the way; but they were routed and
seven of them killed in a running fire, and Indian villages along the
river were burned. Meanwhile a hundred and sixty volunteers at Yale
formed a company to go up the river under Captain Snyder. The
company's trader at Yale was reluctant to supply arms, for the
company's policy had ever been to conciliate the Indians. {35} But,
when a rabble of two thousand angry miners gathered round the store,
the rifles were handed over on condition that forty of the worst
fire-eaters in the band should remain behind. Snyder then led his men
up the river and joined the first company at Spuzzum. At China Bar
five miners were found hiding in a hole in the bank. With a number of
companions they had been driven down-stream from the Thompson by
Indians and had been sniped all the way for forty miles. Man after man
had fallen, and the five survivors in the bank were all wounded.

When the Indians saw the company of armed men under Snyder, they fled
to the hills. Flags of truce were displayed on both sides and a peace
was patched up till Governor Douglas could come up from the coast.
Not, however, before there occurred an unfortunate incident. At Long
Bar, when an Indian chief came with a flag of truce, two of the white
men snatched it from him and trampled it in the mud. On the instant
the Indians shot both the white men where they stood.

Douglas had been up as far as Yale in June, but was now back in
Victoria, where couriers brought him word of the open fight in August.
He promptly organized a force of Royal {36} Engineers and marines and
set out for the scene of the disorders. Royal Engineers to the number
of a hundred and fifty-six and their families had come out from England
for the boundary survey; and their presence must have seemed
providential to Douglas, now that the miners were forming vigilance
committees of their own and the Indians were on the war-path. He went
up the river in a small cruiser and reached Hope on the 1st of
September. Salutes were fired as he landed. Douglas knew how to use
all the pomp of regimentals and formality to impress the Indians. He
opened a solemn powwow with the chiefs of the Fraser. As usual, the
white man's fire-water was found to be the chief cause of the trouble.
Without waiting for legislative authority, Douglas issued a royal
proclamation against the sale of liquor and left a mining recorder to
register claims. He also appointed a justice of