Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/399



THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 381

Relf Bledsoe, first lieutenant, was at once chosen to com mand. He concentrated the men, women, and children to the number of one hundred and thirty at the unfinished fortification known as " Miners Fort," which they hastened to complete and to stock with the provisions at hand, and otherwise to prepare to stand a seige for seige it was likely to be, with no force in that part of the country, either regular or volunteer, sufficiently strong to deliver them.

Charles Foster by using great caution reached Port Or ford, carrying the news of the outbreak. But Major Rey nolds, in command of the post, dared not divide his handful of men, nor would the citizens of Port Orford, only about fifty in number at this time, consent to the withdrawal of this force. They, however, dispatched a whaleboat down the coast to open communication with the fort, which act of kindness only brought with it further disaster, for the boat was overturned in the surf, and the six citizens in it drowned, their bodies being cut to pieces by the savages who were watching their efforts to land, and who would have butchered them had they lived to reach the shore. The men who so generously sacrificed themselves for the consolation of their fellows in misfortune, were H. C. Gerow, a merchant of Port Orford, and formerly of New York state; John O Brien, a miner; Sylvester Long, a farmer; William Thompson and Richard Gay, boatmen, and Felix McCue.

The boat not returning, Captain William Tichenor, the founder of Port Orford, sent his schooner Nelly to bring off the people of Whaleshead, but was prevented by adverse winds from approaching the shore. Again, the schooner Gold Beach, at a later date, left Crescent City with a volunteer company, designing to attack the In dians; but they, too, were prevented from landing, and the inmates of the fort could only, with sinking hearts, witness these repeated failures.

Arms were scarce at the fort, the Indians having cap tured those of the volunteers, but they kept a careful