Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/258

 Abernethy by the ship Eveline, the governor replied a month later, that the troubles in the country were in a measure settled, and the army disbanded, except the few men at the forts, which they would hold until the United States troops arrived to relieve them, which arrivals he hoped would be next month. He corrected the rumors of hostile acts or feelings between the settlers and the Hudson's Bay Company, and denied that any angry correspondence had taken place between himself and Mr. Douglas.

The outcome of all this correspondence, anxiety, and waiting was the receipt, after the danger had passed, of the aid so long solicited in arms and ammunition. Major Hardie, on his return to California, forwarded one hundred rifles, twenty-five thousand rifle cartridges, and two hundred pounds of rifle powder, with two six-pound iron guns and carriages, and ammunition for the same. Lieu tenant E. O. C. Ord, of the third artillery, forwarded one six-pound brass gun, with two hundred and ten strapped shot, seventy canister-shot, twenty-eight spherical shot, and other artillery service, five hundred muskets, with their fixtures, and fifty thousand ball, with a large amount of ammunition. Fortunately for the peace of the colony, these military stores did not arrive while the American blood was at fever heat with wrongs real and fancied; but in time to give a feeling of security to that portion of the inhabitants who remained when the majority of the able- bodied men had rushed off to the gold fields of California the same year.

The discovery of gold to a people so poor in money and goods as were the colonists of Oregon, was an inestimable boon, solving many a difficult problem, and diverting their thoughts from the late troubles, and the neglect of the federal government, which was again aggravatingly