power of the authorities to inflict upon the perpetrators of this great outrage the punishment they so richly merit.
You will do me a personal favor, and your constituents a great service, by calling the attention of the Department of War to the fact of the necessity of the establishment of a garrison or military post at or near "Fort Boise." Were it only kept up during the summer and fall months, while the immigrants are on the road, it would be of incalculable benefit in keeping in check the propensities of the Indians to robbery and violence. Indeed, I conceive it to be a matter of the chiefest importance that our government should give more attention to this matter of protection and defence of the annual immigration towards the Pacific. If it be not practicable to afford protection over the entire route, let sufficient forces from the posts at the extremes of the Territory be directed to make summer and fall excursions into the heart of the Indian country, and in the vicinity of the immigrant routes. Are there not posts within the settlements in this and Washington Territories, the location of which might be changed with advantage to the frontier?
My dear sir, with every confidence in your spirit and energy, I leave this matter in your hands ; press it with all earnestness and force upon the department, and if need be upon Congress. The lives of our people must not be sacrificed when it is in the power of the government to avert it.
Yours always, sincerely,
GEO. L. CURRY, Acting Governor of Oregon.
Gen. Joseph Lane, Delegate to Congress from Oregon.
Territory of Oregon, Executive Office, Salem, September 20, 1854.
Dear Sir: Since my letter to you of the morning of the 18th instant I have received information of an official character that the force already in the field is quite inadequate for the apprehension or punishment of the perpetrators of the unprecedented outrage in the vicinity of Fort Boise. I have therefore issued a proclamation calling for an additional force of two companies of mounted volunteers. I hope to have this reinforcement in motion for the theatre of action by the 25th instant.
Other acts of violence have been committed by the Indians on other trails into this Territory. A company of volunteers, by order of Governor Davis, made an excursion on the south route to meet the immigration and protect it from apprehended danger. A small detachment of this command wag attacked by a large body of Indians (in ambush on both sides of the road) near the sink of Lost river. On the middle or new route, coming in, as you remember, from Malhuer into Lane county, a Mr. Turner's party was attacked and one man was killed—young Stewart, of Corvallis. I cannot but deplore the necessity that demands the enforcement of measures involving such an expenditure of money. But I beg to assure you that the greatest care
