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Rh the 11th, but there was not that unanimity for which the governor hoped, and no arrangement was effected. On the following day a compromise was made, the colonel allowing the commissioners to precede him, accompanied by Major Lee, captains McKay and Thompson, Meek's party, and men enough to make up a company of one hundred. Letters were written to be despatched by an Indian messenger to the Catholic mission on the Umatilla, to Fort Walla Walla, and to the Nez Percés, that they might be prepared for the advent of the army as well as of the peace commissioners. The latter were to proceed on the morning of the 14th. In the mean time the old frontier method of warfare prevailed, the innocent and the guilty being shot down indiscriminately. News was received on the 13th that a combination had been consummated between the tribes east of the Dalles, which information determined Gilliam to delay no longer, but to march the next morning with three hundred men for Waiilatpu, leaving Captain Williams at Fort Lee with twenty-seven men, including several sick.

Before the commissioners could start on the 14th they received a visit from two Yakimas who came as messengers from their chiefs to learn the intentions of the Americans; saying that the Cayuses wished them to join the murderers; but that they had had no quarrel with the white people, who did not pass through their country. If the Americans desired peace, so did they. In this friendly mood they