< Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu
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714 THE CAYUSE WAR.

preceding and succeeding the massacre 13 — a precaution which did him honor, considering the feeling with which the volunteers had been inspired concerning

the priest were enclosed in a packet addressed to

McBean at Fort Walla Walla, and intrusted to a native named Elijah, who professed to be a Nez Perce, and who had accompanied the volunteers from Oregon City. Elijah, however, unfortunately or de- signedly, fell in with the Cayuses before reaching Walla Walla, and had taken from him, by Tauitau, his packet and the presents of a flag and some tobacco which the commissioners had sent to the Nez Perces. But Tauitau, not daring to keep the packet, which was addressed to McBean, sent it to the jbrt, though he intercepted and destroyed the answer. 19

The letter of the commissioners to McBean was an explanation of the presence of an army in the country and an assurance that it was not with the purpose of bringing on a general war, but to secure the punish- ment of the Cayuse murderers, and if possible to pre- vent the other tribes from joining with them. "We do not expect you," they said, "to take part m the matter so as to implicate you, but if possible to facili- tate our movements to restore tranquillity;" and he was asked to apprise them of the disposition of the Nez Perces, Walla Wallas, and other Indians. There were some additional items of news, with an expres- sion of anxietv lest the Catholic mission and the fort itself should be in danger, and the offer of a detach- ment to guard the latter if necessary. 20 _ The answer, as I have said, was destroyed by Tauitau, and _ the commissioners remained in doubt. In the mean time, it happened that Timothy and Red Wolf, two Nez Perce chiefs, arrived at the fort simultaneously with Tauitau's messenger, and to them the letter of Spald- ing was given to be conveyed at once as addressed ;

isBrouillet's reply is the basis of his Authentic Account, which see at pages


4S-56, 91.

19


Report of the commissioners, in Or. Spectator, April 6, 1848. Or. Archives,, MS., 125-8.

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