USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. II > Part 8
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From this it is perfectly clear that what Catlin really asked General Clark about, was whether these Indians had made the long journey they claimed to have made, to inquire whether "our religion was better than theirs." The gener- al's reply convinced him that it was so, and he already knew from the survivors of the party themselves, that they were returning home fairly well pleased with the results of their journey, and the assurances they had received.
* What Catlin says on this subject is as follows, letter No. 48: speaking of the two young men who were his traveling companions he says they were "part of a delegation that came across the Rocky Mountains to St. Louis, a few years since, to inquire for the truth of a representation which they said some white men had made amongst them 'that our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it.' The old and venerable men of this party died in St. Louis, and I travelled two thousand miles companion of these two young fellows toward their own country, and became much pleased with their manners and dispositions. The last mentioned of the two died near the mouth of the Yellowstone River on his way home, with disease which he had contracted in the civilized district, and the other one I have since learned arrived safely amongst his friends, conveying to them the melancholy intelligence of the deaths of all the rest of his party; but assurances at the same time from Gen. Clark and many reverend gentlemen, that the report which they had heard was well founded; and that missionaries, good and religious men, would soon come amongst them to teach this religion so that they could all understand and have the benefits of it. When I first heard the report of the object of this extraor- dinary mission across the mountains I could scarcely believe it, but on con- versing with Gen. Clark, on a future occasion, I was fully convinced of the fact; and I, like thousands of others, have had the satisfaction of witness- ing the complete success of Mr. Lee and Mr. Spalding, two reverend gentle- men who have answered, in a christian manner, to this unprecedented call."
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Dr. Whitman heard something of the party while on his way from the Missouri to the mountains with Parker in the summer of 1835. In a letter, which is in the nature of a journal of the trip, he says he was told "by the fur trader under whose protection they came and returned, that their object was to gain religious knowledge."*
General Clark was not a Catholic. He was an Episco- palian and a free mason, which latter fact, to those who may be familiar with any of the several pastoral letters issued by various popes, from Clement V to Leo XIII, will be irref- utable evidence that he could not also have been a member of the Catholic church. And he seems not only to have been a mason, but to have been a fairly active member of the order, as he was a charter member of two lodges, which would indicate that he had joined the order before helping to organ- ize either of them.t
* All that Dr. Whitman says about this party in this letter is as follows:
"The following is the history of those Indians that came to St. Louis to gain a knowledge of the Christian religion, as I received it from the trader under whose protection they came and returned. He says their object was to gain religious knowledge. For this purpose the Flat Head tribe delegated one of their principal chiefs, and two of their principal men, and the Nez Perce tribe a like delegation, it being a joint delegation of both tribes. In addition to this delegation a young Nez Perce came along. When they came to Council Bluffs two of the Flat Heads and one of the Nez Perces returned home, and the other Flat Head the chief, and the Nez Perce chief, and the remaining one of the delegation, and the young Indian came to St. Louis where they remained through the winter. At St. Louis two of them died and the only remaining one of the dele- gation died on his return at the mouth of the Yellowstone, so that there was no one left to return but the young man."-W. I. Marshall: Acqui- sition of Oregon and the Long Suppressed Evidence About Marcus Whitman MSS.
t Dr. Vincil, grand secretary of the grand lodge F. & A. M. of Missouri, and the historian of Masonry in Missouri, wrote to Prof. Marshall as follows on this subject: "Gen. Wm. Clark was a charter member of St. Louis Lodge No. III chartered by the grand lodge of Penn. Sept.
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That he was also an Episcopalian, Prof. Elliot Coues thinks is established by evidence that is at once "conclusive, final and beyond the shadow of doubt." Prof. Coues examined all of Clark's papers, while preparing his monu- mental edition of Lewis and Clark's journals, and found no evidence in them that he had ever been a Catholic. He also wrote to his son Jefferson K. Clark, two grandsons, and one of their cousins, as well as Mrs. Phil Kearney, who was a descendent of Gen. Clark, and herself a Catholic, and all agreed that he had never been a Catholic .* Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites says: "It is an interesting revelation of one phase of his private character to find him, in docu- ments of the period, assisting in the establishment of Christ Church in St. Louis, and thus becoming one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal communion west of the Missis- sippi.+ In Christ Church Cathedral, an outgrowth of that early parish, there can today be seen a beautiful memorial window placed there by his daughter-in-law, Eleanor Glas- gow Clark, in memory of his son and her husband, George Rogers Hancock Clark."
The supposed speech, which one of the surviving members of this Indian party is represented to have made to General Clark at parting, and in which the assertion is made that they came for "the white man's Book of Heaven," and were
15, 1808. This lodge went down during the war of 1812. He was also a member of Missouri Lodge No. 12, chartered Oct. 8, 1816, by the Grand Lodge of Tenn. This Lodge was one of the three Lodges that United in forming the Grand Lodge of Missouri on Feb. 22, 1821, and was the first Lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Mo. under the name and number of Missouri Lodge No. I by which name and number it still exists on our register."
* W. I. Marshall MSS.
+ "Washington Historical Quarterly," July 1907, p. 249.
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beguiled by various devices from persisting in their demand, until they were finally compelled to go home without it, al- though they had spent a whole winter in St. Louis in attempt- ing to get it, and in which they reproached the general for their failure, is as follows:
"I came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. You were the friends of my fathers, who have all gone the long way. I came with one eye partly opened, for more light for my people who sit in darkness. I go back with both eyes closed. How can I go back blind to my blind people ? I made my way to you with strong arms, through many enemies and strange lands, that I might carry back much to them. I go back with both arms broken and empty. The two fathers who came with me-the braves of many winters and wars-we leave asleep here by your great water. They were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore out. My people sent me to get the white man's Book of Heaven. You took me where they worship the Great Spirits with candles, and the Book was not there. You showed me the images of good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the Book was not among them. I am going back the long sad trail to my people of the dark land. You make my feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them. When I tell my poor blind people after one more snow, in the big council, that I did not bring the book, no word will be spoken by our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to the other hunting grounds. No white man will go with them, and no white man's book to make the way plain to them. I have no more words."
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Prof. William I. Marshall of Chicago, who has, with marvel- ous patience and industry, hunted out and copied everything written or published in regard to the Whitman Mission, says that this speech, in a much abridged form, first appeared in the Walla Walla "Statesman" of February 16, 1866. It was then given on the authority of Rev. H. H. Spalding, who claimed to have received it from the surviving member of the original party of four. It next appeared four years later in the "Advance," a religious paper published in Chicago. Since then it has been widely reprinted in histories of Ore- gon and other books, in which it is claimed to have been taken down by a clerk in General Clark's office, as it was interpreted to the general at the time of its delivery.
It may be stated generally in regard to all these perversions of the original account of the visit of these Indians to St. Louis, that none of them appeared until long after the mis- sionaries who were attracted to Oregon by it had gone there, and until some of them had died and several others had returned to the East. Not one of them mentions any such thing as a demand for the Bible or any book in any letter, journal or other writing until years after the event. Dr. Samuel Parker, who was sent out by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions-the organization which subsequently sent Whitman, Spalding, Eells, Walker, Smith and Gray to Oregon-and with whom Whitman traveled as far as the fur traders' rendezvous on Green River, and who made the remainder of the journey to the Columbia River with a company of Nez Perce Indians, to whom he preached regularly every Sunday, and with whom he held many conversations on religious subjects, does not mention it. The Indians spoke to him often of their pleasure at hav- ing "a man near to God," with them. They were delighted
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with the prospect that they were to have teachers, but if they ever spoke of the Bible, or their wish to get it, he has made no mention of the fact.
And this is not strange. They had never seen a printed page or word : they could make no use of a book if they had one. They could not possibly know what a bible was or meant. If shown to them or explained to them, they would get no other idea of it than that it was some charm, or medi- cine, or fetich of some sort, that might have some hidden power to do them good. They were not seeking something of that kind. They were making a far more sincere and intelligent inquiry. They were looking for somebody to teach them, by means that they could understand. The desire to know, which is in every healthy human mind, had been awakened and greatly quickened in theirs, by such teaching as they had received, or by the reports they had heard of people who were better informed than they were, and they were making use of the best and only means they knew, to increase their own knowledge.
The first response to this call from the wilderness for religious instruction, was made by the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Urged to activity by the preaching and writing of Rev. Wilbur Fisk, and other more or less eminent ministers of that communion, this board, very soon after the appearance of Walker's letter, asked for volunteer missionaries to go to Oregon. It also appropriated three thousand dollars to provide for their outfit and transpor- tation. Rev. Jason Lee, and his nephew Daniel Lee, who were members of the New England conference, though then living in Canada, were the first to tender their services. Their offer was accepted and the former was appointed super- intendent of the mission. The mission board also authorized
FORT VANCOUVER.
The famous stronghold of Dr. John McLoughlin on the Columbia. From 1824 to 1846, as the head- quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, it was in fact the capital of the coast.
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the employment of two lay members, and Cyrus Shepherd of Lynn, Massachusetts, and P. L. Edwards of Richmond, Missouri, were selected. Courtney N. Walker of the latter place was also hired for one year.
Jason Lee was admirably fitted, both by nature and by his experience and education, for an undertaking of this kind. He had been born on a farm in a part of New England which was still but thinly peopled, and had early removed with his family to an unsettled part of Canada. All his earlier experience had been that of a farmer. He had been fairly educated, and while still young had been licensed to preach. He had already done missionary work, and was thoroughly imbued with the missionary spirit. Tall and strong phys- ically, zealous in spirit, patient and hopeful, he seemed to be efficiently equipped to teach the Indians in things practical as well as spiritual.
As soon as possible after the matters pertaining to their employment had been arranged, the two Lees repaired to Boston to consult with Captain Wyeth, who had only recently returned from his first trip to Oregon. They found that he was already preparing to send the brig May Dacre to the Columbia River, and that he proposed to lead a party across the continent during the following year. They arranged with him to send their outfit by his ship and to travel over- land in his company.
On the 28th of April following, the small missionary party left Independence, Missouri, with the second Wyeth expedi- tion, and arrived at Fort Vancouver on the 13th of the follow- ing September. At Fort Walla Walla they left their horses and were sent down the river in Hudson's Bay Company boats. At Fort Vancouver they were given a most cordial and hearty welcome. They found that the school which
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John Ball had established at the fort two years earlier, and which Solomon Smith had continued, had prospered, and that another had been started by Smith at French Prairie, for the education of the children of the ex-employees of the Company who had settled there. The chief factor was anx- ious to have both these schools continued, and he welcomed the opportunity thus offered to have religious instruction provided, both for the people at the fort and for those at the settlement, in whom he always retained a kindly interest. On the first Sunday after the party arrived, the first religious service, in regular form with prayer and sermon, was held at Vancouver, and as a result of it one hundred and thirty dollars were contributed by the chief factor and other officers and employees of the Company, for the establishment of the mission.
While the original purpose of this first missionary party undoubtedly was to carry religious instruction to those who had asked for it, it was changed after a conference with Dr. McLoughlin. The Nez Perces lived more than three hun- dred miles east of Fort Vancouver, and the Flatheads still farther away. They were more or less nomadic tribes, the chief factor said, and if the missionaries went to live among them it would be impossible to make settled homes, teach them to cultivate the ground, and to live more comfortably than they had been accustomed to do, and at the same time to give them religious instruction. They would also be so far away from any of the Hudson's Bay stations, that the Company would be unable to afford them protection, or to give them the assistance they could give if they established themselves in some more convenient locality, where there was equally good opportunity for missionary work, and where the Company could readily reach them in time of need.
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Dr. McLoughlin was undoubtedly anxious to have them settle near the little colony which he had established at French Prairie. These ex-employees had long been anxious for reli- gious advantages, and while they were all Catholics, and these missionaries could not offer them the kind of service with which they were familiar, or the consolation they would require in case of death, they could at least instruct their children and rescue them from the barbarism which every- where surrounded them.
After reflecting upon the advice given by Dr. McLoughlin, Lee changed his plans, and accepted the doctor's advice to establish himself on the Willamette. Accordingly, with the assistance of the Company's boats, manned by its employ- ees, the missionaries removed their goods from the May Dacre which had already arrived. They ascended the Willamette River for a distance of about sixty miles, and on the 6th of October 1834, established the first regular missionary station in the Oregon country. A building thirty-two by eighteen feet was soon ready for their occupancy, and a manual labor school was immediately opened for the Indian children. This school throve, and in the second year following addi- tional buildings were provided. Mr. Shepherd also reëstab- lished the school at Ft. Vancouver. The usual religious services were regularly held. These were attended not only by the settlers and their families but by a large number of Indians. Farming was also begun and such of the Indians, both old and young, as could be induced to receive instruc- tion of that kind, were taught how to clear the ground and to plant and cultivate it. The missionaries themselves worked in their fields, instructed their assistants, and shared the productions of their labor with the Indians. They also taught them both by precept and by example, so
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far as they could be taught, how to live more cleanly and comfortably, to clothe themselves more properly, and to abandon some of the more objectionable practices of their savage life.
In their farming enterprises the missionaries were assisted by the chief factor, with seeds of every kind for planting, with such farming implements as he was able to provide, and with a loan of cattle. He was still watching the increase of his small herd of domestic animals with jealous care, and never willingly parted with any of them. He realized that the missionaries would have urgent need for them, and for this he provided by loan, always arranging that the Company should have the increase. Subsequent experience demon- strated the wisdom of this prudent management, since it enabled the Company to provide more liberally than other- wise would have been possible, for the wants of the settlers, when they began to come more numerously, and to protect them from extortion.
Two years after the mission had been thus established Dr. Elijah White and wife, Dr. William H. Willson, Alanson Beers and wife and the Misses Downing and Johnson arrived. They had sailed from Boston in June 1836, in a whaling vessel, by which they had reached the Sandwich Islands and had come thence in one of the Hudson's Bay Company's ships. In September still another party arrived. It was composed of Rev. David Leslie and family, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and Miss M. J. Smith. On Christmas following a general meeting of these missionaries and lay members was held, at which the Oregon Missionary Society was formed. A new station at the Dalles, among the Wasco Indians, to be called Wascopam, was arranged for and Revs. Leslie and Perkins were assigned to it. It was decided also that
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Superintendent Lee should go east to solicit aid for, and an increase of, this missionary force.
In the following March Lee, accompanied by two Indian youths and P. L. Edwards, returned to the States, in accor- dance with this arrangement. As soon as he reached the settlements he began to hold meetings, which were every- where largely attended. He visited most of the northern States and everywhere was given an eager hearing. His Indian companions attracted much attention, and the short addresses they were able to make assisted greatly to arouse interest in his work, and procure the assistance he asked for. So successful were his efforts during the winter of 1838-39, that more than forty thousand dollars were contributed, or appropriated by the mission board, for the advancement of his work. A considerable supply of agricultural implements, trading goods, and the machinery for a saw and grist mill were purchased and forwarded by sea, and on the 9th of October, 1839, fifty-two persons sailed from New York in the ship Lausanne, commanded by Captain Spalding, for the Columbia. Prominent among these were Revs. J. H. Frost, A. F. Walker, W. W. Kone, L. H. Judson, Josiah L. Parrish, J. P. Richmond and Gustavus Hines, Dr. I. L. Bab- cock, physician, George Abernethy-afterwards the first provisional governor-steward and accountant, Messrs. W. W. Raymond, H. B. Brewer, James Olley, H. Campbell, and their families, and Misses Ware, Clark, Phelps and Lankton, teachers. There were sixteen children in this party. They arrived at Fort Vancouver on June 1, 1840, and on the 13th a general meeting of the mission was held at which Mr. Frost was assigned to open a missionary station at Clatsop, Messrs. Hines and Kone to a station on the Ump- qua, and Dr. Richmond to Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound,
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where David Leslie and W. H. Willson had already made a visit, held religious services and arranged to establish a per- manent missionary station.
This addition to the little missionary colony, which was subsequently known as the great reinforcement, together with J. S. Griffin and Ashael Munger, who had been sent out the year before as independent missionaries, by a Con- gregational church in Connecticut, increased its numbers to seventy-five persons, twenty of whom were children. A few months later Rev. Harvey Clark and wife, Rev. Alvan T. Smith and wife, and M. P. B. Littlejohn and wife arrived. They, like Griffin and Munger, were Congregationalists, and came out in the confident hope that the Indians would gladly adopt habits of civilization, as soon as they were shown its superior advantages, and provide them a living in return for the instruction they were prepared to give. It was this party who left the wagons at Fort Hall which Newell, Meek, Wilkins and Ermatinger subsequently brought through to the Columbia River.
The hope of these missionaries that the Indians would easily be prevailed upon to give up their savage and precari- ous mode of living, and adopt the habits and customs of civil- ized life, with their surer rewards and superior comforts, was never realized. That they had some reason to cherish such a hope cannot be doubted, when the incident which first drew their attention toward them is remembered. But the Indians west of the Cascades had taken no part in sending the delegation to St. Louis in search of religious instruction. They were as ignorant of it as the Esquimaux or the inhabi- tants of Patagonia. Had they known about it, or taken part in it, the case would probably not have been far different, for the experience of Whitman and Spalding, and of Eells and
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Walker, among the tribes who had been concerned in, or knew about the sending of the delegation, as we shall see in a succeeding chapter, was not such as to justify the belief that they had any very clear idea of what they were sending to seek. They seemed to want light. But they did not want nor were they willing to receive anything that required them to abandon their lazy and indolent habits. They were will- ing to be entertained. They would listen to bible stories as attentively as children, but they could not comprehend the plan of redemption. They had no words in their lan- guage in which the great doctrines of Christianity could be expressed, and therefore no such ideas as words of that kind express, nor could they be made to conceive or comprehend them. No effort of mind or body that did not produce imme- diate and practical rewards seemed worth the making, nor could they be interested in any future rewards that were not of the kind they wished to receive and enjoy. Senator Nesmith has left an entertaining account of a service he attended at the Willamette Falls, sometime after he arrived in Oregon in 1843, ten years or more after the mission was established. There were about three hundred Indians pres- ent. The missionary spoke to them in the Chinook jargon. "He dwelt strongly on the efficacy of prayer," says the senator, "and illustrated its benefits by pointing out the superior physical comforts enjoyed by the white people over the savages, in habitation, food and clothing, and told them that they might enjoy similar benefits by its practice." The poverty of the jargon, which at that time consisted of no more than two hundred and fifty or three hundred words, made it impossible to convey to their minds very clearly what he wished to say, and he was compelled to illustrate his meaning, so well as he was able, by comparing the benefits
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