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PROTESTANTISM IN DREGUN.
---
- ACCOUNT OF THE
|| || || WHIM
AND THE
UNGRATEFUL (CALUMNIES
OF
His lºſs SPAL, DIN (Cºg
PROTESTANT MISSIONARY.
BY THE
REV, J. B. A. 880 Ullº,
--->e-
1(ºw-ºrk:
M. T. COZANS, 556 BR
º
* * * ** Nº -
º * º



PREFACE.
The following interesting narrative was prepared
by the Very Rev. Mr. Brouillet, Vicar-General of
Walla Walla, at the time of the excitement conse-
quent on the murder of Dr. Whitman, by the Indians,
and in answer to Mr. Spalding, and other of Dr.
Whitman's former associates. Although the im-
mediate occasion has passed away, it is proper, still,
to put the facts of the case on record; and these
pages, which appeared recently in the columns of
the New York Freeman’s Journal, will form an inter-
esting and authentic chapter in the history of Pro-
testant Missions.
J. A. McM.
NEw York, June, 1853.


pHOTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
A deplorable event signalised the autumn of the
year 1847 in Oregon, and brought consternation to
all hearts. The 29th of November, Dr. Marcus
Whitman, Protestant missionary among the Cayu-
ses, his wife and eight other Americans, fell victims
of the barbarity of the Indians, and three others
shared the same fate a few days afterwards. For a
time all the people apprehended that the fury of the
savages would not stop there, but that after having
made new victims of the women and children who
remained alive at the Station, passing from tribe to
tribe, it would excite suddenly all the neighboring
Indians and bring them at once upon the Willamet
Settlements
The Bishop of Walla Walla and his clergy, sta-
tioned in the neighborhood of the place of the dis-
aster, together with the clerk in charge of Fort
Walla Walla and some other persons, were however
so fortunate as to quiet by degrees, through their
influence, their advice and their repeated solicita-
tions, the fury of the Indians, and save the lives of
the widows and orphans until Mr. P. S. Ogden, one
of the chief Factors of the Hudson's Bay Compa-
ny at Fort Vancouver, came up to Fort Walla
Walla, and having bought them from the hands of
the Indians, had the consolation and glory of bring-
ing them down in safety to the Willamet. The

2 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
efforts both of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay
Company and of the clergy had also the good effect
of preventing for a time the Indians from carrying
their hostilities any farther.
The causes, both remote and immediate, of the
disaster, were clear, and left no doubt in the minds
of unprejudiced persons, who knew the history of
these countries, and the dispositions, prejudices and
superstitions of the Indians. It was evident that
the ravages caused amongst them by the measles
and dysentery, together with false reports and ad-
vices of a vagabond who was in the employ of Dr.
Whitman, were the only motives that urged the In-
dians to that act of atrocity, inclined as they were
to believe these reports from the suspicions and dis-
satisfaction that they had been for a long time enter-
taining against Dr. Whitman in particular and the
Americans in general.
But a certain gentleman, moved on by religious
fanaticism, and ashamed of owing his own life and
that of his family and friends to some priests, began
to insinuate false suspicions about the true causes of
the disaster, proceeded by degrees to make more
open accusations, and finally declared publicly that
the Bishop of Walla Walla and his clergy were the
first cause and the great movers of all the evil.
That gentleman is the Rev. H. H. Spalding, whose
life had been saved from the Indians by a priest at
the peril of his own.
His first insinuations were so malicious and their
meaning so well understood, that Colonel Gilliam
and his troops, about starting for the purpose of

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON 3
chastising the murderers at Wailatpu, said publicly
that the priests, missionaries of the Cayuses, were
deserving death, and that they would shoot or hang
the first one of them they should meet. A letter,
however, written to Colonel Gilliam by the Bishop
of Walla Walla, and some explanations given by a
priest to him and to the Commissary General, J.
Palmer, before they started for the upper country,
satisfied them, and the Colonel declared then that
“Mr. Spalding could not have spoken so without
being crazy,” and Mr. Palmer said that “he ought
not to be allowed any more to go among the In-
dians.” A relation of the principal circumstances
of the awful deed, which Colonel Gilliam himself
had asked of one of the missionaries of the Cayu-
ses, dissipated completely his prejudices against the
priests, and from that moment to his death he did
not cease to be one of their best and most sincere
friends.
Hon. P. H. Burnett being aware of the different
accusations made by Mr. Spalding all around in his
conversations and preachings, and of the unfavora-
ble impressions that they were producing upon per-
sons ignorant and already prejudiced, asked him to
please give him in writing the charges he had made
and the testimonies which supported them, in order
that he might see what means of defence the accused
could employ.
That demand was followed some time afterwards
by the publication of a letter from Mr. Spalding and
of his “History of the Massacre at Wailatpuº in
the Oregon American. Those writings, intermixed

º PROTESTANTISM IN OREGONº.
with editorial notes in the same sense, contain many
grievous accusations against the clergy and the Cath-
olics in general. Mr. Burnett then began in the
Oregon American an answer that he intended to pur-
sue, when the cessation of the Journal obliged him
to suspend it.
Judging then that it would be to the interest of
religion that the public should be informed of the
truth in that matter, in order to destroy the bad im-
pressions which such atrocious accusations might
have made on the minds of some persons, I have
considered it my duty, as a priest, to resume the
task of Mr. Burnett and to restore the facts which
have been misconstrued by Mr. Spalding & Co.
Such is the origin and the design of this writing.
It was prepared in the fall of 1848, but circum-
stances did not allow me to have it published until
In OW.
I show first the true causes of the massacre of
Wailatpu. I give next a minute journal of the
principal events that occurred in the Walla Walla
country from the arrival of the Bishop and his
clergy there until the moment they left that coun-
try for the Willamet Settlements.
And I conclude by a summary of all the principal
charges made against the Catholic clergy by Mr.
Spalding, the Oregon American, and others, up to
the month of October, 1848, with an answer to each
of them.

PART I.
True Causes of the Massacre at Wallalpu.
I prove first that remote causes of the massacre
existed long before the arrival of the Bishop of
Walla Walla and his clergy; and next I will show
what the causes, both remote and immediate, have
been.
CHAPTER I.
Existence of Remote Causes.
I say that remote causes of the evil existed long
before the arrival of the Bishop and his clergy, and
I prove it by the following circumstances and state-
ments:
I. Mr. McKinlay, the intimate friend of Dr.
Whitman, has been for four or five years in charge
of Fort Walla Walla. During his stay there, being
aware of the evil dispositions of the Indians towards
the Doctor, he warned him very often that he was
in danger, that the Indians hated him, and that he
had better go away, because he was afraid they
would kill him. Since he left the Fort he has not
ceased to advise him every year to leave Wailatpu,
telling him that if he persisted in remaining there,
the Indians would certainly kill him sooner or later.
II. Some years ago Dr. McLaughlin, then Go-
vernor of Fort Vancouver and of all the establish-
ments of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the
Rocky Mountains, judging by some difficulties which

5 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
Dr. Whitman had had with the Indians, that it was
dangerous for him to stay any longer among them,
wrote to him to urge him to leave his mission, at
least for some time, and to come down to the Willa-
met, telling him that he feared the Indians would
kill him, if he should persist in remaining among
them under such circumstances. A copy of that
letter can be seen in the journal of Fort Vancouver.
III. Mr. R. Newell, Speaker of the Legislature
of the Territory, who lived many years with the
Nez Perces, and who had an opportunity of knowing
the Cayuses well, often said to Dr. Whitman during
these last years, that he ought to leave Wailatpu,
because the Indians hated him and would kill him.
He told me himself, speaking of Dr. Whitman and
Mr Spalding, that he was astonished they had stood
so long. “Mr. Spalding would have been killed
long ago, said he, if it had not been for his wife,
who was very much liked by the Indians.”
IV. Dr. Bayley, also a member of the Legisla-
ture of the Territory, warned in like manner Dr.
Whitman, as a fiend, to clear away from the Cayu-
ses, because if he did not they would kill him.
V. Messrs. J. Douglass and P. S. Ogden, both
chief Factors of the Hudson's Bay Company at
Fort Vancouver, together with the most part of Dr.
Whitman's friends, had been for a long time trying
every year to induce him to come down to the Wil-
lamet for his safety.
VI. Last spring, (1848,) Mr. Joel Palmer, the
Indian Agent and Commissary General for the
troops, and one of three Commissioners appointed

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 7
to treat for peace with the Indians, said in my pre-
sence at Fort Walla Walla, that he and the other
Commissioners had found about the Doctor’s house
many letters which proved that even in 1845 he was
considered as being in danger.
VII. Ill-treatment had been received at differ-
ent times previously by Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding,
Mr. Gray, and Mr. Smith, as it is evident from the
statements of Messrs. Toupin, Gervais, and McKay,
that are found below.
VIII. Mr. Spalding says in his writings. “The
months of deep solicitude we had had, occasioned
by the increasing menacing demands of the Indians
for pay for their water, their wood, their air, their
lands . . . . We have held ourselves ready to leave
the country whenever the Indians as a body wished
it. . . . Dr. Whitman twice during the last year
called the Cayuses together and told them if a ma-
jority wished, he would leave the country at once . . .
Dr. Whitman held himself ready to sell the Wailatpu
Station to the Catholic mission whenever a majority
of the Cayuses might wish it. . . . When they (the
Indians) returned from California two years ago,
after the death of the son of the Walla Walla Chief,
several meetings were held to consider whether Dr.
Whitman, myself, or some other American teacher
should be killed as a set-off for Elijah.”
IX. The same Mr. Spalding said on the 31st of
August, 1847, to Dr. Poujade (see his statement
below): “The Indians are getting worse every day
for two or three years back: they are threatening
to turn us out of these missions. A few days ago
8 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
they tore down my fences. And I do not know
what the Missionary Board of New York means to
do. It is a fact we are doing no good. When the
emigration passes, the Indians all run off to trade,
and return worse than when we came amongst
them.”
X. Dr. Whitman had declared many times du-
ring the two last years that he wished to leave; that
he knew the Indians were ill-disposed towards him,
and that it was dangerous for him to remain among
them; that for a couple of years he had done nothing
for the teaching of the Indians, because they would
not listen to him. He said last fall (1847) that he
would leave certainly in the spring for the Dalles,
where he had already bought the Methodist mission.
He went so far then as to ask Mr. McKay to pass
the winter with him, for fear of the Indians, and
seemed disposed to exchange his place at Wailatpu
for another one in the Willamet. (See Mr McKay's
statement below.) Mr. Spalding declared also last
winter (1847) that for three or four years he had
ceased to teach the Indians, as they refused to hear
him. (See Mr. Gervais’ statement below.)
XI. From a letter of Dr. White, Indian Agent,
written in 1845 to the Indian Department at Wash-
ington, it is evident that at that time the whole
colony was in a terrible fright, expecting that all the
Indian tribes of the Walla Walla country would
massacre the Americans who were on their lands,
and next would come down upon the Willamet Set-
tlement and destroy the whole colony.
XII. In spite of the enthusiasm that had sig-















PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 9
nalised the first years of the establishment of his
mission, Mr. Spalding was complaining even as early
as 1840 that he had but very little hope in the dis-
positions of the Nez Perces. (See Mr. Spalding's
Letters printed in the report of the American Board
of Missionaries for Foreign Missions, published in
1842.)
XIII. A missionary of the Spokans writing to
Dr. Whitman as early as 1839, has said: “The
failure of this mission (the Spokan mission) is so
strongly impressed upon my mind that I feel it ne-
cessary to have cane in hand and as much as one shoe
on ready for a move. I see nothing but the power
of God that can save us.”
These facts and statements prove clearly, I think,
that there existed among the Indians, long before
the arrival of the Bishop of Walla Walla and his
clergy, strong causes of dissatisfaction against the
Protestant missionaries and the Americans in gene-
ral, and that they formed a leaven that had been
fermenting for several years.

CHAPTER II.
True Causes, both Remote and Immediate, of the
Massacre
I am now going to show what the true causes,
both remote and immediate, of the massacre have
been They will all be found in the following docu-
ments, to which I would invite the serious attention
of the reader:-
MR. John Toupin’s STATEMENT IN 1848.
“I have been seventeen years employed as inter-
preter at Fort Walla Walla, says Mr. Toupin, and I
left that Fort about seven years ago. I was there
when Mr. Parker, in 1835, came to select places
for Presbyterian missions among the Cayuses and
the Nez Perces, and to ask lands for those missions:
He employed me as interpreter in his negociations
with the Indians on that occasion. Mr. Pombrun,
the gentleman then in charge of the Fort, accom-
panied him to the Cayuses and the Nez Perces.
“Mr. Parker, in company with Mr. Pombrun,
an American and myself, went first to the Cayuses
upon the lands called Wailatpu, that belonged to
three chiefs—Splitted Lip, or Yomtipi, Red Cloak,
or Waptachtakamal, and Tilankaikt. 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 chil-
dren; that he would not come himself to establish

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 11
the mission, but a Doctor or a medicine man would
come in his place; that that Doctor would be the
chief of the mission and would come in the follow-
ing spring. “I come 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 willcome
every year a big ship loaded with goods to be divided
among the Indians. Those goods will not be sold,
but given to you. The missionaries will bring you
ploughs and hoes, to learn you how to cultivate the
land, and they will not sell but will give them to
you.”
“From the Cayuses, Mr. Parker went to the Nez
Perces, about 125 miles distant, on the lands of the
Old Button, on a small creek which empties into the
Clear Water at 7 or 8 miles from the actual mis-
sion. 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.”
“In the following year, 1836, Dr. Whitman arri-
ved among the Cayuses and began to build. The
Indians did not stop him, as they expected to be
paid, as they said.
“In the summer of the next year, 1837, Splitted
Lip asked him where the goods which he had pro-
mised him were ; whether he would pay him or
whether he wanted to steal his lands. He told him,
if he did not want to pay him, he had better go off
immediately, because he did not want to give his

12 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
lands for nothing. This has been told me very often
by the Indians at that time.
“In the winter of the ensuing year, 1838, as
Splitted Lip's wife was sick, he went to the Doctor
one evening and told him : ‘Doctor, you have come
here to give us bad medicines; you come to kill us
and you steal our lands. You had promised to pay
me every year, and you have been here already two
years and have as yet given me nothing. You had
better go away: if my wife dies, you shall die also.”
I happened to be presentin the house when he spoke
so, and I heard him.
“I very often heard the Indians speaking of new
difficulties, relative to the payment for their lands,
arising from year to year. They constantly told the
Doctor to pay them or else go away; and the Doctor
always persisted in remaining there without paying
them, saying that the Indians were talking lightly,
and that they would do him no harm. He let them
have ploughs, but those only who had good horses
to give him, as they said.
“The Indians often complained that the Doctor
and his wife were very severe and hard to them, and
often ill-treated them, which occasioned frequent
quarrels between them and the Doctor.
“One day the Doctor had a great quarrel with
the Indians, on account of some of their horses that
had damaged his grain, and was very ill-treated by
them. They insulted him, covered him with mud,
plucked out his beard, pulled his ears, tried to throw
his house down, snapped a gun at him twice, and
aimed at him the blow of an axe, which he avoided
by turning his head aside.

*ROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 13
* A short time afterwards he started for the Uni-
ted States, telling the Indians that he was going to
see the great chief of the Americans, and that when
he would return he would bring with himself many
people to chastise them; and the Indians had been
looking to his return with a great anxiety and fear.
“Mr. Spalding established his mission among the
Nez Perces in the same year (1836) as Dr. Whit-
man among the Cayuses.
“The following year, 1837, he decided to send
Mr. Gray to the United States with a band of horses
to exchange them for cattle. Three Indian chiefs
started with Mr. Gray, viz., Ellis, the Blue Cloak,
and the Hat. When at the rendezvous, their horses'
feet began to fail. Ellis then observed to his com-
panions that they could not continue the journey,
their horses being unable to stand the trip, and that
they would die on the road Then he and the Blue
Cloak returned back, while the Hat went on with
Mr. Gray. Ellis and the Blue Cloak arrived in the
fall at the mission of Mr. Spalding, who got very
angry when he saw them back, and said that they
had caused a great damage to the whole nation, and
that they deserved severe punishment. He then
condemned each of them to receive fifty lashes and
to give him a good horse. He could not take Ellis,
who had too strong a party; but the Blue Cloak
having come one evening with the others to prayer,
Mr. Spalding saw him, and commanded the Indians
to take him; and as no one would move, the young
chief Nez Perce, or Tonwitakis, arose with anger,
took hold of the Indian and tied him up, and then

14 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
said to Mr. Spalding: ‘Now whip him.” Mr. Spald-
ing answered him: ‘No, I do not whip; I stand in
the place of God, I command; God does not whip,
He commands,’ ‘You are a liar,” said the Indian
chief, ‘look at your image, (pointing to an image
hanging on the wall, which Mr. Spalding had made
for the instruction of the Indians,) you have painted
two men in it and God behind them with a bundle
of rods to whip them. Whip him, or if not we will
put you in his place and whip you.” Mr. Spalding
obeyed, whipped the Indian, and received from him
the horse that he had exacted.
“The third chief, who had followed Mr. Gray on
his journey to the States, was killed on the way by
the Sioux or the Pawnees. When Mr. Gray re-
turned in the ensuing year, 1838, Ellis seeing that
he was alone, and learning that his companion had
been killed, went to Mr. Spalding and said to
him: ‘Hear me; the Hat, who accompanied Mr.
Gray, has been killed; if we had gone with him
we should have been killed too; and because we
returned back, refusing to follow him, you wished
us to be flogged; you then intended that we should
be killed also.” The Indians then met together and
kept all the whites who lived at the Station blocka-
ded in their house for more than a month. I was
then sent three times by Mr. Pombrun to the Nez
Perces, to induce them to set the missionaries and
their people at liberty, observing to them that it
was not the fault of Mr. Gray if the Indian chief
had been killed; and it was at my third trip only
that I could induce them to accept tobacco in sign
of peace and to retire.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 15
“About the year 1839, in the fall, Mr. Smith, be:
longing to the same society as Dr. Whitman and
Mr. Spalding, asked Ellis permission 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 plough to
till the ground; and Ellis seeing him ready to begin
went to him and said to him: 'Do you not recol-
lect 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 plough,
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 bu-
ried ?” 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. That cir-
cumstance has been related to me by the Indians,
and soon after I saw Mr. Smith myself at Fort
Walla Walla; he was on his way down to Fort Wan-
couver, where he embarked for the Sandwich Islands,
from whence he did not come back any more.
“I have witnessed repeated efforts on the part of
Mr. Pombrun to help Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spald-
ing. He often told me that the Doctor treated him
very friendly, but that it was but reasonable on his
part, as without him those missionaries could not
stand, and would have been killed long since.”

16 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
[Though the following circumstance has not a
direct relation to the point, yet we insert it, as it is
included in the general statement of Mr. Toupin:-
“Two Catholic missionaries passed by Walla
Walla in 1838 on their way from Canada to Fort
Vancouver. In the years 1839 and 1840, one of
them, Mr. Demers, came to Walla Walla for a short
time each year, and gave instructions to the Indians,
which a great part of the Cayuses came to hear.
Some time after, Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding,
being alarmed at seeing so many Indians abandoning
them to go and hear the priest, came to Fort Walla
Walla and reproved Mr. Pombrun for having allowed
that priest to teach the Indians in his Fort. I was
near the gate of the Fort, when the Doctor had
hardly dismounted from his horse before he said, a
little excited, to Mr. Pombrun : “I thought, Sir,
that you had promised me you would not allow that
priest the liberty of speaking to the Indians in your
Fort. If that man has the liberty of coming among
the Indians, we shall have to abandon them; we
shall be unable to do anything more among them.”
“Two years ago, 1846, a Cayuse came to my
house, in the Willamet Settlement, and stopped
with me over two weeks. During that time he often
spoke to me of Dr. Whitman, complaining that he
possessed the lands of the Indians on which he was
raising a great deal of wheat which he was selling
to the Americans without giving them any thing;
that he had a mill upon their lands, and they had to
pay him for grinding their wheat, a big horse, for
twenty sacks. He said they told him to leave, but he

protestantism. In or Egon. 17
would not listen to them; that they had been much
enlightened by the Americans; before, they had no
wit, but the Americans had given them some ; they
had told them that their missionaries were stealing
their lands; that they were receiving great benefit
from them, and that they were living among them
for the purpose of enriching themselves.”
(Signed,) John Toupin.
St. Louis of Willamet, Sept. 24, 1848.
MR. THoy. As McKAy’s STATEMENT IN 1848.
“I was at Fort Walla Walla last fall, when the
Cayuse chiefs, at the request of the Bishop of Walla
Walla, met there to decide whether they would give
him a piece of land for a mission.
“During the meeting, Tumsakay said that Dr.
Whitman was a bad man; that he robbed and poi-
soned them. The Bishop replied to him that ‘ his
thoughts were bad, the Doctor did not poison them
nor rob them; he had to banish those thoughts from
his mind. You do not know the Doctor,’ he added,
* he is not a bad man.” -
“One of the chiefs told the Bishop that they
would send the Doctor off very soon; they would
give him his house if he wished. The Bishop an-
swered that he would not take the Doctor's house;
that he did not wish them to send the Doctor away,
and that there was room enough for two missions.
“The Doctor often told me that for a couple of
years he had ceased to teach the Indians because
they would not listen to him. He told me repeat-

18 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGONº.
edly, during the two last years especially, that he
wished to leave; that he knew the Indians were ill-
disposed towards him, and it was dangerous for him
to stay there; but that he wished all the chiefs to
tell him to go away, in order to excuse himself to
the Board of Foreign Missions. Last fall, during
my stay at Fort Walla Walla, long before the meet-
ing of the chiefs, called by the Bishop, the Doctor
asked me to go and pass the winter with him, say-
ing that he was afraid of the Indians. I told him I
could not, on account of my business, which called
me home; but that I would exchange my place for
his if he wished. Then he replied he would see
my place. He told me also several times last fall
that he would leave certainly in the spring for the
Dalles. I am aware, moreover, that the Cayuses
have a great many times ill-treated Dr. Whitman.”
(Signed,) THoMAs McKAx.
St. Louis of Willamet, Sept. 11, 1848.
MR. John BAptist GER v Ars’ St ATEMENT IN IS4S.
“I spent last fall and last winter among the Nez
Perces. I arrived there at the beginning of October.
But I have known the Nez Perces for over twenty
years, having been in the habit of trading and tra-
velling with them almost every year; and it was at
their request that I had gone to settle in their coun-
try. For many years I have heard the Nez Perces
very often speaking badly of Mr. Spalding. It ap-
peared to me that the greatest part of those Indians
disliked and hated him. According to their reports,

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 19
they were very often quarrelling with him; they
complained that Mr. Spalding was too quick tem-
pered. He fought with them twice, and tried to fire
at them once. The Indians ill-treated and insulted
him in a great many ways. They threw down his
mill, pretending it was theirs.
“Mr. Spalding told me himself last fall that for
three or four years back he had ceased entirely to
teach the Indians, because they refused to hear
him.”
(Signed,) John BAPTIST GERVALs
St. Paul of Willamet, Oct. 15, 1848.
Messrs. John YouNg’s AND AugustiN RAY-
Mond’s STATEMENT IN 1848.
“I spent the winter of 1846 in Dr. Whitman's
employment. I generally worked at the saw-mill.
During the time I was there, I observed that Dr.
Whitman was in the habit of poisoning the wolves.
I did not see him put the poison in the baits for the
wolves; but two young men of the house, by his
order, were poisoning pieces of meat and distri-
buting them in the places where the wolves were in
the habit of coming, at a short distance around the
establishment of the Doctor.
“The Doctor gave me once some arsenic to poi-
son the wolves that were around the saw-mill. By
his order I poisoned some pieces of meat which I
fixed at the end of short sticks at about a quarter of
a mile from the saw-mill. Some Indians who hap
pened to pass there, took the meat and eat it; three
20 12 ROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
of them were very sick and were near dying. After
they got better, the old chief, Tilaukaikt, with a
certain number of others, came to me at the saw-
mill, and told me, (pointing to those who had eaten
the poisoned meat,) that they had been very sick;
that if they had died, their hearts would have been
very bad, and they would have killed me; but as
they did not die, their hearts were consoled, and
they would not hurt me. Some days afterwards the
Doctor told me, laughing, that they would have cer-
tainly died, if they had not drunk a great quantity
of warm water to excite vomiting. “I had told
them very often,” said he, not to eat of that meat
which we distributed for the wolves, that it would
kill them: they will take care now, I suppose.”
“An American, who was also in the service of
Dr. Whitman, worked then with me at the saw-mill
He got from me a part of the poison which the Doc-
tor had given me, and with it poisoned some other
meat for the purpose of killing tigers, as he said.
“About eight years ago, the first year I came into
the country, I stopped for about ten days with Mr.
A. Raymond, the companion of my journey, at Dr.
Whitman's, who happened to have then a quantity
of melons in his garden Mr. Gray, who was then
living with the Doctor, offered us as many melons
to eat as we liked; but he warned us at the same
time not to eat them indiscriminately, as some of
them were poisoned. ‘The Indians,” said he, are
continually stealing our melons; to stop them, we
have put a little poison on the bigger ones, in order
that the Indians who will eat them might be a little


PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON- 21
sick: we did not put on enough of it to kill them:
but only enough to make them a little sick.’ And
he went and selected himself some melons for us to
eat.”
(Signed,) John YouNg.
St. Paul of Willamet, Sept. 12, 1848.
This is to certify that the part of the above state-
ment of Mr. John Young relative to the putting of
poison on some melons at Dr. Whitman's establish-
ment is correct. I was with Mr. Young at that
time; I heard what Mr. Gray told him: his words
were directed to both of us, and I have eaten of the
melons which Mr. Gray gave us at that time.
(Signed,) AugustiN RAYMond.
St. Paul of Willamet, Sept. 12, 1848.
Extracts from a Letter written on the 4th of April,
1845, by Dr. Elijah White, Sub-Indian Agent,
west of the Rocky Mountains, to the Indian De-
partment at Washington.
“The most painful circumstance that has occur-
red lately transpired last fall in California. And
after speaking of some difficulties that occurred in
California between the Cayuses and the Walla
Wallas on one part, and the Spaniards and Ameri-
cans on the other, on account of some stolen horses
that the Cayuses and Walla Wallas had taken
from hostile Indians by fighting them, Mr. White
passes on to relate a murder there committed coolly
by an American upon the person of Elijah, the son
of the Yellow Serpent, the chief of the Walla
Wallas, in the following way:-

22 PROTETANTISM IN on EGAN.
“The Indians had gone to the fort of Captain
Sutter to church, and after service, Elijah was in-
vited into another apartment, taking with him his
uncle, (Young Chief, or Tawatowe, of the Umatilla
river,) a brave and sensible chief, of the age of five
and forty: while there, in an unarmed and defenceless
condition, they commenced menacing him for things
alleged against the river Indians of this upper coun-
try, in which none of them had any participation,
called them indiscriminately dogs, thieves, &c.
This American then observed, ‘yesterday you were
going to kill me, now you must die,” and drawing a
pistol— Elijah, who had been five or six years at
the Methodist mission, and had learned to read,
write, and speak English respectably, said, delibe-
rately, “let me pray a little first,” and kneeling
down, at once commenced, and, when invoking the
divine mercy, was shot through the heart or vitals,
dead upon the spot.
“Taking for truth an Indian report, this horri-
ble affair creates considerable excitement, and there
is some danger of its disturbing the friendly rela-
tion that hitherto existed between us here and all
those formidable tribes in the region of Walla
Walla and Snake river.
“Learning from Dr. Whitman, who resides in
their midst, how much they were all excited by rea-
son of the treacherous and violent death of this
educated and accomplished young chief, and, per-
haps, more especially by the loss they had sustained,
and then, after suffering so many hardships and en-
countering so many dangers, losing the whole, I

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGAN. 23
apprehended there might be much difficulty in ad-
justing it, particularly as they lay much stress
upon the restless, disaffected scamps, late from
Willamet to California, loading them with the vile
epithets of dogs, thieves, &c., from which they
believed or affected to believe that the slanderous
reports of our citizens caused all their loss and disas-
ters, and therefore held us responsible. He, Ellis,
the Nez Perce chief, assured me that the Cayuses,
Walla Wallas, Nez Perces, Spokans, Pouderoys,
and Snakes were all on terms of amity, and that a
portion of the aggrieved party were for raising a
party of about two thousand warriors of those for-
midable tribes, and march to California at once, and
nobly revenging themselves on the inhabitants by
capture and plunder, enrich themselves upon the
spoils; whilst others not indisposed to the enter-
prise, wished first to learn how it would be re-
garded here; and whether we would remain neutral
in the affair. A third party were for holding us
responsible, as Elijah was killed by an American,
and the Americans incensed the Spaniards.
“Sir, how this affair will end is difficult to con-
jecture; the general impression is that it will lead to
the most disastrous consequences to the Califor-
nians themselves, or to the colony of the Willamet
valley. My principal fear is that it results in so
much jealousy, prejudice and disaffection, as to di-
vert their minds from the pursuit of knowledge,
agriculture, and the means of civilization, which
they have been for such a length of time so laudably
engaged in obtaining.

24 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGA.N.
“Should this be the case with these numerous,
brave, and formidable tribes, the result to them and
to us would be, indeed, most calamitous. To pre-
vent such a result, I wrote, through Ellis, a long,
cordial, and rather sympathising letter to the chiefs
of these tribes, assuring them that I should at once
write to the Governor of California, to Captain Sut-
ter, and to our great chief, respecting this matter.
With a view to divert attention and promote good
feeling, I invited all the chiefs to come down in the
fall, before the arrival of the emigrants, in company
with Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, and confer
with me upon this subject.”
(Signed,) ELIJAH WHITE.
MR. WILLIAM CRAIG’s STATEMENT IN 1848.
Question by Hon. P. H. Burnett.—State whether
you were acquainted with Tom Hill, a Delaware
Indian, and when and where, and what statements
he made to the Nez Perces, and whether the Cay-
uses were informed of his statements, and what im-
pressions he made upon the Indians ?
Answer.—The first acquaintance was in the
Rocky Mountains in the year 1837, and then in
1845, when he came to the Nez Perces country. I
frequently heard that he had been telling unfavora-
ble tales of the Americans; how they had treated
the Indians in his country. He said the first were
missionaries that came to him, and then others came
in and settled, and then commenced taking our
lands, and finally drove us off; and they will do the
same to you. This I had heard of Tom Hill. On

* Roºst ANTISM IN OREGON. 25
seeing him, I asked him what he had told the In-
dians; if he had told them so and so, as I had heard.
He said he had told them how the Americans had
treated them in his place, and they had better not
keep Spalding there, or it would be the same thing
with them; I am acquainted with missionaries; it is
only a way of making property; there is nothing in
religion, only to make money; you can see that:
look how they are selling everything they raise in
your own lands; you cannot get anything from them
without paying for it, not so much as a piece of meat
when you are hungry. After my interview with
Hill, he came once in company with some Nez
Perees to Dr. Whitman's; after remaining there
some twelve or fifteen days, he returned; I asked
him how he and the Doctor got along; he told me
very well; that he was a heap better man than
Spalding; he had asked him into his house some-
times. After that the Doctor told me Tom had
done some mischief with the Indians in that place.
Question – Will you state what is the custom
among the Cayuses when a medicine man fails to
cure a patient, and the patient dies?
Answer.—Since I have been acquainted with
them, it has always been their custom in such cases
to kill the medicine man or woman; and every year
since I have known them, I have heard of their kill-
ing such persons.
Question.—How long have you been acquainted
with the Cayuses
Answer.-Since the year 1840.
Question—State whether you ever heard any of

26 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
the Cayuses say anything about the Catholics estab-
lishing missions among them, and whether they dis-
liked that they should
Answer.—I heard an Indian, who was left in
charge of the Young Chief's business, while the
chief was out after buffalo, and which was sometime
during the summer of 1847, say that the Young
Chief told him that if they, the Catholic missiona-
aries, should come there before he got back, to tell
them to remain, but not to commence building until
his return, and he would show them where to build.
It was, however, a common report among the Nez
Perces that the Cayuses had asked the Catholics to
come among them and to establish missions.
Question.—Did you hear Dr. Whitman say any-
thing relative to the Catholics establishing missions
among the Indians; if so, state what?
Answer.—Dr. Whitman told me that he heard a
talk of the Catholics establishing a mission on the
Tucamon, about sixty miles off, and said he would
rather they would be nearer at hand.
Question.—State where you were at the time the
massacre took place, and what do you know about a
messenger from the murderers to the Nez Perces
Indians, and what the messenger said in reference
to the cause of the Cayuses killing Dr. Whitman
Answer.—I was living about ten miles from Mr.
Spalding's mission. Mr. Camfield first brought the
news of the massacre. On the Sth, after the mas-
sacre, being Monday, a great many Indians met at
Mr. Spalding’s before Mr. S. had returned; a
messenger came there from the Cayuses, and the In-
dians, when assembled, required him to state all he

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 27
knew about the matter, and to state the truth: 1
was present; and he said, in substance, that all the
chiefs were concerned, except Young Chief and
Five Crows, who knew nothing of it; that the cause
of the murder was that Dr. Whitman and Spalding
were poisoning the Indians. They asked him, are
you sure that they were poisoning the Indians? He
said yes. How do you know it? Jos. Lewis said so.
What did he say? Jos. Lewis said that Dr. Whit-
man and Mr. Spalding had been writing for two
years to their friends in the East, where Jos. Lewis
lived, to send them poison to kill off the Cayuses
and the Nez Perces; that they had sent them some
that was not good, and they wrote for more that
would kill them off quick, and that the medicine had
come this summer. Jos. Lewis said he was lying in
the settee in Dr. Whitman’s room, and he heard a
conversation between Dr. Whitman, Mrs. Whitman,
and Mr. Spalding, in which Mr. Spalding asked the
Doctor why he did not kill the Indians off faster :
“Oh,” said the Doctor, “they are dying fast
enough; the young ones will die off this winter and
the old ones next spring ” Mrs. Whitman said that
our friends will be on, and want to settle in this
country. A talk then took place between Dr.
Whitman and Mr. Spalding, in which they said,
how easy we will live when the Indians are all
killed off; such an Indian has so many horses, and
such an Indian so many spotted horses, and our
boys will drive them up, and we will give them to
our friends. One of them said that man will hear
us, alluding to Jos. Lewis. Oh, no, said another,
he cannot hear, he is sleeping sound. They talked
28 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
rather low, but Jos. Lewis said he could hear all
that passed. This Indian messenger stated that
Jos. Lewis had made this statement in a council of
the Cayuses on the Saturday night previous to the
murder, and that Jos. Lewis said he had heard this
conversation between Dr. Whitman and the others
on the Wednesday before the murder. Jos. Lewis,
the messenger said, told the Cayuses in the council
that unless they (the Indians) killed Dr. Whitman
and Mr. Spalding quick, they would all die. The
inessenger went on to say himself, that and one hun-
dred and ninety-seven Indians had died since the
immigration commenced passing that summer. He
said that there were six buried on Monday morning,
and among the rest his own wife; he said he knew
they were poisoned.
Questioned—Are you acquainted with the fact
that the small-pox was spread among the Blackfeet
Indians, east of the Rocky Mountains If so, state
in what year, and how far it spread, and whether a
knowledge of this fact is not familiar with the Cay-
uses and Nez Perces.
Answer.—In the year 1837, the small-pox was
spread among the Blackfeet Indians by one Beck-
with, who brought the matter for that purpose.
Beckwith took it himself, and a clerk at one of the
trading posts, Fort Muriah, on one branch of the
Missouri river, helped to spread it among the
Blackfeet Indians for the purpose of killing them
off. A knowledge of this fact is common among
the Nez Perces, and, I think, among the Cayuses.
(Signed,) WILLIAM CRAIg,
July 11, 1848,



PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON . 29
Now, I am satisfied that every impartial and un-
prejudiced person, after reading attentively the
above documents, will come with me to the conclu-
sion that the true causes, both remote and imme-
diate of the whole evil, must have been the fol-
lowing:—
I. The promise made by Mr. Parker to the Cay-
uses and the Nez Perces of paying for their lands
every year, and the want of fulfilment of that pro-
mise.
Thence came “the months of deep solicitude,
occasioned by the increasing and menacing demands
of the Indians for pay for their water, their wood,
their air, their lands,” of which Mr. Spalding com-
plains in his “History of the Massacre.” It was
not unnatural that the Indians seeing that they were
refused the price fixed for their lands, should repeat
their demands, and finally come to the threatenings.
White people would not have done much less.
II. The death of the Nez Perces’ chief, killed on
his way to the United States, when he was in com-
pany with Mr. Gray, and in his service.
The conclusion is evident from the circumstances
which preceded that death, and from the proceed-
ings of the Nez Perces against Mr Spalding, and all
the people of his establishment on account of it, and
likewise from the general habit of the Indians in
such cases. Besides, in the council that the Cay-
uses held sometime after the massacre, to offer to
the government their proposals of peace, Tilau-
kaikt was mentioning that death as one of their
grounds of complaint against the Americans.

30 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
III. The murder committed by an American in
California, on the person of Elijah, the son of the
Walla Walla chief, in 1844.
Dr. White's letter says in relation to that murder:
“The general impression is that it will lead to the
most disastrous consequences to the Californians
themselves, or to the colony of the Willamet valley.”
Mr. Spalding says in his “History of the Massacre:”
“When they, the Indians, returned back from Cali-
fornia, two years ago, after the death of the son of
the Walla Walla chief, several meetings were held to
consider whether Dr. Whitman, myself, or some
other American teacher, should be killed as a set-
off for Elijah.” And Mr. McKinlay assures me
that in the fall of 1844, the Indians, a short time
after their return from California, met one day at
Fort Walla Walla, seven hundred in number, all
armed, and decided to walk down immediately upon
the colony of the Willamet, and that they could be
stopped only by the Young Chief, and who by his
influence and entreaties decided them to abandon
their undertaking, and to go home. And in the
spring of 1847, the Walla Walla chief himself, Yel-
low Serpent, started with a party of Walla Wallas
and Cayuses for the purpose of attacking the Ame-
ricans in California, whom they thought unsuspi-
cious. But having found them on their guard, and
too strong to be attacked without danger, he took
their part against the Spaniards, offered his services
to them, and fought in their ranks. On his way,
coming back, he lost many of his people from sick-
mess, so that he and his young men, when arrived at

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 31
home in the fall, felt worse disposed than ever to-
wards the Americans. And Tilaukaikt mentioned
that murder also among the grievances that they had
against the Americans.
IV. The tales of Tom Hill in accordance with
what was going on among the Indians.
That Indian had told the Nez Perces and the
Cayuses that “the first was missionaries,” who
came to them “only to make property, that there
was nothing in religion.” Now, when the Protest-
ant missionaries arrived among those tribes of In-
dians, they assured them that they came only to
teach them and to help them to live better, and
promised them a great price for their lands. But
soon after they got their lands they worked for
themselves and neglected the Indians, and even for
three or four years they had ceased entirely to teach
them, as Mr. Spalding said. They got bands of
horses, sheep, and cattle; made large farms, traded
with the emigrants their horses, cattle and grain,
and were getting rich without dividing with the In-
dians. They refused obstimately, from year to year,
to pay the price they had promised for their lands,
and persisted to keep them; and they made nothing
for the Indians unless they should be paid for it.
Tom Hill had also said, that after the missiona-
ries “others come, settle, begin to take their lands,
and finally send them off.” Now—the year after
the arrival of those missionaries—Mr. Spalding
thought fit to send Mr. Gray to the States for the
purpose of bringing from thence fifty new families
of missionaries, and had it made known to the In-
32 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
dians. In 1839 Mr. Smith wished to cultivate the
land in spite of the Indians, and because they stop-
ped him he went off. In 1841 or 1842 Dr. Whit-
man started for the States, telling the Indians that
he would bring back with himself many people to
chastise them for having ill-treated him. The In-
dians had been waiting for his return with anxiety,
fearing the execution of his threatenings. He came
back, however, with a few people only; but in the
following year more came, and next year yet more,
and more and more for every following year; so
that the Indians could possibly suppose that the
Doctor would execute his threatenings and take a
revenge of them as soon as he thought himself strong
enough.
Besides, they knew the Willamet well, and seeing
so many Americans passing through their country
every year to go thither, it was not unnatural to put
this question to themselves:–If they continue for
many years more to come in so great a number,
where will they settle There is not room enough
in the Willamet for so many people. And the an-
swer then was natural:—They will come here and
will take our lands, as Tom Hill says they have done
in the States, and as they are doing in the Willa-
met, and will drive us out of the country. And
then that conclusion suggested to them by Tom Hill
found naturally its place: that the missionaries were
among them only to prepare the way for other Ame-
ricans, and that they had better not keep Mr. Spald-
ing nor any other American missionary among them-
selves.


PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 33
V. The spreading of small pox by Americans
among the Blackfeet Indians, in connection with the
measles among the Cayuses, and the imprudent use
of poison at Dr Whitman's establishment and his
profession as a physician.
The Cayuses and the Nez Perces, as stated by
Mr. Craig, knew that the smallpox had been brought
and spread among the Blackfeet Indians by Ameri-
cans, and seeing a great similarity between the ef-
fects of the measles among themselves and of the
smallpox among the Blackfeet, they could be indu-
ced very easily to believe that the Americans had
brought them the same sickness with the intention
of killing them as they had done with the Blackfeet.
Moreover Doctor Whitman was in the habit of using
poison to kill the wolves. The Indians knew it;
and three of them had been very near losing their
lives by eating of the meat that he had poisoned.
The Indians knew then that he had the power of
poisoning them whenever he wished; and with In-
dians from the power to the act there is but very
little distance.
It is certain also that the Doctor or his folks have
poisoned melons for the purpose of making the In-
dians sick. The Indians knew it, and have been
ever since complaining of it. And going farther
they took occasion from that circumstance for accu-
sing the Doctor of having poisoned other food than
he gave them to eat; and it is a general report
among them that very often they experienced vomit-
ings and colics after eating the Doctor's aliments,
and they go so far as to designate a good many
34 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
among themselves who have been taken sick in this
manner. The Doctor was also in the habit of trust-
ing poison to all persons in his service indiscrimi-
nately. Who then could say that he had not trusted
poison to some person unworthy of his confidence,
who, without his knowledge and against his will,
might have used it against the Indians?
And finally, Mr. Whitman was a physician, and
every one knows the prejudice of the Indians against
any kind of what they call medicine men, to whom
they impute the power of killing or healing as they
choose the persons that they attend, and whom they
are in the habit of killing as murderers, when their
patients die.
VI. Lack of sincerity and faithfulness to their
word and promise, violence of character and impru-
dent expressions, together with an excessive seeking
for temporal welfare in some of the missionaries.
We have seen that they had promised to pay the
Indians for their lands and to give them a great
many things which they never gave.
Mr. Spalding, writing to the Bishop of Walla
Walla some days after the massacre of Wailatpu,
said: “My object in writing principally is to give
information through you to the Cayuses that it is
our wish to have peace, that we do not wish Ameri-
cans to come from below to avenge the wrong; we
hope the Cayuses and Americans will be on friendly
terms, that Americans will no more come to their
country, unless they wish it. As soon as these men
return, I hope, if alive, to send them to the Go-
vernor, to prevent Americans coming up to molest


PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 35
the Cayuses for what is done. . . . . The Nez Perces
pledged to protect us from the Cayuses if we would
prevent the Americans from coming up to avenge
the murders. This we have pledged to do, and for
this we beg for the sake of our lives at this place
and Mr. Walker's. By all means keep quiet, send
no war reports, send nothing but proposals of peace.
They say they have buried the death of the Walla
Walla chief's son killed in California. They wish
us to bury this offence.” And in the Oregon Ame-
rican he says: “The object of the letter was solely
to gain time for the H. B. Company to reach Walla
Walla and secure our deliverance before the Indians
should discover any movement on the part of the
Americans.” And, as if to prove it, he had hardly
escaped from the hands of the Indians, when on his
way going down to the Willamet in company with
the other captives after their deliverance, passing at
the Dalles, he tried all he could to induce the troops
that were stationed there to go up immediately to
the Cayuses and kill them all with the exception of
only five or six whom he commended to their cle-
mency, as the following letter partly proves:–
- “OREgoN CITY, Aug. 18th, 1848.
“Hon. P. H. Burnett :
“Dear Sir, In answer to your polite note I can
only say that I did not charge my mind particularly
with Rev. Mr. Spalding's statements, consequently
cannot give you his precise language. I recollect
distinctly, however, that he was not in favor of kil-
ling all the Cayuses; for he gave me names of some
four or five that he knew to be friendly, and another

36 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
whom I marked as questionable; the balance, if I
am not very much mistaken, he would have share
one fate. . . . . .
“I am, Sir, with respect, yours,
(Signed) “J. M. AgoNE.”
Mr. Spalding intended then to deceive the Indians
with the letter that he wrote to the Bishop, and had
no intention of keeping his promises to them. And
the Indians knew him so well in that respect that
when they heard his letter read at the Catholic mis-
sion, they said without hesitation that Mr Spalding
was speaking well because he was in a hole. Now,
it is by every one known that nothing is so apt to
destroy the confidence and excite the bad feelings
of Indians towards any body as lack of sincerity
and faithfulness.
As to the violence of character and imprudent
expressions, I heard Dr. Whitman say at Fort Walla
Walla last fall (1847), that he had very much scold-
ed the Indians of the Dalles, who had robbed the
emigrants, and that he had told them: “Since you
are so wicked, such robbers, we shall call for troops
to chastise you; and next fall we will see here five
hundred dragoons who will take care of you.” We
have seen moreover in Mr. Toupin's statement the
ignominious treatment to which the Doctor exposed
himself by that hardness and violence of character,
and Mr. Gervais told us what the consequences were
for Mr. Spalding of his quickness of temper.
As for the excessive seeking for temporal welfare,
Mr. Joel Palmer, then Indian Agent, said in my
presence at Walla Walla last winter, 1848, that in

protestANTISM. In oregon. 37
his opinion the application of the missionaries to get
excessive riches had been a great obstacle to the
prosperity of the missions; that it absorbed too
much of their attention and excited against them
the jealousy of the Indians; that his opinion was
the government ought to prohibit them from getting
more than a certain amount of revenue as consider-
ed necessary for their habitual subsistence.
Such had been upon the Indians the unfavorable
effects of the facts and circumstances which I have
just given above as the remote causes of the massa-
cre; that a great part of the volunteers of 1848,
and also of the population of the Willamet, came
then to the general conclusion that the missions are
prejudicial to the Indians, make them worse, and
had better be abandoned. When they came to this
conclusion, however, they could speak of the Pro-
testant missions only, because they had had as yet
no opportunity of knowing what the Catholic mis-
sions are and what effects they produce among the
Indians—the Flat Head missions being so far off
that very few Protestants know anything of their
management.
VII. The ultimate causes and the only imme-
diate ones were the ravages of the measles and dys-
entery, together with the tales of Joseph Lewis.
The causes that I have enumerated above, must
be considered as so many remote and indirect ones,
which had been preparing for a long time the way
for the awful deed; but as to the immediate causes
of it, I am sure that every sensible person will find
it in the ravages of the measles and dysentery.

38 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
which had terrified the Indians, and in the tales that
Joseph Lewis spread then among them, and which
agreed so perfectly with the long prejudices and sus-
picions of the Indians, and with the tales that had
been spread before by Tom Hill. As an evident
proof of that I refer to Mr. Craig's statement which
we have seen above, and as a second and yet stronger
proof I bring here Mr. Spalding himself.
“It was most distressing,” says Mr. Spalding in
his ‘History,” “to go into a lodge of some ten fires
and count twenty or twenty-five, some in the midst
of measles, others in the last stage of dysentery, in
the midst of every kind of filth of itself sufficient
to cause sickness, with no suitable means to alleviate
their inconceivable sufferings, with perhaps one well
person to look after the wants of two sick ones.
They were dying every day, one, two, and some-
times five in a day, with the dysentery, which very
generally followed the measles. Everywhere the
sick and dying were pointed to Jesus, and the well
were urged to prepare for death.”
Indeedt here was enough there to alarm Indians
and to excite them to excesses, if anybody knew
how to take advantage of those circumstances: and
that man was found in Joseph Lewis. Appearing
full of solicitude for the welfare of the Indians, he
went to them and told them that he was himself an
Indian the same as they were, belonging to the Chi-
nook tribe; “that formerly,” as Mr. Spalding con-
tinues to relate in his ‘History,” “the Americans by
ships brought poison to the lower country with a
view to destroy all the Indians. Vast multitudes

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 39
were destroyed, as their old men very well recollect
—referring, doubtless, to the small pox and measles,
which raged throughout the Territory some thirty-
five or forty years ago.” He, being a small child,
was reserved by the Americans, taken to the States,
where he had grown up, ever mindful of his native
country, and anxious to return to his own people.
He told the Indians that he took particular notice of
the letters of Dr. Whitman and myself from this
country; told them that some of these letters spoke
of this vast country as every way desirable for set-
tlements—its healthy climate, its rich soil, the bands
of horses, &c. Some of the letters called for poi-
sons by which we could sweep off the Indians and
make way for the Americans. In accordance with
this request, he said, several bottles of poison had
been brought over by the last emigration which had
caused many deaths among the immigrants, and was
the cause of the sore sickness and frequent deaths
among the Indians, and would soon kill them all if
the Doctor and Mrs. Whitman and myself were not
removed. This I received from Stikas in his lodge
twenty-four hours after the butchery had taken
place. It seems that immediately on my arrival
Lewis set himself to excite the Indians to do the
dreadful deed. He told them that he overheard
Dr. Whitman and myself consulting at night as to
the most effectual way to kill off the Indians.”
“Such statements,” Mr. Spalding continues, “fol-
* It was in the year 1830 that entire villages were
swept away by sickness.

40 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
lowing like statements which have been sounding in
the ears of the Indians for years, and made with so
much apparent solicitude for them, and at the time
of great excitement among the Indians on account
of the measles, had doubtless much to do in bring-
ing about the bloody tragedy.” And for my part P.
do not hesitate to affirm that every sensible and un-
prejudiced person will conclude with me that there,
and there only, lies the immediate cause of the mur-
ders, and that such was the true and only motive
that induced the Indians to perpetrate the horrible
erime. All efforts to prove the contrary would prove
nothing but the injustice and blind prejudices of
their authors. - -
CHAPTER II.
Journal of the Principal Events that occurred ºn the
Walla Walla Country, from the arrival of the
Bishop and his Clergy until the moment they left
that Country for the Willamet Settlements.
It was on the 5th of September, 1847, that the
Right Rev. Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet arrived at
Fort Walla Walla, where he was cordially received
by Mr McBean, Clerk in charge of said Fort. He
was accompanied by the Superior of the Oblats and
two other clergymen. He had the intention of re-
maining but a few days at the Fort, for he knew
hat Towatowe, (or Young Chief,) one of the Cayuset

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 41
chiefs, had a house which he had destined for the
use of the Catholic missionaries, and he intended to
go and occupy it without delay; but the absence of
the Young Chief, who was hunting buffalo, created
a difficulty in regard to the occupation of the house,
and in consequence of it he had to wait longer than
he wished.
On the 23d of September, Dr. Whitman, on his
way from the Dalles, stopped at Fort Walla Walla.
His countenance bore sufficient testimony to the
agitation of his heart. He soon showed by his
words that he was deeply wounded by the arrival of
the Bishop. “I know very well,” said he, “for
what purpose you have come.” “All is known,”
replied the Bishop, “I come to labor for the con-
version of the Indians, and even of Americans, if
they are willing to listen to me.” The Doctor then
continued in the same tone to speak of many things.
He attributed the coming of the Bishop to the
Young Chief's influence made a furious charge
against the Catholics, accusing them of having per-
secuted Protestants, and even of having shed their
blood wherever they had prevailed. He said he did
not like Catholics . . . . that he should oppose the
missionaries to the extent of his power. . . He spoke
against the Catholic Ladder!” and said that he
would cover it with blood, to show the persecution
of Protestants by Catholics. He refused to sell
provisions to the Bishop, and protested that he
* A picture explaining the principal points of Cath-
olic faith. - -
42 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
would not assist the missionaries unless he saw them
in starvation.
After such a manifestation of sentiment towards
Catholics in general and priests in particular, the
Bishop was not astonished in hearing some hours
after that Dr. Whitman on leaving the Fort went
to the lodge of Piopiomoxmox (or Yellow Serpent);
that he had spoken a great deal against the priests;
that he had wished to prevail upon this chief to co-
operate with him, in order that by the aid of his
influence with the Cayuses, De Chutes and Dalles
Indians, he might be enabled to excite these nations
against them, &c. &c. -
The clergymen that had remained behind with the
wagons and effects of the mission, arrived at Fort
Walla Walla on the 4th of October.
During the months of October and November the
Doctor came to the Fort several times to render his
professional services to Mrs. Maxwell and Mr. Th.
McKay; he was a little more reserved than at the
first interview, but it was always visible enough that
the sight of the Bishop and his clergy was far from
being agreeable to him.
On the 26th of October Young Chief came to
the Fort, and the Bishop asked him if he was dispo-
sed to receive a priest for him and his young men;
telling him that he could only give him one for the
whole nation, and that if the Cayuses wished to
avail themselves of his services they would do well
to come to an understanding together concerning
the location of the mission. The Young Chief re-
plied that he would receive a priest with pleasure;


PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 48
that he had long desired one, and that he could take
his house and as much land as he wanted; but as a
means of reuniting the Cayuses, who had been here-
tofore divided, and in order to facilitate their reli-
gious instruction, he suggested the idea of establish-
ing the mission near Dr. Whitman's, at the camp of
Tilokaikt, saying that there was more land there
than near his house, and that it was more central;
that, by his wife, he had a right to the land of Tilo-
kaikt, and that he was disposed to give it to the mis-
sion, if Tilokaikt was willing; that he would go and
live there himself with his young men, if the mission
could be established there; but that in case this
could not be done, his house was at the service of
the priest at any time he pleased.
On the 29th of October the Bishop, agreeably to
the words of the Young Chief, informed Tilokaikt
that he wished to see him ; and, on the 4th of No-
vember, Tilokaikt, Camaspelo, and Tomsakay, with
many other Indians, were at the Fort. The meet-
ing took place after supper; it was done publicly
and in the presence of Mr. Thomas McKay and all
the persons at the Fort who choosed to witness it.
Tomsakay spoke first, Camaspelo next, and then
Tilokaikt taking the floor put many questions to the
Bishop: asking him whether it was the Pope who
had sent him to ask for land for the mission—how
the priests lived in their country—who maintained
them -whether the priests would make presents to
the Indians—whether they would cause their land
to be ploughed—whether they would aid them in
building houses—whether they would feed and clothe

44 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
their children, &c. &c. The Bishop replied that it
was the Pope who had sent him; that he had not
sent him to take their land, but only for the purpose
of saving their souls; that, however, having to live,
and possessing no wealth, he had asked of them a
piece of land that he could cultivate for his support;
that in his country it was the Faithful who main-
tained the priests, but that here he did not ask so
much, but only a piece of land, and that the priests
themselves would do the rest. He told them that he
would not make presents to Indians, that he would
give them nothing for the land he asked; that in
case they worked for him, he would pay them for
their work and no more; that he would assist them
neither in ploughing their lands nor in building
houses, nor would he feed or clothe their children,
&c. The Bishop then closed, the young men re-
tired, and Tilokaikt concluded the meeting by say-
ing that he would not go against the words of the
Young Chief, and requested the Bishop to sendim-
mediately some person to visit his land and select a
place for a mission.
For further particulars of the meeting, see Mr.
Thomas McKay's statement above.
On the 8th of November I went by order of the
Bishop to Wallatpu to look at the land which Tilo-
kaikt had offered; but he had changed his mind and
refused to show it to me, saying that it was too small.
He told me that he had no other place to give me
but that of Dr. Whitman's, whom he intended to
send away. I declared to him a second time the
same as the Bishop had done at the meeting, that I

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 43
would not have the place of Dr. Whitman. I then
went immediately to the camp of Young Chief, to
notify him that I would take his house, since I was
unable to procure a place from Tilokaikt.
I returned to the Fort on the 10th, and on the
11th Rev. Mr. Rousseau left with his men to repair
the house, and having come back on the 26th, an-
nouncing that the house was in a condition to be
occupied, it was immediately decided that we should
go and take our lodging in it the next day. The
same day we received, at the Fort, a visit from Mr.
Spalding, the Protestant missionary of the Nez
Perces, whom we acquainted, during the conversa-
tion, with our intention of leaving the next day for
our mission on the Umatilla river.
The next day, November 27th, we took our leave
of Mr. McBean and his family to go to the Umatilla,
where we (the Bishop, the Secretary and myself)
arrived towards evening. Rev. Mr. Rousseau re-
mained behind with the wagons and baggage, and
did not arrive until some days after.
The following is the substance of a letter which
I addressed to Col. Gilliam, containing a relation of
the events which immediately followed our arrival:—
“Fort WALLA WALLA, March 2, 1848.
“Col. GILLIAM :
“Dear Sir :-I have the honor to reply to the
request which you have been pleased to make me
lately. It affords me great satisfaction to be able
to oblige you by giving you a detailed account of
the facts relative to the terrible event of the 29th

46 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
November, which happened within my knowledge.
“You know, Sir, that eight Catholic missionaries,
at the head of whom was the Bishop, A. M. A.
Blanchet, arrived at Fort Walla Walla at the begin-
ning of last autumn, with the intention of devoting
themselves to the instruction of the various tribes
of Indians in this part of Oregon. Some were loca-
ted north of the Columbia, and it was decided that
the others should pass the winter with the Cayuses
at the camp of the Young Chief, because this chief
had not ceased for several years to ask for priests,
and had offered his house for their accommodation.
But, when we arrived at the Fort, he was away on
a hunting expedition, from which he did not return
till late in the fall, and for that reason the com-
mencement of our mission was retarded until the
27th of November.
“During our stay at the Fort we saw Dr. Whitman
several times, and though at first he seemed violent-
ly opposed to us, telling the Bishop frankly that he
would do all he could against him, yet upon further
acquaintance he seemed to regard us with a more
favorable eye, and when the care of the Cayuse mis-
sion was given to me by the Bishop, I indulged the
hope of being able to live upon good terms with the
Doctor.
“The day before our departure from the Fort for
the Umatilla, we dined with Mr. Spalding and Mr.
Rodgers, and I assure you that it was a satisfaction
to me to have the acquaintance of those gentlemen.
I then indulged the hope more strongly than ever of
living in peace with them all, which was in perfect

PRotºESTANTISM IN OREGON. 47
accordance with my natural feelings; for those who
are acquainted with me know that I have nothing
more at heart than to live in peace with all men,
and that exempt from prejudices I am disposed to
look with an equal eye upon the members of all re-
ligious denominations, to do all I can for the good of
all without regard to the name by which they may
be called. -
“On Saturday, November 27th, Ileft the Fort in
company with the Bishop and his Secretary for our
mission on the Umatilla, 25 miles from Dr. Whit-
man's. We had searcely arrived in the evening,
when, on going to see a sick person, I learned that
Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding were en route for
my mission, Dr. Whitman having been called to at-
tend to the sick.
“The next day, being Sunday, we were visited by
Dr. Whitman, who remained but a few minutes at
the house, and appeared to be much agitated. Be-
ing invited to dine, he refused, saying that he feared
it would be too late, as he had 25 miles to go, and
wished to reach home before night. On parting he
entreated me not to fail to visit him when I would
pass by his mission, which I very cordially promised
to do.
“On Monday, 29th, Mr. Spalding took supper
with us, and appeared quite gay. During the con-
versation he happened to say that the Doctor was
unquiet, that the Indians were displeased with him
on account of the sickness, and that even he had
been informed that the murderer (an Indian) intend-
ed to kill him; but he seemed not to believe this,
-

48 *Rotestāntism in oregon
and suspected as little as we did what was taking
place at the mission of the Doctor.
“Before leaving Fort Walla Walla it had been
decided that after visiting the sick people of my
mission on the Umatilla, I should go and visit those
of Tilokaikt's camp, for the purpose of baptising
he infants and such dying adults as might desire
this favor; and the Doctor and Mr. Spalding having
informed me that there were still many sick persons
at their mission, I was confirmed in this resolution,
and made preparations to go as soon as possible.
“After having finished baptising the infants and
dying adults of my mission, I left on Tuesday, the
30th of November, late in the afternoon, for Tilo-
kaikt's camp, where I arrived between seven and
eight o'clock in the evening. It is impossible to
conceive my surprise and consternation when, upon
my arrival, I learned that the Indians the day before
had massacred the Doctor and his wife, with the
greater part of the Americans at the mission. I
passed the night without scarcely closing my eyes.
Early the next morning I baptised three sick chil-
dren, two of whom died soon after, and then hasted
to the scene of death, to offer to the widows and
orphans all the assistance in my power. I found
five or six women and over thirty children in a situ-
ation deplorable beyond description. Some had just
lost their husbands, and the others their fathers,
whom they had seen massacred before their eyes,
and were expecting every moment to share the same
fate. The sight of those persons caused me to shed
tears, which, however, I was obliged to conceal, for
-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 49
I was the greater part of the day in the presence of
the murderers, and closely watched by them, and if
I had shown too marked an interestin behalf of the
sufferers, it would only have endangered their lives
and mine; these therefore entreated me to be upon
my guard. After the first few words that could be
exchanged under such circumstances, I inquired
after the victims, and was told that they were yet
unburied. Joseph Stanfield, a Frenchman, who
was in the service of Dr. Whitman, and had been
spared by the Indians, was engaged in washing the
corpses, but being alone he was unable to bury them.
I resolved to go and assist him, so as to render to
those unfortunate victims the last service in my
power to offer them. What a sight did I then be
hold Ten dead bodies lying here and there, cover-
ed with blood and bearing the marks of the most
atrocious cruelty, some pierced with balls, others
more or less gashed by the hatchet. Dr. Whitman
had received three gashes on the face. Three others
had their skulls crushed so that their brains were
oozing out. -
“It was on the 29th of November, between two
and three o’clock in the afternoon, while all the peo-
ple at the Doctor's house were busy, that the In
dians with their arms concealed beneath their blank-
ets, introduced themselves successively into the yard,
and in an instant executed their horrible butchery
Three or four men (Americans) only were able t
escape.
“The ravages which the sickness had made in
their midst, together with the conviction which a

50 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
half-breed, named Joseph Lewis, had succeeded in
fixing upon their minds that Dr. Whitman had poi-
soned them, were the only motives I could discover
which could have prompted them to this act of mur-
der. This half-breed had imagined a conversation
between Dr. Whitman, his wife, and Mr. Spalding,
in which he made them say that it was necessary to
hasten the death of the Indians in order to get pos-
session of their horses and lands. “If you do not
kill the Doctor,” said he, “you will all be dead in
the spring.”
“I assure you, Sir, that during the time I was
occupied in burying the victims of this disaster, I
was far from feeling safe, being obliged to go here
and there gathering up the dead bodies, in the midst
of assassins, whose hands were still stained with
blood, and who by their manners, their countenances,
and the arms which they still carried, sufficiently
announced that their thirst for blood was yet unsa-
tiated. Assuming as composed a manner as possi-
ble, I cast more than one glance aside and behind
at the knives, pistols, and guns, in order to assure
myself whether there were not some of them direct-
ed towards me.
“The bodies were all deposited in a common
grave, which had been dug the day previous by Jo-
seph Stanfield; and before leaving I saw that they
were covered with earth. But I have since learned
that the grave not having been soon enough enclo-
ed, had been molested by the wolves, and that some
pf the corpses had been devoured by them.
“Having buried the dead, Ihastened to prepare for

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 51
my retiºn to my mission, in order to acquaint Mr.
Spalding with the danger which threatened him; be-
cause on Monday evening, when he supped with us,
he had said that it was his intention to return to Dr.
Whitman's on the following Wednesday or Thurs-
day; and I wished to meet him in time to give him
a chance to escape. This I repeated several times
to the unfortunate widows of the slain, and expres-
sed to them my desire of being able to save Mr.
Spalding. Before leaving the women and children
I spoke to the son of Tilokaikt, who seemed to be
acting in the place of his father, asking him to pro-
mise me that they should not be hurt, and that he
would take care of them. “Say to them,” said he,
‘that they need fear nothing, they shall be taken
care of, and well treated.’ I then left them, after
saying what I could to encourage them, although I
was not myself entirely exempt from fear upon their
account. -
“On leaving the Doctor's house I perceived that
the son of Tilokaikt followed me in company with
my interpreter, who himself was an Indian, his friend
and his relative by his wife. I did not think that he
had the intention of coming far with us; I believed
that he was merely coming to the river to point out
some new place for crossing, and that he would af-
terwards return. But when after having crossed
the river he still continued going on with us, I began
strongly to fear for Mr. Spalding. I knew that the
Indians were angry with all Americans, and more
enraged against Mr. Spalding than any other. But
what could I do in such a circumstance 2 I saw no

52 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
remedy; I could not tell the Indian to go back, be-
cause he would have suspected something, and it
would have been worse; I could not start ahead of
him, because he had a much better horse than mine:
I resolved then to leave all in the bands of Provi-
dence. Fortunately, a few minutes after crossing
the river the interpreter asked Tilokaikt's son for a
smoke. They prepared the calumet, but when the
moment came for lighting it, there was nothing to
make fire. “You have a pistol,” said the interpre-
ter, ‘fire it, and we will light.” Accordingly, with-
out stopping, he fired his pistol, reloaded it and fired
it again. He then commenced smoking with the
interpreter without thinking of reloading his pistol.
A few minutes after, while they were thus engaged
in smoking, I saw Mr. Spalding come galloping to-
wards me. In a moment he was at my side, taking
me by the hand, and asking for news. ‘Have you
been to the Doctor's º' he inquired, ‘Yes,” I re-
plied. “What news?’ ‘Sad news.’ ‘Is any per-
son dead?’ ‘Yes, Sir.” “Who is dead, is it one
of the Doctor’s children?” (He had left two of
them very sick.) ‘No,' I replied. “Who then is
dead?' I hesitated to tell him. “Wait a moment,”
said I, ‘I cannot tell you now.” While Mr. Spald-
ing was asking me those different questions, I had
spoken to my interpreter, telling him to entreat the
Indian in my name, not to kill Mr. Spalding, which
I begged of him as a special favor, and hoped that
he would not refuse it to me. I was waiting for his
answer, and did not wish to relate the disaster to
Mr. Spalding before getting it, for fear that he might

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 53
by his manner discover to the Indian what I had
told him; for the least motion like flight would have
cost him his life and probably exposed mine also.
The son of Tilokaikt, after hesitating some moments,
replied that he could not take it upon himself to
save Mr. Spalding, but that he would go back and
consult the other Indians; and so he started back
immediately to his camp. I then availed myself of
his absence to satisfy the anxiety of Mr. Spalding.
Irelated to him what had passed. ‘The Doctor is
dead,” said I, ‘the Indians have killed him, together
with his wife and eight other Americans, on Monday
last, the 29th, and I have buried them before leaving
to-day.” “The Indians have killed the Doctorſ'
cried Mr. Spalding; . . . . they will kill me also, if
I go to the camp ſº “I fear it very much,” said H.
‘What then shall I do?’ ‘I know not; I have told
you what has happened, decide now for yourself what
you had best do; I have no advice to give you in
regard to that.” “Why has that Indian started
back º’ he inquired. “I begged him to spare your
life,” said I, and he answered me that he could not
take it upon himself to do so, but that he would go
and take the advice of the other Indians about it;
that is the reason why he started back.” Mr. Spald-
ing seemed frightened and discouraged, ‘Is it pos-
sible! Is it possible l’ he repeated several times;
‘they will certainly kill me;’ and he was unable to
come to any decision. “But what could have
prompted the Indians to this?’ he inquired. ‘I
know not,” said I, but be quick to take a decision
you have no time to lose. If the Indians should re-

54 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
solve not to spare your life, they will be here very
soon, as we are only about three miles from their
camp.” “But where shall Igo?’ ‘I know not, you
know the country better than I; all that I know is
that the Indians say the order to kill Americans has
been sent in all directions.” Mr. Spalding then re-
solved to fly. He asked me if I was willing to take
charge of some loose horses that he was driving be-
fore him. I told him that I could not for fear of
becoming suspicious to the Indians. I told him,
however, that if the interpreter was willing to take
them under his charge at his own risk, he was per-
fectly at liberty to do so. To this the interpreter
agreed. I gave Mr. Spalding what provisions I had
left, and hastened to take leave of him, wishing him
with all my heart a happy escape, and promising to
pray for him. In quitting him I was so much terri-
fied at the thought of the danger with which he was
threatened, that I trembled in every limb, and could
scarcely hold myself upon my horse. I left him
with my interpreter, to whom he again put many
questions, and who pointed out to him a by-road
which he would be able to follow with most safety.
I thought he advised him to go to the Dalles, but I
am not certain. Mr. Spalding still continuing to
ask new questions, and hesitating to leave, the in-
terpreter advised him to hasten his flight, and he
left him a moment before he had decided to quit the
road. The interpreter had not left Mr. Spalding
more than twenty minutes when he saw three armed
Cayuses riding hastily towards him, who were in
pursuit of Mr. Spalding. Upon coming up to the

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 55
interpreter they seemed much displeased that I had
warned Mr. Spalding of their intentions, and thereby
furnished him with an opportunity to escape. ‘The
priest ought to have attended to his own business
and not to have interfered with ours,” they said in
an angry tone, and started immediately in pursuit
of him. And they must have inevitably overtaken
him had not the approaching darkness of the night
and a heavy fog that happened to fall down, prevent
them from discovering his trail and forced them to
return.
“I had continued my route quite slowly, so that
it was dark when I reached the Spring on Marron’s
Fork. I dismounted for a moment to drink, and on
mounting my horse was somewhat alarmed to hear
a horseman coming at full speed in our rear. I
called to the interpreter and told him to speak and
inform him who we were. The Indian recognised
the name of the interpreter, approached him and
spoke amicably to him, and fired out his pistol. It
was the son of Tilokaikt, the same who had returned
to camp to consult the Indians about the fate of Mr.
Spalding. He continued to accompany us until we
reached the camp of Camaspelo, on the Umatilla
river, and there I learned from the interpreter that
he had come to inform Camaspelo of the horrible
event.
“After six days of danger, privations and fatigue,
Mr. Spalding was enabled to reach his family at his
mission amongst the Nez Perces, as you have seen
from his letter to the Bishop of Walla Walla, since
published in the Oregon Spectator. I was truly

56 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
happy to learn that Mr. Spalding was out of danger,
and I thanked God sincerely for having made me
instrumental in saving the life of a fellow-creature
at the peril of my own.
“Some days after an express reached us from the
Fort, informing us that our lives were in danger from
a portion of the Indians who could not pardon me
for having deprived them of their victim ; and this
was the only reason which prevented me from fulfil-
ling the promise which I had made to the widows
and orphans of returning to see them, and obliged
me to be contented with sending my interpreter.
“You are acquainted, Sir, with the events which
followed, the murder of two sick men, who were
brutally torn from their bed and had their throats
cut; the murder of the young American when re-
turning from the mill; the good fortune of the other
Americans at the mill, who owed their escape to a
single Indian, (Tintinmitsi,) while the others wished
to kill them; the violation of three young girls; the
letter of Mr. Spalding, which occasioned the assem-
bling of the chiefs at the Catholic mission, and their
asking for peace; the arrival of Mr. Ogden and the
delivery of the captives.
“Such are, Sir, the facts and circumstances rela-
tive to this deplorable event, the relation of which I
thought was of a nature to interest you. I am
pleased with the confidence you have shown me by
asking this relation at my hands, and thank you sin-
cerely for the same. I thank you more especially
for the opportunity you have given me of presenting
to you a full and candid exposition of my conduct

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 57
and intentions in the circumstances so dangerous and
so delicate in which I accidentally found myself in-
volved.
“With sentiments of the highest consideration
and respect,
“I have the honor to be, Sir,
“Your most ob’t humble ser’t,
“J. B. A. BRouillet, Priest,
“Vicar-General of Walla Walla.”
I arrived at the mission on Thursday morning, 2d
of December, and announced to the inmates the
frightful tidings which were yet unknown to them.
On the 3d the Bishop called for the Young Chief
and his brother, Five Crows, in order to express to
them how deeply he had been pained by the news of
the horrible affair at Wailatpu, and to recommend
to their care the widows and orphans, as well as the
men, who had survived the massacre. They pro-
tested to have given no consent to what had happen-
ed at Wailatpu, and promised to do all in their
power for the survivors
Some days after we learned that a young man,
who had been engaged in working at a saw-mill
some twenty miles from the establishment of the
Doctor, with some other Americans, had been killed
on his return frºm the mill to the Doctor’s, and that
the Indians intended to kill the others.
On the 10th we received the painful intelligence
that two other young men, who, being sick, had been
spared by the Indians at the time of the first mas-
sacre, had since been torn from their bed and cru-

58 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
elly butchered. We learned at the same time that
the other men belonging to the mill had been spared
and brought to the Doctor's for the purpose of taking
care of the women and children.
On the 11th of December we had the affliction to
hear that one of the captives had been carried off
from the Doctor's house by the order of Five Crows,
and brought to him; and we learned that two others
had been violated at the Doctor’s house.
On the 16th two Nez Perce chiefs (Inimilpip and
Tipialanahkeikt) brought us the following letter"
from Mr. Spalding:—
“CLEAR WATER, Dec. 10th, 1847.
“To the Bishop of Walla Walla or either of the
Catholic priests:
“Reverend and dear friend,-
“This hasty note may inform you that I am yet
alive through the astonishing mercy of God. The
hand of the merciful God brought me to my family
after six days and nights from the time my dear
friend" furnished me with provisions, and I escaped
from the Indians. My daughter is yet a captive, I
fear, but in the hands of our merciful heavenly Fa-
ther. Two Indians have gone for her. My object
in writing is principally to give information through
you to the Cayuses that it is our wish to have peace;
* We had reason to be astonished at that confidence
of those Indians, as we had had as yet no opportunity
of seeing any one of the Nez Perces since our arrival in
the country.
* My dear friend, because he was yet in the hole, a
the Indians said.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 59
that we do not wish the Americans to come from be-
low to avenge the wrong; we hope the Cayuses and
the Americans will be on friendly terms; that Amer-
icans will no more come in their country unless they
wish it. As soon as these men return, I hope, if
alive, to send them to the Governor to prevent
Americans from coming up to molest the Cayuses
for what is done. I know that you will do all in
your power for the relief of the captives, women
and children, at Wailatpu, you will spare no pains
to appease and quiet the Indians. There are five
Americans here, my wife and three children, one
young woman, and two Frenchmen. We cannot
leave the country without help. Our help under
God is in your hands and in the hands of the Hud-
son’s Bay Company. Can help come from that
source º Ask their advice and let me know. I am
certain that if the Americans should attempt to
come it would be likely to prove the ruin of us all
in this upper country, and would involve the country
in war: God grant that they may not attempt it.
At this moment I have obtained permission of the
Indians to write more, but I have but a moment.
Please send this or copy to Gov. Abernethy. The
Nez Perces held a meeting yesterday; they pledged
themselves to protect us from the Cayuses if we
would prevent the Americans from coming up to
avenge the murders. This we have pledged to do,
and for this we beg for the sake of our lives at this
place and at Mr. Walker's. By all means keep
quiet and send no war reports, send nothing but pro-
posals for peace. They say they have buried the

60 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
death of the Walla Walla chief's son, killed in Cal-
ifornia. They wish us to bury this offence. I hope
to write soon to Gov. Abernethy, but as yet the In-
dians are not willing, but are willing that I should
send those hints through you. I hope you will send
by all means and with all speed, to keep quiet in
Willamet. Could Mr. Grant come this way, it
would be a great favor to us and do good to the In-
dians.
“I just learn that these Indians wish us to remain
in the country as hostages of peace. They wish
the communication for Americans to be kept open.
We are willing to remain so if peace can be secured.
It does not seem safe for us to attempt to leave the
country in any way at present. May the God of
heaven protect us and finally bring peace. These
two men go to make peace, and when they return,
if successful with the Cayuses, they will go to the
Willamet. We have learned that one man escaped
to Walla Walla, crossed over the river, and went
below. He would naturally suppose that all were
killed. Besides myself, another white man escaped
wounded and reached my place three days before I
did.
“Late Indian reports say that no women except
Mrs. Whitman, or children, were killed, but all are
in captivity. These people, if the Cayuses consent,
will bring them all to this place.
“I travelled only nights and hid myself days,
most of the way on foot, as my horse escaped from
me; suffered some days from hunger and cold and
sore feet; had no shoes, as I threw my boots away,
-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 61
not being able to wear them, and also left blankets.
God in mercy brought me here. From the white
man who escaped, and from the Indians, we learn
that an Indian from the States, who was in the em-
ploy of Dr. Whitman, was at the head of the bloody
affair, and helped demolish the windows and take
the property. We think the Cayuses have been
urged into the dreadful deed. God in his mercy
forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Perhaps these men can bring my horses and things.
Please give all particulars you have been able to
learn, and what news has gone below. How do the
women and children fare 2 How extensive is the
war In giving this information and sending this
letter below to Gov. Abernethy, you will oblige your
afflicted friend. I would write directly to the Go-
vernor, but the Indians wish me to rest till they re-
turn.
“Yours in affection and with best wishes,
(Signed,) “H. H. SPALDING...”
The two Nez Perce chiefs advised the Cayuses to
take measures for avoiding a war with the Ameri-
cans. They requested the Bishop to write to Gov.
Abernethy, begging him not to send up an army,
but rather to come himself in the spring and make
a treaty of peace with the Cayuses, who promised
that they would then release the captives of Wailat-
pu,-promising besides to offer no injury to Ameri-
cans until they heard the news from Willamet. The
Bishop told them that he was glad of their proceed-
ing, and was disposed to assist them to the extent of

62 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
his power, but that he could not write without know-
ing the opinion of the Cayuses, and that as soon as
he could learn this he would send an express below.
He then encouraged them to see all the chiefs
about it.
On the 18th of December Camaspelo came to
see the Bishop, and told him that he had disapproved
of all that had happened at Wallatpu, that the
young men had stolen his word. He seemed dis-
couraged, and spoke of killing all the horses and of
leaving the country, as all the Indians expected to
die. The Bishop succeeded in raising his spirits a
little by representing to him the possibility of yet
obtaining peace, and told him that the chiefs ought
to meet as soon as possible, in order to come to an
understanding among themselves as to what was best
to do in this matter; that the more they delayed,
the more difficult the arrangement of affairs would
become.
The 20th being fixed upon as the day of the meet-
ing, Camaspelo retired with apparently increased
courage, promising to notify the other chiefs and
secure their attendance. Accordingly on Monday,
20th December, at the Catholic mission, the Cayu-
ses assembled in Grand Council, held by Tawatowe,
(or Young Chief,) Tilokaikt, Achekaia, (or Five
Crows,) and Camaspelo, all the great chiefs of the
Cayuses, in presence of many other great men
(second chiefs) of the nation. About 10 o’clockin
the morning they all entered the mission house.
The Bishop was present, together with Messrs.
Rousseau, Leclaire, and myself. After a deep

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON- 63
silence of some minutes the Bishop explained to
them the object of the meeting. He began by ex-
pressing to them the pleasure he felt in seeing them
thus assembled for the purpose of deliberating on a
most important subject—that of avoiding war, which
is always a great evil. He told them that in mat-
ters of importance they should always hold a council
and consult those who might be best able to give
them good advice; that in giving their advice sepa-
rately, they were liable to be misunderstood, and
thereby expose themselves and their people to great
misfortunes; that he was persuaded that if the chiefs
had deliberated together they would not now have
to deplore the horrible massacre of Wailatpu, nor
to fear its probable consequences. He told them
that two Nez Perce chiefs had asked him to write to
the Great Chief of Willamet to obtain peace, but
that he could not do so without the consent of the
Cayuses; that the propositions which those chiefs
wished to send were these:–1st. That Americans
should not come to make war; 2d. That they should
send up two or three great men to make a treaty of
peace; 3d. That when these great men should ar-
rive all the captives should be released; 4th. That
they would offer no offence to Americans before
knowing the news from below.
The Bishop then desired them to speak and to
say what they thought of these propositions.
Camaspelo spoke first. He said he was blind and
ignorant, and had despaired of the life and salvation
of his nation, but that the words of the Bishop had
opened his eyes, consoled and encouraged him; that

64 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
he had confidence and that he approved the propo-
sitions.
Tilokaikt then rose to say that he was not a great
speaker, and that his talk would not be long. He
then reviewed the history of the nation since the
arrival of the whites” in the country down to the
present time. He said that before they had been
visited by white men the Indians were always at
war; that at the place where Fort Walla Walla now
stood nothing but blood was continually seen; that
they had been taught by the whites that there was
a God who forbid men to kill each other, that since
this time they had always lived in peace and endea-
vored to persuade others to do the same. He eulo-
gised Mr. Pambour, spoke of a Nez Perce chief
who had been killed when going to the States, after-
wards of the son of Yellow Serpent, who had been
killed by Americans in California; said that they
had forgotten all this. He spoke also of Dr. Whit-
man and Mr. Spalding, and finished by saying that
since they have forgotten all, he hoped that the
Americans would also forget what had been recently
done, that now they were even. He spoke nearly
two hours.
Achekaia (or Five Crows) arose only to suggest
some other propositions which he wished added to
those already announced.
The Young Chief said but little. He said he was
weak and did not feel able to talk long. He was in
favor of the propositions as well as those who had
spoken before him.
* French people, or Hudson's Bay Company.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 65
Edward, the son of Tilokaikt, then came forward
bearing in his hand the Catholic Ladder stained with
blood; he repeated the words which Dr. Whitman
had used when he showed it to them, one or two
weeks before he died : “You see this blood f it is to
show you that now, because you have the priests among
you, the country is going to be covered with blood ſº
you will have nothing now but blood" He then re-
lated what had passed, gave a touching picture of
the afflicted families in seeing borne to the grave a
father, a mother, a brother, or a sister; spoke of a
single member of a family who had been left to weep
alone over all the rest who had disappeared. He
stated how and for what the murder had been com-
mitted, entered into the most minute details, avoid-
ing, however, to give any knowledge of the guilty,
repeated the words which Joseph Lewis said had
passed between Dr. Whitman, his wife, and Mr.
Spalding, and finally spoke of the pretended decla-
ration of Mr. Rodgers at the moment of his death:
“that Dr. Whitman had been poisoning the In-
dians.”
After having deliberated together the chiefs con-
cluded by adding something to the propositions of
the Nez Perces, insisting principally upon the rea-
sons which they pretended ought to excuse their
action, and requested the Bishop to send to the
Governor in their name the following manifesto:-
“The principal chiefs of the Cayuses in council
assembled state: That a young Indian who under-
stands English, and who slept in Dr. Whitman's
room, heard the Doctor, his wife, and Mr. Spalding,

66 PROTESTANTISM. In or EGON.
express their desire of possessing the lands and ani-
mals of the Indians; that he stated also that Mr.
Spalding said to the Doctor: “hurry giving medi-
cines to the Indians that they may soon die!” that
the same Indian told the Cayuses: “if you do not
kill the Doctor soon, you will all be dead before
spring;’ that they buried six Cayuses on Sunday,
November 28th, and three the next day; that the
schoolmaster, Mr. Rodgers, stated to them before
he died, that the Doctor, his wife, and Mr. Spalding
poisoned the Indians; that for several years past
they had to deplore the death of their children, and
that according to these reports they were led to be-
lieve that the whites had undertaken to kill them all;
and that these were the motives which led them to
kill the Americans.
The same chiefs ask at present—
1st That the Americans may not go to war with
the Cayuses.
2d. That they may forget the lately committed
murders, as the Cayuses will forget the murder of
the son of the great chief of Walla Walla, commit-
ted in California.
3d. That two or three great men may come up to
conclude peace.
4th. That as soon as these great men have arri-
ved and concluded peace, they may take with them
all the women and children. - -
5th. They give assurance that they will not harm
the Americans before the arrival of these two or
three great men.
6th. They ask that Americans may not travel any

PROTESTANTISM. In or EGON. 67
more through their country, as their young men
might do them harm.
Place of Tawatowe, Youmatilla,
20th December, 1847.
TILoKAIKT,
(Signed,) #.
ACHEKAIA.
The Bishop accompanied this manifesto with a
letter addressed to the Governor, which concluded in
these terms: “It is sufficient to state that all these
speeches went to show, that since they had been in-
structed by the whites they abhorred war, and that
the tragedy of the 29th had occurred from an anx-
ious desire of self-preservation, and that it was the
reports made against the Doctor and others which
led them to commit this act. They desire to have
the past forgotten and to live in peace as before.
Your Excellency has to judge of the value of the
documents which I have been requested to forward
to you. Nevertheless, without having the least in-
tention to influence one way or the other, I feel my-
self obliged to tell you, that by going to war with
the Cayuses, you will likely have all the Indians of
this country against you. Would it be for the inte-
rest of a young colony to expose herself? That,
you will have to decide with your Council’”
Before taking leave of the chiefs, the Bishop said
to them all publicly, as he had also done several
times privately, that those who had taken American
girls should give them up immediately. And then
all entreated Five Crows repeatedly to give up the
one whom he had taken, but to no purpose.

68 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
Mr. Ogden had arrived at Fort Walla Walla on
the 19th of December, in the evening, with the in-
tention of obtaining from the Cayuses the release of
all the American prisoners. He had sent immedi-
ately an express to the Cayuses, notifying the chiefs
to assemble without delay at Walla Walla. The
same express had brought a letter to the Bishop re-
questing him to attend the assembly of the chiefs.
The Bishop being unable to attend then, I went to
Fort Walla Walla on the 21st, in company with an
Indian chief, to meet Mr. Ogden, and to inform him
of what had passed in the council held the day be-
fore at the mission. It was the first time that any
one of us had dared to leave the Young Chief’s
camp since the burial of the murdered and Mr.
Spalding's escape, for fear of the Indians of Tilo-
kaikt’s camp.
At the renewed request of Mr. Ogden, the Bishop
came to the Fort next day, and on the 23d the as:
sembly convoked by Mr. Ogden took place. The
Young Chief and Tilokaikt, with a dozen young men,
were in the room, and at half past nine, A. M., Mr.
Ogden opened the meeting. He spoke-forcibly
against the massacre, threw the whole blame upon
the chiefs, who, he said, knew not how to restrain
their young men. He told them that it was useless
to have chiefs if they are not listened to. He made
them understand that he did not come on the part
of the Americans; that he had left Vancouver be-
fore they knew what had passed at Wailatpu ; that
he knew the Cayuses, and had been known by them
for a long time; that the French people (Hudson's

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 69
Bay Company) had never deceived them ; that he
hoped they would listen to his words; that the Com-
pany did not meddle with the affairs of the Ameri-
cans; that there were three parties, the Americans
on one side, the Cayuses on the other, and the French
people and the priests in the middle; that the Com-
pany was there to trade and the priests to teach
them their duties; listen to the priests, said he seve-
ral times, listen to the priests, they will teach you
how to keep a good life; the priests do not come to
make war, they carry no arms, they carry but their
crucifixes,” and with them they cannot kill. He
insisted particularly, and at several times, upon the
distinction necessary to be made between the affairs
of the Company and those of the Americans. He
said to all the Cayuses that they had chiefs to whom
they ought to listen; that the young men were blind,
and their chiefs should not allow them to do as they
pleased. He told them that he had come with a
charitable design; that he demanded of the chiefs
that they should give up to him all the Americans
who were now captives; but that they should under-
stand well that he did not promise them that the
Americans would not come to make war; he promi-
sed them only that he would speak in their favor.
If they would release the captives he would give
them fifty blankets, fifty shirts, ten guns, ten fathoms
of tobacco, ten handkerchiefs and one hundred balls
and powder.
The Young Chief thanked Mr. Ogden for the
* The Oblats, who constantly carry a crucifix on their
breast, were present.

70 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
good advice he had given them and approved of
what he had said, but in regard to the captives he
said that it belonged to Tilokaikt to speak, as they
were on his lands. -
Tilokaikt then spoke of the harmony that had
always existed between them and the French people;
that the French had espoused their daughters, and
that they had been buried in the same burial ground,
&c., &c. He concluded by saying that he would
release the captives to Mr. Ogden, because he was
old and his hair was white, and he had known him a
long time, but that one younger than him would not
have had them.
The Nez Perces (or Sahaptin) came after the
Cayuses and promised to release Mr. Spalding and
all other American captives who were with them.
Mr. Ogden promised them twelve blankets, twelve
shirts, two guns, twelve handkerchiefs, five fathoms
of tobacco, two hundred balls and powder, and some
knives.
The Bishop expressed to the Cayuses and Nez
Perces the pleasure he felt in seeing them willing to
release the captives.
They agreed upon the time when the captives
should be at the Fort, and the quantity of provisions
necessary.
The Catholic Ladder, which Dr. Whitman had
stained with blood, was given to Mr. Ogden by an
Indian who had it in his possession. Mr. Ogden re-
ceived also at his request from another one the ridicu-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 71
lous ladder” which Mr. Spalding had been carrying
amongst the Indians in opposition to the priests.
On the 29th the captives of Wailatpu arrived at
the Fort to the number of forty-six, who together
with five already at the Fort made fifty-one.
The Bishop determined to avail himself of the
offers of Mr. Ogden, and to descend in the boats
that were to convey the captives.
January 1st, 1848, Mr. Spalding arrived at the
Fort with his family and the other captives, accom-
panied by fifty Nez Perces.
During the time which had passed from the assem-
bling of the chiefs to the arrival of the captives at
the Fort, Mr. Ogden had not been without inquie-
tude. Divers rumors were in circulation among the
Indians. It was said that an army had arrived at
the Dalles, and they had come to avenge the mur-
ders. It was feared that these rumors might change
the minds of the Indians, and cause them to retain
the captives. The Indians came from time to time
to ask if it was true that the Americans were at the
Dalles. Mr. Ogden told them that he knew nothing
about it, but that he did not believe it. Indeed, it
was difficult to believe the Americans would decide
*A picture representing two roads towards Heaven—
a wide one, where the Pope is selling indulgences and
forgiveness of sins, and the Catholics were seen going,
and at the upper end of which they were all falling
headforemost into hell, and a narrow one where the
Protestants were supposed to go, but apparently so dif-
ficult to ascend that none were seen ascending it. Mr.
Spalding had been carrying it among the Indians, and
explaining it to them for sometime. It is rumored that
the picture is the work of Mrs. Spalding.

72 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
to come up so soon, knowing that Mr. Ogden was in
the midst of the Indians, occupied in treating for
the deliverance of the captives, for it was easy to
suppose that the first news of such a step would
break off all negociations and probably become the
signal for the general massacre of all those unfortu-
nate beings. It was certainly the conviction of Mr.
Spalding, as expressed in his letter to the Bishop,
as well as that of all the whites at Walla Walla.
As soon as Mr. Spalding had arrived, Mr. Ogden
decided that the departure should take place on the
ollowing day. -
The morning of the 2nd the Bishop conferred the
order of priesthood upon two clergymen of the con-
gregation of the Oblats, both destined for the Ya-
kamas Indians on the north side of the Columbia,
where they had a mission already commenced, and
not for the mission of the Nez Perces, as Mr. Spald-
ing has said. At seven o’clock the ceremony was
over, but in spite of all the diligence and activity of
Mr. Ogden, they were unable to start before half-
past twelve.
The boats had only left the Fort a few hours with
all the captives, when fifty armed Cayuse warriors
arrived, for the purpose, as they said, of taking and
killing Mr. Spalding. -
On arriving at the Dalles, Mr. Spalding proved
that the Indians had judged him pretty correctly,–
when, upon hearing his letter read, they said: “He
speaks well, but it is because he is in a hole "—for
scarcely had he put his feet on shore when he said
to Major Lee : “Hasten up with your company in

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 73
order to surprise the Indians and save the animals
of the mission.” These words were immediately
reported to the Bishop by Mr. Ogden, who heard
them himself. He said still more to Major Magone;
for he designated all the Cayuses as worthy of death,
with the feeble exception of five or six, whose names
he gave. -
At noon on the Sth the boats arrived at Fort Wan-
COuWer.
On the 10th Mr. Ogden was again en route to con-
duct the captives to Oregon City, where he deliver-
ed them into the hands of Gov. Abernethy; to
whom he delivered also a written account of what he
had done for the deliverance of the captives, together
with Mr. Spalding's letter to the Bishop, the mani-
festo of the Cayuse chiefs, and the Bishop’s letter to
the Governor that accompanied said manifesto. And
as the Editors of the Oregon Spectator wished to
publish but a part of Mr. Spalding’s letter, Mr.
Ogden told them that they should print the whole
of the letter or no part of what he had given them
for that purpose; and then they consented reluc-
tantly to publish the whole.
On the 15th the Bishop was at St. Paul’s Mission,
Willamet.
After the departure of the Bishop I had remained
alone with Mr. Leclaire at the mission on the Uma-
tilla, where we continued to reside until the 20th of
February, in continual anxiety, between the fear of
war and the hope of peace. Indian reports of all
kinds were in circulation every day, saying that
there were troops already at the Dalles, that they
G 7

74 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
had fought with the Indians of that country, and
that they had destroyed entire villages. On the
other hand, prudence and the interest of the colony
seemed to us to demand that the Governor should
not disregard the propositions of the Indians, but
that he should enter into negotiations of peace with
them. A letter from Mr. Ogden would have remo-
ved our uncertainty; for, on the delivery of the
captives, he had promised the Indians that he would
exert himself in their behalf to secure peace with
the Americans, and that as soon as the Government
had decided, whether for peace or for war, he would
send an express to Fort Walla Walla to apprise them
of the result. But this express came not. The
Indians began to suspect that Mr. Ogden had be-
trayed them. His letter, by accident, did not ar-
rive until after the first engagement between the
troops and the Cayuses. Had it arrived in time, it
would probably have prevented the engagement and
induced the Cayuses to accept peace upon the terms
offered by the Government.
In the midst of so much uncertainty we desired
to withdraw from among the Cayuses, but to do this
a good reason was necessary that could satisfy the
Indians, and this reason we had not. I had promi-
sed to remain with them as long as they were at
peace, but had told them that I should retire as soon
as war should be declared. I was obliged to keep
my word with them.
However, on the 19th of February, the Cayuses
having gone to meet the American troops, we had a
right to consider war as inevitable, if not already de-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 75
clared; and from this moment my word was disen-
gaged. We therefore made choice of the first op-
portunity that presented itself for retiring, and on
the next day we departed for Fort Walla Walla,
where we remained until the 13th of March. A
few days after our departure the Cayuses burned our
house and destroyed the property we had left among
them.
On the 13th of March, the Commissioners ap-
pointed to treat for peace with the Indians, being
about to descend to Willamet, we availed ourselves
of the opportunity, and descended with them, ac-
companied by the missionaries Oblats of Yakama
river.
The Superintendent of Indian Affairs having is-
sued, on the 15th of June, an order to stop all the
missionary labors among the Indians, we made no
effort to re-establish our mission among the Cayuses,
but deferred it until more favorable circumstances.
CHAPTER III.
Summary of the principal accusations made against
the Catholic Clergy of Walla Walla by Mr.
Spalding, the Oregon American, and others, with
an answer to each one of them.
Mr. Spalding & Co. stated in the Oregon Ameri-
cam or elsewhere :
1st. That the massacre of Wailatpu had been
committed by the Indians in hatred of the heretics,
as Protestants only, and no Catholics, were killed,

76 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
and insinuated that it had been committed at the
instigation of the priests –(Mr. Spalding.)
2nd. That the priests baptised the children and
families of the murderers, and the murderers them-
selves immediately after the massacre, as they had
their hands still dripping with the warm blood of the
murdered, and so approved the massacre –(Mr.
Spalding.)
3rd. That the Bishop and the priests were going
and coming through the country, and resided among
the murderers unmolested and appearing to feel in
safety, and gave it as a new proof that they had had
a hand in the massacre.-(Mr. Spalding.)
4th. That soon after the massacre the priests
were making preparations to begin new stations, and
to pursue with renewed efforts those already begun;
and that they had settled at Wailatpu immediately
after the departure of the captives.— (Mr. Spalding.)
5th. That neither the Bishop nor any of his
priests went near the captives of Wailatpu after the
baptism of the murderers, and they concluded they
had no compassion nor charity for them.—(Mr.
Spalding.)
6th. That the Roman Catholic priests had offered
a great price to Dr. Whitman for his station, but he
refused to sell it: they had told him again to fix his
price and they would pay it, but he had refused ob-
stinately to sell; and they concluded the priests
were determined to have it by any means.—(Mr.
John Kinzay, in the Oregon American.)
7th. That some of the priests, who were at Walla
Walla, did not offer their beds to Mr. Osborne's

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 77
wife, while she was sick; that they gave neither
blankets nor food to Mr. Osborne when he started
for the purpose of looking up his family, and that
they did not prevent him from starting with his
family for the river (Utilla),—(Mr. Osborne, in the
Oregon American.)
Sth. That the Bishop of Walla Walla had come
with his priests into a country where there was no
church or Catholic station, and no stationary priest,
but that was entirely occupied by Protestant mis-
sionaries, the most of whom had worked there
peaceably for eleven years.-(Mr. Spalding.)
9th. That Joseph Lewis, Joseph Stanfield, and
Nicholas Finlay, who had been seen plundering,
were Catholics, and from that concluded against
Catholics in general—(Mr. Spalding.)
10th. That the priests neglected to have the
bodies of the victims of the massacre buried, when
they had the facilities of doing so—(Verbal re-
ports, attributed to Mr. Spalding.)
11th. That the Bishop neglected to give to Mr.
Spalding some information which he asked in regard to
his daughter and the other captives –(Mr. Spalding).
12th. That a young American was killed at Wai-
latpu at 2 o'clock, P. M., on Tuesday, just about
the time the priest arrived, and insinuated that the
priest caused him to be killed.—(Mr. Spalding.)
13th. That the priests concerted at Wailatpu
with Mr. M'Bean's messengers the letter which he
(Mr. M'Bean) sent to Fort Vancouver in order to
deceive the public about the true causes of the mur-
der—(Editor of the Oregon American.)
* 7

78 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
14th. That the Catholic missionaries despised the
authority of the Governor and of the Indian Agent,
who had commanded them to leave the Indian coun-
try.—(Editor of the Oregon American.)
15th. That one of the priests had been met by
Mr. Spalding in company with an Indian who had
the avowed intention to kill him, and that the In-
dian, whose pistol was unloaded, retired to an unob-
served place to reload it; and insinuated that the
intention of that priest was to have had him killed
by that Indian—(Mr. Spalding.)
16th. And, finally, that the priests had told the
Indians everywhere that the Protestant missionaries
were causing them to die, and the Walla Walla chief
in particular; that they were poisoning them; that
it was the Americans who had brought the measles
among them, and that God had sent that sickness
among them to show His hatred against the here-
tics; and they pointed to that as the source from
which originated the indirect causes of the massa-
cre.—(Mr. Spalding.)
I will now proceed to rectify those statements
and give a short answer to each of them :
1st. The massacre of Wailatpu has not been com-
mitted by the Indians in hatred of the heretics. If
Americans only have been killed, it is because the
war had been declared by the Indians against the
Americans only, and not against foreigners; and it
was in their quality of American citizens and not as
Protestants that the Indians killed them : as a proof
of it I state the fact that two sons of Mr. Manson,
a Protestant gentleman of the Hudson's Bay Com-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 79
pany, who, being Protestants as well as their father,
were selected by the Indians from the American
children and sent to Fort Walla Walla. And as a
second proof I will observe that the Indians who
perpetrated the massacre were all Protestants, and
after the massacre remained Protestants as before,
and continued to pray after the method that their
Protestant missionaries had taught them, as Mr.
Spalding himself affirms.”
2nd. We never baptised any of the murderers
nor their families; such an assertion has been a
shameful slander brought upon us like many others.
The only thing done in the matter of baptism con-
nected with that circumstance is what follows:–As
stated in my relation of the affair to Col. Gilliam, I
had gone to Tilokaikt's camp, without being aware of
what had passed in its vicinity, for the purpose of
baptising the sick children and the dying adults
whom I could dispose for baptism. On the morning
I was there, when about starting to pay a visit to the
widows and orphans of the mission, and to bury the
corpses, I inquired after the Indians who were dan-
gerously sick and expected to die. None were found
in the camp but three young children, whom I bap-
tised, and two of them died soon after ; two of the
three were slaves, and I did not learn to whom the
other child belonged. Nothing more was done.
* Five of those who were hung at Oregon City on
the 3d of June, 1850, embraced then the Catholic faith
and were baptised by the Archbishop, F. N. Blanchet,
a few hours before their execution. -

80 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
Now no sensible person could suspect that I in-
tended to approve of the murderous deed by bapti-
sing those children, if they only knew what the
principles and practice ºf the Catholic Church are
in regard to baptism of infants. The Church teaches
that baptism is of absolute necessity to the salvation
of infants as well as of adults, and holding not chil-
dren responsible for the faults of their parents or
others, she commands her ministers always to bap-
tise them, whatever may be the circumstances, in
any case of necessity or danger of death. Besides,
those children were not offered to me for baptism by
their fathers with their hands dripping with blood,
and asking for an approval of their deed, as has been
said; but it was upon my own request, and repeat-
edly made, that their owners (two of them were
slaves from other tribes) reluctantly consented to
allow them to be baptised
3d. The goings and comings of the clergy through
the country never existed but in the warm imagina-
tion of Mr. Spalding; and instead of that security
which he supposed we felt, some of us did tremble
from fear very frequently. It was three weeks after
the massacre that, on the urgent request of Mr.
Ogden, one of us dared for the first time, since the
burial of the murdered victims, to leave the camp of
the Young Chief and go to Walla Walla; and then,
being the day that followed the council of the Cay-
uses at the Catholic mission, the Indians appeared
more quieted than before by the hope of peace which
the letter of Mr. Spalding and the words of the
Bishop had produced in their minds; and moreover

PROTESTANTISM IN or egoN. S1
they had promised to stop any further hostilities
until the intentions of the Government were known;
and besides, that priest was accompanied by one of
the chiefs, who could have protected him against any
of the young men who had bad intentions. Before
that time we had considered it unsafe for us to go
at any distance from the Young Chief's camp, on
account of the evil dispositions of a portion of the
murderers towards us since Mr. Spalding's escape,
as some of them could not forgive us for having
taken their intended victim from their hands, and as
a letter from Walla Walla had warned us to be on
our guard on that account. -
It is an error to say that the priests remained
among the murderers. This they never did. The
Cayuse nation is divided into three camps entirely
distinct from each other, each camp having its own
chief, who governs his young men as he pleases;
each one of the chiefs is independent of the others,
and those three camps form, as it were, three inde-
pendent states of a small federal republic, each of
them administering their own private affairs as they
please, without interference from the others. They
are the camps of Tilokaikt, Camaspelo, and Young
Chief and Five Crows together. But it was in Ti-
lokaikt's camp, and by his Indians only, that the
Doctor had been killed: then the Indians of that
camp only could be called murderers, and even but
a small portion of them, since twelve or thirteen
only have been designated as guilty by the army
itself, when on the spot. And we never remained
in Tilokaikt's camp, but at twenty-five miles from

82 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
it, in Young Chief's camp, where some of the peo-
ple were Catholics, and where nobody had taken
part in the murder. Then it is evidently incorrect
to say that we have remained among the murderers.
It is also incorrect to say that we have been un-
molested by the Indians, since they burned our house
and effects a few days after we had started from
among them, and about the time the troops were
coming up to their country.
4th. They say that soon after the massacre the
priests were making preparations to begin new sta-
tions and to pursue with renewed efforts those already
begun. The proof of which undoubtedly is that the
Bishop started down to the Willamet at the same
time as Mr. Spalding, taking with him the Superior
of the R. R. Fathers Oblats and another clergyman,
and leaving me alone at the Umatilla mission with
a young clergyman who was not a priest yet; and
that shortly after, at the first opportunity they could
get, the remainder of his clergy were following his
example
It is a new falsehood in Mr. Spalding to say that
we settled at Wailatpu immediately after the depar-
ture of the captives. For the proof of what I say I
refer to all the people who lived in the vicinity of
Wailatpu and to the army. None of us went to
Wailatpu from the time of the burial of those who
were murdered down to the months of June and
July, when, during a trip that I happened to make
to Walla Walla, I had the pleasure of paying a visit
to the officers of the army at Fort Waters, formerly
Wailatpu.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 83
5th. No priest went to Wailatpu since the day of
the burial; that is true. But what was the reason
of their not going The reason was that on account
of Mr. Spalding’s escape they could not go without
exposing themselves to a probable death, as they had
been often warned by the Indians, and also by a let-
ter from Walla Walla; and it is a new proof that
the priests did not feel so safe among the murderers
as Mr. Spalding supposed they did. But if they
did not go, they did all they could from their mission
to prevent new misfortunes from falling upon them
and to ameliorate their situation. As soon as the
Bishop had received the news of the massacre, he
had called the chiefs of the camp where he lived and
recommended to their care the survivors of Wallat-
pu; and after that time the captives had always
abundant and good food, and if they had sometimes
to suffer in some other respects, the Bishop never
ceased to exert his influence and entreaties with
some of the chiefs to put a stop to it. He took a
great partin quieting the Indians, actively prepared
them for the delivery of the captives, and heartily
coöperated with Mr. Ogden in securing the same.
6th. In the supposition that we had asked Dr.
Whitman to sell us his establishment, it would have
proved nothing against us, because it was publicly
known that he had been for years speaking of leaving
the Cayuse country; “that he had held himself
ready to leave the country whenever the Indians as
a body wished it,” as Mr. Spalding says; “that
twice in the last year he called the Cayuses together
and told them if a majority wished he would leave

84 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
the country at once;” “that he held himself ready
to sell the Wailatpu station to the Catholic mission
whenever a majority of the Cayuses might wish it;”
and that “he had bought the Methodist mission at
the Dalles, where he wished to go and live in the
spring.” Under such circumstances it would not
have been unnatural to believe that he would have
liked to dispose of his property the same as any
other individual. -
But I affirm that such a demand has never been
made to Dr. Whitman by any one of us, and I give
Mr. Spalding himself as a witness, when he says:
“that he is not aware that the Catholic mission ever
applied to Dr. Whitman to purchase the Wailatpu
station.” If such a proposition had ever been made
to the Doctor, it was natural that he would have
spoken of it to Mr. Spalding, his intimate friend, his
fellow-member and associate in missionary labors
during the fifteen days that he spent with him before
the massacre.
7th. As to the seventh complaint brought against
some priests who were present at Walla Walla when
Mr. and Mrs. Osborn were there, the following state-
ment given by Mr. Stanley, the artist, who happened
to be at Walla Walla at the time, will throw some
light upon the matter:-
“During my stay at Walla Walla in December
last,” says Mr. Stanley, “I occupied a room with
two or more of the Catholic priests; and their beds
consisted of two blankets with a stick of wood for
their pillow.
“I arrived at Walla Walla the 2nd of December,

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 85
and learned from Mr. McBean that Mr. Hallbrought
him the first intelligence of the massacre early in
the morning of the 30th of November; that he was
received in the Fort in Mr. McBean’s private or
family room . . . . . . he was undecided whether to
remain or proceed to Willamet; feared he would be
killed if found by the Cayuses; and after consulting
Mr. McBean thought he could reach the Willamet
in safety on the north side of the river. He was
furnished with a cappo, blanket, powder, ball, and
tobacco, and Mr. McBean saw him safely across the
river.
“Mr. Osborn and little son arrived a few hours
before me, and were received and quartered in the
Fort.
“Mr. McBean procured for him a trusty Walla
Walla Indian to return with him for his family, but
having no horses at the post, I proffered the use of
my own until he should reach the Company’s farm,
about twenty miles distant, where he was supplied
with fresh ones. Had it not been for the guide's
perseverance Mrs. Osborn and children must have
perished. Mr. Osborn, despairing of finding the
place where he had left them, proposed to the Indian
to return. The Indian said he was told by Mr. Mc
Bean not to return without finding them, and he
continued his search until he discovered their con-
cealment.
“They arrived at the Fort early in the evening
of the 3d of December, and Mr. McBean said he
would protect them with his life.
“They were not allowed to go three days without

86 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
provisions, but on the contrary were furnished daily
with such provisions as were used by Mr. McBean
and family.
“Mr. McBean proffered a blanket to Mr. Osborn
on his credit, and I am quite positive the article was
not asked for by Mr Osborn.
(Signed,) “J. M. STANLEY.
“Oregon City, March 10th, 1848.”
The priests spoken of by Mr. Stanley were Ob-
lats, belonging to the mission of the north side of
the Columbia. For their beds at the Fort, as Mr.
Stanley states, they had but two blankets with a
piece of wood for a pillow. For their subsistence
they depended upon the Fort, where they were pay-
ing their board. It was then very difficult for them
to give beds, blankets, or food, which they had not
at their disposal. Besides, provisions were very
scarce at the time in the Fort, and the clerk and the
priests, as well as the others, were all reduced to the
necessity of living upon horseflesh. If the priests
did not prevent Mr. Osborn from bringing his family
to the Umatilla, the reason was that they believed
they would be safer under the Young Chief's pro-
tection than at the Fort, where they expected every
moment to be attacked, without being prepared to
oppose a sufficient resistance: there were at the Fort
only five or six men at most.
8th. In regard to what has been stated that the
Bishop of Walla Walla had come into a country
where there was no church or Catholic station, and
no stationary priests, I will observe that Messrs.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 78
Blanchet and Demers, the first Catholic missionaries
that came to Oregon, had passed Walla Walla in
1838, where they had stopped a few days, and had
been visited by the Indians. In 1839 Mr. Demers
had spent three weeks in teaching the Indians and
baptising their children. In 1840 he had made
there a mission so fruitful that the Protestant mis-
sionaries had got alarmed, and feared that all their
disciples would abandon them if he continued his
missions among them. Father De Smet, after visi-
ting the Flat Heads in 1840, had come and established
a mission among them in 1841; and from that time
down to the arrival of the Bishop, the Indians of
Walla Walla and of the Upper Columbia had never
failed to be visited yearly, either by Mr. Demers or
by some of the Jesuits, and those annual excursions
had procured every year new children to the Church.
Almost every Indian tribe possessed some Catholic
member. Among the Cayuses the Young Chief
and a portion of his camp were professing Catholi-
cism, and for seven years previous were asking for
some priests to come and settle among them. The
Flat Heads, Kallispels, and Pointed Hearts, posses-
sed each of them a station with as many churches,
built and attended by the Jesuits. The Bishop of
Walla Walla then, whose jurisdiction extends over
the whole part of the American Oregon contained
between the Cascades and the Rocky Mountains,
was far from coming into a field totally foreign to
him. When he arrived he found more flocks and
pastors than the American Board had ever been
able there to show on their side.

88 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
As to the assertion that the Protestant missiona-
ries had worked there peaceably for eleven years,
we know what to think of it from the different state-
ments which we have seen above.
9th. I could admit that Joseph Lewis, Joseph
Stanfield, and Nicholas Finlay, who may have been
seen plundering, were Catholics, without injuring in
the least the cause of Catholicism; because, as in good
reasoning it is never allowed to conclude from one par-
ticularity to another particularity nor to a generality;
in like manner, from the guilt of three Catholics it
cannot be reasonably concluded that other Catholics
are guilty, nor a fortiori that all Catholics are guilty
and Catholicism favorable to the guilt Mr. Spald-
ing, when he advanced so absurd a sophism, did not
mind that in the present case it could be retorted
against him entirely to his disadvantage. But I
prefer to give to every one his own, and to keep for
myself only what is mine.
I affirm, then, that Nicholas Finlay is no Catholie,
nor has ever been one, and I would like Mr. Spald-
ing to prove the eontrary. Finlay is a poor half-
breed, who has always lived with the Indians, and
after their manners, habits, principles and supersti-
tions, and who has of the white man nothing but the
name. He has never been baptised, has never fre-
quented any Catholic church, nor received Catholic
instruction from any priest. On the contrary he
was attached to Dr. Whitman, in the neighborhood
of whom he generally lived, and he followed his in-
structions.
I affirm, in like manner, that Joseph Lewis is not

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 89
a Catholic, and according to Mr. Spalding he must
be a Protestant; because the religion of a man is
not the consequence of his birth, but springs from
the principles that he has imbibed from the society
in which he has lived. Well, according to Mr.
Spalding, Joseph Lewis must have been raised either
in the State of Maine, where there were at the time
no Catholic churches, no priests, nor any means
whatever of receiving Catholic instruction, or in
some other part of the United States, under the care
of Americans, (generally Protestants,) who had
taken him from wild Indians when he was from four
to five years of age.
As to Joseph Stanfield, I admit that he was born
and has been educated a Catholic. But he has said
himself that for twenty years past he has not fre-
quented any Catholic church, and has not availed
himself of the ministry of any priest. He may,
during that time, have given up the severity of the
Catholic principles and morality. I do not pretend
to excuse him; nevertheless he has been tried by
competent tribunals for the crimes he is accused of;
and I do not know that he has as yet been condem-
ned by them. Why should we pretend now to be
more enlightened and wiser than those tribunals
have been, and judge him more severely than they
have done Moreover, the following circumstance,
if true, speaks very highly in his favor, and shows
that if he has at any time forgotten the good princi-
ples he had received in his infancy, once at least
those principles prompted him to a heroic action.
It was on the morning of the day that followed the

90 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
massacre. There were several Indians scattered in
the neighborhood of the mission buildings; but es-
pecially a crowd of Indian women were standing
near the door of the house in which all the white
women and children were living. Stanfield being
then at a short distance from the house, Tilokaikt,
the chief of the place, came up and asked him if he
had something in the house. Yes, said Stanfield, I
have all my things there. Take them away, said
the Indian to him. Why would I take them away,
they are well there º Take them off, insisted he a
second time. But I have not only mythings there,
I have also my wife and children Yes, replied
Tilokaikt, who appeared a little surprised, you have
a wife and children in the house !—Will you take
them off? No, replied Stanfield, I will not take
them away, and I will go and stay myself in the
house; I see that you have bad designs; you intend
to kill the women and children; well, you will kill
me with them. Are you not ashamed Are you
not satisfied with what you have done Do you
want still to kill poor innocent creatures that have
never done you any harm I am ashamed, replied
Tilokaikt, after a moment’s hesitation. It is true,
those women and children do not deserve death;
they did not harm us: they shall not die. And
turning to the Indian women who were standing near
the door of the house, waiting with a visible impa-
tience for the order to enter and slaughter the peo-
ple inside, he ordered them to go off. The Indian
women then became enraged, and showing him the
knives that they took from beneath their blankets,

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 91
they insulted him in many different ways, calling
him a coward, a woman who would consent to be
governed by Frenchmen; and they retired appa-
rently in great anger for not having been allowed to
imbue their hands in the blood of new victims.
The above circumstance was related at Fort Walla
Walla to Mr. Ogden by Stanfield himself, under
great emotions, and in the presence of the widows,
none of whom contradicted him. An action of that
nature, if it took place, would be of itself sufficient
to redeem a great many faults.
It was Stanfield also that dug the grave where the
bodies of those who were murdered were buried, and
washed the corpses and helped me to shroud and
bury them. He also, for some weeks, took care of
the women and children, and provided for their
Wants.
10th. It is also a slander to say that the priests
have neglected to have the bodies of those who were
murdered buried. I refer to all the captives of
Wailatpu, who saw me for over three hours actively
occupied in shrouding the corpses and putting them
into a common grave with my own hands, and taking
care that they should be covered with earth before
I left, and that two days only after the massacre.
11th. When Mr. Spalding complained that the
Bishop had neglected to give him the information
asked in regard to his daughter and the other cap-
tives, he had forgotten that Mr Ogden wrote to him
in lieu of the Bishop as well as for himself, when he
announced to him that liberty was secured for him
and for the other captives, and that he had to be

92 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
ready to leave the country by a certain time that he
had fixed upon for him. It was the first letter that
could be sent to him after the receipt of his letter
by the Bishop, and it was the same Indian who had
brought his letter to the Bishop that took Mr. Og-
den’s letter to him. As to information relative to
the situation of the captives, that could be of no
particular utility to any one, and as the Bishop knew
nothing about it except through Indian reports, he
thought that Mr. Spalding would receive more cor-
rect information from his own Indians, who had
been at Wailatpu and had themselves seen the cap-
tives, than from himself. And moreover an express
would have been very expensive, if one could have
been obtained.
12th. When Mr. Spalding says that I arrived at
Wailatpu just about the moment the young Ameri-
can was killed, he slanders me again; since, as he
says, the young American was killed at two o'clock,
P. M., and I did not arrive at the Indian camp un-
til between seven and eight o’clock in the evening,
without having passed by the mission.
13th. Rev. Mr. Griffin, the Editor of the Oregon
American, is not more correct when he says that I
concerted a letter at Wallatpu with Mr. McBean’s
messengers, since it is known to all the people of
the station that Mr. McBean’s messengers, who had
come in the morning that followed the massacre,
had started off long before the evening for Walla
Walla; while I did not arrive at the Indian camp
until late in the evening of the same day, and at the
mission on the next morning only.

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 93
14th. It is also incorrect to say that the Catholic
missionaries despised the authority of the Governor
and of the Indian Agent, who had commanded them
to leave the Indian country.
During the winter, without being in the least or-
dered to do it, the clergy of Walla Walla had thought
it prudent to leave the upper country on account of
the existence of the war. But, in the spring, as it
was generally thought in the Willamet that the war
was at an end, and as Indians were urgently asking
the priests to go back, and also as it was proper for
him to fix his residence within the limits of his eccle-
siastical jurisdiction, the Bishop notified Governor
Abernethy, on the 29th of April, of his intention to
go back to his diocese, in a letter in which were the
following lines:
“Sir . . . . I feel desirous to go and continue the
work which we have begun with some success; yes,
Sir, I feel anxious that circumstances should allow
us to return back to those Indians who wish to know
God as we do, in order to adore and love Him from
their whole hearts; and I intend to do it as soon as
possible.
“The two letters, copies of which I have the honor
to transmit with the present, one from Tyaies, the
other from Tawatowe (Young Chief), asking their
missionaries to go back to them,-are a proof of
their desire to get instructed. Who would not re-
joice, seeing that God had inspired them with such
good feelings And, for us, who know all the good
that can be done there, how could we refuse to run
to their help ?”

94 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
The Bishop expected to receive an answer from
the Governor, as a matter of course, but after wait-
ing more than a month for that answer, and seeing
that His Excellency did not even acknowledge the
receipt of that letter, he resolved to fulfil his inten-
tions. He started back in the beginning of June
with his secular clergy for the Dalles, for the pur-
pose of settling there and beginning a mission. And
it was only a few days after his arrival there that
the Superintendent of Indians Affairs directed to
one member of the clergy a letter that was intended
for him (the Bishop), prohibiting the continuation
of missionary labors with the Indians east of the
Cascade Mountains. The following is a copy of the
letter, directed on the outside to Rev. Mr. Rousseau,
&c., and on the inside to Messrs. Blanchet, &c.:
“For T W Ascopom, June 15, 1848.
“Rev. Messrs.-As Superintendent of Indian
Affairs, it becomes my duty to inform you, with all
due respect to your sacred calling, that it is desira-
ble no further missionary efforts should be made
with any Indians east of the Cascade Mountains,
until the presence of well organised and disciplined
troops, under command of United States officers,
shall render such efforts safe and judicious. At
present the relations between the whites and the
Indians are too precarious to allow missionary labors
with the Indians to be either prudent or effective of
good. So soon as circumstances will allow, I shall
take much pleasure in throwing wide the door of
missionary labors among the natives to all Christian

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGN. 95
missionaries; at present, prudence demands that it
should be closed against all.
“With much respect,
“I have the honor to be, Messrs.,
“Your obedient servant,
“H. A. G. LEE, Sup’t I. A.
“To Messrs. Blanchet, &c.”
The Bishop and his clergy conformed to that or-
der, and suspended all missionary labors among the
Indians of the Dalles until more favorable circum-
stances. He continued, it is true, to remain upon
his claim, and to improve it; but in that, as in the
rest of his conduct, he did not violate the order nor
act contrary to the intentions of the Superintendent
as is evident from the following letter written to him
by Dr. Saffarans, Indian Agent for the Dalles.
Upon false reports that the Doctor had received, he
had thought it his duty to write to the Bishop for
some explanations, and immediately after receiving
the Bishop's answer he wrote in the following terms:
“Fort WAscopom, July 20, 1848.
“My dear Sir, On the receipt of your letter of
yesterday I became immediately satisfied that I had
been misinformed in relation to the tenor of your
pursuits at present with the Indians. Although my
informants were impressed with a wrong conception
of the labors of missionary establishments, they con-
sidered it imperatively their duty to inform me ac-
cording to their understanding, in consequence of
which I wrote to you; though I now sincerely hope
you will have the goodness to forgive me and my in-

96 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON,
formants for the pain and trouble we have given you
upon this subject; for I do assure you the act was
not done knowingly through the medium of indis-
oretion, but through wrong and ignorant conceptions
of missionary matters.
“As to the matter of instructing and explaining
to the Indians the common precepts of the Bible,
there can be no objection; because I do sincerely
consider it a most righteous and magnanimous act in
any one to give the poor benighted beings all the
light and instruction within their power, upon the
subject of Christianity and civilisation; without dis-
tinction, however, as to Church or mode of admin-
istration, during the present crisis of affairs with
them.
“Now, upon the point of being compelled to write
to the Superintendent in relation to missionary es-
tablishments: this part, Sir, you do most assuredly
misunderstand, because in speaking of missionary
establishments, it is not to be understood that a house
or simply an improvement is meant a missionary es-
tablishment, nor in simply fulfilling religious duties
or exercises therein; because houses are dedicated
to many uses, and that use designates the character
of the establishment. Consequently, you must not
understand that I, in my previous letter, inferred
that you should desist from improving your claim;
far from it; because it is most assuredly your un-
doubted right as a man and free citizen of Oregon
to make any and all such improvements as your
fancy and desires may plan and construct; and by
thus doing, I consider that you are acting perfectly

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGONs 97.
in accordance with the letter and the spirit of our
free and republican constitution.
“I beg, Sir, that you may forgive me for the
trouble I have caused you upon this occasion, and
you will ever oblige your most obedient friend,
“HENRY SAFFARANs,
“Indian Agent for Wascopom.
“To A. A. M. Blanchet, Bishop of Walla Walla.”
No change has taken place in the state of things
since.
15th. When Mr. Spalding said that he had met a
priest in company with an Indian who had the avowed
intention to kill him, I am inclined to say that he
could have done something better and more worthy
a noble and grateful heart than to advance so heinous
a slander against the best friend he ever had. I am
the priest whom Mr. Spalding met in company with
one of the murderers. When he met me, I had
just started from the Doctor's establishment, where
I had buried with my own hands the dead bodies of
the unfortunate victims of the disaster, as before
stated; where I had consoled in the best manner I
could the widows and the orphans, and obtained from
that same Indian the promise that they would do
them no harm and treat them well; and expressed
repeatedly my anxiety for Mr. Spalding, my fear
that he should come too soon, and would fall, per-
haps, into the hands of the Indians; and my ardent
desire of meeting him in time to give him a chance
to escape. For a proof of that I refer to the cap-
tives who were then at the Doctor’s establishment.
At the moment of my departure that Indian had

98 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGN.
joined my interpreter and was coming in company
with me against my will and without my knowing of
his intention. His presence caused me great unea-
siness on Mr. Spalding's account. I had wished to
find an opportunity to send him back and to escape
from him, but in vain, when Mr. Spalding suddenly
met me and placed me in the most critical situation
in which I ever found myself, and where I had the
good fortune to save his life at the evident peril of
my own.
Now is it not ungenerous and inconsistent on the
part of Mr. Spalding to throw a doubt upon my in-
tentions in that circumstance 2 If I had entertained
bad intentions against him; if I had wished to have
him killed, as he insinuated, would I have warned
him of the danger that threatened him Would I
have given him my provisions and advised him to
fly without delay, as he says himself I did? Strange
reasoning this! “The priest told me that the In-
dians intended to kill me;” that in order to escape
from their hands, “I had better to run off instant-
ly,” and so as to furnish me with the means of doing
so, “he gave me his meat and bread, and God de-
livered me from the murderers;” then it is evident
that the priest intended to cause me to be killed !!!
And this is nevertheless Mr. Spalding's reasoning,
word for word.
It is not correct to say that the Indian was in my
company “with the avowed intention of killing”
Mr. Spalding. He had, as well as the other Indians,
the general intention of killing him at the first op-
portunity, it is true; but such was not the reason

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 99
that had caused him to come with me; because he
did not know nor think that Mr. Spalding would
come on that day. His intention, as I knew after,
was to inform his uncle, Camaspelo, the military
chief, of the massacre, and receive his orders. Be-
sides, he was accompanying me at that moment, as
other Indians had done during the day, without my
knowledge of their immediate intentions, and in such
a way as to keep me in continual apprehension and
fear.
It is also untrue to say that that Indian retired to
an unobserved place to reload his pistol. Mr. Spald-
ing knew better than that, since I had told him that
the Indian had gone back to the camp to consult
about his fate. If his intentions had been to reload
his pistol, he would not have wanted more than a
few minutes to have loaded it and shot Mr. Spalding,
as neither my interpreter nor myself could have
prevented him for want of arms and good horses.
But he did not return until two or three hours after
when I was on Manon's Fork. Moreover, nobody
but Mr. Spalding and myself can give a correct ac-
count of what passed between us at that time. We
were alone, my interpreter being at some distance
from us and not hearing our conversation; and I can
bear testimony that then Mr. Spalding was not in a
state fit to form a judicious opinion of things or
words; the fright and trouble of mind which the
knowledge of his danger had produced on him, had
set him completely beside himself.
16th. I come now to the last accusation, and one
of the most malicious that has been made against us:

100 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
“That the priests had told the Indians everywhere,
and the Walla Walla chief in particular, that the
Protestant missionaries were eausing them to die;
that they were poisoning them; that it was the
Americans who had brought the measles among
them ; and that God had sent that sickness to them
to show His hatred against the heretics.”
I solemnly affirm that such a thing, nor anything
of the like, has never been said by any priest to the
Indians. I defy any one to prove the contrary; and
a few remarks will show what confidence can be pru-
dently put by unprejudiced people in the present
accusations brought by Mr. Spalding against us.
First, it is a mere vague and malicious assertion;
and to support it he has not brought forward the
least testimony, but the supposed reports made to
them by two Indians, Tontinnitsi and Yellow Ser-
pent. But as to those reports I have reason to
doubt that they had ever been made to him by those
Indians;–many an instance has proved to us that
more than once Mr. Spalding's memory has given
way to his imagination. If they have been made to
him, I dare say that it has been with a view to sound
him, as it is a common practice with Indians, and
to find out from his answers whether it was true or
not that the American missionaries were poisoning
them, as it has been for years the general impres-
sion among them. And finally, those reports can
be of no credit, and prove nothing in the case. If
in most part of the States of the Union the testi-
mony of Indians is never admitted as proof against
the whites in any court of justice, it would be here

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 101
inconsistent to make it the base of public opinion,
and especially when it is expressed in such vague
and general terms.
It is evident, besides, that the Doctor and Mr.
Spalding never believed anything as to the truth of
such Indian reports, if they ever heard of them.
“If Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding,” says the
Hon. P. H. Burnett, “believed the tales that the
Indians were telling them, that the priests were per-
suading them that the Doctor was poisoning them,
why did they not take some steps to investigate the
matter, to inquire into the truth of these reports
it required no more than a little common honesty,
and common sense, to have enabled them to set the
matter beyond doubt. When I hear that a neighbor
has charged me with a crime, it is my duty to go to
him and ask him if he has said so. This course is
a plain one, and very common among honorable men
that are not willing to believe every slander they
hear in the community. When the Indian came to
the Doctor, and told him that the priests were telling
them that he was poisoning them, had he believed
there was even a probability that such was the fact,
he would have inquired of the Indians: “What
priest told you so To what Indians did they say
so If they told you so, they told you a falsehood.
Now let us go and see the priests, and take with us
those Indians they told these things to, and I will
face them down and show you that it is false.” This
course would have been fair and just to the priests,
to the Doctor, and to the Indians. Suppose this
course had been taken. The Doctor should have

102 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
taken with him the Indians that these things had
been told to, as well as some of the honorable emi-
grants at his station, and having brought the Indians
and the priests face to face, he could then have in-
quired of the priests: ‘Are these things so 2°. If
the priests had in fact told the Indians so, and had
then denied the fact to the Doctor in the presence
of the Indians, it would at once have prostrated the
influence of the priests with the Indians. Dr. Whit-
man could have said to the Indians : ‘You see these
men are liars; they told you I was poisoning you,
and now they deny it. You cannot believe anything
they tell you. But suppose the priests had admit-
ted they had told these things to the Indians, then
the Doctor could have been prepared for the worst,
and he would have been able to have exposed these
conspirators to the world, not by mere Indian hear-
say, but “by tangible evidences.” On the other
hand, suppose the priests had never told these things
to the Indians, and that the Indians had been telling
lies to sound the Doctor and try to find out whether
he was in fact poisoning them, the Indians would
have been detected and exposed. In every view of
the case good would have resulted from an investi-
gation. Now Dr. Whitman was a man of good
sense and great firmness, and had he believed that
these reports had any foundation, he certainly would
not have been afraid or ashamed to have brought
this matter to a test that would have settled it.”
The following statement is also somewhat in our
behalf in this case. I refer to Mr. Thos. McKay's
statement, to whose testimony Mr. Spalding has re-

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 103
ferred. He was present at the council held at Walla
Walla by the Cayuse chiefs, when called by the
Bishop for the purpose of asking them for a piece
of land for a mission. He heard what accusations
the Indians made against Dr Whitman on that oc-
casion, and what the answers made to them by the
Bishop were:
“During the meeting,” says he, “ Tumsakay said
that Dr. Whitman was a bad man; that he robbed
and poisoned them.” The Bishop replied to him
that “his thoughts were bad; the Doctor did not
poison them nor rob them; he had better banish
those thoughts from his mind. You do not know
the Doctor, he is not a bad man.”
“One of the chiefs told the Bishop they would
send the Doctor away very soon, and they would
give him his house if he wished. The Bishop an-
swered that he would not take the Doctor's house;
that he did not wish them to send the Doctor away,
and that there was room enough for two missions.”
Now, if the Bishop had formally contradicted the
Indians in that circumstance, how could it be sup-
posed that he should have spoken differently on
other occasions He knew how important it was to
weigh well his answers and words with the Indians,
and carefully to avoid anything that would appear
like hesitation or contradiction Besides, he never
spoke to the Indians but through an interpreter, and
generally the interpreter of the Fort, and always in
the public room, and in presence of all the people
that wished to hear him.
The importance of keeping his influence even with

104 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON
the whites would have then prevented him from say-
ing anything against Dr. Whitman and others in
contradiction to what he had said on that occasion.
And I affirm that he never did; for a proof of which
I refer to the people who lived or were at Walla
Walla during our stay there
But there is another circumstance that, in my
opinion, can throw greater light on the matter than
anything else. It is a conversation that took place
between Mr. Spalding and Dr. Poujade, in the Cay-
use country, about five or six miles at farthest from
the place where the Catholic mission was afterwards
established. It was three months before the estab-
lishment of that mission, and five days before the
Bishop (who was far ahead of his priests) passed for
the first time on the Cayuse lands, on his way to
Fort Walla Walla. The public will judge from that
conversation what reliance can be placed on Mr
Spalding's assertions in general, but especially on
those that engage our attention at present. Let it
be remembered in perusing the conversation, that
there were no clergymen yet arrived among the
Cayuses, the nearest were at least one hundred miles
and the others about three hundred miles distant.
The conversation took place on the 31st of August,
and the mission of the Cayuses did not begin until
the latter part of November. Here follows the
conversation as related by Dr. Poujade:
This is to certify that on the 31st day of August,
1847, while on the road to Oregon, I met Rev. H.
H Spalding at the Willow Spring, at the foot of the
Blue Mountains, and that the following conversation
took place between him and me at that place :

PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON- - 105
He asked me how many wagons were in our com-
pany. I answered him, seven.
H. H. Spalding.—Well, you had better wait for
a larger company.
J. P. Poujade.—Why so
H. H. Spalding.—Because the Indians are get-
ting very bad
J. P. Poujade.-Have they done anybody any
harm 2
H. H. Spalding.—Yes, they have killed two
white men at the Dalles.
J. P. Poujade.—The Americans might be in
fault.
H. H. Spalding.—No, it is the Catholic priests,
who have established a mission among the Cayuses;
and they have put the Indians up to kill all the
American Protestants on the road to Oregon.
J. P. Poujade –Impossible; that is no Chris-
tianity, it must be a mistake, because we must love
our neighbors as ourselves. I have lived thirty
years among the Catholics in the United States, and
I always understood the Catholic Church to teach
her children to do good for evil, and to be charitable
by giving good moral example, and I think well of
the Catholic clergy. And to tell you the truth, I
am a Catholic ; but here is a Protestant gentleman,
Mr. Larkins, who has lived neighbor to me twenty
years, ask him if ever he knew Catholics to kill
Protestants. Mr. Larkins answered, No.
H. H. Spalding—It is true, I have received fresh
news, and I understand the Indians had stolen from
the whites. One Indian was killed by the whites,

106 PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON.
and the Indians killed one white man. Do you
know if the dragoons are coming or not?
J. P. Poujade.-The bill did not pass.
H. H. Spalding.—I am sorry; the Indians are
getting worse every day for two or three years back.
They are threatening to turn us out of the mission.
A few days ago they tore down my fences. And I
do not know what the Missionary Board of New
York means to do. It is a fact, we are doing no
good. When the emigration passes, the Indians all
run off to trade, and return worse than when we
came amongst them.
And so I left him with his blanket spread, full
of one thing and another, and he had also many
head of horses, for the purpose of trading with the
emigrants. Around us were scattered in the prai-
ries several bands of horses, that the Indians pointed
out to us as belonging to Dr. Whitman.
(Signed,) John P. Pouj A.D.E.
I certify to the above conversation, being present
at the time. -
(Signed,) ANNE Pouj ADE.
Saint Louis Willamet, Sept. 12, 1848.
I leave the comment of that conversation to the
public.
Now, I have exposed frankly and candidly what I
do consider to have been the true causes of the mas-
sacre of Wailatpu, with the grounds and proofs that
support my opinion, together with the conduct of
the Catholic clergy in regard to that whole affair, on
PROTESTANTISM IN OREGON. 107
one part, and the malicious and grievous accusations
made by Mr. Spalding and others against that same
Catholic clergy with regard to that same affair, to-
gether with what I consider as a plain and full refu-
tation of them, on the other part. I leave now the
matter before the public, to which it belongs atten-
tively to examine and weigh the testimony on both
sides, and then impartially to decide and pronounce
whether the Catholic clergy are guilty of the atro-
cious charges brought against them, or whether Mr.
Spalding and others could have spoken so against
the Catholic clergy “without being crazy,” as Col.
Gilliam and many others have already pronounced
that they could not, and without being moved by
blind, unjust, and too violent religious prejudices.




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WILLIAM L.
CLEMENTS -
LIBRARY
University of Michigan
Gift of
Alvin M. Bentley
1969
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