written from Clear Water Jan. 24, 1846, in which he states:
"And 4 or 5 of the only quiet hours in 24 arrive from sunset till 11 oclock at night which last winter I occupied in translating Matthew & this in translating Acts of the Apostles, And so the day ends.
In the midst of cares I am making slow progress in translating the Acts of the Apostles over 20 mostly adults are daily printing & reading the translation in connection with the gospel of Matthew printed at our press last winter."
But the translation, if ever finished, was never printed, for the missionaries voted to abandon the use of the Roman alphabet, as we learn from a letter dated Waiilatpu, June 15, 1847, signed by Mr. Spaulding "on behalf of the members of the mission present."
"It is the opinion of all the members of the mission now present that the Natives do not possess perseverance sufficient to hold them to study a sufficient length of time to enable them to read by the Roman Alphabet. We ^ have come to this conclusion after much labor & experience in teaching in the Roman Alphabet. Consequently we have no encouragement to proceede in our translations. We have no hope that they will be read."
The missionaries state that they have heard of the astonishing success of the Cree syllabic alphabet, and ask that it be sent to them with instructions for its use and advice as to its employment.
The Whitman massacre and the abandonment of the Oregon missions prevented any further translations.
In 1871, the American Bible Society reprinted Spalding's Gospel of Matthew, and it is interesting to note that but one typographical change was indicated in the book sent on as copy (now preserved in the New York Public Library), which was therefore printed exactly as written by Spalding 28 years earlier; whether a tribute to the excellence of his translation or due to
the ignorance of the Nez Perces language on the part of those having the matter in charge, few now are competent to judge.
No mention is made in any of the letters from Mr. Spalding now in the archives of the A. B. C. F. M. in Boston of any of the hymns or translated passages of the Bible, said by Mr. Himes to have been set up and printed by a tramp printer named Turner in 1839.
It is quite possible that all of Mr. Spalding's letters to the Board are not now extant, or that Mr. Spalding did not deem the matter of sufficient importance to mention.
Rev. H. H. Spalding was the author of seven of the eight books printed in Nez Perces, but it must not be inferred from this that his knowledge of the language was superior to that of his associates. On the contrary his brethren held his linguistic capabilities in very low esteem.
Dr. Whitman, writing from Waiilatpu, March 28, 1841., states:
"Mr Smith & Mr Rogers are the best linguists in the Nez Perces language but although Mr R is the best yet he cannot supply Mr S. place in the classification of the language for want of a more extended education. Neither Mr Spalding or myself are properly able to write the language & Mr Gray is far behind. It is our joint opinion that Mr Spalding cannot master it so as to be able to translate, or be relied on for books, or as a standard in any sense."
Rev. A. B. Smith, who seems to have studied the Nez Perces language more scientifically than the other missionaries, sending a long grammar of the language to the A. B. C. F. M. in 1843, says in a letter to Mr. Greene, dated Kamiah, Oregon, Sept. 3d, 1840, regarding Mr. Spalding:
"The views which he formerly entertained respecting the Nez Perces language, he had now found to be incorrect & has given them up. His views were these. That
the language was destitute of regularity, that it was
varied without any rule or reason, that it was in vain to
attempt to find out its grammatical construction, but
we must ourselves settle the language & bring the people
to it. Such were the views thrown out at the time of
our arrival here. Such notions led Mr Rogers & myself
to search into the grammatical construction of the lan-
guage & our efforts have been attended with so much
success that we have been enabled to find out some of
the most important principles of grammatical construc-
tion. The construction is indeed intricate, but as to
regularity it will not differ by a comparison with other
languages. Mr Sp. held on upon his peculiar notions
with such a wonderful tenacity, that he would not give
up untill long after he found himself far in the rear of
every other one who pretended to learn the Nez Perces.
He seems to have no taste for philological inquiries."
Mr. Hall, writing to the Rev. Rufus Anderson from
Fort Vancouver, March 15, 1840, says:
"I should have been happy to have done more in this department, and, after the expectations held out by Mr. Spalding, was greatly disappointed in not finding more ready. But I believe Mr. Spalding did not discover, till vrithin the past year, that he knew very little of the lan- guage ; and not then till he saw those who came two years later, going far ahead of him in its acquisition. The book now printing was prepared by Dr. W. Mr. Smith & j.Ir. Rogers, who has, probably, as good if not the best knowledge of the language of any in the mission."
An important misconception has been perpetuated regarding the identity of the press, which is still in ex- istence, and exhibited in the rooms of the Oregon State Historical Society in Portland.
The little press for many years bore a placard claim- ing that it was not only the pioneer press in Oregon, but was also the identical original Hawaiian mission press sent out to the Sandwich Islands in 1819 with the first missionaries in the brig Thaddeus, and first operated there in 1822.
As recently as 1917 a replica of the press was paraded
