After assisting to bring the cannon around the cascades
in a violent storm of rain and wind, Captain Thomas
McKay s company 10 arriving just in time to be of service,
Palmer and Newell resumed their journey to The Dalles,
now called Fort Lee, and often Fort Wascopan, but not
before the commissary had the vexation to see the best of
the two boats above the falls destroyed by the storm, and
the carelessness of those having it in charge. 11 They
reached The Dalles February tenth, having seen a few
Indians on the way, who appeared "downhearted." 12
The army having returned to Fort Lee, a council was held on the eleventh by the field officers and the peace commissioners, to decide upon a definite plan of action. Nothing was agreed upon until the twelfth, when arrange ments were made to send forward one hundred men under Major Lee, with the other two commissioners, Captain Mc-
10 When the governor s proclamation became known at French prairie, there was a called meeting of Canadians who passed the following resolutions :
Whereas it is believed that several of the Indian tribes east of the Cascade moun tains have formed an alliance for the purpose of carrying on hostilities against this colony ; and whereas the exigency of the times calls for prompt and energetic action on the part of the people of this territory, in enlisting and mustering into service the number of volunteers required by the executive; therefore,
Resolved, That we deem it highly expedient to raise, arm, and equip one company of riflemen to proceed immediately to join the regiment at Portland.
Resolved, That the Canadian citizens of Champoeg county feel it their duty to assist our adopted country in the prosecution of the war against the Cayuse Indians, for the horrible massacre committed by them upon American citizens at Waiilatpu.
A call for volunteers being made, thirty names were at once enrolled, and Thomas McKay was chosen captain: Oregon Spectator, January 20, 1848.
When the American flag was presented to McKay s company, he addressed to them this brief sentence : " This is the flag you are expected to defend ; and defend it you must." It was easy to understand that.
ii" We have a small flat here," wrote J. D. Crawford, "six or seven feet wide, which we can use until a larger one is made. * * * The boat is to be thirty -five by ten feet. We must have five pounds oakum, two chisels ( one and two-inch ), one jack and one fore plane, and also one small grindstone. These tools we must have, as they are daily needed " : Oregon Archives, MS. 902. Palmer himself had written a few days before to Wait, in behalf of the men employed on one of the boats : " If possible for you to do anything for them, you must do it. Mr. J. C. Little wishes a coat. Josephus Norton wishes a roundabout. You must call upon the citizens to aid you in raising an amount to supply the men who are boating up the supplies ": Oregon Archives, MS. 902.
12 This is Newell s expression, taken from a memorandum of the incidents of his journey. He further says that only three men were left to guard Fort Gilliam ; and three to run the boats between that place and Fort Lee. " The men have volunteered to fight Indians, not to run boats," said their officers.
