the whites and the Indians; but while the former usually recovered quickly, the latter, on account of their unwholesome mode of life, died off in alarming numbers. It is not surprising that this was so, but it could not be expected that the natives would understand the true reason for it. What they saw was that Whitman was saving the whites and letting their own people perish. Nay, was he not actually causing their death by administering poison instead of the medicine he pretended to be giving them? This suspicion took fast hold upon the minds of the Cayuses, and was the immediate cause of their determination to kill Dr. Whitman as they were accustomed to kill sorcerers in their own tribe, who, as they believed, sometimes caused deaths among them.
The massacre, November 29, 1847. The blow fell on the afternoon of the 29th of November, 1847, when Dr. Whitman, his wife, and seven other persons at the mission were put to death in the most barbarous manner. Five more victims followed within a few days; while half a hundred women and children, largely emigrants who were stopping at the station, were held as captives in one of the mission houses.
Rescue of the prisoners. The Indians supposed that by keeping control of these helpless ones they could save themselves from the vengeance of the white settlers in Oregon; for they gave out word that all captives would be put to death at the first news of war from down the river. Fortunately, before this came,
