Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/455



THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OP OREGON liOT

Fifteen clays later on August 27tli, the iniiuiy:ratioii ;iiiived at i"'oit Hall. Of the route up to this point Burnett writes: "Up to this point the route over which we had passed was perliaps the finest natural road of the same length to be found in the world. Only a few loaded wagons had ever made their way (o Fort Hall and were there abandoned. Dr. Whitman was at the fort and was our l)ilot from there to the Grande Ronde, where he left us in charge of an Indian l)ilot; whose name was Stiekus, and who proved to be faithful and competent.

■'We had now arrived at the most critical period in our journey, and we had many misgivings as to our ultimate success in making our way with our wagons, teams and families. We had yet to acomplish the untried and difficult portion of our long and exhaustive journey. We could not anticipate at what moment we should be compelled to abandon our wagons in the mountains, pack our scant supplies upon our poor oxen and make our way on foot through the terrible rough country as best we could. We fully comprehended the situation; but we never faltered in our inflexible determination to accomplish the trip ; if within the limits of possibility, with the limited resources at our command, Dr. Whit- man assured us we could succeed, and encouraged and aided us with every means in his power."

Tliis from Burnett's "Recollections"' was not so much a forecast of the trip as a description of what it proved to be. Others who had passed over the trail by which they must go represented its manifold difficulties and perils, and did not hesitate to present in the strongest terms the obstacles to their taking wagons successfully over it. It was to the minds of the hardy mountaineers a trail for a pack train only, and a dilificult one at that. It was no wagon road over which a company of a thousand men, women and children could hope successfully to pass, taking their wagons as they had come thus far. Whitman, howevei', al- though knowing the difficulties, was confident that it could be done, and his counsel prevailed. The emigration left Fort Hall August 30th, and reached the Whitman mission the 10th of October. Whitman had left the company in charge of a skillful Indian pilot when he saw it safely pass Fort Hall, and was already at the mission on its arrival. He there had the gratification of seeing encamped near the banks of the Columbia the largest immigration that had ever entered Oregon, and as he looked on it with its unbroken families, with their wagons and goods and herds, having successfully passed through all the difficulties and perils of the journey, he knew that the road to Oregon, was now fully open. In his let- ter to the Secretary of War a few weeks later, he writes :

"The government will now doubtless for the first time be apprised through you and by means of this comnuinication. of the immense migration of families to Oregon which has taken place this year. I have, since our interview, been instrumental in piloting across the route described in the accompanying bill, and which is the only eligible wagon road, no less than one hundred families con- sisting of one thousand persons of both sexes, with their wagons, amounting in all to more than one hundred and twenty and ninety-four oxen, seven hundred and seventy-three loose cattle."

"The immigrants are from different states, but principally from Missouri. Ar- kansas. Illinois and New York. The majority of them are farmers, lured by the prospect of bounty in lands, by the reported fertility of the soil, and by the de- sire to be the first among those who are planting our institutions on the Pacific