Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/105



ORIGIN OF THE NAME OREGON 95

turned the heads of some of the British officers and an attack on the Indian camp was undertaken with great disaster. Major Rogers did gallant service in assisting to rescue a part of those who took part in the battle of Bloody Run. When the Indians began to retire from Detroit in the Fall Col. Gladwyn reduced the numbers of his garrison and, in November, Major Rogers journeyed to Niagara. 4 In January he returned to New York and retired from active service. During this year he had fallen under the special displeasure of Sir William Johnson, Supt. of Indian Affairs in America, because of rather open activity in the Indian trade while an army officer, a misde- meanor he had been suspected of in years previous. The major's private affairs were in bad condition ; he was deeply in debt and an appetite for drink and gaming added to other troubles. His nominal home was at Portsmouth, N. H., where he had married.

After a year of vicarious living, with creditors continually at his elbows. Major Rogers determined to retrieve his fortunes by political means and we find him in England in the spring of 1765. He was welcomed in London very cordially. Many of his former army associates were there to show him atten- tions. His military exploits were deservedly well known and during the popularity of the hour his moral lapses were over- looked. He boldly sought a position which it would have been impossible for him to have received through the regular chan- nels of appointment in America, and political influence was strong enough to command it. One method of his application was the proposal of August, 1765, which is reproduced here- with. The main request of that proposal was ignored but the king's minister sent his name to Gen. Gage with instructions that he be appointed governor commandant at the important frontier post of Mackinac.

It is this proposal which contains the name Ouragon. In it Major Rogers distinctly says that the name came to him from the Indians and it has already been indicated when that might have been possible. In 1760 his stay at Detroit and vicinity

4 Allan Nerins says Rogers' companions on this journey were two Mohawk Indians. See Ponttack, p. 91.