Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/793

742 of increasing those of the Catholics, by the establishment of St Peters at the Dalles."

In the month of August another difficulty occurred with the priests of the Jesuit missions in the northeast. The natives were busy, as usual, carrying rumors from post to post. It was said that Peupeumoxmox had hanged one of the murderers, whom he found a day's march from Fort Walla Walla on the Yakima, a story which was not credited, although the regiment before leaving Port Waters had subscribed to pay a reward of fifty blankets for the delivery to them of one of the guilty chiefs, and half that amount for a common murderer. That the Walla Walla chief should hang a murderer without knowing of the inducement, or, knowing it, should forfeit the reward, Captain Martin refused to believe. The same gossip said that Peupeumoxmox was pursuing another of the guilty Cayuses, and McBean thought there should be a party sent to assist him; but Martin saw treachery in the movements of the chief, and kept his men at the fort.

Again it was said, this time by the Nez Percés, that a war had broken out between their nation and the Snake Indians, and also that two of the Cayuses who accompanied Joe Lewis had been killed on the Boisé River; and again that many Americans were coming by the Snake River route, and had threatened to kill all savages they should meet by the way, which had occasioned the erection of fortifications by the Cayuses on Burnt River, with a view to cutting off the immigrants at that pass. And still another rumor declared Tiloukaikt and seven of his people killed by Shoshones led by a Frenchman. These tales were the subject of conversation at Fort Waters, where almost any piece of news was received