Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/690

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE WHITMAN MASSACRE.

1847

Savages as a Handiwork of the Creator—They might have been Better Made—But They are not so much Worse than White Men, who are Bad Enough—Rival Claimants for the Rewards to Follow their Conversion—Portentous Clouds Hanging over Marcus Whitman—Strange He cannot See the Darkening Sky—The Natives Maddened by the White Man's Diseases, and by the Coming-in of so Many to Take from Them their Lands—Attitude of Catholics and Protestants—Rival Roads to Heaven—The Savages Prefer their Own Way—And thereupon They Perpetrate a Most Horrible Deed.

The origin of Indian wars is always much the same. Mother Nature is a capricious parent and feeds and clothes her children indifferently well. In 1805 Lewis and Clarke saw the Columbia Valley tribes at their best. They had apparently attained to as much comfort and were as healthy and powerful as under the circumstances they could be. Could they have remained in that condition for generations, there is no reason to doubt that they would have continued to enjoy such peace and prosperity as belongs to savage life. Nor would it be contrary to the course of things to expect them to advance morally and intellectually, even while living under such hard conditions. The savages of the upper Columbia were very good men, for savages. It is true, they were thieves, and if their natural benevolence prompted them to relieve the necessities of the white strangers, they rewarded themselves the first opportunity.^[1] Thieving was a

1. 'There is no generosity in an Indian that I have ever seen in all my experience.' Strong's Hist Or., MS., 66. One might say the same with equal pertinence of white men.

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