This desire having been communicated to Canby, he directed Jackson to suspend any measures looking to the arrest of Jack until the superintendent's order for a conference had been carried out, but to hold his command in readiness to act promptly for the protection of the settlers in the vicinity should the conduct of the Indians make it necessary. At the same time a confidential order was issued to the commanding officer at Vancouver to place in effective condition for field service two companies of infantry at that post.[1]
In compliance with the temporizing policy of the superintendent, John Meacham despatched Sconchin with a letter to John Fairchild, living on the road from Tule Lake to Yreka, a frontiersman well known to and respected by the Indians, and who accompanied Sconchin, and with him found Jack, who refused to hold a conference with the agent and commissary, as desired.
Among the settlers in the country desired by Jack was Oregon's venerable pioneer, Jesse Applegate, residing as agent upon a tract claimed by Jesse D. Carr of California, and lying partly in that state and partly in Oregon. Of Applegate, Jack demanded pay for occupation. On being refused, one of Jack's personal guard, known as Black Jim, set out on a raid among the settlers, at the head of fifteen or twenty warriors, alarming the whole community, and causing them to give notice at the agency. These things led to a further attempt to gain a conference with Jack, he being given to understand that if he would consent he would be safe from arrest, and allowed to remain for the present in the Lost River country.
At length Jack signified his willingness to see the commissioners, provided they would come to him at Clear Lake, Applegate's residence, attended by no more than four men, he promising to bring with him the same number. Word was at once sent by Applegate to Klamath, sixty miles, and the commissioners
- ↑ Military Correspondence, MS., Aug. 6, 1871.
