Henry Harmon Spalding

“ When we reached this place, not only our animals but ourselves were nearly exhausted. Our females endured the fatigues of the march remarkably well. Your ladies who ride on horseback 10 or 12 miles over your smooth roads, and rest the remainder of the day and week, know nothing of the fatigues of riding on horseback from morning till night day after day for 15 or 20 days, at the rate of 25 and 30 miles a day, and at night have nothing to lie on but the hard ground. Truly we have reason to bless our God that our females are alive and enjoying comparatively good health. ”

“ At Wallawalla, we learn from good authority that we can procure all the necessaries of life on reasonable terms. -- Many cattle and some grain are raised at this place. At Vancouver, five days from Wallawalla, for boats down the river, and ten up, is a large establishment — a mill and several mechanical shops. They have 6 or 700 head of cattle and raise thousands of bushels of grain every year. Near this place the Lees, our Methodist brethren, are located and are doing well. We have now accomplished 820 miles of our journey, and have about 700 yet to make. ”

“ As we came into camp they flocked around us by the hundreds. Our females found it quite difficult to get along for the multitudes that pressed around to shake them by the hand, both men and women. Some of their women would not be satisfied till they had saluted our's [sic] with a kiss, but they were very orderly. -- Our females, of course, being the first that ever penetrated these wild regions, excited great curiosity. Our cattle, also, are much admired by the Indians. ”

“ And that there is abundant proof to show that the said Whitman massacre, and the long and expensive wars that followed, were commenced by the above-said British monopoly for the purpose of breaking up the American settlements and of regaining the territory, and that they were especially chagrined against the said Whitman as being the principal agent in disappointing their schemes. ”

“ The Indians say, the place selected by Mr. Parker is not good for us, no timber, but about two days east from Wallawalla there is plenty of good timber and grass, but little snow, horses winter well. The Indians take great pains to teach us their language; many of them can speak English quite plain. They are truly a very interesting, pleasant race of Indians.
It is said they observe prayers night and morning, and keep the Sabbath, will not move camp on the Sabbath unless they are with white men, and are obliged to. They are styled by the northern men, Christian Indians. ”

“ Spalding, together with seventeen other emigrants who had stopped to winter, were brutally destroyed in 1847 by the Indians, and the American settlements in Middle Oregon broken up, and a bloody war to exter minate the Americans on the Pacific coast commenced. ”

“ We frequently crossed hills in cutting off bends of rivers, or in passing from one river to another, but we seemed to descend as much as we ascended, till, 1st and 2d of July, we came to spots of snow, which convinced us we were very high. ”