It is the glory of our American life that every part of our land has its splendid heroes. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts are one in having been the scenes where courage and devotion have expressed themselves. The earlier years of our national history brought into recognition the deeds of greatness done in the East. These later years are being used to make manifest the endurance and manliness that marked so much of settlement and progress in the West. Plymouth deserves its monument to the Pilgrims. So does Walla Walla deserve its monument to Dr. Marcus Whitman. From boundary to boundary of our wide domain we have had heroes, the stories of whose lives tend to make devotion to duty and allegiance to God transcendently beautiful. Among such stories this of Dr. Whitman has high place. The personality of the author of it comes often to the front in his pages, but none too often. His own experiences serve to heighten the effect of the story, and give deeper impression to the facts narrated. I look forward to the influence of this book with pleasure. I see boys and girls rising from the reading of it with clearer views of self-sacrifice, and with a more determined purpose to make their lives daring for the good. The book carries with it a conviction of the worth of the best things, that is most healthy. It teaches important lessons concerning missionary helpfulness, that the reader accepts without being aware of the author's purpose. A nation to have the lion's heart must be fed on lion's food. The story of Dr. Whitman is such food as may well nourish the lion heart in all youth, and develop in our American homes the noblest and most attractive Christian virtues. JAMES G. K. MCCLURE. LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE LEWIS AND CLARK CENTENARY EXPOSITION IN PORTLAND--THE GREAT CAPTAINS--THEIR GUIDES, CHABONNEAU AND SACAJAWEA (THE BIRD-WOMAN) 13 CHAPTER II THE VISIT OF THE FLATHEAD INDIAN CHIEFS TO ST. LOUIS--IS THE STORY AUTHENTIC?--INCIDENTS--DEATH OF TWO CHIEFS--THE BANQUET SPEECH--SKETCHES OF INDIAN LIFE 22 CHAPTER III THE EFFECT OF THE BANQUET SPEECH--HOW IT MOVED CHRISTIAN PEOPLE--THE AMERICAN BOARD SENDS DRS. PARKER AND WHITMAN TO INVESTIGATE--WHITMAN'S INDIAN BOYS--HIS MARRIAGE AND SECOND JOURNEY 36 CHAPTER IV OLD CLICK-CLICK-CLACKETY-CLACKETY, THE HISTORIC WAGON--CAMPING AND INCIDENTS, AND THE END OF THE JOURNEY 61 CHAPTER V THE HOME-COMING--THE BEGINNING OF MISSIONARY LIFE--CLARISSA--THE LITTLE WHITE CAYUSE QUEEN--HER DEATH--SKETCHES OF DAILY EVENTS 74 CHAPTER VI BRIEF SKETCH OF DISCOVERY AND HISTORY OF THE OREGON COUNTRY--WHO OWNED--BY WHAT TITLE--THE VARIOUS TREATIES--THE FINAL CONTEST 89 CHAPTER VII