MARTIAL LAW.--DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME
During all the Indian outbreak and hostilities a number of Hudson Bay
Company ex-employees, Scotchmen and Canadians, were living in the Indian
country back of Steilacoom in safety, when every American settler was
murdered, or had fled to the towns. They had Indian wives and half-breed
children, and claimed to be neutral. They were in frequent communication
with the hostile Indians, and were not molested by them. Captain Maxon
and other officers reported that they were undoubtedly giving
information, aid, and comfort to the enemy, and that their scouting
expeditions were fruitless in consequence. The Indians who killed White
and Northcraft in March so near Olympia were tracked straight to the
houses of two of these neutrals, who acknowledged having been visited by
the savages, but disclaimed any knowledge of their deeds. The volunteer
officers, however, believed that they were not only sympathizers with,
but active allies of, the hostiles, and were ready at the least
intimation from the governor to treat them as hostiles. Colonel Casey
declared that they ought not to be suffered to remain on their farms,
where they could aid the enemy, if so disposed. The governor therefore
ordered them to leave the Indian country and remove to Olympia, Fort
Nisqually, or Steilacoom, and there remain until further orders, in
order to place them where they would be unable to give information or
aid to the enemy, and also for their own safety, for the indignation of
the volunteers was at white heat against them. Accordingly they moved
in as ordered, twelve of them.
Most of them had already taken out their first naturalization papers,
and filed on their claims under the Donation Acts, and were entitled to
all the rights of American citizens. A few lawyers at Steilacoom,
political or personal opponents of the governor, most active of whom was
Frank Clark, saw here a chance to embarrass him,--in their own
vernacular, "to get him down." They went to these ignorant men, exhorted
them in regard to their rights as citizens, assured them that the
governor had no authority to order them to abandon their claims, which
Congress had bestowed upon them, and that they could return to their
homes with safety, because the law and the courts would protect them in
so doing. Thus persuaded, five of these misguided men, Charles Wren,
Sandy Smith, John McLeod, Henry Smith, and John McField, went back to
their farms. As soon as informed of their return, the governor caused
them to be seized by a party of volunteers, taken to Fort Steilacoom,
and turned over to Colonel Casey for safe custody, there being no jails
in the Territory.
Clark and his coadjutors lost no time in suing out a writ of habeas
corpus. They represented matters to Colonel Casey in such a light that
he notified the governor to relieve him of the prisoners. But the
governor was not the man to suffer a few political tricksters to
frustrate his necessary military measures. He well knew that if he
surrendered in this case, he would have to abandon the practice,
indispensable for carrying on the war, of impressing teams and supplies,
and that his hold upon and discipline of the volunteers would be
seriously impaired. On April 3 he proclaimed _martial law_ over the
county of Pierce, and suspended the functions of all civil officers
therein. He caused the prisoners to be taken from the custody of
Colonel Casey, brought to Olympia, and incarcerated in a blockhouse.
As the regular May term of the United States Court for Pierce County
drew near, the mischief-makers were urgent for Judge F.A. Chenoweth, of
whose district that county formed part, to hold court and enforce the
writ of habeas corpus; but he, being sick, or else, as was currently
believed at the time, fearing trouble and feigning sickness, requested
Chief Justice Edward Lander to hold the term in his stead. Judge Lander
at the time was captain of Company A, and with his company was
garrisoning the post on the Duwhamish, near Seattle; but without a word
of notice to his military superiors he forsook his post, hastened to
Steilacoom, and opened court on May 7. The governor previously urged him
to adjourn his court for one month, by which time there was every
prospect that the Indians would be subdued, and the exigency
necessitating the restraint of the prisoners would have passed. But
Lander refused this way of avoiding a conflict, and persisted in what he
doubtless deemed his duty.
The governor resolutely met the issue thus raised. The court was duly
opened on the appointed day, the lawyers were ready with their motions,
when a detachment of volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Shaw marched
into the court-room, arrested the chief justice on the bench and the
clerk at his table, and carried them under guard to Olympia, where they
were released.
As soon as the detachment had departed with the prisoner judge and
clerk, the clique, which had so cunningly engineered this conflict
between the federal governor and the federal judge, both commissioned by
the same President, made haste to hold a meeting of the "bar,"
vociferously to denounce the "flagrant usurpation and high-handed
outrage" of the governor, and to pass a long string of condemnatory
resolutions, which were signed by all the members participating in the
meeting, nine in number. Immediately afterwards the same parties held a
"citizens' meeting" with a few others in the same room, and gave vent to
more vituperative oratory, and passed more denunciatory resolutions. The
whole proceedings were then published in a circular and in the
newspapers. Undoubtedly some who took part in these demonstrations were
sincere in believing the governor's action to be wrong and uncalled for,
but the real motives and animus of the prime movers were abundantly
shown by the false, bitter, and scandalous statements and affidavits
they made against him, and dispatched to the President, committees of
Congress, and the Eastern press. They vehemently accused him not only of
high-handed tyranny and usurpation, but of getting up the war by his
Indian treaties, which he had made in obedience to the instructions of
the government; of vindictively oppressing and persecuting the Indians,
when he was feeding five thousand of them on the reservations, and
standing like a rock to protect them from abuse; and even of drunkenness
and embezzlement of public funds. These charges, from their very excess
and bitterness, largely defeated themselves with the government, and
with all by whom Governor Stevens was personally known; but they excited
a deep prejudice against him in the minds of many, as he afterwards
found in his congressional career. Wool, too, welcomed with avidity
these reinforcements to his crusade, and immediately forwarded copies of
the resolutions, together with anonymous articles reflecting on the
governor, to the War Department.
The signers of the resolutions were: W.H. Wallace, George Gibbs, Elwood
Evans, C.C. Hewitt, Frank Clark, B.F. Kendall, William C. Peas, E.O.
Murden, H.A. Goldsborough.
Wallace and Gibbs were the principal speakers at the citizens' meeting;
Thomas M. Chambers, chairman; E. Schrotter and E.M. Meeker, secretaries;
S. McCaw, R. S. Moore, Hugh Patteson, William M. Kincaid, William R.
Downey, committee on resolutions.
Evans and Kendall came among the aides whom Governor Stevens brought to
the country with the Northern exploration, and who settled in Olympia.
The former became distinguished as an eloquent speaker and writer and
historian of the Pacific Northwest, and, in after-years, paid the most
warm, heartfelt, and appreciative eulogies to Governor Stevens's
character and public services. Gibbs and Goldsborough, whom it will be
remembered the governor had employed in the Indian service and treated
with great kindness and consideration, were unsuccessful and
disappointed men. The former nursed a grievance, in that the governor
had rejected an extensive and ambitious policy of Indian treaties and
Indian management which Gibbs had elaborately set forth in his report on
the Indians, and which, if accepted, would probably have furnished a
good position for himself.
The circular contained many misstatements, and was highly colored to
give a wrong impression of the actual condition of affairs. To correct
this, the governor published his vindication for proclaiming and
enforcing martial law in Pierce County. In this he clearly and forcibly
states the facts and conditions rendering it necessary, for the success
of military operations, that the suspected men be removed from the
Indian country, and sums up:--
"It is simply a question as to whether the executive has the power,
in carrying on the war, to take a summary course with a dangerous
band of emissaries who have been the confederates of the Indians
throughout, and by their exertions and sympathy can render to a
great extent the military operations abortive.
"It is a question as to whether the military power, or public
committees of the citizens, without law, as in California, shall see
that justice is done in the case.
"And he solemnly appeals to the same tribunals, before which he has
been arraigned in the circular, in vindication of his course, being
assured that it ought to be, and will be, sustained as an imperious
necessity, growing out of an almost unexampled condition of things."
Judge Lander's own district included Thurston County and Olympia, and
the term of his court was to be held in a few days after his release
from arrest. The governor's opponents and the judge determined to call
him to account for contempt of court in proclaiming martial law and
arresting the judge; and a strong-room was quietly prepared by the
United States marshal for his incarceration in case of sentence to
imprisonment. The governor issued his proclamation declaring martial law
in Thurston County on May 13, and sent two of the prisoners, Charles
Wren and John McLeod, to Cape Montgomery for trial before a military
commission. The others were released and permitted to go to Steilacoom,
on giving their parole to remain there.
Judge Lander opened his court on the 14th, and issued notice, and then a
writ, summoning the governor to show cause why he should not be punished
for contempt. No notice being taken of these missives, on the 15th a
writ of attachment was issued to be served _instanter_, and United
States Marshal George W. Corliss, with a strong posse, armed with this
document, proceeded to the executive office for the purpose of arresting
the governor and bringing him before the court. The governor received
them, when they announced their business, with a quiet, cool dignity,
which completely nonplussed them, and remarked, "Gentlemen, why don't
you execute your office?" As they still hung back, and looked at each
other, as though at a loss to know what to do, the clerks, aided by
some gentlemen present, ejected the posse from the office, to which they
offered no resistance. Major Tilton, Captain A.J. Cain, James Doty,
Quincy A. Brooks, R.M. Walker, A.J. Baldwin, Lewis Ensign, Charles E.
Weed, and Joseph L. Mitchell were they who expelled the posse; but it is
evident that the latter made only a formal show of executing the writ.
This farcical attempt had scarcely ended when a force of mounted
volunteers rode rapidly into town. Judge Lander, hearing of their
approach, hastily adjourned court, and took refuge in the office of
Elwood Evans, the acting clerk of court, a wooden building of two rooms,
situated on the east side of Main Street, between Fourth and Fifth
streets. To this, a few minutes later, came Captain Bluford Miller with
a file of men, and demanded admittance. Finding the door locked, he
remarked, "I'll add a new letter to the alphabet: let her rip," and
kicked in the door with his heavy boots. Entering, he found the judge
and Evans in the rear room, and arrested them. Mr. Evans was immediately
released, and Judge Lander was taken to Camp Montgomery, where he was
held in honorable custody until the war on the Sound was practically
over, when he was set at liberty.
Immediately on the departure of the volunteers with their judicial
prisoner, an attempt was made to hold a public meeting to protest
against the governor's action. Evans and Kendall were the chief movers
and speakers, and harangued a small crowd on Main Street, in front of
the governor's dwelling and office. Mrs. Stevens, with her little girls,
happened to be sitting in the front doorway as they approached, and
refused to withdraw; but her presence did not deter nor mollify the
speeches. Despite the would-be indignation of the promoters, the whole
proceeding fell flat, for nearly every one approved the governor's
course, and only a mere handful took part in the demonstration. At
length, having emptied the vials of their wrath, one of the speakers
moved to adjourn in order to spare the feelings of Mrs. Stevens, who had
sat apparently unmoved through it all, and the assemblage dispersed.
A mass meeting, one of the largest ever convened in Olympia, was held at
the blockhouse on the public square, Judge B.F. Yantis presiding, and
J.W. Goodell, secretary, and the course of Governor Stevens in the
matter of martial law was emphatically indorsed, with but twelve
dissenting votes. Memorials strongly defending his action were almost
unanimously signed by the volunteers, and sent to the Oregon and
Washington delegates in Congress. Both Judge Lander and Judge Chenoweth,
in their reports to the Secretary of State, complaining of the governor
for enforcing martial law, admit that the people indorsed his course,
and that the marshals or sheriffs were powerless to resist his orders.
The two prisoners, Wren and McLeod, were tried by military commission on
the charge of giving aid and comfort to the enemy; but owing to lack of
evidence and the end of the war, they were not convicted, and were
finally set at liberty.
Martial law was revoked by proclamation on May 24. Judge Lander held his
court at its next regular term in July. In response to notice the
governor appeared by counsel, disclaimed any intentional disrespect to
the court, but justified his action in proclaiming and enforcing martial
law on the ground of imperious public necessity. A fine of fifty dollars
for contempt was imposed, which he paid. Anticipating a heavy fine, his
friends and admirers were preparing a popular subscription to defray it,
but they were not called upon. The judge's action in imposing a merely
nominal fine was taken to be an acknowledgment, in accordance with the
opinion of nine tenths of the community, that the governor's course, if
technically illegal, was necessary and right. No action was taken
against the volunteers who broke up the courts, or the citizens who
turned the marshal and his posse into the street. In his communications
to the government in defense of his course in proclaiming martial law,
Governor Stevens advanced almost identically the same reasons and
arguments that were afterwards adduced by President Lincoln to justify
his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
By a letter of the Secretary of State, dated September 12, Governor
Stevens was informed that the President, while having no doubt of the
purity of his motives, disapproved his action in proclaiming martial
law.
THE CASE OF COMPANY A.
The chief punishment by which the governor maintained such excellent
discipline among the volunteers was that of dishonorable dismissal from
the service, which carried with it the loss of pay. This was inflexibly
enforced in flagrant cases of disobedience or misconduct, and, being
regarded as a disgraceful stigma, was found sufficient. The good conduct
and discipline of the volunteers was doubtless promoted by the incessant
activity and labor to which they were put; but they were due still more
to the superior intelligence and character of the settlers who turned
out _en masse_ in defense of their hearthstones, and carried on the war
with such patriotic zeal.
In one case, however, the governor felt constrained to dismiss a whole
company, an act afterwards made the pretext for much political
denunciation and censure. It will be remembered that almost the first
act of the governor, in the prosecution of the war, was to disband all
local and home guards, and to enlist volunteers for general defense, to
serve wherever and whenever ordered. On February 1 he directed Judge
Lander to disband a company he had raised in Seattle for home defense,
and to enlist there a company for six months, subject to the orders of
the executive, in conformity with the proclamation calling out
volunteers. "Every man," wrote the governor to Lander, "who enlists,
must do so with the understanding that he enlists for the general
defense of the Territory, and that he must move to any point where his
services, in the opinion of his commanding officer, are most needed."
Under these instructions Lander disbanded his first company and raised
another, Company A, which garrisoned Seattle for a time, and then built
and occupied a post on the Duwhamish River, a few miles above Seattle,
and rendered good service in scouting that vicinity and Lake Washington.
It was this post and command that Lander abandoned in order to hold
Judge Chenoweth's court, with such mortifying results to himself.
On June 9 Lieutenant A.A. Denny, who succeeded to the command of Company
A on Lander's abandonment of it, was ordered to detail an officer and
eight men to hold the post, and to move with his company to Fort Hays,
on Connell's prairie, thence to assist in cutting a road to Snoqualmie
Falls. On his representation that a greater force was needed for the
protection of the citizens in his vicinity than was designated, he was
directed to leave twenty men at the post, and to send the remainder of
his company by canoe to Steilacoom, thence to march to Camp Montgomery,
where he would receive supplies. He was informed that--
"the representation of Captain Lander that forty men could be
spared, the fact of parties of from three to five having traveled in
safety the route from the falls of the Snoqualmie to Porter's
prairie, and the reports of Mr. Yesler that but six or eight
Indians are still out east of Seattle, are sufficient to warrant the
leaving of the town of Seattle to the protection of the naval forces
and the regulars at Fort Thomas;"
and that fifteen days would probably be occupied in cutting the road.
The Massachusetts lay in the harbor of Seattle, and fifteen of her men
were on shore garrisoning the town. Lieutenant Denny, in a long and
argumentative letter dated June 19, reiterated his opinion that it would
not be safe to withdraw the company from its post. He wrote:--
"I am extremely surprised at the opinion represented as expressed by
Judge Lander. During the period of his command it was often publicly
stated by him that this company was expressly organized (by private
understanding with the governor and commander-in-chief) for the
protection of this immediate neighborhood."
It is hard to reconcile this with the governor's explicit orders and
letter to Judge Lander.
For such failure to obey orders Lieutenant Denny was directed to turn
over his command to the next officer in rank, and was relieved from duty
in the volunteer service until further orders. Lieutenant D.A. Neely,
the next in rank, was ordered to assume command of the company, and
detail twenty men to proceed to Camp Montgomery for work on the road.
But Lieutenant Neely and the whole company proved equally recusant, and
signed and transmitted to the governor resolutions fully indorsing the
course of Lieutenant Denny, and declaring that they considered the
course of the commander-in-chief in suspending Lieutenant Denny from his
command an act of injustice and an insult to the company, wholly
unjustifiable and uncalled for.
With great forbearance, regarding the company not as willfully
disobedient, but as led astray by feeling and bad advice, the governor
sent his aide, Colonel Fitzhugh, to endeavor to bring them to reason and
due sense of duty, and gave him the following instructions:--
"You will show these resolutions to the company, and request the
signers to either repudiate or modify them in such a manner as to
relieve themselves from the position of disobedience to the orders
which these resolutions condemn.
"You will represent to the company that the resolution disapproving
of the course of the commander-in-chief, and considering it 'an act
of injustice and wholly uncalled for,' places the company in an
attitude of insubordination which will necessarily preclude the
possibility of their being honorably discharged from the service
until they, by their own acts, occupy different ground from that of
justifying disobedience to orders.
"There is nothing improper or objectionable in Company A requesting
the reinstatement of Lieutenant Denny, and a request to that effect
would be properly considered, but by indorsing and sustaining that
officer in his refusal to obey orders they participate in a state of
indiscipline and insubordination which is destructive to efficiency,
and injurious to the reputation of the volunteer service of
Washington Territory.
"In the hope that the intelligent and gallant men of Company A will
see the matter in the true light, and by their act in rescinding
these unmilitary and insubordinate resolutions will place themselves
upon the same footing as the rest of the regiment, and so enable the
commander-in-chief to report as efficient and useful the whole body
of troops raised from the citizen soldiery of Washington Territory,
I have the honor to be," etc.
But Colonel Fitzhugh was unable to induce the company to rescind the
resolutions, and reported that a false sense of shame restrained them.
He was then sent back to formally disband the company, which he did July
28, and they were dishonorably discharged. The governor, however, did
not allow this discharge to deprive them of full pay, but in this
respect presented their claims on the same footing as the other
volunteers. All were finally paid by Congress.
CONTROL OF DISAFFECTED INDIANS.
Governor Stevens's responsibilities and labors were vastly increased by
the great number of Indians on the Sound who did not actively join in
the outbreak, but who caused constant care and anxiety on the one hand
to prevent their aiding their kindred who had taken the war-path, and on
the other to protect them from retaliatory violence at the hands of
infuriated settlers, whose nearest and dearest had been sacrificed in
savage massacre, and from the destructive whiskey traffic with vicious
and debased white men. Five thousand of such Indians were placed upon
the insular reservations and supported, in large part, under the charge
of reliable agents; while three thousand more remained on the Strait of
Fuca and the western shore of the Sound in less strict custody, as they
were more remote from the scene of hostilities. For a time these
reservation Indians were in a very excited and disaffected state. It was
impossible to prevent hostile emissaries from mingling among them, or
some of the young braves from slipping away to help their brethren
against the hated whites. The agents lived among them in constant and
imminent danger of massacre; they carried their lives in their hands.
The governor's plan of enlisting them as auxiliaries, and sending them
out under white officers to hunt down the enemy, although attended at
first with great risk of treachery, was the most effective means of
confirming their fidelity, and when the tide turned against the enemy,
all were eager in their professions of friendship and offers of
services. The first of these expeditions, that of Pat-ka-nim and his
Snohomish warriors under Colonel Simmons, was considered a very doubtful
and dangerous experiment; but heavy rewards were offered the chief for
the heads of the hostiles he might slay, and one that he sent in was
said to have been that of his own brother. Well might Shaw exclaim,
"Blankets will turn any Indian on the side of the whites." After this,
Pat-ka-nim's allegiance was well secured.
When Sidney Ford led a party of Chehalis Indians on a scout against the
enemy, he lay one night pretending slumber, while he listened to a long
discussion between his _friendly_ Indian followers as to the expediency
of killing him and joining the hostiles. Agent Wesley Gosnell had a
somewhat similar experience. What iron nerves, what devoted patriotism,
thus to venture into the trackless forests at the head of these
uncertain and treacherous savages! There is not the slightest doubt that
a few weeks of Wool's pacific and defensive policy would have united all
these disaffected Indians in the outbreak, and swept the whole country
with a whirlwind of savage war. Nothing but Governor Stevens's prompt,
aggressive, and masterly measures prevented the catastrophe.
By many of the settlers the governor's treatment of the Indians was
deemed too lenient and generous. They declared that Indians who received
and concealed the visits of hostile warriors, and allowed their young
men to join in the raids and fights, ought themselves to be treated as
hostile, and warred down without mercy. On one occasion a worthy and
intelligent clergyman pleaded long and earnestly with the governor,
urging him to attack and put to the sword the Indians on the Squaxon
reservation, many of whom were Nisquallies, the tribe that had taken the
lead in the outbreak. But the governor disregarded all such appeals, and
remained as firm in protecting the friendly or merely disaffected
Indians as inflexible in requiring the punishment of the murderers who
first instigated the war by the wanton massacre of inoffensive settlers.
Summary measures were taken with whiskey-sellers, when caught about the
reservations. The agent would arm his employees, and when necessary a
few stout and trustworthy Indians, descend on the culprit, stave, smash,
and destroy his poisonous stores, and drive him to instant flight. There
was no fooling with legal proceedings or courts. The means were
effective, if somewhat high-handed, and the only ones that could be made
so. It was more difficult to prevent the Indians from obtaining liquor
away from the reservations, especially about the towns, and the governor
complained that the regular soldiers were among the worst offenders in
this respect.
In a private letter to Colonel Nesmith, who succeeded him as
Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the governor says of his Indian
agents:--
"I have never known a more faithful and efficient body of men than
the officers and employees connected with me in the Indian service.
I have never known, all things considered, a body of men at all to
be compared to them in the high qualities which fit men for duty in
times of emergency. They literally for months went with their lives
in their hands, and moreover in the economy of the service they were
vigilant and faithful. I look upon it as the duty of all officers,
without waiting for instructions, to guard the treasury. I have had
some difficulties to contend with in the past, growing out of
political antipathies. I have from the beginning set my face sternly
against all cliques, combinations, and sinister influences in the
discharge of my duty."
On these temporary insular reservations were collected some 5000
Indians. The Snohomish and other tribes, numbering 1700, were placed on
Skagit Head, the southern point of Whitby Island, under Colonel M.T.
Simmons; the Lummi, Nooksahk, and Samish, 1050, at Penn's Cove, Whitby
Island, under R.C. Fay; the Duwhamish, etc., 1000, on Port Madison Bay,
Dr. D.T. Maynard, H. L. Yesler, and G.A. Paige taking charge of them;
the Puyallaps, and Nisquallies, 806, on Fox Island, under Sidney S.
Ford; the Quaks-na-mish, 400, on Klah-shemin or Squaxon Island, under
Wesley Gosnell; the Chehalis, 400, on the Chehalis River, near Judge
S.S. Ford's, and under his charge; the Cowlitz, 300, near Cowlitz, under
Pierre Charles.
On the Columbia River, under general charge of agent J. Cain, 200
Chinooks were collected at Vancouver; 200 Klikitats on the White Salmon,
under A. Townsend; and 300 Yakimas, opposite the Dalles, under A.H.
Robie.
The Indian Department, in response to Governor Stevens's urgent letters
taken to Washington by Secretary Mason, and the latter's clear statement
of the emergency, promptly remitted $27,000 to feed these Indians, and
followed it with large sums for that purpose.
The northern Indians, gangs of whom persisted in visiting the Sound in
their great war canoes in spite of the prohibition and warnings of both
American and British authorities, caused great anxiety and apprehension.
The governor urged the naval officers to keep a vessel constantly
cruising the lower Sound to overawe and restrain them. On February 17 he
wrote Captain Gansevoort that, from information received, he was
apprehensive of a descent on the settlements by fourteen war canoes of
these savages, and urged that the Active be kept cruising the whole time
between Port Townsend, Bellingham Bay, and Seattle, saying:--
"These northern Indians, in daring, force, and intelligence, greatly
surpass the Indians of the Sound. Their war canoes, carrying
seventy-five men, can be moved through stormy seas, and with great
rapidity. I deem it essential to the safety of the lower portion of
the Sound that a steamer should be constantly in motion there."
Apparently reliable reports were brought to the governor from time to
time that these desperadoes were seeking to join the hostiles. Some of
them actually offered their services to fight for the whites. They were
attracted to the scene of war like vultures to the carrion, and were
equally ready to fight and spoil either party to the conflict, or both.
In July one of these unwelcome visitors was killed in a drunken brawl by
a regular soldier at Steilacoom. From their well-known vindictive
character, it was certain that they would avenge the death sooner or
later by some act of atrocity. The governor therefore reinforced Whitby
Island with fifteen men from the line of the Snohomish, and the
Massachusetts and Hancock were kept diligently cruising. When, in
November, another party appeared near Steilacoom, committing
depredations, and had a fight with the Indians on the reservation, in
which two of their number were killed, Captain Gansevoort hastened to
the scene in the Massachusetts, determined to compel them to leave the
Sound. They had already started down it, but he pursued and overtook
them at Port Gamble, where he found them encamped on an island. After
exhausting all efforts at conciliation, offering to pardon all their
depredations, and even to tow their canoes to Victoria if they would
only depart from the Sound, and all friendly overtures being treated
with the utmost contempt and ridicule by the Indians, Captain Gansevoort
opened fire upon them from his guns, and, throwing a party ashore,
attacked them on land also. Their canoes were destroyed, and they were
driven back into the woods, but they fought with desperate courage and
determination, and continued the contest the entire day. To a message
sent by a captured squaw, inviting them to surrender with the sole
condition of leaving the Sound, they returned the defiant answer that
they would fight as long as there was a man left alive. But being on a
small island, and all their canoes and supplies destroyed, they were
forced by hunger to surrender, which they did after holding out for
forty-eight hours. The party consisted of one hundred and seventeen men,
besides squaws and boys, and lost twenty-seven killed and twenty-one
wounded. Captain Gansevoort took the survivors in his vessel to
Victoria, where he purchased canoes for them and started them northward,
exacting their promises never to return to the Sound. Even this severe
punishment did not deter them from seeking revenge. The following year a
party of them landed on Whitby Island, murdered Colonel Isaac N. Ebey,
the United States collector of customs, cut off his head, plundered his
house, and departed northward with their booty and ghastly trophy.