Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/495

Rh field in southern Oregon with one company June 27th, and proceed to the Klamath Lake country to quiet disturbances there, occasioned by the generally hostile attitude of the Indians of northern California, Nevada, and southern Oregon at this time. Piper encamped at a point seventy-five miles west of Jacksonville, which he called Camp Day. In September a train of thirty-two wagons arrived there, which had escaped with no further molestation than the loss of some stock. Another train being behind, and it becoming known that a hundred Snake Indians were in the vicinity of Klamath Lake, under a chief named Howlack, sixty-five men were sent forward to their protection. They thus escaped evils intended for them, but which fell on others.

Successes such as had attended the hostile movements of the Snake Indians during the years of 1859–60 were likely to transform them from a cowardly and thieving into a warlike and murderous foe. The property obtained by them in that time amounted to many thousands of dollars, and being in arms, ammunition, horses, and cattle, placed them upon a war footing, which with their nomadic habits and knowledge of the country rendered them no despicable foe, as the officers and troops of the United States were yet to be compelled to acknowledge.