Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/362

320 who were found ready for action at the middle fork of the Coquille River on November 22, 1851, where, after a brief engagement, 15 Indians were killed and the rest forced to retreat through the forest, with no casualties among the troops. Soon these were on their return to Port Orford, and then back to California on December 1, 1851.

Another disaster in Port Orford history was the wreck of the ship Captain Lincoln with 40 regular army soldiers and the ship's crew, from San Francisco to Port Orford, on January 2, 1852, two miles north of Coos Bay. The ship had sprung a leak when eleven days out, and though with strenuous pumping was found unable to reach port; therefore, the crew took the desperate chance of steering for the open beach at flood tide, through the mountainous waves, and landed high upon the sandy shore.

Though with five feet of water in the hold, they managed to save most of their munitions and supplies, and soon had a tent village upon the sand hills with fresh water near at hand, and with friendly Indians soon there with abundance of oysters, elk, deer meat and fish to barter for ship's stores, discarded blue jackets and brass buttons.

Here they were encamped for four months, and were supposed to have been lost. Messages finally reached military headquarters at San Francisco, when a ship came to remove the equipment and stores, while the troops were marched along the beach and through impenetrable swamps, over wide rivers, and across rugged mountain heights facing the ocean, for four days to Port Orford. At last, almost exhausted, they reached their comrades, who had come on another ship.

The punishment inflicted upon the hostile Indians and the military preparations for further hostilities