Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/484

466 from Crooked River, while Captain A. J. Smith was to proceed southward and eastward to the City of Rocks. About six weeks after Smith and Steen had set out from The Dalles, news was received that the hostile bands, so far from hiding from the sight of two dragoon companies, had attacked Smith after his parting with Steen, when he was within twenty miles of the Owyhee; and that he had been no more than able to protect the government property in his charge. It being unsafe to divide his command to explore in advance of the train, he was compelled to retreat to Harney Lake Valley and send an express after Steen, who turned back and rejoined him on the head waters of Crooked River. Accompanying, or rather overtaking, Steen's expedition on Crooked River was a party of four white men and five Indians escorting Superintendent Geary and G. H. Abbott, agent at Warm Springs, upon a search after some chiefs with whom they could confer regarding a treaty, or at least a cessation of hostilities. Without the prestige of numbers, presents, or display of any kind, Geary was pushing his way into the heart of a hostile wilderness, under the shadow of the military wing which, so far from being extended for his protection, completely ignored his presence.

During Geary's stay at Steen's camp, on the 15th of July two refugees from a party of prospectors which had been attacked by the Indians came in and reported the wounding of one man, the loss of seventy horses, and the scattering of their company,