Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 21/Number 1
THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1919, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
By Henry L. Bates
Time is a relative quantity and the age of an institution or a nation is a matter of comparison. The Rocky Mountain range seems hoary indeed as compared with the generations of men who have lived in the Willamette Valley; and yet geologists tell us that this mountain barrier belongs to the most recent geologic time as compared with the countless aeons since first the Appalachian range lifted its head.
We are all young here in Oregon. Contrast the brief existence of our educational institutions with such a foundation as Harvard, nearly ready to celebrate her tercentenary; and yet Harvard is young compared with the University of Paris with its nearly 800 years of continuous history.
So, while it is my pleasing task to narrate some of the facts concerning one of the oldest educational institutions west of the Mississippi River preceded indeed, only by the splendid foundation laid by Rev. Jason Lee at Chemeketa, I realize that every work of man here is recent and immature by comparison.
Harvard was founded in 1636, Yale in 1701, and many a college in the East and Middle West has celebrated its hundredth anniversary. Oregon's Provisional Government was established in 1845, proclaimed as a territory in 1849 and admitted to the Union in 1859. Only in 1847 did the first steamer enter San Francisco bay. California was ceded to the United States in 1848 and admitted in 1850. Washington was organized as a territory in 1853 and became a state as late as 1889. Vancouver Island was constituted a British colony only in 1849.
The high character and quality of the tide of immigration to this Northwest in the thirties and forties is evidenced by their early interest in education and religion.
The building of schools and churches seemed to them to be one of the first necessities for the establishment of a permanent and desirable social structure in this new land of promise.
Many of the leaders came from that part of the East which gave us our free public school system and where the Christian College was the dominant type of the higher schools of learning.
They stopped not to question the necessity of such schools here. The first school teacher west of the Rockies was John Ball, who opened a school at Vancouver in 1832 with 25 half-breed children.
The first school south of the Columbia was the Mission school near old Champoeg, taught by Philip L. Edwards in 1835. Then comes that heroic pioneer Methodist missionary, Rev. Jason Lee, whose mission, as often has been the case, was to found schools as well as churches; and in 1842 the Oregon Institute at Chemeketa or North Salem, was begun primarily as a school for Indian children though the school was not formally opened till 1844. Out of this grew in time Willamette University, which received its college charter from the Territorial Legislature in 1853, just one year before Pacific University received its charter.
Pacific University, too, like many of the best educational institutions of our land, had its origin in a missionary enterprise. It was truly the child of missions in that its foundation
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 3
was laid by men who were dedicated to missionary labor and to planting the seeds, in this far-away land, of a Christian civilization.
The first in order of time, at least, of these men of high ideals and a lofty vision was the Rev. Harvey Clark, a native of Vermont, who, with his young wife, a graduate of Oberlin, fired with zeal for missionary work among the native tribes, had come to Oregon in 1841 as independent, self-supporting missionaries.
He settled upon his land claim, on which the town of Forest Grove now stands, and built a log house in which he and his wife taught the children of the settlers, being thus the first school teachers in Washington County.
Mr. and Mrs. Clark had a vision of a school of higher rank that might in time be established and that should mean much for the highest enlightenment and culture of this new land.
Meanwhile they waited some time for the opportunity and the means to realize their ideal.
Their first helper came in the person of a woman, Mrs. Tabitha Moffet Brown one of that long list of most heroic forerunners of civilization, to whom all too little tribute has been paid, the pioneer wives and mothers of the Pacific North- west.
This is hardly the place to dwell very long upon her roman- tic story ; it is a familiar one in Washington County. She was the widow of an Episcopalian minister of Stonington, Conn., who was left without property and with three small children to support. After teaching school several years, at the age of nearly three-score years and ten, she came to Oregon to be with her sons and grandchildren who had preceded her.
She crossed the plains with an ox-team, coming into Oregon by that ill-fated Southern route and suffering untold dangers and hardships on the way.
This was in 1846 and almost immediately "Grandma Brown," as she came to be affectionately called far and wide in the
4 HENRY L. BATES
Willamette Valley, having no family cares, but with a warm love for God and humanity in her heart, looked around for something to do for somebody. Soon the opportunity pre- sented itself to take up the work of teaching again. She found some 15 or 20 orphaned children at West Tualatin or what is now Forest Grove, whom she gathered into an orphan school, co-operating with Mr. Clark and taking over the work which he and his wife had already begun. This school was held in the log church which stood on what is now the college campus, and the site of which is marked by a petrified stump. The next year, 1848, the number of homeless children dependent on Mrs. Brown was considerably increased through the exodus of men from Oregon to the newly discovered gold mines in California who left their families, in some instances, almost destitute.
Meanwhile Mr. Clark's larger purpose waited the oppor- tunity and the man. Not long, however, for in 1848 there arrived another of those missionary pioneers who had so much to do in laying the foundations of a Christian civilization on this side of the Great Divide. Dr. George H. Atkinson, the first missionary sent here by the American Home Missionary Society. With his young wife he sailed from Boston in October, 1847, by way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, reach- ing Oregon City eight months later in June, 1848. Among all the pioneers who came in that early day to Oregon, probably no one had a clearer vision of its possibilities and a more complete knowledge of its almost boundless resources. In process of time he came to be recognized as a foremost author- ity on matters of education in the territory.
He took a leading part in forming the public school system of the state. He taught in the first graded school in Portland. He prepared the educational part of the first message of the Governor to the first Territorial Legislature which gave the first impulse towards organizing the public school system. He was a pioneer in meteorological observations in the Pacific
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 5
Northwest. In 1865 he was sent East by the state in the in- terest of prison reform. With Lt. Symonds of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, he wrote the article on Oregon for the Encyclo- pedia Britannica, ninth edition.
He dedicated the first Congregational Church building in the North-west at Oregon City, August 18, 1859, and later he organized the First Congregational Church of Portland. But Dr. Atkinson, like a true son of New England, brought with him to this new land an ambition and a well-defined purpose to plant schools as well as churches here.
It is on record that before leaving for his distant field of labor he made a visit to New York for final instructions and while there was introduced to Rev. Theron Baldwin, secre- tary of the American College and Education Society, then newly organized to establish and aid new colleges. He said to Dr. Atkinson:
"You are going to Oregon ; build an academy there that shall grow into a college, as we built Illinois College." Learn- ing soon after his arrival of the orphan school at West Tual- atin, he rode over from Oregon City and visited Mr. Clark in his log house. The men found they had a common purpose and ideal and at once combined their efforts to attain their purpose.
They called together an association of ministers at Oregon City on September 21 ? 1848, at which time it was resolved to establish an academy at Forest Grove. One year later, Sep- tember 29, 1849, Tualatin Academy was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature.
Mr. Clark was the first president of the board of trustees and continued to hold the position till the time of his death. Mrs. Brown's orphans were taken over by the new school, but for a 1 number of years she kept a boarding house for the students, the price of board being $2.00 a week. In 1854, in a letter to a friend, Mrs. Brown, then in her 75th year, said :
6 HENRY L. BATES
"In 1851 I had 40 in my family at $2.50 a week and I mixed with my own hands 3423 Ibs. of flour in less than five months.
200 acres of Mr. Clark's donation land claim were given as a basis of the endowment for the new school and later 150 acres more were given to secure adequate instructors.
About one-half of the present beautiful campus of 30 acres was the gift of Mr. Clark. Others contributed generously of their scanty means and their labor none to so great an extent as Mr. and Mrs. Clark. His interest in education was broader than his denominational choice. He was a warm friend and supporter of the Methodist school organized in 1842 and he taught for a year in the Mission School at Champoeg.
For 40 years or until his death in 1889, Dr. Atkinson was secretary of the board of trustees of the Academy and College and was seldom absent from its meetings.
Doubtless the greatest single service which he performed for the struggling enterprise was the securing the man who was the first president. For several years after the founding of the Academy there were no permanent teachers and no established curriculum.
Faithful work was done in the log church by such men as dishing Eells and J. M. Keeler, but still the vision of Mr. Clark seemed far from fulfillment.
So Dr. Atkinson went East by way of the Isthmus no easy journey in those days. He gained the support of the American College and Education Society, which endorsed the college and pledged the interest on $10,000 for the support of its first president. Best of all, however, and more significant for the future development of the school, he persuaded Rev. Sidney Harper Marsh to leave his New England home and become the head of the school at Tualatin Plains and develop it into a college.
Mr. Marsh was a young man of 28, descended from a line of educators. His father was President James Marsh of the
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 7
University of Vermont, and one of the foremost American edu- cators of his day. His grandfather was Eleazer Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College.
It is not strange that a young man with such an ancestry and such an inheritance should accept with enthusiasm the invitation to go to Oregon and give the best of his powers to build up in the new land a college similar to those with which he was familiar in New England.
He had no knowledge of pioneer conditions reared in a scholarly home and used to the refinement of the best society in a University town, he had to meet at once the hardships and privations of frontier life without any preparation.
He found here almost nothing to build a college upon no buildings, no permanent funds, no adequate teachers, and, most discouraging of all, no apparent need or desire for such a school.
President Marsh set himself steadfastly and courageously to supply all these needs.
Immediately upon his arrival steps were taken to add college grades of instruction to those in the Academy and in January, 1854, new articles of incorporation were granted by the Legis- lature, and under the corporate name of Tualatin Academy and Pacific University the present school was created.
We today can hardly realize the trials and hardships which the new president had to endure. But brighter days began to dawn. The country began to fill up. Families moved in and built homes around the young college. Students began to stay long enough to get into college and in process of time young men and women were graduated, many of whom have been among the foremost leaders in the public life and service of the state. The need of funds was ever pressing and Presi- dent Marsh made three different trips to the East to solicit aid. $70,000 in cash and many valuable books for the library were secured on these trips. Among these latter the most notable
8 HENRY L. BATES
gift was that of more than 400 volumes by Sidney E. Morse, the son of a famous geographer and brother of the renowned inventor, S. F. B. Morse. One of the most valuable books in the library is a copy of Ptolemy's Universal Geography printed at Basle in 1542 on the title page of which is inscribed, "Sidney E. Morse from his affectionate brother, S. F. B. Morse, Rome, June, 1830."
A more recent addition of great value was the gift of over 200 old and rare books from the library of D. W. Craig, a pioneer journalist of Oregon. One book printed in 1482 is one of the two or three oldest books west of the Rocky Moun- tains.
Another book of unique interest and value is a copy of a primer printed in the Spokane dialect, on the Lapwai press in 1842, said to be the only perfect copy in existence.
Today the library numbers about 20,000 volumes housed in a modern brick structure, the gift of Andrew Carnegie.
There was early organized as an important department of the University a Conservatory of Music which is today giving instruction in piano, pipe organ, violin, voice training and musi- cal history and theory of a character equal to any similar instruction given in the state.
Grandma Brown left to the college at her death, or rather gave before her death, a lot in the village and a log house which was afterwards sold for $506.60 this sum was invested and reinvested until today it has reached something like $5,000.
President Marsh was able thus to realize in some degree the dream of the founders. He found a "small and weak academy and left it well organized, fairly well equipped and with a character established for all time for sound learning and thor- ough instruction" and worthy ideals.
After 25 years of strenuous toil he laid down his task with his life in 1879.
Those who succeeded him in the presidential chair have been Rev. John R. Herrick, Rev. J. T. Ellis, Rev. Thomas McClel
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 9
land who left here after nine years of service in 1900 to take the presidency of Knox College, from which he has re- cently resigned. Following him came President Wm. N. Fer- rin, another teacher from Vermont, then President C. J. Bush- nell, and now the school seems to be entering upon a new era of enlargement and healthy growth under the enthusiastic and efficient leadership of President Robert Fry Clark, who was inaugurated last June.
Mention at least ought to be made of some of the men and women who so efficiently helped to make the instruction in academy and college of the high quality for which it has always been justly proud.
Rev. Cushing Eells was the first principal of Tualatin Academy.
E. D. Shattuck, a young Vermonter, was an early teacher and afterwards for more than 25 years was one of Oregon's ablest and most honored jurists.
Another early teacher in the Academy was Mrs. Elizabeth Miller Wilson, who died only a few years ago at The Dalles.
Rev. Horace Lyman came to assist President Marsh when the burden seemed to be heaviest and his labors and influence counted much for the success of the enterprise. For several years most of the college teaching was done by these two men. Dr. A. J. Anderson was a teacher in an early day going from here to the presidency of Whitman College.
Thomas Condon, one of the ablest thinkers the state ever had, went from the faculty of Pacific University to help start the State University at Eugene and with him went Professor Collier and Dr. Luella Clay Carson.
Coming rather early also to assist President Marsh in his great work, was Professor Joseph W. Marsh, his brother and another graduate of Vermont. For more than 40 years, as professor of Latin and Greek and college librarian, Prof. Marsh made an impress on the minds and hearts of generation after generation of students and left memories that multitudes
10 HENRY L. BATES
still cherish. He delighted in learning and he loved his fellow- men.
The first Bachelor's degree was granted in 1863 to a class of one, but that one was Harvey W. Scott, Oregon's greatest journalist and one of the keenest thinkers of his generation.
It has been said that he and the Honorable Thomas H. Tongue, who graduated five years after Mr. Scott, were two of the chief factors in carrying the state for sound money in the days when the free silver delusion seemed likely to carry everything before it.
The graduates of Pacific University number less than 400 its student body has never been large but among that small number have been some of the ablest and finest men and women who have helped to make Oregon, and that noblest thing in a state, a noble citizenship.
Out of all proportion to her numbers has been her influence for sound learning, true culture and righteous living in this great North-west.
Her alumni have not only wielded a worthy influence in Oregon but in foreign lands and on mission fields. Hastara Tamura, an important educator in Japan, and Kin Saito, Chief Justice of the Court of Hokkaido, Hakodate, Japan, Rev. J. Elkanah Walker, for many years a missionary to China, and more recently Dr. John X. Miller, a missionary in India and recognized by the British Government in India as doing work of unusual value in industrial education, the present city editor of the Oregonian lawyers, physicians, teachers and min- isters all over the Pacific North-west. These are some of the contributions of Pacific to the finest citizenship of the world at home and abroad.
She has always kept her standards high none are higher in the North-west. A few years ago when a Federal Commis- sion standardized the colleges and universities of the state, she was one of the first three to be recognized as a standardcollege.
Her graduates are admitted for graduate or professional
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 11
study in all the leading colleges and universities in the land.
If Garfield's conception was a true one, that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and himself as a student on the other end was all that was needed to make a college, then must it not be true that the value of a college must be measured at least as much by the devotion and learning and character of its instructors and the fine quality of the young men and women which it turns out, as by its costly equipment and size of its student body? Pacific University at least does not think she has lived altogether in vain.
Her growth has been slow partly because the population of Oregon has never been great. When Dr. Atkinson came to Oregon there were not more than 7,000 people in the state.
In 1870 Oregon, Washington and Idaho combined had only 130,000.
The rush for gold in '48- '49 drew one-half or two-thirds of the able-bodied men from Washington County. And yet in 1912 Oregon ranked third in having the highest percentage of students in college or one to every 150 of the population. Kansas stood first with one to 112, and Utah second, 1 to 121.
In 1915 Tualatin Academy graduated its last class and passed out of existence. The increasing number of standardized high schools seeming to make secondary schools of the academy type unnecessary.
Twenty-five years ago there were only three high schools in the state. Today there are 200 of the standard variety.
While being in some sense the child of the churches, Pacific University has never been sectarian or under denominational control. Her aim has always been "to make it possible for the young people of the Pacific Northwest to obtain a thorough education under Christian influences." The name "University" has always been somewhat of a misnomer. It reflects the high aims and worthy aspirations of its early founders rather than actual achievements in the shape of graduate courses and pro- fessional schools.
12 HENRY L. BATES
Pacific belongs indeed to that important class of "the small college" and she is not only proud of it but is inclined to believe that her special mission to humanity is best fulfilled in that capacity.
At present, at least, her endowment is inadequate and her equipment greatly in need of improvement but she and her sister independent Christian colleges in the state can do things for the youth of the land which great universities with larger faculties, more costly equipment and crowds of students cannot possibly do.
There never was a time when the peculiar influence and the dominating ideals of a distinctively Christian college were more needed in America to mold the character and clarify the motives of our youth in these days of unrest and uncertainty. . The peculiar needs of the time make it a matter of the high- est patriotism to the whole people to support such an institu- tion ; for it is laying the foundations of a Christian civilization, it is doing its part to make America safe for democracy.
Today the outlook for Pacific University seems bright with promise. A beautiful campus, second to none in the state ; five buildings, all modern but one; an endowment fund of about a quarter of a million ; a loyal and enthusiastic student body ; the prestige of an honorable past and an honor roll of worthy sons and daughters ; the confidence that her friends who believe in her and in her mission, will show their faith by their works and increase her funds and add to her buildings and her equip- ment ; a devoted and self-denying faculty ; the ideals of her founders still sacredly cherished ; these are what Pacific Uni- versity posseses today as the sure foundation of her belief in her mission and her future in the generations to come.
SPAIN AND ENGLAND'S QUARREL OVER THE OREGON COUNTRY.
An Introductory Statement to furnish a Setting for the Incidents in the Log of the Princesa used byf Professor Priestly to throw new Light on the Nootka Sound Affair of 1789
The culminating events in the first struggle for the posses- sion of the Oregon Country were staged in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In our busy age, how- ever, the average reader of the Quarterly without a Bancroft's Northwest Coast at hand may not be sufficiently clear on the details of the incidents out of which the Nootka Con- troversy arose to get the benefit of the valuable source material in the paper by Professor Priestly on the Log of the Princesa or diary of her commander, Jose Martinez.
This Nootka Sound affair in which representatives of the Spanish and English sovereignties were rivals for the posses- sion of our Northwest Coast was in a way the first act in the drama; the second act of which with its more familiar complications was staged a quarter of a century later at Fort Astoria some two hundred and fifty miles to the south.
The joint arrangement closing the Nootka Sound dispute between Spain and England pertained primarily to rights of access to and trade with the natives of this coast region. In the next agreement, composing the second international con- tention for the Oregon Country as a whole, Spain had receded to the background and the United States had become a prin- cipal contender with England. The issue now affected the more substantial right of occupation. The arrangement again was on a joint basis. In the third and concluding settlement the situation had ripened to the exclusive "to have and to hold" phase with the establishment of the 49th parallel as the boundary line between the allotted portions of the claimants
14 F. G. YOUNG
who had been developing their respective rights for more than half a century through discovery, exploration, occupa- tion and settlement. The incidents recorded in the Log of the Princesa by one who had the master role introduces us directly to the first of the central series of dramatic situations in the early history of Oregon.
One additional special feature of progressive change in the developing drama on this Northwest Coast should be noted. In the first crisis of affairs affecting this region and staged at Nootka Sound, the participants had all arrived on the scene in ships. In the second crisis at Fort Astoria, contin- gents of both contestants had come overland. In the assem- bling for the final scene out of which came the terms of the treaty of 1846 it was those who had trailed across the con- tinent rather than those coming by the sea route who con- trolled the outcome.
To return to the situation in which our Pacific Northwest first came into the limelight of political history as a bone of contention between Spain and Great Britain. The van of the forces of Spanish adventure and missionary zeal pressing westward in the wake of the discoveries of Columbus had passed through the West Indies and along the southern border of what was to become the United States, had crossed Mexico and turned northward on the Pacific Coast. By 1769, it reached San Francisco Bay with a missionary establishment. Though there was a vast stretch of coast beyond to the north and northwest open to conquest and exploitation it had not the lure of rich kingdoms or legendary treasure cities and Spanish energy for less dazzling prizes seemed spent.
Spanish authorities were, however, concerned that the sub- jects of no other nation should get a foothold in menacing proximity, say within a sweep of 1000 or 1500 miles of their farthest outpost on San Francisco Bay. Furthermore, geog- raphers had for centuries mapped the Strait of Anian as affording a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 15
in a latitude that would mean trouble for the Spanish posses- sions on the Pacific Coast, if the entrance to this supposed waterway was not found and commanded by suitable fortifica- tions. Russian explorers, too, had pushed across Siberia and Vitus Bering and others were coming down this Northwest Coast. To anticipate these possible menaces to an unmolested sway over this region a more energetic Spanish King and Mexican viceroy renewed explorations. Accordingly, one vessel was dispatched northward in 1774 and two in 1775. These traced the main outlines) of our coast from about 55 southward. In the latter year, on the afternoon of July 17th, Heceta, in command of one of the ships, the Santiago, dis- covered a bay with strong currents and eddies, indicating the mouth of a great river or strait in latitude 46 9'. He named the point on the north, San Rbque, and the one on the south, Cabo Frondoso. He was looking at the mouth of the Columbia River between capes Disappointment and Adams. As he had not enough men to raise the anchor if it were once lowered, or to man his launch, he continued on to the south without consummating the discovery. Through these voyages in 1774-5, Spain had explored and taken possession of the whole extent of the Northwest Coast from 40 to 55. But the results of these expeditions were not published. Mean- while English maritime enterprise had followe'd the lead of the Cabots. Through activities of exploration and colonization the eastern shore of the North American was occupied by the English with Spain holding only St. Augustine in Florida. During the latter half of the 18th century there was a great renewal of exploring activity by England's navigators. The most intrepid of all her mariners of this period was James Cook. On his third voyage of discoverey in the Pacific he found the Sandwich Islands and proceeding northward arrived off our Oregon Coast in March, 1778. His quest was the northwest passage that had been the objective of Verrazano, Cartier, Hudson, Frobisher, Drake, Franklin and a host of
16 F. G. YOUNG
others during the preceding three centuries. Parliament had just offered a prize of 20,000 for the discovery of it.
While Francis Drake had been off our Oregon Coast just two centuries before Cook's appearance his lead was not followed up by his countrymen as Cook's was destined to be to the discomfiture of Spanish operations on our Western shores. On Cook's cruise northward, at intervals along shore, he named capes Perpetua, Foulweather, and Flattery on the Oregon and Washington Coasts. He entered Nootka Sound anchoring in what he called Friendly Cove. He there repaired his vessels and "obtained full supplies of water, wood, fish grass and spruce beer." He happened also to purchase a supply of beaver skins from the natives, "holding no thoughts at that time of using them to any other advantage than converting them to purposes of clothing." He found a market for them in China at the rate of $100 for what cost him 6 pence sterling. Intelligence of the opportunity for profit demonstrated in that transaction was passed along, reaching first the English mer- chants operating in China and India, but arriving in due time at the centers of foreign trade of England and America. John Ledyard, an American, who had been a sailor with Cook's expedition was particularly active in canvassing the matter and was probably largely instrumental in getting the company of Boston merchants to dispatch so promptly the Columbia and Washington under Kendrick and Gray.
This economic lure of prodigious profit in fur trade with the natives on the Northwest Coast soon made Nootka Sound, with its inviting conditions for shelter and refreshments, a great rendezvous.
In 1785 came the first ship to trade for furs, an English vessel from China. The next year six additional English vessels arrived, two from Bengal, two from Bombay, and two direct from England. During the summers immediately fol- lowing, this volume of trafficking along the coast was main- tained. The individual participants would change. As a cargo
SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 17
was accumulated the vessel would proceed to its market in China and possibly load there with tea for its homeward bound cargo. Meanwhile new recruits would be lured into the game.
In 1788 the American ships, Columbia and Lady Washing- ton, sent out by Boston merchants and commanded by John Kendrick and Robert Gray, arrived on the coast. They passed the following winter in Nootka Sound and were on the scene as interested spectators of the complications that were to follow, and possibly had no small part in inciting the Spanish commander, Martinez, to the suspicious attitude through which the trouble developed between him and Colnett and other Eng- lish captains as they arrived with their craft at the entrance of the harbor. At any rate, the factors in the situation were such as we shall see opened an opportunity which Yankee shrewdness with a little sharp practice could utilize toward putting difficulties in the way of a competitor in trade.
Looking at the situation as a whole as it was developing during these later eighties, of the 18th century at Nootka Sound through the profit-lure of the fur trade with the natives, we see the rights of Spain based on prior discovery of this coast completely ignored. In 1788, the Spanish authorities, having been through the reports of the returning French ex- plorer, La Perouse, apprised of the fact that the Russians were fast encroaching from the north, sent out Martinez and Haro in the Princesa and San Carlos to investigate. Martinez and Haro visited the Alaska regions and reported that the Russians intended to found a settlement at Nootka and also that English traders were active along the coast. Consequently, Martinez and Haro were sent back in 1789, equipped to es- tablish a post there and to assert Spanish sovereign jurisdic- tion over the region before it should be taken possession of by any foreign power.
In the Spring and early Summer of 1789, the time was ripe for a denouement at this rendezvous of traders of rival nations in Nootka Sound. Martinez as the representative of His
18 F. G. YOUNG
Catholic Majesty was there to take exclusive possession on the traditional basis of priority of discovery and he was fittingly equipped. English seamen representing different commercial enterprises plying their vocation as fur traders were arriving. Their undisputed freedom of ingress and egress enjoyed during the several years preceding was in their planning maturing into the right of permanent occupation. In the pre- ceding pages I have tried to indicate how the converging lines of tendency of Spanish and English expansion on this coast promised inevitable friction. It is now in place to show how the train was laid for the explosion at Nootka in the summer of 1789.
In 1788 a company of English merchants at Bengal, India, fitted out two ships, one of which was the Iphigenia. They were put under the command of John Meares and William Douglas. "In order to evade excessive port charges in China, and also to obviate the necessity of obtaining licenses from the East India and South Sea Companies," says Bancroft, "one Cavalho, a Portuguese, was made nominally a partner in the concern, and through this influence with the governor of Macao the vessels were furnished Portuguese flags, papers, and captains. All of these were to be used as occasion might demand, either in Chinese ports or in case of embarrassing meetings with British vessels, where the real commanders would appear in the Portuguese version of the ships' papers as super cargoes." Furthermore, it was provided that in case of real trouble with any Russian, English or Spanish vessels they should, as victors, take possession of the vessel and crew, bring both "to China that they might be condemned as legal prizes, and their crews punished as pirates." It was these Portuguese instructions that puzzled the Spanish commander when he had seized the Iphigenia as an English vessel. She was no longer flying the Portuguese colors, as a license to trade had been obtained from the India Company. Bancroft suggests that Kendrick with whom Martinez had
SPAIN AND ENGLAND QUARREL OVER OREGON 19
been spending a few days up the Sound had worked on Martinez's suspicions through the clause in the papers of the Iphigenia requiring the captain to take Spanish vessels and carry their men to Macao to be tried for piracy. To enter a Spanish port with such instructions, and uncertainly translated as they were for Martinez, led him to take the steps he did and to exhibit the subsequent vacillation with the Iphigenia. Though Martinez acted on the principle that discretion is the better part of valor with the Iphigenia, his attitude had be- come suspicious. He found it necessary, with Captain Hudson of the Princess Royal, to establish that the right of priority was with the Spanish through Perez's voyage in 1774 rather than with the English through Cook's discoveries of 1778.
The fact that the North West America, the first vessel ever built on the coast, was built on soil claimed by the Spanish may account for some of the insistence of Martinez that it should be delivered to him for a consideration.
When the Argonaut, under Captain Colnett, appeared at the mouth of the harbor it looks a little arbitrary for Martinez to order her towed into port and anchored between the two Spanish ships. But this English vessel belonged to the same concern that had been using the shores of Nootka Sound for a shipyard, that had erected structures there and her own papers actually contained instructions "to establish a permanent trading post or factory," the site of which would naturally have been Nootka. Colnett with such a commission from his superiors, and a weak mind, would have difficulty in not betraying his designs to the Spanish commander and lead him to demand Colnett's passport, instructions and invoice of cargo. Furthermore, Martinez waiting for Colnett to find these, "noted that the cargo of the Argonaut contained supplies of expected vessels and material for building others." Further, Colnett admitted "that he came as a governor of a colony." This meant complications that only tact and diplomacy could have straitened without an explosion, but Colnett flies off the handle.
20 F. G. YOUNG
The return of the Princess Royal, Captain Hudson, ten days later was in defiance of the warning Hudson had received, so seizure was the natural outcome.
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA BY ESTEVAN MARTINEZ.
What does it contribute to our Knowledge of the Nootka Sound Controversy?
By HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY
Hubert Howe Bancroft's History of the Northwest Coast was published 36 years ago in 1884. In volume I of that work he gives an account of the Nootka Sound Controversy. In 1904 Professor William Ray Manning published his ex- tensive inquiry into that affair, availing himself of manu- script materials in Spain and elsewhere which were inaccessi- ble to Bancroft. In one very important particular Manning was unable to add to the account by Bancroft. The latter says, (p. 212.) "I have not been able to obtain the original diaries of the Spanish expedition of 1789; nor has any previous writer in English seen them;" Manning quotes this, and says (p. 342 note) that Revilla-Gigedo, writing to Valdez, Mexico, Dec. 27, 1789, "states that a copy of Martinez' diary is in- closed, but a note on a small slip of paper inserted says that the diary is not being sent on account of Martinez not having sent a duplicate of it. The diary does not appear in the bundle, and probably never was sent."
This diary, or more properly log, of which a copy is now in the Bancroft Library of the Academy of Pacific Coast History, bears the caption, Diaro de la navegacion que yo el alferez de navi'o de Real Armada Don Estevan Josef Martinez, boy a executor al puerto de San Lorenzo de Nuca, mandando la fragata Princesa, y paquebot San Carlos, de orden de el Exmo Senor Don Manuel Antonio Florez, Virey, Governador, y Capitan-General de Nueva Espana, en el presente an de i?8p. The original log is a notebook of 144 pages, with 2 of in- troduction. The copy of it, which serves as the basis of this
22 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY
paper, was secured from the Depo'sito Hidrogra'fico de Madrid by the late Professor Henry Morse Stephens for the Academy of Pacific Coast History. An English translation of the copy has been made by William L. Schurz, sometime Travelling Fellow of the Native Sons of the Golden West. It is of in- terest to note what new light the log sheds upon the motives and actions of the Spanish commander, as compared with the published accounts.
The first discrepancy between the log and the account by Bancroft is seen in the statement from Haswell's Voyage, MS in the Bancroft Library, (Northwest Coast, Vol I, p. 213, note.} that Martinez told Capt. Gray, when he met the latter outside the entrance to Nootka Sound early in May, that he had fitted for his voyage at Cadiz, and then, reshipping with natives of California, had been to Behring Strait, where he had parted from his consort in a gale. The farthest north of the 1789 voyage was 50 26', reached May 2; Haswell prob- ably misunderstood Martinez, who must have been describ- ing his voyage of 1788, to be speaking of his present under- taking. This explains the "strange account" which Bancroft says Martinez gave of himself to Gray and later to Douglas.
On the negative testimony which Dr. Manning adduces from Meares' failure to record whether he had left his house standing or not when he sailed in 1788 from Nootka for Hawaii, the log adds nothing positive, but some negative evidence, for Martinez makes no reference of any kind to any English establishment, or remnant of one, tho' he does make frequent reference to the houses of the natives, which he visited. If any foreign building had been there, he would have seen it, and would very probably have mentioned it.
The story of the log which narrates the controversy over the instructions under which the Iphigenia sailed, is, that these were submitted to Martinez on May 8, when requested, but being long, they were left with him to be copied. It was not until May 13 that Martinez seized the Iphigenia, and on
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 23
the 17th he obtained the bond of Viana and Douglas to sur- render the Iphigenia if the Viceroy should declare her a good prize. The reason for releasing the vessel Martinez gives: it is his lack of men and provisions to take the captured vessel to- San Bias and at the same time secure Nootka. By May 24, he says, "I have reflected thoroughly that a different con- struction could be placed upon the instructions which were presented to me on the 8th inst., by ... Viana, . . . they being written in Portuguese, of which no one in our ship is master." The Iphigenia was released on May 25, after its officers had been admonished to cease trading at Nootka. It is apparent from the above that Manning's criticism (p. 320) that Martinez was silent as to his real reason for releasing the Iphigenia will have to be modified by the log entry for May 24, above cited.
As to the moot question of the quantity of supplies restored to Douglas, the diary gives no information in detail, except to say that on May 31, just before she sailed, the vessel re- ceived "the artillery, balls, powder, and other stores with which she had been fitted," and that the provisions which he furnished her were intended to last for the voyage to the Sandwich Islands. They must have been ample for this, as the Iphigenia spent a month on the coast before departing for Hawaii, as Manning notes.
Concerning the plea recorded by Douglas, made to Martinez, that he had entered Nootka in distress, Martinez says not a word, tho' he does give a circumstantial account (May 8) of the reasons given by Kendrick for entering. Neither is there any hint in| the log that there was unusual objection by the English to the treatment which they received as prisoners. It is regrettable also that neither the first nor the second transla- tions of the instructions to Viana are in the log, as from them might be gathered some knowledge as to what frankness Martinez showed in his effort to understand the situation. We have on this point only the entry of May 24th, above men
24 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLY
tioned. Attention may be called also to the fact that Martinez does not speak of any attempt to get an order from Douglas to Funter requiring him to sell the Northwest America to the Spaniard.
The log account of the reception accorded to the Northwest America, Capt. Funter, which put back into Nootka, after a northern cruise for pelts, on June 8th, is as follows: ". . . As soon as it was within a proper distance, I ordered two launches manned, and they towed it inside this port, where it cast anchor at 8 :30 at night. The captain and pilot, Robert Funter and Thomas Bennett, immediately came to greet me. I had them stay to supper, and they returned on board their vessel at 11 at night."
"Tuesday, June 9, 1789, at 7 a. m., I ordered my first pilot, Jose Tovar, the carpenter and the calker and the secretary, to examine that vessel and make an inventory of whatever she contained that was useful and that might be of service. When they had done so, they found that the whole bottom of the ship was rotten and eaten through by shipworms, and that in order to make her serviceable it would be necessary to re- build her almost entirely. In view of the report which they presented to me, I determined to receive whatever she con- tained that was serviceable beside the cargo that she carried. I kept ... of all this ... an inventory, .... made at once, and [have it] in my possession. . . . Every- thing must remain unsettled until we receive the decision . . . of ... the Viceroy, to whom I will render a proper account, to see if this vessel and her contents con- stitute a good prize. [This depends on] whether she is bound by the instructions which the captain of the Portuguese packet Iphigenia presented to me, and whether this ship as well as the other belongs to Don Juan Carvalho . . ." In this we find no pique at inability to buy the vessel, as Meares claimed (Manning, p. 325), which amply justifies his action as a partisan of his king. The accounts of Meares, Douglas,
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 25
and Funter were written at dates much later than the log, hence ought to be of less credibility.
With respect to the arrival of the Princess Royal, Capt. Hudson, at Nootka June 15, the log adds to Dr. Manning's account the fact that Martinez remained aboard of her out- side the Sound on the night of her arrival for the definite purpose of preventing her departure before he could learn particulars of her voyage and purpose his act thus being in keeping with the sense of his instructions to prevent trade with the natives, or surprise to himself. Manning's criticism that Martinez was inconsistent in releasing Hudson may be explained by the belief of Martinez that Hudson was warned that if he was found trading with the natives he would be taken prisoner as transpired upon the reappearance of the Princess Royal at a later date. Hudson stated that "he had acted in the belief that this port as well as the coast belonged to the English crown, as discoveries made by Captain James Cook. However, I convinced him . . . that I had an- ticipated Cook by three years and eight months; ... he could confirm this by ... Joseph Ingraham, who had noted it in his log from the knowledge which he had gained from the Indians of the region."
In the matter of the seizure of the Argonaut and the arrest of Capt. Colnett and his crew, it is to be observed that Manning used the report of Martinez to Florez, as well as the accounts by Colnett, Gray, Ingraham, and Duf fin ; of these latter, only the last named was a contemporary account. I shall set forth briefly how the log agrees in general with the letter to Florez, and what it adds, as well as how the spirit of the Dttffin account substantiates in many ways the Martinez point of view.
The log is, as was the letter to Florez, quite silent as to any pretense of distress on the Spanish vessels as a reason why Colnett should enter the port to succor them, tho' it does say that it was Martinez who ordered the Argonaut towed
26 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY
into port, where it was anchored, against Colnett's wishes, by chains between the two Spanish ships, and under the guns of the fort. Permission to anchor at Cook's old anchorage was refused to Colnett "seeing that this was merely a pretext to get away from us so that, secure from harm, he could leave with less risk to continue his way, or proceed to some place where he could act to better advantage."
Events of July 3rd, the day of the quarrel between Colnett and Martinez, not chronicled by Dr. Manning, and included in the log, state that the boatswain reported after daybreak that Colnett had "taken his boat before sunrise and had gone outside the port and around the hill on which the fort of San Miguel is situated. He was apparently reconnoitering the fortifications. . . . Soon after he came inside, he made to- ward the beach, along which he coasted . . . and ex- amined the cooper shop and the forge, . . . [Colnett's account of this investigation is that he did these things in company with Martinez.] Colnett failed to hoist his colors at sunrise, until ordered so to do by Martinez, when he displayed "a blue English flag at bow and stern, and at the mainmast, instead of a streamer, a broad pennant of the same color with a white square in the center. He thus gave me to understand . . . that he was an officer of high rank."
Shortly afterward, Martinez demanded Colnett's passport, instructions, and invoice of cargo. Colnett excused himself from producing them, on the plea that his chests were in great disorder. He was then allowed to drop his anchor, and take his time in finding his papers. Martinez accompanied him to his vessel. Here it was noted that the cargo of the Argonaut contained supplies for expected vessels and material for build- ing others. Colnett stated that he came as governor of a colony, and gave some account of his plans.
Having heard these, Martinez told him that he could not allow him to carry them out; then, refusing an invitation to supper, he returned to the Princesa. In the afternoon, Colnett
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 27
wrote a friendly note requesting the use of Martinez' launch in raising his anchor and setting sail the following morning. "I saw then that the reasons which he had given me in the morning for not presenting the papers which I had demanded were merely pretexts for not showing them, so that he could delay until he could find a favorable opportunity to get away." Martinez therefore refused assistance until Colnett should place the papers in his hands. Colnett then went on board the Princesa and showed his passport, but refused to show his instructions, which, he said, were addressed to himself alone. A moment later, he asserted that he had no instructions other than his passport, and demanded an instant reply to his re- quest for the Spaniard's launch, that he might set sail at once. Being again refused until he should show his instructions, he announced his determination to sail at once, "and if I did not like it, I might fire at him, for he was not afraid of us. He accompanied this talk by placing his hand two or three times on his sword, which he wore at his belt, as if to threaten me in my own cabin. He added in a loud voice the evil sounding and insulting words, *G d d d Spaniard.' ... I de- cided that if I let him go free from my deck, I would thereby suffer the arms of his Catholic Majesty to be dishonored. Many, too, would think that I had failed to act, through fear, though I had no reason to be afraid, since I was superior in force to Colnett." Then, to avoid a conflict with possible loss of life, and for fear Colnett would sail at once to London to report, Martinez says, he arrested the Englishman and his crew, and took over the ship.
Thus the log corrects Dr. Manning's statement (p. 334) that everything seems to have been harmonious on the morning of July 3, for at the outset Colnett began the day by suspicious actions and haughty disregard of Martinez' claim to the sovereignty of the land. He followed this by an ill-timed disclosure of his purposes in Nootka, resorting to patent mis- representation in saying that he could not find his papers to
28 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLY
show them. If it be objected that we are here taking Martinez' testimony in his own cause, it is yet plain that his account of the quarrel and arrest in the cabin written at the moment have quite as much air of verisimilitude as the accounts of the other participants, which were equally partisan, and were written later. Notice also Duf fin's letter of July 14 [13], in Meares' Voyage, cited by Dr. Manning (p. 336), wherein the writer calls attention to Colnett's refusal at Duffin's request, to "draw out every particular concerning our being captured. . . . His objection is that he has involved himself . . . in difficulties that he is not able to extricate himself from. . . ." Manning's conjecture is that this refusal was for shame of his (Colnett's) insanity; it is quite as reasonable to conjecture that it was due to the fact that he had been rash in putting himself in a situation where seizure was the normal outcome of his actions. It is noticeable that Duffin's account, the one written by the only sane English participant, exculpates Martinez from the charge of harshness, and puts the blame for the situation upon Colnett by implication, in his letter in Meares' Voyage, Appendix.
With regard to the capture of the Princess Royal, Capt. Hudson, which returned to Nootka July 13, the log adds to Bancroft's account, which merely states the event in a dozen words, and to the more detailed narrative of Manning, the assertion that when Hudson put off to the shore in his boat he was disguised as a common seaman. He was, as the English accounts have it also, taken from his boat onto the Spanish launch sent to meet him, and disarmed; but his boat succeeded in eluding the capturing launch, made off to an inlet too narrow for the latter, and attempted to speak to Colnett on the captured packet. This, Martinez refused to permit, unless the crew should surrender themselves, to be taken on board his frigate. (Log pp. 130-131.) "As soon as I had descended to my cabin and found Hudson there, I com- manded him to write an order directing his sloop to enter the
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 29
harbor. He begged off, saying that he could not give it unless he should first see his commander. . . He said furthermore that he had a good crew to defend it, with the guns loaded, and with orders that if they say any boats approaching, to fire on them without letting them draw close.
"I was cognizant of the order which he had given, and knew that there was no way to make him do as I had commanded, in spite of the fact that I had given him to understand that he was as much my prisoner as were those of the packet. I accordingly ordered the pilot Mondofia, in the presence of Hudson, to arm the launches and . . . bring the sloop in- side. I commanded him that [if the crew fired] he should . . . seize her by force, putting the crew to the sword without quarter. I also gave Hudson to understand . . . that if the crew offered resistance I would have him hanged at the yard arm. . . . He [then] wrote out an order to his men to surrender." ... He requested me that before the launches should leave, I should send his own boat with my men and one of his own, to give the countersign and warn them not to fire. When once on board, they would hand over the letter. Then, when the launches should arrive, his men would surrender without resistance." This was done, and the launches took the sloop on the 13th, without resistance.
The remainder of the log subsequent to the seizures, is con- cerned with the details of the Spanish occupation, and with contributions to the ethnography and topography of the region, gathered from the log of Ingraham and from observation. There is, so far as I know, no disagreement as to these features of the Nootka occupation. Nor does the log shed any light on further happenings in Mexico pursuant to the arrival of the seized vessels there. A discrepancy is found between the log and published account of Dr. Manning, taken from the report of Revilla-Gigedo to Valdez, Mexico, p. 212, to the effect that upon his departure for San Bias Martinez seized two American vessels and took them with him. The account of the log is
30 HERBERT INGRAM PRIESTLEY
that he took only one, the Fair America, commanded by the son of Captain Metcalf . Another vessel, . . . young Met- calf recognized as his father's, was given chase, but escaped.
Concerning the manifest favor with which Martinez treated Gray and Kendrick, the log says: (entry of Oct. 30) "The sloop Washington continued her voyage, not in making dis- coveries, as was said, but rather in the collection of furs, which is the principal object of the nations;" I might have taken [these American vessels] prisoners, but I had no orders to do so, and my situation did not permit it. I treated this enemy as a friend, I turned over to him 187 skins to be sold on my account in Canton, the proceeds to be turned over to the Spanish ambassador in Boston for the benefit of the Crown.
"Capt. John Kendrick informed me that he had not yet fulfilled his commission, and asked me if he might maintain himself on the coast the following year after going to Sand- wich and Canton. I told him he might if he carried a Spanish passport, as he said he expected to do, and that in that case he should buy for me in Macao two ornaments for the mass, and seven pairs of boots for the officers of the San Carlos and my vessel, but I believe nothing of that will come to pass."
Dr. Manning says (p. 360) that there is ground for dispute as to the justice or injustice of the seizures at Nootka. The double character of the Iphigenia he mentions as a "harmless trick, meant only to deceive the Celestials." It ought to be more difficult to harmonize this judgment with probability, seeing that the only Celestials whom it would be profitable to deceive were across the Pacific, than to harmonize the act of appearing under Portuguese colors with the fact that Spain and Portugal were, since the rapprochement during the War of American Independence, on more friendly terms with each other than was either with England ; hence a Portuguese vessel would run less risk on the Northwest Coast than would an Englishman. It is to be observed that the instructions to
THE LOG OF THE PRINCESA 31
Martinez by Florez did not mention the Portuguese at all, while they did particularize on the treatment to be accorded to English, Russian, and American vessels. The account of the quarrel with Colnett would seem to offer evidence that the acute situation was caused quite as much by the arrogance of Colnett as by misunderstanding on the part of Canizares the interpreter. We have not yet a perfectly unbiased account of what really did happen at Nootka, nor shall we, in all like- lihood, ever have. What we have is another statement of the case, by an active, competent, though naturally prejudiced participant. The fact that the Martinez diary was a daily entry, and that this fair copy of it was made at San Bias, before question of the events made by the viceroy could affect its purport, make it the best available source on affairs at Friendly Cove in the summer of 1789.
DOCUMENTARY
THE LETTERS OF THE REV. WILLIAM M. ROBERTS, THIRD SUPERINTENDENT OF THE OREGON MISSION.
Edited by ROBERT MOULTON GATKE, A. B., Graduate Fellow in Oregon History, Willamette University.
Letters hold no small place among our best historical sources. To read what a man says under conditions demand- ing accuracy in expression and yet free from the restraint of a self-consciousness resulting from the expectation of his writings being published, is indeed to get very near his real motives and opinions, especially as the passage of years have not allowed events to become unduly colored by later opinions and information. We get as close to history in the making as we are ever able to get. We do not secure information which has been brought forth by the suggestive question of the investigator but by the circumstances of the day which pro- duced the letter, hence their great value. Often the incidental reference to things of apparently slight importance opens for us a straight passage way into the very heart and spirit of the day we are seeking to understand.
The letters of Rev. William M. Roberts are splendid examples of what letters can show us of the period in which they were written. They were written by a man who was a keen observer, and usually directed to men whom he felt must be made to understand Oregon as he saw it. They are the product of a man who was himself one of the molding factors in the State's development as the leader of one of the great formitive forces of our State the Methodist Mission. Our regret upon reading the Roberts letters is that they are so few in number, and cover such a limited period, mainly 1847- '49. Most of his papers were destroyed by his surviving relatives
34 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
who considered them to be merely personal papers which should not concern the public. The only reason the present group escaped a like fate was owing to the fact that the signed copies had been written in a large letter book, bound in heavy leather which Mr. Roberts kept with his library, and hence passed with his other books, into the possession of Willamette University.
Before letting the letters speak for themselves, it may be well to remind ourselves, in just a word or two, concerning the position of Roberts in Oregon history. As the third Super- intendent of the Oregon Mission between the years of 1847 and 1849, Mr. Roberts directed the newly founded church through the danger period of the Indian troubles and the mad rush for California at the time of the Gold Discovery. He organized the Oregon-California Mission Conference of the Methodist Church, and exercised a wise control over the newly established church in California as well as in Oregon. When the Mission Conference was formally organized into two Annual Conferences (1852) Roberts continued his work as an aggressive pioneer minister. His position, ability and interest gave him a marked influence in the civic and educa- tional life of the new country, as well as its religious life, so we find his influence touching many phases of Early Oregon History.
This leader of Early Oregon was born in Burlington, N. J., in 1812, was city reared and educated, and entered the Methodist Ministry in the Philadelphia Conference in 1834. His early pulpit work marked him as a man destined to become a leader in his church. In 1846 he was appointed to succeed Dr. George Gary as Superintendent of the Oregon Mission, and reached Oregon in June, 1847. The William Roberts best remembered was as he appeared in later years, but a description given of him by an associate of his earlier years will serve to bring to mind his appearance at the time he wrote the letters now before us: "He was thirty- four
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 35
years of age ; a very Chesterfield in appearance and manners, and yet as affable and approachable to the lowly as to the exalted. In the pulpit his elocution was nearly faultless, and his sermons were thoroughly evangelical and charmingly eloquent. He was energetic in execution. Though not a large man, and yet not a small one, physically, when he entered upon his work here, his figure and poise drew the instant attention of the passerby, and introduced him to the favorable regards of the people at once."
The long and useful career of the Rev. William M. Roberts closed August 22, 1888, at the home of his later years, in Dayton, Oregon.
Oregon City Deer 18th 1847 To Rev. Dr. Pitman Cor. Secy ) Miss'y Soc'y of the M. E. Church) Dear Bro.
Afo unexpected event has just transpired in this territory, which at once furnished the occasion and means of communi- cation with the United States. It is the melancholy fact that Dr. Whitman and wife and nine other persons have been cruelly murdered at Waiilatpu.
It is generally known that for several years past the Ameri- can Board has had three Mission Stations in the upper country. One at Tshimakains, where the Rev. Messrs Walker and Eells are located. Another at Clear Water under the care of Rev. Mr. Spaulding : And a third at Waiilatpu, under the Superintendence of Dr. Marcus Whitman, Physician and catechist. This last station is near Fort Walla Walla, and not far from the travelled route from the United States to this Country. In fact many of the Emigrants stop at this place for a time after their toilsome journey and some who are too late or feeble to get in the Walamet Valley, remain there all winter. The Indians in this vicinity, are chiefly, the Cayuses who since the Establishment of the Mission, have become wealthy in cattle and horses and have macle consider- able progress in the tillage of the soil. All the reports I have had from them by the Emigrants of the present season seem
36 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
to represent them as much less troublesome than other Indians on the route, seldom condescending- to the petty thefts which are so characteristic of Indians everywhere. It has so happened that the Emigrants have brought the Measles with them into this country, the present season, and of course the Cayuse Indians among the rest have caught the Contagion: numbers of them have died and in labouring to minister to the sick and dying, Dr. Whitman has lost his life. The accompanying letters in the Oregon Spectator* will shew you the horrible suspicion which entered their minds that he was secretly attempting to poison them and they at once resolved upon his destruction. I refer you to the documents in question for the particulars of this horrid massacre. They contain all the information we have up to this moment.
My acquaintance with Dr. Whitman has been limited of course, but I have recognized in him a deeply pious and indefat- igable labourer in the missionary field with a heart over- flow- ing with sympathy for the perishing Indian race, he has been assiduously labouring for years to improve their condition: And now while standing manfully at his post, he has fallen by the hand of savage violence. I desire here for myself and my brethren members of our Mission to express our deepest Christian sympathies both to his friends in the States and the Board under whose auspices he was labouring, in view of this afflictive event. The heart of this whole community at this moment throbs with emotion at the intelligence.
Nor is this all that is to be feared. The Indians threatened to go to Clear Water and to the Dalls to murder the residents in those places. The most efficient measures in our power have been adopted to send relief. A company of more than 40 have volunteered and gone to the Dalls to hold that place until a larger force can be raised and sent to the upper Country to bring away the women and children who may yet be alive, and proceed to the residences of Messres Spalding, Walker, and Eells, whose situation if they are yet alive must be iminently perilous.
Perhaps I ought to have said before this time that with the exception of Mrs. Whitman the Indians decided to spare the women and children.
The Legislature of the territory is now in session in this
- Published at Oregon City 1846-1855.
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 37
city and is a very respectable body : Greatly perplexed how- ever, with the present aspect of Indian affairs. If the cayuses have succeeded in drawing the Walla Walla and Nez Perce Indians into hostile measures against the whites, we are involved in a most serious and embarrasing war which this Country has no means to sustain. Application has been made by Commrs. (commissioners) appointed for the purpose, To the Hudson's Bay Com'y for a loan but the Chief Factor* replied that the instructions of the Company would not allow him to make such appropriation.
A public meeting of the Citizens was then called and such were the exigencies of the case that it was regarded as indis- pensable for me to furnish aid to the amount of $1000. I stedfastly resisted all applications until I became convinced that the circumstances would not only justify but really demanded compliance. How far I can make the funds here available for this purpose I cannot at this moment tell, but think it probable that nothing short of a Draft will answer the purpose. But the lives of my fellow labourers in the mission field are at stake and immediate relief must be furnished. The investment doubtless is perfectly secure, and amts. only to a temporary loan payable in silver in this country. I would not omit to mention that immediately on the receipt of the afflictive intelligence here derailed Mr. Ogden of Fort Vancouver with a party of 20 men proceeded to Fort Walla Walla to afford all the relief in his power and intelligence has just been rec'd by an Indian from the Dalls that all was well there up to Monday the 18th Inst.
The Cayuses came to the DeShutes river and put a "medican man" to death and then retired without doing further damage. You will by this time percieve that the failure of the American Gov. to send its laws for our control, and its troops for the protection of its own citizens as they approach our exposed border is a great calamity. The Mexican war may (explain) but cannot justify the failure. Many thousand dollars worth of property havce been stolen from the Emigrants this season along the route, and as you see several valuable lives lost simply for the want of from 20 to 100 men stationed at proper points along the road to prevent Indian aggressions. Had the Act of the twenty ninth Con-
- James Douglas
38 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
gress "to provide for raising a regiment of mounted riflemen and for establishing Military stations on the route to Oregon" only been carried into effect, the Battle at the Dalls and the Massacre at Waiilatpu would not have happened : and many a toil worn emigrant who has come in sick and penniless, a little pilfered from him here and there until his all was gone might have had a competence : at least until he had recovered from the fatigues of the journey through that great and terrible wilderness.
The emigration of the present season is computed at from 4 to 5 thousand, the principal part of which crossed the Cascade mountains over Barlow's road: 1 soon after the rains commenced, that road became impassable and those on the northern route, were compelled to come down the Columbia river. Several companies have come in the southern route with safety, and the hope is entertained that future emigra- tions will so divide themselves on the several routes as to have an abundance of grass for their cattle. We are recieving many valuable accessions to our Membership from the states the present season: and have been blest with quite a (number) of conversions, mainly on the West Side of the Walamet river. Two weeks later I could furnish you with statistics. But the special messenger 2 to the States is expected to start in a few hours and my communication must be closed. In previous letters I have spoken of the transfer of the Dalls Station into the hands of Dr. Whitman according to Bro. Gary's 3 arrange- ment, giving him all except the moveable property, the value of which is about $600. Bro. Waller is stationed at the Insti- tute 4 and Bro. Brewer's connextion with the mission has ceased. You will of course expect me to say if the recent disaster will in any way affect the prosperity of our Mission or the safety of the Missionaries, I think not. It may prevent some of my excursions among the Indians another season and certainly does seem to darken the prospect of doing any good to them whatever. But I (plan) to enter every open- door, and occupy until the master shall come. Whether it (be) by natural neath, or Indian Massacre, or a chariot of fire. We are all well as usual My Indian Boy is just recovering
1 A toll-road across the Cascade Mts.; opened by Samuel K. Barlow about July, 1845.
2 Joseph L. Meek.
3 Rev. George Gary. Second Supt. Oregon Mission. 1844- June 1847
4 Oregon Institute Salem. Organized in 1844. (Became Willamette Uni- versity.;
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 39
from the measles. This is the first introduction of this disease into the Country and is at this time the cause of much suffering in our borders both among whites and Indians. The hour has come for this Com'n (communication) to be closed, and with the greatest confidence that this afflictive event will be over- ruled for good even in Oregon I subscribe
myself
Yours in Christ
Wm. Roberts.
PS. The rumours of this morning are greatly against the hope that Mr. Spalding is yet alive but nothing is certain.
(Copy) Oregon City Deer 20th 1847
To Rev. Dr. Pitman Cor Secy ) Miss Socy of the M. E. Church) Dear Bro.
In my communication of Saturday last with its accompany- ing documents, you have all the information we possess in regard to our Indian difficulties. I now desire (Sub rosa) to speak a little of some business matters if the special mes- senger Mr. J. Meek does not start too soon. And First, as to the payment of salaries. The course has been to pay the part regarded as salary, either in cash or goods at cash or invoice prices: The other part i. e. that regarded as table expenses to be paid in the currency of the country, which is now not worth more than 66 2/3 cts. to the dollar compared with cash. I called the Brethren together recently to compare notes on this subject and find that the salaries as estimated in N. Y. are a little above what the estimating (committee) made them here for 1847.
Now the query arises as the (committee) here estimated in view of the Pay aforesaid ought I to pay the present (or N. Y. estimate) in any other way. Bro. Wilbur 1 is of opinion that when the Board made the present estimate of $600. for himself for example, it meant $600. in cash or if currency was used an amt. of it equal to $600. in cash. The other Brethren agree that if the present estimate is paid about as Bro. Gary paid it when he was here that it is sufficient and they have had experience. Do not understand me that there is any
i Rev. J. H. Wilbur. D. D.
40 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
feeling on the subject on the part of Bro. Wilbur, but such are his convictions of right, and I think he will not be satisfied with the payments made as Bro. Gary made them ; until you shall have given instructions on the subject.
I am scarcely prepared to express an opinon on the subject but the course I had marked out for myself was to ascertain how nearly the present estimate, corresponded with those of former years and also with the actual demand and cost of living in the country. As to the former it is above (only a little) the estimate made here for the same time but below the esti- mates of some previous years, then I intended to have the pay according to the salary: following the example of my predecessor in all cases where I ascertained he was right. Provided that in all cases (I speak now of salaries) the members of the mission are satisfied and happy. It is likely that I may discount somewhat for Bro. Wilbur when I use the funds here at least until you shall have given some direc- tion (if you are prepared to give any) in regard to the question. If at any moment I find the Brethren are not entirely satisfied with payments as Bro. Gary made them, or am convinced from experience that the support is not full and liberal, I shall bring the currency part of the payments down to cash prices so as to made the entire amt. equal to cash as per estimate of the Board, until I recieve further advices : for in my opinion a liberal support and entire harmony of feeling are both essential to our prosperity in the mission.
One thing I ought perhaps to mention I am of opinion that the Board ought to send a good supply of goods to this place not only for the use of the mission families but to enable me to pay for somethings that have to be done in goods. Almost every article of clothing here is from 100 to 200 per ct. above the N. Y. prices. I am under the necessity of haveing some work done for which goods would be most available, and here I will say that my action in this case will be widely different from that of Bro. Gary. He did not travel about except as he was taken. I travel incessantly when angry swolen rivers will permit, hence not only are my personal expenses greatly increased, but I must have a barn and Fodder ; and a man or boy to work for me, and travel with me when
1 Rev. David Leslie.
2 Dr. Gary came to Oregon with instructions to close out all the "aecular" interests of the mission, instructions which he followed literally.
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 41
on long and perilous journeys. There is no Barn at the Insti- tute and the Brethren spend nearly one third of their working hours in hunting and catching their horses, and sometimes fail to get to their work because no horse can be found. This must not be and I have no alternative but to build. I have already built one in this place. Bro. Leslie 1 now lives at this place in a house which I hold at present but which may be redeemed at any time until the 23d of February next. They have given me due notice that it will be redeemed and then he must vacate the premises; at that time there will be two of us to live with our families in one little one story house 18 by 22 or one of us must go to the Barn, for it is by no means certain that any house can be had for love or money. I refer to these things not to distress you much less to com- plain, for we are very happy a mid it all and would be in a dungeon. But for the purpose of saying it is necessary to build a house for the Superintendent to live in. Arid all this costs money, and is a different course pursued by my predecessor. 2
In both the fact and manner of these expenditures, I shall pursue the most rigid economy : now if I had some tea, coffee, flannell, Crockery, Calico stuff for pants, coarse Box coats or Blanket Coats, made or unmade, some stout shoes or (Boots) (nothing is fit for this country that is not very durable), I could after supplying ourselves dispose of them to the greatest advantage, together with the funds we have in this country in paying workmen &C.
It may seem strange to you that I make these suggestions in regard to goods: but if you were to hear the constant enquiry Can't you furnish me with a pair of shoes ? I will do anything for you for a coat, there is no coffee that I can get &C. &C. you would feel as I do that for the present, the truest economy is to keep a moderate supply of these necessaries of life in the mission. We have had an abundant supply of stockings and shirts, and a little Calico they have been a blessing indeed. We want some small Books for presents for children : I find the Sunday School Books we brought were very appropriate, but I want to have some, more immediately intended as presents.
There are a few Local Preachers comeing in this season, and one (Rev. Asa White) to whom I was introduced on Saturday last, one (an Itenerant, who may help us to some
42 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
extent, but I do not yet see any way at all, with our present means to supply the Tualatin Plains or Clatsop or the extreme upper part of the Valley, much less any hope of touching any point North of the Columbia River, so that if you have received my former letter calling for two young men to come next season either over the mountains or by way of Panama, my mind as to the necessity remains unchanged.
Campbellism is rampant in this country at present. I wish you would send me a few copies of Phillips Strictures on it, or any better work you know of, with 1 copy of Rice and Campbell's Debate.
The prices of a few articles in this country are as follows Flour $4. per hnd. Beef 5@6 Pork 8@10 Oil from $1.25 to $2. Sugar 12c Tea $1.50@$2. and poor at that Coffee 25c but none to be had. Fir wood $3. Oak & Ash $4. butter 25c per Ib. Wheat is very scarce and worth $1. Cash. Fodder impos- sible to get except a few bundles of oats in the sheaf at 75c per dozen &c. &C.
I ought not to forget Hardware Glass and paint for the said house. Nails cost 20c per lib. I think of building a house 32 by 24 Cottage form one and a half stories with Kitchen 14 by 16 the ground plan would be something of this form and I allude to it only to indicate to you the hardware &C necessary there are 5 inside and 2 outside doors on the Lower floor, and Carpenter would give directions in a moment as to the kind and No. of Locks fastenings hinges screws nails (4d are used for shingling here) glass (I want 8 by 10) Paint and a keg of oil. If by any means I can avoid building or have to do it before you can send these items or there should be a surplusage, they are worth here all they cost and 100 per ct. more. I name the above sized glass not because it is the best but because in any contingency it is sometimes possible to get it in this country.
A few remarks on the Oregon Institute and I have done, the claim on which the building is located is now held by Wm. H. Wilson 1 in trust for a Board of Managers and excepting the Buildings and a reserve of 60 acres 2 he is to have one third of all the claim for holding it &C. This arrangement
1 Made necessary by the failure of the Provisional Government to provide for property holding by corporations.
2 The Willamette University Campus and the Capitol grounds at Salem occupy part of this grant.
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 43
was concocted before I came and consummated in the pres- ence of Mr. Gary a day or two before he left. If Bro. Wilson were a thorough going business man it might be a tolerable plan but as it is I dislike it exceedingly, and am trying to persuade him to give it into other hands. It is possible I may succeed. Bro. Wilbur could hold it just as well and it would cost nothing and he would transact the business in due form and order.
A Bro. Joseph Smith is keeping a good school in the build- ing at present, and we are doing all we can to encourage and help, but in a country so new where the Love of gain has gained complete possession of allmost every heart, where the the most Enterprizing cannot work fast and the idle and vicious do nothing but mischief it is not easy to go a great deal in a little time.
I have consecrated all my feeble energies to the work before me, and think these energies both Physical and Spiritual (I say nothing of mental) are strengthened by the Exercise.
There is need here for all the aid you can send us, whether it be in prayers and sympathies, the goods or men I have indi- cated or any other good and perfect gift you may have to send us from the Father of lights. I omitted before leaving home to secure Temperance Publications. I find we are threatened with a Deluge of Rum, and that the most sturdy efforts imag- inable are requisite to stem the torrent.
Gambling abounds. Will you send me the most valuable Temperance publications together with the Permanent Temper- ance Documents. Dec 21st I have just ascertained that by loaning a man $300 in silver I can have a house suitable for Bro. Leslie to live in for eleven months this will give me time enough to build or to make some other shift.
Oregon City seems to be the proper place for me to reside, at least for the present and is the key to the whole territory. I shall be most happy to have such instructions and advice from time to time as will better prepare me for my respon- sible work in this country I am
Yours in Christ
William Roberts.
44 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
(Copy) Oregon City Dec 22nd 1847
Dear Bro. Kidder
After haveing prepared such communications for the Miss'y Board as will give all the light we have on the recent afflictive event which has shrouded our territory in gloom, I desire to improve the remaining moments before the messenger starts in writing to such friends as are most frequently in my thoughts.
We are well as usual : my own health was never better, and I think Mrs. Roberts enjoys even better health in the general than in the States. Up to this time however, she has been too much confined at home, I trust that when the rainy season is over my business will allow of her taking some long horse back trips which I am quite confident would be very conducive to her comfort in many respects. I have quite a No. of Indian Ponies so that if you will bring Mrs. Kidder to see us we can take a tour, children and all.
In settling the Indian difficulties at the Dalls several horses fell into my hands, which I have not yet disposed of. The Sabbath School Cause is yet in its infancy in this country oweing to the scattered character of the population. The poverty of many of the people in not being able to clothe either themselves or their children so that they would be fit to appear in church or school, and to the ignorance of and carelessness of many others, the subject has never received that attention its importance demands: Every month however brightens the hopes in regard to this enterprize. The Box of S. S. Advocates which was sent to us was very opportune, it contained however, only the first half of the 4th Vol. from 1 to 12 inclusive. Can you send us as many of the last half of the same vol and so on of the next volume as they come out. There are many families among whom we distribute these papers very anxious to have the volume complete and we distribute them in our schools at regular intervals just as if we were recieving them from the publication office. I greatly desire to have a lot of books more immediately suitable for presents. In the name of the lambs of Christ's flocks let me ask you to select and send such as will be sufficient for the pockets and saddle bags of six or eight Itinerants who have but few opportunities of seeing the children except when we go from cabin to cabin in our regular appointments and pas- toral visits: After next New Years ensueing I can give you
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 45
Statistics, but I have only had one Quarterly Con. and then the Preachers in charge had not their S, S. reports as per disciplin, they will not be behind hand after this I am confident.
The glory of Oregon in Temperance has departed. 1 There are three dram shops in this city and in spite of all our efforts tippling and gambling abound. We are just now making an effort to alter the organic law so that Prohibition may be the law of the land in regard to all that intoxicates. But I have some hope that we can by the blessing of God put forth some efforts to save the country.
Romanism is here and doing all it can. I give you an incident. The Legislature is in session and at its opening passed the customary resolution inviting the Clergymen of the place to open the morning sessions with prayer. The Com- mittee invited the Catholic Priest among the rest.
I opened the first morning by invitation. The Legislature sits you must know in the Methodist Church 2 as there is no other suitable building in the place. The sec'd. morning the Speaker arose and said he would be pleased if the Clergyman would arrange among themselves as to who would officiate each morning without his making the selection. The Priest who was standing by the stove immediately said he had been invited to officate as their chaplain. That he was present for that purpose, but that he would allow no one else to dictate a prayer to any of his people. We have, he said, authority to preach from the Apostles. This is a political body and can do its business without prayer or each one who wishes it can pray silently but some of my people are members of the body and if any of these persons come here to dictate prayers to my people I will not permit it &C. The Speaker scarcely knew what to reply to all this intolerance, but in a few moments the House proceeded to elect a Chaplain and the Priest was excused.
I have regularly served them since that time and in a few days, the session will close. The Governor (Bro. Abemethy) 3 brought up the School Questin in his message but I fear that
1 Dr. John McLoughlin and Jason Lee had united their influence to keep Oregon as free from liquor as possible. . ._ ,_
2 The first church building in the Pacific N. W.
3 George Abernethy, came to Oregon in 1840 as treasurer of the M. E'. Mission. He became first Governor of Oregon.
46 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE
war and rumours of war will crowd out any valuable action on the subject. But I hear that the special messenger to the States is to start shortly and with assurances of love and Christian affection,
I am yours as ever
Wm Roberts. Rev. D. P. Kidder
Oregon City 25 Deer 1847 Dear Bro.
I hereby advise you of a Draft I have made or rather of two drafts I have drawn on you. One for $100. the other for $400. in favour of Jos. L. Meek the Messenger to the United States from the provisional Government of Oregon. To Rev G. Lane ) I am
Treasurer of the Mis. Socy) Yours truly
of the M. E. Church ) Wm Roberts
Oregon City 25 Deer 1847 To Rev G. Lane &C Dear Bro Lane
I hereby advise you that I have this day drawn on you for $500. in favour of A. L. Lovejoy, H. Burns and Wm. H. Wilson, Commissioners of Oregon territory at ten days sight. I am
Yours truly
Wm. Roberts.
Oregon City Friday Deer 24th 1847 Rev. Dr. Pitman &C Dear Bro.
And yet the Messenger delays: the difficulty of raiseing the means, the necessary delay in preparing the memorial to congress, and the intense desire to hear from the upper country together with the necessary preparations for crossing the Shasta mountain between here and California in this winter season, will not allow him to start before next week. I therefore commence another sheet, which I purpose to fill with such events as may transpire in the interval. In the meantime the present weeks paper will be out containing the Governor's message and some of the proceedings of the Leg
LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 47
islature. I send you such parts of the paper as relate to this Country folded in the letter as the safest means of transporta- tion. In truth where an express can take with certainty only such things as may be belted around the man it will not do to burden it with newspapers. The present Editor of the paper is too fond of his cups to give it much interest or credit, and it is likely he will soon be excused from further service.
Monday Dec 27. Up to this moment we hear nothing that is positively certain from the Dalles, and I must close my letters to take a tour up the valley early tomorrow morning. The general opinion is that the property at the Dalles has fallen into the hand of the Cayuses, and that the Company of volunters sent there are encamped in an open bottom 3 miles below awaiting further orders.
The effort is (being made) to raise 500 men which I pre- sume will succeed and then all those who go to the upper Country will not return it is to feared that some will fall a prey to Savage violence there are various opinions entertained as to whether it would be best to do anything more now than rescue the remaining families and wait for the U. S. troops to chastise the offenders, or, to proceed at once to rescue and chastise them ourselves. The Governor inclines strongly to the former course but there are some restless persons in the territory who are determined to go and chastise the Indians at all hazards and it is thought best to place them under proper control. So that no mischief may be done at any rate, for if the disposition of some who desire to go and pay them- selves with what they could take from the Indians were grati- fied, the fields of Oregon could not be planted the comeing season.
The Legislature adjourns tomorrow after a session of three weeks more than half of which time has been occupied by the war. Since commencing these letters, my eldest boy has been taken down with fever it is of a low painless type Identical I suppose with the camp fever which operates so fatally among the Emigrants. While at home I could manage our ligffi afflictions tolerably well but when away from home it would be comfortable to leave one's sick family in the care of a good physician but at present the great physician above is our only reliance.
The present winter has been remarkable favourable the weather has been so mild that the cattle are doing finely, there has been very little rain during the present month. I am reminded by the pattering of the rain at this moment that my 50 miles ride tomorrow will be in the face of a South East storm. Hopeing that the Lord will take care of us and that we may hear from you soon.
I subscribe
myself
Your Bro in Christ
W. Roberts.
P. S. I will sketch some more wants if you have no objection our church in this place has a Belfry, erected at the instance of Dr. Babcock[1] who promised to furnish a bell which is really indispensable. Will you write to him and request him to consent that you may forthwith purchase a Bell suitable for a church 40 by 50 (I dont know its exact size) and send it here at his expense. Inform him also that I have some prospect of collecting some funds for him which were left in my hands for collection, they shall be forwarded when collected as per arrangement of Bro. Gary. Whether he pays for it or not we greatly need a Bell, but if the above mentioned promise was made and if I am to collect his debts I insist that he shall pay for the bell. The following articles would contribute to our comfort 2 or 3 pieces of Rag carpet, a piece of stuff for Horse Blanket 2 Riding Bridles a Spanish Bit, gross of the several kinds of Buckels.
- ↑ Dr. Ira L. Babcock, M. D., member of the M. E. Mission group of 1840.