Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/604

 the way they had a skirmish with twenty of Jack's people, who retreated toward camp, but being pursued, dismounted and fortified. The firing brought a reënforcement from Jack's camp, when the volunteers retreated to an open field, while the Indians, not caring to engage again, returned to the lava-beds. A scout by Applegate with twenty men revealed the fact that the high ridge between Van Bremer's and the lava-field, known as Van Bremer's Hill, was used as an observatory by the Modocs, who kept them selves informed of every movement of the troops.

On the 12th of January an expedition consisting of a detachment of thirteen men under Perry, a handful of scouts under Donald McKay, and thirty of Applegate's mixed company, the whole under Colonel Green, made a reconnoissance from headquarters to ascertain whether wagons could be taken to a position in front of the Modoc stronghold. Green was fired on from a rocky point of the high bluff on the verge of and overlooking the lava-field. Perry returned the fire, driving in the Modoc sentinels, and shooting one of the Hot Creek Indians through the shoulder. Applegate came up in time to observe that the Modocs were dividing into small parties to ascend the hill and get on the flank of the troops, when he stretched a skirmish-line along the bluff for a considerable distance to intercept them. Scarface, who was stationed on a high point in the lava-bed, cried out in stentorian tones to his warriors, "Keep back, keep back; I can see them in the rocks!"

The Modoc guard then fell back half-way down the hill, where they made a stand and defied the soldiers, but made strong appeals to the Indian allies to for-