Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/596

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the perpendicular cliff of Table Rock, aud surrounded by seven hundred fierce and well armed hostile savages, in all their gorgeous warpaint and feathers. Captain Smith had drawn out his company of dragoons and left them in line in the plain below. It was a bright, beautiful morning, and the Rogue River valley lay like 'a panorama at our feet ; the exact line of dragoons sitting statue like upon their horses, with their white belts and burnished scabbards and carbines, looked like they were engraven upon a picture, while a few paces in our rear the huge perpendicular wall of the Table Rock towered, frowningly, many hundred feet above us. The business of the treaty commenced at once. Long speeches were made bj^ General Lane and Superintendent Pal- mer; they had to be translated twice. When an Indian spoke in the Rogue River tongue it was translated by an Indian interpreter into Chinook or jar- gon to me, when I translated it into English; when Lane or Palmer spoke, the process was reversed, I giving the speech to the Indian interpreter in Chinook, and he translating it to the Indians in their own tongue. This double trans- lation of long speeches made the labor tedious, and it was not until late in the afternoon that the treaty was completed and signed. In the mean time an episode occurred which came near terminating the treaty as well as the repre- sentation of one of the 'high contracting parties' in a sudden and tragic man- ner. About the middle of the afternoon a young Indian came running into camp stark naked, with the perspiration streaming from every pore. He made a brief harangue, and threw himself upon the ground apparently exhausted. His speech had created a great tumult among his tribe. General Lane told me to inquire of the Indian interpreter the cause of the commotion; the In- dian responded that a company of white men down at Applegate Creek, and under the command of Captain Owen, had that moz'ning captured an Indian known as Jim Taylor, and had tied him to a tree and shot him to death. The hubbub and confusion among the Indians at once became intense, and murder glared from each savage visage. The Indian interpreter told me that the In- dians were threatening to tie us up to trees and serve us as Owen's men had served Jim Taylor. I saw some Indians gathering up lass-ropes while others drew skin covers from their guns, and the wiping sticks from their muzzle.

"There appeared a strong probability of our party being subjected to a sudden volley. I explained as briefly as I could •what the interpreter had com- municated to me, in order to keep our people from huddling together, and thus make a better target for the savages, I used a few English words, not likelj^ to be understood by the Indian intei*preter, such as ■ ' disperse ' and 'segregate.' In fact, we kept so close to the savages, and separated from one another that any general firing must have been nearly as fatal to the Indians as to the whites.

"While I admitted that I thought that my time had come, and hurriedly thought of wife and children, I noticed nothing but coolness among my com- panions. General Lane sat upon a log with his arm bandaged in a sling, the lines about his mouth rigidly compressing his lips, while his eyes flashed fire. He asked brief questions, and gave me sententious answers to what little the Indians said to us. Capt. A. J. Smith, who was prematurely gray-haired, and was afflicted with a nervous snapping of the eyes, leaned upon his cavalry saber, and looked anxiously down upon his well formed line of dragoons in the valley below. His