I cannot, therefore, recommend that any additional wagons be allowed. The whole ten will give a much less proportionate allowance for the three remaining companies than is furnished for the seven.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

E. B. BABBITT,

Deputy Quartermaster-General.

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF OREGON,
Fort Vancouver, Wash. Ter., July 12, 1862.

Lieutenant Colonel R. F. MAURY,

First Oregon Cavalry, Commanding Expedition upon

the Emigrant Road, Fort Walla Walla, Wash. Ter.:

SIR: As directed in Special Orders, Numbers 35, from these headquarters you are assigned to the command of the expedition upon the emigrant road. Its principal object is the protection of all travelers, and especially of the expected emigration. In general, as you pass through the Indian country it will be proper to make known that your purpose is not to wage war upon any tribe, but to protect the whites. You are also expected, so far as lies in your power, to enforce the Indian intercourse act of the 30th of January, 1834 (see paragraph 517 of Army Regulations), forbidding the introduction and sale of intoxicating liquors among the Indian tribes. If incidentally you should be able to get possession of the Snake Indians engaged in the murder of the emigrants near Fort Boise in the autumn of 1860, and shall be able in a satisfactory manner to identify the murderers, the general commanding desires you to deal with them in a summary manner. You are directed to proceed as far as Salmon Falls, on Snake River, and not to return to Fort Walla Walla before the1st of November. You will remain encamped at some eligible point near Salmon Falls as long as possible, for that is the principal haunt of the Snake Indians for the purpose of fishing in the summer time. He does not desire you to interfere with their fishing or other peaceful avocations, and your interpreter may, as you approach that region, have some opportunity of sending them word to that effect. In most of the tribes in this country, the murderers or offenders are known and acknowledged by the whole tribe without attempt at concealment. It may be different with the Snakes. The general commanding is satisfied that with all the tribes the surest preventive of future murders is the arrest and punishment of thst offenses. As you advance you may find it advisable to establish one or two depots of supplies, where you should leave enough for the return of the command from those points. The general commanding desires me to enjoin upon you the importance of the preservation of order, and especially that whenever your command comes in contact with camps of peaceable Indians, the Indians should be vigilantly protected from injury and violence from all whites, whether soldiers or citizens. The general desires to receive reports of your progress from time to time, sent through the express of Wells, Fargo & Co., at Walla Walla. Opportunities may offer of sending letters by reliable travelers, but you are authorized to send an express yourself whenever you may deem it of sufficient importance.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. B. HUGHES,

First Lieutenant, Ninth Infantry, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.