in the same neighbourhood. Settlers pushed in at the same time to take up the fertile lands along the Rogue River and its branches. While these things were going forward in the upper portions of the valleys of southern Oregon, settlements were also begun near the mouths of the rivers, especially at Port Orford and about Coos Bay. The discovery of coal near Coos Bay gave it a large trade with San Francisco. The various centres of population were connected with one another by means of mountain roads and trails; the interest in gold mining stimulated emigration, and a population of several thousand people was soon to be found within this territory, which at the beginning of the California gold rush was an absolute wilderness, occupied by native barbarians.
Indian outbreaks; the Rogue River War. When the early missionaries and settlers came to Oregon they found the Indians under the control of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, whose officers were able to secure for the whites such lands and other privileges as the Indians had to bestow. The company was very successful in preventing conflicts between the two races. Only rarely were the settlers molested by the natives during these years, the most notable exception being the W^hitman massacre in 1847. When the United States took control, in 1849, the situation had become more difficult to handle. Settlers were by this time becoming numerous; the Indians had begun to fear for the safety of their lands, and they were not yet convinced of the national government's power. Soon afterward
