# The Early Indian Wars of Oregon/Cayuse/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV.
Two IMPORTANT EVENTS WHITE S CAUTION TO THE IMMIGRANTS PILOTS OF 1843 INDIANS TROUBLESOME TRADING FOR CATTLE THE DALLES MISSION ABANDONED MISBEHAVIOR OF CHIEF COCKSTOCK THE AFFAIRS AT OREGON CITY COCK- STOCK AND Two AMERICANS KILLED HUNGER AND THIEVING IN T^IE WALLAMET VALLEY THE OREGON RANGERS AND THEIR EXPLOITS THE INDIAN CATTLE COMPANY KILLING OF ELIJAH HEDDING ALARM IN OREGON WHITE S DEPART URE FOR WASHINGTON PEU-PEU-MOX-MOX IN CALIFORNIA IN 184(5 NEW INDIAN AGENT IMMIGRATION OF 1845 ROAD MAKING POLITICS AND THE SOUTHERN ROUTE IMMIGRATION OF 1846 TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE COLONISTS IMMIGRATION OF 1847 NEGLECT OF OREGON BY THE GOVERNMENT THREATS OF INDEPENDENCE APPREHENSIONS THE BLOW FALLS.
Two events of great importance to Oregon took place in 1843, the first, the organization of a provisional govern ment in May; the second, the arrival in the autumn of nearly nine hundred immigrants.
Aware of the danger to be apprehended from the In dians on seeing a large body of white men with their families and stock coming into their country, Dr. White dispatched a letter to meet the immigration at Fort Hall, urging upon them to travel compactly, in companies of not less than fifty ; to treat the Indians kindly but with reserve, and to keep a vigilant watch upon their property. He warned them that if they came strolling along in small parties they would scarcely escape having difficulty with the Indians.
And that was just what happened. The Indians nearest the mission of Waiilatpu, owing to their farailiarty with white people, and the temptation to take reprisal for fancied wrongs, were the most impertinent and thieving. They were, however, quick to see the benefits to themselves of the passage through their country of so many people with what appeared to them wonderful riches in cattle, wagons, household goods, and clothing, affording them opportuni ties of trade or theft as best suited their disposition or convenience. A great deal of thieving took place, and as ​
the immigrants were forced to pay some article of clothing for having a stolen animal returned a transaction re peated every twenty-four hours the country along the Columbia river presented a fantastic show for months afterwards, of Indians dressed in the most incongruous and absurd combinations of savage and civilized costumes a spectacle witnessed more and more, with the passage of subsequent immigrant parties, for years.
As none of the new comers remained in the Cay use country, the jealous fears of the mission Indians appeared to be for the time allayed. They had been able in a few instances to exchange a fat bullock for a lean heifer, with a view to stock-raising, which gratified their ambition to become property holders, and furnished a reasonable motive in addition to the other, for the maintenance of peace in the region inhabited by the Indians under the charge of the Presbyterians.
At The Dalles the Methodists withdrew their missiona ries in the spring of 1844, leaving only H. B. Brewer in charge of the houses and other property at that place. Left to their own devices, and the temptations offered, these incorrigible rogues were not likely to improve in their manners, and did not. On the contrary, one of their chiefs, Cockstock by name, in November of this year came to the house of Dr. White in the Wallamet valley, intend ing to take his life; but finding him absent, wreaked his vengeance on the agent s house, breaking every window in it; the occasion for this display of wrath being the punishment of one of his relative for seizing Mr. Perkins in his own house, and attempting to tie, with the inten tion of flogging him, for some act displeasing to them.
Shortly after this visit of The Dalles chief, who, however, was not identified, a party of Klamaths and Molallas, painted and armed, rode down the valley seemingly bent on mischief, their proper countries lying from fifty to three hundred miles away. Dr. White, who was among the first to see them, determined to depend upon finesse rather ​
than force to frustrate any designs they might have of a hostile nature ; and seeing them go to the lodge of a Cala- pooya chief, named Caleb by the Americans, immediately sent an invitation to this chief to call on him in the morn ing and bring his friends, as he desired to have a talk with them. Accordingly, all came next day, and were received in the most friendly manner, being invited by White to walk over his plantation and see his crops and herds. Incidentally he asked Caleb if he was prepared to give his friends a feast, and the chief acknowledging his poverty, White at once gave him permission to shoot down a fat ox, to which he added pease and flour, with salt, and soon in the delights of feasting the stern features of the visitors relaxed. Their hostile sentiment faded out, and of their own option they made overtures of friendship the follow ing morning. To this proposition White answered that he would call on them next day with Mr. Jesse Applegate, an immigrant of the previous year, who had already become a leader in colonial affairs, and in the meantime they should feast and enjoy themselves. All this courtesy put them in a fine humor, so that he had no difficulty in obtaining their consent to meet him in the spring with their people, and use their influence in persuading their tribes to enter into a compact with the white population. The interview ended cheerfully, the Indians riding away laughing and singing.
But the end was not yet. During the interview at Caleb s lodge, Cockstock, the chief before mentioned, who was still personally unknown to White, entered the lodge, behaving ungraciously to all present, but joining the party when it set out for home. During the journey he managed to revive an old feud between the Klamaths and Molallas, and at the crossing of a river one faction set upon the other, killing every one opposed to them. For this wrong the agent could offer no redress.
In the latter part of February, 1844, this same Cock- stock, who had been behaving in an insolent and disor​
derly manner, together with a few followers, made renewed threats against the life of White, who was unable to arrest him, and at last offered a reward of one hundred dollars for the delivery into his hands of the culprit, to be tried by the Cayuses or Nez Percés according to the laws recog nized by them.
A few days afterwards Cockstock with his half dozen adherents entered Oregon City at midday, all horribly painted, riding from house to house, showing their arms, and terrifying the inmates. As his following was so small the men on whom devolved the protection of the families regarded the demonstration as drunken bluster, and with what patience they could, bore the infliction for several hours, when Cockstock, finding he could not provoke a quarrel with the white inhabitants in that manner, retired to an Indian village on the west side of the river with the purpose of inciting its occupants to attack and burn the settlement. Failing in this, he obtained an interpreter and returned to the east side, declaring that he would call the Americans to account for pursuing him with an intent to arrest and punish him.
By this time it became noised about that this was the Indian wanted by Dr. White; and the white men losing patience, and some desiring the reward offered, made a simultaneous rush towards the boat landing to intercept Cockstock "the wealthiest men in town," says Dr. White in his report, " promising to stand by them to the amount of one thousand dollars each."
In the confusion of the meeting at the landing, arms were discharged on both sides at the same moment, and George W. Le Breton, a young man who had served as clerk of the first legislative committee of Oregon, and recorder of the public meeting held Jul} T 5, 1843, estab lishing a provisional government, was wounded by Cock- stock in an effort to seize him. Seeing that Le Breton was unarmed, a mulatto, who had an account of his own to sot.lle with the chief, ran to his assistance, striking the ​
Indian on the head with the barrel of his rifle, soon dispatching him.
The remaining Indians, after shooting their guns and arrows at random among the people, took refuge on the bluff above the town, where they continued to fire down upon the citizens, wounding two men who were quietly at work a Mr. Rogers and a Mr. Wilson. Arms being now generally resorted to, the Indians were soon dislodged with a loss of one wounded and a horse killed. Of the three Americans wounded, Le Breton and Rogers died from the effect of poison introduced into the system by arrow points.
Such was the first result of Dr. White's effort to arrest The Dalles chief. In a short time he was visited by seventy painted and armed Indians from that place, who had come to extort payment for the loss of their common relative. The explanation of the affair which White gave them, showed, that whereas they had lost one man, the Americans had lost two, and that the balance of indem nity was on their side; but as a matter of kindness and compassion he would give the widow of the chief two blankets, a dress, and a handkerchief; and in this equi table manner, the matter was disposed of, as also a prece dent established.
With this exception, no white blood was shed through Indian hostilities in the Wallamet valley, although the agent was frequently employed in settling with them for /the killing of an ox belonging to a white man. When White, with effected sternness, reproved the chief of some starving band for such a theft, he was met with the com plaint of game made scarce by white hunters, and the necessity to live. He was compelled to enforce white men s laws against a helpless people to whose condition they were never meant to apply, because to do otherwise would leave the Indians at the mercy of individual jus tice. For one old ox killed and eaten, the band living on Tualatin plains was compelled to pay eight JLOTSC ​S and one
rifle. In another case where a cow had been slaughtered by "a hungry and mischievous lodge," they were pur sued, and resisting arrest, one Indian was killed and an other wounded. The pursuers lost one horse killed and one wounded. Yet no one was much disturbed by such occurrences; and indeed, the early Oregon settlers were^ usually careful not to give the natives cause of offense.
It was about this time, however, that the spirits militant among the later colonists determined to frighten the Hudson's Bay Company into a humble attitude towards the Americans by the organization of a company, armed and trained for the protection of the colony against aggres sion by the English, and invasion by the native population. This company, the first military organization in Oregon, or the whole northwest, was authorized by the provisional government, and was known as the " Oregon Rangers." It was officered by Thomas D. Kaiser, captain ; J. L. Mor rison, first lieutenant; Fendal C. Cason, ensign; and held its first meeting for drill at the Oregon institute March 11, 1844. The course of the executive committee in calling out this company to " avenge the national insult, and seek redress for this astounding loss" namely, the before mentioned slaughter of an ox was ridiculed by White in his report to the secretary of war. History has not re corded any deeds of prowess performed by the rangers, whose organization was aimed as much at the Hudson's Bay Company as at the Indians. 1
For one year after Dr. Whitman s return to his mission, / quiet had reigned in the upper country. The Indians/ there, as has been said, were filled with an ambition to / acquire wealth by stock-raising, and not being able to pur- f chase many animals from the immigration, had formed a ]
1 As a relic of Oregon s first attempt at government, when it had a triple execu tive, the following document is interesting :
The people of the temtory of Oregon To nil to whom these presents s/iall come :
Know ye, that pursuant to the constitution and laws of our said territory, we have appointed and constituted, and by these presents do appoint and constitute J. L- Morrison first lieutenant of the first volunteer company of rangers of said territory, ​
company of about forty Cayuses, Walla Wallas, and a few Spokanes, to go to California and exchange peltries and horses for Spanish cattle. This was a courageous under taking, as their route lay through the country of the warlike Klamaths, Rogue Rivers, and Shastas. But the expedition, led by Peu-peu-mox-mox, was well mounted and armed, the chiefs attired in English costume, and their followers in dressed skins, presenting a fine and formi dable appearance to the wilder denizens of the southern interior ; and they arrived safely at their destination with only some slight skirmishing by the way.
The reception met with by the expedition was cordial, the Spaniards being quite willing to dispose of their numer ous herds at the good prices exacted of their customers. As for the native Oregonians, they found California much to their liking, and roamed about at pleasure until mis fortune overtook them in the following manner: Being on an excursion to procure elk and deer skins, they fell in with a company of native California bandits whom they fought, and from whom they captured twenty-two horses which had been stolen from their Spanish or American owners.
On returning with their booty to the settlements, some of the horses were claimed by the original owners, under the Spanish law that required animals sold to bear a trans fer mark. As these bore only the brand of their former owners, the Spaniards claimed them. The Oregonians, on the contrary, contended that while if any property were
with rank from April 3, 1844, to hold the said office in the manner specified in and by our said constitution and laws-
In testimony whereof we have caused our seal for military commissions to be hereunto affixed.
Witness, D. HILL, ESQ.,
J. GALE, ESQ., A. BEERS, ESQ.,
Executive committee of said territory, and commanders-in-chief of all the militia and volunteer companies of said territory.
[ L. s.] Dated at the Willamette Falls the third day of April, in the year of
our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-four. Attest : O. JOHNS ​ON, Sect.
taken by a member of any allied tribe they were bound to give it up, they considered any property captured from a common enemy as belonging to the captors; and hence that the horses taken by them from robbers, at the hazard of their lives, belonged thenceforth to them.
To this reasoning the Spaniards were deaf, but offered to compromise by allowing ten cows for the horses, and finally fifteen, to all of which overtures Peu-peu-mox-mox answered not, except by a sullen silence, and the negotia tions were broken off. Before any settlement was arrived at, an American recognizing a mule belonging to him among the captured animals, claimed it, with the declara tion that he would have it.
Among the Oregonians was a young chief named Elijah lledding, a son of the Walla Walla chief, who had been 1 aught at the mission school in the Wallamet, and was a convert to Christianity. When he heard the American declare his intention to take his mule, he quickly stepped into his lodge, loaded his rifle, and coming out, said sig nificantly: "Now go and take your mule."
The American inquired, in alarm, if he was going to be shot. "No," said Elijah, "I am going to shoot yonder- eagle," pointing to a neighboring pine tree; and the Amer ican being unarmed, precipitately left the place. On the iollowing Sunday a part of the cattle company went to Suiter s fort, where religious services were to be held, and among them Tauitowe and Elijah. During the afternoon the two chiefs were enticed into an apartment, where they were confronted by several Americans, who had come to California via Oregon, and had suffered annoyances from the Indians along the Columbia river, who now applied such approbrious epithets as "thieves" and "dogs" to the Cayuses and Walla Wallas indiscriminately, and a quarrel ensued, in the midst of which the American who had been threatened by Elijah, drawing a pistol, said: "The other day you were going to kill me now I am going to kill ​you."
On hearing this Elijah, as it was told to White by the Indians, begged to be allowed to " pray a little first," and while kneeling, was shot dead. Other authorities have said that Elijah was a turbulent fellow, and deserving of the fate he met. But the fact remains that it was the obstinacy of Peu-peu-mox-mox in refusing to be governed by the laws of a strange country in which he found him self, that brought about the misfortune which overtook the Indian cattle company. They were driven out of California by Spanish authorities, who pursued them with cannon, arriving home in the spring of 1845, having left the cattle, for which they had paid, in California, and having endured many hardships by the way.
The effect of the disastrous failure of the cattle company and the death of Elijah was to deepen in the minds of the mission Indians their mistrust of the white race, and par ticularly of Americans; for, however much they may have been at fault, they were in no mood to make allowances for the natural consequences of that fault, but were instead in that dangerous temper which caused Dr. Whitman to send a hasty arid excited communication to the sub-Indian agent, expressing his fears that Elijah s death would be avenged upon his mission. And following immediately upon this letter, White received a visit from Ellis, who had been delegated to visit both himself and Dr. Mc- Loughlin, to get from them an opinion as to what should be done in their case.
"I apprehended," says White, "there might be much difficulty in adjusting it, particularly as they lay much stress upon the restless, disaffected scamps late from Will amette to California, loading them with the vile epithets of dogs, t thieves/ etc., from which they believed, or affected to, that the slanderous reports of our citizens caused all their loss and disasters, and therefore held us responsible."
According to Ellis, the Walla Wallas, Cayuses, Nez Percés, Spokanes, Pend d Oreilles, and Snakes were on ​
THE (JAYUSE WAR. 81
terms of amity and alliance; and a portion of them were for raising two thousand warriors and marching at once to California to take reprisal by capture and plunder, en riching themselves by the spoils of the enemy. Another part were more cautious, wishing first to take advice, and to learn whether the white people in Oregon would remain neutral. A third party were for holding the Oregon colony responsible, because Elijah had been killed by an American.
There was business, indeed, for an Indian agent with no government at his back, and no money to carry on either war or diplomacy. But Dr. White was equal to it. He arranged a cordial reception for the chief among the col onists; planned to have Dr. McLoughlin divert his mind by referring to the tragic death of his own son by treachery, which enabled him to sympathize with the father and rela tives of Elijah ; and, on his own part, took him to visit the schools and his own library, and in every way treated the chief as if he were the first gentleman in the land. Still further to establish social equality, he put on his farmer s garb and began working on his plantation, in which labor Ellis soon joined him, and the two discussed the benefits already enjoyed by the ^native population as the result of intelligent labor.
Nothing, however, is so convincing to an Indian as a present, and here, it would seem, Dr. White must have failed, but not so. In the autumn of 1844, thinking to prevent trouble with the immigration by enabling the chiefs in the upper country to obtain cattle without violating the laws, lie had given them some ten-dollar treasury drafts to be exchanged with the immigrants for young stock, which drafts the immigrants refused to accept, not knowing where they should get them cashed. To heal the wound caused by this disappointment, White now sent word by Ellis to these chiefs to come down in the autumn with Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding, to hold a council over the California affair, and to bring with them their ten-dolla ​r drafts to
exchange with him for a cow and a calf each, out of his own herds. He also promised them that if they would postpone their visit to California until the spring of 1847, and each chief assist him to the amount of two beaver skin?, he would establish a manual labor and literary school for their children, besides using every means in his power to have the trouble with the Californians adjusted, and would give them from his private funds five hundred dollars with which to purchase young cows in California. It must, indeed, have been a serious breach to heal, when the Indian agent felt forced to pledge his own means to such an amount. That he succeeded in averting for the time an impending disaster should be placed to his credit, even though he was prevented redeeming all his pledges through the loss of his office by a change in the form of the provisional government of Oregon, and his ambition to figure as the delegate of this government to the United States. 2 He did, however, write to Sutter, and the agent of the United States government in California, Thomas 0. Larkin ; a good deal of correspondence on the subject being still extant, from which it appears that Sutter had given the Walla Wallas as they were all called in California permission to hunt for wild horses to be exchanged for cattle. In the quarrel which arose between Elijah and Grove Cook, an American, over the ownership of a mule, the young chief was shot in Sutter s office during his temporary absence. The white witnesses all agreed that
-It is a somewhat curious circumstance that Dr. Elijah White, who certainly achieved, with rare exceptions, the good attempted for the Oregon colony in his official capacity, left behind him in this country, instead of a good reputation, a very unfriendly feeling. That most of it was due to jealousy must be admitted, there beiug no other solution. In the mission colony the friends of Jason Lee were against him ; and among these, as well as the immigrant settlers and members of the legis lature, he was suspected of having designs on the delegateship, whereas both factions had other preferences. But that he was justified in feeling himself a proper person to become a delegate, or to accept an appointment, was shown by the action of the provisional government in asking him to become the bearer of a memorial to con gress. The opportunity offered to attend to his own personal affairs was of course acceptable ; but owing to certain influences the legislature later resolved : "That it was not the intention of this house in passing resolutions in favor of Dr. E. White to recommend him to the government of the United States as a suitable person to fill any office in this territory": See Oregon Archives, *, too, 116. Before leaving for ​
Elijah was the aggressor; but do not white witnesses in similar circumstances always agree to the guilt of the Indian?
It may as well be mentioned here that in the autumn of 1846, Peu-peu-mox-mox went again to California with a company of forty men, to demand justice for the killing of his son, their arrival on the frontier causing great con cern and excitement. Commodore Stockton coming up from Mon-terey to San Francisco, and a military company being sent to protect exposed points.
Peu-peu-mox-mox, whatever his intentions may have been in the outset, seeing that the country was now in the possession of Americans, and that both Americans and Spaniards were armed, declared that he only came to trade, and afterwards offered his services to Major Fremont to fight the Californians. The adventurers acquitted them selves well, and returned to Oregon with increased respect for the Americans as warriors, all their previous experience of them having been as peace men "women," they called the Oregon immigrants whom they insulted and robbed, because they offered no resistance to their annoyances on the road. Indeed, they had been warned that they must not judge the fighting qualities of the people of the United States by the prudent forbearance of men encumbered by families and herds; and no doubt this lesson was enforced by what they saw in California.
The provisional legislature created the office of superin-
the states in August, 1845, Dr. White spent several weeks in searching for a pass through the Cascade mountains, more favorable than the route by Mount Hood, which had been partially opened the previous year. In this unsuccessful expedi tion, fitted out at his own expense, he was accompanied by Batteus Du Guerre, Joseph Charles Saxton, Orus Brown, Moses Harris, John Edmunds, and two others ; and they examined the country from the Santiam to the head of the Wallamet valley without finding what they sought ; named Spencer s butte, after the then late secretary of war, John C. Spencer ; and explored the Siuslaw river to its mouth. White was no coward. He returned to the states with only Harris, Du Guerre, Saxton, Brown, Chapman, and two or three others, although traveling this route was becoming more dangerous every year. Harris deserted at Des Chutes river, remaining in Oregon. About the last of October the party was captured by the Pawnees ana robbed, White being beaten into unconsciousness, but rescued through the favor of a chief. He finally reached Washington, delivering his messages, settling his accounts, and retir ing to his home near Ithaca, removing some years afterwards to Ca ​lifornia.
endent of Indian affairs in August, 1845, and bestowed it on the governor, George Abernethy. The condition of Oregon about this time was, in the minds of its white
nhabitants, full of peril, not only from possible Indian wars, but on account of the resolute attitude taken by American statesmen towards Great Britain on the question )f international boundary. Notwithstanding the fact that
he officers of the Hudson's Bay Company had joined with the Americans in a political compact, and taken an oath to support the provisional government so far as it did not interfere with their allegiance to their respective govern ments, there was the prospect, as it appeared to the colo nists, of a war between the two nations, which should force a conflict between the Hudson's Bay Company and the colonists. In such an emergency it was remembered, with foreboding, that the Indian population was sure to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered of avenging all their real and imagined wrongs upon the Americans. The immigration of 1845 numbered about three thou sand persons, and almost doubled the white population of Oregon; that of 1844 having been about seven hundred and fifty. But if their numbers were small their patriotism was large, and they made no secret of the fact that some of them had come all the way from Missouri to burn Fort Vancouver. So many threats of a similar nature had found utterance ever since the first large party of 1843, that the officers of the British company had thought it only prudent to strengthen their defenses, and keep a sloop of war lying in the Columbia. What the company simply did for defense, the settlers construed into an offense, and both parties were on the alert for the first overt act.
It has already been mentioned that the passage down the Columbia was one of excessive hardship and danger, each immigration having endured incredible suffering, and also loss, in coming from The Dalles to the Wallamet valley; families and wagons being shipped on rafts to the cascades, where a portage had to be made of several miles, ​
and whence another voyage had to be undertaken in such poor craft as could be constructed or hired, taking weeks to complete this portion of the long journey from the states, in the late and rainy months of the year ; the oxen and herds being driven down to Vancouver on the north side of the river, or being left in the upper country to be herded by the Indians. The rear of the immigration of 1844 remained at Whitman s mission over winter, and several families at The Dalles. The larger body of 1845 divided, some coming down the river, and others crossing the Cascade mountains by two routes, but each enduring the extreme of misery. John Minto, then a young man, says of 1844: "I found men in the prime of life lying among the rocks (at the Cascades), seeming ready to die. I found there mothers with their families, whose hus bands were snowbound in the Cascade mountains, with out provisions, and obliged to kill and eat their game dogs. * * There was scarcely a dry day, and the
snow line was nearly down to the river." These scenes were repeated in 1845 with a greater number of sufferers, one wing of the long column taking a cut-off by follow ing which they became lost, and had all but perished in a desert country. "Despair settled upon the people; old men and children wept together, and the strongest could not speak hopefully." "Only the women," says one nar rator, " continued to show firmness and courage."
The perils and pains of the Plymouth Rock pilgrims were not greater than those of the pioneers of Oregon, and there are few incidents in history more profoundly sad than the narratives of hardships undergone in the settle ment of this country. The names of the men who pioneered the wagon rpad around the base of Mount Hood are worthy of all remembrance. They were Joel Palmer, Henry M. Knighton, W. H. Rector, and Samuel K. Barlow in partic ular; but there were many others, even women, who crossed the mountains late in the year of 1845 on pack horses, barely escaping starvation through the exertions ​
of Barlow and Rector in gelling through to Oregon City, and forwarding to them a pack-train with provisions. The wagons, which it was impossible to move beyond Rock creek, were abandoned, the goods cached, except such necessaries as could be packed on half starved oxen, the men walking in the snow, and all often soaked with rain. Children with feet almost bare endured this terrible journey, the like of which can never again occur on this continent. 3
Some of the more thoughtful men of the colony, taking into consideration the peculiar inaccessibility of western Oregon from the east, and the possibility of war with England, asked themselves how United States troops were to come to their assistance in such a case. The natural obstacles of the Columbia- river pass were so great as to be almost positively exclusive in the absence of the usual means of transportation, and the stationing of but a small force, or a single battery, at the Cascades, would effectually exclude an army.
The colonists were still expecting the passage of Linn s bill, and with it the long-promised military protection; but there was the possibility that at the very moment of greatest need they might be left at the mercy of an invad ing foe, and its savage allies, while the troops sent to their relief were fenced out and left to starve east of the moun tains, or to die exhausted with their long march and the effort to force the passage. of the cascades.
Among the heads and hearts troubled by these fears was Jesse Applegate. He was very friendly with the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had so kindly rescued him and his countrymen from starvation in 1843; and so highly was he esteemed by them that they had yielded
3 White has been credited with being the cause of the disasters which overtook the portion of the immigration which was lost. He mentions meeting the several companies on the road as he went east, but says nothing of giving them advice con cerning their route. It is not incredible that he spoke to them of his belief that a pass through the mountains existed at the head of the Wallamet valley, from an , expedition in search of which lie had just returned. At all events, their guide, Stephen H. L. Meek, undertook to pilot them to it, and failed. As many as twenty persons died from this mistake. ​
to his arguments in favor of joining in the articles of compact under which the colony was governed; but he was aware that agents of the British government were anxiously inquiring whether troops could be brought from Canada to Fort Vancouver by the Hudson's bay trail, and he knew that although the company, as such, deprecated war, the individuals composing it were as loyal to their government as he to his own.
Under this stress of circumstances, the colonists pro- posed to raise money to pay the expense of a survey of the country towards the south, and to open a road should the survey be successful, which should lead out of the Wall- amet valley towards Fort Hall. A company was accord ingly formed in May, 1846, under the leadership of Levi Scott, which proceeded as far as the southern limit of the Umpqua valley, but was compelled, by the desertion of some of its members as they approached the Rogue river country, to return home.
Jesse Applegate, who from the first had urged the ueces- sity of this exploration, now determined to lead a company in persons, which expedition, as organized, consisted of fifteen men, namely, Jesse Applegate, Levi Scott, Lindsay, Applegate, David Goff, Benjamin Burch, John Scott, Moses Harris, William Parker, Henry Bogus, John Owens, John Jones, Robert Smith, Samuel Goodhue, Bennett Osborne, and William Sportsman, who left rendezvous in Polk county June twenty-second.
By using great vigilance the party passed safely through the Rogue river valley, though they observed signs of a skirmish with the Indians by a much larger party which had started for California two weeks earlier, and had their* horses stolen, being detained in camp until just before the* explorers came up. The Indians, seeing the second com pany, allowed the first to escape; but finding the road- hunters exceedingly wary, made no attempt to molest them, and contented themselves with pursuing the Cali- fornia company to the Siskiyou mountains. ​
An itinerary of the journey of the explorers of the southern immigrant road to Oregon would hardly be in place here. It is sufficient to know that they discovered and opened a route to Fort Hall, which they induced a part of the immigration to follow; and that misfortunes overtook the travelers on this, as well as the northern route, owing partly to neglect of discipline, and partly X also to early storms encountered in the canon of the Ump- qua. Such things must be where large companies invade the wilderness without sufficient forethought. The worst of all was the animosity religiously cherished by those who suffered in person and property against those who meant to do them and the colony a favor. Those who got into Oregon any way they could had only themselves to blame for their troubles; but those who were shown a way which was not after all safe from accident, were tempted to cast the blame of their misfortunes upon their guides. As to depredations by the natives, they were unavoidable in whatsoever direction lay the route of travel. The In dians of the Humboldt valley, and the Modoc and Klamath " countries, were troublesome, lying in ambush and shooting their poisoned arrows at men and animals. This led to retaliation, and several Indians and two white jnen were killed in skirmishes. It was raising up enemies for the future, whose hatred would have to be washed out in blood. Fortunate was it that at that time these Indians were not aware of their own strength. Wild men they were who had not yet learned from traders, or missiona ries, or Indian agents, to restrain their savage impulses; nor had they learned from contact and example the art of war, which at a later period they practiced with signal success.
^ The immigration of 1846 was not large, not more than one thousand persons. It found the Oregon colony prosperous, and more quiet than the previous year on the Indian question. The presence of an English and an American war fleet in the Pacific was not unkn ​own to the natives, and had the effect to intimidate the dissatisfied and ignorant, at the same time it caused the more intelli gent to ask themselves what part they were to be allowed to play in the distribution of the continent among nations. The Indians and colonists alike stood still to see what was to be done with them.
News of the settlement of the northern boundary arrived by way of the Sandwich Islands, before the meeting of the legislature, but with it no intimation that Linn s bill had been passed organizing the territory of Oregon ; but it was taken for granted that such news must very soon follow, and with it the protection of United States arms and laws.
In the meantime, as a means of peace, the majority of the people, with the governor, actively promoted temper ance. Temperance societies were organized in the colony at its very commencement. With the first provisional form of government, temperance laws were enacted. Dr. White, as Indian agent, enforced the United States laws against selling liquor to Indians; and the legislature of 1845 passed a prohibitory law against the introduction or manufacture of ardent spirits.
Notwithstanding all this care a certain amount of what was called "blue ruin," was manufactured out of molasses, and sold to the Indians about Oregon City, who noisily chanted the praises of "blue lu " in the ears of the inhabit-* ants when they would have preferred to have been asleep. In his message to the legislature of 1840, Governor Aber- * nethy said: "During the last year, persons taking advan tage of the defect in our law, have manufactured and sold ardent spirits. We have seen the effects (although the manufacture was on a small scale) in the midnight carous als among the Indians during their fishing season, and while they had property to dispose of; and, let me ask, what would be the consequences if the use of it should be general in the territory? History may hereafter write the page in letters of blood." History, however, has no such charge against the Oregon colonists, as that the} r caused ​
bloodshed by the introduction of intoxicating drinks among the natives; or that they wantonly, at any time, put the lives of the people in peril, the affair of Cockstock, at Oregon City, being the most bloody of any incident in the colonial history of western Oregon. And perhaps a good deal of this immunity from war was owing to the caution of the governor, who never failed to keep the subject before the people.
Once again a year rolled around without bringing to Oregon the long expected news that congress had passed an act organizing a territory west of the Rocky mountains. An immigration of nearly four thousand souls had poured into the Wallamet valley, swelling the population to about eight thousand, making the situation still more critical. There had not been lacking since the first efforts at local government a certain element in the colonial life which favored setting up an independent state; and the failure of congress to stretch out its hand and take what was so generously offered it, created a discontent which grew with every fresh disappointment. We find Dr. White, in 1843, writing to the secretary of war, that "should it (the Oregon bill) at last fail of passing the lower house, suffer me to predict, in view of what so many have had to undergo, in person and property, to get to this distant country, it will create a disaffection so strong as to end only in open rebellion."
Dr. McLoughlin also wrote, in 1844, to a member of the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada, " They declare that if in ten years the boundary is not settled, they will erect themselves into an independent state." The annual fresh importation of patriotic Americans served to discourage the independent movement; but the legislature of 1845 would not adopt the name "Oregon territory," because congress had not erected any such organization. The boundary was at last settled, and still Oregon got nothing but promises, and those at long intervals of painful ​waiting.
In his message to the legislature December 7, 1847, Governor Abernethy said: "Our relations with the In dians become every year more embarrassing. They see the white man occupy their land, rapidly filling up the country, and they put in a claim for pay. They have been told that a chief would come out from the United States and treat with them for their lands; they have been told this so often that they begin to doubt it; at all events/ they say, he will not come till we are all dead, and then what good will blankets do us? We want some thing now. This leads to trouble between the settler and the Indians about him. Some plan should be devised by which a fund can be raised and presents made to the Indians of sufficient value to keep them quiet until an agent arrives from the United States. A number of rob beries have been committed by the Indians in the upper country, upon the emigrants, as they were passing through their territory. This should not be allowed to pass. An appropriation should be made by you sufficient to enable the superintendent of Indian affairs to take a small party in the spring and demand restitution of the property, or its equivalent in horses."
Alas, the blow so long apprehended had fallen, and the isolated Oregon colony, cut off by thousands of miles from the parent government, without troops, without money, without organization of forces or arms, was suddenly brought face to face with the horrors of an Indian war.