Raftsman's Journal

Horrible Massacre of A Missionary Family.—The Rev. Mr. Klitman, a Methodist Missionary who had been preaching to the Indians of Oregon since 1838, was recently murdered with his family, under singular and appalling circumstances. The small-pox broke out among the savages; the missionary's family not being attacked, the Indians thought the pestilence had been introduced by the whites to exterminate them. Acting upon this horrible suspicion, a bold chief was selected, who stole into the sleeping chamber of the family and buried his hatchet in the brain of the missionary and his wife, whilst others despatched the children, male and female employees, razed the house to the ground, destroyed the fences and every vestige of a once happy home. The facts have been laid before the Senate in a communication from the War Department.