"_The Protestant missionaries oppose the bill, and employ all their

artifices and influence to prevent its success. Harkins proposes their

expulsion._ 'It is our money,' said he, 'that these missionaries come

here to get. Surely, our money can get us better teachers. Let us

therefore try to procure good missionaries, with whom we can live in

harmony and good understanding; who will give us the assurance that

their doctrine is based on that of the apostles and of Jesus Christ.'

"The Chickasaws are represented as opposed to Senator Johnson's measure.

We trust, however, that the vote of the majority will prove favorably

and that the three territorial States will be established.

"It is, in my opinion, a last attempt, and a last chance of existence

for the sad remnants of the poor Indians of America. It is, I will say,

if I may here repeat what I wrote in my second letter in 1853, their

only remaining source of happiness; _humanity and justice_ seem to

demand it. If they are again repulsed, and driven inland, they will

infallibly perish. Such as refuse to submit, and accept the definite

arrangement,--the only favorable one left,--must resume the nomad life

of the prairies, and close their career with the vanishing buffaloes and

other animals."

We have known this Father De Smet for many years, and have known of his

connection as chaplain in the United States army, and of his extensive

travels among the various Indian tribes of our country. We were well

aware of his zeal and bigotry as a Jesuit; but we did not suppose he

would take the first opportunity to combine all his associates, and the

Indians under his influence, against the government that had favored him

and his Indian missionary operations so readily. Yet perhaps we ought

not to be surprised at this even, as the Roman hierarchy expressed more

open sympathy and favor to the Southern rebellion than any other

European power, by acknowledging the Southern Confederacy, and

furnishing a man to assassinate President Lincoln.

We have introduced these quotations in our sketches of early history, in

order to show to the reader the far-reaching policy, as also the

determination of foreign powers, through the Jesuit missionaries, to

accomplish the overthrow of our American institutions, and prevent the

spread of them upon this coast. The following is copied from the

_Christian Intelligencer_:--

"_Rome in the Field._

"There are those who believe that Rome has an evil eye on this

country, and that our next great battle will be with her hosts,

rapidly mustering on these shores. We would not be alarmists, but

we would not have our countrymen ignorant of matters which most

nearly and vitally concern our country's welfare. If the policy of

Rome is to rule or ruin, let us know it. If it be first to ruin,

and then to rule, let us know that.

"We purpose to go no further back than the beginning of the war,

and to let the facts which we shall name speak for themselves. If

they have no other lesson, they will, at least, show that Rome,

during our terrible struggle for national existence, was true to

her ancient history and traditions, as the enemy of civil liberty

and the friend of the oppressor the world over.

"It will not be forgotten how generally and enthusiastically our

adopted citizens, the Irish, enlisted in the army when the call

first came for men to put down rebellion. In the early part of the

war, there were Irish battalions, and regiments, and brigades, but

there were few, if any, at its close. The truth is, after the

second year of the war, the Irish changed front, and suddenly

became sympathizers with treason and rebellion. It was noticed that

the girls in the kitchen began to roll their fierce gutturals

against Mr. Lincoln; their brothers in the army began to curse the

cause for which they fought; desertions were frequent; enlistments

stopped; and the attitude of the Irish mind before Mr. Lincoln's

second election was one of disloyalty and hostility to the

government of the United States.

"And these facts can not be changed by the habit which these people

have of boasting about fighting our battles, and saving our

country. By actual examination of our muster-rolls, the simple

truth appears to be, that only eight per cent. of our grand army

were of foreign birth; the balance--ninety-two per cent.--were

native Americans, who returned at length, worn and battle-scarred,

to find their places on the farms, in the factories, and

elsewhere, filled by Irish who had sought safety and profit at

home, while our boys were courting danger and death in battle.

"It may be interesting to know when this change came over the Irish

mind. What dampened their ardor, what quenched the glow of their

patriotic impulse? The coincidence is so complete, that the cause

is doubtless the same.

"It will be remembered that Bishop Hughes went abroad during the

second year of the war, as was supposed, by authority of our

government to interest the Catholic sovereigns of Europe in our

favor. Instead of this, however, the archbishop went direct to

Rome, and straightway the pope acknowledged the independence of the

Confederate States. His insignificance gave him impunity, and

purchased our silence. But the act had its influence; Biddy in the

kitchen, Mike in the army, Patrick on the farm, and Mac in the

factory, fell to cursing Mr. Lincoln as a tyrant and butcher.

Enlistments among the Irish stopped from that time, unless it was

bounty-jumpers and deserters. They banded together to resist the

draft, as in New York, where they rioted in blood for three long

days, and only yielded to the overwhelming power of United States

troops. The spirit that actuated these human fiends came from Rome,

and to Rome must be awarded the sole honor of welcoming to the

family of nations a Confederacy whose first act was treason, and

whose last was assassination. Indeed, it was Rome that furnished

the assassin and his conspirators against the greatest life of

modern times. And that assassin struck not against the life of a

man, but against the life of the Republic; and if guilt lies in the

intent, then is Rome guilty of the nation's life.

"With such a record, Rome vainly puts herself among the friends of

our free institutions. She misjudged, we think, but she no doubt

thought the time had arrived to destroy what had come of

Puritanism. And for this, she was willing to be the ally of a

government whose corner-stone was negro slavery. Are we still

dreaming that Rome is changed, or that she has surrendered the hope

of supplanting Protestant freedom on these shores? Would not every

Fenian lodge in the country rally to the help of the South, if

there was a chance to restore the old negro-hating oligarchy to

power.

"It can hardly have escaped every observing man that the Irish mind

is expectant and exultant in regard to this country. They do not

conceal their belief that the Catholic Church is to rise to the

ascendant here, and that Protestantism is to do it reverence.

"But a few weeks since, Father Hecker, one of the lights of the

Catholic Church in this country, said in a public lecture, in New

York, that his church had numbered eleven millions of our people,

or one-third of our population; and that if the members of his

church increased for the next thirty years as it had for the thirty

years past, in 1900 Rome would have the majority, and would be

bound to take the country and rule it in the interest of the

church. 'And,' continued the reverend father, 'I consider it my

highest mission to educate our people up to this idea, that America

is ours, and belongs to the church.'

"It is all of a pattern. Rome during the war sought to ruin us in

order to rule us. She failed in the first, but is no less

tenaciously striving to accomplish the last. In a future number we

will hope to show how she means to do this through the freedmen."

It appears that, when our government became apprised of the value of

Oregon as a part of its domain, and was informed officially by the

provisional government of the situation of affairs generally at the time

of the Whitman massacre, at the same time the information was so

arranged, and the circumstances so stated, that the government and

people were generally deceived as to the cause and ultimate object of

that transaction. It is clear that the Hudson's Bay Company designed to

hold the country. It is also evident that the British government

expected that the arrangements of the company were such that their title

to the Oregon Territory was secured beyond a question.

The far-seeing shrewdness of P. J. De Smet, S. J., in relation to his

efforts and church influence, was in a measure superior to both; for he

made use of both to secure his object and add to the numerical strength

of his church, and by that means gain political consideration in the

United States and in other countries. For instance, all the Indian

children and adults they have ever baptized (as may be seen by their

letters to their society in Brussels) are counted, numbering two hundred

and ninety-four thousand,--nearly one-half of their American converts.

This, with all their foreign population, as claimed by them, and

improperly allowed in the United States census, gives to that sect a

political influence they are not entitled to; and were the question

agitated openly, as it was undertaken once secretly, the result would

show their weakness. While that church professes the open Catholic

faith, it still holds to its secret Society of Jesus, and through it has

carried its missions and influence into every department of our American

government, more especially into that of the Indians. General Grant

seems to understand our Indian relations, and has advised the best plan

for disposing of the Indian question, _i.e._, place it under the

exclusive control of the military department; and if an Indian becomes a

settler, let him be protected as such.

After the greater portion of our provisional troops had been disbanded,

Revs. Eells and Walker and their families were ordered out of the upper

country, it not being deemed safe for them to remain, on account of

hostile Indians who were notoriously friendly with every one claiming to

belong to the Hudson's Bay Company or to the priests' party; as asserted

by Father Hoikin, who says: "_The country is as safe for us as ever_; we

can go freely wherever we desire. No one is ignorant that the

black-gowns are not enemies; those at least who are among the Indians."

Notwithstanding the order had been given, by Indian Agent Major Lee,

that all the missionaries among those Indians should leave the country

till troops could be stationed to protect all alike, still not one of

the Jesuit missionaries obeyed it. On the 21st of August, Lieutenant A.

T. Rogers writes to Governor Abernethy, as follows:--

"FORT LEE, WASCOPUM, Aug. 21, 1848.

"Believing it to be my duty to let you know any thing of moment

that transpires at this station, for this purpose I now address

you.

"At about 2 o'clock, P.M., at this place, a boat arrived,

consigned to the French priests who have taken up their residence

here, loaded with eight casks of powder; six of them 150 pounds

each, and two of them 90 pounds each, making 1,080 pounds. I also

took fifteen sacks of balls, 100 pounds in each cask; three sacks

of buck or goose shot, 100 pounds each, making 1,800 pounds of ball

and buck-shot; counted one sack of the balls and found about 3,000

balls. I also took three boxes of guns; opened one box, and found

twelve guns.

"The general conviction at the fort was, that not more than 500

pounds of powder in all had been forwarded for the army by the

government, probably not even that amount. I was told by the priest

from an interior station, as also by one at the Dalles, that the

powder was for four stations, viz.: Coeur d'Alenes, Flatheads,

Ponderays, and Okanagons; and this had been purchased at Vancouver

the year before. I judged that at least one-third of their outfit

was ammunition.

"Three days previous to the arrival of the ammunition, four

Indians, embracing their chief from the Waiama village, near the

mouth of Des Chutes, came into the fort, much alarmed, saying there

had been Cayuses to them, declaring that the priests were going to

furnish them plenty of ammunition, and that they were going to kill

off all the Americans and all the Indians about that place, and the

Cayuses wanted them to join them; said also that out of fear of the

Cayuses they had sent away all their women and children. We had the

best of evidence that they were frightened. Out of some four or

five hundred souls along the river, between the fort and the

Chutes of the Columbia, not a soul was to be seen on either

side,--all, they said, were hid in the mountains. It was some ten

days before the Indians came from their hiding-places.

"When the munitions came, Quartermaster Johnson swore he believed

the priests designed them for the Cayuses; said also, a man in this

country did not know when he was in a tight place.

"I must say I also believed it.

"A. T. ROGERS, Lieutenant Commanding Post."[20]

[Footnote 20] From original letter.

The following editorial notice of the above letter is copied from the

Oregon _Spectator_ of September 7, 1848:--

"By reference to the above letter by Lieutenant Rogers to Governor

Abernethy, it will be seen that the arms and ammunition attempted

to be taken into the upper Indian country by Catholic priests, have

been seized by Lieutenant Rogers, and deposited in Fort Lee. Orders

had been dispatched to Lieutenant Rogers to seize and detain those

munitions. [A mistake of the editor. Lieutenant Rogers seized the

ammunition, and wrote for orders.] Much credit is due to Lieutenant

Rogers and the little garrison at Fort Lee for the promptness and

efficiency with which they acted in the matter.

"We understand that there was no disposition on the part of the

officers of the government to destroy or confiscate those

munitions, but that they were detained to prevent their

transportation into the Indian country under the present juncture

of affairs.

"We had intended to have spoken upon the attempt by Catholic

priests to transport such a quantity of arms and ammunition into

the Indian country at this time, but as those munitions have been

seized and are now safe, we abstain from present comment upon the

transaction!"

The above notice of the transaction, as given by Lieutenant Rogers, is a

fair specimen of the man who occupied the place of an editor at the time

this infamous course was being carried on in Oregon by the two parties

engaged in supplying the Indians with war materials. No one will suppose

for a moment that these priests ever bought or owned the powder and

arms; their own private supplies may have been in the cargo, but the

ammunition and arms were on the way into the Indian country, under their

priestly protection, for the benefit of their masters, the Hudson's Bay

Company, who, as we have repeatedly proved, were acting in concert upon

the prejudices and superstitions of the Indians.

Was it a great undertaking for that company to drive a thousand or

twelve hundred American settlers from Oregon at that time?

Robert Newell, already known to our readers, says, in speaking of

missionaries and settlers, "They could not have remained in the country

a week without the consent and aid of that company, nor could the

settlers have remained as they did up to 1848." We are willing to admit

Mr. Newell's position only in part. We know that company's power and

influence in Washington and London; we also know fully what they

attempted to do from 1812 to 1821, and only succeeded by a compromise

with their opponent. We also know all about their operations and

influences in Oregon, and are ready to admit that they had the

disposition to destroy the American settlements. We also know the extent

of the effort made to establish a claim to the Oregon country by means

of their French and Hudson's Bay half-breeds, and we are fully aware of

their effort to procure witnesses to substantiate their monstrous claims

for old rotten forts and imaginary improvements. Knowing all this, we

deny that that company had the courage, or would have dared to molest a

single American citizen or missionary, only as they could influence the

Indians by just such means as they used to destroy _Smith's party on the

Umpqua_, drive Captain Wyeth and the American Fur Company from the

country, and destroy Dr. Whitman's settlement. Any other course would

have involved the two countries in a war, and led to an investigation of

their proceedings and of their charter.

"That company," says Mr. Fitzgerald, "have submitted to all manner of

insult and indignity, and committed all manner of crime, and they dare

not go before any competent tribunal for the redress of any real or

supposed injury, or right they claim."

This brings us to the reason that Mr. Douglas gave in answer to Mr.

Ogden, in the presence of Mr. Hinman, "_There might be other than

sectarian causes_" _for the Whitman massacre_, and here we have the

united effort of priests and Hudson's Bay Company to attribute the

massacre to _measles_ and _superstition_, while we have the positive

testimony of Mr. Kimzey and others to show that the whole was determined

upon before any sickness was among the Indians. From the testimony of

General Palmer, the Donner party, Mr. Hines, and Mr. Ogden, we find but

the one effort; which was, to prevent, or diminish as much as was

possible, the settlement of the country. And why? To answer this

question clearly, we have traced the early history of that _monster

monopoly_ in previous chapters, and given their proceedings in countries

under their exclusive control. To illustrate more clearly the subject

of the previous and present chapters, we will give an article we find in

the Oregon _Argus_ of February 9, 1856, eight years after the war. The

article is headed:--

"_The Catholic Priests and the War--'A Catholic Citizen' attended to._

"_To the Editor of the Oregon Argus:_

"SIR,--For the past month I have noticed several virulent articles

in each issue of your paper, all tending to impress upon the minds

of your readers the idea that the Catholic priests were the head

and front of the present Indian difficulties; and being fearful

that your constant harping upon that one subject might render you a

monomaniac, I am induced to submit to your _Argus_ eyes a few facts

in relation to the conduct of the Catholic priests prior to and

during the present war. In your issue of the 8th inst., I find an

article based upon the following extract from the official report

of Colonel Nesmith:--

"'With sundry papers discovered in the mission building, was a

letter written by the priest, Pandozy, for Kamaiyahkan, head chief

of the Yankama tribe, addressed to the officer in command of the

troops, a copy of which is communicated with this report. There was

also found an account-book kept by this priest Pandozy, which is

now in the custody of Major Raines. This book contains daily

entries of Pandozy's transactions with the Indians, and clearly

demonstrates the indisputable fact that he has furnished the

Indians with large quantities of ammunition, and leaving it a

matter of doubt whether _gospel_ or _gunpowder_ was his principal

stock in trade. The priest had abandoned the mission, but it gave

unmistakable evidence of being cared for, and attended to, during

his absence, by some Yankama Indian parishioners.'

"You then proceed with great _sang froid_ to pride yourself upon

the correct 'position' which you took about a month previous,

relative to the above subject, and presuming upon the safe

'position' which you thus assumed, you say the priests have in a

measure prompted the Indians to the late outbreak! A bold

presumption, truly, when we find the puny evidence which you have

to back your 'position.' You further assert as a fact, 'that in

this, as in the Cayuse war, these priests have been detected in the

very act of conveying large quantities of powder in the direction

of the camp of the enemy.' This, sir, is a _fact_ which emanated

from your own disordered imagination, as during the Cayuse war no

priest was ever detected in any such a position, and you _know_ it;

but then, it must be recollected that a little buncombe capital

does not come amiss at this time, and if you can make it off of a

poor priest by publishing a tissue of groundless falsehoods against

him, why even that is 'grist to your mill.'"

"The foregoing is a portion of a communication which appeared in

the _Standard_ of December 13, over the signature of 'A Catholic

Citizen.' The writer of that article, in endeavoring to blind the

eyes of his readers, and his pretending to correct us in reference

to certain statements we had made concerning a few things connected

with the present Indian war, as also the Cayuse war of 1848, in

which the Catholic priests had by their intercourse with the

savages created more than a suspicion in the minds of the community

that they were culpably implicated in the crimson character of

these tragedies, wisely intrenched himself behind a fictitious

signature. He has thereby thrown the responsibility of some three

columns of pointless verbiage, flimsy sophistry, and Jesuitical

falsehoods, upon the shoulders of an irresponsible, intangible,

ghostly apparition, probably very recently dismissed from some

sepulcher at Rome, or from the carcass of an Irishman just swamped

in the bogs of Ireland.

"Seven or eight weeks have now elapsed since we called upon this

Roman Catholic citizen to emerge from his hiding-place among the

tombstones, and if he was really incarnate, with a body of flesh

and bones, such as the rest of us have, to throw off the mask, and

not only give us a full view of his corporeal developments, but

also to send us a copy of the book by which he cleared Pandozy, and

justified himself in issuing, from his sweat-house Vatican, his

bull of excommunication against us.

"We have thus far 'harked' in vain for a sound 'from the tombs.'

Like a true Jesuit, that loves darkness rather than light, he not

only still persists in keeping his name in the dark, and keeping

the 'book' we rightfully called for in the dark, but attempts to

enshroud the whole subject in total darkness, by making up his own

case from such parts of Pandozy's book as he chooses to have

exposed, and then thrusting the whole manuscript into a dark corner

of his dark-colored coat, and in order to darken what light we had

already shed in upon the dark nest of Jesuits, among the

dark-skinned and dark-hearted savages, he most solemnly denies as

false the most important of the dark charges we made against them,

and then, after 'darkening counsel' by a whole column of 'words

without knowledge,' by which, like the cuttle-fish, he darkens the

waters to elude the hand of his pursuer, and then, under cover of

all this darkness, he dodges into his dark little sweat-house, and

issues his terrible bull consigning us to a _very_ dark place,

where the multitudes of dark Jesuits that have gone before us have

doubtless made it 'as dark as a stack of black cats.' But what

makes the case still darker is, that while 'Catholic Citizen'

refuses to expose his personal outlines to our 'Argus eyes,' but

intimates that as he is a member of the Catholic Church, and of

the Democratic party, if we let off a broadside upon either of

these societies, and wound either of their carcasses, the one

bloated on the blood of saints, and the other on the juice of corn,

we shall of course inflict a material injury upon him, upon the

principle that 'when one of the members suffers, all the members

suffer with it;' we say, that in view of the fact that after

'Catholic Citizen' has claimed to be a member of both these

organizations, the Corvallis organ of the Sag Nichts and Jesuits

has whet the razor of authority, and lopped him off, as a heterodox

member, and consigned him to the fires of damnation, because

'Catholic Citizen' has intimated that the two bodies were not

identical, thus wisely enveloping him in a dark cloud, and

translating him far beyond the reach of our guns, makes the case

terribly dark indeed.

"'He (Catholic Citizen) displays the cloven foot of either direct

opposition to the Democratic organization, or sore-head-ism and

disaffection with that organization.----We can hardly conceive that

the author of that communication is a Catholic, or a friend of the

Catholic Church.'--_Statesman_ of Dec. 25.

"Thus it will be seen that the editor of the 'organ' takes him by

the top tuft, and applies the 'rapin hook' to his neck as a

heretic, and not a genuine Catholic, because of his 'sore-head-ism

and disaffection with the Democratic organization,' thus

unequivocally asserting that the church and the clique are

identical, or so closely identified that in placing himself in

opposition to the one, he proves that he is not a friend of the

other. Now whether the action of the organ has been from a

malicious desire to 'bury him out of our sight' as an 'unfruitful

branch' of the Catholic and Democratic trunk, or whether he

intended in _mercy_ to wrap him up in his Nessean shirt, and hide

him from our view by denying to him the only earthly position he

assumed, it matters not particularly to us. We shall probably teach

him, or his ghost, in due time, a lesson which we long since

whipped into the tough and slimy hide of the biped who controls the

_Statesman_, and which he and his ilk would do well to read in the

welts that checker his back, before they make their onslaughts upon

us, viz., whenever we state a thing to be true, you may rest

assured that it _is_ so, and by calling it in question, you may be

sure you will provoke the _proof_. We are not of that class of

lying editors who make false charges which they are not able to

sustain, and we have never yet vouched for the truth of a

statement, and been afterward compelled to back out of it. Whenever

we make a mistake, on account of bad information, we are sure to

make the correction as soon as we are apprised of it, whether the

statement affects the character or interest of friend or foe, or

neither.

"Your vile innuendo, that we wished to make a little buncombe

capital off a poor sniveling priest, is readily excused, knowing as

we do your impressions from associating with political comrades who

neither yield to nor expect justice or decency from their political

opponents; and presuming also that the moment you stepped your foot

upon American soil, with your little budget of Irish rags, some

demagogue put a loco-foco hook into your nose, and led you off to

the political pound to learn your catechism, so fast that the

remaining half of the nether extremity of your old swallow-fork

made a right angle with your stalwart frame. We know very well what

sort of lessons you have learned out of that catechism; how you

have been duped to believe that the principles of Jefferson and

other old sainted Democrats were still cherished by the designing

demagogues who have taken you in tow; how we who oppose this

office-hunting party are 'down upon Catholics and foreigners'

simply because they are such; and how you had only to put in the

'clane dimocratthic ticket' to insure yourself great and glorious

privileges. Under this sort of training, it is not surprising to us

that you not only expect us to persecute you to the full extent

that a priest is sworn to 'persecute' heretics, but that you are

constantly in fear that the '_Noo Nothins_' will soon be ladling

soup from a huge kettle that contains your quarters boiled up with

Irish potatoes.

"We were not led to make the remarks we did in reference to the

priests because they were _Papists_, but because we had reason to

believe they were traitors to our government, and were identified

with the savages in the present war. If Methodist, Presbyterian, or

_any other Protestant clergymen_ had rendered themselves equally

obnoxious, we should probably have given our opinion at the time,

that they deserved to be brought out of the Indian country, with

all their 'traps,' to undergo a trial before a jury for their

lives.

"But, sir, to one of your falsehoods:--

"'You further assert as a fact, "that in this, as in the Cayuse

war, these priests have been detected in the very act of conveying

large quantities of powder in the direction of the camp of the

enemy." This, sir, is a _fact_ which emanated from your own

distorted imagination, as during the Cayuse war no priest was ever

detected in any such a position, and you _know_ it.'

"Now, sir, we did not suppose that there was a man green enough in

all Oregon (excepting, perhaps, the _Statesman_) to call our

statement in question. We happen to be an old Oregonian ourself,

and profess to be pretty well posted in reference to many

occurrences which will make up the future history of this lovely

yet blood-stained land. The proof of our assertion we _supposed_

could be come at by our file of the _Spectator_. The fact was

still vivid in our memory. At the date of this transaction (August

21, 1848), there were three papers printed in the Territory: The

_Free Press_, an 8 by 12 sheet, edited by G. L. Curry, present

governor of Oregon, and the Oregon _Spectator_, a 22 by 32 sheet,

edited by A. E. Wait, Esq., both published at Oregon City; besides

a semi-monthly pamphlet, printed in the Tualatin Plains, and edited

by Rev. J. S. Griffin. Although all of these papers at the time

spoke of the transaction referred to, we believe none of them,

excepting the _Spectator_, contained the official correspondence

necessary to make out our case. We supposed, and so did many

others, that all the old files of the _Spectator_ were long since

destroyed, excepting the imperfect one in our office. When 'A

Catholic Citizen' called our statement in question, we, of course,

referred to our 'file' for proof, but to our astonishment this

particular paper was missing, although the immediate preceding and

succeeding numbers were all there, embracing the whole summer of

1848. The missing number was _accidentally_ (?) misplaced, of

course, and the _proof_ of that transaction supposed to be beyond

our reach. By the kindness of a gentleman we have been furnished

with the desired copy from his own file." (See official note and

letter as previously quoted.)

"Now, will 'A Catholic Citizen' contend that our statement, in

reference to the 'large quantities of powder,' is not fully covered

by '_seven or eight hundred pounds of powder, fifteen hundred

pounds of lead, and three boxes of guns_.'

"A man who can unblushingly utter such a falsehood as he has been

guilty of, to create a public sentiment in favor of these priests,

is below contempt, and we feel our task of exposing him to be truly

humiliating. We have branded this goat with an L----, which will

stick to his hide as long as Cain carried _his_ mark; and we now

turn him out to browse for a while with B., who wears about a dozen

of the same brands, under the pain of which we have sent him off

howling. 'A Catholic Citizen' may feed on '_ferrin_' till we get

time to clap the same brand to him again, when we shall tie him up

to the post and again scorch his wool."

In reference to the article, as quoted from the Oregon _Argus_, it is

not certainly known who "Catholic Citizen" is, but the impression is

that the production is from the pen of Hon. P. H. Burnett or Sir James

Douglas, and not impossible from Robert Newell, with such assistance as

he could obtain.

If from either of those gentlemen, he may have been correctly informed

as to the real owners of the munitions, but we can hardly believe Mr.

Douglas or Newell would lay themselves liable to the falsehood charged

upon them, as they were in the country, and must have known of the facts

in the case. Mr. Burnett was in California, and may have been misled by

his informant. Be that as it may, the munitions were found on their way

into the Indian country in charge of the priests, and the remarks of the

editor of the _Argus_, W. L. Adams, Esq., shows the true history of the

times, and the continued effort of the Jesuits and their neophytes to

continue the Indian wars, to prevent the Protestant missionary stations

from being reoccupied and the settlement of the country by the

Americans, as intimated by Father Hoikin, in his letter to his society

in Brussels.

Our provisional army did not capture a single murderer or prominent

Indian engaged in the massacre, though many of them were known to have

been frequently with the priests and at Fort Wallawalla. Neither the

priests, McBean, nor the indescribably sympathizing Sir James Douglas

made the least effort to bring the murderers to justice. A part of them

were given up by the tribe,--tried and hung at Oregon City under the

Territorial government of the United states, Judge Pratt presiding. In

the trial, the same influence was used to get the murderers acquitted

that had instigated and protected them in the commission of the crime.

The discovery of gold in California took place before our troops had all

returned; the universal excitement in relation to it caused the

desertion of a large portion of the Hudson's Bay Company's men, and

almost an abandonment of the fur trade in the country for the time.

They, however, still kept up the semblance of fur trade; and, at the

expiration of their parliamentary license in 1858, withdrew to British

Columbia and Vancouver Island to repeat upon their own people what they

have practiced so successfully and so long upon the Americans.

There is, connected with this foreign company, a sort of Jesuitical

suavity of manner and boasting propensity that naturally deceives all

who come within its influence.

All its titles and little performances of charity are sounded forth with

imperial pomposity. The man that does not acknowledge his obligations to

it for being permitted to remain in the country previous to the

expiration of its parliamentary license, is considered ungrateful by it,

and by such as are blind to its infamous practices.

CHAPTER LXIV.

Missions among the Western Indians.--The Coeur d'Alene

Mission.--Protestant and Catholic missions compared.--What the

American Protestant missionaries have done for the country and the

Indians.--Extent of their influence, progress, and

improvements.--Patriotism of Dr. Whitman.

Any person who has read the previous pages of this volume will not

charge us with being ignorant of missionary operations on our western

coast. Though we were but eight years connected in mechanical and

business relations with them, still we have never lost sight of their

labors, or their intellectual, moral, religious, political, or physical

operations, nor of their personal conduct, or their adaptation to the

work assigned them. We have spoken plainly our views, and impressions of

the character, conduct, and influence of all prominent men in the

country. Our main object has been to introduce the reader to the people

of Oregon at the time in which they were acting in a public capacity.

The private morals of the country have only been incidentally drawn out

by reference to a petition sent to Congress, signed by the Rev. David

Leslie, in 1840. In that document Mr. Leslie does himself and the

country an injustice, by asserting that "theft, murder, infanticide,

etc., are increasing among them to an alarming extent" (Senate Doc.,

26th Congress, 1st Session, No. 514). Those charges Mr. Leslie no doubt

sincerely thought to be true at that time, from the occurrence of the

two most serious crimes about the time he wrote. But such crimes were by

no means common.

It is often asked, _What good have the missionaries done to the

Indians?_ If this question applied alone to the Jesuit missionaries,

brought to the country by the Hudson's Bay Company, we would say

unhesitatingly, _None at all_. What few Indians there are now in the

country that have been baptized by them, and have learned their

religious catechisms, are to-day more hopelessly depraved, and are

really poorer and more degraded than they were at the time we visited

them twenty-two years since, looking carefully at their moral and

pecuniary condition then and now. In proof of which we give the

following article:--

"_Coeur d'Alene Mission._

"The old Mullan road from the Bitter Root or Missoula River to the

Coeur d'Alene Mission, shows to the traveler little evidence that

it was once explored, laid out, and built by a scientific engineer.

Decayed remnants of bridges are scattered all along the Coeur

d'Alene and St. Regis Borgia rivers; excavations have been filled up

by the _debris_ of fallen timber; huge bowlders that have rolled

down the mountain side, constantly crumbling masses of slate, and

huge chasms, worn or torn by the furious progress of the streams

swollen by the melting snows and spring rains, obstruct entirely the

passage of vehicles of all kinds, and render the passage of pack and

saddle horses almost impossible. In the distance of eighty miles,

you cross these two rivers one hundred and forty-six times, climb

the precipitous sides of numerous mountains, continually jumping

your horses over fallen timber, and filing to the right and left to

avoid the impassable barriers which the mountain tornadoes have

strewn in your way. The gorges, through which the road sometimes

winds to avoid the mountains of rocks that close in even to the edge

of the main stream, are narrow, and so completely shaded, that the

rays of the sun have never penetrated, and one everlasting cold

chill dampness prevails. Our party were halted for an hour in one of

those passes to allow the passage of a herd of two hundred Spanish

cattle, and, although when we emerged from the canon we found the

sun oppressively hot, I do not remember ever to have suffered more

from cold in any climate or in any altitude. The oppressiveness

seemed to spring from something besides the mere temperature. We

found but one living thing in those narrow canons, and that was the

most diminutive of the squirrel species. There was no song of birds

or whir-r-r of partridge or grouse. It had the silence of the cold,

damp grave.

"After arriving within six miles of the mission, the canon of the

Coeur d'Alene opens out to about four miles in width, and you come

suddenly to Mud Prairie,--a broad, open park, with here and there a

solitary pine, and the ground covered with a heavy growth of swamp

grass, which stock will only eat when nothing better can be

obtained. Two hours more, and the mission, with its stately church

(so it appears in the mountains), suddenly presents itself to view.

"Dilapidated fences are passed, rude Indian houses made of 'shakes,'

fields of wheat and vegetables overrun with weeds, and at last,

making the one hundred and forty-sixth crossing of the river, you

halt your hungry and jaded horses in front of the rudest piece of

architecture that ever supported a cross or echoed to the _Ave

Maria_ of the Catholic faith. Rude though it is, when we consider

the workmen by whom it was constructed and the tools employed, the

feeling of ridicule and smile of contempt will give way to

admiration of the energy and (though I think mistaken) zeal which

sustained the Jesuit fathers during what was to them, at that time,

a most herculean labor. The building is 46 by 60 feet, and 30 feet

posted, and was two years in process of construction. The workmen

were two or three Jesuit priests, assisted by a few Indians, and the

reverend fathers showed me a saw, an auger, an ax, and an old

jack-plane, their only tools. It is situated on a little elevation

from the main valley. On the left is the dwelling of the fathers,

and still to the left is the storehouse, hospital, workshop, and

building for the sick and crippled recipients of their benefactions.

Around the slope of the elevation are scattered Indian huts and

tepees, and at its base lies the resting-place of departed Indians

who had died in the faith and gone to the hunting-grounds of the

Great Spirit. In front of all, the Coeur d'Alene, seemingly

satisfied with the havoc which its furious progress had made, runs

slowly and sluggishly along. The interior of the church is a

curiosity. Here you see the marks of an unfortunate stroke from a

clumsy ax-man; there a big Indian had sawed a stick of timber half

off in the wrong place; in another spot, a little Indian had amused

himself boring holes with the auger, while the joints 'broke' like a

log-house before chinking. I was told that in its original

construction there was not a nail used; but lately some efforts have

been made to smooth down the rough exterior by the addition of

cornice and corner-boards.

"The priests are very jealous of their claims to the territory

around the mission, and regard the unlimited control of the Indians

as a right which they have acquired by their self sacrificing

labors, and as a duty on the part of the Indians in return for the

salvation of their souls and absolution from their sins. For my

part, from an acquaintance with twelve tribes of Indians, among whom

the gospel has been preached, and the forms, mysteries, and

ceremonies of the Catholic Church introduced, I have failed to see a

soul saved, or one single spark of Indian treachery, cruelty, or

barbarism extinguished. The lamented General Wright thrashed the

murdering propensities of the Coeur d'Alene Indians out of them.

The balance of their virtues--stealing, drinking, and supreme

laziness--they possess in as large a share as they did before the

heart of Saint Alene was sent among them. I would like to give a

favorable portrait of this mission and its occupants, if I could. I

would like to say that the reverend fathers were neat, cleanly,

intelligent, hospitable individuals, but there are too many who

travel that road, and it would be pronounced false. I would like to

say they were sowing the seed of civilization and cultivating it

successfully in the untutored mind of the poor red man, but truth

forbids. I would at least be glad that they urged upon the Indians

to obey the laws of this government and respect the property of its

citizens, but must leave that task to some one who has never bought

of them horse meat for beef, and traveled for days on foot, because

they would not, from pure deviltry, sell him one horse out of a band

of two or three hundred. I say not these things with any reference

to the Catholic Church or its belief, nor am I forgetful of what I

have read of the Jesuits of St. Bernard and their acts of humanity;

but for the filthy, worthless, superannuated relics of Italian

ignorance, who have posted themselves midway between the extremes of

Pacific and Atlantic civilization, acknowledging no law save that of

their church, I have not the slightest particle of respect, and

believe with an old packer, 'that it was a great pity General Wright

had not carried his threat into execution, and blown the den over

the range.'"[21]

[Footnote 21] From the Oregon Herald of May 5, 1866.

These Indians were among the most honest, peaceable, and hopeful of any

west of the Rocky Mountains. The mission here spoken of is the one

represented by Fathers De Smet and Hoikin as their most successful one

west of the mountains. We have reason to believe that Colonel Dow's

statements are correct, from remarks made by other travelers, as also

from Father Joset's own confession. On the 61st page of "Indian

Sketches," he says: "I have been here nearly fifteen years; I am not yet

master of the language, and am far from flattering myself with becoming

so. My catechist remarked to me, the other day, 'You pronounce like a

child learning to talk; when you speak of religion we understand you

well, but when you change the subject it is another thing,' That is all

I want, I have at last succeeded in translating the catechism; I think

it is _nearly_ correct. You can hardly imagine what it cost me to do it;

I have been constantly at it since my arrival here; I finished it last

winter; nevertheless it is short; it has but fourteen lessons; it is

based upon the first part of the Catechism of Lyons. This catechism is

printed, not on paper, but on the memory of the children."

According to Father Joset's own statement, it has taken him nearly

fifteen years to learn their language sufficiently well to teach the

children fourteen lessons in the catechism, about as much time as some

of our Protestant missionaries have consumed in translating the whole of

the New Testament, and a large part of the Old, into heathen languages,

besides establishing schools, where they teach the people to read the

pure word of God and practice its sacred principles, instead of

following the traditions of men.

Father Joset continues: "From the end of November to Palm Sunday, on

which day this ceremony (children's first communion) took place, they

had catechism at the church three times a day, and it was rare that one

missed the exercise; besides this, there was a repetition every day,

either before the chief or the catechist. I give catechism three hundred

times a year. I doubt whether there is a catechist in the world more

utterly deprived of the means of encouraging his pupils. Some prayer

beads would have been a great reward, but I could give them nothing but

a medal to each, as a memorial of their first communion."

This reverend father, in speaking of the Church of the Sacred Heart, as

it is called, says: "It is a magnificent monument to the faith of the

Coeur d'Alenes, who have given the lie to their name by its erection.

If it were finished, it would be a handsome church even in Europe. The

design is by Father Ravalli; it is ninety feet long by forty wide; it

has twenty-eight pillars, two and a half feet square by twenty-five feet

in height; all the rest is of timber, and in proportion."

Compare this with Colonel Dow's description of the same building. It

will be seen, by the quotations we have given, how these "_filthy,

worthless, superannuated relics of Italian ignorance_" employ themselves

and the Indians under their instruction. None but a bigot or a Jesuit

will pretend that such instructions tend to enlarge, to elevate, or

civilize the savage mind. We have only to look to countries grown old

under just such teachings, to see its legitimate results.

From the Roman Catholic works before us, on the Oregon missions,

embracing over eight hundred pages, one would conclude that over forty

different tribes who have been visited by these Jesuits, in the

territory of the United States, were all converted and Christian

Indians, ready to shout, "Glory to God in the highest," and peace all

over our Indian country. But Colonel Dow says he failed to see "one

single spark of Indian treachery, cruelty, or barbarism extinguished"

among the tribes he visited, who were taught by these priests.

De Smet, the prince and father of Jesuitism in the Indian country, as

early as December 30, 1854, five years before the Southern rebellion

commenced, communicated to his society in Brussels his approval and

desire to have all these Indians join the confederate United States, as

their last and only hope. This measure, he says, the Protestant

missionaries strongly opposed. He says, also, that Harkins, the Choctaw

chief, proposes the expulsion of the Protestant missionaries; we add,

for their strong allegiance to their government, and their opposition to

this Jesuitical confederate United States scheme (See his letter,

"Western Missions," page 206). Such missionaries, we are forced to

admit, have done no good to the Indians, and, we again repeat the

question, _What good have the missionaries done?_

The writer will answer, that before he left the Whitman station in 1842,

there were three hundred and twenty-two Indian families among the Cayuse

and Nez Perce tribes that had commenced to cultivate, and were beginning

to enjoy the fruits of their little farms. About one hundred of them

were talking about locating, and were looking for places and material

for building themselves more permanent houses. We have never doubted for

a moment that the Cayuse, Nez Perce, and Spokan tribes would, in

twenty-five years from the time the missions of the American Board were

located among them (if let alone by the Hudson's Bay Company and Roman

priests), have become a civilized, industrious, and happy Christian

people, ready to have entered as honorable and intelligent citizens of

our American Republic.

The unparalleled energy and success attending the efforts of the

missionaries among these two powerful migratory tribes excited the

jealousy, and aroused the extreme opposition of the Hudson's Bay

Company, and caused them to encourage the largest possible number of

Jesuits to come to the country and locate themselves immediately in the

vicinity of those missions, and use every possible influence to dissuade

the Indians from attending the missionary schools, cultivating their

little farms, or attending in the least to any instruction, except such

as was given by the priests when they came to the Hudson's Bay Company's

forts for trade, as they came at stated times to the fort, before the

American missionaries came to the country. The Jesuit missionary

teaching did not interfere with the roving and hunting life of the

Indians, while the plan of settling and civilizing them proposed, and in

a measure carried out, by the American missions, did directly interfere

with the company's fur trappers and hunters. This at first was not so

regarded, but a moment's reflection establishes the fact. Every Indian

that became a settler, or farmer, had no occasion to hunt for furs to

get his supplies.

The moral influence of those missions upon the Indians was good: the Nez

Perce and the Protestant part of the Cayuses and Spokans have, through

all the Indian wars, remained true and loyal to the American government,

while, with perhaps a single exception, those who have been under the

opposing religious teachings have been at war with our American people

all over our territory. The Methodist missionary influence upon the

natives was good, so far as they had an opportunity to exert any. At the

Dalles it was certainly good and lasting, notwithstanding the Jesuits

placed a station alongside of them. The Methodists were, from the

commencement of their mission, interfered with in every way possible,

in their efforts to improve the condition of the Indians, and induce

them to cultivate their lands and leave the hunting of fur animals. As

Rev. Mr. Beaver said of the Hudson's Bay Company, the life (and, we will

add, the present condition and future happiness) of the Indian race had

no influence upon that company when put in comparison with the few

beavers they might hunt and sell to them. Still the Methodist influence

was sufficient, up to the arrival of the French priests, and four years

after, to keep up a flourishing native school, notwithstanding the

French half-breed children were withdrawn from them, and placed under

the tuition of the priests on French Prairie. The result of that

Jesuitical teaching is embodied in the law disfranchising all

half-breeds, except American, from the privileges of American citizens,

for the course they took in the Indian wars against the American

settlements and government. The larger portion of them, and especially

those adhering to the company and the teachings of their priests, have

gone into British Columbia, carrying with them an implacable hatred of

our people and government. As to the good the American missionaries have

done to the Indians on this coast, we can point to-day, more than thirty

years from the commencement of their labors, to improvements, made and

kept up by the Indians, that were commenced under the direction of those

missionaries. We can point to Indian families who have strictly adhered

to the Protestant religious forms of worship taught them by the American

missionaries. We have the testimony of General Benjamin Alvord, of the

United States army, on this point. After saying (September 10, 1854)

that the Nez Perces never shared in the hostile feelings of the Cayuses,

declined to join in the war of 1847 against the whites, and have since

steadily and repeatedly refused to do so, he proceeds as follows: "In

the spring of 1853 a white man, who had passed the previous winter in

the country of the Nez Perces, came to the military post at the Dalles,

and, on being questioned as to the manners and customs of the tribe, he

said that he wintered with a band of several hundred in number, and that

the whole party assembled every morning and evening for prayer, the

exercises being conducted by one of themselves, and in their own

language. He stated, that on Sunday they assembled for exhortation and

worship. The writer of this communication made repeated inquiries, and

these accounts have been confirmed by the statements of others who have

resided among them. Thus, six years after the _forced_ abandonment of

the mission, its benign effects are witnessed among that interesting

people."

In addition to the above, we would add our own observations made in 1861

among those Indians. That year they were more sorely tried than ever

before. Gold had just been discovered in their country, and thousands of

unarmed miners were passing and repassing all through it. The

disaffected Cayuses were among them, urging them to join and rescue

their country from the Bostons. We met some twenty-five of the chiefs

and principal men, and conversed with them in the most friendly and

familiar manner about their country and their situation; the old scenes

of the mission; the killing of Dr. Whitman and those at his station; all

the reasons assigned; the causes and the result of the Doctor's death,

and its effect on the Cayuses. Having no disposition to deceive them, we

inquired distinctly if there was gold in their country. They told us

frankly there was, and that they had seen it, as the Americans had taken

it away. They then asked what they had better do;--if it was not best

for them to join the Cayuses, and drive the Americans from their

country. They said the agent had told them to keep quiet, and in a few

years the whites would get out the gold and leave the country, and their

buildings and improvements would be their own. We replied: There are two

things you can do. These miners will come to your country; they are

bound to have the gold. Now, you can join the Cayuses, and go to killing

them off if you choose, but you will soon find yourselves in the

condition of the Cayuses,--roving about, without a home or country, and

the more miners you kill, the sooner you will be cut off, and your

country occupied by strangers. Our advice is, that you remain quiet and

improve your farms; as fast as you can, educate your children; become

like the Americans, and live in peace with all who come to settle, or

dig gold in your country. This course will insure you protection from

the American people.

We have reason to believe this advice was followed in a measure, at

least, as no whites have been killed by them, and they remain peaceable

and friendly. In this same meeting they wished to know if Mr. Spalding

could come back as their teacher. We inquired particularly how many of

them wished him to come back, and found that a majority of the tribe

were in favor of his return. He went back as their teacher; but we have

since learned that such influences were brought to bear upon him, as

made him feel that he was compelled to leave the tribe. The mission

right of the property, as we are fully assured, has since fallen into

Jesuit hands, for the paltry sum of $500 in greenbacks. Who is

responsible for the giving up of that mission, we are unable to say. No

money consideration should ever have induced the American Board of

Missions to relinquish their legitimate claim.

We have not recently been permitted to visit the Indians at Rev. Messrs.

Walker and Eells' station; but we have the testimony of others in regard

to the good effect of the teachings of their missionaries upon them.

Major P. Lugenbeel, who was in command of New Fort Colville for years,

and also acted as Indian agent, said to Mr. Eells in 1861, "Those

Indians of yours are the best I ever saw. I wish you would go back and

resume missionary labor among them."

Mr. Eells says, in the _Missionary Herald_, December, 1866:--

"Some fifteen or twenty of these Indians spent a portion of last

winter in Wallawalla. On the Sabbath a larger proportion of them

than of the citizens of the place could be collected in a house of

worship. I met them as my class in connection with the Sabbath

school in the Congregational Church. As we were allowed our share of

the time allotted to singing, we sang, in their tongue, the words

which I arranged for them more than twenty-five years ago. So far as

I have learned, their conduct in transactions with whites has been

less objectionable than that of the superior race."

We have frequently met individual Indians from about all those early

stations, and found a most cordial greeting from them, and always a

regret that they have lost their Boston teachers.

We have always regretted the course pursued by the American Board, in

allowing those missions to be given up, as unwise and injudicious. If

the men who first commenced them had not the courage to return and

continue their labors, others should have been sent to take their

places.

The Whitman Institute has come up from the ashes of that noble and

devoted martyred missionary, which to the writer looks like

"white-washing the sepulchers of the prophets" whose death we have

seemed to approve, by our silence (not to say cowardice) in not

ferreting out and exposing the authors of that crime.

Mr. Spalding has not been sustained in his recent efforts among the Nez

Perces, but feels that he has been driven away from among his Indian

brethren and disciples by Jesuit influence.

The cowardly, timid, hesitating, the half-God and half-mammon Christian

may say, What will you have us do? We answer, Maintain the natural

rights of men and Christians, and leave consequences to a higher power.

We have thus briefly summed up the labors of the Protestant and Roman

missions, and shown the influence of each upon the Indians on the

western portion of our American continent. In further proof that this

Roman Jesuit influence tends only to the destruction of the Indian race,

I might refer to California, Mexico, and other countries where they have

had the exclusive religious teaching of the people; the result is the

same.

We know from long experience that it has always been the policy of the

Hudson's Bay Company to place an opposing post or trader by the side of

an opponent in the fur trade. The same policy was adopted, and carried

out by the Jesuits in regard to the Protestant missions in American

territory. We will be told that the Hudson's Bay Company people were

principally of the English Episcopal Church. This is true, and they, to

satisfy the Christian sentiment of the English people, brought an

Episcopal minister to Vancouver, and allowed a few in the vicinity of

Moose Factory, when they wished to renew their fur license, but

dismissed them as soon as possible after their object was accomplished,

for reasons already stated, and introduced these Jesuit missionaries for

no other purpose than to facilitate their trade among the Indians, and

destroy the American influence in the country. But, thank God and the

energy of a free people, the country, with all its untold wealth and

prospective grandeur, is ours, and to-day, as we hear the lightning tap

of intelligence, from the Old World to Oregon, we have not one solitary

regret that thirty of the best and most active years of our life have

been spent, in contending publicly and privately, by day and by night,

in season and out of season, against that influence. We know what it is

to feel its power, as an assistant missionary, as a settler, as a

representative and as an officer of the provisional, Territorial, and

State governments. We have no complaint of personal unkindness to us, or

ours; but we feel that the withering condemnation of every true

American, and Englishman too, should rest upon the Hudson's Bay Company

while that name is claimed by any association of men, for the

unrighteous course they have been, and still are, pursuing.

It is obvious that to the American missionaries our nation owes an

honorable record, and the names of Dr. Whitman, Rev. J. Lee, Mr. C.

Shepard, Mr. C. Rogers, Rev. Harvey Clark, Mr. A. Beers, and Dr. Wilson,

and Mrs. Whitman, Mrs. Spalding, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Leslie, Mrs. Beers, and

Mrs. Smith, among the dead, and many others still living, should find a

prominent place in the catalogue of noble men and women who not only

volunteered to civilize and Christianize the Indians, but did actually

save this western golden coast, to honor and enrich the great Republic

in the time of her greatest peril.

It would be ungenerous to confine the answer to our question alone to

the good that the early American missionaries did to the Indians of our

western coast. The whole country, now within the jurisdiction of the

United States, is more indebted to them than most men are willing to

admit.

The country, as all are aware, was first occupied by Astor's Company in

1811, followed by the Northwest Company in 1813, and by the Hudson's Bay

Company in 1821. For twenty-three years the British Hudson's Bay

Company was scarcely disturbed by an American. No effort was made by it

to comply with the conditions of its charter, in regard to the civil and

religious instruction of the Indians, supposing that charter to have

been valid.

In 1832, the Indians themselves asked for the American missionary. They

had previously asked the Hudson's Bay Company for religious teachers,

but they only allowed a few Indian boys to go to Red River, there to

receive a very limited English education, and return to be employed by

the company as interpreters or traders. This did not satisfy the Indian

longing for light and knowledge. The tribes in middle Oregon resorted to

the American rendezvous, and, although there was little or no moral

influence there, they discovered a more liberal and generous spirit

among the Americans than among the English or French. This led to

further inquiry as to the cause, and by some means they concluded that

it must arise from their religious notions or worship. They asked to see

the Americans' sacred book, about which they had heard, as it was said

that book told about the Great Spirit above. For a time they received

packs of cards, but were not satisfied,--there must be something more.

They sent some of their number to St. Louis, and as has been before

stated, Mr. Catlin learned their object, and gave the information that

started the missions.

While the American missionaries were going to the country, the American

fur traders were being driven from it. Rev. Jason Lee and associate were

allowed to locate in the Wallamet Valley. He labored, and measurably

filled, gratuitously, the chartered stipulations of the company.

As there were no women in this first missionary party, no fears were

excited as to the supremacy of the soil, or the future occupation of the

country by the company's retired servants.

In 1836, Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding and their wives arrived, with

cattle and other material for a distinct and independent mission. They

at once commenced their labors, and sent for assistance by the overland

route. Rev. Mr. Lee received a re-enforcement by sea, with which came a

wife for himself and Mr. Shepard. Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding's

associates arrived overland; more cattle were brought across the

mountains, and, through the exertions and means of Mr. Lee and his

associates, cattle were brought through from California.

Schools and farms were opened; mills, houses, and churches built; and

more and better improvements made by the missionaries, than were then

owned by the company, with the single exception of a farm at Vancouver.

The American missionaries did not stop with the mills and farms, nor

with cattle and swine. Sheep and a printing-press were brought from the

Sandwich Islands, and soon the Indian beholds the clean white paper made

into a book, and his own thoughts and words placed before him, and he is

taught to read for himself. In the Wallamet Valley an extensive building

for an Indian boarding-school was erected, and one for whites and

half-breed children, almost entirely by the American missionaries. A

second school was started by the Rev. Harvey Clark and his friends at

Forest Grove, which is now Pacific University. There were also private

schools and churches all through the settlements, mostly under the

Methodist influence; while the Hudson's Bay Company, with their priests,

established three schools,--one for boys at Vancouver, one for girls at

Oregon City, and one at French Prairie. These last institutions were

particularly an opposition to the American schools.

The improvements spoken of above were accomplished within twelve years

from the first arrival of the American missionaries. This laid the

foundation for education and civilization, upon which the country has

been steadily advancing. While the Legislative Assemblies refused to

take action on the subject of education, the missionary influence was

active, and strongly in favor of sectarian schools.

In the Legislature of 1845, an ineffectual effort was made to establish

a common-school system for the country. In 1846, Mr. T. Vault, from the

committee on education, made a report recommending a memorial to

Congress on the subject of education. This is all that was done that

year. In 1847-8, the Cayuse war, the liquor question, and the gold mines

excitement, seem to have absorbed the whole attention of the

Legislature; hence the subject of education was left to the direction

and influence of the religious sects and individual effort, until the

Territorial organization in 1849, in which we find a very imperfect

school law; and the one at the present day, 1870, is no honor to our

State. This, however, is wholly due to the influence of the various

sects, each seeking to build up its own peculiar sectarian schools, thus

dividing the whole educational interests of the country to promote

sectarian education.

It is to be hoped that our next Legislature will adopt a system that

will at once lay aside all sects, and place the education of our youth

upon a national, instead of a sectarian basis, honorable alike to the

State and nation. With all due credit and honor to all previous

missionary and sectarian efforts, we say, give us a national standard of

education that shall qualify our youth to become the honored sovereigns

of a free, intelligent, industrious, virtuous, and forever united

nation.

We have occupied much more space than we would, in giving quotations,

knowing, as we do, the ignorance there is in relation to our early

history, and the efforts of the British Hudson's Bay Company and Roman

Church to secure the exclusive control of Oregon. We will here give an

article which we find in the _Missionary Herald_. The writer says:--

"While it is apparent from the letters of Dr. Whitman at the

missionary house, that, in visiting the Eastern States in 1842-3, he

had certain missionary objects in view, it is no less clear that he

would not have come at that time, and probably he would not have

come at all [which we know to be the case], had it not been for his

desire to save the disputed territory to the United States. It was

not simply an American question, however,--it was at the same time a

Protestant question. He was fully alive to the efforts which the

Roman Catholics were making to gain the mastery on the Pacific

coast, and _he was firmly persuaded that they were working in the

interest of the Hudson's Bay Company_, with a view to this very end.

The danger from this quarter had made a profound impression upon his

mind. Under date of April 1, 1847, he said: 'In the autumn of

1842-3, I pointed out to our mission the arrangements of the Papists

to settle in our vicinity, and that it only required that those

arrangements should be completed to close our operations.'"

To the statement of Dr. Whitman as here quoted from his letter to the

Board, we can bear positive testimony. He did point out to his

associates all the dangers to which they were exposed.

"Dr. Whitman evidently regarded his visit to Washington, and his

success in conducting the immigrants of 1843 [eight hundred and

seventy-five souls] across the Rocky and Blue mountains, as settling

the destiny of Oregon. In the letter just referred to, he said, 'It

may be easily seen what would have become of American interests in

this country, had the immigration of 1843 been as disastrous as were

the immigrations of 1845 and 1846.' [In both those years the route

which he had selected was abandoned for another.] In confirmation of

this opinion, we find a writer in the _Colonial Magazine_ using this

language:--

"'By a strange and unpardonable oversight of the local officers,

missionaries from the United States _were allowed_ to take religious

charge of the population; and these artful men lost no time in

introducing such a number of their countrymen as reduced the

influence of the British settlers to complete insignificance.'"

The above quotation from the _Colonial Magazine_ is but a repetition of

evidence already given from other English testimony, relative to their

determination to hold the country. We also have the expectation of

Chief-Factor A. McDonald, as expressed in 1842 to Rev. C. Eells: "He

also gave it as his opinion that if England should obtain the desired

portion of Oregon, it would be made over to the Hudson's Bay Company."

He thought that fifty years from that time, the Hudson's Bay Company's

descendants would be the only occupants of the country. Dr. Whitman, in

expressing an opinion upon the same subject, thought that fifty years

from that time they would not be found.

In the closing remarks of the article from which we have quoted the

above, there is a strange mixture of truth and ignorance. The writer

says: "It is not too much to say, perhaps, that Dr. and Mrs. Whitman

lost their lives in consequence of the success of the endeavors already

described. The immigrants of 1847 carried diseases into the Indian

country, which proved very fatal to the aborigines. Some became

suspicious of him; some were exasperated; and a few affirmed that he was

poisoning them with his medicines, to get them out of the way. It is

believed by many, moreover, that the Roman Catholics were in a measure

responsible as directly or indirectly, for the catastrophe of Wailatpu.

But it is inexpedient to discuss this question at the present time."

It is evident from this last quotation, that Sir James Douglas's letter

for the information of the Board of Missions produced its desired

effect; and it is only from the recent statements respecting that

transaction, that the Board have allowed the subject to come before

them; they have asked and received from the most cautious missionary

they have ever sent to the country, a statement of the facts in the

case. He has complied with their request, and the result is a repetition

of the _slander_ of the murdered dead. We are unwilling to believe that

the Rev. Mr. Treat, D.D., in this closing paragraph, intended to give

the impression that he believed the statement; yet we can not understand

his object in reporting the statement made to blast the character of a

good man, and to shield his murderers from the punishment due to their

crime; leaving the impression upon the mind, that it was the _Indian

superstitions_ alone that were the cause of the massacre. Those who have

read the foregoing pages will not be deceived as to those causes. Mr.

Treat should have given us the benefit of his authority for that

statement, as we are assured by the Indians themselves that there is not

one of them that ever believed those reports till they were affirmed by

the priests, and even then they doubted. We have been several times

among the Indians of that tribe; and were present at the first

consultation held with them by Indian Agent R. R. Thompson in 1853, and

took particular pains to inquire as to their belief in that matter. I

could not find one, even among the Roman Catholic Indians, that would

say he believed that Dr. Whitman did as he is represented by the

priests and the company to have done. The Indians invariably told me

that the priests, Finlay, Stanfield, Joe Lewis, or Mr. McBean said so,

but they believed Dr. Whitman was their friend, and their hearts had

wept and cried because they had consented to his being killed.

It was to develop the facts and influences operating in our early

history that we commenced to write. It does not matter to us whence a

statement comes or by whom it is made, if it does not correspond with

the facts in the case, we intend to give what we conceive and firmly

believe to be the truth; letting such as are ignorant of the facts, or

have been deceived by commercial, religious, or sectarian statements,

judge as to the correctness or truth of our conclusions.

A great crime has been committed in our land;--a poor, ignorant, and

harmless and comparatively innocent people, have been charged with

committing it through "_superstitious prejudices_," which, if the very

men who make the charge are to be believed, fixes the crimes upon their

own heads, for they tell us that they were unharmed amid the scenes of

blood and murder, while gathering up the remains of the first missionary

victims and consigning them to a common grave. Their messengers pass and

repass all through the country, and mingle freely, and "_rejoice_" that

the ignorant murderers will come to them for advice, which is cheerfully

given, and a pledge made to assist them to avoid its consequences; while

the commercial party in this great crime is handing over to the

murderers munitions for defense, and to continue the slaughter of

American settlers, the Jesuitical party is confirming the doubtful mind

of the Indians in the justness of the crime they have committed. Such

were the parties seeking to control our destiny from 1834 to 1849, and

such as we have quoted are the sentiments of men high in giving

direction to truth and righteousness in a great nation in 1866-7.

We feel, and admit, that our task has been most difficult and

arduous,--to seek out and bring to light the truth in relation to events

so momentous, and consequences so important to the interests of this

western part of our continent. It would be far more gratifying to us to

dwell upon the pleasing and happy influences and incidents that float

upon the surface of society; but these are commonplace and the natural

growth of circumstances, such as the most careless could scarcely fail

to observe.

Oregon was ours by right of discovery, exploration, and cession; as well

as settlement by Astor in 1811-12. A foreign monopoly, having knowledge

of the American Fur Company's weakness and danger, paid a nominal price

for its goods and possessions, and has held and robbed the country, as

by its own statements, of twenty million pounds sterling, in profits. As

we have before stated, that company dared not use the same instruments

at first, to drive out or destroy the missionaries, that it had used

against fur traders and hunters. The Indians regarded the American

missionaries as teachers sent from God, and received them, and protected

them, till forced by the teachings and influence of their masters to

attempt to cut off the American settlement.

The English people, as a whole, charge the American missionaries, _and

justly_, with being the means of their losing Oregon. They also charge

the Hudson's Bay Company, _wrongfully_, as favoring the American

settlement of the country. Dr. John McLaughlin, all honor to his name

and memory, told his superiors in London the truth, when he said to

them, "Gentlemen, as a man of common humanity, I could not do otherwise

than to give those naked and starving people to wear and to eat of our

stores. They were not our enemies. I did what I thought was right, and

must leave consequences to God and the government, and if you insist

upon my compliance with your rules in this particular, _I will serve you

no longer_."

Contrast this noble sentiment of Dr. McLaughlin, though a Canadian-born

subject and supporter of the Roman Catholic faith in the country, with

that of his successor, Sir James Douglas, who refused supplies to punish

the murderers and protect the American settlements, he having been an

officer under the provisional government, and taken an oath to protect

and defend it.

Did it conflict with his duties as a British subject? The reason

assigned by him for his refusal was, "_the stringent rules laid down for

his government by the home company_," which the noble old Canadian said

he would resign his position sooner than obey.

It is not difficult to see that Oregon, during the existence of the

provisional government, was a country possessing peculiarly interesting

relations to the two nations who were claiming its allegiance and

sovereignty. Had the Hudson's Bay Company been true to its own country,

and encouraged the settlement of loyal British subjects in it, there is

no question but, with the facilities and capital at its command, it

could have secured the country before an American settlement could have

acquired any strength in it. The same was the case with California. One

or two ships a year from 1835 to 1840, or even 1846, leaving out the

Roman and Jesuit missionaries, could have brought substantial English

families with their English chaplains, and formed their colonies and

absorbed the American missionary settlements in it, and no one would

have questioned their right, or attempted to defeat them; but the

L7,000 or more of clear profits in the fur trade, and native

associations, were too strong. The country becomes valuable in its

estimation, as others have improved and developed its wealth. The

natives with the furs of the country were the only source of wealth to

it, and especially to the home company in London. If the least possible

credit is due to it from any source, it is for its stupidity and

ignorance as to the real value of the country, of which no one can give

a true history without developing the avaricious character and degrading

influences and proceedings of that company; for it had, as we remarked

at the commencement of our history, and as every one knows, the absolute

control of it up to the organization of the provisional government in

1843. Those influences were active and in full operation up to 1842,

when it was discovered, by Dr. Whitman and a few others, that the whole

country was about to pass into the hands of the English, as was asserted

by the over-zealous priest at Wallawalla: "_The country is ours! America

is too late! They may now whistle._" An American heard, and to hear with

him was to act. "_If the Board dismisses me, I will do what I can to

save Oregon to my country_," was his remark to us, as he gave his hand

and mounted his horse, to see what could be done at Washington. The

result of that trip was the delay of the boundary question and an

immigration and settlement, that no Hudson's Bay and Jesuit

exterminating combinations have been able to overcome or drive from the

country.

CHAPTER LXV.

Description of the face of the country.--Agricultural and mining

productions.--Timber.--The Wallamet.--Columbia.--Dalles.--Upper

Columbia.--Mountains.--Rivers.--Mineral wealth.--Climate.--The

Northern Pacific Railroad.--Conclusion.

Thus far I have confined myself to the history of the Hudson's Bay

Company, the early settlement of the country, its public men, the

provisional government, adverse influence, and the American and Jesuit

missions. We will now proceed to describe its geographical and physical

position and value.

Previous to the treaty of 1846, all that portion of country lying south

of the Russian possessions, west of the Rocky Mountains, and north of

California, was called Oregon. By that treaty the 49th parallel was

constituted the boundary line between the United States and the British

possessions.

In the act of Congress passed August 14, 1848, the boundaries were thus

defined: "All that part of the territory of the United States which lies

west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, north of the 42d degree of

north latitude, known as the Territory of Oregon, shall be organized

into, and constitute a temporary government, by the name of The

Territory of Oregon." Unfortunately, though our national Congress

contained many noble, intelligent, and talented men, none of them knew

any thing about the country they were defining as Oregon Territory.

Thomas H. Benton, about this time, made his famous Oregon speech. In it

he declared that all north of the 49th parallel of latitude was only fit

for the poorest and most meager animal existence; that it was the

"derelict of all nations," not fit for the subsistence of civilized man.

This impression of Mr. Benton was received from high British--and no

doubt he thought the most correct and reliable--authority. In fact, in

the mind of this, and many other of our statesmen, the entire territory

was of but little value. It is scarcely necessary to say whence this

impression arose, and for what purpose it was so persistently kept

before the minds of our most eminent statesmen. The immense fur trade of

the country, carried on at a nominal expense, was too profitable to

allow the truth to be told, or an experiment to be made, to show the

value of the soil, or the amount or variety of its productions. The

soil, like the furs and the natives, must be misrepresented, neglected,

and slandered, that it may yield its silent income to avarice and

idleness.

The American missionary arrives in the country, and is assured by the

Hudson's Bay Company that but a very small portion of the country is

susceptible of cultivation; that no extensive settlements can ever be

formed in it. These statements are made by men who have spent their

lives in the country, and say they have tested the qualities of the soil

faithfully, and found it to be unproductive. The missionaries partially

believe these statements, and communicate to their friends in the east

their doubts as to the extent and richness of the arable land in the

country. In the mean time they must provide for their own subsistence.

The Missionary Boards that sent them out are not able to pay the prices

demanded for a continual supply of such food as can be raised in the

country. This they knew and were prepared for it, and at once commenced

to experiment upon the soil for themselves. Their first effort

astonishes and delights them. Instead of a hard, barren, unproductive

soil, as they had been told, it proves to be a light rich clay loam all

through the Wallamet Valley, and in the interior, a dark, mellow,

inexhaustible alkali soil, of the richest kind, and, when properly

cultivated, very productive.

The missionary experiments are continued and extended. They soon begin

to send glowing accounts to their friends of the richness of the valleys

of Oregon--eight hundred bushels of potatoes, or from thirty to sixty

bushels of wheat, to the acre. The American trappers and hunters gather

into the Wallamet Valley, around the Methodist Mission. The

Canadian-French, British subjects, who have become worn out and

unprofitable to the company, are permitted to locate in the same valley,

but, with the clumsy and imperfect farming implements furnished them,

and their ignorance of farming, they were not able to accomplish much,

and are still referred to, as proof of the worthlessness of the country.

The American settler comes in, and proves the truth of the missionaries'

large farming stories, and finds that he can do, with two yoke of oxen,

what it required six to do in the Mississippi Valley--his labor

producing double pay. He is more than satisfied--he is delighted--with

the soil, the climate, and country, and reports his success to his

friends.

By this time a few peaches and apples have been produced outside the

inclosures and garden of Fort Vancouver, which convinces the American

settler that fruit can be produced in Oregon; and soon we find every

known variety to be profitably cultivated.

_Timber._--The fir, spruce, and hemlock are superabundant, all along the

coast range, from California to Puget Sound. The fir, pine, oak, ash,

and maple are abundant in the valleys of the Wallamet and Cowlitz, and

on the western slope of the Cascade range of mountains; there is also an

abundance of pine, fir, oak, and maple on the eastern slope.

The Wallamet Valley is from forty to sixty miles wide, and one hundred

and eighty long. It has less timber land than fine level prairie;

through which winds with its tributaries the beautiful Wallamet, skirted

all along its banks and level bottoms with cotton-wood, ash, alder, oak,

fir, yellow pine, yew, and soft maple, with a small amount of cedar.

This river has its source in the Umpqua Mountains; and its tributaries

in the Coast and Cascade ranges,--the main river running north, or west

of north, till it joins the majestic Columbia. Its meandering streams,

and valleys composed mainly of prairie interspersed with groves of oak,

pine, fir, and cotton-wood, make up a scenery which for beauty and

loveliness can not be surpassed. The Cascade range on the east is

dotted, at intervals of from a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles

apart, with towering, snow-capped mountains from 15,000 to 18,600 feet

high, and is cut at right angles, midway between the California

Mountains on the south, and Mount Baker on the north, by the great river

of Oregon, the noble Columbia, which forces its resistless current over

its rocky bed, till it finds its way to the ocean.

Ascending this river from the ocean, for sixty miles, to the mouth of

the Cowlitz, we find it lined on either bank with lofty and dense

forests of spruce, hemlock, cedar, and fir, with scarcely a sign of

prairie; from, this up, the timber is interspersed with prairie, till we

enter the Cascade Mountains, one hundred and twenty-five miles from the

ocean, and ten below the Cascade portage, which is five miles long,--now

made by railroad; thence to the Dalles is thirty-eight miles, making

fifty miles of the roughest and grandest river and mountain scenery on

our continent.

Old ocean in its mightiest heavings is but a placid lake, when compared

with this fifty-five miles of mountain roughness, grandeur, and

sublimity, from various points of which may be seen Mounts Baker,

Rainier, St. Helens, Adams, Hood, and Jefferson, with others of less

note, all raising their lofty heads above the regions of perpetual snow.

Prominent among them stands Mount Hood, about thirty miles south of the

Columbia, towering to the height of 18,600 feet, with his everlasting

white cap on, and overlooking the lovely valleys of the Wallamet to the

south and west; the Columbia and Cowlitz to the west and north; and the

great upper basin of the Columbia to the northeast, east, and southeast.

From the Dalles we ascend this mighty river fourteen miles by rail,

where the water has worn its crooked course amid solid basaltic rocks

to unknown depths, not exceeding a hundred and fifty feet in width,

causing the river, in discharging its annual floods, to rise at this

point over eighty feet in perpendicular height.

At the end of the railroad the steamboat receives the traveler, when, as

he ascends the river, the land on either side diminishes in height, till

he reaches Castle Rock; seventy-one miles above the Dalles. This is a

lone pile of basaltic rocks having the appearance of an old castle in

the midst of a great plain to the east, south, and west of it.

A large portion of this plain, lying along the river, is of course

gravel and sand, dry, and comparatively barren; yet producing the

artemisia, sage, and a luxurious growth of wild mustard in the early

spring; with but little grass, and abundance of the low sunflower.

The lands back from the river are high rolling prairie, covered with

rich bunch grass, having a light soil composed of pulverized basaltic

sandstone.

This soil, to the eye of the careless observer, though it is thickly set

with the bunch grass, generally appears barren and worthless; yet, with

irrigation, or with winter grains, or grasses adapted to the soil, it

can not be exhausted.

Twenty-five miles above Castle Rock stands the thriving little town of

Umatilla, at the mouth of the river of the same name, and nine miles

above is Windmill Rock. In ascending the river fifteen miles from this

place, the land on either side rises to some fifteen hundred feet above

the level of the river which occupies the entire bottom from rocks to

rocks on either side; when the land suddenly drops from this high plain

which extends from the Blue Mountains on the east to the Cascade range

on the west, forming, as it were, a great inland dam across the Columbia

River, fifteen hundred feet high at the place where the river has broken

through the dam. As you pass out of this gap, in looking to the north

and east, the eye rests upon another vast, high, rolling plain, in the

southeastern part of which lies the beautiful valley of the Wallawalla.

At the upper or eastern end was situated the Whitman or Cayuse Mission.

Some six miles above is the flourishing town of Wallawalla. The most of

this vast, high, rolling plain, and especially the valleys, have more or

less of alkali soil; the high plains are similar to those we have just

passed,--destitute of all kinds of timber, except at the foot of the

mountains, and small patches of willow and cotton-wood, in some little

nook or corner, near some spring or stream.

Imagine Wallawalla a little east of the center of a great plain one

hundred miles wide, east and west, one hundred and eighty long, north

and south, situated just inside of this great mountain dam we have

described; with the majestic Cascade range of mountains on the west, the

Blue Mountains on the east, and this vast open plain covered with bunch

grass, and no tree in sight, except upon the mountains; you can then

form some idea of the middle Columbia plains. Ascending to the north one

hundred miles, over the same high rolling plains, you begin to find the

yellow pine and larch; not in dense forests, but scattering trees, the

ground beneath being covered with a species of coarse, wild grass. These

woods form a delightful change to the traveler after riding for days

beneath the scorching rays of a summer sun. As you near the forty-ninth

parallel, the timber increases in size, quantity, and quality. The soil

is light, and, when the frosts of winter give place to the sleet and

rain of early spring, forms a soft, deep mud, till the ground becomes

settled, which is generally about the first of May; then all this vast

country is in full bloom, with its myriads of beautiful wild flowers.

The northern portion of Oregon, now Washington Territory, is beautifully

interspersed with timber and prairie, in good proportions, and has a

rich clay soil.

The whole country abounds in trap-rock and granite, singularly mingled

with basalt. Near the mouth of Spokan River is found a splendid variety

of marble; some sections of it are of a pure white, while others are

beautifully clouded with blue, brown, and green. The face of the country

is not so uneven as that further south.

Some sixty miles south of the forty-ninth parallel, we come to the mouth

of the Okanagon River, which is the outlet of a chain of lakes in

British Columbia, from which it takes its name; it has an extensive and

rich valley for settlement.

At Colville, in the vicinity of the Kettle Falls, on the Columbia, are a

United States military post, the Hudson's Bay Company's post, and a

considerable settlement. Some fifteen miles from the mouth of the

Spokan, and sixty from Kettle Falls, was located the Cimakain--or Rev.

Messrs. Walker and Eells'--Mission. About sixty miles in a southeasterly

direction is the Coeur d'Alene Italian Jesuit Mission.

Turning to the north, east, and southeast, we enter the gold and silver

mountains of the Pacific Slope; this range is cut through by the Snake

River, or south branch of the Columbia. Millions of dollars' worth of

treasure is taken out of the mines within these desolate and

barren-looking regions, and untold millions still await the miner's

toil. The reader will remember that we are now traveling east. This

range is, on the north of Snake River, called Salmon River Mountains,

and on the south, the Blue Mountains; thence, on to the southern

portions of Oregon, it joins the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, bends

to the west, and, near the forty-second parallel, runs into those vast

promontories that jut into the Pacific Ocean.

Passing through this range of Salmon River and Blue Mountains, which are

not as high as the Cascade range, we descend into the great basin of the

Rocky Mountains, which is intersected by high, broken ranges running

east and west for about three hundred miles, to what is usually called

the top of the Rocky Mountains, and the eastern boundary of this vast

basin. The principal rivers which flow into and through this immense

plain, are the Boise, Snake, Portneuf, Owyhee, and their tributaries. On

the north is Clarke's or Flathead River, which runs northwest into the

Columbia, near the northern boundary of the United States.

In all the northern portion of this great inland mountain plain there is

an extensive placer and quartz mining country, besides numerous rich

farming valleys, with an abundance of timber for all practical uses;

most of the rough, rocky ranges of mountains being covered about

half-way up their sides with timber, till you reach the open prairies

along the main valley.

To the south, and along Snake River, are the high barren sage plains,

extending from the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Blue Mountains on

the west.

There are large tracts of arable land in the region just described,

though to the weary traveler coming from the green plains of Kansas or

the valley of the Wallamet, every thing looks forbidding and desolate,

especially during the dry season. But remove the sage from any of these

dry, barren places, and the rich bunch-grass takes its place. As well

might the farmer expect his wheat to grow in a hemlock wood or cedar

swamp, as for any thing but sage to grow on these plains till that is

destroyed. Hence, from the experiments we have made on the soils of

which we have been speaking, we are confident that the greater portion

of the country now and for years past pronounced barren and useless,

will be found, with intelligent and proper cultivation, to rank among as

good lands as any we have, and probably more desirable. As to timber,

that must be cultivated till it becomes accustomed to the soil.

Cotton-wood is found in small quantities all over this plain, in the

vicinity of streams and springs. The northeastern part of this basin is

Montana; the southwestern is Idaho. The mineral wealth of this country,

especially that of north Idaho and Montana, is inexhaustible. Gold,

silver, copper, iron, lead, cinnabar, and tin, are found in abundance in

these Territories, and in eastern and middle Oregon.

"_Owyhee Bullion._--John A. Post, internal revenue collector,

furnishes the following _resume_ of the bullion product from January

1 to November 1, 1866, as assayed by different parties. The figures

are greenback valuation:--

January $36,632 81

February 62,874 00

March 15,640 85

April 11,959 25

May 34,570 34

June 46,224 44

July 46,456 26

August 177,704 15

September 293,921 53

October 371,173 13

-------------

Total $1,073,256 78

"During the early part of the year, Mr. Post says, there was a great

amount of treasure sent out in various shapes, of which he could get

no account. To the foregoing must still be added the many tons of

ruby, silver, polybasite, etc., shipped just as it came from the

Poorman mine,--enough, at a rough estimate, to increase the total to

fifteen hundred thousand, at least. It is safe to say that the

product of the present year will be two millions, and that of next

year go beyond five millions."[22]

[Footnote 22] From the _Oregonian_.

"_Treasure._--There has been shipped from this city during the past

year, the sum of $8,070,600 in treasure. The amount passing through

private hands may be safely estimated at $3,000,000."[23]

[Footnote 23] From the _Portland Herald_.

We take the following from an official report to the Secretary of the

Treasury, a copy of which has been sent to Congress:--

"From the best information available, the following is a near

approximation to our total gold and silver product for the year

ending January 7, 1867:--

California $25,000,000

Nevada 20,000,000

Montana 12,000,000

Idaho 6,500,000

Washington 1,000,000

Oregon 2,000,000

Colorado 2,500,000

New Mexico 500,000

Arizona 500,000

Add for bullion derived from unknown sources within the States

and Territories, unaccounted for by assessors and express

companies, etc. 5,000,000

-----------

Total product of the United States $75,000,000

"The bullion product of Washington is estimated by the

surveyor-general at $1,500,000. That of Oregon is estimated at

$2,500,000. Intelligent residents of Idaho and Montana represent

that the figures given in the above estimate, so far as these

Territories are concerned, are entirely too low, and might be

doubled without exceeding the truth. The product of Idaho alone, for

this year, is said to be $15,000,000 to $18,000,000. That of Montana

is estimated by the surveyor-general at $20,000,000. Similar

exceptions are taken to the estimates of Colorado, New Mexico, and

Arizona."

_The climate_ varies in the three sections of country we have described,

exactly in the ratio of soil and timber. On the coast, contiguous to the

ocean, we have more rain than we require. Like our superabundance of the

tallest and best of fir-timber, there is so much of it that we would be

glad if we could divide with the second and third places we have

described. We have enough rain and timber to supply all the country; and

perhaps, when we can cut down our tall trees, that filter the rain out

of the clouds, they may get more and we less. Be that as it may, our

winters are mild and rainy, our summers cool and pleasant, with

sufficient rain and ocean mist to supply the vegetable creation with

abundant moisture.

In middle Oregon the winters are mild and frosty, with a small amount of

snow--seldom severe; farmers should feed stock a month or six weeks;

summers warm, and sometimes sultry in July and August; rains in the

spring and late in the fall, scarcely enough for the farmers' use.

In the eastern plain or great mountain basin, the winters are cold and

dry, snow and frost severe. Snow seldom falls to exceed two feet in

depth,--average winters, eighteen inches,--but it falls deep upon the

mountains and remains till it is melted by the warm winds and sun of

early summer, causing the summer floods. The principal rise in the

rivers is during the mouths of June and July. Less rain, spring and

fall, than in middle Oregon; summers dry and hot. In the northern part,

the country is better supplied with rain. This may arise from the ranges

of the mountain currents of air and the winds from the South Pacific

Ocean along the inland plains, and the cool atmosphere around our

snow-clad mountains. We will leave further speculation on this point to

those who have had more experience in such matters than ourselves.

Taking the country as a whole, with our inexhaustible gold, silver, and

other minerals; our extensive farming valleys; our vast forests of

timber upon the borders of an ocean comparatively destitute of this

essential element of civilization; there is no plausible reason why this

western portion of the United States may not in a few years become the

abode of industrious and thriving millions.

_The Northern Pacific Railroad._

The following article on the Northern Pacific Railroad is from the pen

of Mr. Philip Ritz:--

"Having spent most of the last year in traveling through Washington,

Idaho, and Montana Territories, and having crossed the continent in

midwinter, partly on both of the great railroad routes, and at the

earnest request of Ex-Governor Smith, of Massachusetts, who is

president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and of some

members of Congress, I compiled, while in Washington, the following

statistics, on the practicability of the Northern route:--

"On the first section of the country from Puget Sound, there are two

routes, both practicable; one _via_ the Columbia River, to the mouth

of Snake River; the other _via_ Snoqualmie Pass and Yakima River, to

the same point. On either route there will not be much heavy

grading. There is on this section an abundance of the finest timber,

excepting on that part of the Columbia from the Dalles to Snake

River, and a short distance of the route from Yakima to the mouth of

Snake River.

"The second section, lying between the Columbia River and the Bitter

Root Mountains, a distance of about two hundred and twenty miles, is

over a rolling prairie country, with splendid grazing, and fine

timber on the Spokan River, a distance of about one hundred miles.

"On the third section, which includes the mountainous part, a

distance of two hundred and fifty miles, and lying between the 116th

and 112th degrees of longitude, the grading will, in places, be

heavy, and will require three or four short tunnels. This will

include the entire Rocky Mountain district, the work on which will

be heavy, but not more difficult than on the Baltimore and Ohio

road, between the Ohio River and Harper's Ferry. On this entire

section there is an abundance of the finest timber. On this section

there is considerable good wheat land, as has been proven by the

fine crops raised in Hell Gate Valley last season.

"This extends from the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains to Lake

Superior, a distance of about one thousand and ten miles. The route

here passes over a rolling prairie, susceptible of settlement the

entire distance.

"It will be seen that the entire distance on this route, between the

head of Lake Superior and Puget Sound, is about 1,810 miles, and

that there is scarcely a mile of the entire country but will

eventually be settled. It is much shorter than any other route

across the continent, connecting navigable waters. The mountains are

much lower and the country much more fertile. It is really the only

easy pass across the American continent, for it is the only part of

the continent where two large rivers rise immediately together and

flow in opposite directions--the Columbia cutting its way entirely

through the mountains on a water level to the Pacific; and the

Missouri connecting with the great plains bordering on the lakes.

The Rocky Mountains at this point are really so low, that the

miners, last summer, actually took large streams in ditches from the

waters of the Missouri, over the divide to the Pacific side for

mining purposes. In consequence of the low passes through to the

Pacific, the climate is warmer than it is in the mountains in the

latitude of Salt Lake City, 400 miles due south. I crossed the

summit of the Rocky Mountains near Deer Lodge Valley, in Montana, on

the 17th of December. There was no snow; the roads dry and dusty,

and the weather mild and pleasant, and none of the streams frozen

over. When I reached Salt Lake City, the snow on the Wasatch and

Rocky Mountain ranges was twenty-six inches deep, and the night we

crossed the Wasatch range, the thermometer stood at ten degrees

below zero, and Green River and all those streams in the mountains

had been frozen over six weeks, so that the stage rolled over on the

ice. Such was the difference in the climate of the two routes. The

differences in the real wealth and resources of the two routes is

perhaps even greater than that of climate. The central route, after

it leaves the mining country of Nevada, around Virginia City, passes

up the Humboldt country toward Salt Lake, for a distance of 500 or

600 miles, over the most desolate and barren country on the American

continent. The country has neither mines, timber, nor any other

redeemable quality about it. Salt Lake Valley is a small and rather

fertile valley; the only fertile spot for hundreds of miles. From

Salt Lake City to Denver, a distance of six hundred miles, the route

lies over an alkali and sage plain. On the other hand, there is not

one mile on the northern route that does not either furnish timber,

grazing, agricultural lands, or minerals, and, in some instances,

all together. Montana is just in its infancy; its mines scarcely

prospected; and yet, last season, according to the report of the

Treasury Department, Montana stood second on the list in the amount

of gold produced; California producing $25,000,000; Montana,

$18,000,000; Idaho and Colorado, $17,000,000 each; and Nevada,

$16,000,000.

"The mountains of Montana are a perfect net-work of quartz ledges,

immensely rich in gold and silver. Five years from this time, I

believe there will be as much as $40,000,000 of gold and silver

taken from the mines of Montana per year; more than one-fourth

enough to build and equip the Northern Pacific Road, ready for use.

There are also immense mines of coal, iron, copper, and lead, in the

country. The northern route crosses but one range of mountains, and

that at a point which, so far as the experience of white men have

gone, is known to be as passable in winter as the Michigan Central

Railroad. In deciding the question of relative distance, we must

consider the entire distance between Liverpool and Canton. Say the

mean latitude of the North Pacific route is 46 degrees, and of the

Central 37-1/4, and a difference of nine degrees exists. Now a

degree of longitude (longitude contracting as we approach the poles)

is about six miles shorter on the former than the latter. There are

240 degrees of longitude between Liverpool and Canton; this makes

the navigator's distance, on the line of the North Pacific, 1,440

miles less than the Central. This longitudinal difference is quite

an item. This difference in distance is not the only item in favor

of the northern route. It is an established fact that every sailing

vessel, bound directly from San Francisco to Hong Kong, comes up to,

and even beyond, the latitude of Puget Sound, before striking

directly west, in order to take advantage of the wind currents of

the Pacific Ocean. Time, these days, being an important

consideration in commercial transactions, the argument would still

be in favor of the North Pacific route, admitting rates of

transportation to be equal on both lines. But these rates would not

be the same, even if the distance of the two were equal, for the

reason that the country would be self-supporting on nearly every

mile of the Northern route, while on the Central, for hundreds of

miles between Salt Lake and Nevada, not a tie for the track, nor a

stick, nor a pound of coal for fuel can be had. All these things

must be brought from abroad.

"Now, owing to adventitious circumstances,--the discovery of the

precious metals in California, Nevada, and Colorado, and the

settlement of Mormons in Utah,--the bulk of local business seems to

be on the side of the Central route. But Montana will soon outstrip

California in the yield of gold; besides, the route passes through a

country susceptible of settlement all the way from Lake Superior to

Puget Sound, and there is no doubt but that five years hence there

will be as much local business through Minnesota, Dakota, Montana,

Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, as through Nebraska, Colorado, Utah,

Nevada, and California. Accident gives the Central route the present

pre-eminence; nature insures the Northern the final victory.

"It is not generally known, the large amount of business that was

done in Montana last season. From May, 1866, to October 1, 1866, C.

C. Huntley carried, on his line of stages between Fort Benton and

Helena, 2,500 passengers, and during the same period 9,500 tons of

freight passed from Benton to Helena; 4,375 freight-wagons passed

over the same route; 45 steamboats, with passengers and freight,

arrived at Fort Benton from St. Louis and other points in the east,

and this, be it remembered, is the first season that this trade has

been carried on to any extent, and also, that this is but one point

in the Territory. It is really the commencement of a great trade,

that will require a vast capital, and employ the energy and industry

of a large number of persons.

"There are no less than four lofty ranges of mountains to cross on

the Central route, the Rocky Mountains, at Bridger's Pass, being the

most passable crossing; the Wasatch, the Humboldt, and the Sierra

Nevada are barely passable in summer. By the way of Pen d'Oreille

Lake, on the Northern route, freight can be taken from the Columbia

to the Missouri nearly all winter. Another advantage possessed by

the Northern route is, that at present the distance is less than 600

miles between the head of steamboat navigation on the Missouri and

Snake rivers, and when the boats are completed which are now

building on the Pen d'Oreille Lake and Clarke's fork of the

Columbia, the land travel will be reduced to about 390 miles.

"Did time and space permit, I might give further proof of the

superiority of the Northern route. In my comparative reasoning, I

have made these distinctions with no invidious feeling. The sooner

San Francisco is connected by rail with New York, the better for

Washington and Montana, in common with all the mountain regions. It

is gratifying to see our friends to the southward prosecuting their

enterprise with so much vigor. But I am perfectly satisfied in my

own mind that the time will come when the trafficking wealth of

Europe and Asia will be poured across the mountains and valleys of

Washington and Montana Territories.

"Our prospects, it is true, look rather dull here at present, the

whole energy of the Pacific coast being concentrated in building the

Central road, and for a short time we may expect dull times. The

attention of capitalists can not be diverted from this enterprise

much longer, and when once fully examined, there will be millions of

capital ready to invest in it.

"Let us open up the Mullan road and the lake route, and all other

routes to the Missouri River, and invite travelers and emigrants to

come this way and see the advantages of this northern country, and

then we will have no trouble in getting money to build a railroad."

CONCLUSION.

As the reader will have discovered, we commenced our history with Oregon

as it was in 1792. With the single exception of the feeble effort made

by Mr. Astor in 1810-11, and Captain Wyeth in 1834-5, no one ever

attempted any thing like an organized opposition to the British fur

companies on the Pacific coast.

In regard to Captain Wyeth, we admit with Mr. Newell that he was driven

from the country "not by fair and open competition in the trade," and

that he is entitled to much credit for his discernment and forethought

in leaving when he did, for if he had not accepted the terms offered to

him by Dr. McLaughlin, that gentleman said to us that the company would

have insisted on other means being used to relieve its trade from his

competition, so that whatever credit or honor there is due in the case

belongs to Captain Wyeth's judgment and decision in accepting such

compensation as the company chose to give, and not to the company for

giving it; for it was that, or a crime to be committed in getting rid of

him and his party; and, as in the case of Smith and Dr. Whitman, to be

charged upon the Indians.

As Americans, we must not conclude that it could do a dishonorable or

mean act to our traders, hunters, missionaries, or even settlers. No one

must presume to think that the Honorable Hudson's Bay Company would ever

conduct any but an honorable trade, or engage in any but an honorable

business, in the country; notwithstanding, its own countrymen charge it

with having seized and sunk vessels belonging to them, by running them

ashore in Hudson's Bay; robbed and fought with the Northwest Company

before they combined their interests; and had its own Governor Semple

killed in fighting for its interests, besides all its transactions with

its own countrymen; this would be ungenerous and mean in the estimation

of men unable to distinguish between a selfish and a generous act, or a

cause and a crime of civilized and savage men.

Missionary efforts were first made in the country by Rev. Jason Lee. He,

being a Canadian-born subject, was received with less objection than

Rev. Messrs. Parker and Spalding, and Dr. Whitman; but, as has been

shown, the English people expected to hold the country by the power and

influence of their Hudson's Bay Company.

The company, as such, could not act against the American missionaries as

it did against American traders and hunters; hence, the Episcopal or

Established Church influence from London was made use of, and a

clergyman sent to Vancouver. While missionary operations were confined

to the Wallamet Valley this was sufficient, but when those efforts were

extended to the Cayuses and Nez Perces, and efforts were being made to

establish missions further north by another responsible religious

society, the company became alarmed for its profits by the fur trade;

and by one of its own unprincipled, dishonorable, as well as

hypocritical arrangements, under the specious pretense of having

religious teachers to look after the moral and religious instructions of

its Canadian-French Catholic servants, it sent for, and continued in its

service, the very religious order of the Roman Church that was at that

time proscribed by the laws of the country from which it held its

license. This showed the moral principle by which it was governed in

relation to its own country. The interests of its trade were paramount

to all moral principles or religious teachings; and while it was

professing warm friendship for one religious sect, it was encouraging

secretly and openly an opposite and strongly bigoted one, to divide and

distract the moral and religious sentiments of the ignorant natives;

claiming for itself an exclusive monopoly in trade, as being beneficial

to the Indian race, which was admitted by all. This was the moral and

religious condition of the whole country when the American settlers came

to it. They, with the American missionaries, combined in forming a

provisional government, and established a _quasi_ independent American

republic, with the condition that, whenever the United States government

saw fit to extend its jurisdiction over the country, this temporary

government should cease.

The English and French united with us in this organization, on condition

that they should not be required to do any thing that would conflict

with their duties as subjects of Great Britain.

The reader will perceive that, in carrying out the plan laid down in our

preface, we have been obliged to give the Hudson's Bay Company a

prominent place in our history, as we have had to meet them in every

step of our progress.

No history of Oregon can be written, without acknowledging the immense

influence that company held in the country, and the zeal and energy it

put forth, in counteracting American ideas and influence. It was its

original design to colonize and secure to the British crown all the

countries which it might explore and occupy. And had it carried out that

design, no American effort could have succeeded in securing the country

to the government of the United States. But from a selfish,

short-sighted, and mistaken policy; and a blind perception of its

asserted commercial rights, privileges, and powers, it "_hunted up_" the

country, and expected to secure to itself undisturbed possession of the

northwestern part of the continent.

For this purpose, while it was destroying the valuable fur animals in

what is now United States territory, it was protecting such as were to

be found further north; and by this means continued the enormous profits

of its trade, for a series of years longer than it otherwise could have

done. The discovery of gold on the Frazer River in 1858, the rush of

miners, and the organizing of British Columbia, partially checked this

fur company, and led to the formation of a sickly colony strangled in

the embrace of an avaricious monopoly. To counteract the American and

Protestant missionary efforts, it brought to Oregon the Roman and French

Jesuits. To compete with the Americans in stock and agricultural

products, it originated the Puget Sound Company. To outnumber the

American settlers, it brought on a colony of half-breeds from Red River.

While by the influence of its Jesuits it could destroy one branch of the

Protestant missions, and bring on an Indian war, the settlement had

gained strength sufficient to maintain independence without its aid.

While the country has increased in population and wealth, this English

monopoly has been decreasing in power and influence.

While the Protestant religion has continued to widen and deepen its hold

upon the American people, the Papal superstition has increased among the

Indians, thus rendering them more hopelessly depraved, and consigning

them and their descendants to unending superstition and ignorance, or to

utter oblivion as a race, to be superseded by an enlightened Christian,

American people.

With unfeigned thanks to all who have assisted us in this work, we take

our leave, hoping the facts we have given will be useful, and abundantly

reward the reader for his time and money.

* * * * *

TRANSCRIBER NOTES:

Punctuation has been corrected without note.

Footnotes have been moved closer to their reference point.

"Corrections" noted at the beginning of the book have not been

incorporated.

"Hudson Bay Company" changed to "Hudson's Bay Company" without note for

consistency.

page 19: "by" added (would not be made slaves by the King George warriors).

page 63: "Kingdon" changed to "Kingdom" (from the United Kingdom).

page 67: duplicate word "to" removed (who went to London).

page 75: "monoply" changed to "monopoly" (a commercial monopoly) and (to

the fur monopoly).

page 86: the table regarding property values has several either typos

and/or incorrect calculations based on the text preceding. Corrections

of typos have been made to match the preceding text, however, the total

dollar amount stated in the next paragraph is incorrect and has not been

changed.

page 128: "supppose" changed to "suppose" (I suppose by this

expression).

page 177: "bring" changed to "bringing" (bringing with them to Fort

Hall).

page 210: "foregn" changed to "foreign" (generous to a foreign

monopoly).

page 221: "sufficent" changed to "sufficient" (a sufficient number to

command).

page 246: "sufferered" changed to "suffered" (suffered for willful

murder).

page 249: duplicate "of" removed (repetition of the threats made).

page 294: "peace'" changed to "peace's" (for some peace's sake).

page 315: "souyht" changed to "sought" (prize they sought).

page 323: duplicate "and" deleted (Messrs. Eells and Walker).

page 332: "scull" changed to "skull" (but none in the skull).

page 359: "how" changed to "now" (Any person now holding).

page 374: duplicate "their" removed (starvation was their only portion).

page 376: "peculiary" changed to "peculiarly" (so peculiarly republican

and in accordance with).

page 449: duplicate "only" removed (not only by giving in).

page 487: "surpise" changed to "surprise" (Here, to our surprise and

terror).

page 495: "though" changed to "through" (and through the French

half-breed).

page 504: "victms" changed to "victims" (sustaining them among their

deluded victims).

page 507: duplicate "that" removed (said that they had forgotten all

this).

page 514: "Witman's" changed to "Whitman's" (slept in Dr. Whitman's

room).

page 582: "againt" changed to "against" (that assassin struck not

against).

The original book included a list of errata which has been applied to

the text. The original list of errata is below.

ERRATA. (From original text)

Page 526, 11th line from top, for "becamed," read "became."

Page 568, 6th line from bottom, for "Moxon," read "Maxon." Also on pages

570 and 573 the same error occurs.

Page 583, 19th line from top, for "that British," read "that the

British."

Page 592, 7th line from bottom, for "propriety," read "propensity."

Page 602, 7th line from top, for "where," read "when."

Page 613, 4th line from bottom, for "ten," read "one hundred."