Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/150
written from Clear Water Jan. 24, 1846, in which he states:
"And 4 or 5 of the only quiet hours in 24 arrive from sunset till 11 oclock at night which last winter I occupied in translating Matthew & this in translating Acts of the Apostles, And so the day ends.
In the midst of cares I am making slow progress in translating the Acts of the Apostles over 20 mostly adults are daily printing & reading the translation in connection with the gospel of Matthew printed at our press last winter."
But the translation, if ever finished, was never printed, for the missionaries voted to abandon the use of the Roman alphabet, as we learn from a letter dated Waiilatpu, June 15, 1847, signed by Mr. Spaulding "on behalf of the members of the mission present."
"It is the opinion of all the members of the mission now present that the Natives do not possess perseverance sufficient to hold them to study a sufficient length of time to enable them to read by the Roman Alphabet. We ^ have come to this conclusion after much labor & experience in teaching in the Roman Alphabet. Consequently we have no encouragement to proceede in our translations. We have no hope that they will be read."
The missionaries state that they have heard of the astonishing success of the Cree syllabic alphabet, and ask that it be sent to them with instructions for its use and advice as to its employment.
The Whitman massacre and the abandonment of the Oregon missions prevented any further translations.
In 1871, the American Bible Society reprinted Spalding's Gospel of Matthew, and it is interesting to note that but one typographical change was indicated in the book sent on as copy (now preserved in the New York Public Library), which was therefore printed exactly as written by Spalding 28 years earlier; whether a tribute to the excellence of his translation or due to