e loss of some of his men, including two Delaware Indians, in
a daylight attack, and it was here that he was overtaken by a courier
and turned back to assist in the conquest of California. From that day
to the day when Ben Wright, with a handful of Yreka miners, broke their
war power in the so-called "Ben Wright massacre" the Modocs were ever
the cruel, relentless foe of the white man, murdering and pillaging
without other pretext and without mercy. It has been estimated, by those
best capable of giving an opinion, that from first to last not less than
three hundred men, women and children had been relentlessly murdered by
their hands, up to the beginning of the last war.

The shores of their beautiful lakes and tributary streams are scattered
over with the graves and bleaching bones of their victims. Even among
neighboring tribes they were known and dreaded for their cunning
duplicity and savage ferocity. They are yet known among the Klamaths,
Pits, and Piutes as a foe to be dreaded in the days of their power, and
these people often speak of them in fear, not because they were brave in
open field, but because of their skulking and sudden attacks upon
unsuspecting foes.

During the early 50's many immigrants, bound for Southern Oregon and
Northern California, passed through their country, traveling the road
that passed round the north end of Rett, or Tule Lake, and crossed Lost
river at the then mouth of that stream on a natural bridge of lava. A
short distance from where the road comes down from the hills to the lake
is the ever-memorable "Bloody point." This place has been appropriately
named and was the scene of some of the most sickening tragedies that
blacken the annals of this or any other country. At this point the rim
rock comes down to the edge of the waters of the lake, and receding in
the form of a half wheel, again approaches the water at a distance of
several hundred yards, forming a complete corral. Secreted among the
rocks, the Indians awaited until the hapless immigrants were well within
the corral, and then poured a shower of arrows and bullets among them.
The victims, all unconscious of danger, taken by surprise, and
surrounded on all sides, with but the meager shelter of their wagons,
were at the mercy of their savage foes.

In 1850, an immigrant train was caught in this trap, and of the eighty
odd men, women and children, but one escaped to tell the awful tale. On
the arrival of the news at Jackson