hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

AGENTS AND OFFICE-SEEKERS. 491
their white masters. There was a number of office-seekers
whose persevering patience under frequent rebuff
had touched his sympathies. The position of agents
and employes upon the reservations was not brilliant,
but it presented the allurements of a quiet life, and
opportunities for diverting the rations provided by
government into better channels than wasting them
upon savages. For these a bountiful nature had provided
acorns and roots in abundance. It was also
understood that as the agent could not well control
more than a portion of the Indians under his charge,
the employes might foster discipline and industry
among the rest by using their labor for private undertakings.
As these manifold attractions became apparent
the demand for positions grew apace, so that
Henley found additional inducements for increasing
the number of reservations. His instructions limited
them to five, but any number could be established
under the designation of farms and branches. A
short distance west of Nome Lacke, he accordingly,
in 1856, selected a tributary to it in Nome Cult, or
Round valley, on the upper Eel river, which in due
time became the chief reservation in the state, with
about 1,000 occupants, who, at times, raised crops
exceeding 20,000 bushels. In San Joaquin valley
he opened farms successively at Fresno, King river,
and Tule river, for his humane and economic instincts
revolted at the cruelty and cost of removing
the Indians too far from their ancient haunts. These
farms were leased, so that here a double benefit was
conferred by providing deserving citizens with a handsome
rental from comparatively useless property,
while improving it with Indian labor and government
funds in tne shape of fences, buildings, and irrigation
ditches. Others, who had not yet obtained
forms, he allowed to select choice slices from the
different reservations. And what more commendable
aid to progress than to permit untilled land to be converted
into fields and gardens ? So secure a foothold