Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/317

Rh Early in 1852, Lane, as delegate to congress, was doingall that he could to secure military protection for the im migration to Oregon. Pie was met with the reply that his predecessor, Thurston, had declared the mounted rifle regiment unnecessary; and had combated the idea with statements and arguments founded upon the changed con dition of the country, but especially upon the helplessness of immigrants hundreds of miles from any military post, and burdened with the care of families and property. His eloquence was strengthened by the citation of the outrages of 1851 on the Snake river plains.

The immigration of 1852 by this route was very large and well equipped, and perhaps for this reason was suffered to pass with less bloodshed than might have been anticipated, though there was much annoyance from pilferings, and horse stealing. But the immigration by the southern route was less favored. This road ran through the lake country, where, in 1843, Frémont's camp was attacked, and where Captain W. H. Warner in 1849 was murdered while surveying for a Pacific railroad. Parties traveling through this region were compelled to exercise extreme care, particularly at a pass now known as Bloody Point, where the road ran between an overhanging cliff and the waters of Tule lake. The immigration of 1851 had been attacked at this place, but from the fact that these Indians had not yet learned to expect an annual transit of white people through their country, they were not prepared for the work of robbery and murder which was accomplished in 1852, when between sixty and one hundred men, women, and children died at their hands, and a large amount of property was stolen or destroyed.

It will be remembered that Ben Wright left Steele's party en route to Jacksonville to go to the Klamath, presumably to Yreka. On arriving there he met a party of sixty male immigrants, the advance of the larger number on the road, who reported that they had not been molested, but that there were many companies on the road, some of