INDIAN MILITARY ENGINEERING—CAPTAIN JACK. 261 
men, January 17, 1873, and a dense fog overhung the face of the earth 
when the time arrived, the Modok believed firmly that their sorcerers had 
brought it; that the spirits were favorable to them, and they were encour- 
aged and kept hearty in the fight. 
Of the consummate skill and daring with which they fought, when once 
in the war, both soldiers and civilians bear abundant testimony. A careful 
and conscientious correspondent, Mr. Bunker, who visited the famous Lava 
Beds soon after they were captured, writes: 
“The military engineers with whom I have talked upon the subject are 
emphatic in their opinion that no man versed in military tactics could have 
selected a fortress in the Lava Beds better adapted to the ends of defense 
than this same stronghold. Where nature has not fulfilled the requirements 
of the situation, the Indians have piled up the lava, and so remedied every 
apparent defect. It is a fact that no soldier could have climbed within 
fifty yards of the stronghold while the Indians were in possession without 
looking into the muzzles of guns; and nothing but a gun would be seen. 
The ingenuity of the Modok has surpassed all understanding. Their engi- 
neering skill draws warm commendation from the best talent in the camps. 
Every picket-post is thoroughly protected from assaults by riflemen, and 
arranged to cover a retreat. The avenues are even more complicated than 
the labyrinthian streets of Boston. Even the Modok could not trust to 
memory in this fortification, and as a matter of precaution had localities 
marked by bits of wood of different sizes. They could not familiarize them- 
selves with a pile of rocks two hundred yards square !” 
They merited a better leader than they had. Captain Jack was not a 
hero, and does not deserve to be mentioned with Tecumseh and Pontiac 
and Red Jacket. A full-blooded Modok (all idle tales to the contrary not- 
withstanding), born at the mouth of Lost River, he entered the last great 
struggle of his tribe about thirty-five or forty years of age, in the full ma- 
turity of his powers. 
A man about five feet eight inches high, compactly and strongly built ; 
a large, sqnare head and massive cheek-bones; hair parted in the middle, and 
reaching down to the shoulders, where it was cut off even all around; long 
eyelashes, but no beard; dark, piercing, sinister eyes; the thin lips of an 
