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orders, he is de facto there, whether at Vancouver, China, London, Washington, or in the Rocky Mountains; his orders were being obeyed in every place he represents, and that his knowledge of the country was accurate, as represented by Rev. Mr. Spalding.
We now come to Nos. 17 and 18, which we copy verbatim, as all the parties named by Mrs. Victor, except myself, are now dead, at least we believe they are, and I have not lost my note-book nor my memory. The scenes and facts were too deeply impressed upon my mind at the time and since by culminating events to be forgotten.
The road spoken of as known to the Hudson's Bay Company was first known to Dr. Whitman from old Sticas, the Indian that piloted the immigration of 1843 through that route. Dr. Whitman had informed Payette of what he, with the Indians, had done to look it out, and wished to get help from the Hudson's Bay Company to properly open it, in order to get the wagon he left at Boise. The help was refused, and Newell and Meek attempted to come through it "with much difficulty," as intimated, and here is Mrs. Victor's statement. She says:
(17.) "There were several immigrants and travelers with the party of 1837, one of whom, Thomas J. Farnham, remained for several days at Fort Boise, and was shown by Mr. Payette, in charge, the cart abandoned by Whitman at that place. Farnham remarks that 'It was left here under the belief that it could not be taken through the Blue Mountains.' But fortunately for the next that attempted to cross the continent, ' a safe and easy passage had lately been discovered by which vehicles of the kind may be drawn through to Walla Walla. '(18.) The italics are my own, and are used to point out that the first suggestion of a ' safe and easy ' road to the Columbia river came from a member of the Hudson's Bay Company, whereas Spalding and Gray affirm and re-affirm that the company put every possible obstacle in the way of wagon travel." [Gray affirms the same to-day, December and January, 1884-5.] "Farnham visited Dr. Whitman's station, and must certainly have talked this matter over with him, and Gray and Spalding must have been aware of it."
Is Mrs. Victor's statement true or false? All at the Whitman mission knew of the practicability of a better route than the one used by the Hudson's Bay Company, that had less brush and logs in it, over a high rocky mountain. The wagon was not abandoned, but left for Gray to bring through at some future time.
