and pathos of this incident thrilled the whole Christian church and kindled it to a new zeal and enthusiasm in Indian missions.
The first response to this appeal from the Oregon country was the mission of the Methodist Episcopal church, under Jason Lee, who came with his company overland to Oregon in 1834 and settled in the Willamette valley. The next response was by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, located at Boston and representing the Presbyterian, Congregational and Dutch Reform churches. Early in the year 1835 this board commissioned the Rev. Samuel Parker of Ithaca, New York, and Dr. Marcus Whitman to go to the Oregon country and explore the field with a view to the establishment of missions among the Indians of that region. Mr. Parker and Dr. Whitman set out at once on this mission, and joining the caravan of the American Fur Company which left Liberty, Missouri, in May of that year, proceeded under the safe conduct of this company as far as the company's rendezvous on Green river, one of the headwaters of the Colorado. Here they met representative men of the Nez Perces nation, who were so earnest in their entreaty that missionaries be sent to their people, that it was at once decided that Mr. Parker should go on alone, and Dr. Whitman should return and report to the board of missions and secure, if possible, the sending out of missionaries the next year.
Dr. Whitman's fitness for pioneer and missionary life was abundantly shown during his connection with the caravan of the Fur company, composed of hunters, traders and trappers; the type of men with whom in after life he was to have much to do. While at the rendezvous on the Missouri river an epidemic breaking out which threatened serious results, by his promptness and skill he not only saved the lives of many, but saved the expedition itself from destruction or disbandment. And later at the rendezvous on Green river as well as on the route he commanded respect for his professional skill and by his readiness to put his skill at the service of his fellow travelers won the good will of the men of the company.
Dr. Whitman lost no time in carrying out his agreement with Mr. Parker, but returned at once to New York and Boston. The spring of the following year found him again at the rendezvous on the Missouri river with a company of missionaries commissioned and equipped for the Oregon country. He had been married in the meantime to Narcissa, daughter of Judge Stephen Prentiss of Prattsburg, New York, a young woman of strong character and devoted piety, who had given her life to the cause of missions. The mission consisted of himself and Mrs. Whitman and the Rev. H. H. Spaulding and Mrs. Spaulding together with Mr. W. H. Gray of Utica, New York, in the capacity of secular agent. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding were the first white women to attempt the daring feat of crossing the Rocky mountains into the wild region beyond. But to their honor it must be said that they performed it with a courage and endurance that commanded the admiration of all who witnessed it.
They reached the Columbia river early in September of the same year, and proceeded at once under the escort of agents of the Hudson's Bay Company to Fort Vancouver. Here they were received with the utmost hospitality by Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the company. Dr. Whitman had already provisionally agreed with Mr. Parker that the mission should be established among the tribes east of the Cascade range. He was now advised by Dr. McLoughlin to the same decision. The result was that Mr. Spaulding settled at Lapwai among the Nez Perces Indians, on what is now the western edge of the state of Idaho; while Dr. Whitman settled on the Walla Walla river near the site of the present town of Walla Walla.
The site of what came to be commonly known as the Whitman mission was well chosen; not so much from the point of view of a mission to the Indians as from "the point of view of a vantage ground from which to influence the destinies of the Oregon country. It lay near the junction of the two principal trade routes from the east, and near to one of the chief forts of the Hudson's Bay Company. It was a station at once for observation and influence. The various inter-
