Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/61



foregoing chapters we have presented to us the stage, and the dramatis personæ on which, and by whom, was enacted the great tragedy of colonial Oregon, and have been given a view of its gradual unfolding. From this point the story proceeds more rapidly.

Up to the time that Dr. White returned from the states invested with the authority of a sub-agent of Indian affairs in Oregon, and before Dr. Whitman had taken his departure for the east, there had been enacted no other hostilities than those above narrated; trifling if viewed in the light of actual warfare, yet of a threatening nature when the circumstances of the white inhabitants and the characteristics of the natives were considered.

The colonists in the Wallamet valley, glad to be recognized as belonging to the United States, even by the unwarranted commissioning of a nondescript government officer, were proceeding to the discussion of steps towards a political organization, when they were startled by intelligence from Fort Vancouver that the Cayuses had become openly hostile, having entered the mission-house at