the life of Spalding as a personal favor to himself. Not knowing what course to take, Young Tiloukaikt after some hesitation turned back to camp, saying he would consult with his father. Here was the hardly hoped for opportunity, which was quickly taken. Abandoning his horses to the interpreter, and taking a scrap of food which Brouillet carried in his wallet, the stricken missionary plunged on foot and alone into the wilderness over which a thick fog settling concealed him from his enemies.[1] After six days of physical suffering from want and exposure, and great mental anguish,[2] he arrived at Lapwai, and found that his family was in the care of some friendly chiefs at Craig's place ten miles away.
When the fugitive Canfield reached Lapwai he found the Nez Percés ignorant of what had taken place at Waiilatpu, and advised Mrs Spalding to allow them to remain so. But the knowledge she possessed of the Indian character, and the fact of the intimate relations between the Nez Percés and Cayuses, decided her to break the news at once and throw herself on their mercy. In the absence of her husband, and temporarily of her brother, she confided the matter to two chiefs, Jacob and Eagle, who happened to be present, and who promised protection, but counselled removal from Lapwai. One of them carried a letter to Craig, and the other volunteered to communicate the intelligence received from Canfield to the tribe.
- ↑ Brouillet says that almost immediately after Spalding left him 3 armed Cayuses overtook him, who said to the interpreter: 'The priest ought to have attended to his own business, and not to have interfered with ours.' Authentic Account, 52–5; Shea's Cath. Miss., 478.
- ↑ There can be no doubt that Spalding's mind was injured by this shock. All his subsequent writings show a want of balance, which inclines me to regard with lenity certain erroneous statements in his publications. I find in the Oregon Statesman of August 11, 1855, this line: 'H. H. Spalding, a lunatic upon the subject of Catholicism, and not over and above sane upon any subject.' During all his after life, while narrating the events of that fearful time, his forehead was covered with great drops of sweat, and his eyes had a frenzied expression. Burnett mentions some of the survivors of the Donner party whose intellect was affected. Coleridge, in his Ancient Manner, well depicts this state of mind.
