Salem, December 18, 1857.
Sir: In reply to the resolution of the council requesting me "to furnish the council with the official correspondence, resolutions, and memorials of the legislative assembly, and any other information relative to the prices of supplies, the hostilities of the Indians, and protection of the immigrants in 1854," I transmit the accompanying documents.
The President of the Council.
Sir : As the time is fast approaching for the arrival of the annual emigration from the Atlantic States, via the plains, and as the country through which it is destined to pass is now, as heretofore, occupied by tribes of hostile Indians who have for several years past committed many depredations upon the immigration en route to this portion of Oregon and the adjacent counties of northern California, and possessing the knowledge of the massacre of several entire families in the year 1852 in the immediate vicinity of Goose lake, together with the positive proof of their having committed many depredations, though perhaps of a less criminal nature, during the past season, and of the manifestation of hostile intentions at the present time, I deem it advisable to state to you the present position of affairs here relative to Indian matters and the coming immigration.
The recent Indian difficulty in Siskiyou county, California, resulted in the death of several Indians belonging to the different tribes of the northern section of California and to southern Oregon, two of whom are supposed to have belonged to the Modocs, located in the vicinity of Goose and Klamath lakes, directly on the immigrant road to this valley. The Applegate, Klamath, Shasta, and Scott valley tribes have left their usual haunts and gone into the mountains in the direction of the Modoc country, with the avowed determination of joining with the several tribes in that vicinity for the purpose of getting redress for real or imaginary wrongs from any or all citizens who may fall within their grasp.
through the prompt and vigorous action of General Lane the immigration of last season met with comparative few losses. This indefatigable officer, though suffering severely from the effects of a wound received in an action with Indians only a few days previous, saw at once the perilous situation of the incoming immigration, and, with the promptitude characteristic of this estimable officer, immediately ordered a company of about sixty mounted volunteers, in command of Captain John F. Miller, to proceed with all possible despatch to the section of country in which were enacted the horrid massacres of the year previous. To this act a large portion of the immigration
