Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/185

 nd killed.

a part of the contents taken out, and headed up again. This is all wrong. The crew should be selected, the name taken in the office, and none others should be allowed to come up unless by special contract, and then to supply themselves with provisions, blankets, etc. Very many are going up to attend to their own property, relying upon the provisions sent up to the troops for subsistence. This will not do. Hereafter captains will be required to take an oath faithfully to perform their duties and to render a strict account for their expenses." lS Thus, while the truly patriotic men of the country were straining every nerve to carry on a defensive war against nearly hopeless embar rassments, the meaner element found in every society had no scruple about increasing their burdens.

Pursuing the subject, the commissary-general informs his aide that after all he has learned that it will "not be possible to get the Pettygrove boat above the falls," and he should endeavor to make some other arrangement until the two flatboats could be repaired, and calls for a few pounds of eight or ten-penny nails. 9 He also desires Wait to ask McKinlay to have constructed for him two clinker- built boats, the lumber to be sawed at Oregon City, and suitable persons sent with it to put it together; such per sons, he understood, were to be found at Champoeg the Canadian settlement.

As to other matters at Fort Gilliam, Palmer found a crew of six men sent down by the colonel to bring up the cannon still lying at the lower cascades, the road being constructed for a portage not being completed, though it was expected that by another day it would be. With re gard to ammunition, he says: "I have bought the powder and lead opposite Vancouver. You must try to raise the money to meet the bill."

8 Letter to A. E. Wait : Oregon Archives, MS. 887.

y A letter from J. D. Crawford at Fort Gilliam, February ninth, calls for " a large padlock for this fort," two pounds of eight-penny nails, aud eighty or one hundred feet of rope, " if possible ;" and asks for " a paper when it i printed ": Oregon Ar chives, 892.