Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/98

80 American population was still so small that travelling courts were obliged to bring their own juries.

Judge Bryant provided for the decent administration of justice by the appointment of A. A. Skinner, district attorney, for the prosecution, and David Stone for the defence. The whole company proceeded by canoes and horses to Steilacoom carrying with them their provisions and camping utensils. Several Indians had been arrested, but two only, Quallawort, brother of Patkanim, head chief of the Snoqualimichs, and Kassas, another Snoqualimich chief, were found guilty. On the day following their conviction they were hanged in the presence of the troops and many of their own and other tribes, Bryant expressing himself satisfied with the finding of the jury, and also with the opinion that the attacking party of Snoqualimichs had designed to take Fort Nisqually, in which attempt, had they succeeded, many lives would have been lost. The cost of this trial was $1,899.54, besides eighty blankets, the promised reward for the arrest and delivery of the guilty parties, which amounted to $480 more. Many of the jurymen were obliged to travel two hundred miles, and the attorneys also, each of whom received two hundred and fifty dollars for his services. Notwithstanding this expensive lesson the same savages made away in some mysterious manner with one of the artillerymen from Fort Steilacoom the following winter.