Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-06-28
"REMINISCENCES OF Is4s.
Thread Of he Indian War Stories Con
tinued by Judge shaw.

| Correspondence Of the Capital Journal.l
In my last left off at or near old
fort Walla Walla, when we were on
the march to the mission known as
Wyilstpugh, where Whitman and
those associated with him had been
murdered In November.
At this time the weather had be-
come rather warmIand we had to trav-
ell rather slow, yet we were enabled
to reach the mission that day and
found everything In horrible con-
dition. 1t was reported to us that
the bodies had all been decently in
tered by those sent to attend to
this matter by the Hudson Bay COM
pany but 1 was shocked when l
went to the place called the grave
Of those worthy dead, and found
that the bodies had been disinterred
by the wolves and pieces Of their
bodies were strewn around as If they
had been of no more value than those
OF wild beasts. DIR. Whitman's
body was almost entirely disinterred
aud what shocked the writer most
was to see the beautiful golden curls
of Mrs. Whitman scattered promis-
cuously over the ground as If the
evil one had done his best to destroy
every vestage of what this good and
noble woman had done for the last
ten years and had succeeded in
scattering her beautiful golden hair
rs IA trophy to the wind and sand Of
Walla Walla valley.
must be permitted right here to
express my disgust at this, one Of the
most revolving and blood-curdling
scenes of my life. My blood first
ran cold and then hot, and my rage
and that Of my comrades became
almost unbearable at times, and the
only satisfaction that we could hope
to attain, was the pleasure of seeing
in the engagements that followed
with our enemies that our unerring
rifles had done their work well when
we saw some red men Of the forest
tumble to the ground. And we
never saw such an occurrence as this
without IA sweet sensation of revenge.
When we were in an engagement
we invariably thought of she who
had worn that beautiful golden haIr
and took great pride in avenging
her wrongs, for we well remembered
that she was one Of two noble wom-
en- that left father, mother, brothers
and sisters and all else to them that
seemed dear, and made the trip
across the plains in the year 1886,
and all for the purpose Of carrying
the good news of the gospel to those
red men, who had at first received
them kindly, but by some unac-
countable change in their minds had
become the murderers of those that
would be their benefactors.
1t has always been my opinion
from what l saw while up at the
mission and from information gain
ed afterwards that some unprinci-
pied person or persons had been the
cause of this atrocious crime, all for
some sinister motive. Perhaps
jealousy or s, me other green-eyed
monster had su sgested the great
necessity to get rid Of rival that
was too full Of American principles
to suit those that entertained other
religious faith and held allegiance to
another government which desired
very much to acquire this vast dc
main for an inheritance for their
own constituency. Some of this
class of persons had been greatly
dissatisfied ut the arrival of 50 many
Americans In this country and were
therefore enraged at DIR. Whitman
tor making trip across the plains
in the dead Of winter In the year
ls42 TO inform his government of the
value Of this country and thereby
preventing an organized plan from
maturing that would have made
this country British colony. do
not wish TO he understood To say
that all this people were engaged In
this nefarious and criminal affair,
yet l firmly believe that some of the
leaders were In the plot and sanction
ed or suggested the plan TO get rid
of DR.. Whitman and those associat-
ell with him that they might gain
the emineace that he had attained |
by his indomitable will and eneryy
among those savages. In my opinion
there IL no American that had the |
experience that have had but that
will agree with me in every wold
that have written about this mat
ter II he will just clear his mind of
all former prVudleeson thisquestion.
We found everything around the
in had condition. Fences
were all down andalmost everything
,f value had been destroyed by the
Indians. The stock belonging TO