Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/349

Rh glad to make peace on any terms, and keep it until driven again to desperation.

Superintendent Palmer, in the spring of 1854, began a round of visits to his savage wards, going by the way of the Rogue River Valley and Crescent City, and proceeding up the coast to Yaquina Bay. Finding the Indians on the southern coast shy and unapproachable, he left at Port Orford Sub-agent Parrish with presents to effect a conciliation.

Prominent among matters growing out of beach mining, next after the Indian difficulties, was the more perfect exploration of the Coos Bay country, which resulted from the passing back and forth of supply trains between the Umpqua and the Coquille rivers. In May 1853, Perry B. Marple, after having examined the valley of the Coquille, and found what he believed to be a practicable route from Coos Bay to the interior, formed an association of twenty men called the Coos Bay Company, with stock to be divided into one hundred shares, five shares to each joint proprietor, and each proprietor being bound to