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this circumstance might be construed against them. They also exhibited fear lest the volunteers operating in the Umpqua valley should come down upon them, to extermi nate them, as they had been informed was their intention. Wright succeeded in quieting, as he believed, their appre hensions, and returned to Port Orford, appointing a local agent, David Hall, to look after them.

Hall was a member of a company on its way to the Coquille camp with the design of disarming or killing the Indians, who had been guilty of the death, in 1854, of two citizens, Venable and Burton, for which crime they had gone unpunished, and who now, according to their belief, were preparing for further mischief. But "Wright suc ceeded in allaying this feeling, or at least in persuading them to trust their safety to the Indian department and the United States troops at Port Orford yet a little longer; and by making one of them local agent, left the manage ment of affairs largely to his discretion. The settlers not being convinced of the good intentions of the Indians, soon after removed their families to Empire City, where a fortification had been erected. The miners at Randolph also concealed their portable property, and removed to Port Orford for safety; and at the mouth of Rogue river a fortified house was prepared for a refuge in time of trouble.

These events occurred immediately after the outbreak in Rogue-river valley. On the fifth of November Wright wrote Major Reynolds at Port Orford, "I deem it expedient and necessary to request you to allow the present force stationed at Port Orford to remain as a means of enabling me to carry out rny plans for the preservation of peace among the Indians of my district, and for the security of white citizens;" which request was granted.

Early in November, the Coos county people, being still apprehensive, raised a company of nineteen rnen. who applied to the local Indian agent, Hall, for authority to defend the people of his district the governor having discountenanced independent companies. On his author-