Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/153

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therefore the missionaries built their house of " adobes," large brick made of clay and baked by exposure in the sun.^ This finished, the second station was begun on the Clearwater, at its junction with the Lapwai, a short distance below the point where Lewis and Clark, in 1805, reached the navigable waters of the Columbia. The place was in the midst of the Nez Perces country, about one hundred and twenty miles east of Waiilatpu. Mr. and Airs. Spalding took up their abode here while the Whitmans remained at the Walla Walla station.

Expansion of the work; Spokane mission. The Indians of this country were far superior in every way to those of western Oregon. They were wanderers during a good share of the year, but the winters were usually spent in fixed places, where they could be reached with ease. It was not long before many of them became interested in the schools established at both missions for their benefit, and after a time some were taken into the church. Special efforts were made to teach them to depend more upon agriculture and less upon hunting, fishing, and the search for camas roots. It was easy to cultivate the soil in this region, as Dr. Parker foresaw, so that the Indians were soon raising little fields of corn and patches of potatoes, which added much to their comfort and well-being. In the spring of 1837 Whitman planted twelve acres

1 These particular brick were twenty inches long, ten inches wide, and four inches thick, as Dr. Whitman wrote to a fellowmissionary on Platte River.