Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/407

Rh and one man killed. On arriving at the cabins, three of which were occupied by the Indians, late in the afternoon of the 4th, the howitzer was planted and a shell dropped through the roof of one, killing two of the inmates. The white men had one killed and five wounded. There matters rested till next morning, when the cabins were found to be empty, the Indians of course having found means to escape. These savages made good shots at 400 yards.

Toward the middle of the month Bruce's command had a fight with one hundred natives on a branch of Applegate Creek, the latter retreating with four killed. And thus the winter wore away, a dozen bands each of white men and red, roaming up and down the country, each robbing and burning, and killing as best they were able, and all together accomplishing no great results, except seriously to interfere with traffic and travel. Exasperated by a condition so ruinous, the desire to exterminate the savages grew with the inability to achieve it. Such was the nature of the conflict in which, so far, there had been neither glory nor success, either to the arms of the regular or volunteer service; nor any prospect of an end for years to come, the savages being apparently omnipresent, with the gift of invisibility. They refused to hold any communication with the troops, who sought sometimes an opportunity to reason with them.

The men composing the northern battalion having no further interest in the war than at first to gratify an evanescent sympathy, or a love of adventure, were becoming impatient of so arduous and unprofitable a service, and so demanded and received their discharge. General Wool was then petitioned for aid, and he immediately despatched two companies under Colonel Buchanan. In the mean time the legislative assembly had elected J. K. Lamerick