LETTERS OF REV. WM. M. ROBERTS 37
city and is a very respectable body : Greatly perplexed how- ever, with the present aspect of Indian affairs. If the cayuses have succeeded in drawing the Walla Walla and Nez Perce Indians into hostile measures against the whites, we are involved in a most serious and embarrasing war which this Country has no means to sustain. Application has been made by Commrs. (commissioners) appointed for the purpose, To the Hudson's Bay Com'y for a loan but the Chief Factor* replied that the instructions of the Company would not allow him to make such appropriation.
A public meeting of the Citizens was then called and such were the exigencies of the case that it was regarded as indis- pensable for me to furnish aid to the amount of $1000. I stedfastly resisted all applications until I became convinced that the circumstances would not only justify but really demanded compliance. How far I can make the funds here available for this purpose I cannot at this moment tell, but think it probable that nothing short of a Draft will answer the purpose. But the lives of my fellow labourers in the mission field are at stake and immediate relief must be furnished. The investment doubtless is perfectly secure, and amts. only to a temporary loan payable in silver in this country. I would not omit to mention that immediately on the receipt of the afflictive intelligence here derailed Mr. Ogden of Fort Vancouver with a party of 20 men proceeded to Fort Walla Walla to afford all the relief in his power and intelligence has just been rec'd by an Indian from the Dalls that all was well there up to Monday the 18th Inst.
The Cayuses came to the DeShutes river and put a "medican man" to death and then retired without doing further damage. You will by this time percieve that the failure of the American Gov. to send its laws for our control, and its troops for the protection of its own citizens as they approach our exposed border is a great calamity. The Mexican war may (explain) but cannot justify the failure. Many thousand dollars worth of property havce been stolen from the Emigrants this season along the route, and as you see several valuable lives lost simply for the want of from 20 to 100 men stationed at proper points along the road to prevent Indian aggressions. Had the Act of the twenty ninth Con-
- James Douglas
