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Hall. They were induced by the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company to leave them and pack through to the settlement. As Dr. Whitman had brought his wagon to Boise, Meek and Newell had said to Whitman's party in 1836, in the Green river rendezvous, if they (the missionaries) succeeded in forming a settlement in the Lower Columbia they would come down and join them.
The wagon and the two women were before them and the man that was now to test the practicability of the route did it beyond all others, and only for Spalding and Gray, his associates, having listened to Hudson's Bay Company's misrepresentations, he could have taken his wagon through to the Columbia and to his mission, as Newell and Meek, those of Rev. Clarke's mission, did in 1841. Those of 1842 left theirs at Fort Hall, from a break-up of Dr. E. White's party, through the same influence, which was then active to prevent American settlement. We must pass No. 16 and the fourteen cows as we know.the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company prevented their being taken further, and touch No. 17. Here we find some italics containing some statements of Mr. Payette about a road that Dr. Whitman and his good old Christian Indian Sticas had found or knew of even before the Northwest Fur Company had come to the country; and Whitman told Payette about it, as the best route for wagons or a road over the Blue Mountains. That Indian has the unqualified assertion of Senator Nesmith that he piloted the immigration of 1843 over that mountain road and was the best Indian he ever saw. The immigration took him at Dr. Whitman's advice.
Again as to time—"Spalding speaks of the Ashburton treaty as not yet concluded, although it was signed on the 9th of August, six months previous to this conversation with Webster. He also makes it appear that Governor Simpson was in Washington at this time, denying that a wagon road could be made to Oregon. But so far from being in Washington or thinking anything about a wagon road to Oregon, Simpson was at that time safe in London, where he arrived from a voyage round the globe in November, 1842, the object of which journey was the study of the fur trade, and not politics."
Mrs. Victor claims, under the above numbers, that the Ashburton treaty was signed before Dr. Whitman reached Washington, as against Spalding and Gray for copying it. We can admit that is a mistake to be corrected. But as to Governor Simpson, we claim that where his agents are doing his business and obeying his
