with the soldiers; or that by any word or act of mine they
nad been induced to commence or continue the war, or that
I am or have been a squaw man, or that I have or had half-
breed children in the Lava Beds or elsewhere, or that I have
bad intercourse with squaws, or that I was a spy in favor of
the Indians, advising them of the movement of troops, or that
L advised them or encouraged General Canby, Mr. Thomas
Mr. Meacham, or others to go in the Lava Beds to meet Cap-
cain Jack and tribe in council, or that I have written letters to
Captain Jack or other Indians, or that I ever proposed to
marry Queen Mary, or that I ever wrote any letters of the
kind certified to by Mrs. Lehira, or that she ever saw any
letters from me of the import of the one she certified to, is
simply and unequivocally false, severally and collectively, and
the authors of these several charges, whoever they are or may
be, are low, contemptible cowards, spending time in secret,
in trying to traduce the character of one they do not know
and would not if they should meet him on the street; and
iurther, here, where I have been known for twenty years, they
could not find one respectable witness that would make either
of these charges, and much less swear to them or any one
of them.
Now, a few words as to the facts in the case. Some time after Captain Jack and party had left the reservation, they called upon me, and stated what they had done on the reserva- tion (all of which had been confirmed to me by Mr. Meacham and others), and why they left, claiming that instead of feed- ing them, they had been obliged to kill their horses for food, and instead of a pair of blankets only one or, as they called it, half a blanket, had been given to each of the adults, and but half of that to each of their children, and those of an inferior quality; they looked very squalid and poor, more so than I had ever seen them before or since. My advice to them, and always had been, was to return to the reservation, and further, that the officers would compel them to go. They replied they would not go, and asked why the treaty I had made with them when I was Superintendent of the northern district of California then supposing the State line included their vil-
