Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/736

Rh when the governor's proclamation calling for five hundred men was issued, ordering them to rendezvous at Portland on the 8th of January, and to proceed on horseback. In order that their supplies might meet them, a party was sent to build a flat-boat above the Cascades, and to transport the provisions and ammunition over the portage and across the river; the route lying by the mouth of the Sandy across the Columbia to Vancouver, east by the cattle trail to a point above the Cascades, and across the river again to the south side, whence the trail led to the Dalles. Abernethy wrote Lee January 1st, that if there was a prospect of a general war, he thought of building a block-house at the Cascades, and keeping a force there He also wrote that provisions had begun to come in from the country, and Commissary-general Palmer was doing all he could to hasten them. The impossibility of knowing what was going on in the Indian country, or what was likely to be required, augmented his cares and anxieties.