Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/249

Rh of Indian affairs wherever he might find them. Lieutenant Irvine, from whom Lane learned Kearney's predicament, carried Lane's proposition to the major, and the prisoners were at once sent to his care, escorted by Captain Walker. Lane's party set out immediately for the north, and on the 7th of July delivered their charge to Governor Gaines, who had arrived at the ferry, where he was encamped with fifteen men waiting for his interpreters to bring the Rogue River chiefs to a council, his success in which undertaking was greatly due to his possession of their families. Lane then hastened to Oregon City to embark for the national capital, having added much to his reputation with the people by his readiness of action in this first Indian war west of the Cascade Mountains, as well as in the prompt arrest of the deserting riflemen in the spring of 1850. To do, to do quickly, and generally to do the thing pleasing to the people, of whom he always seemed to be thinking, was natural and easy for him, and in this lay the secret of his popularity.

When Gaines arrived at Rogue River he found Kearney had gone, not a trooper in the country, and the Indians scattered. He made an attempt to collect them for a council, and succeeded, as I have intimated, by means of the prisoners Lane brought him, in inducing about one hundred, among whom were eleven head men, to agree to a peace. By the terms of the treaty, which was altogether informal, his commission having been withdrawn, the Indians placed