the English corporation, from whom so many acts of
neighborly kindness had been received.
The company of forty-five men, under Captain H. A. G. Lee, had pushed forward to The Dalles immediately after receiving its outfit at Vancouver, in order to protect the property of the mission at that place, and to keep open a line of communication with the Walla Walla valley. In Lee s first letter to the governor, he made complaint that Mr. Ogden, in passing down with the captives, paid for the usual services of the Indians at that place with the customary few charges of powder and ball; but not to have done so would have been to give serious offense, and to have furnished an excuse for joining the Cay uses against all the white population in the country. 1
Lee wrote that the Indians about The Dalles appeared friendly, and to have committed no hostile acts except thefts of goods belonging to the immigrants, which, on the advent of an armed force, they hastened to restore, with professions of good will.
Siletza, a Des Chutes chief, was, however, regarded as a suspect, although he does not appear to have deserved it; and Thomas, a Dalles Indian, entrusted with the guardian-
1 In his private correspondence with Lee, Governor Abernethy said : " I regret Mr. Ogden s course, paying powder and ball to the Indians": Oregon Archives, MS., 85H. That there was a disposition to criticise Ogden, on Lee s part appears from an other letter of the governor, in which he remarks : " Mr. Canfield, I believe it was, says yon are mistaken as to Mr. Ogden s remark, as he was present. He says Mr. Ogden meant our party of fifty men would be insufficient. He made no remarks down here calculated to stop the enterprise, in my presence": Oregon Archives, MS., SCO. In a letter to Dr. W. F. Tolmie, in charge of Fort Nisqually, Douglas in structed him as follows January eighteenth: "The legislature has passed a law prohibiting the sale of powder, lead, and caps to all Indians. I consider it a danger ous measure, which will excite the Indians more and more against the Americans ; they will starve without ammunition, and distress may drive them to dangerous courses. They will prey upon the settlements and slaughter cattle when they can no longer hunt the deer. Represent this to the Newmarket men. ( American set tlers at Tumwater on the south end of Puget Sound.) It is oppression, not kindness, that will drive the Indians to acts of hostility. Use all your influence to protect the Newmarket people, and tell them to be kind and civil to the Indians. Use your dis cretion about the powder and lead prohibition ; you need not enforce the law if it endangers the safety of the country. The Americans about this place are all ex claiming against it, and are serving out powder to the Indians themselves, to protect their stock. You ought, in my opinion, to get the fort enclosed immediately, and bastions put up at two of the corners. If your own people are not sufficient, hire hands to assist you ; the sooner that precaution is taken, the better."
