A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 60

"GENTLEMEN,--It is my painful duty to make you acquainted with a horrible ma.s.sacre which took place yesterday at Wailatpu, about which I was first apprised, early this morning, by an American who had escaped, of the name of Hall, and who reached this place half-naked and covered with blood, as he started at the outset; the information I received was not satisfactory. He, however, a.s.sured me that the Doctor and another man were killed, but could not tell us the persons who did it, and how it originated. I immediately determined on sending my interpreter and one man to Dr. Whitman to find out the truth, and, if possible, to rescue Mr.

Manson's two sons and any of the survivors. It so happened that, before the interpreter had proceeded half-way, the two boys were met on their way hither, escorted by Nicholas Finlay, _it having been previously settled among the Indians_ that these boys should not be killed [Mr. McBean should have added, as per my instructions]; as also the American women and children [as per Joseph Stanfield's direction, as he had taken Mrs. Hays for a wife, and several Indians were to have the young women at the station for wives]. Tilokaikt is the chief who recommended this measure. I presume that you are well acquainted that fever and dysentery have been raging here and in the vicinity, in consequence of which a great number of Indians have been swept away, but more especially at the Doctor's place, where he had attended upon the Indians. About thirty souls of the Cayuse tribe died, one after another, who evidently believed the Doctor poisoned them, and in which opinion they were, unfortunately, confirmed by one of the Doctor's party. As far as I have been able to learn, this has been the sole cause of the dreadful butchery.

In order to satisfy any doubt on that point, it is reported that they requested the Doctor to administer medicine to three of their friends, two of whom were really sick, but the third feigned sickness, and that the three were corpses the next morning. After they were buried, and while the Doctor's men were employed slaughtering an ox, the Indians came one by one to his house, with their arms concealed under their blankets, and, being all a.s.sembled, commenced firing on those slaughtering the animal, and in a moment the Doctor's house was surrounded; the Doctor, and a young lad brought up by himself, were shot in the house. His lady, Mr. Rogers, and the children had taken refuge in the garret, but were dragged down and dispatched (excepting the children) outside, where their bodies were left exposed.

"It is reported that it was not their intention to kill Mr.

Rogers, in consequence of an avowal to the following effect, which he is said to have made, and which nothing but a desire to save his life could have promoted him to do. He said, 'I was one evening lying down, and overheard the Doctor telling Rev. Mr.

Spalding that it was best you should all be poisoned at once, but that the latter told him it was best to continue slowly and cautiously, and between this and spring not a soul would remain, when they would take possession of your lands, cattle, and horses.'

"These are only Indian reports, and no person can believe the Doctor capable of such an action without being as ignorant and brutish as the Indians themselves. One of the murderers, not having been made acquainted with the above understanding, shot Mr.

Rogers."

This confession is made, as the reader will notice, and attributed to Mr. Rogers, in order to give the coloring of truth to Joe Lewis's statement. There appears, as will be seen by comparing the statements of Vicar-General Brouillet's Indian council and this of McBean's, a little doubt which to make the author of that story.

Sir James Douglas has adopted McBean's statement, as the most plausible, in his report, as it is attributed to one of the _Doctor's own party_.

The whole thing, as will be seen by the testimony of Miss Bewley, is utterly false, and, as McBean has said, only Indian reports; and, we will add, told to them by _Stanfield_, _Joe Lewis_, and _Finlay_, a Frenchman, an Indian, and a half-breed, all under the influence, and probably in the service, of the Hudson's Bay Company and priests. And McBean, Sir James Douglas, and Brouillet are more brutish than the Indians, in putting such reports in circulation. If they had no confidence in them, why did they repeat them, giving them the color of truth? And why do they pretend to say "his life would have been spared," and it was only a mistake that he was shot? Bewley and Sales were brutally murdered the eighth day after Rogers was, for Bewley's saying he did not believe the stories about poisoning Indians, and that he believed the priests were the cause of it. If the Doctor, and Mr.

Spalding, and Mrs. Whitman were the only ones they thought injuring them, why attempt to kill all the Americans at the station? Why make the arrangements as extensive as Vicar-General Brouillet tells Mr. Spalding they were (on page 51 of his narrative, 38 of Ross Browne's report): "_I knew that the Indians were angry with all Americans_, and more enraged against Mr.

Spalding than any other;"--on 54th page: "I know not; you know the country better than I do. All that I know is, that the Indians say _the order to kill Americans has been sent in all directions_."

Without the history of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Fur Company before us, we would be quite incapable of comprehending the expressions and statements of this priest to Mr.

Spalding. Were we ignorant of that history, and without a knowledge of the statements to which they have made oath in relation to their claims against our government, we could not understand these letters of McBean and Douglas.

We are also in possession of other facts, respecting the treatment of their own countrymen who have unfortunately fallen under their displeasure, which is here repeated upon Dr. Whitman and Mr.

Rogers.

We would cut all these communications short, and make a general statement, but we would be charged (as we have already been) with "stringing together statements without facts;" besides, all these Hudson's Bay doc.u.ments and statements have had a powerful influence to destroy the characters of good men who are dead, and s.h.i.+eld the vile conduct of the guilty, who are still living.

So far as McBean was concerned, he obeyed orders as implicitly as Grant of the Hudson's Bay Company did, when _he sent forty families, in 1846, into the mountains of California, to perish in the snow with cold and hunger_. McBean must a.s.sist in blackening the character of Whitman, Rogers, and Spalding, to protect that of the "_holy fathers, the Catholic priests_."

McBean in his letter further says: "It is well understood that eleven lives were lost and three wounded. It is also rumored that they are to make an attack upon the fort; let them come if they will not listen to reason; though I have only five men at the establishment, I am prepared to give them a warm reception; the gates are closed day and night, and bastions in readiness. In company with Mr. Manson's two sons was sent a young half-breed lad brought up by Dr. Whitman; they are all here, and have got over their fright."

This portion of the letter is supposed, by Mr. Hinman, to have been put in by Mr. Douglas in place of that which related to sending parties to destroy Americans at other places; and to show to the world that they were threatened by the Indians, as well as the Americans. The same as Brouillet is careful to tell us that "he was afraid the Indians would kill him," and that the priests were not safe among them.

"The ringleaders in this horrible butchery are Tilokaikt, his son, Big Belly, Tamsaky, Istacus [a true friend of the Americans, who was only a witness of the murders], Towmoulisk, etc. I understand from the interpreter that they were making one common grave for the dead. The houses were stripped of every thing in the shape of property; but when they came to divide the spoils, they all fell out among themselves, and all agreed to put back the property. _I am happy to state the Wallawalla chief_ had no hand in the whole business."

If this is true, the killing of the Wallawalla chief's son in California could not have been one of the causes of the ma.s.sacre, as alleged in the narrative of the very Rev. Mr. Brouillet.

"_They were all the Doctor's own people,--the Cayuses._"

This we should expect, as it would enable those who wished to make their own guilt appear innocence. The Doctor's people alone were to commence killing the Americans. It is a.s.serted by good authority, that a part of Mr. Spalding's, and the Indians at the Dalles, were ready to engage in the same business, from the same advice and orders.

"_One American shot another, and took the Indians' part to save his own life._"

This statement by McBean is made, as will be seen, to give the impression that there was a quarrel among the Americans, and that they were ready to betray and shoot each other and take the part of the Indians. The reader will recollect that this shooting refers to the Indian Joe Lewis, in killing one of the Sager boys, and is explained particularly by Sir James Douglas in his Sandwich Islands letter, for the information of the American Board of Missions. This fact goes to show that Sir James had received a more particular and carefully prepared account than Mr. McBean had; while the one was a summary, the other was the particulars so arranged as to implicate Dr. Whitman, Mr.

Spalding, Mr. Rogers, Mrs. Whitman, and another American, to show that they were not only ready to poison the Indians, but to kill and betray each other to save their own lives; thus showing the intimate connection and complicity of Sir James with the very rev. vicar-general, in giving countenance to this infamous slander, and publis.h.i.+ng it to the world over his own signature, and using all his influence to s.h.i.+eld and clear the instigators of the crime.

It can not be urged that Sir James received his particular information at some other time, for his letters to Governor Abernethy and the Sandwich Islands were dated, the one to the governor, December 7, 1847, in which he says, "A copy of Mr. McBean's letter herewith will give you _all the particulars known to us_ of this indescribably painful event;"

and the one to the Islands, December 9, 1847, in which he gives more particulars.

The impression is irresistibly fixed in the mind, that Mr. Brouillet spent most of the night, on arriving at Wailatpu (before the dead were buried), in Tilokaikt's lodge or camp, arranging and writing those statements and particulars, so that Sir James Douglas could give his approval, and that they would go to the American Board of Missions and the friends of the murdered dead, with the sanction of his name, implicating the dead as having brought about this horrible ma.s.sacre.

Another reason for this impression is, that in all the public and private correspondence between any of these parties, there is, and always has been, the most intense anxiety shown to prevent the open discussion of that transaction, as will be seen in the next paragraph in McBean's letter, and by the promptness with which Mr. Ogden reported to Bishop Blanchet; Mr. Spalding's injudicious remarks to Major Magone on the trip down the river; the manner of Mr. Spalding's very unwise and imprudent letter to the bishop and his priests, was published and commented upon by them; the promptness of Mr. Douglas to demand an explanation of Colonel Gilliam's supposed statement; the refusal of the Hudson's Bay Company to furnish supplies to the provisional troops; and the fact that the company did supply 1,080 pounds of powder, 1,800 pounds of b.a.l.l.s and shot to the priests for the Indians, with three cases containing thirty-six guns, all of which were seized by Lieutenant Rogers at the Dalles, and should have been (but were not) confiscated.

We will now ask the attention of the reader to the remainder of this (to the Hudson's Bay Company and Romanists in general) glorious news of the complete victory they had obtained over _Protestantism_ and its missions in Oregon.

Mr. McBean, or Sir James Douglas, we do not know which, says: "Allow me to _draw a veil over this dreadful affair_ which is too painful to dwell upon, and which I have explained conformable to information received and with sympathizing feelings.

"I remain, with much respect, gentlemen, "Your most obedient humble servant,

"WILLIAM McBEAN."

We can scarcely retain the expressions of Whew! Horrible! etc., as we give the balance of this important letter, copied and given to the public of Oregon, under the eye of Sir James Douglas, with the--

"N. B.--I have just learned that the Cayuses are to be here to-morrow to kill Serpent Jaune, the Wallawalla chief.

"W. McB."

"Names of those who were killed: Dr. Whitman, Mrs. Whitman, Mr.

Rogers, Hoffman, Sanders, Osborn [not killed], Marsh, John and Francis Sager, Canfield [not killed], and a sailor, besides three that were wounded more or less--Messrs. Hall, Kimball, and another whose name I can not learn.

"W. McBEAN."

Could the reader look at the exact original copy of that letter, and of that as found in the _Spectator_ of December 10, 1847, and hear the expressions of sentiment and feeling among a portion of the people at Oregon City; and listen to some of the private consultations, and hear the opinions there expressed, he would be able to understand the impression that this, with some other letters published at that time, made upon the public mind.

There was in one little council of a number of the then representatives of Oregon, a disposition to let that foul murder pa.s.s, without making an effort to avenge those deaths, or punish the Indians. One of that little council exclaimed with an oath, "Gentlemen, we must not allow that murder to pa.s.s, without an effort to punish those concerned in it; and for one, I know that Dr. Whitman did not bring it upon himself. Our own existence in this country is involved in the action we take in this matter. It becomes absolutely necessary that we take measures to protect ourselves and punish the murderers."

FORT VANCOUVER, Dec. 7, 1847.

"_George Abernethy, Esq._:

"SIR,--Having received intelligence last night (on the 4th), by special express from Wallawalla, of the _destruction_ of the _missionary settlement_ at Wailatpu _by the Cayuse Indians of that place_, we hasten to communicate the _particulars_ of that dreadful event, one of the most atrocious which darkens the annals of Indian crime.

"Our lamented friend Dr. Whitman, his amiable and accomplished lady, with nine other persons, have fallen victims to the fury of those remorseless savages, who appear to have been instigated to the appalling crime by a horrible suspicion which had taken possession of their superst.i.tious minds, in consequence of the number of deaths from dysentery and measles, that Dr. Whitman was silently working the destruction of their tribe, by administering poisonous drugs under the semblance of salutary medicines.

"With a goodness of heart and benevolence truly his own, Dr.

Whitman had been laboring incessantly, since the appearance of the measles and dysentery among _his Indian converts_, to relieve their sufferings, and _such has been the reward of his generous labors_.

"_A copy of Mr. McBean's letter herewith will give you all the particulars known to us of this indescribably painful event._

"Mr. Ogden, with a strong party, will leave this place as soon as possible for Wallawalla, to endeavor to prevent further evil, and we beg to suggest to you the propriety of taking instant measures for the protection of the Rev. Mr. Spalding, who, for the sake of his family, _ought to abandon_ the Clearwater Mission _without delay_, and retire to a place of safety, as he can not remain at that isolated station without imminent risk in the present excited and irritated state of the Indian population.

"I have the honor to be, sir, "Your most obedient servant,

"JAMES DOUGLAS."

We now give Sir James Douglas's letter to the Sandwich Islands, as found in the March number of the _Friend_:--

"FORT VANCOUVER, Dec. 9, 1847.