268 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



claims to the soil of California as far as the Sierra 

 Nevada, and receive due compensation therefor. But 

 for the want of properly constituted agents from the 

 government, they have been either driven from their 

 old haunts by the mountaineers and other settlers, or 

 remain amongst the whites to be a constant source of 

 trouble. The Shosonees, or Snakes, are the most 

 numerous tribe to be found within the limits of the 

 State, but there are others which are more warlike and 

 untameable. They have all suffered considerably from 

 the aggressions of the white emigrants, and their 

 attacks upon individuals and parties are but the 

 promptings of revenge, which should be taken into 

 consideration. Lately, a war of extermination against 

 the whole number of certain tribes was commenced on 

 account of the doings of one or two of them. Few of 

 them are provided with better weapons than bows and 

 arrows, and, of course, they can make but a poor 

 resistance to the rifles of the white men. In illustra- 

 tion of the treatment of the Indians, we quote an 

 account of the doings of a war party against them, 

 described in the work of a California tourist : — 



'^ A few days before our arrival in the mines, five 

 men from Oregon, named Robinson, Thompson, 

 English, Johnson, and Wood, were murdered by Indians 

 while engaged in gold digging. Having but one rifle, 

 they imprudently left it in their tent. This the Indians 

 some thirty or forty in number, first secured, and then 

 commenced their attack with bows and arrows. The 

 Oregonians defended themselves some time, repeatedly 

 driving the Indians with no other weapons than the 

 stones they found on the bar where they were at work, 

 but upo*n reaching the edge of the har^ they were each 

 time obliged again to retreat. At length three of 



