Page:Life Among the Piutes.djvu/201

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The Bannock War.
197

want you to go where the soldiers can look out for you all.” Among these was the father of Piute Joe, who killed Buffalo Horn at South Mountain. He said to me,—

“Tell our soldier-father that we want to go, but are afraid to. If he will send some of the soldiers with us we will only be too glad to go, or give us a paper and then the citizens won’t kill us.”

I told Captain Bernard what Piute Joe’s father had said, and he gave him a letter and he said, “We will go to-morrow.” The next day we went back the same way we came, and camped at a place called Trout Spring.

The officers caught a great many trout that afternoon. We staid all night at that place. That evening the captain said to me,——

“Sarah, would you like to take a letter to Silver City for me? The companies will not go that way. We will cut across the country from here if you will go. You can get upon the stage and go to Boise City and leave your horse there. You will get there before we shall.”

I said “Yes, I will go.” The distance was fifty miles, so I started at seven o’clock in the morning. I said to myself, “I will see how fast I can ride, and at what time I will get there.”

I did not meet any one on the way. I rode into Silver City at two o’clock in the afternoon, and the next morning I was in the stage on my way to Boise City, Idaho, and went to see General Forsythe. He found me a place to stop at, and sent me to see the prisoners at Fort Boise. I went, but they would not speak to me. They were Shoshones. I went in first to see the men. While I was talking with the men, one of the women came in and said in Shoshone, “Don’t tell her anything. She will tell the soldiers what you say.” One of the men said, “I wonder who she is.”