law I keep in my heart, because I believe it is the law of God—the first law." He also had heard, on the way, that the Americans were coming to kill all his brethren, but he was not turned back by the report, and was thankful for the good letter of the governor.
Then spoke James, the Catholic Nez Percé, and expressed his pleasure that Spalding had escaped, and his conviction that all the chiefs present desired peace. Red Wolf declared that when he heard of the massacre he went to Waiilatpu to discover the truth concerning the conspiracy, and had been told by Tauitau that not all the chiefs were guilty, but that the young men had committed the murders. Without sleeping he returned and reported to Spalding what chiefs were engaged in killing the Americans, and Spalding had said: "I go to the Willamette and will say, 'The Nez Percés have saved my life,' and I will go to the Willamette and save yours;" since which time they had all been waiting to hear from the governor.
Timothy was more reserved. He said: "You hear these chiefs, they speak for all. I am as one in the air; I do not meddle with these things; the chiefs speak, we are all of the same mind," Richard, who accompanied Whitman to the States in 1835, was thankful that the governor had spoken so kindly. His people would not go to war. They had been taught by their old chief, Cut-nose, to take no bad advice, but to cling to the good. Ellis was in the buffalo country; but he was sure that his counsel would be for peace.
Kentuck, who had escorted Parker through the Salmon River country when he came to explore for mission stations, followed with an address. He said he had been much with the Americans and French, and that none of them could say anything disparaging of his character. He had fought with the Americans against the Blackfoot. He had been with Frémont in California the previous summer, not for pay, but from friendship toward the Americans.[1] It had been
- ↑ In reality to avenge Elijah's death.
