Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/510

492 prejudice to the subject and to the readersreader's [sic] gratification. He says: "My place as adjutant of the artillery battalion was, of course, with Captain Keyes. We rode up to the top of the hills, when the whole scene lay before us like a splendid panorama. Below us lay four lakes, a large one at the foot of the barren hill on which we were, and just beyond it three smaller ones, surrounded by rugged rocks, and almost entirely fringed with pines. Between these lakes, and beyond them to the northwest, stretched out a plain for miles, terminated by bare, grassy hills, one succeeding another, as far as the eye could reach. In the far distance was dimly seen a line of mountains covered with the black pine. On the plain below us we saw the enemy. Every spot seemed alive with the wild warriors we had come so far to meet. They were in the pines on the edge of the lakes, in the ravines and gullies, on the opposite hillsides, and swarming on the plain. They seemed to cover the country for some two miles. Mounted on their fleet, hardy horses, the crowds swayed back and forth, brandishing their weapons, shouting their war cries, and keeping up a song of defiance. Most of them were armed with Hudson's bay muskets, while others had bows and arrows and lances. They were all in the bravery of their war array, gaudily painted, and decorated with their wild trappings; their plumes fluttered above them, while below skins and trinkets and all kinds of fantastic embellishments flaunted in the sunshine. Their horses, too, were arrayed in the most glaring finery. Some were even painted, and with colors to form the brighest contrast, the white being smeared with crimson in fantastic figures, and the dark-colored streaked with white clay. Beads and fringes of gaudy colors were hanging from their bridles, while the plumes of eagle's feathers interwoven with the mane and tail fluttered as the breeze swept over them and completed their wild fantastic appearance.