Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/665

614 was said, commanded by Persifer F. Smith of New Orleans. The only definite intelligence was that an act had been passed establishing certain post-routes, including one from Oregon City by way of Fort Vancouver and Fort Nisqually to the mouth of Admiralty Inlet, and another from Oregon City up the Willamette Valley to the Klamath River, said routes to go into operation on the 1st of July, 1847, or sooner if practicable, or if any one could be found to contract for transporting the mails over these routes for the revenues to be derived from them. As the greater portion of both routes lay through an uninhabited country, and as the correspondence of the savages was not great, the matter rested. The postmaster-general was empowered to contract for transporting a mail from Charleston, South Carolina, touching at St Augustine, Key West, and Havana, across the Isthmus of Panamá to Astoria; the mail to be carried each way once in two months, or oftener should the public interest require it, provided the expenditure should not exceed $100,000 per annum. In case of the route being put in operation he could establish a post-office at Astoria, and such other places on the Pacific coast as might be required by public necessity. The same act fixed the postage on letters from Oregon or California to the States at forty cents.

In accordance with this act, post-offices were established at Astoria and Oregon City. Cornelius Gilliam was appointed superintendent of postal matters in Oregon, David Hill postmaster at Oregon City, and John M. Shively postmaster at Astoria. An Indian agent had also been appointed, namely, Charles E. Pickett, a man ill suited to any office, if the Spectator may be believed. "Who can credit the appointment,"