Page:Our First Indian War.djvu/6

Rh part of the return cargoes, supplemented, ere long, when the herds and flocks of the company had grown to immense proportions, by hides, tallow and wool. The profits that enured to the company from this monopoly made its stock the most sought after of any in the London market. When the missionaries learned that mails had arrived at Walla Walla they would start there on horseback with a pack animal to carry blankets and supplies. It took Mr. Eells two weeks to make the round trip of four hundred miles. The letters and papers were usually twelve months old.

Enduring these privations without complaint, and surrounded at all times by dangers from the elements, wild animals and treacherous Indians, this little band, widely separated from each other, year after year, carried on their labors among the Cayuses and Nez Perces.

For a time they were greatly encouraged over the apparent success of their efforts in Christianizing and civilizing the Indians around them, but about 1841, from many causes, the natives changed from their general attitude of kindliness and apparent zeal to learn to read and to understand the lessons taught them by the missionaries, and became insolent and threatening in their demeanor. The mission schools were abandoned, and thefts and acts of petty violence were frequent. From 1843 t0 1847 the Cayuses and most of the Nez Perces retrograded rather than improved in education and civilization. During the latter part of this period the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, who understood thoroughly the ins and outs of Indian character, often advised and entreated Doctor Whitman to abandon his work at Waiilatpu. The latter undoubtedly realized the dangers surrounding him, as he advised the immigrants to use the utmost discretion in their intercourse with the Indians. There is abundant evidence of record that he knew he stood over a powder magazine that was liable to explode at any time, but he was of the stuff from which martyrs are made and felt that duty commanded him to remain at his post at all hazards.

Of the immigration of 1847, about fifty remained at the mission station instead of going down to the Willamette valley. These, added to the mission party, made up a total of about seventy.

On the afternoon of November 29th of that year, the Cayuses made a sudden onslaught on these people and killed Doctor and Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Rogers, John and Francis Sager, Mr. Gilli-