Fontenelle, the leader of the caravan, sent for Dr. Whitman and told him there were three cases in camp that looked like cholera. What shall be done? Must the caravan turn back? Must its members all die? No, said Whitman. I know the early symptoms. I have the medicines with me. The men are young and robust. We will fight the disease and overcome it. But to succeed we must attack at the earliest symptoms. Give orders that at the slightest symptom of cramp I be notified.
Fontenelle, the strict disciplinarian, gave such orders and they were obeyed, and he himself was one of the first to need treatment. Only three men, the earliest cases, died, and in a few days. there were no new cases appearing and it was apparent that the outbreak had been conquered. The fight had been won by a physician who at this time and at many other times showed himself a leader. Moreover, he was a leader who had prepared himself for battle. The cholera outbreak was a surprise attack, but like every good leader, Whitman was ready for emergencies because of training and study and experience.
And what of those men whose lives he had saved. There was no more throwing of rotten eggs. The doctor was now the most respected man in the caravan. They even stopped ridiculing the praying parson for he was the doctor's friend, and anyway was harmless.
And so, at dawn on June 21, 1835, the caravan moved westward from the Missouri toward the land of the setting sun, and Parker and Whitman are with it on their way to far-off Oregon. Dr. Whitman by his presence, his education, and his skill, had changed his own position from that of one ridiculed and despised to a status of the highest respect and gratitude, and he had saved the American Fur Company caravan of 1835.
The first grave emergency in the series of events in the settlement of old Oregon had been met and overcome by an educated and experienced physician, Dr. Marcus Whitman. Who shall deny that God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform?
Fifty weary days under broiling sun across eight hundred miles of treeless prairie and plain the caravan toiled westward, horse and mule drawing the heavily laden wagons. At times
