Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/386

 378 SPALDING LETTERS Mrs. Spalding writes in fhe same letter to Mrs. O. and C. Porter : Dear Sisters : Allow me the privilege of addressing you a few lines through the medium of Mr. Spalding's letter, which after reading what he has written respecting the state of my health during the greater part of our journey you doubtless will receive not only as the voice of one from the far West but of one from another world. But bless the Lord with me, dear sisters, for His preserving mercy which has brought our little company through that long and hazardous journey in good health and under favorable circumstances in every respect. Mrs. Whitman and myself have spent our time since the 12th of September at Vancouver in the family of Dr. McLoughlin where we have been favored with all the attentions and luxuries of life desir- able. The principal exercise our situation here affords us is walking in the garden, to which place we frequently resort to feast on apples and grapes, and riding occasionally on horse- back. The riding-horses here are high-spirited, trained to gallop, and a ride of ten or fifteen miles is performed in a very short time. You may think us adepts at performing on horse- back after the experience our late journey has afforded us. I was thrown from my horse twice in consequence of his taking fright and becoming unmanageable, [sic] but received no seri- ous injury. I have been wonderfully and I sometimes almost think miraculously preserved and brought through a journey I often thought I could not survive. Surely the mercies of the journey demand our consumate [sic] gratitude. I long to exchange my present comfortable situation for one among the poor Nez Perces where I can spend the strength which I have wholly regained in laboring to benefit them. I did not leave my friends and all I hold dear and valuable in my native country to reap the comforts and luxuries of life in a land of strangers. No, I trust the only object I had in view in coming to this heathen land was to labor for the temporal and spiritual good of those whose minds are enshrouded in heathen darkness. I long to see their precious souls enlightened and interested in the bless-