Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/208

192 "I believe there is not a case of sickness in the camp, though old Mr. Stout from Iowa has a violent swelling in his eyes. Tell the boys from Iowa to come on with all the cattle and sheep they can get, and a company sufficiently large to drive them.

Truly yours,M. M. M.

"P. S.—My friend, Mr. Henry Lee, from Iowa, has just been elected captain of one of the divisions. While writing, news has been brought in of the discovery of a dead Indian about a mile from this place, freshly scalped, and nearly all the company has gone to see him. He was shot with arrows, and is supposed to be a Pawnee, killed by a war party of the Kansas Indians, which we met the other day, consisting of two hundred, with fresh scalps and fingers, which they said they had taken the day before."

The Western Expositor, published at Independence, in its date of the second instant, says: "We, this week, received a letter from our esteemed friend, William Gilpin, who started for the Oregon territory this season, in company with Lieutenant Fremont's exploring expedition. The letter is dated 'South Fork of Platte, July 26, 1843,' addressed to the editor of this paper, and is as follows:

"I drop you a line by a couple of Shawnee Indians, who are going to return to Missouri from this place. We are about halfway to Fort Hall, here, and I expect to reach the mouth of the Columbia by the first of October. The emigrants are all ahead of us, and have, by this time, reached the South Pass through the mountains.

"This is the latest information received from the Oregon emigrants, and from this it is clear that they will make the trip with ease before the bad weather commences."

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 21, 1843.

In the senate to-day, after a few private petitions were presented, Mr. Atcheson, on leave, introduced a bill for the settlement of the territory of Oregon, which was read twice and referred to a select committee of five, viz.: Atcheson, Walker, Sevier, Merrick, and Phelps.

WASHINGTON, D. C., December 22, 1843.

After the presentation of a few private memorials, Messrs. Benton and Atcheson presented petitions from certain citizens of Missouri, praying congress to protect the emigrants gone to Oregon.