Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/797

746 telligence of the warlike events in his district reached that country, made application on his own account to Governor Mason to be furnished with the means of relieving Oregon; but Mason declined to assume the responsibility, or to allow Pickett to do so, saying that the governor of Oregon only would be likely to have his acts sanctioned by congress, and Pickett was so far satisfied that his services could be of no avail that he remained in California permanently.

During the progress of the Cayuse war the colony in the Willamette was in a state of expectancy and alarm very trying to those who lived on the outskirts of the settlements, especially to the scattered families on the east side of the valley toward the Cascade Mountains, where it was easy to imagine danger approaching them from the direction of the passes into eastern Oregon. Nor were the Indians in the Willamette unaffected by the example of the Cayuses, but tauntingly remarked that all the brave white men had gone to fight, the weak and spiritless ones only remaining at home, and that consequently they, the Molalles, and others, were set at liberty to conduct themselves as they pleased. To test their position, several outrages were committed, one of a serious character, and companies of home guards were organized in the most exposed settlements, ready to march at a moment's notice or whenever an alarm was given. But the only occasion when anything like a general engagement took place was during a visit of the Klamaths to the Molalles, a large encampment