Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/113

Rh motives which had actuated the Indians in surrendering themselves, plied them with questions at every opportunity. Tiloukaikt answered with a singular mingling of savage pride and Christian humility. When offered food by the guard from their own mess he regarded it with scorn. "What hearts have you," he demanded, "to offer to eat with me, whose hands are red with your brother's blood?" When asked why he gave himself up, he replied: "Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So die we to save our people."

This apparent magnanimity produced a deep impression on some minds, who, not well versed in Indian or in any human character, could not divest themselves of awe in the presence of such evidences of moral greatness as these mocking answers evinced.

The facts are these: The Cayuses, weary of wandering, with the prospect before them of another war with white men, had prevailed upon those who among themselves had done most to bring so much wretchedness upon them, to risk their lives in restoring them to their former peace and prosperity. Doubtless the representations which had been made, that they would be defended by white counsel, had had its influence in inducing them to take the risk. At all events it was a case requiring a desperate remedy. They were not ignorant that between twenty and thirty thousand Americans, chiefly men, and several government expeditions had traversed the road to the Pacific the year previous; nor that their attempt to expel the few white people from the Walla Walla valley had been an ignominious failure. There was scarcely a chance that white men's laws would acquit them; but on the other hand there was the apparent certainty that unless the few gave up their lives, all must perish. Could a chief face his people whom he had ruined without an effort to save them? All that was courageous or manly in the savage breast was roused by the emergency; and who shall say that this pride, which doggedly accepted