Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/220

202 stores under Lieutenant Stanton. The weather being foul she missed the harbor and went ashore on a sand spit two miles north of the entrance to Coos Bay. The passengers and cargo were safely landed on the beach, where shelter was obtained under sails stretched on booms and spars. Thus exposed, annoyed by high winds and drifting sands, and by the thieving propensities of the natives, Stanton was forced to remain four months. An effort was made to explore a trail to Port Orford by means of which pack-trains could be sent to their relief. Twelve dragoons were assigned to this service, with orders to wait at Port Orford for despatches from San Francisco in answer to his own, which, as the mail steamers avoided that place after hearing of the wreck of the schooner, did not arrive until settled weather in March. Quartermaster Miller replied to Stanton by taking passage for Port Orford on the Columbia under a special arrangement to stop at that port. But the steamer's captain being unacquainted with the coast, and having nearly made the mistake of attempting to enter Rogue River, proceeded to the Columbia, and it was not until the 12th of April that Miller reached his destination. He brought a train of twenty mules from Port Orford, the route proving a most harassing one, over slippery mountain spurs, through dense forests obstructed with fallen timber, across several rivers, besides sand dunes and marshes, four days being consumed in marching fifty miles.

On reaching Camp Castaway, Miller proceeded to the Umpqua, where he found and chartered the schooner Nassau, which was brought around into Coos Bay, being the first vessel to enter that harbor. Wagons had been shipped by the quartermaster to the Umpqua by the brig Fawn. The mules were sent to haul them down the beach by what proved to be a good road, and the stores being loaded into them were transported across two miles of sand to the west shore of the bay and placed on board the Nassau, in