Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/172



There is nothing more convincingly apparent in the conduct of the early settlers of Oregon than that they were not wilfully cruel to the natives If there were race wars, it was not because one race sought to exterminate the other from unreasoning hatred, but from that incom patibility of interests which always exists between savage and civilized men. The iron wheel of progress never stops because the weaker is being crushed by it; it only presses on, while the strong grows stronger by mere force of circumstances, and without obvious intention. Thus while Americans of European descent struggled with and overcame nearly insurmountable difficulties on the north west coast, the more numerous but inferior children of the soil perished because of them, but not by their design. The Indians themselves Percéived, in a blind sort of way, the hand of destiny, and often prophesied that they should all be dead before they enjoyed even the doubtful benefits of adoption by the United States government "and then what good will blankets do us?" they asked.

The more intelligent of the Americans realized that a general Indian war meant to them infinite horrors, and to the Indians ultimate extermination, and that the best interests of both would be subserved by peace. The Hud son s bay officers had every motive to desire peace that the Americans had, and the additional one, that war would destroy the company s business. They believed that the terrible event which brought on the crisis might have and should have been avoided by the missionaries; and that the sacrifice of a few individual interests should not have weighed against the welfare or safety of the whole American population in the country. The expres sion, though carefully guarded, of this sentiment, caused in many minds a feeling of bitter resentment against the company, and coupled with the company s refusal to furnish means to carry on the war, led many of the un thinking and the prejudiced to believe that the extermi nation of the Americans would have been agreeable to