Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/379

DOCUMENTS 371 moving off down the river. The chief the Horn 21 and a few old men paid us a visit. Friday 18. Moved camp across the plain to Portneuf ( ?) River. (The rest of this continued to another volume). LETTERS OF REVEREND H. H. SPALDING AND MRS. SPALDING, WRITTEN SHORTLY AFTER COMPLETING THEIR TRIP ACROSS THE CONTINENT. 22 FORT WALLA WALLA. Colubia River, Oct. 2, 1836. To Brothers Wm. & Edward Porter & their wives : Very Dear Brothers and Sisters It gives me great pleasure that I am permitted to say, the Lord has brought us safely through our long, doubtful jour- ney ; and that our eyes have actually seen the long, long, long- vvished-for Walla Walla, the end of our journey of 4100 miles. By the blessing of God, we arrived here on the 3rd of Sep., seven months and three days from the time myself and wife, left her father's house, a clay that will I think be long remem- bered by us ; a day may I not ask, that will be set apart by that little band at least of dear friends : (oh my soul, shall I never see them again!) assembled in that sacred room on the day of our departure, as a day of prayer and thanksgiving to that God, who has sustained, and finally brought to completion, the hazardous expedition undertaken by the missionaries of the Board. I cannot realize that I have crossed the Rocky mountains since the morning I drove sorrowfully out of Prattsburgh, and am now actually on the banks of the terrible Columbus, but it is really so. I have already been paid a thousand fold by what my eyes have seen, and all America with her gold and happiness could not purchase a place for me in the states, if I must leave these poor heathen standing thick around, pleading with their own tongues, actually, for 21 Probably the same chief named The Horse in Mr. Ogden's journal. 22 This letter was secured through the late Prof. R. K. Warren, of Portland, a native of Bath, New York, about eighteen years ago. George H. Himes, Assistant Secretary Oregon Historical Society. -