went so far, we are told, as to say that if the missionaries needed assistance in erecting buildings, or making other improvements, the company he served would prefer furnishing it to having these reckless men introduced into the Oregon settlements, all of which advice Captain Wyeth indorsed, though Gray believed it was because he felt the uselessness of opposing the autocrat of Fort Vancouver, whose fixed policy toward unprincipled men, whether American or French, was to keep them as much as possible at a distance.
There is no evidence that Dr Whitman shared the feelings of his subordinate; his letters to the American Board refer in polite terms to the assistance rendered him by the British fur company, and not to any opposition to his plans. Arrangements were immediately made to proceed to Fort Vancouver, where the missionaries were assured they could replace the farming and blacksmithing tools and other articles which they were advised to leave at Green River as too heavy to be transported on their flagging horses over the difficult route to the Columbia River.
Two or three weeks of rest, with a change of diet, and the favorable effect of the climate on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, made a decided improvement in the health of Mrs Spalding. But Whitman still hesitated to give up his wagon, which if possible he wished to take to the Columbia River; and lightened of all unnecessary things, he conveyed it with little difficulty as far as Fort Hall, receiving some assistance from the Indians.[1]
- ↑ Concerning the Flatheads and Nez Percés, and the correspondence of Parker with Whitman, something should be said in this place. According to
pensities dictate. It is said they have sold them packs of cards at high prices, calling them the bible; and have told them if they should refuse to give white men wives, God would be angry with them, and punish them eternally, etc. Parker's Jour., Ex. Tour, 80–1. Gray himself relates that one whom he met at Green River, and who afterward settled in the Willamette Valley, amused himself teaching his little half-breed son to utter profane sentences. Hist. Or., 125. Says Wyeth: 'The preponderance of bad character is already so great amongst traders and their people, that crime carries with it little or no shame.' 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101.
