no doubt if his plan succeeds it will be of great good to the mission and the country."[1]
This letter was endorsed by Cushing Eells: "I am happy to say that the subjects of this letter have been frequently discussed of late by Mr. Walker and myself. I do not now recollect that there has been any important difference in the conclusions arrived at." Mr. Spalding wrote from Clearwater, October 15, a letter of twenty quarto pages in answer to the letter of the Board of February 26, 1842.[2] It is a reply to the charges preferred against him and contains not a word about Whitman's journey. Mr. W. H. Gray wrote from Waiilatpu, October 3, 1842, to the Board to announce his appointment as "Secular Agent and General Superintendent of the Oregon Institute" and his release by the mission. He adds: "Dr. Whitman will be able to give you the particulars respecting the affairs of the mission and the results of the last meeting," etc., etc.[3]
Mrs. Whitman wrote to her absent husband from Waskopum, March 4, 1843: "I have never felt to regret in the least that you have gone—for I fully believe the hand of the Lord was in it—and that he has yet blessings in store for Oregon. Yes, for these poor degraded Indians." Again, from Waiilatpu, May 18, 1843, "wishing you my dear husband … as speedy a return to the bosom of your family as the business of the Lord upon which you have gone will admit of."[4]
In none of these letters nor in any received from the members of the Oregon mission is there even a hint that Dr. Whitman had another purpose in going East than to save and reinforce the mission. Nor do these contemporary letters support in the slightest degree the picturesque narrative of the scene at the dinner at Walla Walla, with the rejoicing over the emigrants from the Red River, for the very good reason that this Hudson's Bay Company emigration arrived the year before![5] All this part of the Whitman story is ab-
- ↑ Letter-book as before. Cf. the "Remarks" in the Miss. Herald, Sept. 1843, p. 356.
- ↑ Letter-book, "Oregon Indians."
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Letter-book, "Oregon Indians."
- ↑ Sir George Simpson, An Overland Journey Round the World, Philadelphia, 1847, I. 62 and 94. There were twenty-three families in the party. "Chaque année il vient du Canada un certain nombre de familles qui ne sont point engagées. À la fin de 1841, il en est arrivé trente de la colonie de la Rivière Rouge; près de la moitié s'est établi au Ouallamet." Du Flot de Mofras, Explorations du Territoire de l'Oregon, etc., pendant les Années 1840, 1841 et 1843, Paris, 1844, II. 209. Cf. Bancroft's Oregon, I. 252; also Myron Eells, History of Indian Missions on the Pacific Coast, Philadelphia, 1882, p. 166.
The mistake of dating this Red River emigration in 1842 apparently originated with Gustavus Hines in his Oregon: Its History, Condition and Prospects, etc., Buffalo, 1851, p. 387. This book was written while Hines was in the East (cf. Bancroft, Oregon, I. 225, note) and the mistake was a not unnatural slip of the memory. It had a curious result, however, of supplying the mythical occasion of Whitman's journey.
