in all that came up between it and the natives. Any wrong doing that affected the company was punished surely and swiftly. For these reasons, when the Indians saw what deference was shown to the priests by those to whom they, the Indians, looked up to as "Tyees," whatever the priests said to them was naturally accepted with greatest respect. The ceremonials of the church service were attractive to them, and the instructions connected with them all made a lasting impression upon their memories.
In their teachings of the Indians, the priests did not hesitate to pronounce the religious instructions of the Protestants as the grossest of falsehoods, and the latter were equally vigorous in their declarations of the falsity of the teachings of the Catholics, and of their blasphemy. This had an evil influence upon the Indians, who could not understand the distinctions in religious creeds, and possibly I might add that many white people of the present day are equally benighted.
The Hudson's Bay people could have had no object in causing trouble between the whites and Indians at that late day. The treaty settling the northern boundary of Oregon at the 49th parallel had been signed more than a year; the region about Walla Walla was never of value for the gathering of peltries, so that if white settlers had begun to occupy the lands adjacent it was a matter of small importance to the company, whose rights had been abundantly safeguarded in the treaty mentioned above.
The rest of the party, mostly women and children, remained captives among the Indians, and the women, and even young girls, became the victims of the lust of their captors.
But for the immediate and vigorous action of the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, these would all have been killed very soon after the other tragedy. James Douglas and Peter Ogden, two of the grand men of that early period, had succeeded Dr. McLoughlin in chief control of its affairs, and then lived at Fort Vancouver. McBean, the factor in charge of Fort Walla Walla, sent off an express as soon as he learned of the massacre, and at once upon its receipt Ogden started for the scene of the tragedy. Arrived at Walla Walla, he demanded that the captives be delivered to him, and such was his wisdom, as well as courage and adroitness, coupled with the great influence of the company's officers among the Indian tribes, that he succeeded in rescuing them to the number of fifty-seven, and at the same time made no promises to the Indians of immunity from punishment
