USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. II > Part 13
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In the fall of 1847, the ecclesiastical province of Oregon City numbered three bishops, fourteen Jesuit fathers, four Oblate fathers of the O. M. I., thirteen secular priests, thir- teen sisters and two houses of education.
The Catholic missionaries acquired and retained over the native population west of the Rocky Mountains a far more
* Order of Mary Immaculate.
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perfect control than the protestant missionaries were ever able to secure. Dissensions such as disturbed the harmony of the other missions were among them impossible. Secular matters never diverted the priests from their work. As soon as they were sufficiently numerous, an ecclesiastical superior was appointed to have charge and direct their work, and his authority was supreme. It is this organiza- tion which, as Macaulay says, has given the Catholic Church its strength, has enabled it to outlast all other human insti- tutions, and will perhaps enable it to endure until the traveler from New Zealand comes to sketch the ruins of St. Pauls from some broken arch of London Bridge.
The zealous priests, always rendering implicit obedience to their ecclesiastical head, troubled themselves about nothing that did not concern the work they were sent to do. They everywhere met a welcome from the Indians such as was rarely given to the Protestants. The "blackgowns," as the Indians called them, were always popular. Wherever they planted a mission it remained, at least as long as Indians remained in its neighborhood. The reasons for this are not difficult to find. "The Roman Catholic communion had, it must be admitted," says Mr. Prescott, "some decided advantages over the Protestant, for the purposes of prosely- tism. The dazzling pomp of its service, and its touching appeal to the sensibilities, affect the imagination of the rude child of nature much more powerfully than the cold abstrac- tions of Protestantism, which, addressed to the reason, demand a degree of refinement and mental culture in the audience to comprehend them. The respect, moreover, shown by the Catholic for the material representations of Divinity, greatly facilitates the same object. It is true, such repre- sentations are used by him only as incentives, not as the
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objects of worship. But this distinction is lost on the savage, who finds such forms of adoration too analogous to his own to impose any great violence on his feelings. It is only re- quired of him to transfer his homage from the image of Quetzalcoatl, the benevolent deity who walked among men, to that of the Virgin or the Redeemer; from the Cross, which he has worshipped as the emblem of the god of rain, to the same Cross, the symbol of salvation."*
To this it may be added that all savage or barbarous peoples readily understand the use of symbols, if they do not at once penetrate their meaning. It was by symbols that men first began to communicate their ideas one to another, and they do so still, for words are but symbols and a printed page but a collection of symbols. The poverty of the aboriginal language made the use of objects whose meaning is easily divined, or of signs that are universally understood, constantly necessary. A pipe was offered to every stranger as a symbol of peace, not because that sym- bolic meaning had first been agreed upon, but because that meaning was obvious. Men do not smoke together if watch- ing an opportunity to do each other mischief. Lewis and Clark found that the waving of a blanket and then spread- ing it upon the ground was everywhere used, on the plains and in the mountains, as a symbol of friendship-"Come and sit with me: I will receive you kindly." Words could hardly express a meaning more plainly. So the Shoshones insisted that all present should take off their shoes or moc- casins when beginning a council, as a symbol to them, as it had been to the Jews thousands of years earlier, of the sincerity of their intentions. They were not entering idly into conference : they intended to remain until the business
* Conquest of Mexico, Chapter IV.
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in hand was concluded and an agreement reached that all should keep.
A people thus accustomed to the use of symbols naturally received those who came to teach them with symbols, more readily than those who did not. The priest always wore his cross. At every service it was displayed. He constantly made its sign. He marked the child with it at baptism: he held it to the lips of the old man in his death agony. The Indians may not have guessed its meaning-may indeed have given it a wholly wrong meaning, but as a means of conveying some meaning, they understood it and received it.
The priests also hit upon a plan to enable the eye to help the ear in receiving instruction, that seems never to have been previously used, and perhaps never has been used since in any other missionary field. While Father Demers was holding his first mission at the Cowlitz farms, beginning in March 1839, a number of parties of Indians attended, some of them coming from a considerable distance. They wanted to see the "blackgown," they said, and hear him talk of the great spirit. Among these parties was one from Whidby Island, under a chief named Tsla-la-cum-probably the name we now pronounce Steilacoom. They had been five days on the journey, two of which had been spent in their canoes on the Sound, and three in making the long and arduous march over the trail from the head of Budd's Inlet to the Cowlitz, and had traveled fully one hundred and fifty miles. They were much exhausted and very hungry when they arrived, but after they had been refreshed and rested, the missionary began to talk to them, and they listened with the deepest attention. But the difficulty was, says a chron- icler of the time, to give them the ideas he wished to com- municate, in such a simple form, and so plainly that they
CATHOLIC MISSION AT FORT COLVILE.
This mission was established by Father De Smet and other Jesuit missionaries about the year 1847. The picture is from a comparatively recent photo- graph.
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was concluded at
toma U idts yd bodaildates are goinging hed that all
A people thus mo the use of warbols graturally
received those mbora xeach alem with symbols, more
wardily than the S not The priest always wore his cross. At ed was displayed. He constantly made its sign It led the child with it at baptism : he held it m do lado old man in his death agony. The Indians 1 .. .
guessed its meaning-may indeed have girly wong meaning, but as a means of converthey understood it and received it
The pues do hir upon a plan to enable the eye to help hirtion, that seems never to have been Isaw biet and perhaps meyer has been used since --- mary field. While Father Demers was Lle M de mission at the Cowlitz farms, beginning Ap a number of parties of Indians attended, coming from a considerable distance. They wow the "blackgown," they said, and hear him talk prit. Among these parties was one from Whidby a chief named Tula-la-cum-probably the pronounce Sreilacoom. They had been five towy, two of which had bw spent in their Sound and three in w Ime the long and ar de trail from the kwad of Budd's Inlet bad traveled fully wwe hundred and fifty son exhausted tod very hungry when they had hwy freshed and rested, de talk to them, and they listened with the deep Hut the difficulty was, says a chron-
icler of them the ides he wished to com- munica, omple form, and vo plainly that they
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could remember them, and be able to repeat them to other members of the tribe when they should return. He finally hit upon the plan of making a sort of chart on a piece of board, by indicating the forty centuries before Christ by forty marks, the thirty-three years of the Savior's life by thirty-three points, and the eighteen centuries and thirty-nine years since that time by eighteen marks and thirty-nine points, and by using this as he talked, it would help them to remember the history of the world and the story of redemption as he gave it to them. The plan proved quite successful. The first rude drawing on a bit of board was elaborated into a long chart, painted on canvass with rude drawings indicating such events as the giving of the commandments, the building of the temple, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the appointment of the twelve apostles, and was called "The Catholic Lad- der." This device was subsequently much used by the missionaries in their teaching, and became very popular with the Indians. Wilkes says that one of his surveying parties found one of these charts in the keeping of a Skagit Indian at Penn's Cove, who was regarded by the other members of the tribe as a person of considerable impor- tance, because of his having been entrusted with it. He kept it and a map of America, which he had somehow obtained, in a box very carefully, and he could talk very volubly about both. Although the surveyors could not understand him, of course, they supposed that he was telling the story that the chart was designed to illustrate, as it had been told to him.
The Indians in the Puget Sound country appear to have received religious instruction not only willingly but gladly from the first. The traders who were first in charge of Fort Nisqually began to talk to them on religious subjects soon
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after the station was established, which was some years before any missionaries appeared in its neighborhood. The journal kept at the fort shows that they assembled regularly on Sundays, in considerable numbers, and that Dr. Tolmie, Mr. Kitson or Mr. Herron addressed them, sometimes speak- ing for an hour or more, and the Indians always appeared to be deeply interested. Sometimes they would ask the speaker to stop, saying they had heard as much as they could remem- ber at one time, and sometimes they would ask him to talk still longer.
The priests undoubtedly had a very considerable advan- tage over the protestant missionaries in this, that the em- ployees of the Hudson's Bay Company were nearly all of their faith. Many of these had married, or were living with Indian women. They attended the services held by the priests, brought their wives and their children to be baptized, and by their example, and doubtless by their conversation as well, encouraged the Indians to do the same. They could in their way tell their savage relatives what these services meant to them, and what they hoped for on account of them, and the priests therefore had a most helpful religious con- stituency, already waiting to help them on with their work, when they arrived.
CHAPTER XXIV. THE WILKES EXPEDITION.
W HEN Lieutenant William A. Slacum had returned to Washington and published his report in December 1838 it was immediately seen that further and more detailed informa- tion was desirable, and if Commodore Wilkes had not sailed some months earlier, he would doubtless have been instructed to begin his explorations where he had been directed to end them. But in those days it was not possible to change sailing orders by cable, or by wireless telegraph, after ships had once put to sea, and the commodore was left to carry out the instructions for his three years' cruise, practically as they had been given him.
Lieutenant Slacum had discharged the duties assigned him with commendable enterprise and fidelity. He had personally visited most of the missionaries, and other settlers in the Willamette Valley, and had obtained from them minute information in regard to their conditions and pros- pects, as well as to their experience with the Hudson's Bay Company and the Indians. He had observed the country itself with care, had noted the character of its soil and climate, its natural productions, the progress and results of improve- ment, so far as improvement had been made either by the settlers or the Hudson's Bay people; had made diligent inquiry as to the number and character of the Indians, and their disposition toward their new neighbors; had called at Fort Vancouver where he represented himself to be a mere private citizen making inquiry for his own purposes, and though he had not deceived the alert chief factor, who says he immediately penetrated his true character, he neverthe- less obtained much information that was of value. He found that the settlers were very much dissatisfied with many things, and particularly with the arrangements they
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were compelled to make about cattle. They were tired of borrowing from the chief factor, and he steadily refused to sell. They knew that cattle were abundant in California and that they might obtain all they wished there, and at very moderate prices, if they could only find a way to go there after them, and bring them north across the moun- tains.
But no one of them could afford to do this on his own account. They were not hopeful of being able to combine and do, or attempt to do as a community, what none of them could do singly. They were not a very homogeneous community. Most of them were missionaries and almost wholly inexperienced in business matters. The French Canadians were wholly under the control of the chief factor, and quite content with their arrangements with him. They would do nothing that he did not advise or at least approve. Those who had come out with the Astor party were much of the same way of thinking. Of the others, aside from the trappers like Newell, Meek, Wilkins and others, they had come to the country from various directions, and the com- munity had not yet known them long enough to care to trust them. Felix Hathaway had come by the schooner Convoy from Massachusetts, Calvin Tibbitts and F. J. Hubbard had come with Wyeth, and Webly Hauxhurst, Joseph Gale and Ewing Young had come up from California with Hall J. Kelly in 1834. Young had given proof that he could do things in a businesslike way, but unfortunately the Spanish governor of California had sent word to the chief factor, in advance of his arrival, that his party was a band of horse thieves, and while the charge was not true, so far as Young or any of his companions were concerned, it was true that some people who had traveled with them for
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a part of the way, had some stolen horses with them, and Young, like poor dog Tray, suffered because of the company he had been in. But he was not disposed to complain of this, or to ask people to correct their opinions of him. The chief factor refused to trade with him at first, but when he found later that the reports he had heard were false, he offered to receive him at the fort on the same footing as other people. But Young refused to receive any explanations, and went on in his own way, attending strictly to his own affairs, and asking no favors of anybody. He once contemplated starting a distillery, in order to make a market for his grain, because the chief factor would not buy it, but when Jason Lee remonstrated with him about it, he desisted, and although his relations with the people at the mission became somewhat more neighborly on account of this incident, they did not become friendly.
It would probably have been impossible for these people ever to have united in any undertaking if it had not been for the visit of Lieutenant Slacum. Through his good offices a cattle company was formed, and most of the settlers took small interests in it. Young, who was by far the most pros- perous man in the community, and who had had much experience in buying and driving cattle, took a large interest, and even the chief factor came in, taking half the stock, so as to make the enterprise as large as possible, for the cost of driving a thousand cattle across the mountains would be no greater than to drive five hundred. Those of the settlers who had no money put in their services as drivers at $1 per day. Slacum gave the party transportation to California in his ship, and they returned in time, with about seven hun- dred animals, which on reaching the Willamette had cost an average of $8.67 per head.
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Slacum's report of what he had seen and done in Oregon was published soon after Congress convened in 1838. It was probably one of the causes which encouraged men like Linn and Cushing to renewed efforts, and led to the revival of interest in the Oregon question which soon began. In January Senator Linn presented the memorial of J. L. Whitcomb, and thirty-five other settlers on the Willamette, in which they invited the attention of Congress to their defenseless situation, and to the value of what they were undertaking to do, for the country as well as for themselves. They did not venture to suggest the manner in which the country should be occupied, they said, nor the extent to which their settlement should be encouraged, but they expressed the hope that Congress would give their situation candid and careful consideration.
In March 1836 the government had provided for an explor- ing expedition to be sent to the Pacific, and in 1838 Lieuten- ant Charles Wilkes was appointed to command it. It was the most pretentious expedition of the kind the government had ever set on foot. The squadron was composed of six vessels, the sloops of war Vincennes and Peacock, the brig Porpoise, the store ship Relief, and tenders Sea Gull and Flying Fish. It sailed from Norfolk on August 18, 1838, and was to be absent nearly four years. By his instructions Wilkes was to spend the summer of 1841, from April until October, in surveying and charting the waters of Puget Sound, and the Columbia River, exploring the interior country, and in surveying the whole coast as far south as the Bay of San Francisco. For this work he was provided with an ample scientific corps.
The squadron spent the winter of 1841-2 at the Hawaiian Islands, at which place the Peacock and Flying Fish were
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detached and sent to survey the Samoan and some smaller islands south of the equator, and in April the remainder of the squadron set sail for the coast of Oregon. It arrived off the mouth of the Columbia on the morning of the 28th. A heavy sea, caused by the strong winds that had prevailed for several days, was running. The ships stood in for the bar, and every preparation was made for crossing it, but finding no inviting opening among the breakers, that gave hope of a safe passage through them, they were hauled off into deeper water to wait for more favorable weather. A pilot had been brought from the islands, who professed to be familiar with this coast, but his information was not found to be sufficient to justify an attempt to make the en- trance under his direction, and as no help could be obtained from the shore, it was determined on the following day to abandon the attempt for the present, go northward to the straits of Fuca and begin the season's work at Puget's Sound.
The entrance to the strait was made on the morning of May Ist and at 6 P. M. on the following day the squadron came to anchor in Port Discovery, which Vancouver had visited forty-nine years earlier, at about the same season of the year. From this point Wilkes dispatched an Indian to Fort Nisqually, the Hudson's Bay post at the upper extremity of the Sound, for a pilot, and while waiting for his return, prepared to make such scientific observations as were neces- sary for beginning his surveys. The messenger did not return with the pilot as soon as expected, and on the morning of the sixth, having completed the survey of this port, and the neighboring shore, the anchors were taken up and the ships made their way without difficulty around Point Wilson to Port Townsend. This harbor was surveyed and mapped on the seventh, and the squadron moved on up the channel
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of Admiralty Inlet as far as Pilot's Cove, so named because the pilot they had sent for met them there. He proved to be one of Captain McNeil's officers from the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Beaver, and under his direction they made sail for the upper sound. But wind and tide were unfavorable and the two following days were spent in explor- ing, surveying and naming Port Lawrence, Apple Tree Cove and Port Madison, which latter place Wilkes describes as "an excellent harbor, affording every possible convenience for shipping."
The weather proving more favorable on the tenth the ships advanced up the Sound, passed through the channel on the west side of Vashon Island, and toward evening came to anchor for the night a short distance below the Narrows. The next morning was calm, and it was spent in surveying the waters of the neighborhood, and apparently in waiting for a favorable tide. The brief description given of the pas- sage through the Narrows indicates something of the diffi- culties that the navigators of that day encountered in making their way through our inland waters. They did not know, as is now known, that the water is everywhere so deep that there is no possible danger of running upon hidden rocks, sunken reefs or bars, though they doubtless guessed it. They could not turn the prows of their ships in the direction they wished to go, and force them to go that way. They were compelled to depend on wind and tide, and where strong currents were encountered there was sometimes danger. So the current caused by the tide at this point was approached with some precaution. "At 3 P. M.," says the report, "we again weighed our anchors, but had great difficulty in getting beyond the reach of the eddy winds occasioned by the high banks. The scenery about this pass becomes very fine. On
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all sides are high protecting bluffs of sandstone, rising almost perpendicular from the water, with a great variety of shrubs along their base. The tide, which runs through the Nar- rows with great velocity, causes many eddies and whirlpools, through which a ship is carried with extraordinary rapidity, while the danger seems to be imminent. The Porpoise suc- ceeded in entering the Narrows first, and in a few minutes was lost sight of. The Vincennes entered and seemed at first to be hurrying to destruction, with her sails quite aback. We were carried onward wholly by the force of the tide, and had backed and filled only once before we found ourselves in as spacious a sound as the one we had just left. This natural pass seems as if intended by its natural facilities to afford every means for its perfect defense."
Reaching the fort the ships found an anchorage near the shore, and preparations were made for a long stay, as this was to be the headquarters from which all the work of the summer was to be begun and carried well on toward com- pletion. The Porpoise, under command of Lieutenant Com- mandant Ringgold, was assigned to take up the survey of Admiralty Inlet. Lieutenant Case with a launch, a cutter and two boats was to survey Hood's Canal. Another party, under the command of Passed Midshipman Eld and Colvo- coresis, was subsequently assigned to the survey of Gray's Harbor and Shoalwater Bay.
These several parties were very carefully instructed in regard to their work, which they were expected to do thor- oughly and well. The survey of the harbors and inland waters was to begin simultaneously at several points, by parties in small boats who were to make careful measure- ments, take soundings at regular intervals, and make maps of their work as they proceeded, being particular to connect
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their work with that of the other parties on either side with accuracy. Each party was to take frequent observations for latitude and longitude, and all points so astronomically ascertained were to be brought directly into connection with each other by triangulation. All conspicuous mountain peaks were to be observed, and their height and location ascertained and noted. As much information as possible was to be collected in regard to the geological formation of the country, the character of its soil and its capabilities for agriculture. Minerals were to be observed, and the loca- tion of brooks and water courses, affording water for ship- ping, and the rise and fall of the tides were to be carefully noted. The Indians were not to be overlooked, but wherever possible the names of tribes and their numbers, their char- acter and mode of living were to be observed. Indeed nothing was to be overlooked from which information of value or interest could be ascertained.
A land party under Lieutenant Johnson was sent across the mountains, going directly eastward over an Indian trail lying north of Mount Rainier, and then, keeping west of the Columbia to Forts Okanogan and Colvile. From the latter point they were to take a southerly course, visiting the mis- sionary stations at Tshimikain, Lapwai and Waiilatpu. It was to observe the character of the country generally, note the course of rivers and mountain ranges, examine the soil and make other scientific observations, particularly in the line of geology, botany, zoology and anthropology. It was expected that this party would be absent eighty days.
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