Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 277 should war be declared against you. The company has noth- ing to do with your quarrel. If you wish it, on my return I will see what can be done for you, but I do not promise to prevent war. Deliver me the prisoners to return to their friends, and I will pay you a ransom ; that is all." To which Chief Tiloukaikt of the Cayuses replied: "Chief, your words are weighty, your hairs are gray. We have known you a long time. You have had an unpleasant journey to this place. I cannot therefore keep the families back. I make them over to you, which I would not do to another younger than your- self." Then followed five days of suspense until the captives were brought in, and two days more until the whites residing at Lapwai, Mr. Spalding and others, arrived. Mr. Ogden at the time thus wrote : "For two nights I have not slept, but, thank God, they are all safe and none have been maltreated." The party then at once set off down the river and none too soon because of the arrival of the news that some of the Ore- gon volunteers had arrived at The Dalles and the Cayuse war had begun. This, in brief, was the crowning event of Mr. Ogden's career, for which his name will be ever held in grateful re- membrance in Oregon. The official letter of thanks from Gov. Abernethy to him and his modest reply need not be reproduced here. Mr. Ogden's own religious affiliation was with the Church of England. Although he always rendered courteous treatment and support to the missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, he had little faith in the permanency of religious influence upon the Indians. But it is stated, with- out verification, that a short time before the massacre he had sent to Mrs. Whitman, with his compliments, the material for a dress. Sojourners at the Lakeview Hotel (of which the courteous and generous Mr. A. B. Ferguson is the proprietor — Mr. Ferguson's wife was the Susan Ellen McKinlay already men- tioned as a babe and it was at this home that both Mr. and
Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/299
This page needs to be proofread.