A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 53

Soon after the conversation with Bewley, I told Stanfield I must return home; he said I must not, the Indian chiefs would be there after a while and would tell me what I must do; said he did not think I could get off till the next day.

We now commenced making a coffin for one of the Sager children that had died the night before. Soon after, the chief Tilokaikt came. He told me I could not go back till the next day, that he would then send two Indians back with me. I told Stanfield, in the chief's presence, that I had told my folks I should be back on Monday if I came at all. Stanfield told me in reply, that the chief says, "Then you may go;" Stanfield also said, "The chief says tell them all to come down and bring every thing down that is up there; we want them to come down and take care of the families and tend the mill. Tell them, '_Don't undertake to run away; if you do, you will be sure to be killed_;' not be afraid, for they shall not be hurt."

The chief had now done talking. Stanfield now told me to caution them, our people, at the saw-mill, as to _what they should say_; if they said any thing on the subject, "say that the Doctor was a bad man, and was poisoning the Indians." He had also before that told me the same. I got a piece of meat and asked for some salt; but he said there was none about the house; afterward I found this was not the case. I then returned home, and informed our people as to what had taken place, and my father's first reply was, "_The Catholics are at the bottom of it._" Mr. Smith admitted it, but said, immediately, we must all become Catholics for our safety, and before we left the saw-mill, and afterward, he said he believed the Doctor was poisoning, and believed it from what Joe Stanfield had told him before about the Doctor's misusing the half-breeds and children at his mission. The next day, Tuesday, we went down to the mission, and arrived after dark; found the young men, Bewley and Amos Sales, who were sick at the time of the first ma.s.sacre, were both killed, and their bodies were lying outside of the door near the house where they lay during the night, and Stanfield said he could not bury them until he got the permission of the Indians. The next day we helped to bury them.

Here I would say that the two Indians the chief wished to send with me, as he said, to see us safe down, as Stanfield interpreted to me at the time, were the chief's sons, and he wished me to wait because Edward, Tilokaikt's son, had gone to the Umatilla to the _great chief_, to see what to do with the two young men who were sick. This, Stanfield told me, was the business which Edward Tilokaikt had gone for, and he would not get back so as to go with me that day. Three Indians, however, arrived within an hour after I got to the saw-mill, viz., Clark Tilokaikt, Stikas and one whose name I never knew, and came down a part of the way with us next day. I learned from Mrs. Canfield and her daughter, that this same Edward Tilokaikt, after he returned from the Umatilla, gave the first blow with his whip, and broke and run out of doors, when other Indians finished the slaughter of the sick men. While at the station, Joseph Smith threatened me with the Indians if I did not obey him. I felt our condition as bad and very dangerous from the Indians, and feared that Smith would join them. He sometimes talked of going on to the Umatilla to live with them. His daughter was taken by the chief's sons (first Clark, and in the second place, Edward) for a wife. I told Mr. Smith, were I a father, I would never suffer that, so long as I had power to use an arm; his reply was, "You don't know what you would do; I would not dare to say a word if they should take my own wife." I continued to regard our situation as exceedingly dangerous till we got out of the country.

After we had arrived at Wallawalla, I said, in the presence of Mr.

McBean, that I supposed there were present some of the Indians who had killed my brother, and if I knew them I would kill them yet.

Mr. McBean said, "_Take care what you say, the very walls have ears._" He was very anxious to get us safe to the Wallamet.

Q.--Would you suppose one who was acquainted at that place liable to get lost in going that evening to Finlay's lodge?

A.--I would not. It was in sight and a plain path to it, and was not more than twenty-five yards off.

Q.--When did you learn from your brother that Stanfield was going to take Mrs. Hays as a wife?

A.--Some two or more weeks before the ma.s.sacre, something was said as to Mr. Hoffman taking Mrs. Hays. My brother says, "No, I heard Joe Stanfield say that he was going to take her as a wife."

Q.--Did your brother appear to believe that this was about to take place?

A.--He did, and my brother talked about it,--made us believe it was going to take place.

Q.--What opportunity had your brother to know about this, more than yourself?

A.--He boarded at the station, and was some of the time teaming from the saw-mill, and Mrs. Hays cooked for him and several others of the Doctor's hands, among whom was Stanfield.

Q.--Why did you think Stanfield was a Catholic, as a reason for his being saved?

A.--Because I heard Dr. Whitman say at the mill, that the Catholics were evidently trying to set the Indians upon him, but he thought he could keep it down for another year, when he would be safe. I supposed he expected safety from the government being extended over the country.

Q.--How did Stanfield seem to know that the chief would be there after a while, and would tell you what you might do as to going back to the saw-mill?

A.--I did not know.

Q.--Why did you tell your people that you would be back on Monday, if at all?

A.--Because we were in an Indian country, and I remembered what I had heard the Doctor say at the Umatilla, and my brother had not returned as expected.

Q.--Had you any means of knowing what "_great chief_," at the Umatilla, Tilokaikt spoke of, where his son Edward had gone to learn what to do with the sick young men?

A.--I had not.

Q.--Did you know at that time that the bishop was said to be at Umatilla?

A.--Yes.

Q.--Did you form in your own mind, at that time, any opinion as to whom Edward had gone to consult?

A.--I thought the term "_great chief_" might have been put in to deceive me, as Stanfield had told me, the evening before, that the Catholics were going to establish a mission right away at that place, and that they would protect the women and children, and _I thought it might be the Catholics_ he was consulting, or it might be some great Indian chief. This talk of establis.h.i.+ng a station there continued for more than a week after we got down to the station. After I found Bewley and Sales were killed, I seemed to forget much until even after I had got down, and even to the plains, when the facts again came more clearly to my recollection, and I spoke of them freely to my parents and to others.

(Signed,) DANIEL YOUNG.

Sworn and subscribed to, before me, this 20th day of January, A.D.

1849, in Tualatin Plains, Oregon Territory.

G. W. COFFINBURY, Justice of the Peace.

CHAPTER LVII.

How the country was saved to the United States.--Article from the New York _Evening Post_.--Ingrat.i.tude of the American Board.--Deposition of Elam Young.--Young girls taken for Indian wives.--Statement of Miss Lorinda Bewley.--Sager, Bewley, and Sales killed.

In taking up our morning _Oregonian_ of November 16, 1866, our eye lit upon the following article from the New York _Evening Post_, which we feel a.s.sured the reader will not regret to find upon these pages, and which will explain the desperate efforts made to secure this country to the United States by Dr. Whitman, the details of whose death we are now giving from the depositions of parties upon the ground, who were eye-witnesses and fellow-sufferers at the fall of that good and n.o.ble man whose labors and sacrifices his countrymen are at this late day only beginning to appreciate. We ask in astonishment: Has the American Board at last opened its ears, and allowed a statement of that n.o.ble martyr's efforts to save Oregon to his country to be made upon its record? It has! it has! and here it is:--

"We presume it is not generally known to our citizens on the Pacific coast, nor to many people in the Atlantic States, how near we came to losing, through executive incompetence, our just t.i.tle to the whole immense region lying west of the Rocky Mountains. Neither has due honor been accorded to the brave and patriotic man through whose herculean exertions this great loss and sacrifice was prevented.

"The facts were briefly and freshly brought out during the recent meeting at Pittsburg of the 'American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,' in the course of an elaborate paper read by Mr.

Treat, one of the secretaries of the Board, on the 'Incidental Results of Missions.'

"In the year 1836 the American Board undertook to establish a mission among the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains. Two missionaries, Rev. Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman, with their wives,--the first white women who had ever made that perilous journey,--pa.s.sed over the mountains with incredible toil, to reach Oregon, the field of their labor. After remaining there for a few years, Dr. Whitman began to understand the object of the misrepresentations of the Hudson's Bay Company. He saw, contrary to the reiterated public statements of that company--

"1. That the land was rich in minerals.

"2. That emigrants could cross the Rocky Mountains in wagons, a feat which they had constantly a.s.serted to be impossible.

"3. That the Hudson's Bay Company was planning to secure the sole occupancy of the whole of that country, by obtaining a surrender of the American t.i.tle into the hands of the British government.

"Seeing these things, but not knowing how very near the British scheme was to its accomplishment, Dr. Whitman resolved, at every hazard, to prevent its consummation. He undertook, in 1842, to make a journey on horseback to Was.h.i.+ngton, to lay the whole matter clearly before our government by personal representations. Being a man of great physical strength and an iron const.i.tution, he accomplished the long and perilous journey, and reached Was.h.i.+ngton in safety. The remainder of the story we will relate in the language of the Boston _Congregationalist_: Reaching Was.h.i.+ngton, he sought an interview with President Tyler and Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, and unfolded to them distinctly what was going on. Here he learned that a treaty was almost ready to be signed, in which all this northwestern territory was to be given up to England, and we were to have in compensation greater facilities in catching fish.

Dr. Whitman labored to convince Mr. Webster that he was the victim of false representations with regard to the character of the region, and told him that he intended to return to Oregon with a train of emigrants. Mr. Webster, looking him full in the eye, asked him if he would pledge himself to conduct a train of emigrants there in wagons. He promised that he would. Then, said Mr. Webster, this treaty shall be suppressed. Dr. Whitman, in coming on, had fixed upon certain rallying-points where emigrants might a.s.semble to accompany him on his return. He found nearly one thousand ready for the journey. After long travel, they reached Fort Hall, a British military station, and the commandant undertook to frighten the emigrants by telling them that it was not possible for them to go through with wagons; but Dr. Whitman rea.s.sured them, and led them through to the Columbia, and the days of the supremacy of the Hudson's Bay Company over Oregon were numbered."

Twenty-four years after that n.o.ble, devoted, faithful servant and missionary of theirs had received a cold reproof, after enduring one of the severest and most trying journeys of several thousand miles, his Board at home, and unreasonably cautious a.s.sociates in Oregon have consented to acknowledge that they owe to him a debt of respect for doing, without their consent or approval at the time, a n.o.ble, patriotic, and unselfish act for his country.

And how shall we regard the cold indifference they have manifested to the present day, in regard to the infamous manner in which his life, and the lives of his wife and countrymen were taken, and the continued slanders heaped upon their names? Have they asked for, or even attempted an explanation, or a refutation of those slanders? Their half-century volume speaks a language not to be mistaken. Mr. Spalding, his first and most zealous a.s.sociate, attempted to bring the facts before the world, but the caution of those who would whitewash his (Dr. Whitman's) sepulcher induced Mr. Spalding to give up in despair,--a poor broken-down wreck, caused by the frightful ending of his fellow-a.s.sociates, and of his own missionary labors.

Is this severe, kind reader, upon the Board and a portion of Dr.

Whitman's a.s.sociates? We intend to tell the truth if it is, as we are endeavoring to get the truth, the whole truth, and as few mistakes as possible in these pages. Therefore we will copy another deposition relative to this ma.s.sacre.

_Deposition of Mr. Elam Young._

I met Dr. Whitman on the Umatilla, about the 1st of October, 1847. He engaged me to build a mill for him at his mission. As the lumber was not handy at the station, I moved up to the saw-mill to do a part of the work there.

Some time in November, my son James, who was teaming for the Doctor, went from the saw-mill with a load of lumber for the mission station, and was to return with provisions for us. This was on Tuesday after the murder. Shortly after he had gone away, Mr. Smith, who was also at the saw-mill, appeared to be very uneasy; stated repeatedly that he was sure something had happened to him; said he had a constant foreboding of some evil; stated that Dr. Whitman was abusing the children at the mission, as he had understood by Stanfield; frequently spoke against Dr. Whitman.

The next Sunday, beginning to feel uneasy, I sent my second son Daniel down to the station, who returned on Monday and brought the news of the ma.s.sacre. _It instantly struck my mind that the Catholic priests had been the cause of the whole of it._ This conviction was caused by repeated conversations with Dr. Whitman, together with my knowledge of the principles of the Jesuits. Mr. Smith observed at the same time that we must all be Jesuits for the time being. Soon after Daniel returned, three Indians came up and told us we must go down to the station, which we accordingly did the next day. When we got there it was after night; we found that Crockett Bewley and Amos Sales had both been killed that day. The women told us that they had told the Indians, before we came down, that we were English, and we must not contradict it. The Indians soon began to question whether I was English. I told them I was of English parents, but born in the United States.