Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/192

 pril 6, 1848.

the Cay uses. T could but see, with the greatest of pleasure, disposi tions which will prevent the spilling of blood, and which will facili tate the means of instructing those Indians.

Your humble servant, G. BLANCHET.

Word had been sent to the mission on the Umatilla, but no answer being returned in four days, 16 the commander determined upon pushing on his army to Waiilatpu, with out regard to the peace commission, and a courier was sent back to inform the governor of this decision.

The march was begun about the middle of the forenoon, the commissioners being in the advance, carrying a white flag. They soon discovered two Indian spies whom they en deavored to approach, but who avoided them. About noon a large number were seen on the hills making signals de noting war, arid when the commissioners advanced they were ordered off. They then retreated, while the Indians collected, coming from all directions, and placing them selves along the path of the army. The first act of hos tility was the shooting of a dog belonging to the volunteers/ and then the battle proceeded as only Indian battles do.

The picture already given of the brave display made by Indians in their military parades and mock battles for the entertainment of guests, was not fully reproduced in actual combat. The bronzed and bedecked warriors, with their, painted and tasseled steeds, the splendid riding in charges, the furious din of drum and rattle, mingled with yells, and the stentorian voice of command making itself heard above all the uproar, creating a scene only matched on the plains of Troy in the days of Agamemnon this

16 Brouillet explains this in his " Authentic Account of the Murder of Dr. Whitman," p. 64. The mission had been abandoned on the nineteenth, when the Cayuses had announced to Brouillet and Leclaire their determination to go to war. Brouillet further says that Ogden promised the Cayuses to endeavor to prevent a war, and to send an express to Walla Walla to apprise them of the result ; but that no such ex press arriving before the troops were there, they suspected Ogden of betraying them. Brouillet thought that had his letter arrived in time the Cayuses might have accepted the terms of the government, namely, the relinquishment of the murderers. But it will be remembered that troops were already at The Dalles when Ogden passed down with the captives.