224 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



" We have received particulars of the recent slaugh- 

 ter of a large body of Clear Lake Indians by an expe- 

 dition sent out against them from the United States 

 garrisons at Sonoma and Benecia. The tribe that 

 incurred this terrible punishment, comprises the natives 

 of Sonoma and Napa valleys, and has maintained, in 

 general undisturbed peaceful relations with the white 

 settlers of that section of California. Last summer, 

 however, a stubborn family Indian offered an indignity 

 to the wife of one Kelsey, who had resided in the 

 country some nine years, for which he was taken be- 

 fore a magistrate and sentenced to receive one hundred 

 lashes. After this punishment, on the same day, we 

 are informed Kelsey, sought the wretched offender, 

 and laid him dead at his feet, shooting him in the 

 presence of several gentlemen, who remonstrated with 

 him on the barbarity of the deed. This man Kelsey 

 was afterwards murdered, as was also a brother-in- 

 law, by the Indians of the neighborhood. Since then 

 repeated acts of violence have been visited upon the 

 natives, and our readers will remember the accounts 

 which we published a few months since, of outrages 

 committed in Sonoma and Napa, by a party of despe- 

 rate white men. The Indians were driven to the 

 mountains, and subsequently made depredatory incur- 

 sions upon their old masters, driving away cattle, and 

 indulging their natural propensity to steal. Com- 

 plaints were made, — doubtless the accounts of their 

 conduct highly colored, — to the garrisons of Benecia 

 and Sonoma, and on the 1st of the month an expedi- 

 tion was fitted out against them, composed of a detach- 

 ment of infantry, and a company of dragoons, under 

 command of Lieutenant Davidson, (seventy-five in all,) 



