accordingly appointed to explore the country for a mission site. They left Ithaca in May 1834, arriving at St Louis too late to join the annual caravan of the American Fur Company, as they had intended. Parker returned home, while Dunbar and Allis remained in the region of the Missouri, and in the autumn joined a band of the Grande Pawnees and Pawnee Loups, travelled with them, and endeavored to teach them sacred things. In the following spring Parker repeated his effort, and this time with success.
The Rev. Samuel Parker of Ithaca was a minister no longer young, of good education and manners, rather precise in address, but of intelligence, close observation, and sincere devotion, shown at the call of duty in leaving the comforts of home and polite usage which his nicety of taste and habits made more than usually dear. He seems to have impressed people generally as a specimen of the studious, sedentary preacher, whose solemnity of deportment was by no means as acceptable as the overflowing spirits of the circuit-riders with whom they were more familiar, and which to common minds obscured his real courage and singleness of heart. On the 14th of March, 1835, Parker left his pleasant home for Oregon. His route was from Ithaca to Buffalo, Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and St Louis, staying with pious families when convenient, distributing tracts, and holding religious services in the ladies' cabin of the steamers, to the dissatisfaction of irreligious passengers. He reached St Louis by the 4th of April, where he found awaiting him Marcus Whitman, M. D., whom the board had appointed his associate.
Dr Whitman was altogether a different person, younger, being then thirty-two years of age, outspoken, with easy manners and a bonhomie which recommended him to western men; yet prompt, energetic, determined, and helpful as he was brave; not careful of appearances, quick to take upon himself the work for which others were too weak, scorning
