Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/540

522 along the road for six miles. This slaughter was followed by a raid on the horses and cattle near Boonville, in which the Indians secured over sixty head. As they used both horses and horned stock for food, the conclusion was that they were a numerous people or valiant eaters.

Repeated raids in the region of the Owyhee, with which the military force seemed unable to cope, led to the organization, about the last of June, of a volunteer company of between thirty and forty men, under Captain I. Jennings, an officer who had served in the civil war. On the 2d of July they came upon the Indians on Boulder Creek, and engaged them, but soon found themselves surrounded, the savages being in superior force. Upon discovering their situation, the volunteers intrenched themselves, and sent a messenger to Camp Lyon; but the Indians were gone before help came. The loss of the volunteers was one man killed and two wounded. The Indian loss was reported to be thirty-five.

The commander of the district of Boisé did not escape criticism, having established a camp on the Bruneau River where there were no hostile Indians, and, it was said, shirked fighting where they were. But during the month of August he scouted through the Goose Creek Mountains, killing thirty Indians, after which he marched in the direction of the forks of the Owyhee, where he had a successful battle, and retrieved the losses and failure of the spring campaign by hanging thirty-five captured savages to the limbs of trees. He proceeded from there to Steen