Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/483

Rh From a combination of causes, the chief of which was the agitation of the question of slavery, the immigration of 1859 was larger than any which had preceded it for a number of years. Owing to the care taken by Captain Wallen to insure the safe passage of the trains, all escaped attack except one company, which against his advice turned off the main route to try that up the Malheur, and which was driven back with a loss of one man severely wounded, and four wagons abandoned. Major Reynolds of the 3d artillery from Camp Floyd for Vancouver, with one hundred men and eight field-pieces, escorted the advance of the immigration, and Wallen remained to bring up the rear, sending sixty dragoons four days' travel back along the road to succor some belated and famishing people.

In the spring of 1860 General Harney ordered two expeditions into the country traversed by predatory Snakes, not with the purpose of fighting them, as Wallen's march through their country had been uninterrupted, but to continue the exploration of a road to Salt Lake from Harney Lake, where Wallen's exploration in that direction had ceased; and also to explore from Crooked River westward to the head waters of the Willamette River, and into the valley by the middle immigrant route first opened by authority of the legislature in 1853.

This joint expedition was under the command of Major E. Steen, who was to take the westward march