THE MODOC WAR. ]xxiii 



principally relied. Several attenipt« at parlej'iiig were urisnccessful, but 

 tiiially the parties were appointed to convene on April 11, 1873. The 

 capture of Kintpuash's ponies by the troops, in spite of General Canby's 

 jn-omise of a total suspension of hostilities, had exasperated the chief to 

 sucli a degree that he and his aids resolved upon murder by treachery. 

 The dark deed was successfully perpetrated upon two members of the 

 Peace Commission. The others fled, and henceforth, after the dastardlv 

 murder of General Canby, a new plan was adopted for a speedy termina- 

 tion of the war. 



Wright's Cave and surroundings were bombarded with heavy shells 

 on Ajiril 16, 17, and 18, and attacks made b}' the troops simultaneously. 

 By this time about ninety Indian scouts had joined the Army, two-thirds of 

 whom were Warm Spring, one-third Wasco Indians, all under the com- 

 mand of Donald McKay. The Modocs vacated the cave on April 19, and 

 were met by a detachment of regulars and thirty scouts at Sand Hill, four 

 miles from the cave, on April 26. This engagement was more disastrous 

 to the troops than to the Modocs; but at the Dry Lake fight, Mav 10, the 

 hitter were forced to retreat. This was the beginning of the dissolution of 

 the Modoc forces ; their provisions commenced to give out, and one portion 

 of the warriors became dissatisfied with Kintpuash's leadership. This party 

 surrendered May 25 to the commander-in-chief. General Jefferson C. Davis, 

 who had on May 2 relieved Colonel Gillem, the intermediate commander. 

 Soon after this, on June 1, Kintpuash, with the few men who had remained 

 true to him, gave himself up to a scouting part}- of cavalry, led to his Jiid- 

 ing place by the treacherous Steamboat Frank,* who, it must be acknowl- 

 edged notwithstanding, had been one of the most valiant defenders of the 

 Modoc cause. 



The captured Modocs, numbering Avith their women and children 

 about one hundred and forty-five persons, were for awhile fed at the ex- 

 pense of the Government, and then brought to the northeastern corner of 

 the Indian Territory, where their remnants live at the present time. Before 

 their dejiarture a number of them, while being conveyed in a wagon to 

 some place near Tule Lake, Avere fired upon and some females killed bv 

 the revengeful settlers. The murderers of General Canby and Dr. Thonifis 



• Cf. Texts 55 ; 14, 15, and Note. 



