any Indians for several days, either friendly or hostile, he had sent an express to Fort Walla Walla to gain some information, if possible, concerning them, and had learned from McBean and the chief himself that Peupeumoxmox had revoked his friendship for the Americans, and was now hostile on account of an act of the recent legislature prohibiting the sale of arms and ammunition to the Indians. He complained of being placed by the act on the same footing with the guilty Cayuses, and threatened, if the law should not be abrogated, that his people would also become murderers. Sixty lodges, said to contain between two and three hundred warriors, were gathered within a mile and a half of the fur company's fort, which circumstance was considered as being significant of hostile intentions.[1]
News had also arrived at the fort that the head chief of the Nez Percés, Ellis, with sixty of his men, had died in the mountains, whither they had gone to hunt, of the two scourges, measles and dysentery, which had carried off so many Cayuses. This loss would naturally affect the superstitious minds of the Nez Percés, and it was thought their word to the commissioners would be betrayed, as they had held a great feast with the Cayuses since the last engagement at the Touchet. The wound of Five Crows, who was with Joseph, was also likely to carry him off, and altogether the prospect appeared gloomy in respect to breaking up the alliance of the confederated tribes of the Umatilla, the Walla Walla, and the Clearwater valleys. Waters also wrote concerning the Des Chutes chief, Welaptulekt, that he went to Fort Walla Walla and delivered up a large amount of immigrant property, giving as a reason for not
- ↑ The cunning of the savage character has frequently been displayed when one or more tribes have gone to war, by a portion remaining friendly in order to act as go-betweens, to buy ammunition, and carry information. If such was the character of Peupeumoxmox's friendship, the act of the legislature defeated his intention and gave him the provocation he desired for becoming hostile.
