A History of Oregon, 1792-1849. W. H. Gray
at one thousand millions of dollars and thirty-seven thousand lives of our citizens, not counting the lives of Indians destroyed by our American wars with them. If the reader will carefully read and candidly judge of the historical facts presented in the following pages, we have no fears but they will join us in our conclusions, that the Monroe doctrine is irrevocably and of necessity fixed in our American existence as a nation at peace with all, which we can not have so long as any foreign sectarian or political organizations are permitted to have a controlling influence over savage minds. A Frenchman, an Englishman, a Mormon, a Roman priest, any one, or all of them, fraternizing as they do with the Indian, can work upon his prejudices and superstitions and involve our country in an Indian war—which secures the Indian trade to the British fur company. This is the great object sought to be accomplished in nearly all the wars our government has had with them.
One other remarkable fact is noted in all our Indian wars, the American or Protestant missionaries have been invariably driven from among those tribes, while the Roman Jesuit missionaries have been protected and continued among the Indians, aiding and counseling them in the continuance of those wars. It is no new thing that ignorance, superstition, and sectarian hate has produced such results upon the savage mind, and our Oregon history shows that a shrewd British fur company can duly appreciate and make use of just such influences to promote and perpetuate their trade on the American continent.
CHAPTER XIII.
Occupants of the country.—Danger to outsiders.—Description of missionaries.
In 1832, this entire country, from the Russian settlement on the north to the gulf of California on the south, the Rocky Mountains on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west, was under the absolute and undisputed control of the Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company; and the said company claimed and exercised exclusive civil, religious, political, and commercial jurisdiction over all this vast country, leaving a narrow strip of neutral territory between the United States and their assumed possessions, lying between the Rocky Mountains and the western borders of Missouri. Its inhabitants were gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Company—their clerks, traders, and servants—consisting mostly of Canadian-French, half-breeds, and natives.
Occasionally, when a venturesome Yankee ship or fur trader entered any of the ports of the aforesaid country for trade, exploration, or settlement, this honorable company asserted its licensed and exclusive right to drive said vessel, trader, explorer, or settler from it. Should he be so bold as to venture to pass the trained bands of the wild savages of the mountains, or, even by accident, reach the sacred trading-ground of this company, he was helped to a passage out of it, or allowed to perish by the hand of any savage who saw fit to punish him for his temerity.
While this exclusive jurisdiction was claimed and exercised by the company, four wild, untutored Indians of the Flathead tribe learned from an American trapper, who had strayed into their country, that there was a Supreme Being, worthy of worship, and that, by going to his country, they could learn all about him. Four of these sons of the wilderness found their way to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1832. Mr. Catlin, a celebrated naturalist and artist, I believe not a member of any religious sect, learned the object that had brought these red men from the mountains of Oregon, and gave the fact to the religious public.
This little incident, though small in itself, resulted in the organization, in 1833, of the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the appointment of Rev. Jason Lee and associates, to the establishment of the Methodist Mission in the Wallamet Valley in 1834, the appointment of Rev. Samuel Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman, by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to explore the country in 1835, and the establishment of a mission by said Board in 1836.
Rev. Jason Lee, of Stansted, Canada East, a man of light hair, blue eyes, fair complexion, spare habit, above ordinary height, a little stoop-shouldered, with strong nerve and indomitable will, yet a meek, warm-hearted, and humble Christian, gaining by his affable and easy manners the esteem of all who became acquainted with him, was the first to volunteer.
Rev. Daniel Lee, a nephew of Jason, was the second;—the opposite of the former in every particular—of medium height. The general impression of outsiders was, that his moral qualities were not of the highest order, yet it is not known that any specific charges were ever brought against him.
Cyrus Shepard, a lay member, was a devoted Christian, and a faithful laborer for the advancement of the objects of the mission and the general welfare of all in the country. We have never learned that he had an enemy or a slanderer while he lived in it. On his first arrival he taught the Hudson’s Bay Company’s school at Vancouver, consisting of children belonging to persons in the employ of the company, till the mission buildings were ready, when he gathered a large school of Indian and French half-breed children, and was quite successful in teaching the rudiments of an English education. Rev. D. Lee and Mr. Shepard were from New England.
Mr. P. L. Edwards, of Missouri, also a lay member, was of the company. But little is known of him; the inducements to become a permanent settler in the country do not appear in his case.
Rev. Samuel Parker, of Ithaca, New York, a man of good education and refinement, and exceedingly set in his opinions and conclusions of men and things, came to explore the country, and report to the American Board as to the feasibility of establishing missions among the Indians, one of the missionaries of the American Board, from the Sandwich Islands, having visited the coast in an American ship, several years previous, and made an unfavorable report on account of the fur-trade influence against American traders, giving the impression that American missionaries would not be tolerated in the country.
Mr. Parker was inclined to self-applause, requiring his full share of ministerial approbation or respect, though not fully qualified to draw it cheerfully from an audience or his listeners; was rather fastidious.
Dr. Marcus Whitman, of Rushville, New York, sent in company with Mr. Parker to explore the country. A man of easy, don’t-care habits, that could become all things to all men, and yet a sincere and earnest man, speaking his mind before he thought the second time, giving his views on all subjects without much consideration, correcting and changing them when good reasons were presented, yet, when fixed in the pursuit of an object, adhering to it with unflinching tenacity. A stranger would consider him fickle and stubborn, yet he was sincere and kind, and generous to a fault, devoting every energy of his mind and body to the welfare of the Indians and objects of the mission; seldom manifesting fears of any danger that might surround him, at times he would become animated and earnest in his argument or conversation. In his profession he was a bold practitioner, and generally successful. He was above medium height; of spare habit; peculiar hair, a portion of each being white and a dark brown, so that it might be called iron-gray; deep blue eyes, and large mouth.
The peculiarities of Messrs. Parker and Whitman were such, that, when they had reached the rendezvous on Green River, in the Rocky Mountains, they agreed to separate; not because Dr. Whitman was not willing and anxious to continue the exploring expedition, in company with Mr. Parker, but because Mr. P. could not “put up” with the off-hand, careless, and, as he thought, slovenly manner in which Dr. Whitman was inclined to travel. Dr. W. was a man that could accommodate himself to circumstances; such as dipping the water from the running stream with his hand, to drink; having but a hunter’s knife (without a fork) to cut and eat his food; in short, could rough it without qualms of stomach.
Rev. Mr. Parker had left a refined family circle, and his habits had become somewhat delicate from age and long usage in comfortable and agreeable society; hence his peculiar habits were not adapted to Rocky Mountain travel in those early days. Still, the great object on which they were sent must not be lost sight of. Their sense of moral obligation was such, that a reason must be given why Dr. Whitman returns to the States, and Mr. Parker proceeds alone on his perilous journey to this then unknown country. Here again the wild Indian comes in, by instinct, order, or providence (as the unbeliever may choose to call it), and offers to take charge of this delicate old gentleman, and carries him in triumph through the Rocky Mountains, and