After a restful Sabbath on which Mr. Spaulding was invited to preach in the Fort, they left for Walla Walla on the 22nd. One branch of the river was too deep to cross on horseback, but they found an Indian canoe made of rushes & willows. Narcissa and Eliza sat in the canoe and two Indians on horseback towed them over. Narcissa wrote “O, if Father Mother & the girls could have seen us now in our snug little bark floating on the water, we are favourites of the company no one else was privaledged with a ride on it.” The canoe was “simply bunches of rushes tied together & attached to a frame, made of few sticks of small willows.” ...

Sorry this one is longish, but Narcissa is so happy for the journey to be ending that I had a hard time leaving her words out! Aug 28th "After dinner we left the plains & ascended the Blue Mountains. There a new & pleasing scene presented itself, mountains covered with timber thorough which we rode all the afternoon, a very agreeable change, the scenery reminded me of the hills in my native county Steuben." Aug 29th "Had a continuation of the same scenery as yesterday afternoon. ….. Here I frequently met old acquaintances, in the trees & flowers, & was not a little delighted. The singing of birds, the woods, all had a strong ...

On Sunday, September 4th the Whitmans and Spaldings enjoyed a rest “first after completing a long journey, first in the vicinity of our future labours.” The party, including the Spaldings, left Walla Walla on the 6th for Vancouver. “Our boat is an open one, maned with six oars & the steersman. I enjoy it much, it is a very pleasant change in our manner of traveling. The Columbia is a beautiful [river]. Its waters are clear as crystal & smoth as a sea of glass, exceeding in beauty the Ohio of the east.” They arrived at the Chutes, “a fall in the river not navigable where we slept & this morning before breakfast made the ...

I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned them before, but some of the Indians the Whitmans met were called Flatheads. At the Cascades, “another important fall in the river where we are obliged to make a portage of a mile”, Narcissa saw an Indian mother with her baby, whose head was in a pressing machine. “This was a pitiful sight. Its mother took great satisfaction in unbinding & showing its naked head to us. ….. I saw a child about a year old whose had had been recently released from its pressure as I supposed from its looks, all the back part of it was of a purple colour, as if it had been sadly bruised. We are told this custom is wearing ...

Narcissa reported in her diary in September 19th that it had been decided that the women would stay at Fort Vancouver just until Marcus and Henry decided on locations for their missions and began building shelter. The initial intent of the missions board had been to have only one mission, but the decision to have two had been made somewhere along the trail. Marcus chafed at the thought of serving as a doctor on Rev. Henry Spalding’s mission and the two had argued repeatedly during the journey. In addition both the Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes were “anxious to have teachers among them.” Supplies, including building supplies, home and farming ...

Still at Fort Vancouver, Narcissa wrote “We are invited to a ride as often as once a week for exercise and generally ride all the afternoon. Today Mrs. McLaughlin rode with us. She keeps her old habit of riding gentleman fashion. This is the universal custom of Indian women generally, they have saddles with high backs and fronts. We have been recommended to use these saddles as being a more easy way of riding, but have never seen the necessity of changing our fashion.” Of course, “our fashion” refers to riding sidesaddle which can't have been very comfortable. This was Narcissa’s last entry in September. She kept busy with the social ...

Last week we reported that Narcissa could “scarcely find as much time” as she wanted for writing. Now we find that there are no more entries until October 18, so while she and Eliza wait for Marcus and Henry to return and take their wives to the missions, we’ll take a little break from the journey to Walla Walla. We’ve listed some of the books we are using for these posts below in case you’d like to read one yourself. The Narcissa Prentiss House had a very successful summer. The number of visitors was up significantly. Two classes of students came in June, then we had over 50 visitors during July and August. We’re hoping that these ...

On October 18th, the Montreal Express arrived bringing “news from distant friends, both sad and pleasing.” (Googling ”Montreal Express” brings up a lacrosse team, a 21st century ship and an 1836 newspaper. Since it brought news from distant friends, it was probably an earlier ship.) Narcissa wrotes: “Mr. Spalding has come with it and brought a letter from my husband, filled with pleasing information. The Lord has been with them since they left us, and has prospered them beyond all expectations. They have each selected a location. My husband remains there to build, while Mr. Spalding comes after us. Cheering thought this, to be able to ...

On October 22, it rained, the first rain Narcissa had seen since July 22. She wrote” In all the journey have not suffered any inconvenience from rain, while last year in the early part of it there was rain almost continually.” Again, she writes of food: “I thought I would tell what kind of a dish we had set before us this morning. It is called black pudding. It is not a favorite dish with us Americans. It goes from the table untouched. It is made of blood and the fat of hogs, well spiced and filled into a gut.” However, they did have fruit. “There is a bunch [of grapes] now on the table before me, they are very fine. I save all the seeds ...

On October 29th, in her diary, Eliza expressed her hopes for the future “we are now preparing to leave in a few days, to locate, we trust for life, in the Nez-Perces country….. Thus it seems we are about to go to our respective fields, ….. single-handed and alone. May the unerring hand of our covenant God be extended to guide, assist and protect us, and bless us…...” Narcissa took a last opportunity to write to her family until the spring and wrote a long letter about the preparations for traveling to the missions. She wrote “we are greatly blessed in finding conveniences for building housekeeping etc. far, very far from our expecta...