CHAPTER III.
Dr. White Called to the Cayuse Country—Disturbances Among the Indians—Personnel of the Party—White's Policy—Council with Nez Perces—Speeches of White, McKinlay, Rogers, and McKay—Replies of Five Crows, Bloody Chief—Dr. White's Code—Its Acceptance—Election of a High Chief—Advice to the Nez Perces—Spalding's Report—Talk of the Cayuses—A Council Appointed—Return of White to The Dalles—Trouble at Clatsop—Fresh Alarms in the Spring of 1843—Brewer's Letter—White's Embarrassment—Memorial Against Dr. McLoughlin—How he Repaid the Memorialists—Complaints of The Dalles Indians—White Proceeds to Waiilatpu—Effect of his Visit—The Cayuses Show Him their Farms—An Extraordinary Cavalcade—Perkins' Visits to Tauitowe's Camp—White Goes to Lapwai—Nez Perces Received into the Church—Joseph Welcomes Ellis—Effect on Their Guests—Lawyer—The Nez Perces Accompany White to Waiilatpu—Grand Reception—Council—Speeches of the Chiefs—Laws Accepted—White Returns to The Dalles to Teach the Indians—Mrs. Whitman Leaves Waiilatpu.
In the foregoing chapters we have presented to us the stage, and the dramatis personæ on which, and by whom, was enacted the great tragedy of colonial Oregon, and have been given a view of its gradual unfolding. From this point the story proceeds more rapidly.
Up to the time that Dr. White returned from the states invested with the authority of a sub-agent of Indian affairs in Oregon, and before Dr. Whitman had taken his departure for the east, there had been enacted no other hostilities than those above narrated; trifling if viewed in the light of actual warfare, yet of a threatening nature when the circumstances of the white inhabitants and the characteristics of the natives were considered.
The colonists in the Wallamet valley, glad to be recognized as belonging to the United States, even by the unwarranted commissioning of a nondescript government officer, were proceeding to the discussion of steps towards a political organization, when they were startled by intelligence from Fort Vancouver that the Cayuses had become openly hostile, having entered the mission-house at mid-
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