Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/148

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124
Spalding and Whitman Letters, 1837

it to writing & teach it but probably it will never be desirable to print it but only teach it to instruct & interest the parents. Books with plates & cuts & cards & prints are all important You are much better informed as to what we want in this particulars than we are I trust will send us book and aparatus accordingly

Thus far the Lord has signally Blest us & prospered all our journeyings & temporal provisions Brother Gray left us in March with the intention (of) spending a year with the Flatheads in order to obtain their language & a knowledge of their Country; but on meeting Brother Spalding at Spokane they resolved he should return home this season instead of next. The Nez perces are to accompany him with horses to exchange for cattle. For want of sufficient notice & on account of some horse given to an American Trader by the Cayuses for which they received no return as promised & also on account of some horses given the Rev. Messrs Lee finding a disaffection I do not like to take the responsibility of sending their animals & therefore no Cayuses will accompany him. The boys I took home[1] one remained with Brother Spalding & the other with me The one with me I have lately expeled from my house for bad conduct They were very usefull to us in driving our cattle We are in good health at presant & in this respect have been highly favored We have a daughter born the fourteenth March whom we call Alice Clarissa[2] I trust we shall have associate sent us & my opinion is they had better come by land & let all baggage be sent by water If Mr. David Weld of Cohocton Steuben Co N York comes he is a competent Mill wright & (paper torn) Irons & all necessary provision for a grist mill should be sent with the exception of stones which can be made here better if tools are sent for the purpose. Irons also for a saw Mill would be usefull I do not know what oportunity you will have to send but if my Friends do not send me Medical & religious books I wish the Board to send what they see fit as I have but few indeed Mr Gray I believe is to return his object in going home I suppose is to make arrangement for that purpose & to remain permanently


  1. In 1835, Whitman took two Nez Perce boys, named Tackitonitis and Ais, back to the states. They were renamed Richard and John, and accompanied Whitman and Spalding in 1836.
  2. First child of American parents to be born in the Oregon country.