against him. And would it be for the interest of a young colony to so expose itself? Advice he had none to offer; he simply enclosed Mr. Spalding's letter to himself.
The Cayuses, having been prepared by the council on the Umatilla to treat with the governor of Oregon on the terms laid down above, were not prepared to receive Ogden with the ready consent with which they usually listened to any proposition coming from the fur company. They could see plainly that their hope of securing peace with the Americans depended on retaining Spalding and the captive families as hostages. Nor were they encouraged to hope for peace, as Spalding and Blanchet caused them to believe.
"We have been among you for thirty years," said Ogden, "without the shedding of blood; we are traders, and of a different nation from the Americans; but recollect, we supply you with ammunition, not to kill Americans, who are of the same color, speak the same language, and worship the same God as ourselves, and whose cruel fate causes our hearts to bleed. Why do we make you chiefs, if you cannot control your young men? Besides this wholesale butchery, you have robbed the Americans passing through your country, and have insulted their women. If you allow your young men to govern you, I say you are not men or chiefs, but hermaphrodites who do not deserve the name. Your hot-headed young men plume themselves on their bravery; but let them not deceive themselves. If the Americans begin war, they will have cause to repent their rashness; for the war will not end until every man of you is cut off from the face of the earth! I am aware that many of your people have died; but so have others. It was not Dr Whitman who poisoned them; but God who has commanded that they should die. You have the opportunity to make some reparation. I give you only advice, and promise you nothing, should war be declared against you. The company have nothing to do with your quarrel. If you wish
