Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/244

 hildren

The causes of the massacre have already been indicated. As years remove us from the event, and passions cool and partisan feeling abates, historians grow less inclined to find in it any purpose other than that of which the Indians under the circumstances already described were of themselves fully capable.

It was the death of the mission at Waiilatpu. The mission was never re- organized, or even sought to be re-established. The Cayuse Indians themselves, decimated by disease and war, became scattered, and soon were lost in other tribes. Estimated by the results of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman's united labors for the Indians the mission can hardly be reckoned among the great missions of the country. Other neighboring missions may justly be regarded as having sur- passed it. But when looked at in its work for passing immigrants and its effect on the fortunes of the Oregon country, the case is altogether different.

Less than four years after the massacre, M. D. Saint-Amant, an envoy of Louis Napoleon's; landed in San Francisco, sent here to explore California and Oregon and to report on the prospect of pushing trade in this region. He came to Oregon soon after his arrival in August and remained several months, push- ing his travels and researches clear into its furthest settlements. He was in Walla Walla in November, 1851, almost on the anniversary of the massacre. While here he made careful and extended reports to his home government of all that he saw and learned while in this region, and on his return published the re- sults of his observations and inquiries. In his book entitled "Voyages en Cali- fomie et Oregon" he has this to say of Wliitman and his mission:

"It (Central Oregon) would be much more advanced but for an event which j imposed upon it a period of arrest. The Reverend Whitman, an American Bap- tist missionary, came and established himself with his family among the different tribes of Walla Walla, almost in the midst of the wilderness. He gained some influence over the Cayuse, the Nez Perces, the Spokane, etc. Having come in advance of the taking of the country by his fellow citizens, he became a very active agent of the American interests and contributed in no small degree to promote annexation ; but in spite of all he did for them, he did not realize that his standing and influence would not always prevail aginst the consequences of the superstition of these savages, and he fell a victim to it with his family. An epidemic spread, and as the Reverend added the art of healing to his pretention to save souls, and as several striking deaths disturbed their feeble and ailing minds, doubts sprang up as to the honesty of Dr. Whitman's purposes, and still more as to the character of his medical knowledge. In short, he was massacred with all his family in 1847."

This is interesting as one of the earliest recorded estimates of Whitman's work for Oregon, and of the causes of his death. It is the judgment of an in- telligent Frenchman — a man experienced in affairs — based upon information ob- tained on the spot from the most intelligent observers of events then in Oregon, the French Catholic missionaries and the representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company. In both points his estimate is likely to be confirmed by the mature judgment of history. As to Whitman's work for Oregon, we have what is likely to be the final verdict in Saint-Amant's brief statement that "he became a very active agent of the American interests and contributed in no small degree to promote annexation." 1

By common consent the culmination of Whitman's exertions for the American I interests in Oregon is considered to have come in the year 1842-43, and to have " centered particularly in his journey to Washington and Boston, and his return with the emigration of that year. Various views of the objects of this celebrated journey have been expressed by historians. That Whitman had several objects in view is now well ascertained. What they were may be gathered partly from con- sidering the main objective points of the journey, partly from official documents, and partly from his and Mrs. Whitman's private correspondence. The main ob- jective points of Whitman's visit were Washington and Boston. These he visited, and beyond reasonable doubt in this order.