Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/413

Rh Nor did this horrible and dastardly work end here. Every farmer in the vicinity of Whakshead was killed, every house burned but one, and every kind of property destroyed. The more distant who escaped the massacre, to the number of 130, fled to the fort, but being poorly armed, might still have fallen a prey to the savages, had they not with their customary want of persistence, drawn off after the first day's bloody work. At nightfall on the 23d a boat was despatched to Port Orford to inform Major Reynolds of the fate of the settlement. But Reynolds could not go to the relief of Whaleshead without leaving exposed Port Orford, that place containing at this period but fifty adult male citizens and thirty soldiers. A whale-boat was, however, despatched for the purpose of keeping open communication with the besieged; but in attempting to land, the boat was swamped in the surf, and the men in it, six in number, were drowned, their bodies being seized by the savages and cut in pieces. Captain Tichenor with his schooner Nelly went to bring off the people of Whaleshead, but was prevented by contrary winds from approaching the shore. On the morning of the 24th the schooner Gold Beach left Crescent City with a volunteer company, whose design was to attack the Indians. They, too, were prevented from landing, and except at the fort the silence of death covered the whole country.

When the facts of the outbreak came to light, it was ascertained that the Indians attacked no less than seven different points within ten or twelve hours, and within a distance of ten miles down the coast on the south side of Rogue River, and also that a general fresh uprising occurred at the same time in other localities.