Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/407

 ready to go, Mrs. W saying “God has raised us up a friend." He told us children to wait till he came back. They all went down leaving us and a wounded man but they hardly got outside the door into the yard when the treacherous mortal friend fired on them, killed Mr. R, Mrs. W and brother Francis. He had with the other children who had got well enough been in school when the massacre commenced. They all climbed into the loft. When the Indians took the other children down he stayed up there and had he only remained until night he might have escaped but his anxiety respecting his sister would not allow him to stay. He came down and the first thing he saw was his brother lying on the floor shot and his throat cut and his tippet stuffed into the wound. Francis pulled the tippet out. John tried to speak but died in the attempt. Francis burst into tears and taking sister Matilda by the hand said "I will soon follow my brother. If you are spared, be a good girl and meet me in heaven." He was shot soon after by Joe Lewis. But why dwell on these awful scenes or try to describe the night we spent in that chamber or our feeling when, next morning, surrounded by murderers we looked at the mangled corpses of our beloved second parents and our brothers.

I have given you a short account of this horrible massacre but to give you a definite idea of it is impossible. They were buried the following Wednesday in one large grave but it was so shallow the wolves dug them up before we left and their bones are scattered. About five days after this Loisa died. We lived prisoners a month when we were ransomed by Mr. Ogden of the Hudson's Bay Company. He died lately. It was with joy mingled with tears that we bid farewell to the home that had been so pleasant and the place of so much calamity. We left the graves of the loved ones behind. We arrived at Oregon City in January and were loudly saluted by the troops on their way to make war with the Indians. The war continued some time and was finally concluded by their giving five of the chief murderers who were hung in Oregon City. The poor fellows shed tears when they found they had to swing but it