Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/346

328 Next to the payment of the war debt was the demand for a more efficient mail service. The people of the Willamette Valley still complained that their mails were left at Astoria, and that at the best they had no more than two a month. In southern Oregon it was still worse; and again the citizens of Umpqua memorialized congress on this vexatious subject. It was represented that the valleys of southern Oregon and northern California contained some 30,000 inhabitants, who obtained their merchandise from Umpqua harbor, and that it was imperatively necessary that mail communication should be established between San Francisco and these valleys. Their petition was so brought before congress that an act was passed providing for the delivery of the mails at all the ports along the coast, from Humboldt Bay to Port Townsend and Olympia, and $125,000 appropriated for the service. Houses were built, a newspaper was established, and hope beat high. But again