action could easily have been done. But the older chiefs counselled more cautious measures, pointing out the lateness of the season, and the difficulty of crossing the mountains in the snow. It would be wiser in any case, they added, not to be the first to attack, but to be prepared for defence should the Americans attempt their subjugation. So impressed were they that such design was in contemplation, that they could not be induced by Geiger to prepare the ground for cultivation, as usual, early in spring, and could with difficulty be made to believe that White's small party was not the advance guard of an armed force.[1] The Cayuses declared that the laws introduced by White among the Nez Percés had effected more harm than good, being made an excuse for petty tyranny to such an extent that the new code was regarded by the Indians as a device of the white people to accomplish their subjection. They were uneasy also because McKinlay and McKay had intimated their determination to act with the Americans, if the Indians exhibited a hostile purpose.
In their perplexity they had sent Peupeumoxmox to ask McLoughlin what course he intended to pursue in case they were attacked by the Americans. For answer McLoughlin advised them to keep quiet, assuring them that they had nothing to fear from either the Americans or the Hudson's Bay Company so long as they behaved themselves.
News now reached White that seven hundred Nez Percés, fully accoutred for war, were coming to the appointed rendezvous at Waiilatpu. It was thought important to prevent a conference or a quarrel between them and the Cayuses, by holding a council with the latter at once, and every endeavor was made by the whole company of the Americans, which now embraced Geiger, Perkins, and Mrs Whitman, to bring about
- ↑ 'I actually found them, says White, 'suffering more from fears of war from the whites, than the whites from the Indians—each party resolving, however, to remain at home, and there fight to the last—though, fortunately, some 300 or 400 miles apart.' Ten Years in Or., 214.
