forty-five names were enrolled for the rifle company, which was to proceed at once to the Dalles. The company organized with Lee as captain; J. Magone, 1st lieutenant; and J. E. Ross, 2d lieutenant. The other officers were: C. H. Devendorf, commissary; W. M. Carpenter, M. D., surgeon; J. S. Rinearson, 1st sergeant; C. W. Savage, 2d sergeant; William Berry, 3d sergeant; Stephen ​Cuminings, 1st corporal; J. H. McMillan, 2d corporal. By noon of the 9th the company were equipped as far as it was possible for them to be from the resources at hand, and assembling at the City Hotel, received a flag from the ladies of Oregon City, which was presented by Mr Nesmith, with an appropriate address. Two hours afterward the company was on its way to Vancouver, having been cheered on its errand by the firing of the city cannon and the shouts of excited spectators. Governor Abernethy accompanied them, and also the commissioners appointed by the legislature to negotiate a loan which should enable the government of Oregon to prosecute, if necessary, a war with the natives by whom the settlements were surrounded.
​On application to the chief factor at Vancouver for assistance of a monetary nature, and of such amount, the commissioners met with a difficulty which no doubt the better informed citizens of the country were prepared to anticipate, but which many were unable to understand, and which related to the order of the London directors to the company in Oregon, not to deal in government securities, after the experience they had had in the case of White, acting as Indian agent. In his reply to the loan commissioners, without an explanation of the origin of the order, which would have been quite as offensive as his refusal, Douglas declared his inability to make the required advance for the company.
This answer, though not unexpected by the commissioners, was a disappointment. To no other source could they look for such supplies as the army needed. At the same time, with the indebtedness of the settlers to the company, and their experience in collecting debts from the general government, there was ​reason to expect objections even had there been no positive order from the directors to guide them in their decision. It could hardly be doubted, either, that they deprecated the prospect of an Indian war which would be the ruin of their trade, and perhaps the destruction of their several interior posts. The policy of the company had always been one of peace; on peace depended their success. To be known to have assisted the Americans in making war would destroy their long-sustained good standing with the natives. From whatever point of view they regarded it, there was every reason to avoid being involved in the impending war. On the first intimation of what had happened, without a day's delay, they had despatched their ablest and most popular Indian trader to the country of the Cayuses, attended by a party of sufficient strength to defend Fort Walla Walla if necessary, but at the same time to secure, if possible, the safety of the prisoners in the hands of the Indians; in short, to do what, in Mr Ogden's judgment, appeared to be best for all. Douglas probably thought that the matter might be safely left in Ogden's hands; and that the appearance of an American army in the country might defeat his measures. Should he, then, wish to aid in doing what would be opposed to the best interests of both British and American citizens? The question could have but one solution in his mind, and he may have thanked fortune for the order which enabled him to refuse to put an army in the Indian country.
But there was another side of the subject to be considered. The case was such that according to the usages of the company itself, the individual murderers must be punished. And by the same rule, the Americans must punish them. To refuse to assist them to do this was against their own sense of right. Besides, a refusal, under the provocation from which they were suffering, would be likely to exasperate the Americans against the company in which case there ​might be trouble at home. Under all the circumstances, Douglas did what was undoubtedly the wisest thing; he accepted the security of the governor and two of the commissioners, Applegate and Lovejoy and advanced the means to equip and put in the field the first company of Oregon riflemen, at a cost of about a thousand dollars.
On obtaining these supplies, the volunteers proceeded without unnecessary delay to the Dalles, where they were to remain in charge of the mission property until reënforced.
But one company of less than fifty men could not make war upon several powerful tribes, likely to combine at the first intimation of hostilities on the part of the Americans. The business of the loan commissioners was, therefore, only begun. On the 13th of December they addressed a letter to the merchants and citizens of Oregon, in very much the same language in which they had addressed the Hudson's Bay Company.
The success attending the labors of the commissioners was entirely inadequate to the demand for means to put in the field five hundred men in the winter season, the amount secured being only $3,600, ​and after making their appeal to the people they resigned, and another board was appointed by legislative act, consisting of A. L. Lovejoy, Hugh Burns, and W. H. Willson. The new commissioners were not able to collect funds, but were obliged to take orders on the stores in Oregon City, in consequence of which it was impossible for the commissary-general to obtain articles for the use of the army, money being required to purchase axes and spades to make a road for the wagons to pass up the Columbia River; and the commissioners were in some cases obliged to discount twenty-five per cent of the subscriptions, in order to obtain cash. What the commissioners could not furnish, the volunteers and the citizens supplied out of their private resources, taking receipts for any considerable amount of property.
The company destined for the Dalles were chiefly from the late settlers. It took somewhat longer to move men located on farms far up the valley. They did move, however, with surprising quickness, considering the difficulties to be overcome.
On the day following the departure of the Dalles company, the legislature proceeded to elect officers for the army, the election resulting in the choice of Cornelius Gilliam, colonel commandant, James Waters, lieutenant-colonel, H. A. G. Lee, major, and Joel Palmer, commissary-general. Their next act was to pass a bill to provide for a messenger to be sent to the United States, their choice falling on Joseph L. Meek, who ​from his knowledge of the mountains and plains to be traversed, and the expedients of travel through a wilderness country, as well as by his undoubted patriotism and personal courage, was peculiarly fitted for an expedition of so much peril and responsibility.
The memorial of the legislature thus despatched was a pathetic iteration of the many prayers for protection which had hitherto passed unanswered except in empty promises. "Having called upon the government of the United States so often in vain," it said, "we have almost despaired of receiving its protection." "We have the right to expect your aid, and you are in duty bound to extend it. For though we are separated from our native land by a range of mountains whose lofty altitudes are mantled in eternal snows; although three thousand miles, nearly two thirds of which is a howling wild, lie between us and the federal capital—yet our hearts are unalienated from the land of our birth. Our love for the free and noble institutions under which it was our fortune to be born and nurtured remains unabated. In short, we are Americans still, residing in a country over which the government of the United States has the sole and acknowledged right of sovereignty, and under such circumstances we have the right to claim the benefit of its laws and protection."
But the prayer of the legislature was not for protection alone. The authors of the memorial took occasion to say that in the matter of the offices to be created when the territory should be established, they would be gratified to have the government patronage ​bestowed upon those who were then citizens of Oregon. But since there were many of equal merit among them, and a selection would be invidious, under the peculiar difficulties of their situation, they judged it would be better to fill the offices of governor and judges with men of the best talent and most approved integrity without regard to their present place of residence; which was the legislative way of saying that they would submit to have all the chief places given to men who were strangers to them, rather than that Thornton should be returned as a United States district judge, or Abernethy appointed governor. "The accompanying documents," said the memorial, "will afford additional information concerning some of the subjects of which we have spoken." And in conclusion, Meek was commended to congress for compensation for his services in conveying this petition to the government.
The act constituting Meek a messenger contemplated a route by the way of California, in order to carry despatches to Governor Mason and the commander of the United States squadron in the Pacific, Governor Abernethy having written letters which were waiting to be conveyed, asking for a man-of-war to be sent immediately to the Columbia River, and making a requisition on the California executive for arms. But Meek decided that he could not then cross the mountains into California, and pass over the sierra out of California later in the winter, and proposed to accompany the army to Walla Walla, and proceed thence eastward through the South Pass, a determination annoying to the governor. But Meek knew too much about mountains to undertake the route marked out for him, and persisted in his ​intention of going to Fort Hall, on learning which the governor sent a commissioner to Jesse Applegate requesting him to go to California, or if he could not leave home, to employ some suitable person to carry the despatches to Governor Mason. It was late m January before this request reached Applegate, who immediately organized a company of sixteen men, and about the 1st of February set out upon the mission.
But notwithstanding the determined character of the men who led the expedition, and the urgent nature of their duties, they were compelled to return. An extraordinary depth of snow on the mountains between Rogue River and Klamath Lake prevented crossing with horses. To have abandoned the horses, attempting to carry their blankets and provisions for the journey, would have been discomfiture or death to most of them. So at the end of one day's painful march on snow-shoes improvised of willow sticks, which sunk into the seven feet of soft snow several inches at every step, and often pitched their wearers headlong, the undertaking was relinquished, and the company returned regretfully to the Willamette Valley, after four weeks of toil and hardship. The letters to Governor Mason with which Mr Applegate was charged were, on the 11th of March, placed on ​board the brig Henry, by which means they finally reached California. By the same conveyance letters were despatched to the American consul of the Sandwich Islands, imploring any assistance he might be able to render.
The act of the legislature requiring the governor to issue his proclamation for raising a regiment of five hundred men was not at first regarded by the executive as a wise one, both on account of the difficulty of raising the means to put them in the field, and of the effect upon the savages, who might be led, by hearing of extensive preparations for war, to a combination against the settlers. Instead, therefore, of calling for five hundred men, he called for one hundred. This difference of opinion led the legislature to remove the responsibility from the executive and to assume it themselves, by a resolution passed the 25th of December, at which time no further news had been received from the upper country, or from Major Lee's company at the Dalles. The governor having at last issued the proclamation required, trusting to the patriotism of the citizens of the country for the support of the army in the field, the office of adjutant-general was created, A. L. Lovejoy being elected to that position. An act was also passed establishing the pay of privates and non-commissioned officers who furnished their own horses and equipments at one dollar and a half a day. A penalty of not more than two hundred dollars nor less than twenty-five dollars ​was fixed for each sale or gift of munitions of war to the natives. This act brought the legislature in conflict with the fur-traders at Vancouver, who were in the habit of paying for the assistance of the natives in passing the portages at the Dalles and the Cascades with powder and ball, and who thought it a hardship to these people, and one fraught with danger, to refuse them their accustomed compensation.
In truth, the situation of the Hudson's Bay Company at this juncture was anything but enviable. They were located in a country which by the recent treaty had become foreign, and whose people, more numerous than themselves, were prejudiced against them; yet whose laws they were under a compact to obey. The Americans had involved themselves with the natives, and whether intentionally or not, the consequences must be the same. While the company were honestly doing what they judged best for the peace and safety of the country, they were subjected to the ever-recurring suspicion that they were in some way to blame for whatever evil befell the people they endeavored to serve.
In the midst of the anxiety and suspense which harassed all minds during the absence of Ogden in the Cayuse country, a report was spread that Gilliam, indignant at the refusal of the company to furnish $100,000 worth of supplies on the credit of a government which could not afford to pay a salary to its own executive, had determined to take Vancouver by force of arms, and help his regiment to what they required from its stores, tendering a draft on the Uniled States treasury in payment. On the credit of this rumor, Douglas placed some guns in the bastions, and made other preparations for defence, at the same time writing to Abernethy for an explanation, trusting that his letter would "satisfactorily account for any unusual ​precautions observed in the present arrangements of this establishment." Upon this hint Abernethy hastened to reply that Gilliam entertained no such purpose, and he trusted nothing would occur to cause distrust. No one knew better than Abernethy what a fatal error it would prove on the part of the Americans to fall out with the fur company, to whom all the savages were friendly; and while it may be doubted whether Abernethy did not equivocate in his reply to Douglas, there can be no doubt of the sincerity of his wish to retain the coöperation of the company to as great an extent as possible; and fortunately the impending wrath of the irrepressible Gilliam was averted.
No sooner had the governor issued his second proclamation than about two hundred and thirty men responded and were organized into companies, the company at the Dalles being numbered 1st in the regiment of Oregon mounted riflemen.
​Before the army was ready to proceed to the Indian country the legislature had appointed Joel Palmer superintendent of Indian affairs, and had also appointed a commission, consisting of Palmer, Major Lee, and Robert Newell, to visit the Nez Percés, and other tribes in the interior, for the purpose of preventing, if possible, their coalition with the Cayuses. Meantime news began to be received from Major Lee and his force at the Dalles. They had reached that place on Christmas night, after being detained ten days by adverse gales at Wind Mountain. Major Lee found Hinman and family, on their way to the Willamette ​Valley, the Indians having shown a desire to open hostilities by driving off some of their horses. On meeting Lee, however, who had only a few of his men with him, the boats being scattered by the wind, Hinman determined to turn back and endeavor to save the mission property. Leaving his family to proceed to the Cascades, and there await his return, he accompanied Lee to the Dalles, where they arrived the 21st of December, and whence Lee's first report to the governor was dated the 26th.
Lee found the natives there friendly, Seletza, the head chief, whose men had been killing the mission cattle, declaring that his people should pay for the property destroyed. The mission buildings were undisturbed, though the property belonging to emigrants, left at Barlow's Gate on the Barlow road, having arrived too late to cross the mountains, had been carried off. A little of it was brought in, but no confidence was entertained that the natives intended to do anything more than to divert suspicion. In the mean while they circulated reports of a combination and general council of the Nez Percés and Cayuses, and their determination to cut off the missionaries in the Nez Percé and Spokane country, as well as to murder all the captives then in their hands. Lee himself sent these reports to the governor, but qualified by the information of their origin. Such was the uncertain and excited condition of the public mind
​when the governor's proclamation calling for five hundred men was issued, ordering them to rendezvous at Portland on the 8th of January, and to proceed on horseback. In order that their supplies might meet them, a party was sent to build a flat-boat above the Cascades, and to transport the provisions and ammunition over the portage and across the river; the route lying by the mouth of the Sandy across the Columbia to Vancouver, east by the cattle trail to a point above the Cascades, and across the river again to the south side, whence the trail led to the Dalles. Abernethy wrote Lee January 1st, that if there was a prospect of a general war, he thought of building a block-house at the Cascades, and keeping a force there He also wrote that provisions had begun to come in from the country, and Commissary-general Palmer was doing all he could to hasten them. The impossibility of knowing what was going on in the Indian country, or what was likely to be required, augmented his cares and anxieties. ​At the moment when Gilliam was ready to move toward the Dalles with an advanced company of fifty men, Ogden arrived from Walla Walla with the survivors of the massacre. The letter announcing to the governor the happy result of his expedition was dated at Vancouver the 8th of January, and was as follows:
"Sir: Mr Ogden has this moment arrived with three boats from Walla Walla, and I rejoice to say he has brought down all the women and children from Waiilatpu, Mr and Mrs Spalding, and Mr Stanley, the artist. Messrs Walker and Eells were safe and well; they were not considered to be in danger. The reports of the later murders committed at Waiilatpu are all absolutely without foundation, not a life having been lost there since the day of Dr Whitman's death. Mr Ogden will visit the Falls on Monday and give you every information in his power respecting the Indians in the interior. The Cayuses, Walla Wallas, Nez Percés, and Yakimas are said to have entered into an alliance for mutual defence.
"In haste, yours respectfully, "James Douglas."
In Douglas' letter, written in the excitement and haste of the reception of the unhappy company of the rescued, there was an error concerning the fact of three murders which occurred after the 29th, and under no circumstances was an error of a Hudson's Bay officer or a Catholic priest allowed to be anything but intentional by the Protestant American writers who have dealt with the subject of the Waiilatpu massacre; the infallibility imputed to them extending only to their knowledge of the truth, but not to their disposition to tell it. The error in this case was really immaterial, while the on dit of the last sentence of Douglas' letter was of the greatest consequence.
The courier bearing the despatch to Governor Abernethy arrived at Oregon City on Sunday ​ing, finding the executive at church. Even the usual decorum of the sanctuary was forced, to give way. The letter was read to the congregation, and the greatest excitement prevailed, of mingled gladness, gratitude, and sorrow.
On the following day the ransomed captives were delivered to the governor in Oregon City. As the boats passed Portland a salute was fired, as also on their arrival at the Falls; the compliment being intended to express the general gratitude of the people to the gallant man who had effected their release. On the 17th the governor indicted a letter of thanks as follows:
"Sir: I feel it a duty as well as a pleasure to tender you my sincere thanks, and the thanks of this community, for your exertions in behalf of the widows and orphans that were left in the hands of the Cayuse Indians. Their state was a deplorable one, subject to the caprice of savages, exposed to their insults, compelled to labor for them, and remaining constantly in dread lest they should be butchered as their husbands and fathers had been. From this state I am fully satisfied we could not relieve them. A small party of Americans would have been looked upon with contempt; a large party would have been a signal for a general massacre. Your immediate departure from Vancouver on receipt of the intelligence from Waiilatpu enabling you to arrive at Walla Walla before the news of the American party having started from this reached them, together with your influence over the Indians, accomplished the desirable object of relieving the distressed. Your exertions in behalf of the prisoners will no doubt cause a feeling of pleasure to you through life, but this does not relieve them nor us from the obligations we are under to you. You ​have also laid the American government under obligation to you, for their citizens were the subjects of the massacre, and their widows and orphans are the relieved ones. With a sincere prayer that the widow's God and the Father of the fatherless may reward you for your kindness, I have the honor to remain, your obedient servant,
George Abernethy, "Governor of Oregon Territory.
"To Peter Skeen Ogden, Esq., Chief Factor Honorable H. B. Company, Vancouver."
To which Ogden replied on the 26th:
"George Abernethy, Esq., Governor of Oregon Territory.
"Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your highly flattering letter of 19th inst., and the high value you lay upon my services in rescuing so many fellow-creatures from captivity, but the meed of praise is not due to me alone. I was the mere acting agent of the Hudson's Bay Company; for without its powerful aid and influence nothing could have been effected, and to them the praise is due. And permit me to add, should unfortunately, which God avert, our services be again required under similar circumstances, I trust you will not find us wanting in going to their relief. I have the honor to remain,
"Yours, most respectfully, "Peter Skeen Ogden."
Ogden's letter appeared in the Spectator, prefaced by the remark that "the act of rescuing so many defenceless women and children from the bloody and cruel grasp of savages merits, and we believe receives, the universal thanks and gratitude of the people of Oregon. Such an act is the legitimate offspring of a noble, generous, and manly heart."
When Ogden left Vancouver his purpose was to stop the murders, and rescue the families before any ​measures their countrymen might adopt could furnish the Cayuses with a motive for further atrocities. Taking sixteen men, he left Vancouver on the 7th of December, within twenty-four hours after McBean's messenger arrived. Hinman accompanied him; and on arriving at the Dalles, finding that the natives there had the previous day taken four horses from the mission enclosure, an act which could signify nothing less than hostilities, he advised Hinman to remove his family, and all the Americans at the Dalles, to the Willamette, leaving only a trusty Indian in charge of the mission property, advice which was immediately adopted.
Ogden arrived with his party at Port Walla Walla on the evening of the 19th of December, and found that none of the captive women or children had been killed, though they had narrowly escaped, having been 'decreed against,' but saved by the interposition of McBean, who, hearing of the intention of the Cayuses, sent his interpreter to them with a message warning them that "they had already gone too far" in what they had done, and requesting them to withhold their hands from further crimes. Ogden's first effort was to call the chiefs together and hold a council to learn the plan with regard to their prisoners. For this purpose couriers were immediately despatched to the Cayuses, and on the 23d the council was assembled. ​Some indications of the temper of the Nez Percés had been received before Ogdens arrival, through a letter from Spalding to the bishop of Walla Walla, and also through the intercourse of the chiefs on the Umatilla with the same person. From Spalding, the bishop, who was addressed as "Reverend and Dear Friend," had information that the Nez Percés wished the Americans to be upon friendly terms with the Cayuses, and not to come into their country to avenge the massacre at Waiilatpu, giving as a reason that the natives had overlooked the death of the son of Peupeumoxmox in California, for which the slaughter of thirteen Americans was no unreasonable offset. He was, in fact, remaining with his family in the Indian country as hostages of peace, and hoped to be^ able to send the same two young chiefs who carried his letter to the bishop, to Governor Abernethy, to prevent volunteers coming into the Cayuse country, lest by doing so they should precipitate him in ruin; and of this effort on his part to avert their punishment, the bishop was to inform the Cayuses. He also wished the Hudson's Bay Company to be informed of his situation with the Nez Percés; and that they had pledged themselves to protect him only by his pledging himself to prevent the Americans seeking revenge on the Cayuses. A similar letter was sent to McBean at Fort Walla Walla.
This letter of Spalding's reached the Umatilla about the middle of December, and must be taken into account in considering what followed. The bishop was asked to impress upon the minds of the Cayuses that Spalding would do all that he could to prevent war, and to inform the governor of Oregon that his life and the lives of the other Americans at Lapwai depended on this promise to the Indians The young chiefs who brought this message repeated the wish that the bishop would request Governor Abernethy not to send fighting men, but to come ​himself in the spring and make a treaty of peace with the Cayuses, who would then release the captives. To this petition the bishop replied that before writing to the governor it would be necessary to learn from the principal Cayuse chiefs whether this was their desire also; and for the purpose of learning their minds proposed a council on the 20th.
Before the 20th came round there were signs that the Cayuses were beginning to realize that the crime they had committed was one which the Americans might not be brought to overlook even by promises of friendship in the future. Camaspelo, a chief of high rank, sought an interview with the bishop, m which he declared his reluctance from the first to consent to the murder of Whitman, and his subsequent regret, and his present intention of killing his horses and quitting the country forever. To this Blanchet replied that peace, he thought, might be hoped for, and counselled that the chiefs should all be brought together to settle upon their course on the day appointed. Accordingly, when the day arrived the bishop's house was crowded, Tiloukaikt, Camaspelo, Five Crows, Tauitau, and a number of sub-chiefs being present. The contents of Spalding's letter was made known to them by the bishop in presence of his clergy.
The first to speak upon the propositions of the Nez Perces was Camaspelo, who, after admitting the ignorance and blindness which had caused him to despair of the life of his people, professed now to see a way out of the darkness, and approved of the plan of the Nez Percés. Tiloukaikt confessed that the missionaries had given them instructions for their good; but reverted to the death of the chief who accompanied Gray in 1837, and to the death of Elijah in California, endeavoring to show cause for what had been done, and hoping the Americans would pardon him as he was willing to pardon them. Edward, the son of Tiloukaikt brought forward the accusation of ​poisoning, as made by Joe Lewis, and the pretended confession of the dying Rogers to the same effect, at the same time exhibiting a blood-stained Catholic ladder, which he declared had been shown to the Cayuses by Whitman with the remark, "You see this blood 1 it is to show you that now, because you have the priests among you, the country is going to be covered with blood;" thus placing the responsibility on the Catholics, where the Protestants were willing to believe it belonged. Edward even drew a touching picture of the distress and bereavement of the captive families, and recounted freely all the circumstances attending the massacre, only concealing the names of the guilty.
At length all agreed to the propositions of the Nez Percés, if they might be allowed to add a manifesto setting forth the reasons which influenced them in committing the murders. To this the bishop consented. They then stated what we already know, asking, first, "that the Americans may not go to war with the Cayuses; second, that they may forget the lately committed murders, as the Cayuses will forget the murder of the son of the great chief of Walla Walla, committed in California; third, that two or three great men may come up to conclude peace; fourth, that as soon as these great men have arrived and concluded peace, they may take with them all the women and children; fifth, they give assurance that they will not harm the Americans before the arrival of these two or three great men; sixth, they ask that Americans may not travel any more through their country, as their young men might do them harm."
This being settled, the bishop wrote his letter to Abernethy, saying that in a moment of despair the Cayuses had committed acts of atrocity grievous to the writer as well as to him. Yet he felt forced to say that by going to war with this tribe, he would without doubt have all the savages in the country ​against him. And would it be for the interest of a young colony to so expose itself? Advice he had none to offer; he simply enclosed Mr. Spalding's letter to himself.
The Cayuses, having been prepared by the council on the Umatilla to treat with the governor of Oregon on the terms laid down above, were not prepared to receive Ogden with the ready consent with which they usually listened to any proposition coming from the fur company. They could see plainly that their hope of securing peace with the Americans depended on retaining Spalding and the captive families as hostages. Nor were they encouraged to hope for peace, as Spalding and Blanchet caused them to believe.
"We have been among you for thirty years," said Ogden, "without the shedding of blood; we are traders, and of a different nation from the Americans; but recollect, we supply you with ammunition, not to kill Americans, who are of the same color, speak the same language, and worship the same God as ourselves, and whose cruel fate causes our hearts to bleed. Why do we make you chiefs, if you cannot control your young men? Besides this wholesale butchery, you have robbed the Americans passing through your country, and have insulted their women. If you allow your young men to govern you, I say you are not men or chiefs, but hermaphrodites who do not deserve the name. Your hot-headed young men plume themselves on their bravery; but let them not deceive themselves. If the Americans begin war, they will have cause to repent their rashness; for the war will not end until every man of you is cut off from the face of the earth! I am aware that many of your people have died; but so have others. It was not Dr Whitman who poisoned them; but God who has commanded that they should die. You have the opportunity to make some reparation. I give you only advice, and promise you nothing, should war be declared against you. The company have nothing to do with your quarrel. If you wish ​it, on my return I will see what can be done for you; but I do not promise to prevent war. Deliver me the prisoners to return to their friends, and I will pay you a ransom, that is all."
Such was Ogden's address to the chiefs, contemplating, as he truthfully said, only the rescue of the prisoners, without altering the relations of the company toward the Indians, whose friendship they had long possessed and did not mean to lose. Neither did he intend to anticipate the action of the American government or people.
The Indian impulse, shifting as the sands of the sea, gave way to Ogden's superior will. With some weak efforts to excuse the disposition to yield, Tauitau consented to the ransom of the captives. The Hudson's Bay Company's men were married to Indian women, and were therefore his brothers; he could not refuse his brother's request. Tiloukaikt, besides the tie of blood, recognized the claim of the company upon him made by allowing their dead to be buried side by side. "Chief!" he cried, "your words are weighty—your hairs are gray. We have known you a long time. You have had an unpleasant journey to this place. I cannot, therefore, keep the families back. I make them over to you, which I would not do to another younger than yourself." Peupeumoxmox remarked that he had nothing to say: the Americans were changeable; but he agreed with Tauitau that the captives should be given up. The ​Nez Percé chiefs, who had not yet returned to Lapwai, consented to go at once and bring Spalding and the others from that station, should they wish to come; the anxious desire to escape having been thus far carefully concealed from the Nez Percés. Ogden, in his letter to Spalding, which the young chiefs carried, advised the missionary to lose no time in joining him, and to make no promises to the Nez Percés, being unaware, perhaps, of the promise already given. He wrote immediately to Ogden that he should hasten his departure, and. all the more because the young chiefs had assured him that the Cayuses would exterminate them should they learn that the Americans were intending to call them to account. As nothing was more likely than that such a purpose was harbored by the Americans, he was aware of the value of Ogden's advice to hasten to Walla Walla.
A letter was also despatched from Walla Walla to the Chemakane mission, in which the purpose of Ogden to do nothing which might interfere with the future course of the United States in dealing with the Cayuse murderers was reiterated, and in which he
​expressed his great anxiety, which had not permitted him to sleep for two nights. This letter was not written until the 31st of December, and the alarm from which Ogden was suffering was occasioned by the fact that he had no sooner received the captives at Walla Walla, by agreement, on the 29th, than rumors were received by the natives of the arrival of the first company of the volunteer riflemen at Walla Walla. The excitement occasioned by this intelligence it was feared might cause Spalding's company, which had not yet arrived, to be cut off, and any such resumption of hostilities would certainly be fatal to the success of his efforts for the rescue of even the Waiilatpu captives; for the rage of the savages would permit them to stop at nothing. But to his great relief Spalding arrived on the first of January, accompanied by a large force of Nez Percés. After spending another night in earnest council with these natives, always more friendly and more tractable than their relatives the Cayuses, Ogden embarked the ransomed company for Vancouver, thankful to be able to do so.
Nor was he gone a moment to soon. A few hours after his departure fifty Cayuses arrived at the fort with the purpose of taking and killing Spalding, as they had all along declared their intention of doing, should they learn that any but peace commissioners were on the way to their country. It was this ​determination, well understood by all, that decided William Craig to quit his claim on the Clearwater, though on the best of terms with the Nez Percés. Bishop Blanchet also accompanied Ogden to the Willamette Valley, but Brouillet and Leclaire remained at the Umatilla until the 20th of February, when they too abandoned the country; and their property left among the Cayuses was destroyed.
The recipients of Ogden's favors were scarcely distributed among the homes of sympathizing friends in the Willamette Valley before the Presbyterians, with Spalding at their head, made an attack on the Hudson's Bay Company and the Catholic clergy, openly accusing them of conspiring with the Indians to destroy the Protestant missions in the interior; every act and word of either being turned into the acts and words of conspirators plotting death and ruin to Americans and Protestants. All were termed Jesuits, whether Jesuit, secular, or Oblate; and fertile imaginations, half crazed by horrors, were sown with suspicions the foulest and most unnatural. The Spectator being by its by-laws prohibited from entering into sectarian discussions, the Oregon American devoted its columns almost exclusively to the publication of the matter. The results of its few weeks of existence continue to appear in the frequent assertions published and uttered even now that the fur company and the Catholic priesthood in Oregon were responsible for the tragedy of Waiilatpu, notwithstanding the facts.
The lack of motive on the part of the company, ​even admitting the monstrous idea that its officers were capable of such acts; the lack of both opportunity and motive on the part of the priests, admitting that these young men just out of European or Canadian colleges could be thinking of murder, should be sufficient proof that they did not instigate the Indians. The country belonged by treaty to the United States, hence the company had nothing to gain. The priests had not yet established a mission, or obtained control of the Indians. They knew that Whitman intended leaving the Walla Walla Valley, and would if they wished it sell them his improvements at Waiilatpu. Why then kill him? Or why, if he must be killed, did the Protestant instead of the Catholic Cayuses do the deed? It was the Indians nearest to Whitman who killed him, even those almost of his own household. But the captives, saved and liberated by those they now accused, being instigated by sectarian hatred, were put upon the stand, and tricked into saying things the most abominable and absurd. It was Spalding himself who should have been examined, under oath, and not all those afflicted and bewildered captives who understood little or nothing of the causes which led to their great misfortunes. Finding the Protestants taking depositions, the Catholics also resorted to sworn statements; and it must be admitted that so far as the depositions go the latter have the best of the cause. But the rancor on both sides! The merely secular mind shrinks from contemplating it. I have in previous chapters stated my belief that the interference of the Catholics augmented Whitman's troubles with the Cayuses; but it is evident to my mind that had there not been a Catholic in the country the catastrophe would have come in the identical shape that it did come, from Indian jealousy alone. Blanchet, in attempting to account for ​its occurrence, uses the following language: "At the sight of the good already done, and to be done by the army of the zealous missionaries just arrived, the devil, shaking with anger and rage, resolved to make his last efforts to utterly ruin the Catholic clergy on this coast."
The Presbyterians blamed the Catholics, and the Catholics blamed the devil, for what the exercise of ordinary good judgment ought to have averted, but which sectarian pride and obstinacy resolved to dare rather than to avoid.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 10, 1847.
* ↑ Grover's Or. Archives, 225; Polynesian, iv. 206.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Jan.6, 1848.
* ↑ The names of the volunteers were as follows: Joseph B. Proctor, George Moore, W. M. Carpenter, J. S. Rinearson, H. A. G. Lee, Thomas Purvis, J. Magone, C. Richardson, J. E. Ross, I. Walgamoutts, John G. Gibson, B. B. Rogers, Benj. Bratton, Sam. K. Barlow, Wm Berry, John Lassater, John Bolton, Henry W. Coe, William Beekman, Nathan Olney, Joel Witchey, John Fleming, John Little, A. J. Thomas, Geo. Westby, Edward Robson, Daniel P. Barnes, J. Kestor, D. Everest, J. H. McMillan, Jno. C. Danford, Ed. Marsh, Joel McKee, H. Levalley, J. W. Morgan, O. Tupper, R. S. Tupper, C. H. Devendorf, John Finner, C. W. Savage, Shannon, G. H. Bosworth, Jacob Johnson, Stephen Cummings, Geo. Weston. Or. Spectator, Dec. 10, 1847. In the Salem Mercury, 1877, is the list copied from the roll of the orderly sergeant, which is the one here quoted.
* ↑ The letter of the loan commissioners is as follows: 'Fort Vancouver, Dec. 11, 1847. 'To James Douglas, Esq. Sir: By the enclosed document you will perceive that the undersigned have been charged by the legislature of our provisional government with the difficult duty of obtaining the means necessary to arm, equip, and support in the field a force sufficient to obtain full satisfaction of the Cayuse Indians for the late massacre at Waiilatpu, and protect the white population of our common country from further aggression. In pursuance of this object they have deemed it their duty to make immediate application to the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company for the required assistance. Though clothed with the power to pledge, to the fullest extent, the faith and means of the present government of Oregon, they do not consider this pledge the only security of those who, in this distressing emergency, may extend to the people of this country the means of protection and redress. Without claiming any especial authority from the government of the United States to contract a debt to be liquidated by that power, yet from all precedents of like character in the history of our country, the undersigned feel confident that the United States government will consider the murder of the late Dr Whitman and lady as a national wrong, and will fully justify the people of Oregon in taking active measures to obtain redress for that outrage, and for their protection from further aggression. The right of self-defence is tacitly accorded to every body politic in the confederacy to which we claim to belong, and in every case similar to our own, within our knowledge, the general government has promptly assumed the payment of all liabilities growing out of the measures taken by the constituted authorities to protect the lives and property of those residing within the limits of their districts. If the citizens of the states and territories east of the Rocky Mountains are justified in promptly acting in such emergencies, who are under the immediate protection of the general government, there appears no room to doubt that the lawful acts of the Oregon government will receive a like approval. Should the temporary character of our government be considered by you sufficient ground to doubt its ability to redeem its pledge, and reasons growing out of its peculiar organization be deemed sufficient to prevent the recognition of its acts by the government of the United States, we feel it our duty, as private individuals, to inquire to what extent, and on what terms, advances may be had of the Hon. Hudson's Bay Company, to meet the wants of the force the authorities of Oregon deem it their duty to send into the field. With sentiments of the highest respect, allow us to subscribe ourselves, Your most obedient servants, Jesse Applegate, A. L. Lovejoy, Geo. L. Curry, Commissioners.' Or. Archives, 322–3; Gray's Hist. Or., 538.
* ↑ Fort Vancouver, Dec. 11, 1847. To Jesse Applegate, A. L. Lovejoy, George L. Curry, Esquires. Gentlemen: I have had the honor of your communication of this date, and have given an attentive perusal to the documents accompanying it. With a deep feeling of the importance of the object which has procured me the honor of your present visit, and the necessity of the measures contemplated for the punishment of the Cayuse Indians and for the future protection of the country, I can on the present occasion only repeat the assurance verbally given in our conversation of yesterday, that I have no authority to grant loans or make any advances whatsoever on account of the Hudson's Bay Company, my orders on that point being so positive that I cannot deviate from them without assuming a degree of responsibility which no circumstances could justify to my own mind. It is, however, in accordance with the spirit and letter of my instructions from the Hudson's Bay Company, to exert their whole power and influence in maintaining the peace of the country, and in protecting the white population from Indian outrage. The force equipped and despatched, at their sole expense, to Walla Walla, under the command of Mr Ogden, immediately on receiving the intelligence of the disastrous event at Waiilatpu, is an earnest of our attention to the calls of humanity. The object of that expedition is, with the blessing of God, to prevent further aggression, to rescue the women and children who survived the massacre from the hands of the Indians, and to restore them to their afflicted friends. Trusting that these objects may be successfully accomplished, I have the honor, etc., James Douglas, C. F. H. B. Co. Oregon Archives, MS., 66–7.
* ↑ It differed only in the concluding paragraph: 'Thought the Indians of the Columbia have committed a great outrage upon our fellow-citizens passing through their country and residing among them, and their punishment for these murders may and ought to be a prime object with every citizen of Oregon, yet, as that duty more particularly devolves upon the government of the United States and admits of delay, we do not make this the strongest ground upon which to found our earnest appeal to you for pecuniary assistance. It is a fact well known to every person acquainted with the Indian character that by passing silently over their repeated thefts, robberies, and murders of our fellow-citizens, they have been emboldened to the commission of the appalling massacre at Waiilatpu. They call us women, destitute of the hearts and courage of men; and if we allow this wholesale murder to pass by as former aggressions, who can tell how long either life or property will be secure in any part of the country, or what moment the Willamette will be the scene of blood and carnage? The officers of our provisional government have nobly performed their duty. None can doubt the readiness of the patriotic sons of the west to offer their personal services in defence of a cause so righteous. So it now rests with you, gentlemen, to say whether our rights and our firesides shall be defended or not.' Or. Archives, 323–5; Victor's River of the West, 429–30.
* ↑ Of this $1,000 was obtained from citizens, $1,000 was a loan from Mr Roberts, superintendent of the Oregon Methodist Mission, and $1,000 from the merchants of Oregon City. Report of Loan Commissioners, Grover's Or. Archives, 332–3. Waldo says in his Critiques, MS., 6, that he and Applegate contributed $1,000, and that he went around the valley soliciting subscriptions.
* ↑ The bill which passed authorized him to proceed with all despatch by the way of California to Washington City, and lay before the executive of the United States such official communications as he should be charged with. It also required him to take an oath faithfully to perform his duties to the best of his abilities; leaving him to be compensated by the government of the United States; and authorized him to borrow, if he could, on the faith of the Oregon government, $500 for his expenses, while he was made to give bonds to the governor in the amount of $1,000, for the faithful execution of his trust. Or. Spectator, Jan. 6, 1848. This was making the office of special messenger an onerous one; and so the legislature must have perceived, for another act was passed appropriating $500 in addition to the first appropriation, 'for the purpose of facilitating the departure' of the messenger. Or. Laws, 1843–9, 9, 11; Polynesian, iv. 206.
* ↑ There was, besides these necessary qualifications in the man selected, the western sentiment to be gratified, which, it will be remembered, was opposed to Governor Abernethy's action in secretly despatching his own selected agent to Washington a few months previous. When the act had been signed constituting Meek the messenger of the Oregon legislative assembly, Nesmith produced his resolutions, before mentioned, against the appointment of J. Quinn Thornton to any office in the territory, which being printed in the Spectator were conveyed to Washington with other matter in charge of the messenger.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 25, 1847; Cong. Globe, 1847–8, App., 684–5.
* ↑ Or. Archives, MS., 113.
* ↑ In a private letter to Major Lee, which found its way into the Oregon Archives, MS., 10, Abernethy says: 'Meek has altogether disappointed the expectations of this community, for it was fully expected of him he would have been in California by this time.'
* ↑ Applegate's company consisted, besides himself, of his former associates in laying out the southern route, Levi and John Scott, Solomon Tetherow, Thomas and Walter Monteith, Daniel Waldo, John Minto, Campbell, Smith, Hibbler, Dice, Owens, Lemon, Robinson, and James Fields.
* ↑ In a private letter of Applegate is an interesting account of this day's struggles in the snow, too long to insert here. See Or. Spectator, Feb. 10, 1848; John Minto, in Salem Mercury, Nov. 23, 1877; Ashland Tidings, Dec. 7., 1877. Solomon Tetherow, to whom Applegate refers as his faithful and valued friend and helper on this occasion, was of the immigration of 1845, as elsewhere mentioned. He was a native of East Tennessee, born in 1800. He resided for some time in Alabama and Missouri, and married, at the age of 21, Miss Ibba Baker. He accompanied General Ashley on his expedition to the head waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. He subsequently ran a keel-boat on the Missouri to Council Bluffs, then a trading post of the American Fur Company, and was pilot of the first steamboat on the upper Mississippi. He afterward migrated to Texas, but finding that a sickly country, returned to Missouri, and finally went to Oregon, where he settled on the Creole River, where the town of Dallas later stood, removing afterward to the Luckiamute in Polk County, where he died in February 1879. Portland Oregonian, March 1, 1879.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, March 9, 1848.
* ↑ Abernethy's letters are to be found in a manuscript volume of the Oregon Archives, not contained in Grover's collection, which I have had copied from the originals in the state-house at Salem. See Or. Arch., MS., 112–13, 134.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Dec. 25, 1847. I find a letter in the Or. Archives, MS., 100, written by Nesmith Dec. 27th, to Major Lee, in which he says: 'But little has as yet been accomplished owing to the imbecility of the executive. The proclamation which was authorized for raising 500 men immediately after your departure has been delayed until the 25th… I know it has been difficult to obtain means, yet the governor has had sufficient at his disposal to have procured you reinforcements and provisions, both of which would probably have been acceptable to you before this.'
* ↑ Grover's Or. Archives, 247, 249.
* ↑ Correspondence in Or. Spectator, Feb. 10 and 16, 1848; Or. Laws, 1843–9, 12, 48.
* ↑ That Gilliam made some such threats seems quite certain. Pettygrove says that Gilliam proceeded to Vancouver and called for supplies giving Douglas until 9 o'clock next morning to comply or refuse, and that Douglas complied. Oregon, MS., 8, 9. The same story is met with in other places, and added to the correspondence of Douglas and Abernethy, confirms the rumor if not the fact.
* ↑ The second company was officered as follows: Lawrence Hall, captain; H. D. O'Bryant, 1st lieutenant; John Engart, 2d lieutenant; William Sheldon, orderly sergeant; William Stokes, Peter S. Engart, Thos R. Cornelius, and Sherry Ross, duty sergeants; Gilbert Mondon, color-bearer. Names of privates: A. Engart, Thos Fleming, D. C. Smith, W. R. Poland, Jos. W. Scott, G. W. Smith, A. Kinsey, John J. Donnie, A. C. Brown, F. H. Ramsey, S. A. Holcomb, A. Stewart, Wm Milbern, A. Kennedy, Oliver Lowden, H. N. Stephens, P. G. Northup, W. W. Walters, J. Q. Zachary, Sam. Y. Cook, J. J. Garrish, Thos Kinsey, J. S. Scoggin, Noah Jobe, D. Shumake, J. N. Green, J. Elliot, W. Williams, John Holgate, R. Yarborough, Robert Walker, J. Butler, I. W. Smith J. W. Lingenfelter, J. H. Lienberger, A. Lienberger, Sam. Gethard, Jno. Lousingnot, A. Williams, D. Harper, S. C. Cummings, S. Ferguson, Marshall Martin. The officers of the third company were: John W. Owen captain; Nathaniel Bowman, 1st lieutenant; Thomas Shaw, 2d lieutenant; J. C Robison, orderly sergeant; Benj. J. Burch, J. H. Blankenship, James M. Morris, and Robert Smith, duty sergeants. Names of privates: George W. Adams, William Athey, John Baptiste, Manley Curry, Jesse Clayton, John Dinsmore, Nathan English, John Fiester, Jesse Gay, Lester Hulan, Stephen Jenkins, J. Larkin, Joshua McDonald, Thomas Pollock, J. H. Smith, S. P. Thornton, William Wilson, Benjamin Allen, Ira Bowman, Currier, George Chapel, William Doke, Linnet, T. Dufield, Squire Elembough, Henry Fuller, D. H. Hartley, Fleming R. Hill, James Keller, D. M. McCumber, E. McDonald, Edward Robinson, Chris. Stemermon, Joseph Wilbert, T. R. Zumwalt, Charles Zummord. The officers of the fourth company were: H. J. G. Maxon, captain; G. N. Gilbert, 1st lieutenant; Wm P. Hughes, 2d lieutenant; Wm R. Johnson, orderly sergeant; O. S. Thomas, T. M. Buckner, Daniel Stewart, and Joseph R. Ralston, duty sergeants. Names of privates: Andrew J. Adams, John Beattie, Charles Blair, John R. Coatney, Reuben Crowder, John W. Crowel, Manly Danforth, Harvey Evans, Albert H. Fish, John Feat, Andrew Gribble, Wm Hawkins, Rufus Johnson, John W. Jackson, J. H. Loughlin, Davis Lator, John Miller, John Patterson, Richard Pollard, Wm Robinson, Asa Stone, Thos Allphin, Wm Bunton, Henry Blacker, Wm Chapman, Samuel Chase, Sam. Cornelius, James Dickson, S. D. Earl, Joseph Earl, D. O. Garland, Richmond Hays, Goalman Hubbard, Isaiah M. Johns, S. B. Knox, James H. Lewis, Horace Martin, John McCoy, James Officer, Henry Pellet, Wm Russell, John Striethoff, A. M. Baxster, D. D. Burroughs, Samuel Clark, John M. Cantrel, Asi Cantrel, Albert G. Davis, S. D. Durbin, Samuel Fields, Rezin D. Foster, Issac M. Foster, Horace Hart, Wm Hock, Wm A. Jack, Elias Kearney, James Killingworth, Isaac Morgan, N. G. McDonnell, Madison McCully, Frederick Paul, Wm M. Smith, H. M. Smith, Jason Wheeler, John Vaughn, Reuben Striethoff, Wm Vaughn, Wm Shirley. The officers of the fifth company were: Philip F. Thompson, captain; James A. Brown, 1st lieutenant; Joseph M. Garrison, 2d lieutenant; George E. Frazer, orderly sergeant; A. Garrison, A. S. Welton, Jacob Greer, and D. D. Dostins, duty sergeants. Names of privates: Martin P. Brown, William A. Culberson, Harrison Davis, James Electrels, William Eads, Alvin K. Fox, William J. Garrison, William Smith, E. T. Stone, John Thompson, H. C. Johnson, Joseph Kenney, Henry Kearney, Jacob Leabo, Daniel Matheny, William McKay, John Orchard, John B. Rowland, John Copenhagen, Reuben Crowder, Bird Davis, John Eldridge, John Faron, C. B. Gray, Robert Harmon, James O. Henderson, Green Rowland, William Rogers, Thomas Wilson, William D. Stillwell, William Shepard, Alfred Jobe, T. J. Jackson, Jesse Cadwallader, Andrew Layson, J. C. Mathony, Adam Matheny, Charles P. Matt, James Packwood, Clark Rogers. Or. Spectator, Jan. 20, 1848; Id., April 6, 1848; Albany State Rights Democrat, Nov. 2, 1877.
* ↑ Much of the information regarding this period has been drawn from the correspondence, published and unpublished, found in the Oregon Spectator of Jan. 6, 1848; and Oregon Archives, MS., 97, 101, 103.
* ↑ Ross' Nar., MS., 9.
* ↑ Perrin Whitman and Saffarans were also of the party. The former, on first seeing the volunteers, took them for Indians, became alarmed and fled into the woods, making his way to the cabins on the portage, which a party had been sent to erect. Mortified at this error, he remained there for some time. The accounts he sent to Oregon City, by parties engaged in the transportation of supplies to this depot, represented that the Indians had driven off all the stock belonging to the mission, and had probably destroyed the buildings; a report which greatly disturbed the governor, who in his letters to Lee inquired anxiously concerning the safety of the mission property, and says it was this report which led him to meet the house in secret session, and determined him upon calling out 500 men.
* ↑ 'Soletza professes friendship,' writes Lee, 'but I shall keep an eye on him.' Saffarans in a letter to Lee, dated at the Dalles Jan. 30th, says: I deem it necessary at this crisis to warn you against placing too much confidence in the fidelity and friendship of Homas,' another chief. The general feeling was one of distrust of all savages.
* ↑ Crawford's Nar., MS., 116
* ↑ This was the first intimation ever given of the value of that point for defensive purposes; or for any other, though it had been passed by thousands since 1842.
* ↑ There have been recently rescued from dust and oblivion some of the documents which show the manner of furnishing the first army of Oregon. Yamhill County sent the following: Andrew Hembree, 600 lbs. pork, and 20 bushels of wheat; Eli Perkins, 1 horse, 2 lbs. powder, 2 boxes caps, 5 lbs. lead; Wm. J. Martin, 1 horse loaded with provisions; Benj. Stewart, 2 boxes caps, 2 lbs. lead, 1 blanket; John Baker, 1 horse; Thos. McBride, $5 cash; James Ramsey, 3 lbs. powder, 8 lbs. lead; Samuel Tustin, $5 cash, 5 lbs. lead, 2 lbs. powder; Joel J. Hembree, 1 horse, 200 lbs. pork, 20 bushels wheat; James McGinnis, $3 in orders; James Johnson, $7.75 on Abernethy, 4 lbs. lead; T. J. Hubbard, 1 rifle, 1 pistol; Hiram Cooper, 1 rifle, 1 musket, 60 rounds ammunition; A. A. Skinner, 1 blanket, 1 lbs. powder, James Fenton, 3 pair shoes; J. M. Cooper, 2 boxes caps, 2 guns; James Green, 2 boxes caps, 2 lbs. lead; C. Wood, 1 rifle; J. Rowland, 1 outfit; W. T. Newby, 1 horse; Carney Goodridge, 5 bushels wheat, 100 lbs. pork; John Manning, 1 pair shoes; John Richardson, 1 Spanish saddle-tree; Solomon Allen, 6 bars lead; Felix Scott, 1 gray horse; O. Risley, 1 rifle, 3 boxes caps, 100 lbs. flour; M. Burton, 1 pair pants; Richard Miller, 1 horse, six boxes caps; Amos Harvey, 1 gun; James Burton, 1 sack and stirrups, Salem Mercury, in Albany State Rights Democrat, Oct. 12, 1877. Says Abernethy to Lee 'We are now getting lots of pork, and some wheat.' Or. Archives, MS., 103. Thomas Cox, who had brought a stock of goods across the plains the previous summer, had a considerable quantity of ammunition which was manufactured by himself in Illinois, and which he now freely furnished to the volunteers without charge. Or. Literary Vidette, April 1879.
* ↑ See Brouillet's Authentic Account, 57; Deposition of Elam Young, in Gray's Hist. Or., 482.
* ↑ The price paid for the prisoners was 62 three-point blankets, 63 cotton shirts, 12 guns, 600 loads of ammunition, 37 pounds of tobacco, and 12 flints. Seven oxen and 16 bags of coarse flour, obtained from Tiloukaikt, for the use of the captives, had also to be accounted for. Or. Spectator, Jan. 20, 1848.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Jan. 30, 1848.
* ↑ Or. Spectator, Feb. 16, 1848.
* ↑ There is a disagreement of dates here. In Ogden's letter to Mr Walker he says he reached Walla Walla on the 12th, at least so it is printed in the Spectator, but five days was too little time to get to that post in the winter; and 12 days was rather a long time, but many things might occur to delay him, and as the other authorities agree on the 19th, I think it the true date.
* ↑ 'When my messenger,' he says, 'arrived, Indian women, armed with knives and other implements of war, were already assembled near the house where the captives were, awaiting the order of the Chief Tiloukaikt, who was present. On being informed of my request, he hung down his head and paused, then with a wave of his hand peremptorily ordered the women away, who abusing him, called him a coward.' Letter of McBean, in Walla Walla Statesman, March 16, 1866. Mrs Mary Saunders, later Mrs Husted, disputes with McBean the honor of having saved the lives of the women and children by getting on her knees to Tiloukaikt; but I think the savage more likely to have considered McBean's threat than her prayer. Mrs Husted, who long resided in San Francisco, became, like many others who were of adult years at that time, a nervous wreck, incapable of reasoning upon the events which destroyed her mental and bodily health.
* ↑ Letter of H. H. Spalding, in Or. Spectator, Jan. 20, 1845.
* ↑ Brouiliet's Authentic Account, 60-3.
* ↑ Or., Spectator, Jan. 20, 1848. Brouillet, in Authentic Account, materially alters the matter and the meaning of Ogden's address, which was published in the Or. Spectator, less than a month after it was delivered, and I which I take to be correct in substance and spirit. The amount of falsifying which the clergy on both sides thought necessary in order to avenge sectarian affronts is something astounding to the secular mind.
* ↑ Contradictory opinions have prevailed concerning the complicity of Peupeumoxmox. Tolmie, in Puget Sound, MS., 28, tells an anecdote that is in his favor. A messenger from Waiilatpu, coming with the news of the massacre, was asked by the chief what part he had in it. On his answering that he had killed certain persons, 'Take that fellow,' said Peupeumoxmox, 'and hang him to the nearest tree.' Another statement is, that when the Cayuses proposed going to war the chief warned them not to make the mistake of considering the Americans cowards because they would not fight when encumbered with their families and property, though robbed and insulted, for he had been in California and seen that when it came to fighting every American was a man; and that if war with them were begun, they would all be killed off. Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., 91-2. There is a similar statement in Rept. of Com. Ind. Aff., 1854, 223-4. But I am of a different opinion about the Walla Walla chief. If he had been against the Cayuses, way did they make his son's death to figure so prominently in their justification? Why did he not warn Whitman? Why did he answer Ogden that Americans were changeable, but that he would agree with Tauitau, one of the most bloody of the Cayuses? Peupeumoxmox was as wily as his name of Yellow Serpent suggested, as I shall be able to show.
* ↑ This letter was intended to be sent by J. M. Stanley, a young painter travelling in the Indian country to study savage faces, forms, and costumes; but he seems to have gone to Vancouver instead. Stanley was from Ohio and was at that time known chiefly in the Mississippi Valley. He travelled overland to California by the Santa Fe route, and thence to Oregon on the bark Whiton in July 1847. From Oregon City he wen up the Columbia, and visited the Spokane country. Happening to be coming down to Fort Walla Walla at the time of the massacre, he was intercepted by a Cayuse, who demanded, 'Are you a Hudson's Bay man?' 'No.' 'An American?' 'No.' 'What then?' 'A Buckeye!' This being a new nation to the Cayuse, and one with which he was not at war, the artist was permitted to proceed. When he arrived at the fort he learned the significance of the questions. After Ogden's arrangement with the Cayuses, Stanley returned to the Spokane country, where he remained till spring. He was afterward artist to the Pacific railway expedition in 1853. Many of his Indian portraits were placed in the Smithsonian Institution, and were destroyed by fire some time later.
* ↑ Repugnant as was the idea of what the white women and girls had suffered at the hands of their captors, there were certain touches of feeling exhibited. When Miss Bewley was sent for it was yet early morning. According to her testimony, Five Crows prepared a good breakfast for her, with tea, and placed a new blanket and buffalo-robe on the saddle of her horse to make her comfortable, bidding her good-by in a kind manner. Spalding in his his lectures makes Miss Bewley say of her arrival at the fort: 'As we rode up, Governor Ogden and Mr McBean, with several Catholic priests, came out. Mr Ogden took me gently from the horse, as a father, and said, "Thank God, I have got you safe at last! I had to pay the Indians more for you than for all the other captives, and I feared they would never give you up."' State Rights Democrat, Jan 18, 1868. Stanley relates that a Cayuse who took to wife a girl of 14 years, after murdering her brother and gaining her submission by threats against the lives of her mother and sister, offered Ogden a large price for her, or to forsake his own people and live among the white people. Rept. Com. Ind. Aff., 1854, 219.
* ↑ The Oregon American was not the only paper brought into existence about this time with the purpose of giving utterance to sentiments which were not admitted to the columns of the conservative Spectator, George L. Curry, after being dismissed from the editorial chair of that journal for reasons before mentioned, started the Oregon Free Press, a small weekly in which he printed as much truth, welcome or unwelcome to the Spectator, as pleased him. It ran only from April to December 1848. It was printed from a press made in the country, and with display type wrought out of wood by hand. Address of G. L. Curry, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1875, 72; S. I. News, ii. 123; Richardson's Missis., 411; Polynesian, v. 27; Portland Oregonian, April 30, 1872; Gilfry's Res. Or., MS., 25.
* ↑ Among the writers who will not countenance the accusations published in the Oregon American in 1848 are Evans, Strong, Dowell, Waldo, J. Henry Brown, Victor, Deady, I. I. Stevens, and J. Ross Browne. Thornton Gray continued to put forth these horrible ideas.
* ↑ Cath. Church in Or., 165.