THE ROGUE RIVER WARS. 335
kin, chief of this people, and about five miles distant from Waiilatpu.
The goods and agricultural implements intended for presents to the chiefs, together with the necessary supplies for a large camp, were transported above The Dalles in keelboats, the first freight carriers on the upper Columbia river, and this their first freight. The goods were disem barked and stored at Fort Walla Walla of the Hudson's Bay Company, then in charge of Mr. James Sinclair. The commissioners were escorted from The Dalles to the council grounds by forty dragoons under Lieutenant Archibald Gracie, which force was raised to forty-seven by the ad dition en route of a squad which had been out for a week in the vain search for some Indian murderers.
From Walla Walla, the commissioners repaired at once to the council ground, leaving their escort to follow. The spot selected proved to be a beautiful one, and was made comfortable by the erection of a long arbor for dining, supplied with tables made of logs split down the middle and placed upon rude trestles with the flat side up. Seats were similarly improvised, and the place made to wear a picturesquely inviting aspect. Plenty of time was allowed for these preparations and for the arrival of the military, that is to say, from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth, be fore the Indians, ever dilatory on such occasions, began to assemble.
The first to arrive were chiefs Lawyer and Looking Glass of the Nez Percés, who encamped near the commissioners after having displayed with their followers in their war costume, the startling evolutions described in the account given by Dr. White's visit to the Nez Percés in 1843. Two days later the Cayuses arrived, making a similar display; and on the twenty-eighth the Yakimas, the whole assem blage numbering between four and five thousand persons, of both sexes and all ages. When all were assembled, two days more were consumed in the effort to get to busi ness, the majority of the Indians being sulle
