Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/765

714 preceding and succeeding the massacre —a precaution which did him honor, considering the feeling with which the volunteers had been inspired concerning the priest were enclosed in a packet addressed to McBean at Fort Walla Walla, and intrusted to a native named Elijah, who professed to be a Nez Percé, and who had accompanied the volunteers from Oregon City. Elijah, however, unfortunately or designedly, fell in with the Cayuses before reaching Walla Walla, and had taken from him, by Tauitau, his packet and the presents of a flag and some tobacco which the commissioners had sent to the Nez Percés. But Tauitau, not daring to keep the packet, which was addressed to McBean, sent it to the fort, though he intercepted and destroyed the answer.

The letter of the commissioners to McBean was an explanation of the presence of an army in the country and an assurance that it was not with the purpose of bringing on a general war, but to secure the punishment of the Cayuse murderers, and if possible to prevent the other tribes from joining with them. "We do not expect you," they said, "to take part m the matter so as to implicate you, but if possible to facilitate our movements to restore tranquillity;" and he was asked to apprise them of the disposition of the Nez Percés, Walla Wallas, and other Indians. There were some additional items of news, with an expression of anxiety lest the Catholic mission and the fort itself should be in danger, and the offer of a detachment to guard the latter if necessary. The answer, as I have said, was destroyed by Tauitau, and the commissioners remained in doubt. In the mean time, it happened that Timothy and Red Wolf, two Nez Percé chiefs, arrived at the fort simultaneously with Tauitau's messenger, and to them the letter of Spalding was given to be conveyed at once as addressed;