having taken with him to the Yakima country all of his available force. Even when Major Fitzgerald, who had been ordered from Fort Lane had arrived, he added only fifty dragoons to the strength of the army in eastern Oregon.
Either protection must be denied the friendly chiefs, who kept the treaty and obeyed the agent, together with the French and American settlers, and their property, as well as the property of the United States Indian department, and that of the Hudson's Bay Company, or assistance must be immediately rendered. Also the country must be kept open so that not only Governor Stevens could return to his capital, but miners to their homes.
These motives would have seemed sufficient for the governor of Oregon to prompt him to call for the eight companies, and that without being influenced by political demagoguery, if indeed politics can be kept out of any important movement by any government, whether national or territorial. It was objected by some that the war belonged to Washington and not to Oregon, which was true, but with modifying conditions. The northeast boundary of Oregon, it was often contended, should be the Snake river, and several attempts were made to have it include at least the whole Walla Walla valley, about half of which lay south of the boundary established by congress. It was peopled by settlers from the Wallamet valley, and the improvements existing had been made by Oregon people. Again, the hostile Cayuses belonged to the Oregon superintendency, their reservation being upon the Umatilla river, in Oregon. Thus, aside from any obligation towards Stevens on the score of courtesy and humanity, the governor of Oregon was compelled to take notice of the demand for assistance coming from that quarter.
It was a point urged against the Oregon volunteers that they declined to be mustered into the service of the United States; but had they done so they would have been prevented going to the relief of the country where their services
