To the Editor of the Tribune:
    Supposing that some information concerning this remote and almost unheard-of portion of our Pacific Territories may not be uninteresting to your readers, I have ventured, presuming upon the favor extended to my last communication, and address you again.
    The Umpqua Valley is now filling up with settlers at a most unprecedented rate. The first settlement by whites south of the waters of the Willamette (except a single trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, established in 1836) was made in the fall of 1847, by Capt. Levi Scott and his two sons, who laid the foundation of our present flourishing settlement on Elk River, a tributary of the Umpqua. Voluntarily depriving themselves of the advantages of what little civilization there existed west of the Rocky Mountains, they remained alone in their self-imposed banishment until late in the fall of 1848, when another settler (Mr. Robert Cowan) was added to the list of pioneers of Umpqua. The discovery of the golden treasures of our southern neighbor about this time checked the settlement of this beautiful valley, and no further additions were made to the number of settlers until the next summer, when two or three more families came over from the Willamette.
    Capt. Scott, with that spirit of enterprise which has ever been a prominent trait of his character, spent the winter of 1849 and '50 in exploring the country west of the settlement, with a view of finding a practicable land route to connect with the navigable part of the Umpqua River, and having succeeded in his object, early in the spring of 1850 he went to the mouth of the Columbia for the purpose of calling the attention of the officers of the U.S. Surveying Squadron to the importance of the Umpqua, and to induce them if possible to attempt the entrance. He had an interview while there with Capt. McArthur, the officer in charge of the government schooner Ewing, and entered into an agreement with him to explore the harbor, for which service he (Scott) was to pay the sum of $1,000. It appears to me a highly culpable act on the part of an officer of the U.S. government to exact or receive money for the performance of a service included in his duty as an officer. Capt. McArthur, however, failed to perform his part of the contract, thereby saving Capt. Scott the expense.
    In August, while Capt. Scott, with two or three others, was encamped at the mouth of the river awaiting the arrival of the Ewing, the schr. Saml. Roberts appeared off the bar, and after a delay of a few hours entered the river in safety. The Samuel Roberts was in charge of a company of explorers who had left San Francisco with the intention of exploring the mouth of the Klamath. Having failed in their object of finding that river, and being unwilling to return emptyhanded to San Francisco, they had pushed on and had finally reached the Umpqua. The schooner immediately proceeded up the river to the head of navigation (about twenty miles from the ocean) without difficulty. The company selected a location for a city at the mouth of the river which they named Umpqua City, and another at the end of navigation to which they gave the name of Scottsburg, in honor of Capt. Scott. After a delay of a few days they returned to San Francisco, and the report they gave of the river and country induced a considerable number of persons to leave for the Umpqua. Several vessels loaded with passengers have since arrived, and our population, which last spring did not exceed twenty-five souls, now numbers between four and five hundred, and is rapidly increasing.
    The Umpqua Valley now offers great inducements to emigrants. It is considered by good judges to be one of the richest and most fertile valleys in Oregon, and an opportunity is now offered (by the late act of Congress) to all of securing a home free of cost, in a beautiful region of country, convenient to the seaboard, and in a climate unsurpassed in point of mildness and salubrity by any in the world. There are many thousands in your crowded cities of the East struggling with poverty and living in wretchedness, who might here secure a handsome competence, and become--what they never can while they remain where they are--their own masters. The multitudes who are constantly fleeing from tyranny, misrule and oppression in Europe, and leading a life of beggary and perhaps of crime on the Atlantic shores, would here find an asylum where they might live in honest independence, and provide for their own support in the decline of life.
    We have much reason to complain of the gross irregularity of the mails on the Pacific. Letters to and from the States are frequently three or four months on the way, and often miscarry altogether. More than this, we are compelled to pay four times the amount of postage paid by any other territory. For this there might have been some excuse when the Pacific mail routes were first established in the great expense and comparatively small amount of mailable matter. But this excuse can hold good no longer. Our mails would much more than pay their expenses if the postage was cut down to the uniform rate of ten cents. Utah, Minnesota and New Mexico fall far short of this, and are a burden to the government. Where then is the justice of compelling us to pay forty cents for the transportation of a letter which does not cost the department more than five and exacting from the other territories only ten cents for what costs perhaps fifteen. I trust that the matter will be looked into and remedied by Congress at an early day.
    The news of the passage of the Land Bill by Congress was hailed by the most extravagant demonstrations of joy throughout the Territory. The exertions of our delegate, Mr. Thurston, in its behalf, will in the eyes of his constituents counterbalance many of his evil deeds. The bill has, however, in my opinion some objectionable features. The reservation of the "Oregon City claim" for educational purposes can be regarded in no other light than as the act of the most gross injustice to the claimant, Dr. Jno. McLoughlin. The claim was taken up and occupied by Dr. McLoughlin (who was a British subject) as early as 1842, when the country was under the provisions of the treaty of Great Britain, in the joint occupancy of the two countries, and when the number of American citizens in the Territory was by far less than the number of British. As soon as the proper officer was appointed for Oregon, he signified his intention of becoming an American citizen, having already withdrawn from the Hudson Bay Company, and has since in all points complied with the laws of both the provisional and Territorial governments. He has expended a large sum of money in the erection of bills and in making other improvements, and now all his land and improvements are to be taken from him. Any other British subject that has complied with the law in all its points, as he has done, is confirmed in his claim, and why should not he be?
    It is to be recognized that no provision has been made in this bill for widows and orphans, or those that have become such on the road and after their arrival in the country. There are a great many of this class in the Territory and of all others are the ones who most need the donation. Yet they are the only ones who are excluded from participating in the benefits.
    I consider the amount of land given as too large. We have seen heretofore the evil effects of the large amount of land held by each individual in Oregon, and I had hoped before the passage of the Land Bill that a quarter or at most a half section would be the extent of the donation. Granting, as it does, to each married man 640 acres, and to each single man half the amount, its effect is to prevent the country from settling up closely. A small population is scattered over a large extent of country, and we are, in a measure, compelled to forgo the benefits to be derived from schools, libraries &c. I am aware that the majority of the inhabitants of the Territory are vastly better satisfied with the donation of a section than they would have been with a less amount, but I think that its effect on the country at large will be injurious in the end.
    We have a military force stationed here at an expense to the government, of who knows how many hundred dollars a day, which has done, and is doing, absolutely nothing save the establishment of a single military post at the Dalles of the Columbia, where one is but very little needed. The Indians in that quarter (the Cayuses and the Nez Perces) have recently exhibited every evidence of a friendly disposition toward the whites, having delivered up to justice their principal chiefs, the murderers of the late Dr. Whitman and family. A small force is employed in garrisoning that post, and the remainder of the regiment is stationed at Vancouver, where they are of no more use than they would be in New York City. On our southern frontier, where we are daily expecting the commencement of hostilities on the part of the Indians, we are left entirely to our own resources. Col. Loring (the commandant) is aware of the state of things out here, having traveled as far south as the Klamath River last spring in pursuit of some deserters, the bones of some of whom he saw bleaching on the mountains. He has been repeatedly requested to send a force out here, but has uniformly refused, assigning as a reason that the desertion of the troops would be inevitable. There is, without doubt, some plausibility in the excuse, but if they are unable to take the first step toward accomplishing what they were sent here for--to protect us--why are they kept in service at all?
    It will, in my opinion, be found necessary to adopt some radically different plan of military organization from that now followed, in order effectually to protect our own frontier, as well as that of our neighbor, California. I have heard the idea advanced of organizing volunteer companies to serve a short period--say six months, or at most one year--to choose their own officers and to receive a bounty of land at the expiration of their term of service. This plan appears to me to be the only feasible one in the existing state of things, and I think that if it were adopted, and a few hundred men kept in the field for one year, we should have after[wards] no fear of Indian depredations. The savages of this country are not as warlike as those on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, and a small force will be sufficient to quell them effectually. The tribes south of the waters of the Willamette are divided into small bands who live in distinct communities, speak in many instances different languages, and each band is always under the control of its own chief. They recognize no chief whose authority extends over the whole nation. In point of intellect they are as near the brute creation as any animal that wears the human form. They have no property (save a few horses stolen from travelers) and seem to have very little desire to acquire any. They live upon fish, acorns and roots, kill little or no game, and are, take them all in all, as low in the scale of creation as any beings in existence. It will be found an unimportant matter to subdue them when it is properly undertaken.
    Some very rich deposits of gold are reported to have been recently discovered on our southern rivers--the South Umpqua, Rogue River and the Klamath--particularly the latter, and I fear that but little in the way of improvement will be done here until the placers are exhausted. Oregon is just beginning to recover from the shock which the gold mania has given her, and if the streams south are not as rich as represented, she will continue to rise, and at no distant day take her place as one of the states of our glorious Union, that Union which fanatics and traitors have labored in vain to destroy, and which still stands, as may it ever continue to stand--the pride of our nation and the wonder of the world.
    With respects, your most obdt. servt.,
New York Tribune, April 26, 1851, page 8


    NEW MAP.--We have received from Mr. Nathan Scholfield, civil engineer, a lithographic map of Southern Oregon and Northern California, compiled from the best authorities and from personal observations and explorations. It also embraces a corrected chart of the coast between San Francisco and the Columbia River. The map is published by Marvin & Hitchcock. Mr. S. does not pretend to perfect accuracy in all the details, but presents it as an approximate map, correct in all its main features. We subjoin a communication from the author relative to the result of his explorations, knowing that everything which relates to the Pacific Coast is of interest to our readers. He differs in his opinions respecting certain localities from others who have made explorations and laid the results before the public:
    Gentlemen:--Accompanying this I send you a map of Southern Oregon and Northern California, composing a portion of the country lying between 40 and 44 degrees north latitude, which has till recently been but very little known; all previous maps of this portion being very erroneous and not to be depended on. Having spent considerable time in surveying and exploring this, as well other portions embraced in this map, I am enabled to present the public with an approximate map, without pretending to perfect accuracy in all its detail, yet in all its main features it may be relied on as correct. One year since it was not known where the Trinity River entered the ocean, or whether it was tributary to some other river. Parties of miners endeavored to have it done; but on account of the numerous falls and rapids and the precipitancy of its banks, it was not easily effected; others attempted by cruising along the coast to find its entrance. and ascend it from its mouth; but this had hardly been accomplished when a party with whom I acted set out to explore the Klamath River and valley. And for that purpose, with the map of Fremont, Wilkes, and several others, we sailed for a point on the coast in latitude 42 deg. 22 min., where, according to these maps, the Klamath was made to enter the ocean. Here we found a river, but not such an one as we were led to expect; and after exploring it we ascertained that this was not the Klamath, but the Teutonis or Rogue's River which, by all our authorities, was made a tributary of the Klamath. We ascertained that the Klamath passed south, where it was joined by the Trinity, and then pursued its course to the ocean. Having satisfied ourselves of the general worthlessness of this river or any in its vicinity, as a channel of communication with the interior, on account of the numerous rapids and high precipitous banks, running even into mountains, we left it in possession of the barbarous savages who infest it, and bent our sails for the Umpqua River. Here, contrary to our expectations, we found an excellent harbor, spacious and well protected, with sufficient depth of water for vessels of large class, although in the language of Commander Wilkes, of the United States Exploring Expedition, we were led to suppose "the Umpqua afforded no harbor for seagoing vessels, and that there was but nine feet water on the bar." But we found eighteen feet on the bar at extreme low water, the same as at Columbia River, and a fine river, navigable for thirty miles to the head of tide water, and opening into a fine agricultural country in the interior. After thoroughly exploring this river, and tracing its meanderings as well as its several tributaries, and seeing the former maps were, in important points, very defective and erroneous, I deemed it expedient that a new one should be constructed, representing the main features of the country. I therefore offer this map to the public as the best representation of the country, till such time as the government surveys are completed. In addition to my own surveys, I have consulted in its construction the best maps extant, and the explorations and travels of scientific persons and miners, from which sources I have derived much valuable information. And lastly I have availed myself of the results of the late United States Coast Survey, by which I am enabled to give a corrected chart of the coast from San Francisco Bay to the Columbia River.
    Yours, respectfully,    N. Scholfield.
Daily Alta California, San Francisco, June 13, 1851, page 2


    MR. BUSH, SIR:--Beside the expiring camp fire of Uncle Billy, the undersigned sits quietly upon chips while engaged in the act of penning the memorable scenes through which he passed during his journey through this portion of the heritage. His debut into this country has been recorded with very few of the remarkable escapes--from accidents, grizzlys' jaws--rattlesnakes, &c., which attend the nervous and the timid. He lost his appetite--often did the sun at midday wink at his anxiety for his "fodder"--and that too in a land flowing richly with temporal blessings. But all has passed and forgetfulness is creeping upon him.
    The fact that Umpqua excels in fertility is so well known, and has been published so often, that it is unnecessary to make mention of it again; but a word of the condition of things may not be amiss. Our county is organized--the machinery is up, and soon it will start with great power. We need internal improvements very much, and it is expected that the new machinery will accomplish every desired attainment. The undersigned trust that the people do not expect too much.
    The roads leading to Scottsburg (which, as yet, are trails) must be made into something which will afford aid and comfort to both man and horse.
    Time cannot be spared to dwell upon their condition--sufficient to say that the undersigned has long since refrained from conversing with those who have traveled over them, because their varied descriptions of the roads were universally prefaced with violent oaths--and horrid imprecations.
    Elkton, which at present has but a potential existence, is named as the site for a county town. It is on the main Umpqua, opposite Fort Umpqua. From this point to the (and including the) sand spit at the mouth of the river, claims are taken. Those east of Scottsburg teem with luxuriant grass--those west are overhung with vivid speculative theories respecting the future. The former will harvest an enduring reputation in wapatos and stock, while the latter will eat them up. From the mouth of the river up to Winchester, claims are being improved. Quite all are taken; twelve months since, but two or three were taken. Scottsburg, or Myrtle City, is at the head of tide water; vessels drawing seven feet of water can ascend to that point--those of deeper tonnage cannot ascend farther than ten miles from the mouth, where they will be obliged to discharge; within that space there are many new towns, beautifully pictured on paper showing rival advantages, and abundant reasons why one point is far more preferable than the other for that purpose; all of which, however, possess merit. At no distant day a discriminating public will determine the extent of the merit of each.
    The entrance of the river is considered no more dangerous than that of the Columbia River. Those who know pronounce it perfectly safe and a good harbor. There are two ferries on the Umpqua within three miles of each other--and connect a road from Winchester to Scottsburg. A railroad can be made to connect those important points.
    The claims along the road, which for excellence as stock ranges or for agricultural purposes have not betters anywhere, to my knowledge. When the undersigned passed through Green Valley (a part of the road will run through this valley) the grass was quite over his horse's back. This valley for richness is all that a person can desire--an attempt to describe it only seems to tease the fullness of an indescribable experience. It must be seen to be well appreciated.
    Winchester is located on both sides of Umpqua River--about five miles above the forks--the town proper lies on the southern border of the river, and is a portion of land eminently qualified for a town. It is level and thinly timbered--lying at the head of an immense valley, which for natural beauty few if any surpass. The claim of Gen. Lane adjoins it on the south. The city plot has been laid in lots, and is fast improving as a mart. There are but few claims near Winchester which are not taken--all of them in south Umpqua in a few months will smile upon a lord and master--who no doubt in return will reflect the same in a broad grin. Upon the highest peak, near this point, the undersigned waded for deer, through grass waist high, from which he saw below one vast prairie, which Col. Loring had reserved for a military post; but which he abandoned because it is contiguous to the mines. There are "good diggings" within twenty miles of Winchester--yes, within the town limits, gold has been found. The main road to the canon passes through this place, at which there is a good ferry. Explorations are being made for a road east of the canon by a portion of Major Kearny's command--under the guidance of Jesse Applegate, Esq. Levi Scott, Esq., is also with them. The result of which will be laid before you, when it is made known here. The army have passed the canon, and the party exploring were, from last accounts, near Table Rock on Rogue River.
    No better evidence can be given of the prolific tendency of this country than to mention the fact that during the before-mentioned ride through it, the undersigned found that three good mothers had presented to (he sincerely hopes) their deserving husbands, three babies each; in the aggregate nine. He was told that they were doing well. Notwithstanding his own great diffidence--in an unguarded moment and in the presence of several--a hearty "God bless each and every one of them," was forced from him. It is unnecessary perhaps to remark that no time was lost by the neighbors in adding to the imperfect preparation which had been made for a smaller number.
    The genius of the country is an item of some considerable moment. Among the many useful inventions of one of the "oldest inhabitants," two only were found which can be mentioned this time. One a "submarine battery"*--used for the purpose of bringing to the surface salmon and the "lesser fry," and which works to a charm; the mu-luc chuck [Elk River] roars with pride in its possession. The particulars respecting it will be laid before the people at an early day. The other is a machine (or as I am forced to term it "a case independent") for making butter. It has a cylinder large enough to hold a barrel full of the "raw material"--and works much upon the principle of the machinery of the Lot Whitcomb. It is most assuredly of the high pressure class. It must be gratifying to the ladies to learn that it is to be patented exclusively for the ladies of Oregon, and is designed to supersede the piano, seraphine, &c. If the ladies devote too much time and attention to it, they will find it rather anti-cosmetic--quite as much so as the piano.
    Gen. Lane passed here last week en route to the mines. During his absence from the mines, one of his Indian miners has been murdered, and others driven off. The unfortunate Indian was shot by--it is supposed Oregon men (after being frightened so that he was speechless), simply because he would not speak. There are several reports of the matter in circulation--all of which agree that it was an unprovoked attack on the Indian.
    Gov. Gaines arrived here on Sunday last. He is engaged in raising men for the purpose of visiting the chief of the hostile Indians. He will leave during this week.--The army have passed Rogue River.--Several companies are organized for the purpose of giving battle to the Indians. As yet, no battle of much importance has been fought.
Oregon Statesman, Oregon City, July 4, 1851, page 2  *This most likely refers to explosives.