Woods, Mrs. Woods apparently being her friend. It was fortunate she took refuge there, for as soon as Oregonians began to read The River of the West she found herself under attack. Harvey W. Scott praised the book in fair measure but also forthrightly consigned the author to her historical enemies. He stated that it was certainly the best narrative of early events in Oregon that had yet appeared, and the story, which made Meek quite a hero, was attractively told and would be popular. Then he noted that Mrs. Victor held positive opinions which she did not hesitate to state, and after quoting some of her observations on the missionaries wrote: "We give the above as a specimen of the writer's independent style of criticism, and leave her to those who may be disposed to take a different view of these things, as doubtless such there are."[1]
The missionary contingent in Oregon was deeply offended by The River of the West and never forgave the author. She did make some provocative statements about preachers and missionaries, especially the Methodists, and on page 274 inserted a clever cartoon captioned "The Missionary Wedge." At the end of March 1870 Frances wrote Judge Deady that to her surprise she found herself much talked about, "having forgotten that writers of co-temporaneous history were liable to notoriety—sometimes unenviable." In answer the judge criticized one of her statements about missionaries, to which she replied: "I am such a scorner of hum-bug, that really I cannot find it in my nature to be very sorry that I said it!"[2]
Mrs. Victor moved to Portland in May 1870, but soon took off on a trip to The Dalles, Wallula, Walla Walla, and Lewiston. She was making new observations for her manuscript All Over Oregon and Washington, and daily adding to her historical lore. Of special interest on this trip was her visit to the site of the Whitman Mission where she talked with Cushing Eells, and to the Indian Agency at Lapwai where she met Perrin Whitman and Lawyer, a Nez Perce chief.[3]
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