Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/115

Rh glass, iron, earthenware, and charcoal—sole evidences that these heaps of earth are not like any mounds of the prairie round about.

A few rods away, on the side of a hill, is a different mound: the common grave of fourteen victims of savage superstition, jealousy, and wrath. It is roughly inclosed by a board fence, and has not a shrub or a flower to disguise its terrible significance. The most affecting reminders of wasted effort which remain on the old mission-grounds are the two or three apple-trees which escaped the general destruction, and the scarlet poppies, which are scattered broadcast through the creek-bottom, near the houses. Sadly significant it is, that the flower whose evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be the only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors of the devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful Indian savagery.

The place is occupied, at present, by one of Dr. Whitman's early friends and co-laborers, who claimed the mission-grounds under the Donation Act, and who was first and most active in founding the seminary to the memory of a Christian gentleman and martyr. On the identical spot where stood the Doctor's residence, now stands the more modern one of his friend; and he seems to take a melancholy pleasure in keeping in remembrance the events of that unhappy time, which threw a gloom over the whole territory west of the Rocky Mountains.

The Walla Walla Valley covers an area of eight thousand square miles, or 5,120,000 acres, and is contained within the boundaries of the Columbia River on the west, the Snake River on the north and east, and the Blue Mountains on the east and south. It occupies a