in the spring the immigrants went on to the Walla met valley, and in the autumn of 1845 and 1846 there were other families who wintered at Waiilatpu.
During all this time the Cayuses had been growing more insolent and threatening, and the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, who knew the Indian character thoroughly, frequently entreated the doctor to go away. But the hope of the safety to be extended from his gov ernment, kept him at his post, until the growing impa tience of the Indians, after the unfortunate California ( expedition, finally convinced him of the imminence of the danger, and caused him to arrange for a possible removal to The Dalles by purchasing the property of the Methodist mission at that place, which he put in charge of his nephew, Perrin B. Whitman.
At the same time, however, such was the courageous persistency of the man, that he, as late as September, 1847, purchased machinery for a new flouring-mill for Waiilatpu and transported it to his station, telling Joel Palmer, whom he met on the Umatilla, that he was going on, just as he always intended, but if the Indians continued their hostile policy, he should break up the mission, and make his home at The Dalles. To a body of the immigrants on the Umatilla he delivered an address, advising great caution, and expressing his apprehensions of an Indian war as the result of any indiscretions on the part of the new comers. John E. Ross has said, that acting on Whitman s advice, his party encamped early, took their evening meal, and when it was dark moved to a secluded spot away from the rond to avoid being molested, and getting into an affray. James Henry E;own has spoken of the doctor s warnings to the immigrants of that year; and so has Ralph C. Geer, J. W. Grim, and Peter W. Crawford. Crawford kept a journal, and from that record many facts have been gath ered. The evidence is ample that Dr. Whitman knew upon what dangerous ground he was treading.
Blood had already been spilled at The Dalles, a Mr.
