Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/20



12 THOMAS W. PROSCH

less powerful, less united and less war-like Indians of Puget Sound. One of these bands of marauding savages made its appearance in 1856. They went from place to place day after day, making trouble for both whites and Indians. Captain Samuel Swartwout, of the U. S. Steamer Massachusetts, was asked to drive them away. He found them November 20th at Port Gamble. He proposed to these Northern Indians to tow their canoes to Victoria, and start them for home, saying to them that they would not be punished for their offences if they would go and promise never to return. They con- temptuously rejected these offers, said they would do as they chose, threatened and offered to fight, and were generally insulting. They did not seem to know that they stood no chance against a warship, but they soon so found. Their canoes with one exception were battered to pieces. Twenty- seven of their number were killed and twenty-one wounded, their other property being destroyed and they reduced almost to the point of starvation. The hundred or more survivors surrendered, and were taken on the ship, landed at Victoria, and started from there on their return to Southeastern Alaska. In this affair these northern Indians learned a lesson they never forgot. One member of the ship's crew was killed and another wounded.

March 26th, Indians from the Washington side of the river attacked the little settlement and block house at the Cascades, on the Columbia. Hostilities continued three days. Sergeant Kelly and eight men defended the block house. The Sergeant reported one of his men killed and two wounded ; also a boy. Reports of the losses among the settlers were conflicting, one as high as twenty-five killed and wounded, another fourteen, and still other estimates or statements. Colonel George Wright came to the relief of the besieged people on the 28th. The hostiles were overpowered, beaten and captured or driven away. Wright took fifty of them, nine of whom he promptly hanged for their complicity in this affair.