gland
nor America had a clear title to the region, and that its population
must, in the end, determine its nationality. Consequently it bent every
effort to hurry English settlers into the country. In October, 1842,
Whitman was dining with a company of Englishmen at Walla-Walla, when a
messenger arrived with news of the approach of a large body of settlers
from Canada. A shout arose: "Hurrah for Oregon! America is too late!
We've got the country!" And Whitman, at a glance, saw through the plan.

Twenty-four hours later, he had started to ride across the continent to
carry the news to Washington. He had caught the import of the news, had
grasped its consequences, and he was determined that Oregon, with its
great forests and broad prairies, its mighty rivers, and its
unparalleled richness, should be saved for the Union. If the Nation only
knew the value of the prize, England would never be permitted to carry
it off. His wife and friends protested against the desperate
venture--four thousand miles on horseback--for it would soon be the dead
of winter, with snow hiding the trail and filling the passes, with
streams ice-blocked and winter-swollen, and last but not least, with the
Blackfoot Indians on the warpath. But he would listen to none of this:
his duty, as he conceived it, lay clear before him; he was determined to
set out at once. Amos Lovejoy volunteered to accompany him, a busy night
was spent in preparation, and the next day they were off.

No diary of that remarkable journey was kept by Dr. Whitman, but most of
its incidents are known. Terribly severe weather was encountered almost
at the start, for ten days they were snowed up in the mountains, and
long before the journey ended, were reduced to rations of dog and mule
meat. But they struggled on, more than once losing the way and giving
themselves up for lost, and on March 3, 1843, just five months from
Walla-Walla, Whitman entered Washington.

His spectacular ride rivetted public attention upon the far western
country, and the information which he gave concerning it opened the
Nation's eyes to its value. When he returned, later in the year, to the
banks of the Columbia, he took back with him a train of two hundred
wagons and a thousand settlers--a veritable army of occupation which the
British could not match. Three years later, so steadily did the tide
continue which Whitman had started, the American population had risen
to over ten thousand, there was never