"The Doctor next sought an interview with President Tyler, who at once appreciated his solicitude and his timely representations of Oregon, and especially his disinterested though hazardous undertaking to cross the Rocky Mountains in the winter to take back a caravan of wagons. He said that, although the Doctor's representations of the character of the country, and the possibility of reaching it by a wagon route, were in direct contradiction to those of Governor Simpson, his frozen limbs were sufficient proof of his sincerity, and his missionary character was sufficient guaranty for his honesty, and he would therefore, as President, rest upon these and act accordingly; would detail Fremont with a military force to escort the Doctor's caravan through the mountains; and no more action should be had toward trading off Oregon till he could hear the result of the expedition. If the Doctor could establish a wagon route through the mountains to the Columbia River, pronounced impossible by Governors Simpson and Ashburton, he would use his influence to hold on to Oregon. The great desire of the Doctor's American soul, and Christian withal, that is, the pledge of the President that the swapping of Oregon with England for a cod-fishery should stop for the present, was attained, although at the risk of life, and through great sufferings, and unsolicited, and without the promise or expectation of a dollar's reward from any source. And now, God giving him life and strength, he would do the rest; that is, connect the Missouri and Columbia rivers with a wagon-track so deep and plain that neither national envy nor sectional fanaticism would ever blot it out[10]. And when the 5th of September, 1843, saw the rear of the Doctor's caravan of nearly two hundred wagons, with which he started from Missouri last of April, emerge from the western shades of the Blue Mountains upon the plains of the Columbia, the greatest work ever accomplished by one man for Oregon was finished. And through that great emigration during that whole summer, the Doctor was their everywhere-present angel of mercy, ministering to the sick, helping the weary, encouraging the wavering, cheering the mothers, mending wagons, setting broken bones, hunting stray oxen, climbing precipices; now in the rear, now at the front; in the rivers, looking out fords through the quicksands; in the deserts, looking out for water; in the dark mountains, looking out passes; at noontide or midnight, as though those thousands were his own children, and those wagons and flocks were his own property. Although he asked not, nor expected, a dollar as a reward from any source, he felt himself abundantly rewarded when he saw the desire of his heart accomplished, the great wagon route over the mountains established, and Oregon in a fair way to be