Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/706

Rh and the inquisition of the sixteenth century only changes its form according to the time and place of its exhibition. Protestant and Catholic alike believed the other the emissary of Satan, whom to afflict was doing God service. There was a difficulty, however, in the way of the bishop's proselyting: he could communicate with the natives only through an interpreter. Then the Cayuses were very little about the fort while the caravans were passing, being engaged in trading with or stealing from the Americans.

The new-comers had all left the country east of the Cascade Mountains, except the little colony at Waiilatpu; the Catholic mission was established in a house furnished to the priests by Tauitau in the lovely valley of the Umatilla, and quiet reigned throughout the great wilderness of rolling prairie from the Dalles on the Columbia to Lapwai on the Clearwater. Ay, the quiet of death was there, broken only by the wails of the poor savage over the bodies of relatives and friends. Doctor Whitman's heart was full of pity for them, as he rode from camp to camp with medicines and advice, little imagining the sinister meaning attached to his conduct by the Cayuses.

In the month of November Spalding came from Lapwai, accompanied by his daughter Eliza, and a Mr Jackson who was stopping at his mission, bringing a train of horses loaded with grain to be ground at the mill. On the 25th, while en route to Walla Walla with Jackson and Rogers of the Waiilatpu mission, Spalding visited chief Peupeumoxmox, who resided not far from the fort on the Walla Walla River. After the manner of an Indian gossip, the illustrious savage referred to the subject of Catholic missionaries, taking occasion to remark that he had been solicited to give them a place for a station, but that he had refused; and repeating the assertion of Tintinmitsi that the Americans were charged with destroying the Cayuses, but professing not to credit the