(McBean) sent his interpreter and another man to the mission. As the two messengers had to travel twenty-five miles to the mission and the same distance back again. Mr. McBean's It-tier must have been written late on Tuesday night: and the messenger lie sent to Vancouver must have left on Wednesday morning. December 1. This messenger must have traveled the one hundred and forty miles from Walla Walla to the Dalles on one horse, and could not have reached there before late on Friday, December 3. To do this he would have to travel about forty-six miles a day. To go from the Dalles to Vancouver in a canoe, and be "wind-bound" at Cape Horn (as Mr. Gray states on page 517), in much less time than three days, would be very difficult indeed. No one knew any better than Mr. Gray the distance traveled, and the time it would occupy under the then existing circumstances.
The historian, on page 535, gives the communication of Governor Abernethy to the legislative assembly of Oregon, dated December 8. 1847. How. then, could Mr. Hinman be at Vancouver on Saturday, December 4, 1847! And. had he written his letter there on that day. why did it not reach Governor Abernethy two or three days in advance of that of .Mr. Doii-rlas. dated December 7? But there is on the face of Mr. I tinman's letter itself conclusive evidence that his date, us itiriii. is an error. He says: "A Frenchman from Walla Walla arrived at my place on last Saturday." Now. if his letter had been <-<>ri-n-llii dated December 4, 1847. then the "last Sat unlay" mentioned would have been November L'7. two days before the massacre took place. It seems plain that Mr. Hinman and the Frenchman arrived at Vancouver Momlay eveninir. December (I. and that Mr. Hinman wrote his letter that eveiiini:. and Mr. Douglas his the next day. as he states. 1'pon this supposition Mr. I tinman could correctly Uy, "the horrible massacre that took place at Wailatpu last Monday. It may be that the figure U in Mr. Hinman's letter was mistaken for the figure 4; or it may have l>een a typo graphical error in publishing the letter; or Mr. Hinman.
