Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/394



c376 INDIAN WARS OF OREGON.

-Indians to remain on the reservation was given in their Mown interest, as when the hostile Indians from the interior made incursions into their country and committed depre dations, they were likely to be suspected and treated as enemies, all of which they perfectly understood, and in Respite of which they continued to roam about the settle ments.

-(. No news being received from Wright, and the local agent ^being reluctant to undertake disarming the Indians, the IGoos bay men becoming alarmed for their families returned Ihome December eleventh, leaving the guards as first or ganized. The weather being now very cold in the moun- teiins, which were covered with snow so that emissaries &lt;ffom the Rogue-river Indians were believed to be barred fjQut, the white people in Coos county recovered somewhat -from their apprehensions, and the guards being stationed in ithree several detachments among the settlements, allowed ithemselves to hope for peace.

,niOn ma-king a visit to the beach where their provisions were stored, two of the guards from Fort Roland found aLong John in the cabin cooking, and other Indians on the outside peering through the cracks. They demanded an ex planation, which John endeavored to avert first by lying, ^cnd then by giving the war-whoop apparently to summon -ethers to his aid, when he was shot. The men fearing an $fktack, hastened back to camp, and again quiet reigned in etbe Coquille region.

oilJOn the twenty-fourth of December, Wright arrived at Fort Kitchen, spending three days with the Indians, who ,Jadid the blame of all the disturbances which had hap- ifJsned upon the white people. They promised to remain iqaaiet and obey orders. Wright accepted the Indian prot- fMtations of innocence, and informed the guards that their atkiganization must be approved by the governor in order itoosecure any compensation for their services to his depart- imnt, whereupon Captain Packwood discharged his com- dpfatny, and made a report in due f6rm of his operations