Actions speak louder than words.—Efforts of the Hudson’s Bay Company to discourage immigration.—Account of the two Jesuits, F. N. Blanchet and P. J. De Smet.—Protestant missionaries discouraged.—Important position of the Rev. G. Hines.—Recall of the Rev. Jason Lee.—Efforts of the Hudson’s Bay Company to prevent emigration to the Territory.—Statement of General Palmer.—Indian combinations.—The Donner party.—Mr. McBean’s character.—Extent of Oregon at this time.

Reaching thoughts by actions. This the historian of the times has a right to do; and by comparing the act and result, he can arrive with almost mathematical certainty as to what the thought was that originated the act, and produced the result. But we are not confined to this mode of reasoning. We have their own, and the statements of those favorable to them, to substantiate our conclusions.

1st. The inadvertent statement of F. Ermatinger, one of their chief traders, in 1838, that in case the American government attempted to take this country, the Hudson’s Bay Company would arm their eight hundred half-breeds, and with the aid of the Indians, drive back any force that could be sent across the continent to take it. Their navy could defend the coast. The Jesuits could influence the Indians.

2d. The arrangements made to bring to the country the Red River immigrants in 1842.

3d. The stationing of a ship of war at Vancouver to protect the company.

4th. The building of bastions at Fort Vancouver, and strengthening that post in 1845-6.

5th. The refusal of Mr. Douglas to furnish supplies to the provisional troops, sent to punish the parties engaged in the Wailatpu massacre.

6th. The supplying of Indians, by Mr. Ogden, with a large amount of war material, and his avowal not to have any thing to do with American difficulties.

7th. The letters and correspondence of Sir James Douglas.

8th. The positive statements of William McBean.

9th. The statements of Vicar-General Brouillet.

10th. The correspondence and letters of Bishop Blanchet.

11th. The testimony they have produced in support of their claims.

12th. The designs of the British government as indicated by James Edward Fitzgerald.

13th. The sending of American immigrants from Fort Hall and Oregon to California.

14th. The attempt to supply the Indians in the interior, by the aid of Romish priests, with a large amount of ammunition.

15th. The implacable hatred implanted in the mind of the Indian against Americans, through the influence of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Jesuit missionaries brought to the country for that purpose.

16th. The strict rules of the company, and the continued effort to enforce those rules to the destruction of life and property.

We now come to the thoughts which originated and caused the foregoing acts.

These American missionaries have done more to defeat us, to settle the country, and defer the establishment of the boundary line, than all other efforts and causes combined. We must make another effort to destroy their influence, and drive them and their settlements from the country; and thus secure it to the British crown, for the use of the company, at the risk of a war between the two countries.

It will be remembered that Messrs. Lee, Parker, Whitman, Spalding, Gray, and other missionaries, had their passports from the Secretary of War of the United States, giving them permission to travel through, and settle as teachers in, the Indian country; and that all military officers and agents of the government were instructed to facilitate their efforts, and, if at any time it was necessary, afford them protection. These passports had been duly presented to the Hudson’s Bay Company at Vancouver, and had the effect to prevent a direct effort to destroy or drive them from the country, as they had done to all who preceded them.

Hence, an extra effort must be made to get rid of this American missionary influence, and the settlements they were gathering around them.

We will now proceed to give historical facts as connected with results.

Two intelligent, jovial, yet bigoted priests had been brought to the country by the company. They had traveled all through it, and had actually discovered the pure silver and golden ores of the Rocky Mountains, and carried specimens to St. Louis and to Europe. These priests fully understood the licensed rights of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the efforts they were making to secure it to the British crown. They were also assured that, in case the American Protestant influence could be driven from it, the Papal would become the prevailing religion, as in California and Mexico. They knew that the English Episcopal effort was an early and utter failure, and that no renewed effort would be made in their behalf by the company, and that they were then using their influence to drive the Wesleyan missionaries from Moose Factory. Hence, they and their associates entered upon their work with a zeal and energy only equaled by him who was their first victim.

F. N. Blanchet visited Canada, New York, and Rome, and was made Bishop of Oregon. His associate, P. J. De Smet, gathered his priests and nuns, returned to the country, and entered vigorously upon their missionary work, having the substantial aid of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and the personal assistance of its members. Their churches, nunneries, and schools sprung up as if by magic in French Prairie, Oregon City, Vancouver, the Dalles, Umatilla, Pen d’Oreille, Colville, and St. Marie. The Protestant missions in the country were greatly annoyed by the unreasonable and threatening conduct of the Indians about their stations. They were demanding unreasonable pay for the lands upon which the stations were located, and paying but little or no attention to their American teachers. The American missionaries were becoming disheartened and discouraged, and were beginning to abandon their stations. Rev. A. B. Smith, of the Nez PercÉ mission, Dr. Richmond, from Nasqualla, Rev. Messrs. Kone and Frost, from Clatsop, and Mr. Edwards had left the country. Rev. Daniel Lee, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, Mr. Brewer, and Dr. Babcock, had all become dissatisfied, and thought they had found a plausible excuse for leaving. A simple statement of a man in the employ of the Hudson’s Bay Company had more influence with them than their missionary vows and obligations to the churches that sent them out.

They were not satisfied with leaving themselves, but made charges against the purest and best man of their number, simply because that, while he was absent from Oregon in 1838-9, influences were brought into the country by the company, with the intent to defeat them, and destroy all Protestant missions,—applying the same policy to destroy the harmony and usefulness of the American missions, that they had used to destroy the power and influence of the Indian tribes; which was to divide them up into factions, and get them to quarreling among themselves, as in the case of Rev. J. S. Griffin and party. This would destroy their influence, and help to break up their settlements.

The Rev. Mr. Hines, with all his wisdom, sound judgment, and experience, became, unwittingly, an important instrument and apologist in this deep-laid scheme to rid the country of Protestant missionaries and American settlements. He was led to join his influence against his truest and best friend, who is called home and superseded, and the mission stations abandoned and broken up.

Mr. Hines, on pages 236-7 of his book, says: “With regard to the objections against Mr. Lee, arising from his not furnishing the Board with the desirable report concerning the disbursement of the large appropriations, it should be observed that no such charge of delinquency appears against him, up to the time of the appointment of the great re-enforcement.” Dr. White was known to be a bitter enemy of Rev. Jason Lee, and a willing tool of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Mr. Hines, as his book, and the letters he wrote to Dr. White and the Indian Department at Washington, show, was favorable to the proceedings and policy of Dr. White and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

We understand, through Rev. Mr. Geary, that Mr. Hines attributed to Mr. Lee’s advice expenditures for buildings that were the pet objects of Mr. Hines himself; and thus Rev. J. Lee, to gratify the wish of others, yielded his own convictions of right, and in this way became an object of censure, which was the cause of his removal. The “changes inconceivably great with respect to the Indians of Oregon,” which, Rev. Mr. Hines says “took place betwixt the time the great re-enforcement was called for, and the time of their arrival in the Columbia River,” were brought to bear, and had their influence and effect, upon him, in his Umpqua missionary trip, in his trip to the interior, in his representations to his Missionary Board, in his opposition to the provisional government, and had their influence upon his missionary brethren. These men, Mr. Hines included, instead of studying the true interests of the country,—their obvious duty to the churches that sent them out, and the cause they represented,—were flattered and cajoled by the artful members of a foreign monopoly, and made to believe they had talents superior to the field in which they were placed by the influence and advice of the superintendent, Mr. Lee, forgetting the changes above intimated, and having no suspicions that a secret foreign influence was working to bring about the utter failure of their Indian missions; nor supposing that the brightest and best talents would secure the most attention, and the surest effort to render them dissatisfied.

The whole statement about Mr. Lee’s recall, and the reasons assigned, appear to us to be unjust (though, perhaps, not intended) to the character of Mr. Lee. It was after the great re-enforcement spoken of, that the large expenditures referred to were made; hence, Mr. Hines’ excuse confirms the charge, and he only attempts to change the responsibility to another; while Mr. Lee, like Dr. McLaughlin, is suffered to fall by the influence of his professed friends.

The Jesuit priests, co-laborers with the Hudson’s Bay Company, did not hesitate to poison the minds of all who would listen to them against the Protestant missionaries and all their efforts; neither did they hesitate as to the means, so long as a certain object was to be accomplished. Le Breton, Lee, and Whitman must fall by their influence. The character of others must suffer by their malicious slanders and false statements. See Brouillet, pages 20 and 21, in which he attempts to show that Dr. Whitman and others were in the habit of poisoning melons to prevent the Indians from stealing them, while the fact is, the Doctor encouraged the Indians to come and get melons to eat freely, in order to induce them to cultivate for themselves; and we are certain that no one at the station at that time thought of putting poison into melons.

As we said, we are reading thoughts by words and acts, so as to arrive at a correct conclusion as to the thought that caused the act.

The American missionaries and settlements must be driven from the country. To do this, the Indians that have heretofore been kept at war among themselves, must now be united. Some changes must be made; Grant, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, must occupy Fort Hall, and do all he can to turn immigrants to California, and rob such as persist in coming to Oregon.

General Palmer says in his journal, page 43: “While we remained at this place (Fort Hall) great efforts were made to induce the immigration to pursue the route to California. The most extravagant tales were related respecting the dangers awaiting a trip to Oregon, and the difficulties and trials to be surmounted. The perils of the way were so magnified as to make us suppose the journey to Oregon almost impossible. For instance, the two crossings of Snake River, and the crossings of the Columbia and other smaller streams, were represented as being attended with great danger. Also, that no company heretofore attempting the passage of these streams, succeeded but with the loss of men, from the violence and rapidity of the currents, as also that they had never succeeded in getting more than fifteen or twenty head of cattle into the Wallamet Valley.

“In addition to the above, it was asserted that three or four tribes of Indians in the middle regions had combined for the purpose of preventing our passage through their country. In case we escaped destruction at the hands of the savages, that a more fearful enemy—famine—would attend our march, as the distance was so great that winter would overtake us before making the Cascade Mountains. On the other hand, as an inducement to pursue the California route, we were informed of the shortness of the route when compared with that to Oregon, as also of the many other superior advantages it possessed.”

It is not our intention to go into the history of California, but give what strictly relates to Oregon and her people in those early times. In the paragraph we have quoted from General Palmer’s journal, the reader will see a fiendish, a damning policy; and if our language has any severer terms to express evil motives and intentions, let him use them, as belonging to the course pursued by that organization yclept Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company, in attempting to prevent the settlement of Oregon, and sending whole families to starve and perish, and become cannibals in the mountains of California, rather than tell the truth, and aid them in getting to Oregon; as will be seen by the following extract from the Gold Hill (Nevada) News, concerning the horrible sufferings of “The Donner Party:”—

“The world perhaps never produced a sadder and a truer story, nor one which will be so long remembered by many whose fortunes were cast on the Pacific slope in the early days of its settlement by the Americans. We personally knew one of the families that perished among the Donner party, and on reading the interesting letter in the Union it awakened in our memory a little incident in connection with this sad calamity, which happened in the State of Illinois twenty years ago last April. At that time we were publisher of a newspaper in Putnam County, Illinois. Oregon and California were beginning to attract the attention of the Western people; and in the spring of 1846 a party of about fifty persons, farmers with their families, and young men, was made up in that county destined for Oregon. When the day of departure arrived, the whole party assembled in a village called Magnolia to agree upon camp regulations, appointment of officers, etc. As a journalist, we attended that meeting and published a full account of its proceedings. Among the party was ‘Uncle Billy Graves’ and his family, consisting of father, mother, two daughters, and a son, the ages of the children ranging from fifteen to twenty years. Uncle Billy Graves was a well-to-do farmer, with every thing comfortable about him; and, having already reached the age of threescore, it was a matter of surprise to many that he should sell his farm and start off to make a new home in such a far-off and wild country as Oregon then was. But the country in Illinois was getting too thickly settled for the old man, and he longed for the wild adventures of the far west. He pleaded and persuaded us to go with him, and to bring our office along, as Oregon would some day be a great country, and we would have the credit of having been the first to publish a newspaper in it. But circumstances over which we had no control prevented us, although we certainly had the will and the wish just as Uncle Billy Graves advised. We remained in Illinois, and the Graves family joined with the overland party for Oregon. Letters written by the party during the summer were published in our paper. The last one written by any of the Graves family was dated at Fort Laramie, and this was the last heard of the old farmer. He joined the Donner party, which separated from the emigration to Oregon at Fort Hall, near the headwaters of the Columbia, and wending his way westward toward California, before its gold-fields were known in the world, he perished in the mountains, and his good old wife perished with him. The son and daughters of the Graves family were among the persons who were rescued by the relief party of sailors and others who were sent out by the benevolent Americans at Sutter’s Fort and San Francisco. A long letter written by one of the Graves girls was published in our paper in the year 1847, and which contained a full and sad account of the awful sufferings of the party. We shall never forget the manuscript of the letter. It was blotted all over with the tears which the poor girl shed while describing the sufferings of her famishing parents, their death, and the flesh of their dead bodies furnishing food for their starving children! Horrible! horrible! Let the bleached bones and skulls of the Donner party be gathered together and decently buried, for they once belonged to good Christian people.”

The Indians also have become deeply interested in their schemes to prevent the settlement of the country.

We are told by Mr. Hines, on page 143, that they sent one of their chiefs on snow-shoes, in the winter of 1842-3, to excite or induce the Buffalo Indians to join them to cut off the immigrants that were expected to come to the country with Dr. Whitman.

Mr. McKinley, a professedly warm friend of Dr. Whitman, was removed from having charge of Fort Nez PercÉs, and William McBean, who (Mr. Roberts, an old clerk of the Hudson’s Bay Company, says) “is one of the d——dest scoundrels that ever lived,” put in his place.

The reader will not forget that we are speaking of events and movements in a country where an Indian in a canoe or on horseback or snow-shoes was our swiftest messenger, and that its boundaries included what is now the State of Oregon, the Territories of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, besides Vancouver Island and British Columbia.

The Hudson’s Bay Company was a powerful and unscrupulous monopoly, and the only representative of a vast empire on this western part of our continent. To possess the whole, or a valuable part of it, was an object worth using the influence they had spent years of labor and thousands (not millions, as they claim) of dollars to secure.

The time has now arrived when all is at stake. The American missionary societies have accomplished what American commerce and fur traders have failed to do. The trouble is now between a “squawtocracy of British skin traders” and Italian and Belgian Jesuits on one side, and American missionaries and settlements on the other. The traders and Jesuits have nearly overcome the American missionary influence. The settlements are organized. The old policy to get rid of all opposition fur traders, destroy Indian influence, and break up missions, must be tried, to prevent and destroy the settlements.

The thoughts expressed in this chapter have carried us in advance of the date of culminating events; hence, we must return, in order that we may bring them in the order of their occurrence.