was a member and a leader. It is a noteworthy fact that Gibbs, who was manifestly not friendly to Stevens when his letter was written, says nothing of this. It seems certain, both from the rugged honesty of his character, the nature of his employment, and his unfriendly feeling toward the governor, that he would not have failed to expose the forgery if one had been committed. It is noteworthy also that no attempt was made, either when this Indian was on trial for his life, or in the bitter controversy that attended and followed the trial, to show that he had not signed the treaty, though protesting at the time against some of its terms. The fact undoubtedly is that he signed it, as Kam-i-ah-kan and the other chiefs signed that with the Yakimas, deliberately intending to break it, although he did not have as much cause as they had for believing the government would not approve or carry out its part of it, for the Klikitats had not then been sent home from the Willamette Valley. It is to be remembered that it was never even insinuated that Leschi did not sign this treaty until long after both he and Stevens, as well as Gibbs and most of the white people who were present, and signed it as witnesses, were in their

graves, and those who have believed the libel in recent years, have been able to base it upon no evidence more substantial than their own misunderstanding of what the Indians long after said about it.

The representation that the treaties were the cause of the war, like those that it was caused by some indignities offered to Indian women, belonging to tribes that did not join in the war at all, or that the settlers deliberately began it for purposes of speculation, must be laid aside as wholly unworthy of belief. The Indians had other and far more serious cause for alarm, in what they saw going on about

them on every hand. The situation was such that even a more enlightened people than they were, might well have felt suspicious and anxious, and when it is remembered how long and persistently matters had been misrepresented by the designing agitators among them, it appears surprising that the slaughter did not begin at the Walla Walla council.

But the power which controlled the turbulent element there could not control it much longer. Soon after the Walla Walla council was dissolved a report spread through the country that gold had been discovered near Fort Colvile. In the preceding March four French Canadians, who had served their time with the Hudson's Bay Company, while prospecting along the banks of the Upper Columbia, near the confluence of the Pend d'Oreille, found sufficient color to fill them with the hope that they had found gold in paying quantity. News of their find soon reached the settlements, and was received with the greatest interest. For years past the residents in the Puget Sound region, along the Columbia, and in the Cowlitz and Willamette valleys, had seen the tide of immigration, which had once set strongly in their direction, turning southward to California. A State had been peopled and a government established in it, in a region which was but little known and rarely mentioned, until Marshall had discovered gold in the tail race at Sutter's mill. While this new region to the southward had been developing so rapidly, their own rich country had languished for want of interest and attention. Money was not plentiful in it, and employment, aside from that offered in the logging camps, was hard to find. But now a discovery of gold in their own country, although in a remote and not easily accessible part of it, filled them with hope. Many laid aside such

employment as they had, whether on their own farms, or in the mills and lumber camps, and started for the mines.

As but little could be learned about the extent of the new mining region, or the nature of the deposits found, Colonel J. Patton Anderson, late United States marshal, but recently elected delegate to Congress, in place of Columbia Lancaster, set off for Colvile in quest of information. Wells, Fargo & Co. also sent an agent to examine the country and make report. But few waited for the information they would bring back. By the middle of July all the roads and trails leading toward the northeast had been found by the hopeful goldhunters. Those from the Sound crossed the mountains by the Snoqualmie and Nachess passes, while those from the Cowlitz and the Willamette generally went up the Columbia to the Dalles, and thence crossed into the Yakima Valley. Later many went by way of Fort Walla Walla, where they left their boats and struck out over the sagebrush plains for Fort Colvile.

Not one perhaps of all these eager travelers anticipated any trouble from the Indians; certainly none of those who started earliest did so. Few of them had heard of the warnings sent by Father Pandozy to Major Rains, or of Father Ricard's letter to Governor Stevens, nor did they know of the truculent conduct of the Yakimas, Cayuses and Walla Wallas at the council. They knew only that treaties had recently been concluded with nearly all the tribes in Washington, and assumed that the whole Indian country except the reservations was now open to settlement. They had the best of reasons for this assumption, for immediately after the Walla Walla council was concluded, official notice that the ceded lands were now open to settlement, signed by both Stevens and Palmer, was published in the newspapers

of both Washington and Oregon.* Certainly if that were the case, those who were merely passing through it, intending in no way to dispute possession with its present occupants, were not likely to be molested. So confident were many that they set out in small parties and absolutely unarmed. It was the country of the Yakimas, Walla Wallas and Cayuses, who had left the recent council in such bad humor, that these prospectors first invaded. It is not surprising, in view of what is now known, that the Indians looked upon them with suspicion. Remembering what the Klikitats, whom Palmer had sent home, had told them about the treatment they had received, it is not strange that they should regard these goldhunters as the advance guard of the settlers who, under pretense of hunting gold, were really coming to take possession of their country under the treaty. Many of these unarmed prospectors were murdered. One of the first to be killed was Mattice, a resident of Olympia, and soon after his partner Fanjoy, who had been interested with him in opening a coal mine in King County, was also murdered. They had been among the first to start for the new gold fields and were killed at, or near, the crossing of the Columbia. Other murders followed in rapid succession. Among those known to have been killed were Jameson, Walker, Eaton, Cummings and Huffman, and many others whose fate was never certainly known are believed to have been massacred.

Gradually news of these outrages began to reach the settlements, and produced the greatest anxiety. The Oregon newspapers were filled with the most alarming reports; in

*This notice appeared in the Puget Sound "Courier," published at Steilacoom, on July 12th, while news of the gold discovery at Colvile had appeared, for the first time, in the preceding issue, on July 5th.

one issue the "Statesman" estimated that fully seventy prospectors were killed. Edward Eldridge, who with two companions had crossed to Fort Colvile on foot, read at the Dalles, as he was returning, a list of fifty miners who were supposed to have fallen victims to the ferocity of the disaffected tribes. His own name was among the number. He and his two companions had been the last to leave the Sound, in July, and had been warned by Dr. Tolmie, at Fort Nisqually, that the Indians east of the mountains were committing many murders. In spite of this warning they had persisted in going, and had taken with them but a single rifle for their defense, and this they abandoned before crossing the summit, because the provisions they were obliged to take with them were so heavy that they were compelled to lighten their loads.

Late in August Angus McDonald, the Hudson's Bay trader then in charge at Fort Colvile, sent word to the miners that Mattice had been murdered, and warned them to make preparation to defend themselves. By this time it had been ascertained that gold in paying quantity was not to be found in that region, and the disappointed prospectors were already leaving for their homes. Those who had not yet started quickly prepared to leave, on receiving McDonald's warning, and the mines were abandoned. On their homeward journey, by way of Fort Walla Walla, the miners found the Indians in a very ugly humor, and some of the later stragglers only escaped by representing themselves to be employees of the Hudson's Bay Company. All the Americans then living east and south of the Columbia were warned, by friendly Indians, to make their escape down the river, which most of them did, or took refuge among the friendly Nez Perces. By the last of September no white people, except the French