Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/463



TJIE CHNTKXNIAL IllSTol.'V OF |;K(.\ ;]03

assiii'cd l)criii-cli;iii(l tliiit ;i l;ii'j;-r iiiiiiiij,n';itin. l;irgcT lliiiii ;iiiy before, wiiiild as- semble ill the spring of 18-i;i, and start for Oregon. Immigrants of the year be- fore had bronght this word. Whitman had received it before he had even de- cided npon his jonrney. He had bnt little directly to do with gathering the com- pany, fnrtlier than to tirop encouraging words here and there in the western states as he journeyed eastward. His main purpose in connection with it was, as he says, to secure its safe conduct, in a manner as satisfactory as possible to the immigrant, but especially that at Port Hall they should not be induced to turn aside to California, or to leave their cattle and wagons behind for fear of the difficulties of the road beyond this point. He wished nothing to prevent the safe arrival of the whole body with wagons and stock on the Columbia, so that when the word went back, as he intended to make sure that it did, both the government and the people of the east should know that a highway for immigration \\as now fully open through the mountains into the Oregon country.

These then were Whitman's chief objects in that winter ride. There were others incidental and subsidiary to these. One was to get reinforcements for liis mission, if not of commissioned missionaries, at least of such families as would settle near the mission and aid in furthering its purpose. Another was to secure an appropriation from the secret service fund of the government to aid in the support of schools among the native tribes, and still another was to induce the government to send sheep and cattle to the Indians. In a letter to his brother written from the Shawnee mission May 27, 1843, on the eve of his joining the emigrants in the westward journey, he writes :

"Sheep and cattle, but especially sheep, are indispensabje for Oregon to Oregon than soldiers. We want to get sheep and stock from the government for the Indians instead of money for their lands. 1 have written of the main in- terests of the Indian country.
 * * * I mean to impress <he Secretary of War that sheep are more important

'"My plan, you know, was to get funds for founding schools and to have good people come along as settlers and teachers, while others might have sheep of their own along also.

This passage in Whitman's letter is explained by a letter of the brother- in-law to whom he wrote, J. G. Prentiss. Mr. Prentiss says: "His project was, so far as the Indians were concerned, to induce the government to pay them off for their lands in sheep and leave them to be a herding people. Hence in his letter to me he wrote about a secret fund controlled by the cabinet."

In seeking to draw upon this fund for the Indians he was but following the IMethodist and the Catholics in their several missions. All seemed to feel jus- tified in drawing upon this fund to aid them in their secular work for those whom they justly regarded as the nation's wards.

Of the three main objects of his journey Whitman seems to have regarded the safe conduct of the immigration on his return as the most important, pos- sibly because it proved to be the most obviously fruitful of results. Nor did he overestimate the importance of the success of that immigration. Ten times larger than any former immigration, oiunbered with wagons and herds besides, it might easily have ended in disaster. But if successful it insured still larger immigrations in the future, and would satisfy those cautious and hesitating statesmen who were waiting to be shown that Ort'gon was accessible liefoi'c vot-