Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/743

692 poisoning, as made by Joe Lewis, and the pretended confession of the dying Rogers to the same effect, at the same time exhibiting a blood-stained Catholic ladder, which he declared had been shown to the Cayuses by Whitman with the remark, "You see this blood 1 it is to show you that now, because you have the priests among you, the country is going to be covered with blood;" thus placing the responsibility on the Catholics, where the Protestants were willing to believe it belonged. Edward even drew a touching picture of the distress and bereavement of the captive families, and recounted freely all the circumstances attending the massacre, only concealing the names of the guilty.

At length all agreed to the propositions of the Nez Percés, if they might be allowed to add a manifesto setting forth the reasons which influenced them in committing the murders. To this the bishop consented. They then stated what we already know, asking, first, "that the Americans may not go to war with the Cayuses; second, that they may forget the lately committed murders, as the Cayuses will forget the murder of the son of the great chief of Walla Walla, committed in California; third, that two or three great men may come up to conclude peace; fourth, that as soon as these great men have arrived and concluded peace, they may take with them all the women and children; fifth, they give assurance that they will not harm the Americans before the arrival of these two or three great men; sixth, they ask that Americans may not travel any more through their country, as their young men might do them harm."

This being settled, the bishop wrote his letter to Abernethy, saying that in a moment of despair the Cayuses had committed acts of atrocity grievous to the writer as well as to him. Yet he felt forced to say that by going to war with this tribe, he would without doubt have all the savages in the country