276 T. C. Elliott. portage, and it was the 19th of December before arrival at the destination. Messengers were then at once dispatched to the Spokane country to learn whether the Indians of that quarter were still quiet, and to the chiefs of the Walla Walla, Cayuse and Nez Perces tribes to say that "The Old Whitehead" was at the fort and desired to speak with them, a message to them no doubt as welcome as it was imperative. It was the 24th inst. before he assembled them in council and only after he considered himself in possession of full information. Mr. Wm. McBean has re- lated to the writer some of the incidents of that day. It is the nature of the Indian to be deliberate in words and the council lasted all day; Mr. Ogden alone of the whites at- tended and in the end prevailed. This was the tenor of his speech to the Indians and of the reply of one of them, as re- ported by Mr. Ogden himself to the editor of the Oregon Spectator at Oregon City upon the return there in January : "We have been among you for thirty years without the shed- ding of blood; we are traders, and of a different nation from the Americans, who are of the same color, speak the same language, and worship the same God as ourselves, and whose cruel fate causes our hearts to bleed. Why do we make you chiefs, if you cannot control your young men? Besides this wholesale butchery you have robbed the Americans passing through your country, and have insulted their women. If you allow your young men to govern you, I say you are not men or chiefs, but hermaphrodites who do' not deserve the name. Your hot-headed young men plume themselves on their bravery ; but let them not deceive themselves. If the Americans begin war they will have cause to repent their rashness ; for the war will not end until every man of you is cut off from the face of the earth ! I am aware that many of your people have died; but so have others. It was not Dr. Whitman who poisoned them; but God who has commanded that they should die. You have the opportunity to make some reparation. I give you only advice, and promise you nothing
