494 APPENDIX. 
nate on the bank of Puget Sound. Governor Stephens, who 
was at the head of the survey, reported in favor of taking the 
road through the Nahchess Pass, and making the terminus at 
Seattle. In 1855 the whites were engaged in a war with the 
Indians, and the industry of the Territory suffered severely, 
though very few lives were lost in battle. The war of 1855 
was in Washington felt chiefly west of the Cascade Mountains. 
In 1858 a war broke out east of that chain. The Pelouse, 
Klickatat, Spokane, Okinagan, Cayuse, and some of the 
Ceeur d’Aléne Indians formed a league and commenced the 
war by driving the settlers from the Walla Walla Valley. 
After three encouhters in which the whites were defeated, and 
one in which they were finally victorious, a peace was made, 
and it is still observed. In 1858 the excitement in California 
about the Fraser River mines attracted fifteen thousand persons 
to the Territory, many of whom landed at Port Townsend, and 
others at Whatcom ; and the latter place had for a few weeks 
a large population and a busy trade, but it soon sank back 
into its former obscurity. The donation law passed by Con- 
gress in 1850, to make gifts of land to early settlers in Ore- 
gon, continued in force in Washington until 1855, and eight 
hundred claims were taken up under it. 
