How to inform the government at Washington was the question. Could he himself do anything to save to his country this immense and valuable region?--one man, in midwinter, and across a continent? The problem haunted him--"Must I go?" He could not sleep. Difficult, almost impossible, as would be the journey, yet he heard the clear call of duty. A firm and bold, resolve, quick as a flash, had taken hold of him. He rode home in haste. "I am going to Washington to lay bare this scheme," said he to his wife. "I will bring settlers to Oregon." "You cannot ever get there," exclaimed the young wife; "you will perish on the way." "I must go; Oregon must be saved," said Whitman. =290. Whitman begins his Perilous Journey.=--Twenty-four hours later Dr. Whitman, with one companion, and pack mules for the guide and their supplies, started on horseback on the perilous undertaking. Over mountain ranges, through deep gorges and rugged forests, now drenched in storms, now buried in snow, and half famishing for food--their sufferings cannot be described. [Illustration: WHITMAN'S FAMOUS "RIDE FOR OREGON."] They fed their horses on cotton-wood bark, while the men themselves lived on mule and dog meat. Two or three times they were really lost in the blinding snowstorms, and wandered about bewildered for days. Once only, Whitman gave up in despair, and then, worn out and bewildered, he knelt in the deep snow, and in a final prayer surrendered to God all earthly hopes. Then the party sank down and awaited a snowy burial. They were not, however, to die in the wilderness, but were rescued from death almost as if by a miracle, and after untold hardships for three months they reached St. Louis. =291. Dr. Whitman succeeds in his Grand Mission.=--Dr. Whitman at last arrived in Washington and convinced President Tyler and Daniel Webster, his Secretary of State, of the great value of Oregon and its importance to the Union. It is claimed that he thus saved to our nation, by his famous "Ride for Oregon," that entire region of country now known as Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, an area thirty-two times as large as the state of Massachusetts. This heroic patriot afterwards went through the Eastern States and told the people of the wonders of the Pacific coast. He stirred up such an interest that when, in the following June, he started back for Oregon he had the satisfaction of leading a caravan of two hundred wagons, with nearly a thousand people. After that, emigrants thronged every year in larger and larger numbers, till the territory was soon beyond the danger of British invasion. The dispute as to which nation had a right to Oregon was at last settled in 1846 by a treaty between the United States and England. By this treaty the boundary line was fixed, and our rightful claim to the vast Oregon country was confirmed for all time.