Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/304

CHAPTER X.

THE SUB-INDIAN AGENT'S COMPANY

1842–1845.

The Effect of Lee's Letter to Cushing—White Visits Washington—Plans of the 'Friends of Oregon'—White is Appointed Sub-Indian Agent for Oregon—He Raises a Large Company of Emigrants—Incidents of the Journey—A Canine Massacre—Dissensions in Camp—The Halt at Fort Laramie—The Sioux Take a Hand—Fort Hall is Reached—Reception by the Missionaries—White and the Colonists—Disgusted Immigrants—McLoughlin to the Rescue—Hastings Leads a Party to California.

The return to Oregon of Elijah White, some two years after his quarrel with Jason Lee had sent him to the States in disgust, has already been alluded to. The immediate cause of his return was peculiar, inasmuch as it was destined that the man who had practically been the means of driving him out of the country in disgrace should involuntarily be the means of bringing him back in honor. It will be remembered that when Lee wrote to Cushing in January 1839, he urged that the settlers and Indians in Oregon sadly needed the protection of the laws of the United States, and suggested that if a suitable person should be sent out as civil magistrate and governor of the territory, the settlers would sustain his authority.^[1] There can be little doubt that Lee hoped for the appointment himself; certainly nothing was further from his desire than that White should get it.

No action was taken in the matter at the time, but it was carefully kept in mind by those persons in the

1. 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101, Supplement, 4.