Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/29

Rh a man afterwards famed among the settlers fur qualities not thought necessary to Christian endeavor, though he counted as an American, and no one esteemed his enormous strength as worthless in a young community surrounded by possible dangers.

Turner had a story to relate which engaged the sympathies of his entertainers. This was not his first appearance in Oregon. Five years previous he had been a member of a party under Jedediah Smith of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, who was approaching the Wallamet valley via the coast route from California, when at the crossing of the Umpqua near where Scottsburg now stands, while looking for a fording place for the pack animals, the party was attacked and nine men out of thirteen killed, Smith losing twenty thousand dollars worth of furs and all his horses and other property. Smith himself escaped with one man, being on a raft in the river when the attack on the camp was made, and reached Fort Vancouver in a suffering condition, where he wintered, being kindly cared for by the Hudson's Bay Company. A strong party was sent by the company to punish the Umpquas and retake the furs, which the company purchased, sending Smith back to the Rocky mountains after his associates had despaired of ever seeing him again.

Of two other men who escaped, Turner was one. He defended himself with a burning poplar stick snatched from the fire, his enormous strength enabling him to fell his assailants as he retreated, until finally he eluded them, fleeing to the mountains alone, and reaching Vancouver in a wretched state during the winter. The fourth man, named Black, also gained that asylum by the aid of some friendly Indians whom he met further north.

Turner s second adventure in entering Oregon was with the Indians at the crossing of Rogue river, and was similar to the first. The party consisted of eight men, four of whom were killed. Turner s arrival at the mission was the occasion of great excitement, and the appearance of