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severity of the winter, he would probably have perished had he traveled the contemplated route. So Captain Grant tried to stop him, and I have seen no evidence that he furnished Dr. Whitman a guide.
Eleventh—Again she says: "Was it then that Whitman was planning to enrich himself at the expense of his missionary character that he practiced so much strategy? To me this seems to be the solution of the puzzle." Mrs. Victor seems to have an idea that Dr. Whitman was selfish and hypocritical, although she never saw the man. It would be well before attempting to defame the character of a man, now dead for thirty-seven years, to have proof of it which she can give. I have already shown that he did not practice the strategy with which she charges him. Hon. J. W. Nesmith does not agree with her. In an address before the Pioneer Society of Oregon in 1880, he says: "I regarded him as a quiet, unassuming man, and of great purity of character, utterly destitute of cant, hypocrisy, sham and effeminacy, and always terribly in earnest." Those who knew him best agree with the above. This is the first time I remember to have read any such charge against Dr. Whitman.
Twelfth—She says: "On reaching the frontier he found, as he had expected, numerous companies preparing to emigrate. He put himself in communication with those on his line of travel near St. Louis, and answered their numerous questions encouragingly. Further than this he had nothing to do with raising an immigration for Oregon."
Mrs. C. B. Carey says it was a pamphlet which Dr. Whitman wrote that induced her to come that year. Mr. John Zachrey says the same about his father, who came from Texas. Mr. J. C. Prentiss says he [Dr. Whitman] did all he could to induce immigration from New York. (Eells' pamphlet, pp. 30, 34.) And yet Mrs. Victor says he only encouraged those on his line of travel near St. Louis, and this was all that he did.
Thirteenth—Again I quote: "It is further claimed that Whitman piloted the immigration of 1843 to Oregon. Like the other claims, this one dissolves on investigation." Afterwards she acknowledges that he did something to find the road from Fort Hall to Grand Ronde, in common with his traveling companions, " all of them." If this latter statement is true, it is too much to say that this claim dissolves on investigation. It is true that John Gaunt was their pilot to Fort Hall, to which wagons had often come, and
