Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/89



visited the sick, of whom there are always a large number in an Indian camp, and by these means secured the observ ance of the laws among them. 6

"Concerning White's pay for these services, it transpires, through his Ten Years In Oreijon, that he had considerable trouble. He wrote to he secretary of war Hon. J. M. Porter in November that he had kept within the limit of three hundred dollars for interpreters the last year, and had built himself an office at the expense of two hundred and twenty-five dollars. His traveling expenses, the cost of feeding the Indians, and his bills at Vancouver, he asks shall be paid, otherwise "pray call me home at once." He further notifies the secretary that he " cannot sell drafts payable in Washington," and asks for an order to draft on London. White's treatment under the administration which succeeded that under which he was appointed, was cer tainly very unfair; and it was only after many years that his claim was recognized and compensation made. In the meantime, until he left Oregon in 1845, his seven hundred and fifty dollars salary was pieced out by loans from the company s officers at Vancouver, and made to carry on the trying and dangerous intercourse of the Indians and white people in Oregon for three years.