Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/272



To meet the above we have balanced in George Abernethy s books to our credit, four thousand two hundred and seven dollars; Rev. William Roberts draft 011 H. Campbell, five hundred dollars ; leaving a balance in our favor of one hundred and twenty-five dollars and twenty-seven cents.

The five hundred dollar draft above alluded to is a draft drawn by Rev. William Roberts on H. Campbell, to the order of the Oregon loan commissioners. W. H. Willson, one of the board, took charge of the draft and was to present to Mr. Campbell for payment. The order or draft was presented to Mr. Campbell, but for what cause I am not able to inform your honorable body, for neither property nor money came into our hands as payment of said draft, but I think it was delivered over to the commissary-general s agents by Mr. Campbell.

There were some drafts drawn on us by the commissary -general as bonds for the payment of debts which the commissary-general had contracted. These drafts we did not accept for this reason, we did not think the commissary-general, or any other officer of this government had any right to purchase property, or negotiate a loan of any kind, without our knowledge or consent, and call on us to pledge the faith of this territory for its payment, as the commis sioners alone were only authorized to negotiate a loan and pledge the faith of this territory for its payment. The act creating the present board authorizes them whenever it becomes necessary to affix the cash value of property to have it appraised by men under oath, consequently we could not execute a bond for the payment of property purchased by the commissary-general or any other officer as they wished. If the bonds were placed in our hands subject to the draft or drafts of the commissary-general, then of course we should issue to the extent of our limits. On the twenty-eighth of March last, or near that time, the commissary-general told me that when he was at The Dalles, it became necessary for him to take wagons and oxen, the property of Phelaster and Philemon Lee, to the amount of two hundred and fifty dollars. I consented to give bonds and did so, but in a few days I was called upon by different persons for bonds for a very large amount; I refused to execute bonds to them until I could see the other two commissioners, and when we met together it was thought best not to give any more bonds for any property, as we knew nothing about it; so for these reasons we refused to give bonds for any more property taken at The Dalles by the commissary-general.

There is another matter I wish to explain it is this : When I commenced to collect funds I was not able to obtain any money ex cept orders on stores in Oregon City ; in consequence of this it was impossible for the commissary-general to obtain articles for the use of the army. He told me to get axes and spades, and these articles were very much wanted to make roads for wagons to