sake the white men and join their own race to fight. The leaders were very confident. Hooker Jim said once he had been for peace, but now he was for war, and if the soldiers wished to fight, they should have the opportunity, while Jack and Black Jim challenged the troops to come down where they were.
A medicine-woman also made an address to the Klamath and Modoc scouts, saying that were all the Indians acting in concert they would be few enough, and entreating them to join Jack's force. Donald McKay answered in the Cayuse tongue that their hands were reddened with the blood of innocent white people, for which they should surely be punished, when Jack, losing patience, replied that he did not want to fight Cayuses, but soldiers, and he invited them to come and fight, and he would whip them all. The Klamaths asked permission to reply, but Colonel Green, thinking the communication unprofitable, for bade it.[1]
It not being Green's intention to fight that day, a retreat was ordered. To this the Klamaths were opposed, saying he had the advantage of position, and could easily do some execution on the Modocs. As Green withdrew, the Modocs resumed their position on the hill, and the Klamaths, being then on the crest of the second hill, wished to open on them, but were restrained.
There was much discussion about this time away from the seat of war concerning the causes which led to it,[2] and much dissatisfaction was felt that nothing had been done to restrain Jack's band, which still
- ↑ It was certainly unsafe allowing the Indian allies to converse with the hostile Modocs, who appealed to them so strongly for help. The regular officers afterward entertained the belief that the Klamaths acted deceitfully, and promised Jack help, in the Modoc tongue. But Applegate's confidence was never shaken, and he trusted them in very great emergencies. Modoc Hist., MS.
- ↑ It was intimated in Cal. that speculation in Oregon had much to do with it, to which a writer in the Oregonian, Jan. 18, 1873, retorted that he agreed with Gov. Booth in that respect, for citizens of Cal. had for years encouraged the Modocs in refusing to go upon the reservation, for no other reason than to secure their trade, etc.; which the facts seem to show.
