THE WALLA- WALLA INDIANS. 423 



the river and hastened to the Fort for assistance. Ou his arrival, 

 Mr. McBain immediately sent out men with him, and Drought her 

 in. She had fortunately suffered nothing more than the fright. The 

 number killed, including Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and nephew, 

 amounted to fourteen. The other females and children were carried 

 off by the Indians, and two of them were forthwith taken as wives 

 by Til-aw-kite's sou and another. A man employed in a little mill, 

 forming part of the establishment, was spared to work the mill for 

 the Indians. 



The day following this awful tragedy, a Catholic Priest, who 

 had not heard of the massacre, stopped on seeing the mangled 

 corpses strewn round the house, and requested permission to bury 

 them, which he did with the rites of his own Church. The per- 

 mission was granted the more readily as these Indians are friendly 

 towards the Catholic Missionaries. On the Priest leaving the place, 

 he met, at a distance of five or six miles, a brother Missionary of 

 the deceased, a Mr. Spalding, the field of whose labours lay about a 

 hundred miles off, at a place on the Kiver Coldw-ater. He commu- 

 nicated to him the melancholy fate of his friend, and advised him to 

 fly as fast as possible, or in all probability he would otherwise be 

 another victim. He gave him a share of his provisions, and Mr. 

 Spalding hurried homeward full of apprehensions for the safety of 

 his own family ; but unfortunately his horse escaped from him in 

 the night, and after a six days' toilsome march on foot, having lost 

 his way, he at length reached the banks of the river, but on the 

 opposite side to his own house. In the dead of the night, and in a 

 state of starvation, having eaten nothing for three days, everything 

 seeming to be quiet about his ow r n place, he cautiously embarked in 

 a small canoe and paddled across the river. He had no sooner 

 landed than an Indian seized him and dragged him to his house, 

 where he found all his family prisoners, and the Indians in full pos- 

 session. These Indians were not of the same tribe with those who 

 had destroyed Dr. Whitman's family, nor had they at all participated 

 in the outrage, but having heard of it, and fearing that the whites 

 would include them in their vengeance, they had seized on the 

 family of Mr. Spalding for the purpose of holding them as hostages 

 for their own safety. The family were uninjured, and he was over- 

 joyed to find that things were no worse. Mr. Ogden, the Chief 

 Factor of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Columbia, immediately 

 on hearing of the outrage, came to Walla- Walla, and although the 

 occurrence took place in the Territory of the United States, and of 

 course the parties could have no further claim to the protection of 



