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opposed to his going, and thought he ought to ohey the Board, left Wai-i-lat-pu for home, he promised them to wait until the 5th of October before starting, and to take their letters and written re ports. Instead of this, however, he started on the 3d, and when the courier arrived he was two days on the road to Fort Hall. * * * What did he fear in the reports of Walker and Eells that he thus gave them the slip?"
Had Mrs. Victor been (as it seems to me) as earnest to find out the truth as she has been to secure evidence against Dr. Whit man, she would not have made this mistake. There is nothing in the statement of Dr. Eells that his letters failed to go. That is an inference drawn by Mrs. Victor. Dr. Eells only said that Dr. Whitman went on the 3d instead of on the 5th, as was the first plan. He also says that Mr. Walker and himself prepared and forwarded their letters "seasonably" to Waiilatpu. In another published statement, Dr. Eells says: "Probably events transpiring in the intervening time hastened his departure so that he left on the 3d of October." (Eells' History of Indian Missions, p. 164). Dr. Eells has never complained that Dr. Whitman gave him the slip. Only Mrs. Victor thus complains. I asked Dr. Eells if his letters arrived at Dr. Whitman's before the Doctor started and his reply was, "yes." His courier reached Walla Walla "seasonably"—before the 3d—and Dr. Whitman did not "give him the slip."
Tenth—Again I quote: "At Fort Hall the Hudson's Bay Company's agent advised him to take the southern route, and furnished him another guide to Fort Uintah and so on." As if the Hudson's Bay Company helped him on his journey. I ask for the evidence of this statement. As far as I know Mr. A. L. Lovejoy, Dr. Whitman's traveling companion, has given the only account extant of that journey. He says: "We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842; traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, where we remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The Doctor engaged a guide and we left for Fort Winter." According to the statement of Dr. Eells. (History of Indian Missions, p. 168). "At Fort Hall Captain Grant, then in charge, in order to prevent Dr. Whitman from going East, falsely said that the Pawnees and Sioux were at war with each other and it would be almost certain death for him to proceed. Determined to go, he changed to a more southern route; but the statement, though false, most likely proved the salvation of Dr. Whitman, as, on account of the
