questions present themselves: "Is it true?"—and if not: "How did it come to be believed to be true?" In other words, "What is its origin and history?" The answer to the first question is of especial interest only to students of American history. The answer to the second on the other hand will be not only of general, but of scientific interest, for it will trace the steps by which the imaginative reconstruction of history strangely distorting the relative significance of men and events, has slowly but steadily pushed aside the truth, until it has invaded not only the text-books but the works of historians whose reputation gives their utterances a certain authority. It will also illustrate not only the abiding prevalence of the uncritical spirit in a supposedly skeptical age among all classes of people, but also how readily a fictitious narrative, if only vivid and realistic, and sufficiently reiterated, is taken up in the face of living witnesses who dispute its truth, and of perfectly accessible sources which demonstrate its falsity.
For these reasons and for the additional one that an examination into the origin of the Whitman story will throw light on its credibility I shall investigate the second question first. To enable the reader to follow such a study a brief outline of the accepted story must be given.
About the first of October, 1842, and during the period when the Oregon country was under the joint occupation of the United States and Great Britain, while Dr. Whitman was dining at a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Walla Walla the news comes of the arrival of a colony of Canadians from the Red River country. The assembled company is jubilant and a young priest cries out "Hurrah for Oregon! America is too late, and we have got the country." Whitman realizes that if Canadian immigration has really begun the authorities at Washington ought to know it, and a counter American immigration ought to be promoted, so that when the joint occupation of Oregon is terminated, the presence of a majority of American settlers may turn the balance in favor of the United States by right of possession.
