Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/53

Rh importance of giving the most frequent English characters, to the most frequent sounds in the native language, by missionaries who have not the command of their printing, I received from a missionary east of the mountains. Mr. Pickering's objections to the c & x seem valid as their place can be supplied by k & s & ks. To Mr. P/s objections of substituting the letter u, or letters oo, for w, another might be added, it would give those characters more than one sound, a fundamental principle laid down by him at the out set (see page 1 & 2) & a principle by which I have been guided. But his method of disposing of qu, in my opinion, conflicts with the above important principle, at least so far as this & the English language are concerned. It gives more than one sound to the letter u, an evil to be deprecated far more than the addition of dozen new characters to the alphabet, each having but one sound. Could you hear the Nez-Perces words, Kui & Qrfs sounded, you would see the impossibility of making ku take the place of Q & still the u retain its own sound—The following english words, Quiet & Kumiss may explain what I mean. To give the ku in Kumiss the sound of qu in Quiet would make a word which could not be pronounced or if pronounced would be a very different word from ku-miss. I object to points & dashes above or below letters, as such letters are always more difficult to learr. & manage, expecially by untutored eyes, than twice the number of new characters. For instance, a child will learn & read a word with a & l in it easier than with a & ä in it."

A spelling book and an elementary book were soon prepared by Mr. Spalding to be forwarded to Honolulu to be printed on the presses of the Mission there. According to the Rev. Myron Eells, Mrs. Whitman copied a book of seventy-two pages, which Mr. Spalding intended to send to the Sandwich Islands.

Meanwhile, at the delegate meeting of the Hawaiian Mission, in June, 1838, it was voted in reply to Mr. Spalding's communication:

""That we comply with his request to print small books for the Nez Perces missions and also forward a few copies of scripture and other cuts; also a Ramage press and small font of types from Lahainaluna, at the discretion of the printer there.""

They discouraged Mr. Spalding's suggestion that he should send a man on from Oregon to be instructed in printing and