A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Part 55

Q.--Why did they bury it?

A.--They said _the priests said it was poison_. Stanfield and Nicholas were their interpreters to us.

Q.--How did they obtain this vial?

A.--The Indians said _the priests found it_ among the Doctor's medicines, and showed it to them, and _told them if it broke it would poison the whole nation_.

Q.--Was there much stir among the Indians about this bottle?

A.--Yes, a great deal.

Q.--Why did the Indians kill your brother?

A.--Edward Tilokaikt returned from the Umatilla, and told us (after they had killed him) the _great chief told them their disease would spread_.

Q.--Did your brother make any effort to escape?

A.--He told me the night before he was killed that he was preparing to make an effort to escape. I told him he must not, he was not able to walk. He said he had that day agreed with Stanfield to get him a horse, and a.s.sist him away. I said, "What will become of me?" He said, "I know you have been greatly abused, and all I care for my life is to get away, and make an effort to save you; but I may be killed before to-morrow at this time, but, if it is the Lord's will, I am prepared to die." This was Monday, a week from the first ma.s.sacre. About three o'clock the next day my brother and Mr. Sales were killed, and _I have always thought that Joe Stanfield betrayed them_.

Q.--Did the Indians threaten you all, and treat you with cruelty from the first?

A.--They did.

Q.--Did they on Tuesday a.s.semble and threaten your lives?

A.--Yes, and frequently threatened our lives afterward. (See statement of Stanfield by Brouillet, in a previous chapter, confirming the fact of his unbounded influence over the Indians.)

Q.--When were the young women first dragged out and brutally treated?

A.--Sat.u.r.day night after the first ma.s.sacre, and continually after that.

Q.--When were you taken to the Umatilla?

(Miss Bewley will answer this question after we have given Vicar-General Brouillet an opportunity to state his part in this tragedy.)

CHAPTER LVIII.

Vicar-General Brouillet's statement.--Statement of Istacus.--The priest finds the poison.--Statement of William Geiger, Jr.--Conduct of Mr. McBean.--Influence of the Jesuit missions.

We left Vicar-General Brouillet and Bishop Blanchet and his priests on their way to their station on the Umatilla, where they arrived on November 27. On the 28th, Brouillet says, page 47: "The next day being Sunday, we were visited by Dr. Whitman, who remained but a few minutes at the house, and appeared to be much agitated. Being invited to dine, he refused, saying that he feared it would be too late, as he had twenty-five miles to go, and wished to reach home before night. On parting, he entreated me not to fail to visit him when I would pa.s.s by his mission, which I very cordially promised to do.

"On Monday, 29th, Mr. Spalding took supper with us, and appeared quite gay. During the conversation, he happened to say that the Doctor was unquiet; that the Indians were displeased with him on account of the sickness, and that even he had been informed that the Murderer (an Indian) intended to kill him; but he seemed not to believe this, and suspected as little as we did what was taking place at the mission of the Doctor."

The reader will note and remember the statement which follows: Brouillet says, on the 48th page of his narrative, the 36th of J. Ross Browne's report:--

"Before leaving Fort Wallawalla, it had been decided that, after visiting the sick people of my own mission on the Umatilla, I should visit those of Tilokaikt's camp, for the purpose of baptizing the infants and such dying adults as might desire this favor; and the Doctor and Mr. Spalding having informed me that there were still many sick persons at their mission, I was confirmed in this resolution, and made preparations to go as soon as possible.

"After having finished baptizing the infants and adults of my mission, I left on Tuesday, the 30th of November, late in the afternoon, for Tilokaikt's camp, where I arrived between seven and eight o'clock in the evening. It is impossible to conceive my surprise and consternation when, upon my arrival, I learned that the Indians the day before had ma.s.sacred the Doctor and his wife, with the greater part of the Americans at the mission. I pa.s.sed the night without scarcely closing my eyes. Early the next morning I baptized three sick children, two of whom died soon after, and then hastened to the scene of death, to offer to the widows and orphans all the a.s.sistance in my power. I found five or six women and over thirty children in a situation deplorable beyond description. Some had just lost their husbands, and others their fathers, whom they had seen ma.s.sacred before their eyes, and were expecting every moment to share the same fate. The sight of those persons caused me to shed tears, which, however, I was obliged to conceal, for I was the greater part of the day in the presence of the murderers, and closely watched by them; and if I had shown too marked an interest in behalf of the sufferers, it would only have endangered their lives and mine; these, therefore, entreated me to be upon my guard."

The women that lived through that terrible scene inform us that this priest was as familiar and friendly with the Indians as though nothing serious had occurred. We have seen and conversed freely with four of those unfortunate victims, and all affirm the same thing. Their impression was, that there might be others he expected to be killed, and he did not wish to be present when it was done. According to the testimony in the case, Mr. Kimball and James Young were killed while he was at or near the station. Brouillet continues, on the 49th page:--

"After the first few words that could be exchanged under the circ.u.mstances, I inquired after the victims, and was told they were yet unburied. Joseph Stanfield, a Frenchman, who was in the employ of Dr. Whitman, and had been spared by the Indians, was engaged in was.h.i.+ng the corpses, but being alone, he was unable to bury them. I resolved to go and a.s.sist him, so as to render to these unfortunate victims the last service in my power to offer them. What a sight did I then behold! Ten dead bodies lying here and there, covered with blood, and bearing the marks of the most atrocious cruelty,--some pierced with b.a.l.l.s, others more or less gashed by the hatchet. Dr.

Whitman had received three gashes on the face. Three others had their skulls crushed so that their brains were oozing out.

"I a.s.sure you, sir, that, during the time I was occupied in burying the victims of this disaster, I was far from feeling safe, being obliged to go here and there gathering up the dead bodies. In the midst of a.s.sa.s.sins, whose hands were still stained with blood, and who, by their manners, their countenances, and the arms which they still carried, sufficiently announced that their thirst for blood was yet unsatiated. a.s.suming as composed a manner as possible, I cast more than one glance aside and behind at the knives, pistols, and guns, in order to a.s.sure myself whether there were not some of them directed toward me."

The above extract is from a letter addressed to Colonel Gilliam. The cause of the priest's alarm is explained in a statement found in the journal of Mr. McLane, private secretary to Colonel Gilliam, while in the Cayuse country, taken from the Indians' statement in the winter of 1847-48. He was compelled to find the poison. Brouillet says:--

"The ravages which the sickness had made in their midst, together with the conviction which a half-breed, named Joseph Lewis, had succeeded in fixing upon their minds that Dr. Whitman had poisoned them, were the only motives I could discover which could have prompted them to this act of murder. This half-breed had imagined a conversation between Dr. Whitman, his wife, and Mr. Spalding, in which he made them say that it was necessary to hasten the death of the Indians in order to get possession of their horses and lands.

'If you do not kill the Doctor,' said he, 'you will be dead in the spring.'"

_Statement of Istacus, or Stikas._

In the first place, Joe Lewis told the Indians that the Doctor was poisoning. Tamsaky went to Camaspelo and told him he wanted to kill the Doctor, and wished him to help. He replied, pointing to his child, that his child was sick, and that was as much as he could attend to. Tamsaky then went to Tilokaikt, and he said he would have nothing to do with it.

But his son and young men wished to do it, and they contended so long that at last he said: "If you are determined to do so, go and kill him."

Afterward, the Indians presented a gun two different times to Tamsaky, and told him to go and kill the Doctor. He said he would not kill him.

When the priests came, they got to quarreling; the Catholic priests told them that what the Doctor taught them would take them to the devil, and the Doctor told them what the priests taught them would take them to the devil. After the priests told them that, the Indians said they believed it, for the Doctor did not cure them.

After the Doctor was killed, _the priest told the Young Chief_ that it was true that the Doctor had given them poison; before that, the Doctor had given them medicine and they died. After the ma.s.sacre, all the Indians went to the priest's house (an Indian lodge near Dr. Whitman's station), and I said that I was going to ask the priest himself whether it was true or not, so that I could hear with my own ears. He (the priest) told them that the priests were sent of G.o.d. They did not know how to answer him. The Five Crows told me _that the priest told him the Doctor was poisoning them. I then believed it._

They then went and killed the two sick men. I asked the Indians, if he gave us poison, why did the Americans get sick?

[It is evident that this conversation took place at the camp of Tilokaikt, where Mr. Brouillet says he spent the night of the 30th of November.]

Afterward, they went to the Doctor's place, and _the priest was there too_, and they asked him where the poison was that the Doctor gave them.

After searching some time among the medicines, he found _a vial with something white in it_, and told them, "_Here it is._" I tell you what I heard.

The priest then told them that _Mrs. Whitman had a father in the States that gave poison to the people there_, and that he had given this to her, to poison them all; then they all believed. I told them that I did not believe that the Doctor was poisoning them; I said I expected they brought the sickness with them from California, for many of them died coming from that place. Joe Lewis told them to make a box, and Beardy buried the vial in the square box, stating, if they did not, the Americans would get it and poison them all.

_The head man of the priests told them all these things_, and the priest took all the best books to his house.

The above is a true extract from the journal of Mr. McLane, private secretary to Colonel Gilliam, the same as was read in my hearing to Mungo, the interpreter for Colonel Gilliam, when these statements were made, and he said it was true and correctly written.

(Signed,) L. H. JUDSON.

Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 25th day of November, 1848, Champoeg County, Oregon Territory.

AARON PURDY, Justice of the Peace.