Whitman defiantly announces his intention to bring into the country "ten American immigrants for every one that would come from Canada." If the reader will compare this story with the contemporary letters and reports above quoted, and then with Gray's account, he will not easily avoid the conclusion that before writing this letter Perrin B. Whitman refreshed his memory by consulting Gray's History.
The other explanation was offered by Dr. William Geiger, who came out to Oregon in 1839, from Angelica, N. Y., the home at that time of Mrs. Whitman's father. In response to an inquiry from Myron Eells as to what happened at the Walla Walla dinner, Dr. Geiger wrote under date of October 17, 1881: "I think there is a misconception in the matter; Dr. Whitman had got information of Mr. Lovejoy and others of the immigration of 1842, that the United States was about to exchange this country for the Newfoundland banks fisheries, or a share in them, through the representations of the Hudson's Bay Company that the whole country was a barren waste. But the doctor, knowing the value of this country (Pacific Coast) went to Fort Walla Walla to find out about it (the proposed trade), and was informed that that was the expectation. (As witness the Red River emigration.) He, Dr. Whitman, determined to check the transaction if possible."[1] June 5, 1883, Dr. Geiger under oath repeated this explanation in substance, but omitted to mention the expected equivalent for Oregon.[2]
- ↑ Myron Eells, Marcus Whitman, M. D., 18. Perrin B. Whitman, at the instance of Gray, addressed a letter "To the Public," Oct. 11, 1880, in which he said "Dr. Whitman's trip East, in the winter of 1842–43, was for the double purpose of bringing an immigration across the plains, and also to prevent, if possible, the trading off of this Northwest Coast to the British Government." Ibid., 13.
- ↑ Ibid., 3. Perrin B. Whitman adopted a phase of this explanation in preference to his earlier one in the account of Marcus Whitman which he sent Mr. C. H. Farnam. There he wrote: "Dr. Marcus Whitman having informed himself of a pending treaty between the United States Government and Great Britain which would deprive our government of this glorious west, decided to proceed to
Whitman's action on a prospective immigration. It is hardly necessary to say that there was no such Hudson's Bay Company immigration in 1843.
