The Indians had at the first been proudly defiant, Chief Jo boasting that he had a thousand warriors, and could keep that number of arrows in the air continually. But their pride had suffered a fall which left them apparently humbled. They complained to Lane, whom they recognized, talking across the river in stentorian tones, that white men had come on horses in great numbers, invading every portion of their country. They were afraid, they said, to lie down to sleep lest the strangers should be upon them. They wearied of war and wanted peace.[1] There was truth as well as oratorical effect in their harangues, for just at this time their sleep was indeed insecure; but it was not taken into account by them that they had given white men this feeling of insecurity of which they complained.
Now that the fighting was over Kearney was anxious to resume his march toward California, but was embarrassed with the charge of prisoners. The governor had not yet arrived; the superintendent of Indian affairs was a great distance off in another part of the territory; there was no place where they could be confined in Rogue River valley, nor did he know of any means of sending them to Oregon City. But he was determined not to release them until they had consented to a treaty of peace. Sooner than do that he would take them with him to California and send them back to Oregon by sea. Indeed he had proceeded with them to within twenty-five miles of Shasta Butte, a mining town afterward named Yreka,[2] when Lane, who when his services were no longer needed in the field had continued his journey to Shasta Valley, again came to his relief by offering to escort the prisoners to Oregon City whither he was about to return, or to deliver them to the governor or super-
- ↑ Letter of Lane, in Or. Statesman, July 22, 1851.
- ↑ It is said that the Indians called Mount Shasta Yee-ka, and that the miners having caught something of Spanish orthography and pronunciation changed it to Yreka; hence Shasta Butte city became Yreka. E. Steele, in Or. Council, Jour. 1857–8, app. 44.
