Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 12.djvu/377

 THE GUN POWDER STORY Editorial Notes by T. C. Elliott There have appeared in various contributions romantic and otherwise to the literature of the Pacific Coast accounts of an occurrence at the mouth of the Walla Walla river partici- pated in by the officer in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company trading post there, Fort Walla Walla, and the Indians, and termed the Gunpowder Story. Recently a narration of that story by the officer himself has become available in the form of a let- ter written to the late Elwood Evans in March, 1882, when Mr. Evans was gathering data for his contributions to the History of the Pacific Northwest, published 1889. The narrative shows a tendency to elaboration quite natural forty years after an event, but specifies names and family connections among In- dians who were prominent in the first Indian War of Oregon and illustrates the high level of the relationship maintained between the traders of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Indians. It also contains a direct reference to the name "The White Head" as applied to Doctor McLoughlin. The letter is drawn from the letter-book of its author, the late Mr. Archibald McKinlay, who was, in 1882, residing at Lac La Hache in British Columbia. Mr. McKinlay was a chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company and afterward be- came a citizen of Oregon, residing at Oregon City from 1846 until about 1862. His certificate of marriage with the daugh- ter of Peter Skene Ogden has been reproduced in fac simile in the Oregon Historical Quarterly (Vol. 10, p. 325, et seq.), but it was omitted there to state that the certificate was writ- ten in the hand of Mr. Ogden himself. This gunpowder inci- den must have taken place in the summer of 1843, for it was later than the promulgation of Dr. Elijah White's laws in De- cember, 1842, and it was prior to the departure of Mr. Ogden on leave in the spring of 1844. The original Fort Walla Walla was burned in the fall of 1841. This same story as told on pp.