exhausted to the shore, where the Chinooks murdered him. Jones, of the rifles, who was at Astoria with a small company, hearing of it wrote to the governor and his colonel, saying that if he had men enough he would take the matter in hand at once; but that the Indians were excited over the arrest of one of the murderers, and he feared to make matters worse by attempting without a sufficient force to apprehend all the guilty Indians. On receiving the information, Secretary Pritchett called for aid on Hathaway, who sent a company to Astoria to make the arrest of all persons suspected of being concerned in the murder;[1] but by this time the criminals had escaped.
Negotiations had been in progress ever since the arrival of Lane for the voluntary delivery of the guilty Cayuses by their tribe, it being shown them that the only means by which peace and friendship could ever be restored to their people, or they be permitted to occupy their lands and treat with the United States government, was the delivery of the Whitman murderers to the authorities of Oregon for trial.[2] At length word was received that the guilty members of the tribe, who were not already dead, would be surrendered at The Dalles. Lane went in person to receive them, escorted by Lieutenant Addison with a guard of ten men. Five of the murderers, Tiloukaikt, Tamahas, Klokamas, Isaiachalakis, and Kiamasumpkin, were found to be there with others of their people. They consented to go to Oregon City to be tried, offering fifty horses for their successful defence.[3]
The journey of the prisoners, who took leave of their friends with marked emotion, was not without interest to their escort, who, anxious to understand the
- ↑ Or. Spectator, March 21, and April 4, 1850.
- ↑ Lane's Autobiography, MS., 56.
- ↑ Blanchet asserts that the Cayuses consented only to come down and have a talk with the white authorities, and denies that they were the actual criminals, who he says were all dead, having been killed by the volunteers. Cath. Ch. in Or., 180. There appears to be nothing to justify such a statement, except that the murderers submitted to receive the consolations of the church in their last moments.
