Chapter XXII
The French and American settlers.--Hudson's Bay Company's traveling traders.--The Flatheads.--Their manner of traveling.--Marriage.--Their honesty.--Indian fight and scalp dance.--Making peace.--Fight with the Sioux.--At Council Bluffs.
The reader is already acquainted with all of the first missionaries, and with the governing power and policy of the Hudson's Bay Company, and of the different parties and organizations as they existed. We will now introduce parties of men as we find them in the Wallamet settlement.
There were at this time about fifty Canadian-Frenchmen in the Wallamet settlement, all of them retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company. These men, who had spent the most active part of their lives in the service of the company, had become connected with native women, and nearly all of them had their families of half-native children. This class of servants were found by the experience of the company not as profitable for their purposes as the enlisted men from the Orkney Isles, or even the Sandwich Islanders.
They were induced to allow those that had families of half-native children to retire from the service and settle in the Wallamet. In this manner they expected to hold a controlling influence in the settlement, and secure a population dependent upon them for supplies. It was upon this half-breed population that they relied to rally the Indian warriors of the country to prevent an American settlement. As was plainly stated by one of the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. F. Ermatinger, in the fall of 1838, in case any effort should be made to remove them from the country, they had but to arm the eight hundred half-breeds the company had, and, with the Indians they could control, they could hold the country against any American force that could be sent into it. The Hudson's Bay Company knew very well the power and influence they had secured over the Indians. There was then too small a number of outside Americans to make any effort to remove them, other than to afford them facilities to leave the country. With all the facilities they furnished, and encouragement they gave to go to the Sandwich Islands and to California, there was a gradual increase of the population the company did not wish to see;--sailors from vessels, and hunters from the mountains. These sailors and hunters naturally gathered around the American mission; many of them had, or soon took, native women for wives; the missionaries themselves encouraged them to marry these women. This soon commenced an influence exactly like that held by the Hudson's Bay Company through their Canadian-French settlement. The moral and religious influence of the English church had not been favorably received at Vancouver.
Gray procures his outfit at Vancouver, in January, 1837, and starts in company with Ermatinger on his return. First night camp at a saw-mill; meet a young man who had crossed the mountains with Captain Wyeth, and had remained as clerk at Fort Hall, under the Hudson's Bay Company. This young man has never risen very high in the community where he resides. For a time he considered he was an important member of the Hudson's Bay Company. His self-approbation was superior to the profits he brought to the company, and they found it convenient to drop him from their employ. He attempted a settlement out of the limits prescribed for Americans, and was soon compelled to locate himself under the influence of the Methodist Mission.
There was also in the settlement another young man, who about that time had taken a native wife and wished to locate at the mouth of the Columbia River. This privilege was denied him, unless he could procure some others to go with him. He had joined the Methodist class, and was considered a reliable man; he came to the country with Captain Wyeth, and had opened and taught the first school ever commenced in the country.
Ermatinger and company were detained fourteen days under the lee of a big rock just opposite Cape Horn, waiting for the east wind to subside and allow them to pass up the river. Ermatinger was a traveling trader of the Hudson's Bay Company. That year he was with the Flathead tribe. Gray continued with him, having his own tent and traveling equipage. The route traveled was nearly that since explored and located as Mullan's military road. We struck the Coeur d'Alene Lake and took boats, passed through the lake and up the Flathead River, making two portages with our boats and goods before we reached Flathead House, as it was called, a common log hut, covered with poles and dirt, about 16 by 20. At this point our horses came up. Their packs and equipage were all put on board the boats, while the horses came light through the woods and along the rough river trail. At the place where we found our boats, we found a number of friendly Indians, also at the head of the lake, and a few at the Flathead House or hut. Here we found an old Frenchman in charge, with a small supply of goods, and about two packs of beaver which he had collected during the winter.
We were joined by a part of the Flathead tribe. In a few days all were ready. The tribe and trader started over the mountains on to the waters of the Missouri, to hunt the buffalo and fight the Blackfeet. Our route was along the main branch of Clark's fork of the Columbia, till we reached the Culas Patlum (Bitter Root). A halt was made to allow the natives to dig and prepare the root for the season. The root is quite nutritious, answering the Indian in place of bread; it is somewhat bitter in taste, and to a person not accustomed to its use, is not a very agreeable diet. This root secured for the season, the camp continued over the dividing ridge into the Big Hole, or Jefferson fork of the Missouri. In this place we were joined by the balance of the buffalo Indians. All parties, persons, and property were carried upon horses. The camps usually traveled from ten to fifteen miles per day. It is due to this tribe to say that truth, honesty, and virtue were cardinal principles in all their transactions. An article of property found during the day was carried to an old chief's lodge; if it were so light that he could hold it in his hand and walk through the camp, he would pass around and inquire whose it was. Sometimes several articles would be lost and picked up; in such cases the old chief would go through the camp on horseback and deliver them to the owner.
Their system of courtship and marriage was equally interesting. A youth wishing to marry a young miss was required to present a horse at the lodge of his intended, ready for her to mount as the camp should move. In case all were suited, her ladyship would mount the horse and ride it during the day; at night a feast was had at the lodge of the bride, the old chief announced the ceremony complete, and the parties proceeded to their own home or lodge. In case the suit was rejected the horse was not suitable; he was left for the owner to receive at his pleasure; the maid mounted her own horse and proceeded about her business.
In case of any visitors from other tribes, which they frequently had in going to buffalo, they would caution a stranger, and inform him of the propensity to steal which they had learned was the habit of the Indian visitor. This tribe claim to have never shed the blood of a white man. I believe it is the only tribe on the continent truly entitled to that honor; yet they are far more brave as a tribe than any other Indians. They never fear a foe, no matter how numerous.
Our sketches perhaps would not lose in interest by giving a short account of a fight which our Flathead Indians had at this place with a war party of the Blackfeet. It occurred near the present location of Helena, in Montana. As was the custom with the Flathead Indians in traveling in the buffalo country, their hunters and warriors were in advance of the main camp. A party of twenty-five Blackfeet warriors was discovered by some twelve of our Flatheads. To see each other was to fight, especially parties prowling about in this manner, and at it they went. The first fire of the Flatheads brought five of the Blackfeet to the ground and wounded some five more. This was more than they expected, and the Blackfeet made but little effort to recover their dead, which were duly scalped, and the bodies left for food for the wolves, and the scalps borne in triumph into the camp. There were but two of the Flatheads wounded: one had a flesh-wound in the thigh, and the other had his right arm broken by a Blackfoot ball.
The victory was complete, and the rejoicing in camp corresponded to the number of scalps taken. Five days and nights the usual scalp-dance was performed. At the appointed time the big war-drum was sounded, when the warriors and braves made their appearance at the appointed place in the open air, painted as warriors. Those who had taken the scalps from the heads of their enemies bore them in their hands upon the ramrods of their guns.
They entered the circle, and the war-song, drums, rattles, and noises all commenced. The scalp-bearers stood for a moment (as if to catch the time), and then commenced hopping, jumping, and yelling in concert with the music. This continued for a time, when some old painted women took the scalps and continued the dance. The performance was gone through with as many nights as there were scalps taken.
Seven days after the scalps were taken, a messenger arrived bearing a white flag, and a proposition to make peace for the purposes of trade. After the preliminaries had all been completed, in which the Hudson's Bay Company trader had the principal part to perform, the time was fixed for the meeting of the two tribes. The Flatheads, however, were all careful to dig their war-pits, make their corrals and breastworks, and, in short, fortify their camp as much as if they expected a fight instead of peace. Ermatinger, the company's trader, remarked that he would sooner take his chances for a fight off-hand than endure the anxiety and suspense of the two days we waited for the Blackfeet to arrive. Our scouts and warriors were all ready, and all on the watch for peace or war, the latter of which, from the recent fight they had had, was expected most. At length the Blackfeet arrived, bearing a red flag with H. B. C. in white letters upon it, and advancing to within a short distance of the camp, were met by Ermatinger and a few Flathead chiefs, shook hands, and were conducted to the trader's lodge,--the largest one in the camp,--and the principal chiefs of both tribes, seated upon buffalo and bear skins, all went through with the ceremony of smoking a big pipe, having a long handle or stem trimmed with horse-hair and porcupine quills. The pipe was filled with the trader's tobacco and the Indians' killikinick. The war-chiefs of each tribe took a puff each of the pipe, passed it to his right-hand man, and so around till all the circle had smoked of the big medicine pipe, or pipe of peace, which on this occasion was made by the Indians from a soft stone which they find in abundance in their country, having no extra ornamental work upon it. The principal chief in command, or great medicine man, went through the ceremony, puffed four times, blowing his smoke in four directions. This was considered a sign of peace to all around him, which doubtless included all he knew any thing about. The Blackfeet, as a tribe, are a tall, well-formed, slim-built, and active people. They travel principally on foot, and are considered very treacherous.
The peace made with so much formality was broken two days afterward by killing two of the Flatheads when caught not far from the main camp.
It was from this Flathead tribe that the first Indian delegation was sent to ask for teachers. Three of their number volunteered to go with Gray to the States in 1837 to urge their claims for teachers to come among them. The party reached Ash Hollow, where they were attacked by about three hundred Sioux warriors, and, after fighting for three hours, killed some fifteen of them, when the Sioux, by means of a French trader then among them, obtained a parley with Gray and his traveling companions,--two young men that had started to go to the States with him. While the Frenchman was in conversation with Gray, the treacherous Sioux made a rush upon the three Flatheads, one Snake, and one Iroquois Indian belonging to the party, and killed them. The Frenchman then turned to Gray and told him and his companions they were prisoners, and must go to the Sioux camp, first attempting to get possession of their guns. Gray informed them at once: "You have killed our Indians in a cowardly manner, and you shall not have our guns," at the same time telling the young men to watch the first motion of the Indians to take their lives, and if we must die, to take as many Indians with us as we could. The Sioux had found in the contest thus far, that, notwithstanding they had conquered and killed five, they had lost fifteen, among them one of their war-chiefs, besides several severely wounded. The party were not further molested till they reached the camp, containing between one and two hundred lodges. A full explanation was had of the whole affair. Gray had two horses killed under him and two balls passed through his hat, both inflicting slight wounds. The party were feasted, and smoked the pipe of peace over the dead body of the chief's son; next day they were allowed to proceed with nine of their horses; the balance, with the property of the Indians, the Sioux claimed as part pay for their losses, doubtless calculating to waylay and take the balance of the horses. Be that as it may, Gray and his young men reached Council Bluffs in twenty-one days, traveling nights and during storms to avoid the Indians on the plains.
At Council Bluffs they found an Indian trader speaking the French language, meaner than the Sioux Indian, by the name of Papeon. The party had been twenty-one days on rations that ordinarily would have been consumed in four days; they had killed and eaten parts of two of the nine worn-out horses; they had with them six. The party entered the trading establishment and requested some food and the privilege of washing, not as beggars, but expecting to pay for what they required. They waited an hour or more; no food was forthcoming; Gray went to Papeon, the trader, and inquired the reason they could get no food. The old French imp inquired, in his broken French, "Have you got any ting to pa for de tings you vant?" He was asked if gold would pay him, or a draft on his company. "Oh, yes," he said, and in a short time food and what was required was produced.
This is only a specimen of most Indian traders of the Catholic stamp. There are honorable exceptions.
Chapter XXIII
Re-enforcement to the Methodist Mission.--Re-enforcement to the mission of the American Board.
We will leave Gray and party on their way down the Missouri River, and return to Oregon to introduce to the reader a re-enforcement to the Methodist Mission, consisting of Dr. Elijah White, a man that few who have dealt with can speak well of, utterly destitute of all morality and genuine piety, assuming the garb of religion to cover his baseness of heart and meanness of life. He arrived at the Columbia River in May, 1837. He entered upon his professional duties, and in a few months boasted of the liberties he had taken with most of the ladies of the mission who were so unfortunate as to receive his medical attention. It was easy to see the influence of such a man. His words were smooth and brotherly, his acts were poison and infamy. He never had a friend but he betrayed or swindled him in some deal. He would tell a lie when the truth would answer his purposes better. This man for a time had considerable influence; his calling as a physician was necessary and indispensable to the mission. Rev. Jason Lee soon found out the character of this wolf in sheep's clothing, and presented charges against him for his immorality, and expelled him from the mission. Previous to leaving the country, he called a public meeting and made his statements, and attempted to mob Mr. Jason Lee and get the settlers to give him a character, in both of which he failed, and left the country to impose upon the government at Washington, as he had done upon the mission and the early settlers of Oregon. We will leave Dr. White for the present, and give him all the credit due to his bad deeds and exhibitions of folly in his capacity as sub-Indian agent.
Mr. Alanson Beers, a blacksmith by trade, was a good honest man, a devoted Christian, a man whose moral worth was above price. True as steel, and honest as he was faithful, he was slow to believe others to be less true than himself. He was a pattern of honesty and piety, as well as industry and economy; the opposite of White in every respect, as was his wife when compared to Mrs. White. Though Mrs. Beers never claimed or aspired to shine or display more than she really was, yet her goodness of heart was manifested in her kind and generous treatment of all. If this man and his wife did not leave a handsome competency for their children it was no fault of theirs. Others may have felt it their duty to appropriate the orphan's portion and receive the miser's paradise. Mr. Beers came to the country full-handed, with a handsome competency to commence any business he might choose, independent of missionary patronage. He was more faithful in his department than most of his brethren.
He was considered by the early settlers an honest and sincere man; by the ruling spirits of the Methodist Mission, a faithful servant of their cause.
With this company came W. H. Wilson, an assistant missionary, of whose early life we have but little knowledge. From his own statements we learn that he had been connected with a whale ship as cooper. On arriving in Oregon as an assistant missionary, he was licensed as a preacher, and commenced the study of medicine with Dr. White, and, in later years, received the title of doctor instead of reverend. The doctor was a cheerful, whole-souled, good-sort of a fellow, with a greater abundance of interesting and funny yarns than profound medical skill, which always made him agreeable, and served to gain friends and popularity in a community that, as a general thing, would prefer a tincture of humbuggery.
The Misses Ann Maria Pitman, Susan Downing, and Elvira Johnson were also of this party. The first became the wife of Rev. Jason Lee, the second of Cyrus Shepard, the third of Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, who came to the country with the second re-enforcement to the mission, consisting of Rev. David Leslie, wife, and three daughters; H. K. W. Perkins; and Miss Margaret Smith, who afterward became the wife of an Englishman called Dr. Bailey. This gave to the Methodist Mission, on the 21st of November, 1837, Rev. Jason Lee (superintendent of the mission) and wife, Mr. C. Shepard and wife, Rev. Daniel Lee, Mr. P. L. Edwards, Rev. David Leslie and wife, Dr. Elijah White and wife, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and wife, Mr. A. Beers and wife, Mr. W. H. Wilson, and Miss Margaret Smith,--nine men and seven women,--with three daughters of Rev. D. Leslie. From causes already mentioned, the moral strength of these early missionaries was neutralized. The larger portion of them had no knowledge of the influences that were sapping the foundation of their Christian effort, and tending to destroy the confidence of such as were considered ungodly outsiders. Instead of meeting sin, and vice, and lust which could not be hid, and condemning and banishing it, the attempt was made to excuse and cover up a fault in a professed brother, and reprove others for less faults,--the mote and the beam. The legitimate result followed,--though slow, yet certain. Here was a noble field, had all the men sent to occupy it been of the right stamp! Still they toiled on, or rather continued to occupy a place in the country, to form a nucleus for a settlement. In this position they are entitled to much credit. The roving sailor and the wild mountain hunter looked to this wilderness for a home. The shrewdness of these men soon detected the assailable points in the mission's character, and adapted themselves to circumstances, and found it easy to profess compliance and receive the benefits of the association. There were few or none among this early set of missionaries that displayed much knowledge of human nature. They were totally ignorant of savage life, manners, and customs; hence were easily made the dupes of all.
In the winter of 1837-8, Gray is in the States giving an account of his trip across the Rocky Mountains in company with Messrs. Spalding and Whitman, and of his explorations of the country; the present and future prospects of the missionary efforts; the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company and of the missions; the fact that a wagon had been taken by Dr. Whitman and his party to Fort Boise, and that it could be taken to the Wallamet settlement. Said one man in the audience at Utica, New York: "How do you get through the timber on the route?" "My dear sir, the traveler is compelled to use the buffalo chips to cook his food for a large part of the route, for want of wood; there is not twenty-five miles of timber on the route from the Missouri to the Columbia." Of course a description of the vast plains and mountains had to be given, and the manner of travel and subsistence.
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent with Gray and wife, Rev. E. Walker and wife, C. Eells and wife, and A. B. Smith and wife, to re-enforce their mission. There was with this company a young man from Cincinnati, Ohio,--Cornelius Rogers,--active and useful in every department, respected and beloved by all who knew him. After remaining with the mission a few years, he received an appointment from the Board, but he had made up his mind to become a settler in the Wallamet, and made his arrangements accordingly. Captain Sutter came with this party to Wallawalla.
They reached Whitman's station the first of September, 1838, bringing with them to Fort Hall some fourteen cows. A majority of the party were made to believe that these could be replaced at Fort Colville with a better stock of cows, and thus be saved the trouble of driving them further, and accordingly made an even exchange of the choicest and best stock that could be found in Missouri for such California stock as the Hudson's Bay Company might have at Colville. This was considered by the greenhorns that made the bargain a good trade, till they came to receive the wild, furious, untamable California stock at Fort Colville, that required a Spaniard with his lasso to catch and hold, to get the milk for family use.
Rev. E. Walker was a tall, rather spare, stoop-shouldered, black-haired, brown-eyed, rather light-complexioned man, diffident and unassuming, always afraid to say amen at the end of his prayers, and requiring considerable effort to speak with confidence or decision upon any subject. This might arise from habit, or want of decision of character, or fear of offending. He had no positive traits of mind, yet he was studious, and kind as a friend and neighbor; faithful as a Christian, inefficient as a preacher. His efforts among the Indians were of the negative cast. The Indians respected him for his kindness, and feared him for his commanding appearance. Not at all adapted to fill the position he undertook,--as an Indian missionary in Oregon,--yet, as a citizen and settler, one of the best.
Rev. C. Eells, a short, slim, brown-haired, light-brown eyed, fair-complexioned man, with a superabundance of self-esteem, great pretensions to precision and accurateness of statement and strictness of conduct; very precise in all his actions, and about all his labors and property; with no soul to laud and admire nature, no ambition to lift his thoughts beyond the sphere of his own ideas of right, he was made to move in a small circle; his soul would be lost outside of it. There were but two instances on the trip from Boston to Oregon in which he ventured outside of himself. The first was at Soda Springs. The day the party arrived, notwithstanding they had made a long day's drive to reach that camp, the four ladies--Walker, Eells, Smith, and Gray--wished to go round and see the springs and drink of the water, and look at the Steamboat Spring, a place where water and gas issue at intervals of about a minute, like the blowing of steam. These places the ladies, tired as they were, must look at and admire. Rev. Mr. Eells puts up his saddles, buckles, and tents, and takes his Testament and reads his chapter, as usual, and after prayers retires to rest. Next morning all were up and admiring the grand display of nature around, drinking of the water, and enjoying its exhilarating influence. Camp all ready, on they move. Nothing would satisfy the ladies but another look at the Steamboat. All mounted their horses and rode down to it. Eells mounts his horse as usual, and comes along down where all stood watching and admiring the phenomenon, dismounts from his horse, and in utter astonishment exclaims: "Well, this is really worth coming to see!" The other instance in which he lost himself was in admiring the grandeur of the great fall on Snake River. He had no poetry or romance in his soul, yet by dint of perseverance he was a good artificial singer. He lacked all the qualities requisite for a successful Indian missionary and a preacher of the gospel in a new country. As citizens and neighbors, Mr. Eells and his family were highly respected; as a teacher he was unreasonably strict.
Rev. A. B. Smith, a man whose prejudices were so strong that he could not be reasonable with himself. He attempted to make himself useful as a missionary, but failed for want of Christian forbearance and confidence in his associates. As to literary ability, he was superior to his associates, and probably excited their jealousy; so much so, that his connection in the mission became unpleasant, and he found an excuse to leave the country in 1841; not, however, till he and Mr. Rogers had, with the assistance of the Lawyer, completed a vocabulary and a grammar of the Nez Perce language, which was the cause of Ellis's jealousy of the Lawyer and Mr. Smith, and also of an extra effort through the Jesuits and the company to get rid of him.
Chapter XXIV
Arrival of Jesuit missionaries.--Toupin's statement about Rev. A. B. Smith.--Death of Mrs. Jason Lee.--First express.--Jesuits at work.--The first printing-press.--The Catholic tree.
A short time after the arrival of the re-enforcement to the mission of the American Board, Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Rev. Demerse arrived at Wallawalla by the annual overland boats of the Hudson's Bay Company. While at Wallawalla, they induced a Cayuse, Young Chief, to have one of his children baptized, Mr. Pambrun being sponsor, or godfather. This was the first Indian child ever baptized in the country. It caused considerable excitement among the Indians, as also a discussion as to who was teaching the true religion. The interpreters of Wallawalla being of the Catholic faith, made free to inform the Indians that theirs was the true religion. The Indians soon came to the station of Dr. Whitman and informed him of what had been done, and that they had been told by the priest that his was the true religion; that what he and Mr. Spalding had been teaching them for two years past was all false, and that it was not right for the Indians to listen to the Doctor and Mr. Spalding. The instructions given, and the baptizing of the Indian child, were, unquestionably, designed to create a diversion in the minds of the Indians, and ultimately bring about the abandonment or destruction of the mission. I have never been able to learn, from any source, that any other Indian child was baptized by these priests on that trip from Canada to Vancouver. In fact, I see from their published works that they claim this as their first station or place of instruction.
The Rev. Mr. Blanchet was a black-haired, brown-eyed, smooth-faced, medium-sized Frenchman.
The Rev. Mr. Demerse had dark-brown hair, full, round eye, fair complexion, rather full habit, something of the bull-neck, inclining to corpulency. He was fond of good cheer and good living; of the Jesuit order of the Roman church; he seemed to have no scruples of conscience; so long as he could secure subjects for "mother church," it mattered not as to intelligence or character.
During the year 1838, three clergymen arrived across the Rocky Mountains: Revs. Walker, Eells, and Smith, with their wives, and Mr. Cornelius Rogers, Mr. Gray, with his wife, had also returned. These new arrivals gave an addition of nine to the mission of the American Board, making their number thirteen in all. The Methodist Mission had sixteen, and the Roman Catholic, two. The total number of missionaries in the country, in December, 1838, was thirty-one, twenty-nine of the Protestant religion from the United States, and two of the Roman Jesuitical order. The latter were located at Vancouver as their head-quarters. The Methodists were in the Wallamet Valley, with one out-station at the Dalles, Wascopum. The American Board had three stations, one at Wailatpu, one at Lapwai, and one at Cimakain, near Spokan.
This array of missionary strength looked like a strong effort on the part of the Christian world to convert the tribes upon our western coast. Had all the men been chosen with proper care, and all acted with a single eye to the cause which they professed to espouse, each in his distinct department; had they closed their ears to the suggestions of hypocritical fur traders, and met their vices with a spotless life and an earnest determination to maintain their integrity as representatives of religion and a Christian people, the fruits of their labor would, undoubtedly, have been far greater. As the matter now stands, they can claim the influence they reluctantly yielded to the provisional government of the early settlers of the country.
It will be seen at once that the Hudson's Bay Company was acting a double part with all the American missionary efforts in the country. On the arrival of Rev. J. Lee and party they sent for Mr. Beaver, an Episcopal clergyman. On the arrival of Dr. Whitman and party they sent for Blanchet and Demerse, and established their head-quarters at Vancouver. Blanchet took charge of the field occupied by the Methodists, and Demerse of that occupied by the American Board. A combination of Hudson's Bay Company Indian traders Roman priests, Protestant missionaries, and American settlers, each having a distinct object in view. Unfortunately for the American missionaries and settlers, there was no one bold enough to attempt to act against these combinations. Cornelius Rogers and Robert Shortess were the first to show signs of rebellion against the policy of the Hudson's Bay Company; Spalding, Whitman, and Smith chafed under the Jesuits' proceedings in the interior.
"About the year 1839, in the fall, Mr. Smith, belonging to the same society as Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, asked permission of Ellis to build upon his lands for the purpose of teaching the Indians as the other missionaries were doing, and of keeping a school. Ellis allowed him to build; but forbade him to cultivate the land, and warned him that if he did the piece of ground which he would till should serve to bury him in. In the following spring, however, Mr. Smith prepared his plow to till the ground; and Ellis, seeing him ready to begin, went to him and said to him: 'Do you not recollect what I told you? I do not wish you to cultivate the land.' Mr. Smith, however, persisted in his determination; but, as he was beginning to plow, the Indians took hold of him and said to him: 'Do you not know what has been told you, that you would be digging a hole in which you should be buried?' Mr. Smith then did not persist any longer, but said to them: 'Let me go, I will leave the place;' and he started off immediately. This circumstance had been related to me by the Indians, and soon after I saw Mr. Smith myself at Fort Wallawalla; he was on his way down to Fort Vancouver, where he embarked for the Sandwich Islands, whence he did not come back any more." This is the statement of old John Toupin, Pambrun's Roman Catholic interpreter, by Brouillet.
It will be borne in mind that Rev. Jason Lee started with P. L. Edwards and F. Y. Euing, across the Rocky Mountains, for the United States, in May, 1838. He met Gray, and party, at the American rendezvous that year, on the north fork of the Yellowstone River. Gray and party, on arriving at Fort Hall, received the news of the death of Mrs. Jason Lee, sent by Spalding and Whitman, and not by Dr. McLaughlin, as stated by Rev. G. Hines. Dr. McLaughlin may have allowed a messenger to go as far as Whitman's station, but made no arrangements for going any further. Spalding's Indian messenger delivered the packages to Gray, at Fort Hall. Gray employed Richardson a young man he had engaged as guide and hunter for the party, on starting from Westport, Missouri, to take these letters, and deliver them to Lee, for which he was to receive $150.
This express was carried from the Wallamet Valley to Westport, Missouri, in sixty days, forming the first data for the overland express and mail routes. The sixty days included two days' detention at Wailatpu, and two at Fort Hall. It seems that Richardson, the messenger from Fort Hall, met Lee, and delivered his packages to him at the Shawnee mission, and received from Lee the price agreed upon. I am thus particular in these little facts, that those who claim so much credit for Hudson's Bay Company patronage may understand what influences were in those early times bringing about results for which a combination of British fur traders now claim pay, and are awarded $650,000, in gold coin.
I have said that in December, 1838, there were twenty-nine persons connected with the Protestant missions in the country. This is not strictly true, Rev. Jason Lee and Mr. P. L. Edwards had gone to the States; Mr. C. Shepard and Mrs. J. Lee had gone to their reward. The devil had entered the field with his emissaries, and was exceedingly busy sowing tares among the wheat, through fear that the natives would be benefited, and the country become civilized. The Hudson's Bay Company and its servants, Indians and all, are about to become converted to Christianity. Strange as this statement may appear, it is literally true. The clerks, traders, and servants of the Hudson's Bay Company became catechists, to teach the Indians to repeat the catechism presented to them by their Reverences Blanchet and Demerse. Dr. McLaughlin and Esquire Douglas were both zealous supporters of the Christian reformation in progress in the country. During the year 1839, "Rev. Mr. Demerse (Jesuit priest) spent three weeks at Wallawalla, in teaching the Indians and baptizing their children," employing Mr. P. C. Pambrun as his catechist, and godfather to the native children. (See page 87 of Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet's "Protestantism in Oregon.") While the Protestant missions were struggling to improve the condition of the Indians, to teach them to cultivate their lands and become permanent settlers in their own country, and to give the Indian children a knowledge of books, the Hudson's Bay Company and Jesuit priests were equally busy in attempting to persuade them that the instructions given by these American or Boston missionaries were only to cover up a secret design they had to take their lands and property from them, and eventually to occupy the country themselves. To a certain extent Dr. Whitman's statement to them would confirm this idea. As soon as those priests arrived and commenced their instructions, under the patronage of the Hudson's Bay Company (for it will be remembered that their head-quarters were at Vancouver), their entire transportation was provided or furnished by the company. Doubtless it is to the assistance rendered these Roman missions to occupy the country, that the counsel for the Hudson's Bay Company, Mr. Charles D. Day, alludes, in speaking of the "substantial benefits to the people and government of the United States." Dr. Whitman repeatedly told the Indians about his station that he did not come among them to buy their land, but he came to teach them how to cultivate and live from what they produced from their own lands, and at some future time, if the American government wished any of their country, then the President would send men to buy and pay them for it. The difficulty about land had no existence in the minds or thoughts of the Indians till the fall of 1839, and after the renewal of the Hudson's Bay Company's license for twenty-one years. From that time forward a marked change was manifest in the feelings of most of the gentlemen of the company.
The first printing-press in Oregon was received as a donation from the mission of the American Board of Foreign Missions in the Sandwich Islands, to the mission of the Board in Oregon. It reached its destination at Lapwai, and was put in operation by Mr. E. O. Hall, of the Sandwich Islands Mission, and commenced printing books in the Nez Perce language. Both Mr. Rogers and Mr. Spalding soon learned to set type, and print the small books required for the Indian schools that had been kept at the stations. The books and instructions were furnished gratuitously to all the Indians that wished to receive them. This caused special efforts on the part of the priests to counteract the influence of the books printed by Spalding. To illustrate their ideas, and show the evil of heretical books and teachings, they had a representation of a large tree, with a cross on top, representing all religious sects as going up the tree, and out upon the different branches, and falling from the end of the branch into a fire under the tree, with a priest by the side of the fire throwing the heretical books into it. This was an interesting picture, and caused much discussion and violent denunciations among the Indians. Mr. Spalding, to counteract the influences of the Roman Catholic tree among the Indians, had Mrs. Spalding paint a number of sheets of cap-paper, commencing with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, representing the shrubbery, and all kinds of fruits, and the serpent, and the angel (after the fall) as guarding the garden; giving the pictures of most of the prominent patriarchs; Noah and the ark, and the prophets, down to Christ and the twelve apostles; showing the crucifixion of Christ by the Roman soldiers, and on down to the time when they adopted the cross as a form of worship, and the priests as kneeling to images. Spalding's pictures were in such form, and contained so much Bible history and information, that his Indian preachers, to whom he gave them, could attract larger crowds of Indians, to listen to the instructions given by Spalding, than those who had the Catholic tree. This exasperated, or stirred up, as the Indians expressed it, all their bad feelings toward each other, and caused quarrels between those that were friends before,--a repetition of sectarian quarrels in all ages, and among every people not understanding the true principles of a genuine Christianity.
The main object of the priests was to destroy all interest in books, and thereby check the growing influence of the American missionaries in the country, substituting pictures and beads in place of knowledge.
Chapter XXV
Independent missionaries arrive.--Their troubles.--Conversion of Indiana at the Dalles.--Their motives.--Emigrants of 1839.--Blubber-Mouth Smith.--Re-enforcement of the Methodist Mission in 1840.--Father De Smet.--Rev. Harvey Clark and associates.--Ewing Young.--Names of missionaries and settlers.
In the fall of 1839, the Rev. J. S. Griffin and wife arrived at Dr. Whitman's station. Mr. Griffin had undertaken an independent mission, in company with a Mr. Munger and wife. They had received an outfit from some warm-hearted Christians of the Litchfield North Association, of Connecticut. Mr. Griffin reached St. Louis a single man, fell in love and married on sight, I do not know whether it was first or second. At all events, Rev. Mr. Griffin and Mr. Munger and their wives consented to travel together till they reached Fort Hall, at which place Mr. Griffin, being the getter-up of the mission and claiming ecclesiastical jurisdiction, took it upon himself to leave Mr. Munger and his wife at Fort Hall, to take care of themselves as best they could. Frank Ermatinger, of the Hudson's Bay Company, at once furnished Mr. Munger and his wife the means of transportation, and brought them to Dr. Whitman's station, where he knew Mr. Munger could find a place for himself and wife. This transaction of Mr. Griffin injured his usefulness as a minister, and left him in the country but little inspected by any who knew of his conduct to a fellow-traveler and an intelligent Christian woman. The fact that Mr. Munger afterward became deranged, or even that he was partially deranged at Fort Hall, or before they reached that place, is no excuse for his treating a man in that condition and his wife as he did. Mr. Griffin claims that Mr. Ermatinger stole three of his horses, or had them hid, when at Fort Hall, to get Mr. Munger and wife to travel with him, and, by so doing, give the impression that he had abandoned them. From a careful review of Mr. Griffin's lengthy defense in this case, we can not conceive that any further change or correction is required, as the facts stated are by him admitted. From Mr. Griffin's statement we are satisfied that improper and undue influences were used to break up and defeat his Indian missionary plans and settlement by Mr. Ermatinger and the Hudson's Bay Company, and also to destroy his clerical influence in the country. Unfortunately, Mr. Griffin gave too much cause for his enemies to do as they did.
In the winter of 1850, Mr. Griffin made an attempt to pass the Salmon River Mountains to Payette River, to establish a mission among the Snake Indians in which he failed and found his way into the Wallamet as a settler, where he still remains.
There were with Mr. Griffin's party some four men, one by the name of Ben Wright, who hail been a Methodist preacher in the States, but whose religion failed him on his way over the mountains. He reached the Dalles, where he renewed his religion under Rev. Mr. Perkins and D. Lee.
While at the Dalles, the three clergymen succeeded in converting, as they supposed, a large number of the Indians. While this Indian revival was in progress the writer had occasion to visit Vancouver. On his way, he called on the missionaries at the Dalles, and, in speaking of the revival among the Indians, we remarked that, in our opinion, most of the religious professions of the natives were from selfish motives. Mr. Perkins thought not; he named one Indian that, he felt certain, was really converted, if there was a true conversion. In a short time Daniel Lee, his associate, came in, and remarked: "What kind of a proposition do you think ---- (naming Mr. Perkins' truly converted Indian) has made to me?" Perkins replied: "Perhaps he will perform the work we wished him to do." "No," says Lee; "he says he will pray a whole year if I give him a shirt and a capote." This fact shows that the natives who were supposed to be converted to Christianity were making these professions to gain presents from the missionaries. We have witnessed similar professions among the Nez Perce and Cayuse Indians. The giving of a few presents of any description to them induces them to make professions corresponding to the wish of the donor.
With Messrs. Griffin, Munger, and Wright, came Messrs. Lawson, Keiser, and Geiger, late in the fall of 1839; also a man by the name of Farnam, who seemed to be an explorer or tourist. I met him at Vancouver, where he was receiving the hospitality of the Hudson's Bay Company, and collecting material for a journal, or history of Oregon. It is said of him that, on starting from the States, he succeeded in getting himself appointed captain of a company consisting of some fourteen men. He soon attempted to exercise absolute control of the company, which caused a division. The party voted to suspend his official functions, and finally suspended him and expelled him from the train. On returning to the States he published a book, which, as was to be expected, was favorable to himself and friends (if he had any), and severe on his opposers or enemies. The professed object of the party was to form a settlement in Oregon. In consequence of the course pursued by Farnam, it all broke up. A man called Blubber-Mouth Smith, Blair, a millwright, and Robert Shortess were of the party. These all found their way into Oregon, while the balance of the party went south and wintered in the mountains. Mr. Farnam was furnished a free passage to the Sandwich Islands by the Hudson's Bay Company, for which his traveling companions and those best acquainted with him have given the company credit, as one good act.
Sydney Smith--called "Blubber-Mouth," from the fact that he was a great talker and fond of telling big yarns, which he, no doubt, had repeated so often that he believed them to be true, and would appear somewhat offended if his statements were not believed by others--had a tolerably fair education, and appeared to understand the lottery business, as conducted in some of the States. He was a man who had read considerable in his early days, and had he been less boisterous and persistent in statements that appeared improbable to others, would have been far more reliable and useful. As it was, in those early times, his knowledge and free-speaking became quite useful, when combined with the hearty action he gave to the objects in contemplation. He was ambitious and extremely selfish, and, when opposed in his plans, quite unreasonable.
Robert Shortess possessed a combination of qualities such as should have formed one of the best and noblest of men; with a good memory, extensive reading, inflexible purpose, strong hate, affectionate and kind, skeptical and religious, honest and liberal to a fault, above medium height, light-brown hair, blue eyes, and thin and spare features. His whole life is a mystery, his combinations a riddle. He early entered with heart and soul into the situation and condition of the settlements, and stood for their rights in opposition to all the combined influences in the country. As a politician he acts on the principle of right, without any regard to expediency. As a religious man he has no faith; as a skeptic he is severe on all alike. The country owes much to him for his labor and influence in combating slavery and shaping the organic policy of the settlements.
At the close of 1839, there were ten Protestant ministers and two Roman priests, two physicians, six laymen, and thirteen American women in the country--twenty-nine in all--connected with the Protestant missions, or under their immediate control, and twenty settlers, besides about ten men that were under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company, yet having strong American feelings. There were also ten American children, five of them born in the country. Mrs. Whitman gave birth to the first white child, a daughter, born on this coast, who was drowned in the Wallawalla River at about two years of age; Mrs. Spalding the second, a daughter, still living; Mrs. Elkanah Walker the first boy, and Mrs. W. H. Gray, the second. These boys are both making good names for themselves. It is to be hoped that every act and effort of their lives will be alike honorable to their parents, themselves, and their native country. As to the first daughter of Oregon, I regret to say, she disobeyed the wish of her parents and friends, and married a man whose early education was neglected, but who has natural ability and energy to rise above his present position, obtain an education, and become an ornament to his adopted country, and an honor to Oregon's eldest daughter.
On the first of June of this year, the Lausanne, Captain Spalding, arrived in the Columbia River with a re-enforcement for the Methodist Mission of eight clergymen, five laymen, and one physician, all with wives, five single ladies, and fifteen children, belonging to the different families, with a full supply of goods, such as were needed and appropriate for the settlement, the various missions, and for Indian trade. September following, Rev. Harvey Clark and wife, A. T. Smith and wife, and P. B. Littlejohn and wife, arrived across the Rocky Mountains. With this company came eleven mountain men, eight of them with native wives. We now had twenty-one Protestant ministers, three Roman priests, fifteen lay members of the Protestant Church, thirty-four white women, thirty-five American settlers, and thirty-two white children--one hundred and eight persons immediately under control of the missions. Thirty-six settlers, twenty-five of them with native wives. These thirty-six settlers are counted as outside the missions and Hudson's Bay Company. There were about fifty Canadian-French under the control of the company.
Thus we can begin to see the development of the three influences or parties. The Hudson's Bay Company had in their religious element three Romish priests, assisted actively by all the Canadian-French Catholics and such clerks as Pambrun, Guinea, Grant, and McBean, with such interpreters as old Toupin, of whom Mr. Parker, in his journal, says: "The interpreter I had been expecting did not arrive, and consequently much of what I wished to say to these hundreds of Indians could not be communicated for want of a medium." On the preceding page, Mr. Parker remarks: "But as I have little prospect of the arrival of my interpreter, I shall probably be left to commiserate their anxiety, while it will be out of my power to do them good."
Old John Toupin, under the sanctity of a Roman Catholic oath, says, at St. Louis, of Wallamet, on September 24, 1848; "I have been seventeen years employed as interpreter at Fort Wallawalla. I was there when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came to select places for Presbyterian missions among the Cayuses and Nez Perces, and to ask lands for those missions. He employed me as interpreter in his negotiations with the Indians on that occasion." Mr. Parker has just said "the interpreter I had been expecting did not arrive." Toupin says: "Mr. Pambrun, the gentleman then in charge of the fort, accompanied me to the Cayuses and Nez Perces. Mr. Parker, in company with Mr. Pambrun, an American, and myself, went first to the Cayuses, upon the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to three chiefs,--Splitted Lip, or Yomtip; Red Cloak, or Waptachtakamal; and Feather Cap, or Tilokaikt." Having met them at that place, he told them that he was coming to select a place to build a preaching-house, to teach them how to live, and to teach school to their children, and that he would not come himself to establish the mission, but a doctor, or medicine man, would come in his place; that the doctor would be the chief of the mission, and would come in the following spring. "I came to select a place for a mission," said he, "but I do not intend to take your lands for nothing. After the doctor is come, there will come every year a big ship loaded with goods to be divided among the Indians. These goods will not be sold, but given to you. The mission will bring you plows and hoes to learn you how to cultivate the land, and they will not sell, but give them to you." From the Cayuses Mr. Parker went to the Nez Perces, and there he made the same promises to the Indians as at Wailatpu. "Next spring there will come a missionary to establish himself here and take a piece of land; but he will not take it for nothing, you shall be paid every year; this is the American fashion." This statement is made by authority of Rev. J. B. A. Brouillet; vicar-general of Wallawalla.
Rev. Mr. Parker, as before remarked, and as his journal shows, soon understood all the maneuverings of this Hudson's Bay Company. He had no confidence in their friendship or their interpreters. As a matter of policy they could do no less than treat him kindly, or, more properly, civilly, and allow him to leave the country, as he did. But mark the strictness and care of the company to impress the necessity of compliance with their arrangements upon the minds of those that followed Mr. Parker. Keep the massacre to which Vicar-General Brouillet refers before your mind. Life and blood and treasure have been expended. The fair land we inhabit was not secured without a struggle. The early Protestant missions were not defeated and broken up without outside influences. The Indians were not abandoned till they had dipped their hands in the blood of their best and truest friend, and "become seven-fold more the children of the devil than they were in their native state," by the teachings they had received from malicious and interested parties to make them so.
Father P. J. De Smet, from Brouillet's statements, was among the Flatheads and at Wallawalla in 1840. This priest boasted of his belonging to the Jesuit order of the Romish Church. He usually wore a black frock-coat, was of full habit, arrogant and bigoted in his opinions, and spoke with considerable sarcasm and contempt of all Americans, and especially of the missionaries, as an ignorant set of men to represent the American churches. He would be considered, in his church, a zealous and faithful priest of the order of Jesus. His religious instructions to the Indians were simple and easy to be understood: "Count your beads, hate or kill the Suapies (Americans), and kiss the cross."
Rev. Harvey Clark was a man whose religion was practical, whose labors were without ceasing, of slender frame, black hair, deep, mellow voice, kind and obliging to all. He organized the first Congregational Church in Tualatin Plains, and one in Oregon City, and was the getter-up of the Pacific University at Forest Grove; a warm friend to general education and all objects calculated to do good to any and all of his fellow-creatures. But few who knew him did not respect and esteem him for his sincere piety and Christian conduct. He came to the country as a missionary sent out by some of the northwestern churches in the United States, without any definite organization further than sufficient to furnish the means for outfit for himself and associates,--Smith and Littlejohn and their wives,--trusting Providence and their own strong arms and willing hearts to labor and do all they could for a subsistence. Mr. Clark was perhaps the best man that could have been sent with the early settlers. He early gained their confidence and esteem, and was always a welcome visitor among them. He had not that stern commanding manner which is usual to egotists of the clerical order, but was of the mild, persuasive kind, that wins the rough heart and calms the stormy passions. The country is blessed by his having lived in it.
A. T. Smith, the associate of Rev. H. Clark was an honest and substantial farmer, a sincere and devout Christian, a man not forward in forming society, yet firm and stable in his convictions of right; liberal and generous to all objects of real worth; not easily excited, or ambitious of political preferment. His wife seemed, in all her life and actions, to be a suitable helpmeet for him. They came early to this country, and have ever been substantial and useful citizens, and supporters of morality and religion. They were among the earliest settlers at Forest Grove, and the first members of Rev. H. Clark's church.
P. B. Littlejohn was the opposite of Smith, a confirmed hypochondriac; yet, under excitement that was agreeable to his ideas, a useful man. Owing to his peculiar temperament, or the disease with which he was afflicted, his usefulness, and that of an interesting and Christian wife, were cramped and destroyed. He returned to the States with his family in 1845.
At this point, perhaps a statement of all the names of persons I have been able to collect and recollect, and the year they arrived in the country, will not be uninteresting to the reader. A short history of most of them has already been given.
In the year 1834, Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and P. L. Edwards, connected with the Methodist Mission; Captain N. Wyeth, American fur trader, and of his party in 1832, S. H. Smith, Burdet, Greeley, Sergeant, Bull, St. Clair, and Whittier (who was helped to or given a passage to the Sandwich Islands by the Hudson's Bay Company); Brock, a gunsmith; Tibbets, a stone-cutter; Moore, killed by the Blackfeet Indians; Turnbull, who killed himself by overeating at Vancouver. There was also in the country a man by the name of Felix Hathaway, saved from the wreck of the William and Ann. Of this number, Smith, Sergeant, Tibbets, and Hathaway remained. Of the party in 1834, James A. O'Neil, T. J. Hubbard, and Courtney M. Walker remained in the country, making six of Wyeth's men and one sailor. C. M. Walker came with Lee's company. With Ewing Young, from California, came, in this year, John McCarty, Carmichael, John Hauxhurst, Joseph Gale, John Howard, Kilborn, Brandywine, and George Winslow, a colored man. By the brig Maryland, Captain J. H. Couch, G. W. Le Breton, John McCaddan, and William Johnson. An English sailor, by the name of Richard or Dick McCary, found his way into the settlement from the Rocky Mountains.
In the year 1835 it does not appear that any settlers arrived in the country. Rev. Samuel Parker visited and explored it under the direction of the American Board of Foreign Missions.
In 1836, Rev. H. Spalding, Dr. M. Whitman, W. H. Gray, Mrs. Eliza Spalding, and Mrs. Narcissa Whitman, missionaries of the American Board, and Rev. Mr. Beaver, Episcopal chaplain at Vancouver, and Mrs. Beaver. There appear to have been no settlers this year; at least, none known to us.
In 1837, Mrs. A. M. Lee, Mrs. S. Shepard, Dr. E. White, Mrs. M. White, A. Beers, Mrs. R. Beers, Miss E. Johnson, W. H. Wilson, Mr. J. Whitcomb, members of the Methodist Episcopal Mission. Second re-enforcement this year: Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, Rev. David Leslie, Mrs. Leslie, Misses Satira, Mary, and Sarah Leslie, Miss Margaret Smith, Dr. J. Bailey, an Englishman, George Gay, and John Turner.
In 1838, Rev. Elkanah Walker, Mrs. Mary Walker, Rev. Cushing Eells, Mrs. Elvira Eells, Rev. A. B. Smith, Mrs. E. Smith, and Mrs. Mary A. Gray, missionaries of the American Board. As laborers under special contract not to trade in furs or interfere with Hudson's Bay Company's trade, James Conner, native wife, and one child, and Richard Williams, both from Rocky Mountains. Jesuit priests: Rev. F. N. Blanchet, Rev. Demerse, located at Vancouver and French Prairie.
In 1839, Rev. J. S. Griffin, Mrs. Griffin, Asael Munger, Mrs. Mary Munger, Independent Protestant Mission; Robert Shortess, J. Farnam, Sydney Smith, Mr. Lawson, Rev. Ben. Wright (Independent Methodist), Wm. Geiger, Mr. Keizer, John Edmund Pickernel, a sailor.
In 1840, Mrs. Lee, second wife of Rev. Jason Lee; Rev. J. H. Frost and wife; Rev. A. F. Waller, wife, and two children; Rev. W. W. Kone and wife; Rev. G. Hines, wife, and sister; Rev. L. H. Judson, wife, and two children; Rev. J. L. Parish, wife, and three children; Rev. G. P. Richards, wife, and three children; Rev. A. P. Olley and wife. Laymen: Mr. George Abernethy, wife, and two children; Mr. H. Campbell, wife, and one child; Mr. W. W. Raymond and wife; Mr. H. B. Brewer and wife; Dr. J. L. Babcock, wife, and one child; Rev. Mrs. Daniel Lee; Mrs. David Carter; Mrs. Joseph Holman; Miss E. Phillips. Methodist Episcopal Protestant Mission: Rev. Harvey Clark and wife; P. B. Littlejohn and wife. Independent Protestant Mission: Robert Moore, James Cooke, and James Fletcher, settlers. Jesuit Priest: P. G. De Smet, Flathead Mission.
Rocky Mountain men with native wives: William Craig, Robert or Dr. Newell, J. L. Meek, James Ebbets, William M. Dougherty, John Larison, George Wilkinson, a Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Algear, and William Johnson, author of the novel, "Leni Leoti; or, the Prairie Flower." The subject was first written and read before the Lyceum, at Oregon City, in 1843.
In the above list I have given the names of all the American settlers, as near as I can remember them, the list of names I once collected having been lost. I never was fully informed as to the different occupations of all these men. It will be seen that we had in the country in the fall of 1840 thirty-six American settlers, twenty-five of them with native wives; thirty-three American women, thirty-two children, thirteen lay members of the Protestant missions, nineteen ministers (thirteen Methodist, six Congregational), four physicians (three American and one English), three Jesuit priests, and sixty Canadian-French,--making, outside of the Hudson's Bay Company, one hundred and thirty-seven Americans and sixty-three Canadians, counting the three priests as Canadians.
Chapter XXVI
1840.--Petition to Congress of United States.--British subjects amenable to the laws of Canada.--Esquire Douglas as justice of the peace.--Mr. Leslie as judge.
Eighteen hundred and forty finds Oregon with her little population all active and busy, laboring and toiling to provide the necessaries of life--food and raiment. And if a man did not wear the finest of broadcloth, his intelligence and good conduct secured him a cordial welcome to every house or shanty in the country among the American or French settlers and missions. This was an innovation upon Hudson's Bay Company customs, and a violation of aristocratic rules sought to be enforced by foreign influences and sustained by the missionaries then in the country.
Mr. Hines, in his 21st chapter on Oregon, says: "The number of people in the colony was so small, the business transactions so limited, and the difficulties so few, that the necessity of organizing the community into a body politic did not appear to be very great, though for two years persons had been chosen to officiate as judges and magistrates."
The fact that the judges and magistrates officiating were chosen by the Methodist Mission, in opposition to the wish of the settlers, and from whose decisions there was no appeal, and that there was no statute or law book in the country, and nothing to guide the decisions of the judge or magistrate but his own opinions, caprice, or preferences, Mr. Hines leaves out of sight. This state of things was submitted to from the combined organized influence of the Methodist Mission and the unorganized condition of the settlers. A petition was gotten up and sent to Congress. This petition is too important a document to be omitted. The writer has no means at present to give the names attached to it. The petition speaks for itself. As settlers, we saw and knew the objects of the Hudson's Bay Company and the English government, by their actions and oft-repeated insolent assertions that they meant to "hold the country" by fair or by foul means, which, as men understanding the unscrupulous and avaricious disposition of the entire English occupants of this country, we fully understood and duly appreciated, as will be readily demonstrated upon a perusal of the following:--
Petition of 1840.
To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled:
Your petitioners represent unto your honorable bodies, that they are residents in the Oregon Territory, and citizens of the United States, or persons desirous of becoming such.
They further represent to your honorable bodies, that they have settled themselves in said Territory, under the belief that it was a portion of the public domain of said States, and that they might rely upon the government thereof for the blessings of free institutions, and the protection of its arms.
But your petitioners further represent, that they are uninformed of any acts of said government by which its institutions and protection are extended to them; in consequence whereof, themselves and families are exposed to be destroyed by the savages around them, and OTHERS THAT WOULD DO THEM HARM.
And your petitioners would further represent, that they have no means of protecting their own and the lives of their families, other than self-constituted tribunals, originated and sustained by the power of an ill-instructed public opinion, and the resort to force and arms.
And your petitioners represent these means of safety to be an insufficient safeguard of life and property, and that the crimes of theft, murder, infanticide, etc., are increasing among them to an alarming extent; and your petitioners declare themselves unable to arrest this progress of crime, and its terrible consequences, without the aid of the law, and tribunals to administer it.
Your petitioners therefore pray the Congress of the United States of America to establish, as soon as may be, a Territorial government in the Oregon Territory.
And if reasons other than those above presented were needed to induce your honorable bodies to grant the prayer of the undersigned, your petitioners, they would be found in the value of this Territory to the nation, and the alarming circumstances that portend its loss.
Your petitioners, in view of these last considerations, would represent, that the English government has had a surveying squadron on the Oregon coast for the last two years, employed in making accurate surveys of all its rivers, bays, and harbors; and that, recently, the said government is said to have made a grant to the Hudson's Bay Company, of all lands lying between the Columbia River and Puget Sound; and that said company is actually exercising unequivocal acts of ownership over said lands thus granted, and opening extensive farms upon the same.
And your petitioners represent, that these circumstances, connected with other acts of said company to the same effect, and their declarations that the English government own and will hold, as its own soil, that portion of Oregon Territory situated north of the Columbia River, together with the important fact that the said company are cutting and sawing into lumber, and shipping to foreign ports, vast quantities of the finest pine-trees upon the navigable waters of the Columbia, have led your petitioners to apprehend that the English government do intend, at all events, to hold that portion of this Territory lying north of the Columbia River.
And your petitioners represent, that the said Territory, north of the Columbia, is an invaluable possession to the American Union; that in and about Puget Sound are the only harbors of easy access, and commodious and safe, upon the whole coast of the Territory; and that a great part of this said northern portion of the Oregon Territory is rich in timber, water-power, and valuable minerals. For these and other reasons, your petitioners pray that Congress will establish its sovereignty over said Territory.
Your petitioners would further represent, that the country south of the Columbia River, and north of the Mexican line, and extending from the Pacific Ocean one hundred and twenty miles into the interior, is of unequaled beauty and fertility. Its mountains, covered with perpetual snow, pouring into the prairies around their bases transparent streams of the purest water; the white and black oak, pine, cedar, and fir forests that divide the prairies into sections convenient for farming purposes; the rich mines of coal in its hills, and salt springs in its valleys; its quarries of limestone, sandstone, chalk, and marble; the salmon of its rivers, and the various blessings of the delightful and healthy climate, are known to us, and impress your petitioners with the belief that this is one of the most favored portions of the globe.
Indeed, the deserts of the interior have their wealth of pasturage; and their lakes, evaporating in summer, leave in their basins hundreds of bushels of the purest soda. Many other circumstances could be named, showing the importance of this Territory in a national, commercial, and agricultural point of view. And, although your petitioners would not undervalue considerations of this kind, yet they beg leave especially to call the attention of Congress to their own condition as an infant colony, without military force or civil institutions to protect their lives and property and children, sanctuaries and tombs, from the hands of uncivilized and merciless savages around them. We respectfully ask for the civil institutions of the American Republic. We pray for the high privileges of American citizenship; the peaceful enjoyment of life; the right of acquiring, possessing, and using property; and the unrestrained pursuit of rational happiness. And for this your petitioners will ever pray.
DAVID LESLIE, [and others.][1]
[Footnote 1] Senate Document, Twenty-sixth Congress, first session. No. 514.
We have before alluded to the fact that the English government, by act of Parliament, had extended the colonial jurisdiction and civil laws of Canada over all her subjects on this coast, and had commissioned James Douglas, Angus McDonald, and, I think, Mr. Wark, as justices of the peace, having jurisdiction in civil cases not exceeding two hundred pounds sterling. In criminal cases, if the magistrate found, on examination, sufficient cause, the accused was to be sent to Canada for final trial. In all minor matters the Hudson's Bay Company were absolute. Their men, by the articles of enlistment, were bound to obey all orders of a superior officer, as much so as a soldier in the army. Flogging was a common punishment inflicted by all grades of officers, from a petty clerk of a trading-post up to the governor of the company. All British subjects, or any that had been subjects to the British crown, were considered as amenable to the laws of Canada, which were delivered from the brain of the magistrate or judge, who perchance may have passed through some parts of Canada on his way to this coast, no one knew when. Of course he knew all about the laws he was to enforce upon her Majesty's subjects, the same as our American judge, I. L. Babcock, did of the laws he was called upon to administer among the American settlers. Although the following incident is not exactly in the order of time in which we are writing, yet it illustrates the legal knowledge of Esquire Douglas so well that the reader will excuse me for giving it just here. The case occurred in the summer of 1846, I think in August. The Hudson's Bay Company and the British subjects in the country had changed from the open opposition policy to that of union with the provisional government, and some of the members of the company had been elected to office. Mr. Douglas had received a commission as justice of the peace and county judge from Governor Abernethy. A man by the name of McLame had taken it into his head to jump a claim belonging to one of the company's servants, near Fort Vancouver. The fact was duly stated to Esquire Douglas, who issued his warrant commanding the sheriff, a servant of the company, to arrest McLame. The sheriff proceeded with his warrant and posse, took McLame, brought him to the fort, and put him in irons to keep him secure until he could be tried. The day following, the writer arrived at the fort, and as he was an old acquaintance of Esquire Douglas, and also holding a commission of justice of the peace and judge of the county court, Esquire Douglas stated the case to him, and asked his advice how to conduct it. I inquired what it was McLame had done.
"Why, he went upon the land of one of our people and set up a claim to it, and made some threats."
"Did he use any weapons, or injure any one?"
"No; but he was very insulting, as the men tell me; used abusive language and frightened the men, and attempted to get them off the claim, is the most he did."
"Well, Esquire, I think if you do not manage this case carefully you will have a devil of a muss among these fellows."
"What do you think I had better do?" says the Esquire.
"If it was my case, as it is yours, I would call the court as soon as possible, and call the parties. McLame claims to know something of law, and he will plead his own case, or get some one that don't know any more about law than he does, and they will call for a nonsuit on account of some illegality in the warrant or pleadings, and the first show you have, give them a nonsuit, and decide against your own people. This will satisfy McLame and his party, and the matter will end there. The suit is a civil one, and should have been by notice and summons, for 'forcible entry and detainer,' instead of an arrest and confinement as a criminal. They may attempt to make false imprisonment out of it. If they do, I would settle it the best way I could."
I never learned the exact manner in which this case was settled. I think McLame received some compensation and the matter was settled. But the Esquire never fully recovered from the effect of this legal attempt at provisional American wisdom, as he came as near involving the two governments in a national war in the San Juan boundary question, in 1849, as he did the country, in attempting to protect the unreasonable claims of the company's servants in 1846. As to law books or legal knowledge, the country in those early times could not boast of having an extensive law library or profound lawyers, and, as was to be expected, some new and strange lawsuits occurred.
Of the following case we have no personal knowledge, and can only give it as related to us by parties present. T. J. Hubbard, of Champoeg, had a native wife. She was claimed and coveted by a neighbor of his, who threatened to take her from him. Hubbard was armed, and prepared to defend his own supposed or real right of possession from his covetous neighbor, who attempted to enter his cabin window, or space where a window might be put (in case the owner had one to go there). Hubbard shot him while attempting to enter, and submitted to a trial. Rev. Mr. Leslie presided as judge. A jury was called, and the statements of all parties that pretended to know any thing about the case made. The verdict was, "Justifiable homicide." The petition which was gotten up about this time, says that "theft, murder, and infanticide, are increasing among them to an alarming extent." A fact was unquestionably stated in the petition, that justice and virtue were comparative strangers in the country. Despotism and oppression, with false notions of individual rights and personal liberty, were strongly at variance. The leading men, or such as one would naturally suppose to be guides of the erring, seemed to have fixed a personal standard for virtue, justice, and right, not difficult for the most abandoned to comply with.
Chapter XXVII
Death of Ewing Young.--First public attempt to organize a provisional government.--Origin of the provisional government.--First Oregon schooner.
In the early part of this year, about the 15th of February, 1841, Mr. Ewing Young, having been sick but a short time, died. He left a large band of cattle and horses and no will, and seems to have had no heirs in the country. On the 17th we find most of the settlers present at the funeral. After burying Mr. Young, a meeting was called, over which Rev. Jason Lee presided. After some discussion it was thought best to adjourn to meet at the Methodist Mission.
On the next day, the 18th, short as the notice was, nearly all the settlers were present,--Canadians, French, English, Americans, and Protestant missionaries and Jesuit priests.
Rev. Jason Lee, for some cause not stated, was excused from acting as chairman, and Rev. David Leslie elected to fill his place. Rev. Gustavus Hines and Sydney Smith were chosen as secretaries. "The doings of the previous day were presented to the assembly and adopted in part." Why does not Mr. Hines give us all the proceedings of the previous day? Was there any thing in them that reflected upon the disposition of the reverend gentleman to control the property of the deceased Mr. Young, and apply it to the use of the mission, or distribute it among its members?
We are well aware of the fact that, on the death of a person in any way connected with, or in the service of, the Hudson's Bay Company, they at once administer upon his estate, to the setting aside of the will of the deceased, as in the case of Mr. P. C. Pambrun, which occurred the summer before Mr. Young's decease; and, more recently, of Mr. Ray, who died at San Francisco. Mr. Ray was an active, energetic young man, had won the heart and hand of Miss McLaughlin, youngest daughter of Governor McLaughlin, and by this marriage had three interesting children, a son and two daughters. By his trading and speculations with his private funds, he had acquired a handsome fortune for his young family. At his death the Hudson's Bay Company sent an agent to take charge of the property. He claimed that as Mr. Ray was a servant of the company, and in their employ, he had no right to acquire property outside of their business; hence, the property belonged to the company. The books were canceled, and left his estate in debt to the company, and his family destitute. His widow was obliged to take in washing, which was given her by some American officers then at that place. By this means she supported herself and young family till she could obtain help from her father, who had withdrawn from the company, and was then residing in Oregon City.
This is as good an illustration of the Hudson's Bay Company's generosity as can be given. They pursued Dr. McLaughlin and his children to the death. Their influence and statements have led the American people to mistake the doctor's unbounded generosity to them as wholly due to the company, and changed the friendly feeling and rewards due to Dr. McLaughlin for needed supplies in the hour of greatest peril to their own account, at the same time holding the doctor's estate responsible for every dollar, as they did Mr. Ray's.
As to Messrs. Shepard's and Olley's estates, they were both administered by the Methodist Mission, or some one or more of its members. I have never been able to learn the results, but have been informed that, as they were members of the mission, the little property they had was disposed of as per mission usage. In the case of Mr. Young, the settlers found themselves somewhat interested. As to any Frenchman or Roman Catholic, it was taken for granted, if he was not the servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, his property went to the priest.
The settlers were united in the opinion that some understanding or laws should be adopted to govern the settlement of estates, other than the custom adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company or the missions; hence they all turned out, and were completely defeated by the operations of the Jesuit and Methodist missions. A resolution was ready, prepared for the occasion:--
"Resolved, That a committee be chosen to form a constitution, and draft a code of laws, and that the following persons compose that committee: Rev. F. N. Blanchet, Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Gustavus Hines, Rev. Josiah L. Parish; Mr. D. Donpierre, Mr. M. Charlevo, Mr. Robert Moore, Mr. E. Lucia, Mr. Wm. Johnson."
The committee first named in the resolution contained the names of the three first-named clergymen. This was clerical law and constitution a little too strong. It was then moved to put upon the committee some that were not clergymen. The committee was finally made up of nine. Now comes the test of all,--the governor. Revs. Leslie and Hines, and Drs. Babcock and Bailey were prominent candidates. The prospects were that the three Protestant missionary candidates would divide that influence so that Dr. Bailey would be elected.
It will be borne in mind that Dr. Bailey was a man of strong English prejudices, and opposed to religious societies and religion generally. He could secure the French Catholic vote, and the majority of the settlers. He was present at the meeting, with his Canadian, French, and Hudson's Bay servant voters, all trained to vote for him for governor. He nominated himself, and so disgusted the American settlers that they joined in the effort to defeat him.
Mr. Hines was the prominent candidate to enter the field, and secure the leading influence in the government. That office was the leading question,--Bailey could not be trusted, and Hines could not be elected; hence the office of governor was discarded, and the committee instructed to prepare a constitution and laws, to be executed without an executive. This was a shrewd and cunning device, to say the least of it, one calculated to make the judicial and executive office one, in the same person; which seemed by common consent to be Dr. I. L. Babcock, a man equally as ambitious and aspiring as Dr. Bailey, but in good standing in the mission, and a stranger to the settlers. This point gained, George W. Le Breton, a young adventurer, who came to the country in the employ of Captain Couch, on the brig Maryland, having a fair education, and generally intelligent and agreeable in conversation, who had been brought up in good society, and was inclined to, or educated in, the Roman faith. This young man was elected to fill the offices of clerk of the court and public recorder, as a compromise with the Jesuits. To harmonize the English element, Wm. Johnson was elected high sheriff. Zavia Ladaroot, Pierre Billique, and Wm. McCarty were chosen constables. Messrs. Gervais, Cannon, Robert Moore, and Rev. L. H. Judson were chosen justices of the peace. Here comes the climax of all wisdom:--
"It was then resolved, that, until a code of laws be drafted by the Legislative Committee and adopted by the people, Ira L. Babcock, the supreme judge, be instructed to act"--just as he pleased. Mr. Hines says in his book, 419th page--"according to the laws of the State of New York."
I query whether there was a single copy of the laws of that State in the country for ten years after the last resolution was passed. I know there was none at the time, and only a single copy of the laws of Iowa two years after; hence, Ira L. Babcock was law-maker, judge, and executive to the settlement, just as much so as John McLaughlin was to the Hudson's Bay Company.
To keep up the farce (for the whole proceeding deserves no other name), "it was then resolved to adjourn, to meet the first Thursday in June, at the new building near the Roman Catholic church." The record proceeds: "Thursday, June 11, 1841. The inhabitants of the Wallamet Valley met according to adjournment, and the meeting was called to order by the chairman, Rev. David Leslie. On motion, the doings of the former meeting were read, on which the committee for drafting a constitution and code of laws was called for, and information was communicated to the meeting by the chairman of the committee, that, in consequence of his not having called the committee together, no report had been prepared." His Jesuitical Reverence, F. N. Blanchet, was excused from serving on the committee, at his own request. The settlers and uninitiated were informed by his reverence that he was unaccustomed to make laws for the people, and did not understand how to proceed, while divide and conquer, the policy adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company, was entered into with heart and soul by this Reverend Father Blanchet and his associates. "On motion, it was then resolved, that a person be chosen to fill the place thus vacated in the committee for drafting a constitution and code of laws, and Dr. Wm. J. Bailey was chosen."
The motion that follows shows that the settlers were suspicious of influences operating against them to deprive them of a voice in their own government, for they then, "on motion, resolved that this committee be instructed to meet for the transaction of their business on the first Monday of August next." They further instructed this committee to report at a subsequent meeting, "to be held the first Thursday in October next. On motion, resolved, that the committee be advised to confer with the commander of the American exploring squadron now in the Columbia River, concerning the propriety of forming a provisional government in Oregon."
"Resolved, That the motion to adopt the report of the nominating committee presented at a previous meeting be rescinded." Were the settlers really in favor of an organization adapted to their wants, and contrary to the wishes of the Hudson's Bay Company and clerical government then existing? The above resolution shows the fact. They have handsomely relieved the Jesuits of their responsibility, and left them to work with their associates and co-laborers,--the Hudson's Bay Company and Indians. They, to soften matters, allowed the committee to consider the nature of the government about to be formed, and the officers necessary, and--
"Resolved, That the committee to draft a constitution be instructed to take into consideration the number and kind of officers it will be necessary to create, in accordance with their constitution and code of laws, and to report the same at the next meeting." It was also resolved that the report of the nominating committee be referred to the Legislative Committee.
Mr. Secretary Hines does not give us the names of the nominating committee and the officers they first reported.
The meeting held at or near the Roman Catholic church on the 11th of June was adjourned to meet at the Methodist Mission at eleven o'clock on the first Thursday in October following. Duly signed, David Leslie, chairman; Gustavus Hines, Sydney Smith, secretaries. The whole humbug had been completed; the Methodist Mission party was safe; the Hudson's Bay Company and Jesuits only wanted time to carry out their arrangements and drive the whole concern from the country, or make a grand sacrifice for the benefit of the Hudson's Bay Company's trade and mother church.
The idea of resisting the American influence was no new one; it was announced as early as 1838. The combinations were ready to be made that, at the proper time, every Hudson's Bay Company's man felt certain, would accomplish the object they desired. They were ready and did invest their money upon the issue. It is true other parties came in and formed combinations that they supposed themselves capable of destroying by a single word. They failed; and in 1865 we find them, the petitioners, with a host of those they sought to rob, crying against their injustice. They ask for compensation for attempting to prevent the rightful owners of the country from occupying it. This is in keeping with their whole course. Their impudence may carry them through and win their case, which justice and truth should deny them.
Mr. Hines says, page 240: "I have previously stated that the origin of the attempt to form a kind of provisional government was the removal by death of the late Ewing Young, leaving, as he did, a large and unsettled estate, with no one to administer it, and no law to control its administration. The exigency of this case having been met by the appointment of a judge with probate powers, who entered immediately upon his duties" (giving no bonds to any body), "and disposed of the estate of Ewing Young to the entire satisfaction of the community, and the fact that some of the most influential citizens of the country, and especially some of the Legislative Committee, were adverse to the idea of establishing a permanent organization so long as the peace and harmony of the community could possibly be preserved without it, the subject was permitted to die away and the committee for drafting a constitution and code of laws did not meet according to their instructions, nor did the meeting at which they were expected to report ever take place."
Mr. Hines, in his account of this affair, is not quite satisfied himself with the reasons he has given, so he goes on to state many facts as connected with the arrival of the exploring squadron of the United States, under command of Captain Wilkes, and says, page 421: "In addition to this, the officers of the squadron were consulted on the subject of organizing the country into a civil compact, and were found to be decidedly opposed to the scheme, and recommended that the subject be allowed to rest. They encouraged the people in the belief that the United States government would probably soon extend jurisdiction over the country."
To the disgrace of the leader of that squadron, the general impression of all the early settlers of this country is, to the present day, that he understood and tasted the qualities of Dr. McLaughlin's liquors, and received the polite attentions of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company with far more pleasure than he looked into or regarded the wants of this infant settlement of his countrymen. Mr. Hines says "the officers of the squadron decidedly opposed the scheme." And why did they do it? Simply because the parties named above were opposed. They had absolute control of the persons and property of all in the country, and they scrupled not to keep and use their power to the last.
The unconquerable energy of the Americans was this year manifested in the building of a schooner, of about forty tons burden, on a little island some four miles above the present city of Portland. R. L. Kilborn, of the party of Ewing Young, Charley Matts, P. Armstrong, who was afterward killed in the Indian war on Rogue River, H. Woods, John Green, and George Davis engaged in this enterprise. They employed Felix Hathaway, who was saved from the wreck of the William and Ann, as head carpenter, and commenced their work. To obtain spikes and such irons as were required, they had it reported that they were going to build a ferry-boat to cross the Wallamet River. To obtain rigging, they induced the French farmers to go to Fort Vancouver and get ropes to use in the old Dutch harness for plowing, Dr. McLaughlin having informed them in the start, that he did not approve of their scheme, and would furnish them no supplies. They, however, were not to be deterred in their undertaking. Procuring a whip-saw of the mission, and such tools as they could spare, these men commenced their work; and when Captain Wilkes visited them, and found they had a substantial and sea-worthy craft well under way, he furnished them such articles from his stores as he could spare, and spoke favorably of their enterprise to Dr. McLaughlin, who became more liberal; so that, with the assistance of Captain Wilkes, the mission, and such as they received from Dr. McLaughlin, the vessel was launched and made trips to California, under the command of Captain Joseph Gale, who returned to Oregon in 1843, and was elected one of our Executive Committee, with David Hill and Alanson Beers.
Chapter XXVIII
Lee and Hines explore the Umpqua River.--Hines tells a story.--Massacre and plunder of Smith's party by the Indians.--Sympathy of the Hudson's Bay Company.--Extract from the San Francisco Bulletin.
The reader is requested to note the statements that follow, as they show influences operating that tell how active the enemies of the Protestant missions had been. Mr. Hines admits that he owed his own and Mr. Lee's life to the wife of Guinea. (See his journal, page 109.) He says: "During the evening Mr. Guinea came to us considerably excited, and warmly congratulated us on the safe guardianship his wife had exercised over us in our absence. He said that in all probability we should have been robbed of all we had, if we had not lost our lives, had it not been for the faithfulness of his wife and her brother. He told us that one of the chiefs of the clan we had visited was at the fort. Learning that we designed to visit his people on the coast, excited with the utmost fear, he hastened down the river and reported many evil things about us, intending thereby to instigate the Indians to prevent us from going among them."
Mr. Hines, can you vouch for the truth of this statement? I believe sincerely you have told the truth, for you even attempt to excuse the Indian for his fears, and have not the least suspicion of the sources from which the Indian received his instruction and is made to believe that you and Mr. Jason Lee had come with your medicine bag to destroy them. Let us hear Mr. Hines' excuse for the Indian's fears, in his own words. He says: "Mr. Lee had brought a fowling-piece with him, and had in his possession a patent shot-pouch. This was the thing that had alarmed the chief. One story he told was, that we had brought medicine in a bag that Mr. Lee wore on his neck, for the purpose of killing them all off; and that if we were permitted to come among them the fatal bag would be opened and they would all be destroyed."
How did these Indians learn about the missionary medicine bag? Our good friend, Guinea, Mr. Hines tells us, is from Montreal, and of a good family,--a Frenchman. This trip, it seems, was made in 1840, about the 26th day of October. Dr. Whitman had not yet gone to the States, but the medicine-bag story is tried with the Indians on the Umpqua. Guinea has a little too much sense of moral responsibility to allow his Indians to commence the slaughter of Lee and Hines, as Dr. White had come with them and seen them safe at the fort, and had returned to the settlement. The medicine man of the Methodist Mission had escaped, and it was not best to commence on these preachers. Madam Siwash Guinea must accompany them, to watch and explain matters and protect them.
Mr. Hines says, page 100: "We had been informed by Mr. Guinea that there would be great danger in our going among them alone, and indeed he appeared to stand in the utmost fear of them, of their hostility to the whites, and especially to the Americans."
Can a reasonable man read this simple narrative with the light of history, and facts piled on facts, with the stains of the blood of our countrymen all over the country, and not trace the cause of these foul murders to their true source? While none but American traders and hunters were in the country, it was an easy matter to dispose of them, but when the American missionary comes among the natives, another element of opposition must be introduced; moral teachings must be met by religious superstitions, to secure the victim, to advance the interests of an unscrupulous trade. Let us take another statement from Mr. Hines before we proceed with his political history. On page 106, in speaking of the closing remarks of the chief at the mouth of the Umpqua, he tells us, the chief "said he was very glad we had come to see them; that their hearts toward us were like our hearts toward them; that he wanted us to continue with them another day and tell them about God; that they had heard about us, and had been told that we were a bad people." Who told these wild Indians this? Was it an American that had been living among them and teaching them that his countrymen were a bad people? "That they were glad to see us for themselves, and were convinced that what they had heard was a lie; that they now believe us to be good, and that they meant to be good also."
Mr. Hines tells a story, as he received it from the Hudson's Bay Company gentlemen, to show that these Indians are very treacherous and not to be relied upon, especially those on the coast. It relates to a company of fur hunters composed of Smith, Sublet, and Jackson. At page 110 of his book, he says: "In this division Smith was to take the country extending from the Platte River by the way of Santa Fe to California; then turn north along the Pacific Ocean as far as the Columbia River, and thence back into the interior to join the other partners of the company. The country was in the wildest state, but few white men having ever passed through it. But, nothing daunted, Smith and his companions marched through to California, and thence along the coast north as far as the Umpqua River, collecting in their course all the valuable furs they could procure, until they had loaded several pack animals with the precious burden [forty packs of furs]. On arriving here, they encamped on the borders of the river near the place where they intended to cross, but, on examination, found it would be dangerous, if not impossible, to effect the passage of the river at that place. Accordingly, Smith took one of his men [he had two] and proceeded up the river on foot, for the purpose of finding a better place to cross. In his absence, the Indians, instigated by one of the savage-looking chiefs whom we saw at the mouth of the river, rushed upon the party with their muskets [the same furnished by the Hudson's Bay Company for that purpose], bows and arrows, tomahawks, and scalping-knives, and commenced the work of death." Just as they were expected to do with all intruders in this fur traders' empire. "From the apparent kindness of the Indians previously, the party had been thrown entirely off their guard, and consequently were immediately overpowered by their ferocious enemies, and but one of the twelve in camp escaped from the cruel massacre. Scarcely knowing which way he fled, this one fell in with Smith, who was on his return to the camp, and who received from the survivor the shocking account of the murder of eleven of his comrades. Smith seeing all was lost, resolved upon attempting nothing further than to do his best to secure his own personal safety, with that of his surviving companions. The Indians had secured all the furs, horses, mules, baggage, and every thing the company had. The three immediately crossed the river and made the best of their way through a savage and inhospitable country toward Vancouver, where, after traveling between two and three hundred miles, and suffering the greatest deprivations, they finally arrived in safety."
Rev. Mr. Hines' savage-looking chief was no less a personage than a slave of a Frenchman by the name of Michel, or rather belonging to Michel's Umpqua wife. This slave had learned, from the statements and talk he had heard at Vancouver, that in case the Indians killed and robbed the Boston men, there would be no harm to them; that neither the Hudson's Bay Company nor the English or French would take any notice of it. Hence, the Indians were taught to regard the killing of a Boston man (American) as doing something that pleased the Hudson's Bay Company. Under this instruction it is said this slave ran away from Vancouver, and went back to his people, and was the cause of the massacre of Smith's party. He is again present, doing all he can to induce his people to rob and take the lives of Lee and Hines. Mr. Guinea, then in charge of the fort, is aware of his instructions and his object. He dare not tell Lee and Hines of their full danger, yet he knows all about it.
They were determined to visit the Indians and see for themselves. Guinea's Indian wife and her brother must go with them. This is considered sufficient protection. The story of the Indian slave's part in the massacre of Smith's party is related to us by Mrs. Smith, the wife of S. H. Smith, an intelligent and much respected native woman, a neighbor of ours for near twenty years, and by one of the men that accompanied McKay to recover the property; corresponding exactly to another event of the same kind that occurred in 1847, which will be given in detail as stated by eye-witnesses under the solemnity of an oath.
Mr. Hines, of course, believes the following statement, because the gentlemen of the company told it to him; just as I did the first time I heard it from them. It is said, Smith and companions, "rehearsing the story of their wonderful escape and subsequent sufferings to the members of the Hudson's Bay Company, the utmost sympathy was excited in their behalf, and a strong party was fitted out to go and rescue the property from the savage robbers, and restore it to its surviving owners. The vigor and perseverance of this party were equal to the promptitude with which it was fitted out. They proceeded to the scene of blood, and after committing the mangled bodies of Smith's murdered companions to the grave, compelled the Indians to relinquish the property they had taken," by giving them presents of blankets and powder, and such things as the Indians wished, as stated to us by a Frenchman, a servant of the company, who was one of McKay's party that went to get the furs. They found no bodies to bury, and had no fight with the Indians about the property, as stated by Mr. Smith also. But, as the Hudson's Bay Company tells the story through Mr. Hines, they "spread terror through the tribes." Was this the case in the Whitman massacre in 1847? the Samilkamean massacre in 1857? the Frazer River murder of American citizens in 1858? No: Governor Douglas told the committee that asked him for protection, or for arms, to protect themselves; that "if they [the Americans] molested her Majesty's subjects he would send a force to punish them." Mr. Hines says his Umpqua party "returned in triumph to Vancouver." And well they might, for they had made the best season's hunt they ever made, in getting those furs and the property of Smith, which paid them well for the expedition, as there was no market for Smith, except London, through the hypocritical kindness of Mr. Simpson. By this time, Mr. Smith had learned all he wished to of this company. He preferred giving them his furs at their own price to being under any further obligations to them, Mr. Sublet, Mr. Smith's partner, did not speak as though he felt under much obligation to Mr. Simpson or the Hudson's Bay Company in 1836, which was not long after the transaction referred to.
I do not know how the company regard these statements of Mr. Hines, yet I regard them as true so far as Mr. Hines is concerned, but utterly false as regards the company. As old Toupin says Mr. Parker told the Indians, "It is their fashion" of taking credit to themselves for doing all they could against the Americans occupying the country in any way.
According to the testimony given in the case of The Hudson's Bay Company v. United States, the amount of furs seized by the company at that time was forty packs, worth at the time $1,000 each, besides the animals and equipments belonging to the party, a large portion of which was given to the Indians, to compensate them for their services rendered to the company, in destroying Smith's expedition and killing his men, corresponding with transactions of recent date, as stated in an article found in the San Francisco Bulletin:--
"HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY AND THE INDIANS.--A gentleman from Victoria gives us the following facts concerning the Indian outrages on the northern coast, and their allies, the Hudson's Bay Company: Captain D. Warren said to M. A. Foster and William McCurdy, that, on returning to Victoria and reporting the circumstances of the attack of the Indians upon his sloop, Thornton, to the first lieutenant of the ship Zealous, he was the next day arrested and put under $2,000 bonds. The Sparrowhawk was to leave last Wednesday, but had not yet gone to inquire into the matter. It is known that the same Indians murdered Captain Jack Knight and partner but a short time before. The same crowd or band of Indians robbed the Nanaimo packet. Since thus attacked, Captain Warren, the captain of the Ocean Queen, informed them that a friendly Indian chief told him to leave; the Indians were hostile; they were preparing for war with the neighboring tribes.
"From a statement found in the Chronicle, of the 27th of June, we learn that Captain Mowatt, of the Hudson's Bay Company, is in charge of Fort Rupert. We also learn that Captain Mowatt's prejudices and feelings are peculiarly hostile to all American fur traders, and not any too friendly to those claiming to be English. The facts indicate a strong Hudson's Bay Company Indian war influence against American or other traders in behalf of that company. It is evident from the statement of the two gentlemen above named that her Majesty's naval officers are inclined, and more than probably instructed, to protect the Hudson's Bay Company's people in encouraging the Indian hostility and murder of all outside venturers upon their trading localities, as they are prompt to insinuate and affirm that the whites are the aggressors, and to arrest them for punishment."
It is difficult to understand why our American government is so tolerant and generous to a foreign monopoly that has invariably sought and accomplished the destruction of its fur trade on its western borders, and used its entire influence against American institutions and citizens; not hesitating to incite the Indians to the most inhuman and brutal murders.
Chapter XXIX
Missionaries leaving.--Hudson's Bay Company's Gold Exchange.--Population in 1842.--Whitman and Lovejoy start for the States.--The Red River emigration.--American merchants.--Settlers not dependent on the Hudson's Bay Company.--Milling Company.--The Oregon Institute.--Dr. Elijah White.--Proceedings and resolutions of a public meeting at Wallamet.--Correspondence with the War Department.
Rev. A. B. Smith and wife, Cornelius Rogers, and W. H. Gray and wife had left the mission of the American Board, on account of difficulties they had become fully satisfied would ultimately destroy the mission or drive it from the country. Mr. Spalding, it will be remembered, was a man of peculiar temperament, ambitious and selfish. He could not endure an associate of superior talent, or admit himself to be inferior in understanding the native language. From the time the Jesuits arrived (in 1838), some of his own pet Indians had turned Catholics and commenced a quarrel with him. These facts seemed to annoy and lead him to adopt a course opposed by Smith, Gray, and Rogers. Still he found it pleased the Indians as a whole, and was assented to by the balance of the mission. Smith and wife left for the Sandwich Islands; Rogers for the Wallamet in 1841; Gray and wife in 1842.
During the exploration of the country by Commodore Wilkes' exploring squadron, Mr. Cornelius Rogers was found a very useful man. His knowledge of Indian languages (which he was remarkably quick to acquire) and of Indian character generally enabled him to become a reliable and useful interpreter. The officers soon became aware of the fact, and employed him at once to assist and interpret for them. He was paid for his services in gold coin, which amounted to something over five hundred dollars. Not wishing to carry his coin about, he offered to deposit it with the Hudson's Bay Company. "Certainly, Mr. Rogers, we will receive your coin, and credit you upon our books twenty per cent. less, as the coin is not so valuable to us as our goods, at beaver prices." Mr. R. allowed them to take his coin and credit him with four hundred dollars in beaver currency. In a short time a party of the squadron were to go by land to California. Mr. R. concluded he would go with them, and that his coin would be more convenient than beaver orders on the company. He therefore requested them to return to him the coin. "Certainly, Mr. Rogers," and handed him back four hundred dollars less twenty per cent.,--three hundred and twenty dollars. "How is this?" says Mr. R.; "I supposed from the statement you made on depositing this money with you, that that money was a drug to you, and now you wish me to pay you twenty per cent. for money I have left in your care, after deducting twenty per cent. for leaving it with you. You may consider this a fair and an honorable transaction; I do not." He was told, "Such is our manner of doing business," and that was all the satisfaction he could get. He finally left his money and drew his goods, at what was called beaver prices, of the company.
Nothing further of note occurred in 1841, except the loss of the Peacock, in which no lives were lost, and the extra efforts of the company to show to the officers of the expedition their good deeds and kind treatment to all Americans, and to prove to them that the whole country was of little value to any one. "It would scarcely support the few Indians, much less a large population of settlers."
1842.--Our population, all told, in the beginning of this year, is twenty-one Protestant ministers, three Roman or Jesuit priests, fifteen lay members of churches, thirty-four white women, thirty-two white children, and thirty-five American settlers--twenty-five of them with native wives. Total, one hundred and thirty-seven Americans. At the close of the year we had an emigration from the States of one hundred and eleven persons,--some forty-two families,--with two lawyers, A. L. Lovejoy and A. M. Hastings. The latter became the lawyer of Dr. McLaughlin and relieved the settlement in the spring of 1843 of a number of not very valuable settlers, by assisting them to get credit of the Hudson's Bay Company in procuring their outfits, giving their notes, payable in California; white settlers who remained could get no credit or supplies of the company, especially such as had asked protection of the American government. A. L. Lovejoy started from Whitman's station to return to the States with Dr. Whitman. He reached Bent's Fort with him, but stopped for the winter, while Whitman proceeded on to Washington in time to save the country from being given up to British rule. For an account of that trip, which we give in another chapter, we are indebted to the Honorable A. L. Lovejoy.
The Red River emigration, consisting of some forty families of English, Scotch, and Canadian-French half-breeds, had been ordered from the Red River, or Selkirk settlement, to locate in the Puget Sound district, by the Hudson's Bay Company's governor, Simpson. This company started across the plains with most of their property and families in carts, in the spring of 1842, directed, protected, and guided by the company, and expected to become settlers, subject to it, in Puget Sound. This was in fact a part of the original plan of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and these families were brought on to aid in securing and holding the country for the British government and the use of the company,--a plan and arrangement exactly similar to that adopted by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1811-12, to cut off the trade of the French Northwest Fur Company, by establishing the Selkirk settlement directly in the line of their trade.
This Red River colony was a part of the company's scheme to control and outnumber the American settlement of Oregon; it being connected with the Puget Sound concern, and under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company,--which, by the decision of the commissioners, has won the company $200,000 from our national treasury. A more infamous claim could not well be trumped up, and the men who awarded it should be held responsible, and handed down to posterity as unjust rewarders of unscrupulous monopolies. Not for this alone, but for paying to the parent monopoly the sum of $450,000, for their malicious misrepresentations of the country, their murders, and their perjury respecting their claims to it.
As soon as the Red River colony reached the country, they found that the Hudson's Bay Company on the west side of the Rocky Mountains was a different institution from that of the Selkirk settlement; consequently a large number of the more intelligent among them refused to remain in the Puget Sound district, and found their way into the Wallamet and Tualatin districts, and were received and treated as Oregonians, or citizens of the provisional government. This had the effect to embitter the feelings of the ruling spirits of the company, and caused them to change their policy. They commenced fortifying Fort Vancouver, and had a war-ship, the Modeste, stationed in the Columbia River, while the fort was being prepared for defensive or offensive measures. This only increased the anxiety and hastened the effort to organize for self-defense on the part of the American settlers.
In the mean time, Hon. Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, had sent to the country a ship with supplies. A. E. Wilson had established himself, or was about to, at Wallamet Falls as a trader, and some families were on their way by water from the States,--F. W. Pettygrove, Peter Foster, and Peter H. Hatch. Pettygrove arrived with a small stock of goods. The same ship brought a supply for the Methodist Mission.
The settlers were not dependent upon the Hudson's Bay Company for supplies as much as has been asserted. I am certain that many of them never received a dollar's worth of the company's goods, except it might have been through the stores of Pettygrove, Wilson, or Abernethy. I know many of them were willing and did pay higher prices to their American merchants than they could get the same article for from the company's store, which was about this time established at Oregon City. Soon after, a trading-post and warehouse were established at Champoeg, and Mr. Roberts sent up with orders to kick, change, and beat the half-bushel with a club in order to get more wheat at sixty cents per imperial bushel in payment for all debts due the company for the goods furnished to them at one hundred per cent. or more on London prices.
During this year the Wallamet Milling Company was formed, and commenced to build a saw-mill on the island above the falls. Dr. McLaughlin also commenced active opposition to American enterprise.
The Oregon Institute was commenced this year, under the direction of the Methodist missionaries. They carefully guarded against all outside patronage or influence getting control of their institution, by requiring a certain number of trustees to be members of their church in good standing. It was during the discussions in the organizing of that institution that the disposition on the part of that mission to control not only the religious, but literary and political interests of the settlement, was manifested. The leading members took strong ground, yet hesitated when it was found they would be compelled to ask for outside patronage. However, they were able to commence operations with the Institute, and succeeded in getting up a building deemed suitable by the building committee.
Dr. Elijah White returned to the country, as he supposed and frequently asserted, with unlimited discretionary powers from the President of the United States to arrange all matters between the Hudson's Bay Company, Indians, and settlers, and "although his commission did not specify in so many words, yet, in short, he was the governing power of the United States west of the Rocky Mountains." He entered at once upon the duties of his office, and such a muss as he kicked up all over the country it would require the pens of a Squibob and a Junius combined to describe. Rev. Mr. Hines has given to the world many useful notices of this notorious blockhead, and from his descriptions of his proceedings one would infer that he was a most important character in promoting the peace and harmony of the settlement and keeping the Indians quiet. I have always been at a loss to understand Mr. Hines, whether he is speaking of Dr. White's proceedings in sober earnest or serious burlesque. Either he was woefully ignorant of the character of Dr. White, or he was cajoled and flattered and made to believe the doctor possessed power and influence at Washington that no document he could show gave any evidence of. Be that as it may, Dr. White arrived in the fall of 1842, in advance of the emigration. He pretended to have all power necessary for all cases, civil and criminal. He appointed temporary magistrates to try all cases as they might occur; and such as related to Indians and whites, or half-breeds and whites, he tried himself, and gave decisions to suit his own ideas of justice. Usually, in the case of two settlers, where he had appointed a justice to try the case, he would argue the case for one of the parties, and generally win it for his client or favorite. We attended two of the doctor's trials, one in Tualatin Plains, the other at the saw-mill near Salem. In both of these cases the conclusion of those not interested was, that if such was the justice to which we as settlers were reduced, our own energy and arms must protect us.
At the meeting called to receive him, a committee, being appointed, retired, and, after a short absence, reported the following resolutions:--
Resolved, That we, the citizens of the Wallamet Valley, are exceedingly happy in the consideration that the government of the United States have manifested their intentions through their agent, Dr. E. White, of extending their jurisdiction and protection over this country.
Resolved, That, in view of the claims which the aborigines of this country have upon the sympathies of the white man, we are gratified at the appointment of an agent by the United States government to regulate and guard their interests.
Resolved, That we highly approve of the appointment of Dr. E. White to the above office, and that we will cordially co-operate with him in carrying out the measures of government in reference to this country.
Resolved, That we feel grateful to the United States government for their intended liberality toward the settlers of this country, and for their intention to support education and literature among us.
Resolved, That it will give us the highest pleasure to be brought, so soon as it maybe practicable, under the jurisdiction of our mother country.
On motion, it was
Resolved, That the report of the committee be adopted.
Resolved unanimously, That the doings of this meeting be transmitted to the government of the United States by Dr. E. White, in order that our views and wishes in relation to this country may be known.
The following communication shows the shrewdness of Dr. White, and the influence he was enabled to hold over Mr. Hines, who seems to have ignored all the doctor's conduct while a missionary, and considers him a suitable person to deal with the complicated relations then culminating on our western coast. It is given entire, to place Mr. Hines in his true character in the history of the country, though Dr. White does not deign to mention his name in his report to the department. We also give an extract from the report of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, November 28, 1843, as found on fifth and sixth pages of Dr. White's report, Mr. Hines' letter is as follows:--
WALLAMET, April 3, 1843.
To the Honorable Secretary of War:
SIR,--I have the honor of addressing you a brief communication expressive of my views of the course pursued by Dr. E. White, sub-agent of Indian Affairs west of the Rocky Mountains.
I am not extensively acquainted with what properly belongs to the business of an Indian agent, but so far as I understand the subject, this agency requires the performance of duties which are of an onerous and complicated character.
The country is quite extensive, and an intercourse is carried on between the whites and Indians in almost every part of it. The principal settlements are on the Wallamet River and Taulatin Plains, but there are whites at the mouth of the Columbia River, the Falls, and among the Wallawalla, Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Snake Indians. Immediately after the arrival of your agent in this country, he received the most urgent calls from several of these places, if possible to come immediately and enter into such measures as would secure both the safety of the whites and welfare of the Indians.
He entered upon his business with diffidence, though with great energy and decision, and his indefatigable efforts to promote the interests of this country, with his untiring industry in the performance of his duties, entitle him to the warmest respect of the members of this infant and helpless colony, and to the confidence of the honorable department which has committed to him so important a trust. Although he has been with us but a short time in his official capacity, yet it is generally believed that the measures he has adopted to regulate the intercourse between the whites and Indians, particularly in the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Wallawalla tribes, are wisely calculated to secure the protection of the former against the aggressions of the savages, and to secure to the latter the blessings of harmony, peace, and civilization.
Some time in November last news reached us from these formidable tribes that they were laying a plot for the destruction of this colony, upon which your agent, with characteristic decision, determined to proceed at once to the scene of this conspiracy, and, if possible, not only to frustrate the present designs of the Indians, but to prevent any future attempts of the same character.
This laborious journey was undertaken, and, accordingly, he set out on this perilous enterprise in the dead of winter, being accompanied by six men, and though the distance to be traveled by land and water was little less than one thousand miles, and the whole journey was one of excessive labor and much suffering, yet perseverance surmounted every difficulty, and the undertaking was brought to a most happy issue. In the fitting out and execution of such an expedition much expense must necessarily be incurred, but I am fully of the opinion the funds appropriated by your agent, for the purpose of accomplishing the object of his appointment, have been judiciously applied.
Not knowing the views I entertained in reference to the propriety of his course, Dr. White requested me to write to the honorable Secretary of War, definitely expressing my opinion. Considering this a sufficient apology for intruding myself upon your patience in this communication, allow me, dear sir, to subscribe myself most respectfully.
Your humble servant,
GUSTAVUS HINES, Missionary to the Wallamet Settlement.
DEPARTMENT OF WAR,} OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Nov. 23, 1843.}
I submit a report from the sub-agent west of the Rocky Mountains, received on the 9th of August last. It furnishes some deeply-interesting and curious details respecting certain of the Indian tribes in that remote part of our Territories. The Nez Perces are represented to be "more noble, industrious, sensible, and better disposed toward the whites," than the others. Their conduct on the occasion of an important meeting between Dr. White and their leading men impresses one most agreeably. The school established for their benefit is very numerously attended, while it is gratifying to learn that this is not the only establishment for Indian instruction which has been made and conducted with success.
There will also be found in this paper some particulars as to the soil, water-courses, etc, of the Territory of Oregon, which may be interesting at this time, when public attention is so much directed to the region beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Respectfully submitted,
T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD.
Hon. J. M. PORTER, Secretary of War.
Chapter XXX
Dispatch of Dr. White to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.--He praises the Hudson's Bay Company.--His account of the Indians.--Indian outrages.--Dr. White's expedition to the Nez Perces.--Indian council.--Speeches.--Electing a chief.--Laws of the Nez Perces.--Visit to the Cayuses.--Doings of the missionaries.--Drowning of Mr. Rogers and family.--George Geere.--Volcanoes.--Petition against Governor McLaughlin.
OREGON, April 1, 1843.
SIR,--On my arrival, I had the honor and happiness of addressing you a brief communication, giving information of my safe arrival, and that of our numerous party, to these distant shores.
At that time it was confidently expected that a more direct, certain, and expeditious method would be presented to address you in a few weeks; but that failing, none has offered till now.
I think I mentioned the kind and hospitable manner we were received and entertained on the way by the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the cordial and most handsome reception I met with at Fort Vancouver from Governor McLaughlin and his worthy associate chief factor, James Douglas, Esq.; my appointment giving pleasure rather than pain,--a satisfactory assurance that these worthy gentlemen intend eventually to settle in this country, and prefer American to English jurisdiction.
On my arrival in the colony, sixty miles south of Vancouver, being in advance of the party, and coming unexpectedly to the citizens, bearing the intelligence of the arrival of so large a re-enforcement, and giving assurance of the good intentions of our government, the excitement was general, and two days after we had the largest and happiest public meeting ever convened in this infant colony.
I found the colony in peace and health, and rapidly increasing in numbers, having more than doubled in population during the last two years. English, French, and half-breeds seem, equally with our own people, attached to the American cause; hence the bill of Mr. Linn, proffering a section of land to every white man of the Territory, has the double advantage of being popular and useful, increasing such attachment, and manifestly acting as a strong incentive to all, of whatever nation or party, to settle in this country.
My arrival was in good time, and probably saved much evil. I had but a short season of rest after so long, tedious, and toilsome a journey, before information reached me of the very improper conduct of the upper country Indians toward the missionaries sent by the American Board of Commissioners, accompanied with a passport, and a desire for my interposition in their behalf at once.
I allude to the only three tribes from which much is to be hoped, or any thing to be feared, in this part of Oregon. These are the Wallawallas, Cayuses, and Nez Perces, inhabiting a district of country on the Columbia and its tributaries, commencing two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, and stretching four hundred and eighty miles into the interior. The Wallawallas, most contiguous to the colony, number some three thousand, including the entire population. They are in general poor, indolent, and sordid, but avaricious; and what few have property, in horses and herds, are proud, haughty, and insolent. The Cayuses, next easterly, are less numerous, but more formidable, being brave, active, tempestuous, and warlike. Their country is well watered, gently undulating, extremely healthy, and admirably adapted to grazing, as Dr. Marcus Whitman, who resides in their midst, may have informed you. They are comparatively rich in herds, independent in manner, and not unfrequently boisterous, saucy, and troublesome in language and behavior. The Nez Perces, still further in the interior, number something less than three thousand; they inhabit a beautiful grazing district not surpassed by any I have seen for verdure, water privileges, climate, or health. The tribe forms, to some extent, an honorable exception to the general Indian character, being more noble, industrious, sensible, and better disposed toward the whites and their improvements in the arts and sciences; and, though as brave as Caesar, the whites have nothing to dread at their hands, in case of their dealing out to them what they conceive to be right and equitable. Of late, these three tribes have become strongly united by reason of much intermarriage. For the last twenty years they have been generally well disposed toward the whites; but at the time Captain Bonneville visited this district of country, he dealt more profusely in presents and paid a higher price for furs than Mr. Pambrun, one of the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company, established at Wallawalla, who had long dealt with them, and was previously a general favorite. On Mr. Bonneville's leaving, the chiefs assembled at the fort, and insisted on a change of the tariff in their favor. Pambrun refusing, they seized him, stamped violently upon his breast, beat him severely, and retained him prisoner, in rather unenviable circumstances, till they gained, to a considerable extent, their object. Since that time, they have been more consequential in feeling, and shown less deference and respect to the whites. On the arrival of missionaries among them they have never failed to make, at first, a most favorable impression, which has, in most instances, unfortunately, led to too near an approach to familiarity, operating alike prejudicial to both parties. The Rev. Messrs. Lee and Parker, who made each but a short stay among them, left with like favorable impressions. Their successors, Spalding, Whitman, Gray, and ladies, with others who remained among them, were at last driven to the conclusion that Indians as much resembled each other in character as complexion. These worthy people, not well versed in Indian character, and anxious to accomplish a great deal in a short time, resorted to various expedients to induce them to leave off their wandering migratory habits, and settle down contiguous to them in herding and agricultural pursuits, so as to be able to send their numerous and healthy children to school. In these efforts they were zealous and persevering, holding out various inducements as so many stimulants to action, most of which would have operated well in civilized life, but generally failed with these Indians; and whatever was promised conditionally, whether the condition was met or otherwise, there was no reprieve--the promised articles must come; and sometimes, under circumstances sufficiently trying, had these missionaries been less devoted, they would have driven them from their post forever.
The Indians, having gained one and another victory, became more and more insolent, till at last, some time previous to my arrival, they were not only obtrusive and exceedingly annoying about and in the missionaries' houses, but seized one of the clergymen in his own house,[2] without a shadow of provocation, further than that of treating a better neighboring chief with more respect than they, and insulted him most shamefully, there being no other white person within fifty miles, save his sick and delicate lady. Soon after, they commenced on Dr. Whitman; pulled his ears and hair, and threw off his hat three times in the mud at his feet. A short time after, the chiefs assembled, broke into the house, violently assailed his person with war clubs, and, with an ax, broke down the door leading to his own private apartment. It is generally thought, and possibly with truth, that, on this occasion, Dr. Whitman would have been killed, had not a party of white men arrived in sight just at this moment.[3] Never was such an outrage and insult more undeserving. He had built, for the express purpose of Indian accommodation, a house of the same materials, and finished in like manner with his own, of respectable size, and joined to his, and at all times, night and day, accessible. In addition to this, they were admitted to every room in his house but one. This being closed, had like to have cost him his life. He had hardly left for the States last fall, when, shocking to relate, at the hour of midnight, a large Indian chief managed to get into the house, came to the door of Mrs. Whitman's bed-chamber, and had succeeded in getting it partly open before she reached it. A white man, sleeping in an adjoining apartment, saved her from violence and ruin. The villain escaped. There was but one thing wrong in this matter on the part of Dr. Whitman, and that was a great error,--leaving his excellent lady unprotected in the midst of savages.[4] A few days after this they burned down the mission mill on his premises, with all its appendages and considerable grain, damaging them not less than twelve or fifteen hundred dollars. About the same time, Mrs. Spalding was grossly insulted in her own house, and ordered out of it, in the absence of her husband. Information reached him of an Indian having stolen his horse near the same time; he hastened to the spot to secure the animal; the rogue had crossed the river; but, immediately returning, he presented his loaded gun, cocked, at the breast of Mr. Spalding, and abused and menaced as far as possible without shooting him.[5]
[Footnote 2] Rev. A. B. Smith, who employed the Lawyer as his teacher in the Nez Perce language. Ellis was the chief who claimed the land, and had been at the Red River school. He was jealous of the Lawyer's influence with the American missionaries, and used his influence with the Hudson's Bay Company to drive Mr. Smith away.
[Footnote 3] We were present at Dr. Whitman's at the time here referred to, and know that this difficulty originated from Jesuitical teachings.
[Footnote 4] There were good men left at the station; besides, the influence of Mr. McKinley was thought to be sufficient protection from any violence from the Indians.
[Footnote 5] This transaction is represented by Rev. Mr. Brouillet as being that Mr. Spalding threatened the Indian with a gun,--being a mistake on the part of Rev. Mr. Brouillet.
In addition to this, some of our own party were robbed openly of considerable property, and some twelve horses were stolen by night. All this information, coming near the same time, was embarrassing, especially as my instructions would not allow me to exceed, for office, interpreter, and every purpose, $1,250 per annum. On the other hand, their passport, signed by the Secretary of War, made it my imperative duty to protect them, in their persons, at least, from outrage. I did not long hesitate, but called upon Thomas McKay, long in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company as explorer and leader of parties, who, from his frank, generous disposition, together with his universal success in Indian warfare, has obtained an extensive influence among the aborigines of the country, and, placing the facts before him, he at once consented to accompany me to this scene of discord and contention. We took but six men with us, armed in the best manner, a sufficient number to command respect and secure the object of our undertaking,--McKay assuring me, from his familiar acquaintance with these Indians, and their thorough knowledge of the use of arms, that if hostile intentions were entertained, it would require a larger party than we could raise in this country to subdue them. Obtaining Cornelius Rogers as interpreter, we set out on the 15th of November on our voyage of misery (as McKay justly denominated it), having a journey, by water and land, of not less than nine hundred and fifty miles, principally over open plains, covered with snow, and several times under the necessity of spending the night without wood or fire, other than what was made by a small growth of wild sage, hardly sufficient to boil the tea-kettle. The gentlemen, as we called at Vancouver, did every thing in their power to make the journey comfortable, but evidently felt anxious concerning our safety. We reached the Dalles, some two hundred and twenty miles from the Pacific, on the 24th, having been detained by wind, spent several days with the Methodist Mission families, who welcomed us joyfully, and made our stay agreeable and refreshing. Mrs. Dr. Whitman was here, having found it improper and unsafe to remain where she had been so lately grossly insulted. Her noble and intellectual mind and spirit were much depressed, and her health suffering; but still entertaining for the people or Indians of her charge the feelings of a mother toward ungrateful children. Our visit encouraged her. We procured horses and traveled by land to Wallawalla, 140 miles above, reaching the Hudson's Bay establishment on the 30th. Mr. McKinley, the gentleman in charge, to whom the missionaries are indebted for many kind offices in this isolated portion of earth, resolved to make it a common cause, and stand or fall with us. We reached Wailatpu, the station of Dr. Whitman, the day following, and were shocked and pained at beholding the sad work of savage destruction upon this hitherto neat and commodious little establishment. The Indians in the vicinity were few and shy. I thought best to treat them with reserve, but made an appointment to meet the chiefs and tribe on my return. Left the day following for the station of Mr. Spalding among the Nez Perces, some 120 or 130 miles from Wailatpu; reached it on the 3d of December, after a rather pleasant journey over a most verdant and delightful grazing district, well watered, but badly timbered. Having sent a private dispatch in advance, they had conveyed the intelligence to the Indians, many of whom were collected. The chiefs met us with civility, gravity, and dignified reserve, but the missionaries with joyful countenances and glad hearts.
Seldom was a visit of an Indian agent more desired, nor could one be more necessary and proper. As they were collecting, we had no meeting for eight and forty hours; in the mean time, through my able interpreter and McKay, I managed to secure confidence and prepare the way to a good understanding; visited and prescribed for their sick, made a short call at each of the chiefs' lodges, spent a season in school, hearing them read, spell, and sing; at the same time examined their printing and writing, and can hardly avoid here saying I was happily surprised and greatly interested at seeing such numbers so far advanced and so eagerly pursuing after knowledge. The next day I visited their little plantations, rude, to be sure, but successfully carried on, so far as raising the necessaries of life were concerned; and it was most gratifying to witness their fondness and care for their little herds, pigs, poultry, etc.
The hour arriving for the public interview, I was ushered into the presence of the assembled chiefs, to the number of twenty-two, with some lesser dignitaries, and a large number of the common people. The gravity, fixed attention, and decorum of these sons of the forest was calculated to make for them a most favorable impression. I stated explicitly, but briefly as possible, the design of our great chief in sending me to this country, and the present object of my visit; assured them of the kind intentions of our government, and of the sad consequences that would ensue to any white man, from this time, who should invade their rights, by stealing, murder, selling them damaged for good articles, or alcohol, of which they are not fond. Without threatening, I gave them to understand how highly Mr. and Mrs. Spalding were prized by the numerous whites, and with what pleasure the great chief gave them a paper to encourage them to come here to teach them what they were now so diligently employed in obtaining, in order that they and their children might become good, wise, and happy.
After me, Mr. McKinley, the gentleman in charge of the Hudson's Bay establishment at Wallawalla, spoke concisely, but very properly; alluded to his residence of some years, and of the good understanding that had generally existed between them, and of the happiness he felt that one of his brothers had come to stand and judge impartially between him, them, and whites and Indians in general; declared openly and frankly, that Boston, King George, and French, were all of one heart in this matter, as they, the Cayuses and Wallawallas should be; flattered them delicately in view of their (to him) unexpected advancement in the arts and sciences, and resumed his seat, having made a most favorable impression.
Next followed Mr. Rogers, the interpreter, who, years before, had been employed successfully as linguist in this section of the country by the American Board of Commissioners, and was ever a general favorite with this people. He adverted, sensibly and touchingly, to past difficulties between whites and Indians east of the mountains, and the sad consequences to every tribe who had resisted honorable measures proposed by the more numerous whites; and having, as he hoped, secured their confidence in my favor, exhorted them feelingly to adopt such measures as should be thought proper for their benefit.
Next, and lastly, arose Mr. McKay, and remarked, with a manner peculiar to himself, and evidently with some emotion: "I appear among you as one arisen from the long sleep of death. You know of the violent death of my father on board the ship Tonquin, who was one of the partners of the Astor company; I was but a youth; since which time, till the last five years, I have been a wanderer through these wilds, none of you, or any Indians of this country, having traveled so constantly or extensively as I have, and yet I saw you or your fathers once or more annually. I have mingled with you in bloody wars and profound peace; I have stood in your midst, surrounded by plenty, and suffered with you in seasons of scarcity; we have had our days of wild and joyous sports, and nights of watching and deep concern, till I vanished from among men, left the Hudson's Bay Company, silently retired to my plantation, and there confined myself. There I was still, silent, and as one dead; the voice of my brother, at last, aroused me; I spoke and looked; I mounted my horse--am here. I am glad it is so. I came at the call of the great chief, the chief of all the whites in the country, as well as all the Indians--the son of the mighty chief whose children are more numerous than the stars in the heavens or the leaves in the forest. Will you hear, and be advised? You will. Your wonderful improvement in the arts and sciences prove you are no fools. Surely you will hear; but if disposed to close your ears and stop them, they will be torn open wide, and you will be made to hear." This speech from Mr. McKay, whose mother is part Indian, though the wife of Governor McLaughlin, had a singularly happy influence, and opened the way for expressions on the other side, from which there had not hitherto been a sentence uttered.
First arose Five Crows, a wealthy chief of forty-five, neatly attired in English costume. He stepped gravely but modestly forward to the table, remarking: "It does not become me to speak first; I am but a youth, as yet, when compared with many of these, my fathers; but my feelings urge me to arise and say what I am about to utter in a very few words. I am glad the chief has come; I have listened to what has been said; have great hopes that brighter days are before us, because I see all the whites united in this matter; we have much wanted something; hardly knew what; been groping and feeling for it in confusion and darkness. Here it is. Do we see it, and shall we accept it?"
Soon the Bloody Chief (not less than ninety years old) arose, and said: "I speak to-day; perhaps to-morrow I die. I am the oldest chief of the tribe; was the high chief when your great brothers, Lewis and Clarke, visited this country; they visited me, and honored me with their friendship and counsel. I showed them my numerous wounds received in bloody battle with the Snakes; they told me it was not good, it was better to be at peace; gave me a flag of truce; I held it up high; we met and talked, but never fought again. Clarke pointed to this day, to you, and this occasion; we have long waited in expectation; sent three of our sons to Red River school to prepare for it; two of them sleep with their fathers; the other is here, and can be ears, mouth, and pen for us. I can say no more; I am quickly tired; my voice and limbs tremble. I am glad I live to see you and this day, but I shall soon be still and quiet in death."
The speech was affecting. Six more spoke, and the meeting adjourned three hours. Met at the hour appointed. All the chiefs and principal men being present, stated delicately the embarrassed relation existing between whites and Indians in this upper country, by reason of a want of proper organization, or the chiefs' authority not being properly regarded; alluding to some cases of improprieties of young men, not sanctioned by the chiefs and old men; and where the chiefs had been in the wrong, hoped it had principally arisen from imperfectly understanding each other's language, or some other excusable cause, especially so far as they were concerned. Advised them, as they were now to some extent prepared, to choose one high chief of the tribe, and acknowledge him as such by universal consent; all the other subordinate chiefs being of equal power, and so many helps to carry out all his lawful requirements, which they were at once to have in writing, in their own language, to regulate their intercourse with whites, and, in most cases, with themselves. I advised that each chief have five men as a body-guard, to execute all their lawful commands. They desired to hear the laws. I proposed them clause by clause, leaving them as free to reject as to accept. They were greatly pleased with all proposed, but wished a heavier penalty to some, and suggested the dog law, which was annexed. We then left them to choose the high chief, assuring them if they did this unanimously by the following day at ten, we would all dine together with the chief, on a fat ox, at three, himself and myself at the head of the table; this pleased them well, and they set about it in good cheer and high hopes; but this was a new and delicate task, and they soon saw and felt it; however, all agreed that I must make the selection, and so reported two hours after we left the council. Assuring them this would not answer, that they must select their own chief, they seemed somewhat puzzled, and wished to know if it would be proper to counsel with Messrs. McKay and Rogers. On telling them that it was not improper, they left, a little relieved, and worked poor Rogers and McKay severely for many hours; but altogether at length figured it out, and in great good humor, so reported at ten, appointing Ellis high chief.[6] He is the one alluded to by the Bloody Chief, a sensible man of thirty-two, reading, speaking, and writing the English language tolerably well; has a fine small plantation, a few sheep, some neat stock, and no less than eleven hundred head of horses. Then came on the feasting; our ox was fat, and cooked and served up in a manner reminding me of the days of yore; we ate beef, corn, and peas, to our fill, and in good cheer took the pipe, when Rev. Mr. Spalding, Messrs. McKinley, Rogers, and McKay, wished a song from our boatmen; it was no sooner given than returned by the Indians, and repeated again, again, and again, in high cheer. I thought it a good time, and required all having any claim to bring, or grievances to allege, against Mr. Spalding, to meet me and the high chief at evening, in the council-room, and requested Mr. Spalding to do the same on the part of the Indians. We met at six, and ended at eleven, having accomplished, in the happiest manner, much anxious business. Being too well fed to be irritable or disposed to quarrel, both parties were frank and open, seeming anxious only to learn our opinion upon plain undisguised matters of fact, many of the difficulties having arisen from an honest difference of sentiment respecting certain measures.
[Footnote 6] He had been educated by the Hudson's Bay Company at Red River, and was strongly attached to it.
Ellis, the chief, having conducted himself throughout in a manner creditable to his head and heart, was quite as correct in his conclusions and firm in his decisions as could have been expected. The next day we had our last meeting, and one full of interest, in which they proposed to me many grave and proper questions; and, as it was manifestly desired, I advised in many matters, especially in reference to begging, or even receiving presents without, in some way, returning an equivalent; pointed out in strong language who beggars are among the whites, and how regarded; and commended them for not once troubling me, during my stay, with this disgusting practice; and as a token of respect, now, at the close of our long and happy meeting, they would please accept, in the name of my great chief, a present of fifty garden hoes, not for those in authority, or such as had no need of them, but for the chiefs and Mr. Spalding to distribute among their industrious poor. I likewise, as they were very needy, proposed and ordered them some medicines, to be distributed as they should from time to time be required. This being done, I exhorted them to be in obedience to their chiefs, highly approving the choice they had made, assuring them, as he and the other chiefs were responsible to me for their good behavior, I should feel it my duty to see them sustained in all lawful measures to promote peace and order. I then turned, and with good effect desired all the chiefs to look upon the congregation as their own children, and then pointed to Mr. Spalding and lady, and told the chiefs, and all present, to look upon them as their father and mother, and treat them in all respects as such; and should they happen to differ in sentiment respecting any matter during my absence, be cautious not to differ in feeling, but leave it till I should again return, when the chief and myself would rectify it. Thus closed this mutually happy and interesting meeting, and mounting our horses for home, Mr. Spalding and the chiefs accompanied us for some four or five miles, when we took leave of them in the pleasantest manner, not a single circumstance having occurred to mar our peace or shake each other's confidence.
I shall here introduce a note, previously prepared, giving some further information respecting this tribe, and appending a copy of their laws. The Nez Perces have one governor or principal chief, twelve subordinate chiefs of equal power, being the heads of the different villages or clans, with their five officers to execute all their lawful orders, which law they have printed in their own language, and read understandingly. The chiefs are held responsible to the whites for the good behavior of the tribe. They are a happy and orderly people, forming an honorable exception to the general Indian character, being more industrious, cleanly, sensible, dignified, and virtuous.
This organization was effected last fall, and operates well, and with them, it is to be hoped, will succeed. A few days since Governor McLaughlin favored me with a note addressed to him from the Rev. H. H. Spalding, missionary to this tribe, stating as follows:--
"The Indians in this vicinity are remarkably quiet this winter, and are highly pleased with the laws recommended by Dr. White, which were unanimously adopted by the chiefs and people in council assembled. The visit of Dr. White and assistants to this upper country will evidently prove an incalculable blessing to this people. The school now numbers two hundred and twenty-four in daily attendance, embracing most of the chiefs and principal men of the nation."
Laws of the Nez Perces.
ARTICLE 1. Whoever willfully takes life shall be hung.
ART. 2. Whoever burns a dwelling-house shall be hung.
ART. 3. Whoever burns an out-building shall be imprisoned six months, receive fifty lashes, and pay all damages.
ART. 4. Whoever carelessly burns a house, or any property, shall pay damages.
ART. 5. If any one enter a dwelling, without permission of the occupant, the chiefs shall punish him as they think proper. Public rooms are excepted.
ART. 6. If any one steal he shall pay back twofold; and if it be the value of a beaver skin or less, he shall receive twenty-five lashes; and if the value is over a beaver skin he shall pay back twofold, and receive fifty lashes.
ART. 7. If any one take a horse and ride it, without permission, or take any article and use it, without liberty, he shall pay for the use of it, and receive from twenty to fifty lashes, as the chief shall direct.
ART. 8. If any one enter a field, and injure the crops, or throw down the fence, so that cattle or horses go in and do damage, he shall pay all damages, and receive twenty-five lashes for every offense.
ART. 9. Those only may keep dogs who travel or live among the game; if a dog kill a lamb, calf, or any domestic animal, the owner shall pay the damages and kill the dog.
ART. 10. If an Indian raise a gun or other weapon against a white man, it shall be reported to the chiefs, and they shall punish it. If a white do the same to an Indian, it shall be reported to Dr. White, and he shall punish or redress it.
ART. 11. If an Indian break these laws, he shall be punished by his chiefs; if a white man break them, he shall be reported to the agent, and punished at his instance.
After a severe journey of some four days, through the inclemency of the weather, we reached Wailatpu, Dr. Whitman's station, where we had many most unpleasant matters to settle with the Cayuse tribe,--such as personal abuse to Dr. Whitman and lady, burning the mill, etc. Several, but not all, of the chiefs were present. Learning what the Nez Perces had done gave them great concern and anxiety. Tawatowe, the high chief, and Feather Cap were there, with some few more dignitaries, but manifestly uneasy, being shy and cautious. I thought best under the circumstances to be quiet, distant, and reserved, and let them commence the conversation with my worthy and faithful friends, Rogers and McKay, who conducted it with characteristic firmness and candor. They had not proceeded far before Feather Cap, for the first time in his life, so far as we know, commenced weeping, and wished to see me; said his heart was sick, and he could not live long as he now felt. Tawatowe, who was no way implicated personally in the difficulties, and a correct man, continued for some time firm and steady to his purpose; said the whites were much more to blame than the Indians; that three-fourths of them, though they taught the purest doctrines, practiced the greatest abominations,--alluding to the base conduct of many in the Rocky Mountains, where they meet them on their buffalo hunts during the summer season, and witness the greatest extravagances. They were shown the inapplicability of such instances to the present cases of difficulty. He, too, at last, was much subdued; wished to see me; was admitted; made a sensible speech in his own favor; said he was constituted, eight years before, high chief; entered upon its duties with spirit and courage, determined to reduce his people to order. He flogged the young men and reproved the middle-aged, till, having none to sustain him, his popularity had so declined, that, except in seasons of difficulty brought about by their improprieties, "I am left alone to say my prayers and go to bed, to weep over the follies and wickedness of my people." Here his voice trembled, and he wept freely; acknowledged it as his opinion that the mill was burnt purposely by some disaffected persons toward Dr. Whitman. I spoke kindly and somewhat encouragingly to these chiefs; assured them the guilty only were to be regarded as such; and that candor was commendable, and would be honored by all the good; assured them I credited all they said, and deplored the state of their nation, which was in perfect anarchy and confusion; told them I could say but little to them now, as their chiefs were mostly abroad; but must say the shocking conduct of one of the chiefs toward Mrs. Whitman greatly afflicted me; and that, with the destruction of the mill, and their abominable conduct toward Dr. Whitman, if not speedily settled, would lead to the worst of consequences to their tribe. I made an engagement, to meet them and all the tribe on the 10th of the ensuing April, to adjust differences and come to a better understanding, they earnestly wishing to adopt such laws as the Nez Perces had done. We should probably have accomplished a satisfactory settlement, had not several of the influential chiefs been too far away to get information of the meeting. We reached Wascopum on December 25, the Indians being in great excitement, having different views and impressions respecting the nature of the approaching visit. We spent four days with them, holding meetings daily, instructing them in the nature of government, civil relations, domestic duties, etc. Succeeded, in like happy manner, with them as with the Nez Perces, they unanimously adopting the same code of laws.
Late information from one of their missionaries you will see in the following note from Mr. H. B. Brewer:--
"The Indians of this place intend to carry out the regulations you left them to the letter. They have been quite engaged in cutting logs for houses, and live in expectation of better dwellings by and by. For the least transgression of the laws, they are punished by their chiefs immediately. The clean faces of some, and the tidy dresses of others, show the good effects of your visit."
And here allow me to say, except at Wascopum, the missionaries of this upper country are too few in number at their respective stations, and in too defenseless a state for their own safety, or the best good of the Indians, the latter taking advantage of these circumstances, to the no small annoyance, and, in some instances, greatly endangering the personal safety, of the former. You will see its bearings upon this infant colony, and doubtless give such information or instructions to the American Board of Commissioners, or myself, as will cause a correction of this evil. It has already occasioned some difficulty and much cost. I have insisted upon an increase of numbers at Mr. Spalding's mission, which has accordingly been re-enforced by Mr. Littlejohn and lady, rendering that station measurably secure; but not so at Wailatpu, or some of the Catholic missions, where some of them lost a considerable amount in herds during last winter, and, I am told, were obliged to abandon their posts, their lives being endangered. This was in the interior, near the Blackfoot country. You will observe, from the reports of the different missions, which, so far as I am otherwise informed, are correct, that they are doing some positive good in the country, not only by diffusing the light of science abroad among us, but also by giving employment to many, and, by their drafts upon the different Boards and others, creating a circulating medium in this country; but, though they make comparatively slow progress in the way of reform among the aborigines of this country, their pious and correct example has a most restraining influence upon both whites and Indians, and in this way they prevent much evil.
They have in successful operation six schools. Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding (whose zeal and untiring industry for the benefit of the people of their charge entitle them to our best considerations) have a school of some two hundred and twenty-four, in constant attendance, most successfully carried forward, which promises to be of great usefulness to both sexes and all ages. Rev. Messrs. Walker and Eells I have not been at leisure to visit, but learn they have two small schools in operation; the one at Wailatpu, Dr. Whitman's station, is now recommenced with promise of usefulness.
The Rev. Mr. Blanchet and associates, though zealous Catholics, are peaceable, industrious, indefatigable, and successful in promoting religious knowledge among the Canadian population and aborigines of this country. Their enterprise in the erection of mills and other public works is very commendable, and the general industry, good order, and correct habits of that portion of the population under their charge is sufficient proof that their influence over their people has been exerted for good.[7] The Rev. Mr. Lee and associates, from their well-conducted operations at the Dalles; upon the Columbia, and a school of some thirty scholars successfully carried forward upon the Wallamet, are doing but little for the Indians; nor could great efforts produce much good among the scattered remnants of the broken tribes of this lower district, who are fast disappearing before the ravages of the most loathsome diseases. Their principal hopes of success in this country are among the whites, where they are endeavoring to lay deep and broad the foundations of science. The literary institution referred to by Mr. Lee is situated upon a beautiful rising ground, a healthy and eligible location. Could a donation of five thousand dollars be bestowed upon the institution, it would greatly encourage its friends. The donations made by individuals of this country have been most liberal, several giving one-third of all they possessed. There is a small school established at Tualatin Plains by Rev. Mr. Clark and lady. There is also a school at the Catholic Mission, upon the Wallamet, and also one upon their station at Cowlitz. For further information I will refer you to the reports made, at my request, by the several missions, and accompanying these dispatches.
[Footnote 7] This statement about Rev. Mr. Blanchet and associates, "their enterprise in erecting mills end other public Works," shows how easy it was for the agent to belittle his own countrymen's labors, and attribute to others what they never attempted to do, and in the next paragraph say they "are doing but little for the Indians;" while the truth is, and was at the time, that Mr. Lee and his mission were the only persons in the Wallamet Valley doing any thing to improve the condition of the Indians, of which their Indian school, now Wallamet University, is a permanent monument, which Dr. White ignores in this report.
* * * * *
I must close by praying that measures may be speedily entered into to take possession of this country, if such steps have not already been taken. I left home before the close of the session of Congress, and by reason do not know what disposition was made of Hon. Mr. Linn's bill. As a reason for this praying, I would here say, the time was when the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company and the missions wielded the entire influence over this small population; but as they have been re-enforced latterly from whale ships, the Rocky Mountains, and the Southwestern States, these hitherto salutary restraints and influences are giving way, and being measurably lost.
At present I have considerable influence, but can not long expect to retain it, especially in the faithful discharge of my duty. As a reason for coming to such a conclusion, I had but just arrived from the interior, when I received an urgent call to visit the mouth of the Columbia. I left at once, in company with Nathaniel Crocker, Esq., Mr. Rogers (my interpreter), his lady, and her young sister (the females going only to the falls), with a crew of Indians, on our ill-fated expedition. We reached the falls at sunset, February 1, and, by reason of the water being higher than usual, in passing around a jutting or projecting rock, the canoe came up suddenly against a log constituting the landing, at which instant I stepped off, and in a moment the canoe was swept away, with all its precious cargo, over the falls of thirty-eight feet, three rods below. The shock was dreadful to this infant colony, and the loss was dreadful and irreparable to me, Mr. Rogers being more important to me than any one in the country; nor was there a more respectable or useful man in the colony. Nathaniel Crocker came in with me last fall from Tompkins County; he was much pleased with the country and its prospects, and the citizens were rejoiced at the arrival of such a man in this country; he was every way capacitated for usefulness. None of the bodies of the four whites or two Indians have been as yet found.
* * * * *
On arriving at the mouth of the Columbia, I found a sailor by the name of George Geere, who had most evidently and maliciously labored to instigate the Indians to take the life of one of the mission gentlemen, by the offer of five blankets. Complaint being made, and having no better means, I prevailed upon Governor McLaughlin to allow him to accompany their express across the mountains to the States. I would here say, as the scamp was nearly a fool as well as villain, I allowed him to go without sending evidence against him, on condition of his going voluntarily, and never returning.
I here likewise found a rash, venturesome character, about starting off on a trapping and trading excursion among a somewhat numerous band of Indians, and nowise well disposed toward the whites. As he saw and felt no danger, arguments were of no avail, and threats only prevented.
Sir, shall men be allowed to go wherever they may please, however remote from the colony, and settle, under circumstances that endanger not only their own personal safety, but the peace and safety of the whole white population? Please give me specific instructions respecting this matter.
* * * * *
I have eight prisoners on hand at present, for various crimes, principally stealing horses, grain, etc.; and crimes are multiplying with numbers among the whites, and with scarcity of game among the Indians.
* * * * *
No intelligence from abroad has reached us this winter. Mount St. Helen, one of these snow-capped volcanic mountains, some 16,000 feet above the level of the sea, and eighty miles northwest of Vancouver, broke out upon the 20th of November last, presenting a scene the most awful and sublime imaginable, scattering smoke and ashes several hundred miles distance.
A petition started from this country to-day, making bitter complaints against the Hudson's Bay Company and Governor McLaughlin. On reference to it (as a copy was denied), I shall only say, had any gentleman disconnected with the Hudson's Bay Company been at half the pains and expense to establish a claim on the Wallamet Falls, very few would have raised an opposition. His half-bushel measure I know to be exact, according to the English imperial standard. The gentlemen of this company have been fathers and fosterers of the colony, ever encouraging peace, industry, and good order, and have sustained a character for hospitality and integrity too well established to be easily shaken.
I am, sir, sincerely and most respectfully, your humble and obedient servant,
ELIJAH WHITE, Sub-Agent Indian Affairs, W. R. M.
T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD, Esq., Commissioner Indian Affairs.
Chapter XXXI
Letter of H. H. Spalding to Dr. White.--Account of his mission among the Nez Perces.--Schools.--Cultivation.--Industrial arts.--Moral character.--Arable land.--Letter of Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of War.
MY DEAR BROTHER,--The kind letter which our mission had the honor of receiving from yourself, making inquiries relative to its numbers, the character of the Indian tribes among whom its several stations are located, the country, etc., is now before me.
The questions referring to Indian character are very important, and to answer them demands a more extended knowledge of character and habits, from personal daily observation, than the short residence of six years can afford, and more time and attention than I can possibly command, amidst the numerous cares and labors of the station. I less regret this, as the latter will receive the attention of my better-informed and worthy associates of the other stations.
Concerning many of the questions, I can only give my own half-formed opinions, from limited observations which have not extended far beyond the people of my immediate charge.
Our mission is under the patronage of the American Board, and was commenced in the fall of 1836, by Marcus Whitman, M. D., and myself, with our wives and Mr. Gray. Dr. Whitman was located at Wailatpu, among the Cayuse Indians, twenty-five miles east of Fort Wallawalla, a trading-post of the Hudson's Bay Company, which stands nine miles below the junction of Lewis and Clarke rivers, three hundred from the Pacific, and about two hundred from Fort Vancouver. I was located at this place, on the Clearwater, or Koos-koos-ky River, twelve miles from its junction with the Lewis River, one hundred and twenty miles east of Wailatpu. Mr. Gray left the same winter, and returned to the States. In the fall of 1838, Mr. Gray returned to this country, accompanied by Mrs. Gray, Messrs. Walker, Eells, and Smith, and their wives, and Mr. Rogers. The next season, two new stations were commenced, one by Messrs. Walker and Eells at Cimakain, near Spokan River, among the Spokan Indians, one hundred and thirty-five miles northwest of this station, and sixty-five miles south of Fort Colville, on the Columbia River, three hundred miles above Fort Wallawalla; the second by Mr. Smith, among the Nez Perces, sixty miles above this station. There are now connected with this mission the Rev. Messrs. Walker and Eells, Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Eells; at Cimakain, myself, and Mrs. Spalding at this station. Dr. Whitman is now on a visit to the States, and Mrs. Whitman on a visit to the Dalles, a station of our Methodist brethren. But two natives have as yet been admitted into the church. Some ten or twelve others give pleasing evidence of having been born again.
Concerning the schools and congregations on the Sabbath, I will speak only of this station. The congregation on the Sabbath varies at different seasons of the year, and must continue to do so until the people find a substitute in the fruits of the earth and herds for their roots, game, and fish, which necessarily require much wandering. I am happy to say that this people are very generally turning their attention, with much apparent eagerness, to cultivating the soil, and raising hogs, cattle, and sheep, and find a much more abundant and agreeable source of subsistence in the hoe than in their bows and sticks for digging roots.
For a few weeks in the fall, after the people return from their buffalo hunt, and then again, in the spring, the congregation numbers from one to two thousand. Through the winter it numbers from two to eight hundred. From July to the 1st of October, it varies from two to five hundred. The congregation, as also the school, increases every winter, as the quantity of provision raised in this vicinity is increased.
Preparatory to schools and a permanent congregation, my earliest attention, on arriving in this country, was turned toward schools, as promising the most permanent good to the nation, in connection with the written word of God and the preached gospel. But to speak of schools then was like speaking of the church bell, when as yet the helve is not put in the first ax by which the timber is to be felled, or the first stone laid in the dam which is to collect the water from whence the lumber in the edifice in which the bell is to give forth its sounds. Suffice it to say, through the blessing of God, we have had an increasingly large school, for two winters past, with comparatively favorable means of instruction.
But the steps by which we have been brought to the present elevation, if I may so speak, though we are yet exceedingly low, begin far, far back among the days of nothing, and little to do with.
Besides eating my own bread by the sweat of my brow, there were the wandering children of a necessarily wandering people to collect and bring permanently within the reach of the school. Over this department of labor hung the darkest cloud, as the Indian is noted for despising manual labor; but I would acknowledge, with humble gratitude, the interposition of that hand which holds the hearts of all men. The hoe soon brought hope, light, and satisfaction, the fruits of which are yearly becoming much more than a substitute for their former precarious game and roots, and are much preferred by the people, who are coming in from the mountains and plains, and calling for hoes, plows, and seeds, much faster than they can be furnished, and collecting around the station in increasing numbers, to cultivate their little farms; so furnishing a permanent school and congregation on the Sabbath, from four to eight months, and, as the farms are enlarged, giving food and employment for the year. I trust the school and congregation will be permanent through the year. It was no small tax on my time to give the first lessons on agriculture. That the men of the nation (the first chiefs not excepted) rose up to labor when a few hoes and seeds were offered them, I can attribute to nothing but the unseen hand of the God of missions. That their habits are really changed is acknowledged by themselves. The men say, whereas they once did not labor with their hands, now they do; and often tell me in jesting that I have converted them into a nation of women. They are a very industrious people, and, from very small beginnings, they now cultivate their lands with much skill, and to good advantage. Doubtless many more would cultivate, but for the want of means. Your kind donation of fifty hoes, in behalf of the government, will be most timely; and should you be able to send up the plows you kindly proposed, they will, without doubt, be purchased immediately, and put to the best use.
But to return to the school. It now numbers two hundred and twenty-five in daily attendance, half of which are adults. Nearly all the principal men and chiefs in this vicinity, with one chief from a neighboring tribe, are members of the school. A new impulse was given to the school by the warm interest yourself and Mr. McKay took in it while you were here. They are as industrious in school as they are on their farms. Their improvement is astonishing, considering their crowded condition, and only Mrs. Spalding, with her delicate constitution and her family cares, for their teacher.
About one hundred are printing their own books with a pen. This keeps up a deep interest, as they daily have new lessons to print, and what they print must be committed to memory as soon as possible.
A good number are now so far advanced in reading and printing as to render much assistance in teaching. Their books are taken home at nights, and every lodge becomes a schoolroom.
Their lessons are scripture lessons; no others (except the laws) seem to interest them. I send you a specimen of the books they print in school. It was printed by ten select adults, yet it is a fair specimen of a great number in the school.
The laws which you so happily prepared, and which were unanimously adopted by the people, I have printed in the form of a small school-book. A great number of the school now read them fluently. I send you a few copies of the laws, with no apologies for the imperfect manner in which they are executed. Without doubt, a school of nearly the same number could be collected at Kimiah, the station above this, vacated by Mr. Smith, the present residence of Ellis, the principal chief.
Number who cultivate.--Last season about one hundred and forty cultivated from one-fourth of an acre to four or five acres each. About half this number cultivate in the valley. One chief raised one hundred and seventy-six bushels of peas last season, one hundred of corn, and four hundred of potatoes. Another, one hundred and fifty of peas, one hundred and sixty of corn, a large quantity of potatoes, vegetables, etc. Ellis, I believe, raised more than either of the above-mentioned. Some forty other individuals raised from twenty to one hundred bushels of grain. Eight individuals are now furnished with plows. Thirty-two head of cattle are possessed by thirteen individuals; ten sheep by four; some forty hogs.
Arts and sciences.--Mrs. Spalding has instructed ten females in knitting, a majority of the female department in the schools in sewing, six in carding and spinning, and three in weaving. Should our worthy brother and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Littlejohn, join us soon, as is now expected, I trust, by the blessing of God, we shall see greater things than we have yet seen. From what I have seen in the field, the school, the spinning and weaving room, in the prayer-room, and Sabbath congregation, I am fully of the opinion that this people are susceptible of high moral and civil improvement.
Moral character of the people.--On this point there is a great diversity of opinion. One writer styles them more a nation of saints than of savages; and if their refusing to move camp for game, at his suggestion, on a certain day, reminded him that the Sabbath extended as far west as the Rocky Mountains, he might well consider them such. Another styles them supremely selfish, which is nearer the truth; for, without doubt, they are the descendants of Adam. What I have above stated is evidently a part of the bright side of their character. But there is also a dark side, in which I have sometimes taken a part. I must, however, confess that when I attempt to name it, and hold it up as a marked exception to a nation in similar circumstances, without the restraint of wholesome laws, and strangers to the heaven-born fruits of enlightened and well-regulated society, I am not able to do it. Faults they have, and very great ones, yet few of them seemed disposed to break the Sabbath by traveling and other secular business. A very few indulge in something like profane swearing. Very few are superstitiously attached to their medicine men, who are, without doubt, sorcerers, and are supposed to be leagued with a supernatural being (Waikin), who shows himself sometimes in the gray bear, the wolf, the swan, goose, wind, clouds, etc.
Lying is very common; thieving comparatively rare; polygamy formerly common, but now rare; much gambling among the young men; quarreling and fighting quite rare; habit of taking back property after it is sold is a practice quite common, and very evil in its tendency. All these evils, I conceive, can be traced to the want of wholesome laws and well-regulated society. There are two traits in the character of this people I wish to notice. One I think I can account for; the other I can not. It is often said the Indian is a noble-minded being, never forgetting a kindness. So far as my experience has gone with this people, the above is most emphatically true, but in quite a different sense from the idea there conveyed. It is true they never forget a kindness, but after make it an occasion to ask another; and if refused, return insults according to the favors received. My experience has taught me that, if I would keep the friendship of an Indian, and do him good, I must show him no more favor in the way of property than what he returns some kind of an equivalent for; most of our trials have arisen from this source. I am, however, happy to feel that there is a manifest improvement as the people become more instructed, and we become more acquainted with their habits. This offensive trait in the Indian character I believe, in part, should be charged to the white man. It has been the universal practice of all white men to give tobacco, to name no other article, to Indians when they ask for it. Hence two very natural ideas: one is, that the white man is in debt to them; the other is, that in proportion as a white man is a good man he will discharge this debt by giving bountifully of his provisions and goods. This trait in Indian character is capable of being turned to the disadvantage of traders, travelers, and missionaries, by prejudiced white men.
The last trait, which I can not account for, is an apparent disregard for the rights of white men. Although their eagerness to receive instruction in school on the Sabbath and on the farm is without a parallel in my knowledge, still, should a reckless fellow from their own number, or even a stranger, make an attack on my life or property, I have no evidence to suppose but a vast majority of them would look on with indifference and see our dwelling burnt to the ground and our heads severed from our bodies. I can not reconcile this seeming want of gratitude with their many encouraging characteristics. But to conclude this subject, should our unprofitable lives, through a kind Providence, be spared a few years, by the blessing of the God of missions, we expect to see this people Christianized to a great extent, civilized, and happy, with much of science and the word of God, and many of the comforts of life; but not without many days of hard labor, and sore trials of disappointed hopes, and nameless perplexities.
The number of this people is variously estimated from two thousand to four thousand. I can not give a correct estimate.
At this station there is a dwelling-house, a schoolhouse, storehouse, flour and saw mills (all of a rough kind), fifteen acres of land under improvement, twenty-four head of cattle, thirty-six horses, sixty-seven sheep. Rev. Messrs. Walker and Eells, I hope, will report of Wailatpu; but should they fail, I will say, as near as I can recollect, about fifty acres of land are cultivated by some seventy individuals; a much greater number of cattle and hogs than among this people. Belonging to the station are thirty-four head of cattle, eleven horses, some forty hogs; one dwelling-house of adobes (well finished), a blacksmith's shop, flour-mill (lately destroyed by fire), and some forty acres of land cultivated.
Arable land.--The arable land in this upper country is confined almost entirely to the small streams, although further observation may prove that many of the extensive rolling prairies are capable of producing wheat. They can become inhabited only by cultivating timber; but the rich growth of buffalo grass upon them will ever furnish an inexhaustible supply for innumerable herds of cattle and sheep. I know of no country in the world so well adapted to the herding system. Cattle, sheep, and horses are invariably healthy, and produce rapidly; sheep usually twice a year. The herding system adopted, the country at first put under regulations adapted to the scarcity of habitable places (say that no settlers shall be allowed to take up over twenty acres of land on the streams), and the country without doubt will sustain a great population. I am happy to feel assured that the United States government have no other thoughts than to regard the rights and wants of the Indian tribes in this country.
And while the agency of Indian affairs in this country remains in the hands of the present agent, I have the fullest confidence to believe that the reasonable expectations in reference to the intercourse between whites and Indians will be fully realized by every philanthropist and every Christian. But as the Indian population is sparse, after they are abundantly supplied, there will be remaining country sufficient for an extensive white population.
The thought of removing these tribes, that the country may come wholly in possession of the whites, can never for a moment enter the mind of a friend of the red man, for two reasons, to name no other: First, there are but two countries to which they can be removed, the grave and the Blackfoot, between which there is no choice; second, the countless millions of salmon which swarm the Columbia and its tributaries, and furnish a very great proportion of the sustenance of the tribes who dwell upon these numerous waters, and a substitute for which can nowhere be found east or west of the Rocky Mountains, but in herds or cultivating their own land.----
Your humble servant, H. H. SPALDING.
Dr. WHITE, Agent for Indian Affairs west of the Rocky Mountains.
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DEPARTMENT OF WAR,} OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Nov. 25, 1844.}
Communications have been received from Dr. Elijah White, sub-agent for the Indians in Oregon Territory, dated, severally, November 15, 1843, and March 18, 1844.----They contain much of interest in considerable detail. The establishment of white settlements from the United States, in that remote region, seems to be attended with the circumstances that have always arisen out of the conversion of an American wilderness into a cultivated and improved region, modified by the great advance of the present time in morals, and benevolent and religious institutions. It is very remarkable that there should be so soon several well-supported, well-attended, and well-conducted schools in Oregon. The Nez Perce tribe of Indians have adopted a few simple and plain laws of their code, which will teach them self-restraint, and is the beginning of government on their part.
It is painful, however, to know that a distillery for the manufacture of whisky was erected and in operation west of the Rocky Mountains, which, however, the sub-agent, sustained by the resident whites, broke up and destroyed. There was, in February last, an affray between a very boisterous and desperate Indian and his party and a portion of the settlers, which ended in the death of several of the combatants. This unfortunate affair was adjusted, as it is hoped, satisfactorily and permanently, by the sub-agent, though he seems to apprehend an early outbreak. I trust he is mistaken.
Respectfully submitted, T. HARTLEY CRAWFORD.
Hon. WILLIAM WILKINS, Secretary of War.