1844. As has before been mentioned, the Indians of the Wallamet valley
were by no means so formidable as those of the upper country: yet
considering their numbers and the condition of the settlers, they were
quite formidable enough to occasion considerable alarm when any one of
them, or any number of them betrayed the savage passions by which they
were temporarily overcome. Considerable excitement had prevailed among
the more scattered settlers, ever since the reports of the disaffection
among the up-country tribes had reached them; and Dr. White had been
importuned to throw up a strong fortification in the most central part
of the colony, and to procure arms for their defence, at the expense of
the United States.
This excitement had somewhat subsided when an event occurred which for a
time renewed it: a house was plundered and some horses stolen from the
neighborhood of the Falls. An Indian from the Dalles, named Cockstock,
was at the bottom of the mischief, and had been committing or
instigating others to commit depredations upon the settlers, for a year
previous, because he had been, as he fancied, badly treated in a matter
between himself and a negro in the colony, in which the latter had taken
an unfair advantage of him in a bargain.
[Illustration: A WILD INDIAN IN TOWN.]
To crown his injuries Dr. White had caused a relative of his to be
flogged by the Dalles chief, for entering the house of the Methodist
missionary at that place, and tying him, with the purpose of flogging
him. (It was a poor law, he thought, that would not work both ways.)
In revenge for this insult Cockstock came to the Doctor's house in the
Wallamet, threatening to shoot him at sight, but not finding him at
home, contented himself for that time, by smashing all the windows in
the dwelling and office of the Doctor, and nearly frightening to death a
young man on the premises.
When on the Doctor's return in the evening, the extent of the outrage
became known, a party set out in pursuit of Cockstock and his band, but
failed to overtake them, and the settlers remained in ignorance
concerning the identity of the marauders. About a month later, however,
a party of Klamath and Molalla Indians from the south of Oregon,
numbering fifteen, came riding into the settlement, armed and painted in
true Indian war-style. They made their way to the lodge of a Calapooya
chief in the neighborhood--the Calapooyas being the Indians native to
the valley. Dr. White fearing these mischievous visitors might infect
the mind of the Calapooya chief, sent a message to him, to bring his
friends to call upon him in the morning, as he had something good to say
to them.
This they did, when Dr. White explained the laws of the Nez Perces to
them, and told them how much it would be to their advantage to adopt
such laws. He gave the Calapooya chief a fine fat ox to feast his
friends with, well knowing that an Indian's humor depends much on the
state of his stomach, whether shrunken or distended. After the feast
there was some more talk about the laws, in the midst of which the
Indian Cockstock made his appearance, armed, and sullen in his demeanor.
But as Dr. White did not know him for the perpetrator of the outrage on
his premises, he took no notice of him more than of the others. The
Molallas and Klamaths finally agreed to receive the laws; departing in
high good humor, singing and shouting. So little may one know of the
savage heart from the savage professions! Some of these Indians were
boiling over with secret wrath at the weakness of their brethren in
consenting to laws of the Agent's dictation; and while they were
crossing a stream, fell upon and massacred them without mercy, Cockstock
taking an active part in the murder.
The whites were naturally much excited by the villainous and horrible
affray, and were for taking and hanging the murderers. The Agent,
however, was more cautious, and learning that there had been feuds among
these Indians long unsettled, decided not to interfere.
In February, 1844, fresh outrages on settlers having been committed so
that some were leaving their claims and coming to stop at the Falls
through fear, Dr. White was petitioned to take the case in hand. He
accordingly raised a party of ten men, who had nearly all suffered some
loss or outrage at Cockstock's hands, and set out in search of him, but
did not succeed in finding him. His next step was to offer a reward of a
hundred dollars for his arrest, meaning to send him to the upper country
to be tried and punished by the Cayuses and Nez Perces, the Doctor
prudently desiring to have them bear the odium, and suffer the
punishment, should any follow, of executing justice on the Indian
desperado. Not so had the fates ordained.
About a week after the reward was offered, Cockstock came riding into
the settlement at the Falls, at mid-day, accompanied by five other
Indians, all well armed, and frightfully painted. Going from house to
house on their horses, they exhibited their pistols, and by look and
gesture seemed to defy the settlers, who, however, kept quiet through
prudential motives. Not succeeding in provoking the whites to commence
the fray, Cockstock finally retired to an Indian village on the other
side of the river, where he labored to get up an insurrection, and
procure the burning of the settlement houses.
Meantime the people at the Falls were thoroughly alarmed, and bent upon
the capture of this desperate savage. When, after an absence of a few
hours, they saw him recrossing the river with his party, a crowd of
persons ran down to the landing, some with offers of large reward to any
person who would attempt to take him, while others, more courageous,
were determined upon earning it. No definite plan of capture or concert
of action was decided on, but all was confusion and doubt. In this frame
of mind a collision was sure to take place; both the whites and Indians
firing at the moment of landing. Mr. LeBreton, the young man mentioned
in the previous chapter, after firing ineffectually, rushed unarmed upon
Cockstock, whose pistol was also empty, but who still had his knife. In
the struggle both fell to the ground, when a mulatto man, who had wrongs
of his own to avenge, ran up and struck Cockstock a blow on the head
with the butt of his gun which dispatched him at once.
Thus the colony was rid of a scourge, yet not without loss which
counterbalanced the gain. Young LeBreton besides having his arm
shattered by a ball, was wounded by a poisoned arrow, which occasioned
his death; and Mr. Rogers, another esteemed citizen, died from the same
cause; while a third was seriously injured by a slight wound from a
poisoned arrow. As for the five friends of Cockstock, they escaped to
the bluffs overlooking the settlement, and commenced firing down upon
the people. But fire-arms were mustered sufficient to dislodge them,
and thus the affair ended; except that the Agent had some trouble to
settle it with the Dalles Indians, who came down in a body to demand
payment for the loss of their brother. After much talk and explanation,
a present to the widow of the dead Indian was made to smooth over the
difficulty.
Meek, who at the time of the collision was rafting timber for Dr.
McLaughlin's mill at the Falls, as might have been expected was appealed
to in the melee by citizens who knew less about Indian fighting.
A prominent citizen and merchant, who probably seldom spoke _of_ him as
Mr. Meek, came running to him in great affright:--"Mr. Meek! Mr. Meek!
Mr. Meek!--I want to send my wife down to Vancouver. Can you assist me?
Do you think the Indians will take the town?"
"It 'pears like half-a-dozen Injuns might do it," retorted Meek, going
on with his work.
"What do you think we had better do, Mr. Meek?--What do you advise?"
"I think _you'd_ better RUN."
In all difficulties between the Indians and settlers, Meek usually
refrained from taking sides--especially from taking sides against the
Indians. For Indian slayer as he had once been when a ranger of the
mountains, he had too much compassion for the poor wretches in the
Wallamet Valley, as well as too much knowledge of the savage nature, to
like to make unnecessary war upon them. Had he been sent to take
Cockstock, very probably he would have done it with little uproar; for
he had sufficient influence among the Calapooyas to have enlisted them
in the undertaking. But this was the Agent's business and he let him
manage it; for Meek and the Doctor were not in love with one another;
one was solemnly audacious, the other mischievously so. Of the latter
sort of audacity, here is an example. Meek wanted a horse to ride out
to the Plains where his family were, and not knowing how else to obtain
it, helped himself to one belonging to Dr. White; which presumption
greatly incensed the Doctor, and caused him to threaten various
punishments, hanging among the rest. But the Indians overhearing him
replied,
"_Wake nika cumtux_--You dare not.--You no put rope round Meek's neck.
He _tyee_ (chief)--no hang him."
Upon which the Doctor thought better of it, and having vented his solemn
audacity, received smiling audacity with apparent good humor when he
came to restore the borrowed horse.
As our friend Meek was sure to be found wherever there was anything
novel or exciting transpiring, so he was sure to fall in with visitors
of distinguished character, and as ready to answer their questions as
they were to ask them. The conversation chanced one day to run upon the
changes that had taken place in the country since the earliest
settlement by the Americans, and Meek, who felt an honest pride in them,
was expatiating at some length, to the ill-concealed amusement of two
young officers, who probably saw nothing to admire in the rude
improvements of the Oregon pioneers.
"Mr. Meek," said one of them, "if you have been so long in the country
and have witnessed such wonderful transformations, doubtless you may
have observed equally great ones in nature; in the rivers and mountains,
for instance?"
Meek gave a lightning glance at the speaker who had so mistaken his
respondent:
"I reckon I have," said he slowly. Then waving his hand gracefully
toward the majestic Mt. Hood, towering thousands of feet above the
summit of the Cascade range, and white with everlasting snows: "When
_I_ came to this country, Mount Hood was _a hole in the ground_!"
It is hardly necessary to say that the conversation terminated abruptly,
amid the universal cachinations of the bystanders.
Notwithstanding the slighting views of Her British Majesty's naval
officers, the young colony was making rapid strides. The population had
been increased nearly eight hundred by the immigration of 1844, so that
now it numbered nearly two thousand. Grain had been raised in
considerable quantities, cattle and hogs had multiplied, and the farmers
were in the best of spirits. Even our hero, who hated farm labor, began
to entertain faith in the resources of his land claim to make him rich.
Such was the promising condition of the colony in the summer of 1845.
Much of the real prosperity of the settlers was due to the determination
of the majority to exclude ardent spirits and all intoxicating drinks
from the country. So well had they succeeded that a gentleman writing of
the colony at that time, says: "I attended the last term of the circuit
courts in most of the counties, and I found great respect shown to
judicial authority everywhere; nor did I see a single _drunken juryman_,
_nor witness_, _nor spectator_. So much industry, good order, and
sobriety I have never seen in any community."
While this was the rule, there were exceptions to it. During the spring
term of the Circuit Court, Judge Nesmith being on the bench, a prisoner
was arraigned before him for "assault with intent to kill." The witness
for the prosecution was called, and was proceeding to give evidence,
when, at some statement of his, the prisoner vociferated that he was a
"d----d liar," and quickly stripping off his coat demanded a chance to
fight it out with the witness.
Judge Nesmith called for the interference of Meek, who had been made
marshal, but just at that moment he was not to be found. Coming into the
room a moment later, Meek saw the Judge down from his bench, holding the
prisoner by the collar.
"You can imagine," says Meek, "the bustle in court. But the Judge had
the best of it. He fined the rascal, and made him pay it on the spot;
while I just stood back to see his honor handle him. That was fun for
me."
The autumn of 1845 was marked less by striking events than by the energy
which the people exhibited in improving the colony by laying out roads
and town-sites. Already quite a number of towns were located, in which
the various branches of business were beginning to develop themselves.
Oregon City was the most populous and important, but Salem, Champoeg,
and Portland were known as towns, and other settlements were growing up
on the Tualatin Plains and to the south of them, in the fertile valleys
of the numerous tributaries to the Wallamet.
Portland was settled in this year, and received its name from the game
of "heads you lose, tails I win," by which its joint owners agreed to
determine it. One of them being a Maine man, was for giving it the name
which it now bears, the other partner being in favor of Boston, because
he was a Massachusetts man. It was, therefore, agreed between them that
a copper cent should be tossed to decide the question of the
christening, which being done, heads and Portland won.
The early days of that city were not always safe and pleasant any more
than those of its older rivals; and the few inhabitants frequently were
much annoyed by the raids they were subject to from the now thoroughly
vagabondized Indians. On one occasion, while yet the population was
small, they were very much annoyed by the visit of eight or ten lodges
of Indians, who had somewhere obtained liquor enough to get drunk on,
and were enjoying a debauch in that spirit of total abandon which
distinguishes the Indian carousal.
Their performances at length alarmed the people, yet no one could be
found who could put an end to them. In this dilemma the Marshal came
riding into town, splendidly mounted on a horse that would turn at the
least touch of the rein. The countenances of the anxious Portlanders
brightened. One of the town proprietors eagerly besought him to "settle
those Indians." "Very well," answered Meek; "I reckon it won't take me
long." Mounting his horse, after first securing a rawhide rope, he
"charged" the Indian lodges, rope in hand, laying it on with force, the
bare shoulders of the Indians offering good _back-grounds_ for the
pictures which he was rapidly executing.
Not one made any resistance, for they had a wholesome fear of _tyee_
Meek. In twenty minutes not an Indian, man or woman, was left in
Portland. Some jumped into the river and swam to the opposite side, and
some fled to the thick woods and hid themselves. The next morning,
early, the women cautiously returned and carried away their property,
but the men avoided being seen again by the marshal who punished
drunkenness so severely.
_Reader's query._ Was it Meek or the Marshal who so strongly disapproved
of spreeing?
_Ans._ It was the Marshal.
The immigration to Oregon this year much exceeded that of any previous
year; and there was the usual amount of poverty, sickness, and suffering
of every sort, among the fresh arrivals. Indeed the larger the trains
the greater the amount of suffering generally; since the grass was more
likely to be exhausted, and more hindrances of every kind were likely
to occur. In any case, a march of several months through an unsettled
country was sure to leave the traveler in a most forlorn and exhausted
condition every way.
This was the situation of thousands of people who reached the Dalles in
the autumn of 1845. Food was very scarce among them, and the
difficulties to encounter before reaching the Wallamet just as great as
those of the two previous years. As usual the Hudson's Bay Company came
to the assistance of the immigrants, furnishing a passage down the river
in their boats; the sick, and the women and children being taken first.
Among the crowd of people encamped at the Dalles, was a Mr. Rector,
since well known in Oregon and California. Like many others he was
destitute of provisions; his supplies having given out. Neither had he
any money. In this extremity he did that which was very disagreeable to
him, as one of the "prejudiced" American citizens who were instructed
beforehand to hate and suspect the Hudson's Bay Company--he applied to
the company's agent at the Dalles for some potatoes and flour,
confessing his present inability to pay, with much shame and reluctance.
"Do not apologize, sir," said the agent kindly; "take what you need.
There is no occasion to starve while our supplies hold out."
Mr. R. found his prejudices in danger of melting away under such
treatment; and not liking to receive bounty a second time, he resolved
to undertake the crossing of the Cascade mountains while the more feeble
of the immigrants were being boated down the Columbia. A few others who
were in good health decided to accompany him. They succeeded in getting
their wagons forty miles beyond the Dalles; but there they could move no
further.
In this dilemma, after consultation, Mr. Rector and Mr. Barlow agreed to
go ahead and look out a wagon road. Taking with them two days'
provisions, they started on in the direction of Oregon City. But they
found road hunting in the Cascade mountains an experience unlike any
they had ever had. Not only had they to contend with the usual obstacles
of precipices, ravines, mountain torrents, and weary stretches of ascent
and descent; but they found the forests standing so thickly that it
would have been impossible to have passed between the trees with their
wagons had the ground been clear of fallen timber and undergrowth. On
the contrary these latter obstacles were the greatest of all. So thickly
were the trunks of fallen trees crossed and recrossed everywhere, and so
dense the growth of bushes in amongst them, that it was with difficulty
they could force their way on foot.
It soon became apparent to the road hunters, that two days' rations
would not suffice for what work they had before them. At the first camp
it was agreed to live upon half rations the next day; and to divide and
subdivide their food each day, only eating half of what was left from
the day before, so that there would always still remain a morsel in case
of dire extremity.
But the toil of getting through the woods and over the mountains proved
excessive; and that, together with insufficient food, had in the course
of two or three days reduced the strength of Mr. Barlow so that it was
with great effort only that he could keep up with his younger and more
robust companion, stumbling and falling at every few steps, and
frequently hurting himself considerably.
So wolfish and cruel is the nature of men, under trying circumstances,
that instead of feeling pity for his weaker and less fortunate
companion, Mr. Rector became impatient, blaming him for causing delays,
and often requiring assistance.
[Illustration: THE ROAD-HUNTERS.]
To render their situation still more trying, rain began to fall heavily,
which with the cold air of the mountains, soon benumbed their exhausted
frames. Fearing that should they go to sleep so cold and famished, they
might never be able to rise again, on the fourth or fifth evening they
resolved to kindle a fire, if by any means they could do so. Dry and
broken wood had been plenty enough, but for the rain, which was
drenching everything. Neither matches nor flint had they, however, in
any case. The night was setting in black with darkness; the wind swayed
the giant firs over head, and then they heard the thunder of a falling
monarch of the forest unpleasantly near. Searching among the bushes, and
under fallen timber for some dry leaves and sticks, Mr. Rector took a
bundle of them to the most sheltered spot he could find, and set himself
to work to coax a spark of fire out of two pieces of dry wood which he
had split for that purpose. It was a long and weary while before
success was attained, by vigorous rubbing together of the dry wood, but
it was attained at last; and the stiffening limbs of the road-hunters
were warmed by a blazing camp-fire.
The following day, the food being now reduced to a crumb for each, the
explorers, weak and dejected, toiled on in silence, Mr. Rector always in
advance. On chancing to look back at his companion he observed him to be
brushing away a tear. "What now, old man?" asked Mr. R. with most
unchristian harshness.
"What would you do with me, Rector, should I fall and break a leg, or
become in any way disabled?" inquired Mr. Barlow, nervously.
"Do with you? _I would eat you!_" growled Mr. Rector, stalking on again.
As no more was said for some time, Mr. R.'s conscience rather misgave
him that he treated his friend unfeelingly; then he stole a look back at
him, and beheld the wan face bathed in tears.
"Come, come, Barlow," said he more kindly, "don't take affairs so much
to heart. You will not break a leg, and I should not eat you if you did,
for you haven't any flesh on you to eat."
"Nevertheless, Rector, I want you to promise me that in case I should
fall and disable myself, so that I cannot get on, you will not leave me
here to die alone, but will kill me with your axe instead."
"Nonsense, Barlow; you are weak and nervous, but you are not going to be
disabled, nor eaten, nor killed. Keep up man; we shall reach Oregon City
yet."
So, onward, but ever more slowly and painfully, toiled again the
pioneers, the wonder being that Mr. Barlow's fears were not realized,
for the clambering and descending gave him many a tumble, the tumbles
becoming more frequent as his strength declined.
Towards evening of this day as they came to the precipitous bank of a
mountain stream which was flowing in the direction they wished to go,
suddenly there came to their ears a sound of more than celestial melody;
the tinkling of bells, lowing of cattle, the voice of men hallooing to
the herds. They had struck the cattle trail, which they had first
diverged from in the hope of finding a road passable to wagons. In the
overwhelming revulsion of feeling which seized them, neither were able
for some moments to command their voices to call for assistance. That
night they camped with the herdsmen, and supped in such plenty as an
immigrant camp afforded.
Such were the sufferings of two individuals, out of a great crowd of
sufferers; some afflicted in one way and some in another. That people
who endured so much to reach their El Dorado should be the most locally
patriotic people in the world, is not singular. Mr. Barlow lived to
construct a wagon road over the Cascades for the use of subsequent
immigrations.
[Illustration]