Page:How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon.djvu/206



The warning questions came thick and fast;

"Do you know that the British will colonize,

If you wait another year, Oregon

And the Northwest, thirty-six times the size

Of Massachusetts?" A courteous stare,

And the Government murmurs: "Ah, indeed!

Pray, why do you think that we should care?

With Indian arrows and mountain snow

Between us, we never can colonize

The wild Northwest from the East you know,

If you doubt it, why, we will let you read

The London Examiner; proofs enough

The Northwest is worth just a pinch of snuff."

And the Board of Missions that sent him out,

Gazed at the worn and weary man

With stern displeasure. "Pray, sir, who

Gave you orders to undertake

This journey hither, or to incur

Without due cause, such great expense

To the Board? Do you suppose we can

Overlook so grave an offense?

And the Indian converts? What about

The little flock, for whose precious sake

We sent you West? Can it be that you

Left them without a shepherd? Most

Extraordinary conduct, sir,

Thus to desert your chosen post."

Ah, well! What mattered it! He had dared

A hundred deaths, in his eager pride,

To bring to his Country at Washington

A message, for which, then, no one cared!

But Whitman could act as well as ride.

The United States must keep the Northwest.

He—whatever might say the rest—

Cared, and would colonize Oregon!

It was October, forty-two,

When the clattering hoof-beats died away