cles for presents, on an order on the United States treasury, [1] which request was granted, notwithstanding the late affront to the company and its chief officer in Oregon, and on the 29th the party proceeded by canoe to the Dalles. There White was visited by a deputation of Indians from near the mission of Lee and Perkins. The chiefs complained that they had much difficulty in enforcing the laws, as the people resisted the whipping penalty. The chiefs, however, were in favor of continuing the code on account of the authority it gave them. As for those who had been whipped, they inquired of White what benefit the whipping system was going to be to them; they had been flogged a good many times, they said, and had received nothing for it. If this state of affairs was to continue, the law was bad and they did not want it. But if blankets, shirts, and gifts were to follow, they had no objection to its continuance. When White told them not to expect pay for being whipped if they deserved it, they laughed and dispersed, giving their guardian plainly to understand that they did not propose to suffer the penalties of civilization for nothing.
White found on coming nearer to the seat of disturbance that rumor had not overstated the seriousness of its aspect. The Indians, to justify themselves, asserted that Baptiste Dorion, while acting as White's interpreter on his first visit, had told them that the Americans designed taking away their land. The young Cayuses were in favor of raising a war party at once, surprising the Willamette settlements, and cutting off the colony at one blow, which by concert of
- ↑ Of course the Hudson's Bay Company found no one in Washington to honor Dr White's bills, amounting, in all, to $6,000. By a proper representation of the facts, the friends of Oregon in congress, after some years' delay, procured the passage of an act authorizing the payment of these bills. In the mean time the board of management in London passed an order, which, besides being an imperative command for the future, was a sarcastic rebuke for the past. The orders informed their traders in Oregon 'that they did not understand government securities,' and forbade them to deal in them, and for the future to 'stick to their beaver-skins.' Applegate's Views of Hist., MS., 37; White's Or. Ter., 64–6.
