Dart did not find his office a sinecure. The area of the country over which his superintendency extended was so great that, even with the aid of more agents, little could be accomplished in a season, six months of the year only admitting of travel in the unsettled portions of the territory. To add to his embarrassment, the three agents appointed had left him almost alone to perform the duty which should have been divided among several assistants,[1] the pay offered to agents being so small as to be despised by men of character and ability who had their living to earn.
About the 1st of June 1851 Dart set out to visit the Indians east of the Cascade Mountains, who since the close of the Cayuse war had maintained a friendly attitude, but who hearing that it was the design to send the western Indians among them were becoming uneasy. Their opposition to having the sickly and degraded Willamette natives in their midst was equal to that of the white people. Neither were they willing to come to any arrangement by which they would be compelled to quit the country which each tribe for itself called its own. Dart promised them just treatment, and that they should receive pay for their lands. Having selected a site for an agency building on the Umatilla he proceeded to Waiilatpu and Lapwai, as instructed, to determine the losses sustained by the Presbyterians, according to the instructions of government.[2]
- ↑ Dart complained in his report that Spalding, who had been assigned to the Umpqua country, had visited it but twice during the year, and asked his removal and the substitution of E. A. Starling. The latter was first stationed at the mouth of the Columbia, and soon after sent to Puget Sound. Wampole arrived in Oregon in July 1851, was sent to Umatilla, and removed in less than three months for violating orders and trading with the Indians. Allen, appointed after Henry and Francis, also finally declined, when Skinner accepted the place too late in the year to accomplish anything. A. Van Dusen, of Astoria, had been appointed subagent, but declined; then Shortess had accepted the position. Walker had been appointed to go among the Spokanes, but it was doubtful if $750 a year would be accepted. Finally J. L. Parrish, also a subagent, was the only man who had proven efficient and ready to perform the services required of him. 32d Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 2, pt. iii. 473; U. S. Ev. H. B. Co. Claims, 27; Amer. Almanac, 1851, 113; Id., 1852, 116; Dunniway's Capt. Gray's Company, 162.
- ↑ The claims against the government for the destruction of the missions was large in the estimation of Dart, who does not state the amount.
