in the recollections of those days. That the confusion was natural is confirmed by the fact that in the earliest reports of the Whitman massacre it is Dr. White and not Dr. Whitman whose death was announced.[1]
As the years passed Dr. Whitman attached so much importance to his services to the emigration that he came to emphasize such a service as the main purpose of his journey to the East. If it had been among his purposes it was to such a degree incidental and minor that he apparently never mentioned it to the Committee of the American Board, nor did his fellow missionary, Mr. Walker, refer to it.
In 1847, in defending his return East in 1842, Whitman declared that the American interest in Oregon hinged on the success of the immigration of 1843. Had that been disastrous it may be easily seen what would have become of American interests. The disaster last year to those "who left the track I made for them in 1843 … demonstrates what I did in making my way to the States in the winter of 1842–3, after the third of October. It was to open a practical route and safe passage and secure a favorable report of the journey from emigrants, which in connection with other objects caused me to leave my family and brave the toils and dangers of the journey." He reiterates this same idea the month before his death.[2]
- ↑ New York Tribune, May 25, 1848. From Pittsburg Chronicle, by telegraph from Louisville, May 21: "By the arrival of Major Meek, late and exciting news has been received from Oregon." Then follows a brief account of the massacre. "Dr. White and his wife and eighteen others were killed." Meek's winter journey across the mountains to bring the news and get help was as remarkable a performance as Whitman's, although it has been eclipsed by the legend.
- ↑ These letters were printed in the Oregon Native Son, February, 1900, 471–472. In 1846, in urging courage and resolution upon a weaker brother, Whitman goes so far in claiming to have saved Oregon by his own energies that we get a glimpse perhaps of one of the germs of the legend. "I was in Boston when the famous time came for the end of the world, but I did not conclude that as the time was so short I would not concern myself to return to my family. … I had adopted Oregon for my field of labour, so that I must superintend the immigration of that year, which was to lay the foundation for the speedy settlement of the country if prosperously conducted and safely carried through; but if it failed and became disastrous, the reflex influence would be to discourage for a long time any
