The Spalding Narrative—continued.
miracle if he escaped death either from starving or freezing, or the savages, or the perishing of his horses, during the five months that would be required to make the only possible circuitous route, via Fort Hall, Taos, Santa Fe, and Bent Fort. His reply was that of my angel wife six years before: ' I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem or in the snows of the Rocky Mountains for the name of the Lord Jesus or my country. I am a missionary, it is true, but my country needs me now.' And taking leave of his missionary associates, his comfortable home, and his weeping companion, with little hope of seeing them again in this world, he entered upon his fearful journey the last of Oct. 1842, and reached the City of Washington the last of March 1843,[1] with his face, nose, ears, hands, feet, and legs badly frozen. It is well that the good man did not live to see himself and his faithful associates robbed and their characters slandered by that very Government he was ready to lay down his life for. It would have been to him, as it is to me, the most mournful event of my life. . . ."
"DR. WHITMAN'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION AT WASHINGTON."
"On reaching the settlements, Dr. Whitman found that many of the now old Oregonians—Waldo, Applegate, Hamtree, Keyser,
The Gray Narrative—continued.
"Everything was in the best of order about the station, and there seemed to be no important reason why he should not go. A. L. Lovejoy, Esq., had a few days before arrived with the immigration. It was proposed that he should accompany the Doctor, which he consented to do, and in twenty-four hours' time they were well mounted and on their way to the States. They reached Fort Hall all safe; kept south into Taos and thence to Bent's Fort, on the Arkansas River, when Mr. Lovejoy became
- ↑ In the republication of this narrative in Exec. Doc. 37, and in all other repetitions, the precise date of Whitman's arrival in Washington is given as the 2d or 3d of March, obviously for the purpose of getting him there before the adjournment of Congress.
