good, and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.' Also, collect funds and articles and forward or report to me or the treasurer, Mr. Terry, of this place.
The responses were prompt and generous, and had the large number thus expected really made their appearance here, they would have received a royal welcome and been entertained and cared for most tenderly.
About two years ago a distorted account of many of the incidents connected with this party came under my attention. I enclosed it in a letter to Mr. Mercer, asking that he write me an account of his experiences in Washington and New York, which he did in due time, but a fitting occasion for its publication has never before now seemed to appear. It is as follows:
Hon. C. B. Bagley, Seattle, Washington.
My Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter asking for an account of the voyage of the 'Mercer girls,' as they were at the time called, from New York to Seattle. Tempus fugit. Ah, how the time has flown. It really seems but a few days since, in the flush of youth and the vigor of young manhood, I started out to do something for the commonwealth of Washington, which I dearly loved, and incidentally confer a blessing upon those whom a presentation of facts might induce to come and abide with us. But a reference to the calendar shows that more than thirty years have sped away, and a glance at present conditions reveals the fact that marvelous changes have taken place in all things Washingtonian, save in God's pyramids that rise in the Cascade and Olympic ranges. These will ever stand as proud tokens of infinite power and smiling sentinels to guard the developments wrought by man.
Early in the year 1865, impressed with the future greatness of the Territory, and knowing her every need, I determined to aid that future by bringing to her shores of few hundred good women. I had been taught to believe, and did believe, that practically all the goodness in the world came from
