“The New York of the Pacific” is how Narcissa Whitman recorded her first impression of Fort Vancouver upon seeing Hudson’s Bay Company ships floating on the Columbia River in September 1836. Despite her hyperbole, Whitman’s journal offers a firsthand view of how difficult it was for Easterners and Westerners to correspond. She was delighted to know that Hudson’s Bay Company ships came and went from the fort every few months because she hoped to mail her journal to her parents in Prattsburgh, N.Y. Her husband requested a copy for his parents also.
The missionary party of the Whitmans and Rev. Henry Harmon and Eliza Spalding traveled to Fort Vancouver without stopping in Walla Walla, which surprised Narcissa. The Hudson’s Bay Company’s official greeters, John McLoughlin, James Douglas and their wives, welcomed the arriving missionaries. McLoughlin graciously offered them seats on a sofa.
Narcissa described the wives as “natives of the country (half breeds),” displaying the era’s prejudice. However, she found the McLoughlins’ daughter, Maria, “quite an interesting young lady.” During Narcissa’s stay, McLoughlin put his daughter in her care and wanted her to hear Maria’s recitations.
The missionaries give us insights into how getting mail to the West was slow and uncertain. A July 1836 journal entry shows Narcissa knew that ships sailed back and forth between the fort and Hawaii several times a year, arriving about every two months.
The ships on the river help explain her excited comparison of Fort Vancouver and New York. She understood the company had a vast shipping network and often carried correspondence between London and its Northwest outposts. She believed ships a more reliable and safe carrier for her journal and correspondence and a more consistent way to receive letters than “sending them over the Mountains” with Hudson’s Bay Company employees, according to her journal.
The ship Columbia sailed on Nov. 15, 1836, with one journal headed for her sister, Jane. While the mailing cost remains unknown, historians know her shocked sister responded because Narcissa apologized in a Sept. 18, 1838, letter for the charges. Unfortunately, Jane’s letter was lost.
Being protective of the missionary women, McLoughlin wanted Narcissa and Eliza to stay at the compound for four or five more weeks while their husbands headed back to Walla Walla. The chief factor gave her husband a pair of “Lether pantaloons” and explained riding horses in cloth pants destroyed them.
Until she returned to Walla Walla, Narcissa kept herself busy strolling in the garden, citing it bore “every kind of vegetable, too numerous to be mentioned,” examining the farm’s produce, observing livestock and criticizing the sheep for being poor quality. On Sundays, she attended church services. Other times, she met visiting guests and visited the fort’s school. In quieter moments, Narcissa may have also transcribed a third copy of her journal.
Martin Middlewood is editor of the Clark County Historical Society Annual. Reach him at ClarkCoHist@gmail.com.
