A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 54

A few days after we got there two young women were taken as wives for the Indians, which I opposed, _and was threatened by Mr. Smith_, who was very anxious that it should take place, and that other little girls should be given up for wives. Was employed while there in making coffins and grinding for the Indians.

While there, Miss Bewley was taken off to the Umatilla. Tried to comfort her as much as I could, believing she would be _safer there at the Catholic station than where we were_. First ten days we were constantly told that the Catholics were coming there to establish a mission. Heard that Mr. Ogden had come up to Wallawalla to rescue us from the Indians.

Went to grinding and preparing provisions for our journey. Smith and Stanfield, who appeared to be very friendly with each other, had the management of the teams and loading, took the best teams and lightest loads, gave us the poorest teams and heaviest loads. On the way to Wallawalla they drove off and left us. The hindmost teams had to double in the bad places. Reached the fort perhaps half an hour after Smith and Stanfield had; met Smith at the gate, who says: "Well, you have got along?" "Yes." "It is well you did, for the Indians found out that _you were not an Englishman, and were determined to have your scalp_." I asked him, "How do you know this?" to which he made no reply. Went into the fort and met Mr. McBean and the priest; supposed they would all rejoice at our escape, but their manner was very cold and distant. But Mr. Ogden greeted us cordially. The next day the Indians came into the fort in considerable numbers, and their actions were suspicious, and Mr.

McBean seemed to interest himself very much in our behalf, and _told us to be very quiet and to keep in our own rooms_, and be careful what we said, as the very walls had ears. [If this does not show the sneaking dog, what does? Ogden is apparently all friends.h.i.+p, and McBean is all caution to the captives.]

We arrived on Monday, and Mr. Spalding on Sat.u.r.day after, and the next day all took boat for the lower country.

Q.--Did your son give you any caution as to what to say when you reached the station.

A.--He said Stanfield said we must say the Doctor poisoned the Indians.

Q.--What did you learn about Mr. Rogers as having made a confession.

A.--_Stanfield said that Mr. Rogers had made a confession that the Doctor had poisoned the Indians._ I replied, "Who knows this?" He said Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Hall heard it. I afterward asked Mrs. Hays if she did hear it. She replied, "_We must say so now_." I afterward, at the station, told Stanfield he had better not mention that to Americans, for there was not one from Maine to Georgia that would believe it. He replied, "We must say so." I told him I never would.

Q.--What conversation with the Doctor led you to believe the Catholics were at the bottom of the whole of it?

A.--That some years before (1841) he had had difficulty with the Indians, and he had found out satisfactorily where it came from, by charging the Indians of having been made jealous of a certain man. I do not recollect the name, but I think he said he was from Canada, and the Indians acknowledged it. [The difficulty here spoken of was about the horses given as a present to Rev. Jason Lee, on his way to Wallamet. The Indians had been told by the company's interpreter, old Toupin, that he had as good as stolen their horses, as he made them no presents in return, and they were encouraged to make that a cause of difficulty with Dr. Whitman.] At that time they had knocked off his hat, etc., but other Indians would obey him and pick it up, and so long as they would obey, he was satisfied of his safety; but this had long since pa.s.sed off. [The writer was present, and saw the whole performance here alluded to, the particulars of which are given elsewhere]. And they were never in a better state until of late, when a body of priests and Jesuits had come in, and were constantly saying in their ears that this sickness came on them by the Americans; that the Americans were a very bad people, that the Good Being had sent on them as a punishment.

Q.--Why did Mr. Smith appear anxious to have the young women given to the Indians?

A.--I do not know, unless to appease them, and get their affection.

Q.--Did the Doctor appear to wish to remain, against the wish of a majority of the Indians?

A.--I heard him say repeatedly, if the Indians wished him to leave he would, but a large majority said he must not, and he thought the times would soon change. I understood him to expect a change from the extension of government.

Q.--Did your son Daniel say any thing, before you moved from the saw-mill, of having cautioned C. Bewley for speaking unadvisedly before Joe Stanfield?

A.--Yes, he gave that; that amounts to the same as he has given in his statement.

Q.--Did you have any fears, while at the station, that Mr. Smith was liable, had the circ.u.mstances become more dangerous, to act with the Indians?

A.--Certainly I did.

Q.--Did you get any reason why Bewley and Sales were killed?

A.--Though I did not get it directly from them, the Indian account was, the _great chief at the Umatilla said their disease would spread; but I believe it was because Bewley had spoken before Stanfield unadvisedly_.

(Signed,) ELAM YOUNG.

Sworn and subscribed to before me, this 20th day of January, 1849.

G. W. COFFINBURY, Justice of the Peace.

What shall we say of these depositions, and the facts a.s.serted under the solemnity of an oath, the witnesses still living, with many others confirming the one fact, _that Roman priests and Hudson's Bay men, English and Frenchmen, were all safe and unharmed_ in an Indian--and that American--territory, _while American citizens were cut down by savage hands without mercy_? Can we regard the conduct of such men in any other light than as enemies in peace? Without the aid of religious bigotry and the appeal to G.o.d as sending judgments upon them, not one of those simple-minded natives would ever have lifted a hand to shed the blood of their teachers or of American citizens. We see how faithful and persevering Joe Lewis, Finlay, and Stanfield were in their part, while the bishop and his priests, and Sir James Douglas, at Vancouver, were watching at a distance to misrepresent the conduct of the dead, and excuse and justify their own instruments, as in Mr. Douglas's letters to Governor Abernethy and the Sandwich Islands; and Vicar-General Brouillet's narrative, with more recent proceedings, which are given in another chapter.

We intended to give in this connection the account of this tragedy as given by Vicar-General Brouillet, but it accords so nearly with that given by Sir James Douglas in his Sandwich Islands letter to Mr. Castle, that the impression is irresistibly forced upon the mind that the whole account is prepared by one and the same person; hence we will not enc.u.mber our pages with more than a liberal amount of extracts, sufficient to show the full knowledge of the bishop and his priests of what was expected to take place at the Whitman station, and the brutal and inhuman part they took in forcing Miss Bewley into the arms of Five Crows, after that Indian was humane enough to permit her to return to the house of those, that Mr. Young, and all others who were ignorant of their vileness, might naturally suppose would be a place of safety from such treatment. She that was Miss Bewley is now dead, but she has left on record the statement of her wrongs. We give it a permanent place in our history, not to persecute or slander the Jesuit fraternity (for truth is no slander), but to warn Americans against placing their daughters and sons under any such teachings or influences.

_Statement of Miss Lorinda Bewley._

Q.--What time did the ma.s.sacre commence?

A.--I think half-past one.

Q.--Who fled to the chamber?

A.--Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Hays, Mrs. Whitman, Mr. Kimball, Mr. Rogers,--the three last wounded,--myself, Catharine Sager, thirteen years of age, her sisters Elizabeth, Louisa, and Henrietta, the three half-breed girls,--Miss Bridger, Mary Ann, and Helen,--last four very sick. After we got into the chamber the Indians broke in the windows and doors, filled the house and broke down the stair-door. Mr. Kimball advised to attempt the appearance of defense at the stairway. Mrs. Whitman and Mr.

Rogers said, let all prepare for death. I found an old gun, and it was held over the staircase by Mr. Rogers. They appeared cool and deliberate in ordering all to prepare for death, when they were breaking up the house. The appearance of the gun appeared to check the Indians from coming up-stairs. A few words pa.s.sed between Mr. Rogers and one of the Indians. Mr. Rogers said, "The Indians wish me to come down." Mrs.

Whitman objected at first; some words pa.s.sed between Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Rogers about his going down which I do not recollect; finally Mrs.

Whitman took his hand and said, "The Lord bless you; go!" and he went nearly to the bottom of the stairs, but his head was all the time above the stairs; he was not there longer than two or three minutes. A few words pa.s.sed between them, but I did not understand the language. Mrs.

Whitman said, "The Indians say you have guns and want to kill us." Mr.

Rogers says, "No, you wish to get us down to kill us." This seemed to be all they talked about. Mr. Rogers says to Mrs. Whitman, "Shall we let them come up?" Mrs. Whitman says, "Let one, Tamsaky, come up." Tamsaky came up and shook hands with us all, and spoke and advised us all to go down and go over to the other house, for the young men would burn the house; he led the way down while the Indians were hallooing wildly in the room below, but when we had got down, the Indians had gone out and were very still. While we were up-stairs the Doctor's face had been cut awfully to pieces, but he was yet breathing. Mrs. Whitman saw him and said she wanted air; they led her to the settee and she lay down. She appeared to think then, that we were going to be spared, and told us to get all the things from the press we needed. I put a blanket I had over her, and got a sheet for myself, and we put a good many clothes from the press on the settee; Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Hays got their arms full also.

Mr. Rogers was going to take us over to the other house, and then come back for the sick children. This was Tamsaky's advice, as he said the Indians were going to burn the house. It was now getting dark. Mr.

Rogers and Joe Lewis carried out the settee, over the bodies of the Doctor and John Sager, which were dreadfully mangled; they pa.s.sed through the kitchen, and through the outside door toward the end of the house occupied as the Indian room. Here, to our surprise and terror, the Indians were collected, with their guns ready; the children from the school were huddled in the corner of the building. When the settee had gone about its length from the door, Joe Lewis dropped the end he was holding and the guns were immediately fired. Mr. Rogers had only time to raise his hands and say, "O my G.o.d, save me," and fell. I felt my fingers numb till next morning, from a ball that pa.s.sed so near as to sting them. Mrs. Whitman received two b.a.l.l.s when on the settee.

I could not see what was done at the same time on all sides of me. On turning round I saw Francis Sager down bleeding and groaning. The children said an Indian hauled him out from among them and Joe Lewis shot him with a pistol. Mr Rogers fell down by my feet and groaned loud.

All three appeared in great agony, and groaned very loud. The Indian women were carrying off things, and the Indians were shouting terribly; the Indians also started and cut Mrs. Whitman's face with their whips and rolled her into the mud. [This treatment of Mrs. Whitman will be explained in the statement of Stikas, as given from Mr. McLane's journal.] At this I attempted to escape to the other house. One of the Indians from Mrs. Whitman caught me,--I had run about two rods,--when I screamed and he shook his tomahawk over my head, and I kept screaming, not knowing that he wanted me to hush; then a great many others came round, and pointed their guns and shook their hatchets. I finally discovered they wanted me to be still, and when I was silent, one of them led me by the hand over to the mansion.

Q.--Was Mr. Rogers wounded when he started into the house?

A.--Yes; shot through the arm and tomahawked in the head.

Q.--Did Mr. Rogers have any interview with the Indians after he got in until the one on the stairs?

A.--No. As soon as he got in the house was locked, and none got in after that till we were all up-stairs, when they broke the doors and windows.

Q.--Did the Indians have an interview with Mr. Rogers after the one on the stairs, up to the time he was shot?

A.--No; the Indians were not in the room, except Tamsaky and Joe Lewis, and we were all very still and Mr. Rogers was all the time in my sight, except as I stepped to the bed for the sheet, and I was very quick.

Q.--Did you hear it reported that Mr. Rogers said he overheard Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and Mr. Spalding talking at night about poisoning the Indians?

A.--No; but after being taken to Umatilla, _one_ of the two _Frenchmen said_ that the Indians' talk was that an Indian who understood English overheard such conversation.

Q.--Did you consider Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Whitman were meeting their fate like devoted Christians?

A.--Yes.

Q.--When did the priest arrive?

A.--Wednesday, while the bodies were being prepared for the grave. The bodies were collected into the house on Tuesday evening.

Q.--Did the Indians bury a vial or bottle of the Doctor's medicine?

A.--They said they did. Joe Stanfield made the box to bury it in, and the Indians said they buried it.