Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/200

184 Hastings, Shannon, and Hampton the latter a dry goods dealer, who, however, favored the execution of the guilty Indians; Marshall opposed the execution. Sutter, at Sutter's Fort, also favored the Indians. Feeling ran very high and danger of collision between the two parties was imminent. The keeper of the hotel where the Indian girl was found to act as interpreter, refused to let her appear in court; but she was taken off bodily by Tharp and Eberman, and under rather stern orders, performed the prescribed duty.

After reading over the above to Mrs. Clayton, and mentioning that she differed in some respects from Mr. Case, noticeably in the date of the execution, and the manner in which the Indians escaped, she replied, "That is just as I remember it."

Mr. Case stated that the Indians in attempting escape, at a signal, a strange shout of "Ungh!" from the leader, fell to the ground, and tried to wriggle through the crowd. Mrs. Clayton remembers nothing of this peculiar manoeuvre, though one of the Indians ran immediately past where she stood and made a sweep of the hand so near as almost to touch her.