Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/240



"The government will now doubtless for the first time be apprised through you, and by means of this communication, of the immense migration of families to Oregon which has taken place this year. I have, since our interview, been instrumental in piloting across the route described in the accompanying bill, and which is the only eligible wagon road, no less than one hundred families, consisting of one thousand persons of both sexes, with their wagons, amounting in all to more than one hundred and twenty, six hundred and ninety-four oxen, seven hundred and seventy-three loose cattle." . ..

"The immigrants are from different states, but principally from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and New York. The majority of them are farmers, lured by the prospect of bounty in lands, by the reported fertility of the soil, and by the desire to be the first among those who are planting our institutions on the Pa- cific coast. Among them are artisans of every trade, comprising, with farmers, the very best material for a new colony. As pioneers these people have un- dergone incredible hardships, and having now safely passed the Blue mountain range with their wagons and effects, have established a durable road from Mis- souri to Oregon, which will serve to mark permanently the route for larger numbers, each succeeding year, while they have practically demonstrated that wagons drawn by horses or oxen can cross the Rocky mountains to the Co- lumbia river, contrary to all the sinister assertions of all those who pretended it to be impossible."

The note of triumph in this letter may be pardoned Whitman when we re- member how persistently he had labored to bring his wagon over this route when he first came to Oregon, and how firmly he believed in the face of all assertions to the contrary that the trail through the mountains would yet prove to be an open highway for immigrants and their wagons and herds ; and when we remember too, how clearly he saw that the ultimate demonstration of this would bring a solution of the Oregon question favorable to his country. In the great caravan safely encamped on the Columbia he saw with pardonable pride the accomplishment of a cherished hope and of a purpose persisted in for seven years; and full justification of all the hardships and toil he had endured to bring it to a successful accomplishment.

Whitman's satisfaction at the successful accomplishment of this object of his winter journey was not without alloy. On his way he had received news of the burning of his grist-mill, a means he had relied on not only for supplying his and the neighboring missions with flour, but which he had particularly hoped would furnish needed supplies to the immigration of this year. He was to learn too of the outbreak of violent feelings of hostility on the part of the Cayuse In- dians surrounding his mission, which had well-nigh resulted fatally to Mrs. Whitman, and had obliged her to leave their home and seek safety under the hospitable roofs of the Hudson's Bay Company and of neighboring missions.

His presence, however, and the moving on of the immigrants to the Wil- lamette valley soon brought the Indians to a quieter mood, and the affairs of the mission moved on again for a time with even more than their former promise. The mission work was resumed, the school reopened and its num- bers enlarged, the grist-mill was rebuilt, and in addition a saw mill erected, and new efforts were made to induce the Indians to settle down to the pursuits of agriculture and stock raising. But conditions had changed, Whitman felt it, and the Indians showed that they too felt it. It was no longer a matter of doubt to either that the Americans were to have Oregon, and both foresaw that this meant sooner or later the dispossession of the Indian of a large portion of his land. In a letter to his father and mother in the May following his return Whitman gives expression to his view of the changed condition:

"It gives me much pleasure to be back again and quietly at work again for the Indians. It does not concern me so much what is to become of any partic- ular set of Indians, as to give them the offer of salvation through the gospel and the opportunity of civilization, and then I am content to do to all men as