thenceforth contained many complaints, showing that conditions were becoming more and more disheartening. By the close of the year 1845 it seemed to them that the only thing that could save the missions was the settlement of Christian families in the country, as Whitman had advocated for several years. But such help failed to come, and the lonely workers in this great wilderness were left alone to meet the awful fate which was about to engulf them.
The crisis reached, 1847; causes of hostility. Before the end of the summer of 1847 many of the Cayuses became so surly and insolent that Whitman seems to have thought seriously of abandoning Waiilatpu and removing with his family either to the Dalles or to the Willamette valley. Unfortunately this plan was too long delayed. When the emigrants of that year arrived, many of their children were sick with the measles, a disease which soon spread rapidly among the Indians as well. Dr. Whitman treated both
of religion and of civilization has steadily advanced among this people from the beginning." He declared that at his station twelve Indians were members of the church, and more than fifty had been received on probation; the school, which was exceptionally prosperous, had increased from one hundred to two hundred and thirty-four, chiefs and other great men as well as the children learning to read and to print. Sixty families had each raised over one hundred bushels of grain, and the herds were increasing rapidly. There is scarcely a doubt, however, that so far as the school was concerned, and probably in other respects, Lapwai was at this time the most prosperous of the mission stations, and this report is the most cheering one that we get.
