THE
Oregon Historical Quarterly
THE COMING OF THE WHITE WOMEN, 1836
By T. C. Elliott
(Part III)
The above title might be very aptly written "An Adventure in Oregon History." For was it not a real adventure when two women of culture and education undertook the journey across the Rocky Mountains (the first white women to do this) to carry the gospel and civilization to two of the Indian tribes of the far distant Columbia River region? At that time, 1836, the entire region west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the 42nd parallel was designated as the Oregon country, with its national title undecided.
These two women were Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, wife (and bride) of Dr. Marcus Whitman, and Eliza Spalding, wife of the Reverend Henry H. Spalding, missionaries of the Protestant faith under commission from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, of Boston. Their homes were in the central part of the state of New York, and their journey began there. The western end of the journey was at the trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia at Vancouver, in the present state of Washington. While there for a few weeks Mrs. Whitman wrote to her parents the following letter:
Vancouver, Oct. 20th, 1836Dearest Parents.
I have been able to write something of a journal from Rendezvous here. did not expect to be able to copy it, but as I have been situated for a few weeks past, have taken time to copy it & as it requires several sheets, have put it in this form as being the most compact for sending. It must answer for all in the room of letters, for I have not time to say more.
Yours affectionate Daughter
Narcissa Whitman
This journal (whether the original or the copy is not posi-
