Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/730

Rh of going to Fort Hall, on learning which the governor sent a commissioner to Jesse Applegate requesting him to go to California, or if he could not leave home, to employ some suitable person to carry the despatches to Governor Mason. It was late m January before this request reached Applegate, who immediately organized a company of sixteen men, and about the 1st of February set out upon the mission.

But notwithstanding the determined character of the men who led the expedition, and the urgent nature of their duties, they were compelled to return. An extraordinary depth of snow on the mountains between Rogue River and Klamath Lake prevented crossing with horses. To have abandoned the horses, attempting to carry their blankets and provisions for the journey, would have been discomfiture or death to most of them. So at the end of one day's painful march on snow-shoes improvised of willow sticks, which sunk into the seven feet of soft snow several inches at every step, and often pitched their wearers headlong, the undertaking was relinquished, and the company returned regretfully to the Willamette Valley, after four weeks of toil and hardship. The letters to Governor Mason with which Mr Applegate was charged were, on the 11th of March, placed on