before this took place, and even the simpler transformation of the missionary Peter into the first Bishop of Rome required several generations.
But in the case of Marcus Whitman, the frontier missionary in less than half a century is transformed into a great historic figure who shaped the destiny of the far northwest and saved the Oregon territory to the United States. Such a transformation can be accounted for only in two ways: either the historians and public men of fifty years ago were unaccountably ignorant of an epoch-making achievement of their own day, which has since become known through the discovery of authentic sources of the history of that time at once explaining previous ignorance and establishing the real facts; or, an extraordinary legend has sprung up and spread until it has entirely overgrown and concealed the true history of a great transaction in our national life. If the last is the case it throws new light on the possibility of the development of unhistorical narratives and renders nugatory so much of apologetic criticism as is based on the belief that legendary narratives cannot grow up and displace the truth in a few years in an age abounding with documents. For if such a reconstruction of history has taken place in the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century, involving an event of such immense importance and world-wide publicity as the acquisition of Oregon, no principles can be laid down dogmatically as to the lapse of time requisite in some earlier period for the development and spread of unhistorical narratives.
In this case of the story of Marcus Whitman a critical investigation will show that it is the second alternative which is forced upon us. No new sources of value relative to the history of the Oregon question have been discovered and the extraordinary posthumous fame of Marcus Whitman is found to rest upon the unsubstantial foundation of a fictitious narrative first published many years after his alleged achievement.
When a traditional narrative is subjected to criticism two
