Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/348

330 found to be in paying quantities. The sand in which it was found existed not only on the modern beach, but on the upper Coquille, forty miles in the interior, at a place known as Johnson Diggings; but the principal deposits were from the Coquille River south along the recent beach to the California line.

A mining town called Elizabeth sprung up during the summer about thirty miles south of Port Orford, and another seven miles north of the Coquille, called Randolph City. The latter name may still be found on the maps, but the town has passed out of existence with hundreds of others. For, although the returns from certain localities were at first flattering, the irregular value of the deposits, and the difficulty of disposing of the gold on account of expense of separation, soon sent most of the miners back to the placer diggings of the interior, leaving a few of the less impatient to further but still futile efforts.

The natives living at the mouth of the Coquille questioned the right of the white men to occupy that region, and added to insolence robbery and murder. Therefore, on the 28th of January, a party of forty, led by George H. Abbott, went to their village, killed fifteen men, and took prisoners the women and children. Seeing which, the chiefs of other villages were