Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/767

716 River on the 29th, and encamped near the camp of Peupeumoxmox, who made professions of friendship for the Americans, and sold them some beef cattle. During the night there was an alarm of Indians, but none could be discovered until on the afternoon of the next day's march the smoke of their fires could be discerned in the direction of Waiilatpu.

On the 2d of March the volunteers encamped near the mission, when Gilliam took two companies and visited the scene of the massacre, finding that, the houses had been burned, and all the property carried off or destroyed. Wagons and everything movable had been cast into the fire, and nothing remained but a heap of adobes, broken china, glass, pottery, and warped iron, while books, letters, and many lighter articles were scattered about the enclosure, and the orchard trees were hacked or cut down. Horror was added to desolation, for strewn over the ground were the mutilated remains of the victims of the massacre, which had been disinterred by wolves.

This spectacle evidently hardened the heart of the impulsive commander against peace commissions, and he returned in an impatient mood to camp, after re-