nity to reach the public, for Greeley was much interested in Oregon, and printed all the news relative to it that he could gather, and had published a cheap edition of Farnham's Travels, which had an immense sale.[1]
Turning now to Boston we find in the records of his conferences with the Board the real history of his journey and its purpose. His own statement is summarized in the record as follows:—
"Left the Oregon country 3rd October, 1842, and arrived at Westport, Mo., 15th February,[2] and in Boston 30 March, 1843. Left unexpectedly and brought few letters. Letters of March, 1842, had been received and acted on. The difficulties between Mr. Spalding and others were apparently healed, and Mr. S. promises to pursue a different course. The mission wish to make another trial with Mr. Smith and Mr. Gray out of the mission. Mr. Gray requests a dismission and has left the mission and gone to the Methodist settlement. Mr. Rogers also.[3] … There is, however, an influx of Papists, and many emigrants from the U. S. are expected. The religious influence needs to be strengthened. The mission therefore propose and request that:—
- ↑ Weekly Tribune, May 25, 1843.
- ↑ If Whitman did not arrive at Westport till Feb. 15, it is clear that he could not have reached Washington, March 2 or 3, as is alleged in the legendary account. The date in Spalding's original article was "last of March" (see above, p. 12), but later he changed the date to March 3 to get Whitman to Washington before the adjournment of Congress. In the spring of 1843 it would have been almost if not quite impossible to go from Westport, about three hundred miles west of St. Louis, to Washington in fifteen days. In that year the Missouri river was frozen up from February until the end of April. (R. W. Miller's Hist. of Kansas City, 35.) Whitman, however, according to the recollections of Samuel Parker's sons, went to Ithaca, N. Y., before going to Washington. (Eells' Marcus Whitman, 15.) Mowry goes so far as to reject the date of Whitman's arrival in Westport as given by Whitman a few weeks later, in favor of an earlier date. This he obtains by accepting without question Lovejoy's recollection, after twenty-five years, of the date on which Whitman left Bent's Fort. He then asserts arbitrarily, forgetting that it was midwinter, that it could not have taken Whitman so long to reach Westport. See his Marcus Whitman, 169.
- ↑ The omitted passage reports the condition of the Indians and the friendliness of the traders at Fort Walla Walla.
