Page:The American Catholic Historical Researches, vols. 16 and 17.djvu/213

191 The appearance of Catholic missionaries also troubled Whitman. Fathers F. N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers arrived in Oregon in 1838. The latter had been among the Cayuses and many of them were baptized by him. In 1840, Father De Smet, S. J., went among the Flatheads, and in a journey to Fort Vancouver visited the Cayuses also. Whitman was of the opinion that if the missions at Wailatpu and Lapwai were abandoned they would be occupied by the Catholics. The danger of having his missions superseded by Catholic missions appeared imminent to him, and when the orders of the American Board were received, he called a conference of all the Presbyterian missionaries at Wailatpu, and proposed to them that he should go East immediately. There was some objections at first, but on Whitman's saying he would go any way, his Journey was endorsed. Gray, Spalding and Eells said, many years afterward, that the object of this Journey was to save Oregon to the United States and bring out immigrants to settle the country, but Whitman never said so. Writing to the American Board four years after, he said: "In the fall of 1842, I pointed out to our mission the arrangements of the Papists to settle here, which might oblige us to retire. This was urged as a reason why I should return and try to bring out men to carry on the secular work of the missionary stations, and others to settle in the country on the footing of citizens but not of missionaries. You will please receive this as an explanations of many of my opinions and much of my policy." Here the reason for his Journey was clearly stated, and it was to forestall the arrangements of the "Papists" for settling in that country.

Without naming anything which Whitman did, Peter H. Burnett, who went to Oregon in 1843, and who joined the Catholic Church the next year, speaking of Whitman after his death, said: "In my best judgement he made greater sacrifices, endured more hardships and encountered more perils for Oregon than any other one man, and his services were practically more efficient than any other, except, perhaps, those of Dr. Linn, United States Senator from Missouri. I say perhaps, for I am in doubt which of these two men did more in effect for Oregon."—(Recollections of an Old Pioneer, p. 249.)

A. L. Lovejoy went to Oregon with White's party in 1842, arriving there late in September. He returned with Whitman, starting on the third of October. Lovejoy says that on his arrival near the mission on his way to the Willamette, Whitman visited him and wished him to draw up a "memorial to Congress to prohibit the sale of ardent spirits in this country." Before they started on their Journey East, he says he had many