Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/190

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William M. Case.

any further molestation. That same day they found eleven mining. As soon as the Oregonians were discovered the Indians fled, and were pursued until they reached a ranch owned by a Calif ornian by the name of Goff, where the Indians had secreted themselves in a cabin. They knocked at the door, but nobody replied, until somebody suggested picking the adobe out of the sides of the cabin. They did this and saw the eleven Indians inside. Some one cried, "Shoot,' and Goff asked them to wait until he got out. Before the Oregonians left the scene they killed all the Indians in this band. They came at last to the trail of a large number, whom they followed until they surprised them as the Indians were going into a swamp, where they thought the Oregonians' horses could not travel. The tall grass, however, supported the horses. I do not remember how many were killed this time, but seventy-six of that tribe perished during the entire war. All the men were killed in this last battle, and one woman. This was not done on purpose. She was lying in the grass shooting arrows, and was mistaken for a man and shot.

The Oregonians told the women to come with them to "dry diggings," about six miles from Coloma, and they would protect them and let them work. But by this time the Oregonians, who had been out over twenty-four hours with only a vest pocket luncheon, were very hungry. They stopped at the house of a rancher named Bailey and asked for beef, but were refused. In connection with this, Bailey published a letter in the Placer Times saying that the large band of Indians that had been killed by the Oregonians were his, and that they were coming to him when they were overtaken and killed by the murderers and robbers from .Oregon. A few days later, Nichols, the captain of the Oregonians at that time, saw this letter; he replied through the same paper "that it was well for