Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/466

448 On the ninth and tenth A. Shepard, Ira Allen, and John Smith were wounded. The wounds were generally severe, and the hospital filled for several weeks. The estimated loss of the Indians, in killed and wounded, was one hundred; yet as there is seldom any accurate information gained concerning their losses, such knowledge being carefully concealed, the estimate was never confirmed.

A new fortification was erected two miles above Waiilatpu, called Fort Bennett, after the lamented Captain Bennett. About the middle of December, Nesmith resigned the command of the regiment, and Thomas R. Cornelius was elected in his place. The place of Captain Bennett was filled by A. M. Fellows, and several minor changes made. Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly returned to the Wallamet valley to take his seat in the council of the legislature about the same time, and was received with a perfect ovation by the people.

On the evening of the twentieth of December, Governor Stevens arrived at Fort Bennett. He had concluded a treaty with the Blackfoot nation early in October, having spent the whole summer, after leaving the council ground at Walla Walla in June, in cultivating friendly relations with the Pend d'Oreilles, Kootenais, and Flatheads. He was accompanied by a delegation of Nez Percés, under the special agency of William Craig; and his special expressman, W. H. Pearson, had swiftly carried the news to Olympia. With equal swiftness he returned to the mountains about the last of the month, with intelligence that the Yakimas, Walla Wallas, Cayuses, Palouses, and a part of the Nez Percés, had formed a hostile confederation, and were at war with the white race, in consequence of which it would be impossible for him to pass through these nations, advice being sent him by officers of the army to return to Olympia via New York.

Stevens was not the man to act upon advice of this nature, but determined to push forward to the Columbia