Rev. Mr. Parker had left a refined family circle, and his habits had become somewhat delicate from age and long usage in comfortable and agreeable society; hence his peculiar habits were not adapted to Rocky Mountain travel in those early days. Still, the great object on which they were sent must not be lost sight of. Their sense of moral obligation was such, that a reason must be given why Dr. Whitman returns to the States, and Mr. Parker proceeds alone on his perilous journey to this then unknown country. Here again the wild Indian comes in, by instinct, order, or providence (as the unbeliever may choose to call it), and offers to take charge of this delicate old gentleman, and carries him in triumph through the Rocky Mountains, and all through his country, and, in Indian pomp and splendor, delivers this rev. “black coat” to P. C. Pambrun, Esq., chief clerk of the Honorable Hudson’s Bay Company, at old Fort Wallawalla, supplying his every want on the journey, caring for his horses and baggage, not asking or receiving any thing, except such presents as Mr. Parker chose to give them on the way and at parting.
Dr. Whitman, it will be remembered, was associated with Mr. Parker, under the direction of the American Board. They had arrived at the rendezvous in the Rocky Mountains; most of the Nez Percés were at the American rendezvous. Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats, a young Nez Percé Indian (named by the American trappers, Lawyer, on account of his shrewdness in argument, and his unflinching defense of American against British and foreign influences), having learned of their arrival, came to them and settled matters quite satisfactorily to both, by requesting Mr. Parker to go with them to their country, they having heard of Rev. Mr. Lee and party going to settle near the husus-hai-hai (White Head), as the natives called Dr. John McLaughlin, in the Wallamet Valley. They consented to let the Doctor take two of their boys. To Ites he gave the name of John; Tuetakas he called Richard. Dr. Whitman was to go to the States, report to the American Board, and procure associates and the material to establish a mission in the Nez Percé country.
The Nez Percés were to take charge of Mr. Parker, and carry him forward in his explorations, and meet Dr. W., on his return next year, at the place of rendezvous in the mountains, to conduct him and his party to the place Mr. Parker might select for a mission establishment. Rev. S. Parker, in company with the Indians, went on, and Dr. Whitman, with his two Indian boys, with the American Fur Company, Capts. Fitzpatrick, Bridger, and others, started on their way to the States, or “home from the Rocky Mountains.” Dr. Whitman, by his off-hand, easy manner of accommodating himself to circumstances, and by his kind-heartedness and promptness to relieve all who needed his professional skill, had won the esteem of all with whom he traveled, so that the gentlemen of the American Fur Company cheerfully supplied his wants on his return trip to the States, where he arrived in due time, made his report to the American Board, who decided to establish the mission, as per arrangement with Parker and Whitman, on separating in the Rocky Mountains.
Mrs. Whitman, formerly Miss Narcissa Prentiss, of Prattsburg, Steuben County, New York, was a lady of refined feelings and commanding appearance. She had very light hair, light, fresh complexion, and light blue eyes. Her features were large, her form full and round. At the time she arrived in the country, in the prime of life, she was considered a fine, noble-looking woman, affable and free to converse with all she met. Her conversation was animated and cheerful. Firmness in her was natural, and to some, especially the Indians, it was repulsive. She had been brought up in comparative comfort, and moved in the best of religious society in the place of her residence. She was a good singer, and one of her amusements, as well as that of her traveling companions, was to teach the Doctor to sing, which she did with considerable success, – that is, he could sing the native songs without much difficulty.
The American Board appointed Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife to accompany Dr. Whitman and wife, to aid in establishing the Nez Percé mission. Mr. Spalding and wife had just completed their preparatory course of education in Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, Ohio.
The first impression of the stranger on seeing H. H. Spalding is, that he has before him an unusual countenance. He begins to examine, and finds a man with sharp features, large, brown eyes, dark hair, high, projecting forehead, with many wrinkles, and a head nearly bald. He is of medium size, stoop-shouldered, with a voice that can assume a mild, sharp, or boisterous key, at the will of its owner; quite impulsive, and bitter in his denunciations of a real, or supposed enemy; inclined in the early part of his missionary labors to accumulate property for the especial benefit of his family, though the practice was disapproved of and forbidden by the regulations of the American Board. In his professional character he was below mediocrity. As a writer or correspondent he was bold, and rather eloquent, giving overdrawn life-sketches of passing events. His moral influence was injured by strong symptoms of passion, when provoked or excited. In his labors for the Indians, he was zealous and persevering, in his preaching or talking to them, plain and severe, and in his instructions wholly practical. For instance, to induce the natives to work and cultivate their lands, he had Mrs. Spalding paint a representation of Adam and Eve, as being driven from the garden of Eden by an angel, – Adam with a hoe on his shoulder, and Eve with her spinning-wheel. He taught the natives that God commanded them to work, as well as pray. Had he been allowed to continue his labors with the tribe, undisturbed by sectarian and anti-religious influences, he would have effected great good, and the tribe been now admitted as citizens of the United States. As a citizen and neighbor he was kind and obliging; to his family he was kind, yet severe in his religious observances. He was unquestionably a sincere, though not always humble, Christian. The loss of his wife, and the exciting and savage massacre of his associates, produced their effect upon him. Charity will find a substantial excuse for most of his faults, while virtue and truth, civilization and religion, will award him a place as a faithful, zealous, and comparatively successful missionary.
Mrs. Spalding was the daughter of a plain, substantial farmer, by the name of Hart, of Oneida County, New York. She was above the medium height, slender in form, with coarse features, dart brown hair, blue eyes, rather dark complexion, coarse voice, of a serious turn of mind, and quick in understanding language. In fact she was remarkable in acquiring the Nez Percé language, so as to understand and converse with the natives quite easily by the time they reached their station at Lapwai. She could paint indifferently in water-colors, and had been taught, while young, all the useful branches of domestic life; could spin, weave, and sew, etc.; could prepare an excellent meal at short notice; was generally sociable, but not forward in conversation with or in attentions to gentlemen. In this particular she was the opposite of Mrs. Whitman. With the native women Mrs. Spalding always appeared easy and cheerful, and had their unbounded confidence and respect. She was remarkable for her firmness and decision of character in whatever she or her husband undertook. She never appeared to be alarmed or excited at any difficulty, dispute, or alarms common to the Indian life around her. She was considered by the Indian men as a brave, fearless woman, and was respected and esteemed by all. Though she was frequently left for days alone, her husband being absent on business, but a single attempted insult was ever offered her. Understanding their language, her cool, quick perception of the design enabled her to give so complete and thorough a rebuff to the attempted insult, that, to hide his disgrace, the Indian offering it fled from the tribe, not venturing to remain among them. In fact, a majority of the tribe were in favor of hanging the Indian who offered the insult, but Mrs. Spalding requested that they would allow him to live, that he might repent of his evil designs and do better in future. In this short sketch of Mrs. Spalding the reader is carried through a series of years. We shall have occasion, as we progress in our sketches, to refer to these two ladies. They are not fictitious characters, – they lived; came over the Rocky Mountains in 1836; they are dead and buried, Mrs. Spalding near the Callapooya, in the Wallamet Valley. Mrs. Whitman’s remains, such portions of them as could be found, are buried not far from the place of her labors among the Cayuses. The last time we passed the ground not even a common board marked the place. We noticed a hollow in the ground, said to be the place where the very Rev. Mr. Brouillet,