Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/291

Rh murderers, during their wanderings, had infected the Snakes with a spirit of hostility to Americans.

A slight coloring seemed to be given to this theory by the behavior of the Snakes towards the Nez Percés, who had refused to join the Cayuses in a war against the Americans, they having been hostile to the Nez Percés ever since that period. Dart found the Nez Percés in 1851 preparing to go to war against the Snakes, but persuaded them to wait another year for the United States to send troops into the country, when, if the troops had not arrived, he promised them they might fight.

In the light of what happened afterwards, it would have been better to have allowed the Nez Percés to have fought and subdued the Snakes. For, in 1851, the immigration suffered the most fiendish outrages at the hands of these savages, who regarded not age, sex, or condition. Thirty-four persons were killed, many wounded, and eighteen thousand dollars worth of property taken by the Snakes while the immigration was passing.

The road to California, traveled now continually, was more and more unsafe through all that region roamed over by the Shastas, Rogue-river tribes, and their allies. Notwithstanding the treaty entered into between Lane and the chief of the Rogue-rivers the previous year, great caution was necessary in selecting and guarding camping places and crossing streams. If a party wishing to cross a river constructed a ferryboat and left it tied up for the use of a party in the rear, the latter on arriving found it gone. While making another, guard had to be maintained, in spite of which their horses and pack animals were likely to be stampeded. When a part of their outfit was ferried over, guard must be maintained on both sides of the stream, dividing their force and increasing their peril. These annoyances and occasional conflicts led to irritation on the part of the miners, who, as they grew stronger, were less careful in their conduct towards the