Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/707

656 story. Peupeumoxmox added, with true Indian cunning, that the priests pronounced the diseases from which they were suffering an affliction from God on account of their heresy; knowing well the fever into which such a statement would throw Spalding, and probably deriving as much pleasure from it as a good Methodist or Catholic could do.

During the night of Spalding's visit, a niece of Peupeumoxmox died, and he conducted the funeral services at the fort next day, when he met Brouillet and his associates, also there on a visit, with whom he conversed on the manner of teaching by the 'Catholic ladder.' During the forenoon of the 27th he returned to Waiilatpu, where a messenger soon appeared from the camps of Five Crows and Tauitau, desiring the presence of Dr Whitman among their sick, a summons which the doctor with his customary alacrity obeyed. On this journey of thirty miles or more, Spalding accompanied him. It is easy to believe the latter when he says that as they rode they talked, far into the night, of their past trials and triumphs, and their present insecurity; or even that Whitman uttered the words put into his mouth, "If I am to fall by Roman Catholic influence, I believe my death will do as much good to Oregon as my life can." He was a man capable of such a declaration.