leader out of danger. There were, to be sure, bad Indians, and they were the occasion of considerable anxiety at times. On one occasion Mr. Hinman recollects being called from his duties in the schoolroom by the arrival of some Indians, who were taken into the Indian room for a conference of some kind. Mr. Whitman at this time seemed to be considerably worried, and asked Mr. Hinman to watch, unobserved, a certain Indian, called the murderer, who was described to him. Mr. Hinman knew nothing of the cause of the conference, but remembers the occasion as indicating some difficulty between the Indians and the whites. If the trouble was growing, which ended in the massacre of 1847, it had not become openly manifest in 1844–45.
The winter of 1844–45 was the second winter since the return of Mr. Whitman from his journey to the East, and Mr. Hinman's recollections and opinions in regard to that event are important to the student of history, in view of the discussion that centers about it. He remembers that Mr. Whitman often spoke of it in the family, but never in a boastful way nor with claims to extraordinary service. He was particularly fond of speaking of the surprise which he created among the people of the East in his frontier costume of skins and fur. In regard to the visit to Washington Mr. Hinman is decided, because he recollects that Mr. Whitman told him that he made it. He did not, however, hear, while he was with the family, anything of the conversations which Mr. Whitman is quoted to have held with the government officials at Washington. Mr. Hinman is clear that the visit to Washington was made before he went to Boston on missionary business. Mr. Hinman believes that the interests which Mr. Whitman had in Washington were the ones which took him East at that time of the year. He does not believe that any question regarding
