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from Fort Hall tallies with this statement—thus I fail to find evidence that Dr. Whitman deceived Mr. McKinlay.
From Dr. Eells' statement in my pamphlet it is plain that Dr. Whitman told the missionaries that he wished to go East for national purposes and for the good of the mission, as already stated. There was no deceit in this.
The American Board at Boston, according to the statement of Mr. P. B. Whitman, a nephew of the doctor, "censured him in very strong terms for leaving his post of duty on a project so foreign to that which they had sent him out to perform; also informed him that they had no money to spend in opening the western country to settlement." (See my pamphlet, p. 12). According to the annual report of the American Board for 1843 (p. 169), on ac count of the visit and representations of Dr. Whitman, the order for the discontinuance of the southern branch of the mission was countermanded —so the Board was not deceived.
According to the evidence of Dr. Eells, the Mission expected that he was going both on missionary and political business—so they were not all deceived. Hence all these facts show that Dr. Whitman was not the deceiver Mrs. Victor attempts to make him.
Eighth—Again she says that he wished to bring out Christian families, "which measure he thought would have a beneficial influence on the Indians, and discourage Catholicism, of which he expressed a dread, although there was not, at that period, a priest of the Romish church in the Walla Walla Valley." These facts are literally as she states, only she insinuates strongly that Dr. Whitman had no need to dread the coming of the Catholics. He, however, knew that there was reason for him to dread them, and their own statement agrees with his idea. They say (History of Catholic Missions in Oregon, p. 64): "It was enough for them"—the Catholic missionaries—" to hear that some false prophet had penetrated into a place, or intended visiting some locality, to induce the missionaries to go there immediately to defend the faith and prevent error from propagating itself." And when they won the Indians from the Methodists at Nisqually and other places, they were not slow to boast of it. (Ibid, p. 89). There was reason for Dr. Whitman to dread them.
Ninth—In speaking of Dr. Whitman's leaving his station October 3, 1843, instead of on the 5th, as was his first plan, Mrs. Victor says: "I have pointed out that he told contradictory stories to several persons. When his associates from the Spokane, who were
