Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/240



232 DR. McLouGHLiN TO SIMPSON

29. The brigade arrived from the interior the sixth June and left 24th of the same, but unfortunately in going up, one of the boats was supset and one of the men drowned and another in poling fell out of the boat and was also drowned.

30. On the 6th July, the Diamond, Captain Fowler arrived from London and delivered her cargo in excellent condition and as there was no prospect of our sending a cargo of lumber in time to Woahoo by our own vessels, I chartered the Diamond for four hundred and twenty-five pounds to take a cargo to Woahoo.

31. The Columbia left this the first of December for Woahoo but could not get over the bar till the 3rd February.*

32. In consequence of your only sending ten men, I had to send to Woahoo for fifty Kanakas, part of which is to replace the Kanakas gone in the Columbia, and three going in next ship, and the Kanakas I sent for will not replace all the blanks in our list.

33. On the return of the Columbia, she will proceed to Sitika with the grain and when she comes from there she will, according to the intelligence we may receive and the date of her return and either proceed to California or London with the returns.

34. A few days after the departure of the express last March a momentary excitement broke out among the Nez Perces and Cayuse tribe who inhabit the country about Walla Walla caused by reports spread among them that Dr. White, who as I informed you, gave himself out as an Indian agent for the United States, had said he would take their lands from them, which it is certain he never said and also from another report which came to the Willamette that the Cayuse and Nez Perces had said they intended to attack the settlers, but which was unfounded.

35. Dr. White stopped here as he was passing and on his way to visit the Cayuse and Nez Perces tribe according to appointment and as he might take a fancy (though he had

because of that delay, that Simpson decided definitely on tb location of Fort Victoria, Vancouver Island,
 * It was while waiting three weeks to get over the bar, his visit in 1841, and