Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/140



It is recorded in the sworn statements of some of the captives, after their arrival in the Wallamet valley, that they had said from the first, " The Catholics are at the bottom of it." Yet why should they think that the Catholics were responsible? They had been but a short time in the coun try, and did not have an intelligent view of the situation of affairs if the} 7 had understood them, they would not have remained. The priests had been in the country even a less time, and few, if any, of the immigrants had seen them. Miss Bewley, who was an inmate of the doctor s family, when questioned, under oath, whether she ever heard Dr. Whitman express any fears concerning the Catholics, replied: "Only once; the doctor said at table, Now I shall have trouble; these priests are coming. Mrs. Whitman asked : Have the Indians let them have land? He said: I think they have. Mrs. Whitman said: It s a wonder they do not come and kill ns. This land was out of sight of the doctor s as you come this way (west of the station). When the Frenchman was talking at Uma- tilla of going to build a house there, he said it was a prettier station than the doctor s."

What was there in this testimony to establish a criminal intent on the part of the priests? Mrs. Whitman, when she said -"it is a wonder they do riot come and kill us," was not speaking of the priests, but of the Indians, and knew far better than Miss Bewley whereof she spoke. And this was all that the witnesses among the captives had to say of their actual knowledge of the state of Dr. Whitman s mind; the rest was surmise, and the gossip of idle people full of fears.

Poor wretches! they were witnesses to murder the most foul ; to the theft and destruction of their property, and to personal indignities the most indecent and cruel. 20 They

20 Great stress has been laid by some writers upon the fact that the Catholic priests did not interfere to save Miss Bewley from the arms of Five Crows ; but from her own evidence this chief sought to rescue her from indiscriminate abuse by taking her to himself. Tn a deposition taken at Oregon City, February 7, 1S49, the question was asked; " Did you have evidence that it was necessary for Hezekiah