HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 



269 



them, stuck full of arrows, were exhausted with loss of 

 blood and overcome ; while the other two attempted 

 to escape by crossing the fork, one succeeding in 

 reaching the other side, but both finally meeting the 

 fate of the others. One of the warriors of the tribe 

 who participated in these murders was afterwards taken 

 prisoner, and furnishing the above narration, his life 

 was spared on condition that he should guide the 

 whites to their rancheria. 



" Accordingly, on the 16th of April, a war party 

 was made up of about twenty young mountaineers, 

 mostly Oregon men, and including also the young 

 Greenwoods. Well mounted, and equipped with the 

 enormous gingling California spurs, they rode up to 

 Old Greenwood's for a review from the old man pre 

 paratory to starting. Each man carried besides his, 

 inseparable rifle, a long Spanish knife usually mounted 

 with silver, and stuck in the folds of his deerskin leg 

 gings ; and many were also provided with a brace of 

 pistols or bowie knife, worn in the red Mexican sash 

 around the waist. Old Greenwood shouted ' Mind the 

 scalps and squaws for me, and be sure you bring 'em 

 all in, boys,' and away they went, at a thundering 

 lope, eager for revenge." 



The day afterwards, the party returned. They 

 were preceded by a party of Peruvians and- Chilians, 

 with a number of their peones, or slaves. 



" Following closely this motley group, came on foot 

 a body of about sixty California Indians. Warriors 

 and boys, squaws with papooses tied on boards and 

 slung at the back, all were prisoners. Clustered to 

 gether like sheep driven to the slaughter, they hastened 

 through the gorge with uncertain steps, the perspira 

 tion rolling off their faces now pale with fright. Many 

 23* 



