Much excitement exists in the Rogue River Country in consequence of the alleged murder of a party of white men by the Indians. My information is that during last winter a party consisting of seven white men and an indian woman, the wife of one of the men, were incamped about twenty miles below the lower crossing of Rogue river engaged in mining. There was but little intercourse between the settlements and parties so low down, but after the melting of the snow area the subsiding of the waters which had risen to an extraordinary height, information was brought by the Indians that these seven men had been drowned by the overflow of an island on which they were said to be incamped, and that the Indian woman had saved herself by climbing a tree.
Events during the spring and summer occured to create suspicion that the seven men had been murdered by the Indians, and at length it became so strong that an Indian chief named Taylor was arrested, who confessed the crime and gave the particulars of the masacre. He stated that about thirty indians participated in the deed coming, stealthily upon the party by night while they were asleep in their cabins, and that the bodies of the murdered persons were thrown into the river. This was during the period of high water. Taylor gave the names of the Indians engaged with him in perpetrating the murder several of whom were well known to the whites. The indian woman also confessed her knowledge of the transactions and confirmed the statements of Taylor. This chief and three of his associates have been hung and two others shot, while a close watch is kept for the others implicated. It is supposed by some that the two head chiefs of the Rogue River Indians Jo and Sam were so far implicated as to receive a portion of the money taken from the murdered persons, which is supposed to have amounted to several thousand dollars.
I have the honor to be
very respectfully your
obedient servant
Joel Palmer
Superintendent of Ind. Affs.
Oregon Territory
Hon. Geo M Manypenny