As was to be expected in those times, our governor and General Gilliam wilted right down, and the governor wrote:—
“Oregon City, January 3, 1848.
“Sir,—I received your favor of 31st ultimo yesterday evening, and, in answering it, would thank you for your frankness in communicating with me on the subject. Having had conversation with Colonel Gilliam on this subject, I can state that he has no intention of levying contributions on the Hudson’s Bay Company’s property for any purpose whatever. He will probably cross the Columbia River at the mouth of Sandy.”
This was the information that Mr. Douglas wished to obtain, as we have since learned from one of the company’s clerks, and also the extent of information received from Mr. Lee by his express.
“I trust nothing will occur that will in any way cause distrust among the whites during this crisis. The reports from above lead to the conclusion that Messrs. Spalding, Walker, and Eells have been cut off, and the women and children, spared in the first place, have since been murdered. Should these rumors prove true, we know that peace can not be restored between the Indians and whites without bloodshed.”
As near as we can learn, Governor Abernethy was disposed to follow the counsels of a writer in the Spectator, signed “Veritas,” which was, to wait till spring opened, and then make a decent demonstration in the summer to punish the murderers. The energy of the people overruled his tender spirit, to use no harsher term, and pushed their forces up in the winter, which allowed most of the men to return in time to secure the following harvest, and produced the desired effect upon the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Indians. The governor says:—
“Captain Lee informs me that Mr. Ogden paid the Indians powder and ball for making the portage. The Legislature passed an act during their last session prohibiting the sale of powder, lead, caps, etc., to Indians. I trust you will see the necessity of complying with this act; it will be published in the next Spectator.
“I trust the disavowal in this letter will prove satisfactory to you. I have the honor to remain, sir,
“Your obedient servant,
“George Abernethy.”
The next day, the 4th of January, Mr. Douglas returned a long letter, which is as follows:—
“Fort Vancouver, January 4, 1848.
“George Abernethy, Esq.:
“Sir,—I have to acknowledge yours of yesterday’s date, and consider it perfectly satisfactory. I place little confidence in the late reports from the Dalles, and entertain sanguine hopes that they will prove unfounded.
“The Indians have been always paid with ammunition and tobacco by our traveling parties, for passing boats at the portages of this river, and I can not see that Mr. Ogden had any reason to depart from the established practice on the occasion mentioned in your letter, as these Indians have no fellow-feelings with the Cayuses.”
This statement of Sir James is notoriously untrue; the Cayuses have always had more or less trade with the Dalles Indians, in dried salmon, horses, etc., and have always been the superiors, and treated them as they pleased. Mr. Douglas has invariably cautioned us, in passing those portages, not to give ammunition, as it was against the rules of the company to do so, except to a very few, and in small quantities, and that for packing goods by trusty Indians. This sudden change from tobacco to powder is only a part of the policy now being executed.
“These Indians behaved in the most friendly manner, and, I am convinced, will not enter into any combination against the whites, unless there be great mismanagement on our part.
“In fact, when we consider the object of Mr. Ogden’s journey to Wallawalla [which we consider really to have been to inform the Indians, as he did, that the Hudson’s Bay Company would take no part in this quarrel between the Indians and Americans, and that the company would supply them with ammunition and aid them in the present war, we are not disposed to question but that the lives of some of the men that were left would have been taken, but we doubt if any more women would have been killed, unless the company had consented to it; but it answered for a plausible argument for Sir James, who says], and that the lives of sixty or seventy fellow-creatures were, under Providence, mainly dependent on the celerity of his movements, it can not be supposed he would allow any minor consideration to weigh one moment in his mind against the great object of their preservation. As he could not carry his boats over the portages of the falls without the assistance of the Indians, it would have been an act of great indiscretion on his part to have excited alarm and created suspicion in their minds.”