Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/598

Rh previous, and where the Hot Creek Modocs murdered his three faithful Delawares.

The explorers were made aware of the fact that white men had been there, by fragments of newspapers lying about; doubtless those that Gillespie brought from the States with him, on his mission to Fremont, who turned back just before the real pathfinders struck his trail. Observing that the turf had been removed as well as the willows, and the ground trampled on the bank of the creek, and remarking also that there were many places where horses could o-et to the water without this trouble, the company were convinced that some persons had been buried there, and this method adopted of concealing their bodies from the savages, the marks of digging being obliterated by driving the animals of the party many times over the spot. This opinion was confirmed by the excitement evident among the Modocs who naturally judged that these white men had come to avenge the murder of the three members of Frémont's party whom they were conscious of having killed, and which were the first of a long list of murders committed by this tribe, extending from 1846 to 1873.

With every precaution not to expose themselves to attack, they pursued their way along the shore and passing around the southern end of the lower Klamath Lake, arrived on the evening of the 5th opposite the camp on Hot Creek, with the lake to the west, and a high rocky ridge to the east of them. This ridge they ascended next morning, and discovered at its eastern base the since famous Tule or Modoc Lake, and apparently about thirty miles to the east of that a timbered butte, near which appeared to be a pass through the rocky range encircling the basin of the lakes. The route seemed to lie around the north end of Tule Lake. In attempting to descend the ridge, however, they found themselves entangled