Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/84



76 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

proceeded with twenty-two men from Fort Vancouver and redeemed the captives and brought them to Oregon City. Mr. Spaulding and family rave been rescued from imminent danger and! are now in the Willamette Valley. Messrs. Eels and Walker have not yet been heard from. Fears are entertained that they, with their families, may be cut off. Yet, as they are in the Spokane country, it is hoped they will find a place of refuge at Fort Hall in case of imminent danger. 139 Our legisla- ture was in session at the time of the news of the horrid massa- cre reached the settlements, and one company of about fifty men was immediately sent to The Dalles above the Cascade Mountains to secure the friendly relations of the Indians in that vicinity, and early in January five more companies were raised, put under the command of General Gillham and marched into the Cayuse country. Our troops have had two engagements with the Indians before reaching the Cayuse country, in which some fifteen or twenty Indians were killed and one of our men wounded. 140 Probably before this time there has been a general battle, if the Indians will risk an en- gagement in the open fields. It is generally hoped that we shall escape a general Indian war. The Hudson Bay Company exerts a great influence with the Indians, most of the officers and servants having taken Indian wives, and their interests and influence will be of a pacific character. Yet we do not feel our- selves altogether safe, living as we do in the midst of small tribes. We feel that our only confidence is in God and in His ^iands we surrender ourselves and our little ones daily. We ire waiting with great anxiety.

1 39 This account of the Whitman massacre is on the whole correct. The date was November 29th and soth. Walker and Eells stayed in the Spokane Country until Spring, protected by the Indian chief. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. I: 666. Cornelius Gilliam, not Gillham, was the commander of the territorial troops. Ibid I; 676.

1 40 The one wounded was Wm. Brry. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. I: 703.