A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
It is due to those Indians to say that they labored freely and
faithfully, and showed the best of feelings toward Mr. and Mrs.
Spalding, paying good attention to instructions given them, and appeared
quite anxious to learn all they could of their teachers. It is also due
to truth to state that Mr. Spalding paid them liberally for their
services when compared with the amount paid them by the Hudson's Bay
Company for the same service: say, for bringing a pine-log ten feet long
and one foot in diameter from the Clearwater River to the station, it
usually took about twelve Indians; for this service Mr. Spalding paid
them about six inches of trail-rope tobacco each. This was about four
times as much as the Hudson's Bay Company paid. This fact soon created a
little feeling of unfriendliness toward Mr. Spalding. Dr. Whitman
managed to get along with less Indian labor, and was able, from his
location, to procure stragglers or casual men to work for him for a
time, to get supplies and clothing to help them on their way down to the
Wallamet settlement.
Mr. Spalding and Dr. Whitman were located in their little cabins making
arrangements to get in their gardens and spring crops, teaching the
Indians by example, and on the Sabbath interpreting portions of the
Bible to them, and giving them such religious instruction as they were
capable of communicating with their imperfect knowledge of their
language; Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding teaching the children at their
respective stations as much as was possible for them with their domestic
duties to perform.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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