Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/192

CHAPTER VI.

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON.

1850–1852.

Politics and Prospecting—Immigration—An Era of Discovery—Explorations on the Southern Oregon Seaboard—The California Company—The Schooner 'Samuel Roberts' at the Mouths of Rogue River and the Umpqua—Meeting with the Oregon Party—Laying-out of Lands and Town Sites—Failure of the Umpqua Company—The Finding of Gold in Various Localities—The Mail Service—Efforts of Thurston in Congress—Settlement of Port Orford and Discovery of Coos Bay—The Colony at Port Orford—Indian Attack—The T'Vault Expedition—Massacre—Government Assistance.

 

While politics occupied so much attention, the country was making long strides in material progress. The immigration of 1850 to the Pacific coast, by the overland route alone, amounted to between thirty and forty thousand persons, chiefly men. Through the exertions of the Oregon delegate, in and out of congress, about eight thousand were persuaded to settle in Oregon, where they arrived after undergoing more than the usual misfortunes. Among other things was cholera, from which several hundred died between the Missouri River and Fort Laramie.^[1] The crowded condition of the road, which was one cause of the pestilence, occasioned delays with the consequent exhaustion of supplies.^[2] The famine becoming known in Portland, assistance was forwarded to The Dalles

1. White, in Camp Fire Orations, MS., 9–10; Dowell's Journal, MS., 5; Johnson's Cal. and Or., 255; Or. Spectator, Sept. 26, 1850.
2. Says one of the sufferers: 'I saw men who had been strong stout men walking along through the hot desert sands, crying like children with fatigue, hunger, and despair.' Cardwell's Emig. Comp'y, MS., 1.

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