Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/480

462 store was a strong log house, of two stories, with a flight of stairs on the outside. To this fled the inhabitants of the place who were not killed at the outset. Three men at work on a new warehouse on the island were unable to get off before two of them were wounded, one having to remain hidden under a shelf of rock for two days.

The Indians at the upper cascades now turned their whole attention to the little fortress of the store where forty or more persons, men, women, and children, were gathered. At first, the confusion was great, and in the midst of it Mr. James Sinclair of Fort Walla Walla, opening the door to look out for the three men on the island, was shot dead. This fatal occurrence warned the inmates that they must do as much fighting as in their imprisoned condition they could.

It had happened that this very morning nine government rifles had been left at the store, with ammunition and cartridge boxes, to be sent to Vancouver. On these nine rifles, and on the endurance of eighteen able men, now depended forty lives. No one dared venture out, nor could the Indians be seen from the lower floor front, which faced the river. There was a stovepipe hole in the ceiling of the lower room, by enlarging which several men ascended to the chamber above, where they could observe the Indians on the bluff overlooking the store. Portholes were cut in the walls, and frequent well-directed shots served to keep the savages at a cautious distance. The first of these killed an Indian who was leveling his gun at Mrs. Watkins, seeking shelter at the store. Her husband, it was, who lay wounded under a rock on the island; whose son was killed at the mill; and whose house was burned, together with the mill and lumber yard, and Imans' house, during that day.

When the Indians found the store contained men armed for resistance, they resorted to throwing rocks, hot irons, and burning pitchwood upon the roof; but as the bluff receded somewhat from the building, and as every Indian