Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/197

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be remembered no one had visited the mission since the rescue of the captives, whose stories contained only their personal experiences, colored by personal prejudices.

Colonel Gilliam with two companies first visited the mission grounds, and on the third moved his camp to the ruins. The bodies of the dead had been unearthed by wolves, and lay about, half devoured. Some of Mrs. Whit man s hair was cut off and preserved by the messengers to Washington, Meek, Newell, and others, and the remains remterred. l!) Says Newell, " papers, books, letters, iron, and many other things lay about the premises. Wagon wheels and other property had been placed in the house before it was burned. I got some letters, and many laid about in the water." That these letters, which would have thrown much light on grave questions, were not religiously pre served, is proof of a want of proper forethought and dis cipline. They were carelessly read, discussed, and de stroyed, the only scrap of information that floated from them to the public ear being the statement that proof was found in them that Dr. Whitman was fully warned and aware of his danger.

Colonel Gilliam called a council of his army officers on the third, and the other peace commissioners speedily dis covered that the military spirit in their associate was un able to brook the evidences of savage malevolence which the scene of Waiilatpu presented. " The commissioners/ sa}*s Newell, "have no chance to arrange with the In dians; we are short of provisions and time; our colonel is quite hasty." That day a fortification was commenced, constructed out of the adobes of the ruined houses; and

lodges in our vicinity there are between fifty and seventy warriors, and I am not cer tain of their entire friendship; in fact, they cannot be relied upon. They are daily asking for passes to go to Fort Vancouver, but of late we have refused them any, believing their intentions are not good ": Oregon Archives, 1013.

19 It seems from Newell s journal, that Dr. and Mrs. Whitman were at first interred together, " with a paling around them, nicely done ; " and a board fence around the mound which held the other dead. These enclosures were probably constructed by the men who were spared, during their month of captivity. The mutilated remains found by the volunteers were hastily placed in the ground all together.