CHAPTER VI.

J

DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN OREGON. 1850-1852.

POLITICS AND PROSPECTING IMMIGRATION AN ERA OF DISCOVERY EX PLORATIONS 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 VADLT 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 con gress, 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 ex haustion of supplies. 2 The famine becoming known in Portland, assistance was forwarded to The Dalles

1 White, in Camp Fire Orations, MS., 9-10; DowelVs 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. ComjSy, MS., 1.

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