ed in various parts of the wall for the use of the cannon, of our
possession of which the enemy was ignorant. The first assault was
gallantly conducted, and every one of the loopholes was choked with
their balls and arrows. On they advanced, in a close and thick body,
with ladders and torches, yelling like a million of demons. When at the
distance of sixty yards, we poured upon them the contents of our two
guns; they were heavily loaded with grape-shot, and produced a most
terrible effect. The enemy did not retreat; raising their war-whoop, as
they rushed, with a determination truly heroical.

The guns were again fired, and also the whole of our musketry, after
which a party of forty of our men made a sortie. This last charge was
sudden and irresistible; the enemy fled in every direction, leaving
behind their dead and wounded. That evening we received a reinforcement
of thirty-eight men from the settlement, with a large supply of buffalo
meat and twenty fine young fat colts. This was a great comfort to us,
as, for several days, we had been obliged to live upon our dried fish.

During seven days we saw nothing of the enemy; but our scouts scoured in
every direction, and our long-boat surprised, in a bay opposite George
Point thirty-six large boats, in which the Callapoos had come from their
territory. The boats were destroyed, and their keepers scalped. As the
heat was very intense, we resolved not to confine ourselves any more
within the walls of the Post; we formed a spacious camp, to the east of
the block-house, with breastworks of uncommon strength. This plan
probably saved us from some contagious disease; indeed, the bad smell of
the dried fish, and the rarefied air in the building, had already begun
to affect many of our men, especially the wounded.

At the end of a week, our enemy re-appeared, silent and determined.
They had returned for revenge or for death; the struggle was to be a
fearful one. They encamped in the little open prairie on the other side
of the river, and mustered about six hundred men.

The first war-party had overthrown and dispersed the Bonnaxes, as they
were on their way to join the Flat-heads; and the former tribe not being
able to effect the intended junction, threw itself among the Cayuses and
Nez-perces. These three combined nations, after a desultory warfare,
gave way before the second war-party; and the Bonnaxes, being now
rendered desperate by their losses and the certaint