rangement had been entered into with Small's party to escort them, and the Indians readily consented, saddling their ponies, and the foremost accompanying Dyar to the ferry. Here they waited for some time for the remainder to follow, when it was discovered that they had fled back to their native rocks and sagebrush. The few with Dyar soon followed, and thus ended a laudable attempt to lessen the hostile force by placing this band peaceably on the reserve.
In a day or two these Indians were employed making arrows and bullets, in the midst of which a wagon arrived from the Klamath agency, and another attempt was made to remove the Hot Creek Indians to the reservation, but they disappeared in a night, taking with them not only their own horses and provisions, but those of their friend Fairchild.
After the failure of the attempt to remove the Hot Creek band, an effort was made by Fairchild, Dorris, Beswick, and Ball, all personally well known to the Modocs, to persuade Jack to surrender and prevent the impending war. They found him in the juniper ridge between Lost River and the lava-beds south of Tule Lake; but although he refrained from any act of hostility towards them, he rejected all overtures with impatience, and declared his desire to fight. In this interview Jack denied all responsibility of the affair of the 29th, saying that the troops fired first; and further, placed all the guilt of the murders of innocent settlers upon Long Jim, although Scarface, Black Jim, and himself had been recognized among the murderers.[1]
The effect of Fairchild's visit was to give Jack an opportunity to gain over the Hot Creek head men who
- ↑ This moral obliquity of Jack's makes it impossible to heroize him, not withstanding I recognize something grand in his desperate obstinacy. On his trial he said, referring to this occasion: 'I did not think of fighting. John Fairchild came to my tent and asked me if I wanted to fight. I told him, "No, I was done fighting."' Scarface admitted at his trial that he killed one of the settlers, and Jack was with him. But it is observable all through the history of the war that Jack denied his crimes, and endeavored to fasten the responsibility upon others, even upon his own friends. He was the prince of liars.
