superiority in understanding right and wrong, and
all that, you may not be so much surprised at the
faithful following in this case of the example we set
the Modoc Indians, which resulted in the massacre,
and the universal condemnation of Captain Jack and
his clan.
To return to my reason for publishing this sketch at this time. You will see that treating chiefly of the Indians, as it does, it may render them a service, that by-and-by would be of but little use, by instruct ing good men who have to deal with this peculiar people.
I know full well how many men there are on the border who are ready to rise up and contradict everything that looks like clemency or an apology for the Indian, and have therefore given only a brief account of the Ben Wright treachery and tragedy, and only such an account as I believe the fiercest enemy of the Indians living in that region admits to be true, or, at least, such an account as Ben Wright gave and was accustomed to boast of.
The Indian account of the affair, however, which I have heard a hundred times around their camp fires, and over which they seemed to never tire of brooding and mourning, is quite another story. It is dark and dreadful. The day is even yet with them, a sort of St. Bartholomew s Eve, and their mournful narra tion of all the bloody and brutal events would fill a volume.
They waited for revenge, a very bad
