Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/651

 rived which had been set for the execution, Davis received such instructions from Washington as arrested the consummation of the design.

This interference of the government, or, as it was understood, of the secretary of the interior, so exasperated certain persons whose identity was never discovered, that when seventeen Modoc prisoners were en route to Boyle's camp at Lost River ford, in charge of Fairchild, they were attacked and four of them killed. The despatch which arrested the preparations of Davis proposed to submit the fate of the Modocs to the decision of the war office, Sherman giving it as his opinion that some of them should be tried by court-martial and shot, others delivered over to the civil authorities, and the remainder dispersed among other tribes. This was a sort of compromise with the peace-commission advocates, who were still afraid the Modocs would be harmed by the settlers of the Pacific frontier. So strong was the spirit of accusation against the people of the west, and their dealings with Indians, that it brought out a letter from Sherman, in which he said: "These people are the same kind that settled Ohio, Indiana, arid Iowa; they are as good as we, and were we in their stead we should act just as they do. I know it, because I have been one of them."

The whole army in the field protested against delay and red tape, but the Modoc apologists had their way.