Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/519

Rh were had, and not a dozen Indians killed from April to August. In the mean time all the stock was driven off from Antelope Valley, a settled region sixty-five miles east of The Dalles, and about the same distance west of the crossing of the south fork of the John Day; and nothing but a continuous wall of troops could prevent these incursions.

About the 1st of August Curry, who with Drake had been scouting in the Malheur mountains, separated from the latter and returned toward Camp Alvord. Before he reached that post he was met by an express from Fort Boisé, with the information that a stock farmer on Jordan Creek, a branch of the Owyhee, had been murdered, and his horses and cattle driven off. Twenty-one miners of the Owyhee district had organized and pursued the Indians eighty miles in a south-west direction, finding them encamped in a deep cañon, where they were attacked. The Indians, being in great numbers, repulsed the miners with the loss of one killed and two wounded. A second company was being organized, 160 strong, and Colonel Maury had taken the field with twenty-five men from Fort Boisé. Curry pushed on to Camp Alvord, a distance of 350 miles, though his command had not rested since the 22d of June, arriving on the 12th with his horses worn out, and 106 men out of 134 sick with dysentery. The Warm Spring Indians, who were constantly moving about over the country, brought intelligence which satisfied Curry that the marauding bands had gone south into Nevada. Consequently on the 2d of September, the sick having partially recovered, the main command was put in motion to follow their trail. Passing south, through the then new and famous mining district of Puebla Valley, where some prospectors were at work with a small quartz-mill, using sage-brush for fuel, a party