This company, like Farnham's, quarrelled by the way. The missionaries as well as the secular travellers lost their patience and good temper, and even the ladies of the party were not without their little differences.[1] From revelations made by Gray, and newspaper articles published by Griffin several years later, we learn that the Snakes stole some of the missionaries' horses, and that Griffin wanted to leave Munger and his wife at Fort Hall, on this account. The animals were recovered, however, and a conciliation effected. They all finally reached the Presbyterian missions in safety.[2]
In 1840 came another party of missionaries, of the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Harvey Clark, A. T. Smith, and P. B. Littlejohn, each with his wife.
- ↑ Farnham's Travels, 120.
- ↑ Griffin and wife wintered at Lapwai, and Munger and wife at Waiilatpu. Geiger, who with Johnson declared they were sent by people in the States to take observations of the country relative to immigration, being unable to explore it as he had hoped, consented to take the place of Shepard in the Methodist Mission school, which he retained until the arrival of the reënforcements of the following year, when he joined the mission at Waiilatpu, but afterward went to California. Munger and wife wintered at Waiilatpu and Griffin and wife at Lapwai. Griffin was a man lacking in good judgment; he had, moreover, an unkindly disposition, and in the matter of religion was little less than a fanatic. Early in the spring of 1840 he and his wife set out for the Snake country with the idea of establishing a missionary station and stock-farm. They were accompanied only by a native guide, who deserted them at Salmon River. After several weeks of painful travel they reached Fort Boisé, and were kindly received by Payette. Griffin's experience had damped his ardor for pioneering in the Snake country, and he returned to Waiilatpu. In the autumn of the same year he went to Vancouver, remained there as the company's guest during the winter, and in 1841, with McLoughlin's assistance, began farming on the Tualatin plains. Lee and Frost's Or., 210. Notwithstanding the favors Griffin received from the company, he afterward became one of its most bitter opponents, partly because McLoughlin had embraced the Catholic religion. Victor's River of the West, 377–8. Munger remained at Waiilatpu until near the middle of 1841. He was a good carpenter and useful to Whitman; but about that time the latter noticed that Munger showed signs of mental derangement, and fearing the effect of this on the natives, he suggested to the missionary that he return to the States. Munger started with his wife and child and a single male companion, May 13, 1841. Finding the American Fur Company broken up at Green
of the California adventurers turned back at Fort Hall, no guide for California being obtainable, but the others accompanied the missionaries to Oregon, where, when the Lausanne arrived in the following spring, Lassen, Dutton, Wiggins, Wright, and John Stevens took passage for California and settled there. Sonoma Co. Hist., 458; Sonoma Co. Hist., 61–2; San José Patriot, in S. F. Bulletin, June 5, 1879. The Germans probably went overland to California, as their object was to explore. Johnson sailed for the Hawaiian Islands.
