Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/362

344 statements contained in the correspondence of the war department. That which most concerned this particular period is contained in a document transmitted to the senate, at the request of that body, by President Pierce, at the second session of the thirty-third congress. In this document is a communication of General Wool to General Cooper at Washington City, in which is mentioned the correspondence of the former with Major Rains of the 4th infantry, in command of Fort Dalles, and of Major Alvord, U. S. paymaster at Vancouver, who had each written him on the subject of Indian relations. As the report of Rains has been mentioned in another place, it is not necessary to repeat it here. Colonel George Wright had contributed his opinion concerning the "outrages of the lawless whites" in northern California, and to strengthen the impression, had quoted from the report of Indian Agent Culver concerning the conduct of a party of miners on Illinois River, who had, as he averred, wantonly attacked an Indian encampment and brutally murdered two Indians and wounded others. The facts were presented to Wool, and by Wool to headquarters at Washington. The general wrote, that to prevent as far as possible the recurrence of further outrages against the Indians, he had sent a detachment of about fifty men to reënforce Smith at Fort Lane; but that to keep the peace and protect the Indians against the white people, the force in California and Oregon must be increased. This letter was written in March 1854.

On the 31st of March, Wool again wrote General Scott, at New York, that the difficulty of preserving