To His Excellency
    Governor Lane:
        Sir--Permit me to address you these few lines in behalf of the Indians of this county, who have been of late much distressed by deserters stealing their property. On two late occasions several Sandwich Islanders have taken men's wives and other private property from the Indians, all of whom apply to me for redress, which I am sorry to say is not in my power to afford them the redress they require.
    If you will give orders to have the depredators to refund to the Indians their loss it may prevent any further evil of the sort.
P.S. The bearer William is Sand. person will explain who the Islanders are that have caused so much disturbance.
NARA Series M2, Microcopy of Records of the Oregon Superintendency of Indian Affairs 1848-1873, Reel 12; Letters Received 1848-1852, 1849 No. 1.   The letter is undated, but was filed with letters from 1849.



To the Hon.
    The Secretary of State
        of the United States
            Sir,
                I respectfully beg leave to make known to you the condition and prospects of the Territory.
    As soon as it was known in Oregon that gold in abundance could be obtained in California, many of the people left for the mines; some have remained there. The most of them, however, have returned to their families and spent the winter at home, but nearly all who have been there are going back, and most of those who have not been to the mines are also going. Nearly the entire male population of Oregon will this year be in the California mines. In money the people have been much benefited. It is said, and I suppose truly, that at least one million of dollars in gold dust have been brought into Oregon, but on the other hand, the country lately so productive and so capable of producing, and which was rapidly being settled and put in cultivation, is now being neglected. Many are leaving their farms untenanted, many have failed to sow or put in crops of any kind, and many who have sowed will not harvest. Consequently there will be but little produce--no improvements are being made--not a house is being put up--fine saw and grist mills, on never-failing streams, are standing still for want of laborers--a large portion of the horses and oxen are being taken to the mines for sale--labor and subsistence is exorbitantly high.
    Common labor is five dollars per day, flour ten dollars per barrel, meat in market twenty-five [cents] per pound, bacon from thirty to fifty cents per pound, butter fifty and eggs fifty cents per dozen. Goods and groceries are scarce and high.
    You will readily perceive that in the event of the arrival of a large emigration this season, there is reason to fear that there will be much suffering for want of provisions and other necessaries. You will also perceive that if the gold fever continues and farming neglected, Oregon, which is the best wheat-growing portion of the continent, and could with little labor compare with the growing of wheat in the States, furnish the entire Pacific Coast with flour, will have to look to the United States for not only flour but provisions of all kinds.
    So far as I have been able to see and converse with the Indians, I find them friendly and well disposed. But many of them complain. They say the whites have settled their country, killed their game, brought among them sickness, which has caused many deaths, that they are rapidly passing off and will soon all be gone. That the white people have promised them from year to year and from time to time that the United States government would send out a Governor with presents for them, and commissioners to purchase their lands and pay for them. They are anxious to sell, and the people are exceedingly sensitive on the subject. The exposure of families and property in the absence of the male population makes it more desirable at this time than at any other since the settlement of the Territory that they should sell.
    The necessity for locating them entirely out of the settlements is obviously very great.
    The troops engaged in the late Cayuse war, with the exception of one company, were disbanded in June last, the others in September, since which time the Indians have made no hostile demonstrations, and I am in hopes will not, before the troops destined for the Oregon service will have arrived, at which time the murderers of Dr. Whitman, lady and others can be demanded and punished, and then a peace made with them.
    From the best information I have been able to obtain from estimates and otherwise, the expenses of the late war with the Cayuses may be set down at about one hundred and ninety thousand dollars, which has borne heavily on many individuals; for instance, the Commissary was compelled to borrow money, which he could only do by giving his obligation to pay, to enable him to purchase subsistence for the army, which obligations are now due, and by him being paid out of his own funds, and without he is speedily remunerated will be greatly injured in his pecuniary affairs, and the same is the case with many others who in the emergency made advances to the Oregon government.
    The justice of the war and the good conduct of the citizens in promptly turning out in defense of the country entitles them not only to the good opinion of the government, but to an appropriation by Congress to pay the expenses of the war.
    Chief Justice Bryant and Mr. Pritchett, Secretary of the Territory, have arrived and taken the oath of office. Mr. Adair, the Collector, is at Astoria in good time, as the Hudson's Bay Company's ships are expected in soon, and no doubt other vessels will be occasionally coming in. Mr. Pratt writes me from California that he has received his commission, as one of the judges of Oregon, and that he will sail for this place in a few days with the view of entering upon the discharge of the duties of his office. Mr. Burnett resides here, but is now in California. He declines accepting, and has so notified me, and I suppose has so notified the Department at Washington.
    I would most respectfully beg leave to suggest, in behalf of the officers of the Territory, that they have got here at heavy expenses, and that owing to the high prices of provisions and clothing they cannot support their families upon the salaries fixed by the law of Congress, and I make the same suggestion in behalf of the officers of the army who may be assigned to duty in Oregon.
    The people in Oregon, I am happy to say, are most orderly, intelligent, industrious and good citizens. Upon the subject of the public lands they have long been kept in suspense. They believe that the faith of the government is virtually pledged to a grant of 640 acres to each settler who has located, made an improvement and occupied the same.
    It gives me much pleasure to state that I found the channel at the mouth of the Columbia wider, deeper, more direct and less dangerous than I expected. We carried in four fathoms water. I am of opinion that with a good steam towboat vessels could be towed in and out safely. With such a steamer and the completion of the improvements contemplated by Congress, to wit, the erection of a lighthouse and the anchoring of buoys, the mouth of the Columbia will be made perfectly safe. The appropriation for this purpose, owing to the gold excitement and consequently the difficulty of obtaining labor, except at an exorbitantly high price, will be insufficient.
    The census has been taken and the returns made according to the law of Congress, and an election will be held on the first Monday in June next for the purpose of electing a Delegate to Congress and for the election of members to the Council and House of Representatives of the Legislature of the Territory. The total population of the Territory is eight thousand nine hundred and three.
    Total number of voters, two thousand five hundred and nine. Total foreign population, two hundred and eighty-seven, included in the above estimate.
NARA Series M234, Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, Reel 607 Oregon Superintendency 1842-1852, frames 629-634.