Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/402

 360 FRED LOCKLEY country with 600 pounds of ammunition. Captain Hem- bree, who was on his way to join his company, joined us, and a French Canadian, who was familiar with the country, served as guide. We pushed forward as hard as the horses could go. This was in November, 1855. Quite a number of men from the companies of Captains Cornelius, Bennett and Hembree had been discharged at The Dalles by Colonel Nesmith, as there were no horses for them and the men couldn't do anything as foot sol- diers. Major Chinn, with about 150 volunteers, had been sent to the mouth of the Touchet to protect the baggage and pack trains. Colonel Kelly, at the same time, with 250 men marched higher up on the Touchet, where Chief Peu-Peu-Mox-Mox, with several of his tribe, came in under a flag of truce. In the battle that took place a day or two later,this chief, with the other prisoners who had come in with the flag of truce, were killed while they were trying to escape. "In the four days' fight that took place I got two Indians. One of them was hidden in some brush and kept shooting at our men. My gun didn't carry very far, so I had to crawl out quite a distance to get into good range, and when he rose to shoot I got him. I crawled out and scalped him and brought his scalp in to prove to the boys that I had made a good Indian of him. The other Indian I killed was where I couldn't get his scalp without losing my own scalp, so I let him keep his. "In the fight near the LaRoque farm, a lot of us on the fastest horses had got ahead of the others. The In- dians barricaded themselves where they could shoot us and where we couldn't get at them. Several of our men had been killed and wounded. Captain Wilson, of Com- pany A, soon arrived, and a little later Captain Bennett with Company F came up. We drove the Indians away from where they were. They fell back and went into a farmhouse, from which they kept picking away at us. Captain Bennett came to the major and asked for per- n. mi