ry, Judge Prim arrived from Jackson
county and had a conference with the Governor. It was scarcely 9 o'clock
in the morning when Mr. Gilfrey, private secretary to the Governor, came
to my office with a message that Governor Grover wished to see me at his
office at once. When I arrived there I found the Governor, Judge Prim
and General John F. Miller in consultation. The Governor explained to me
that there were stories of needless waste of time, that the Indians had
not been attacked, though there were 450 men within a few miles of their
camp, that hints of graft were afloat. Would I go in company with
General Miller and when could I start? I replied that I would go and by
the eleven o'clock train if General Miller was ready.

Perhaps here is a proper place for a short history of the Modoc Indians;
their long series of murders and massacres--a series of appalling
crimes that have given to their country the name of "the dark and bloody
ground of the Pacific." Of all the aboriginal races of the continent the
Modocs stand pre-eminent as the most fierce, remorseless, cunning and
treacherous. From the day the white man first set foot upon his soil the
Modoc has been a merciless foe with whom there could be no peace. The
travelers through his country were forced to battle for their lives from
the day his country was entered until the boundary was passed. Trains of
immigrants, consisting of men, women and children, worn and weary with
the trials and hardships of the plains, were trapped and butchered. The
number of these victims mount up into the hundreds and constitute one of
the saddest chapters in the annals of American pioneers.

Chapter VIII.

History of the Modoc Indians.

Voltaire describes his countrymen as "half devil and half monkey," and
this description applies with equal force to the Modoc tribe of Indians.
In general appearance they are far below the tribes of the northern
country. They did not possess the steady courage of the Nez Perces, nor
the wild dash of the Sioux, but in cunning, and savage ferocity they
were not excelled even by the Apaches. In war they relied mainly on
cunning and treachery, and the character of their country was eminently
suited for the display of these tactics.

Our first knowledge of the Modocs was when they stole upon the camp of
Fremont in 1845 at a spring not far from the present site of the now
prosperous and thriving village of Dorris. It was here that Fremont
suffered th