Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/236

218 to a line drawn fifty miles east, eighty miles in length, covering an area of two and a half million acres, most of which was mountainous and heavily timbered, with a few small valleys on the coast and in the interior, for the sum of twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars, payable in ten annual instalments, no part of which was to be paid in money. Thirteen treaties in all were concluded with different tribes, by the superintendent, for a quantity of land amounting to six million acres, at an average cost of not over three cents an acre.

In November Dart left Oregon for Washington, taking with him the several treaties for ratification, and to provide for carrying them out.

The demand for the office of an Indian agent in western Oregon began in 1849, or as soon as the Indians learned that white men might be expected to travel through their country with horses, provisions, and property of various kinds, which they might be desirous to have. The trade in horses was good in the mines of California, and Cayuse stock was purchased and driven there by Oregon traders, who made a large profit. Many miners also returned from California overland, and in doing so had frequent encounters with Indians, generally at the crossing of Rogue River. The ferrying at this place was performed in canoes, made for the occasion, and which, when used and left, were stolen by the Indians to compel the next party to make another, the delay affording opportunity for