strongly animated with a desire to be made acquainted with the white man's civilization. But the moment a controversy appeared among the white instructors, and it was observed that they denied the validity of each other's beliefs, and especially that they denounced each other as false teachers, the task became tenfold greater. The suspicion of the savages once aroused that some kind of deception had been practised upon them, it was not possible to allay it, particularly since so many circumstances confirmed it. A division, as I have previously shown, had almost immediately taken place, the Cayuses and Walla Wallas generally choosing the Catholic religion, and the Nez Percés the Protestant.
The mercenary nature of the aboriginal to which I have just referred led him to be governed somewhat by the example or advice of the traders to whom he brought his furs, and of whom he procured such goods as he most needed or desired. Where the teacher and the trader were of the same faith, it was easy to control, in appearance, the views and conduct of the natives. But where the trader was one thing and the teacher another in religious matters, the native according to his nature followed the trader. This had been illustrated at Fort Walla Walla, where while Protestant McKinlay was in charge Whitman had been able, though not without difficulty, to restrain the violence of the Cayuses, which broke out with increased force when Catholic McBean replaced him.
Ever since the return of Whitman, in 1843 from his unsuccessful mission to the American board, he had lived over a smouldering volcano. Year after year an army of white people came from east of the Rocky Mountains, on whom the aborigines looked with distrustful anger. It was true, they did not tarry in the Nez Percé or Cayuse country, but hastened to the Willamette. Yet how long should they continue to come in such numbers before the Willamette would not hold them?
