420 KOTES OF TEAVEE AMOKG 



I left the lodge and mounted my horse, not without occasionally 

 looking back to see if he might not send an arrow after me, a cir- 

 cumstance which would not have been at all pleasant, considering 

 that the Kye-use Indians are most unerring marksmen. 



Usually, when I wished to take the likeness of an Indian, I walked 

 into the lodge, sat down, and commenced without speaking, as an 

 Indian under thesd circumstances will generally pretend not to 

 notice. If they did not like what I was doing they would get up 

 and walk away ; but if I asked them to sit they most frequently 

 refused, supposing that it would have some injurious effect upon 

 themselves. In this manner I went into the lodge of Til-aw-kite, the 

 Chief, and took his likeness without a word passing between us. 



Having enjoyed the kind hospitality of Dr. Whitman and his lady 

 for four days, I returned to Tort Walla- Walla. On the day after 

 my arrival at the Fort, a boy, one of the sons of Peo-Peo-mox-mox, 

 the Chief of the Walla-Wallas, arrived at the camp close to the 

 Port. He was a few days in advance of a war party headed by his 

 father, and composed of Walla-Walla and Kye-use Indians, which 

 had been absent for eighteen months, and had been almost given up 

 by the tribes. This party, numbering two hundred men, had started 

 for California, for the purpose of revenging the death of another son 

 of the Chief, who had been killed by some California emigrants ; and 

 the messenger now arrived, bringing the most disastrous tidings not 

 only of the total failure of the expedition, but also of their suffering 

 and detention by sickness. Hearing that a messenger was coming 

 in across the plains, I went to the Indian camp and was there at 

 his arrival. No sooner had he dismounted from his horse, than the 

 whole camp, men, women and children, surrounded him, eagerly 

 enquiring after their absent friends, as they had hitherto received 

 no intelligence beyond a report that the party had been cut off by 

 hostile tribes. His downcast looks and silence confirmed the fears 

 that some dire calamity must have happened, and they set up a 

 tremendous howl, while he stood silent and dejected, with the tears 

 streaming down his face. At length, after much coaxing and en- 

 treaty on their part, he commenced the recital of their misfortunes. 

 After describing the progress of the journey up to the time of the 

 disease (the measles) making its appearance, during which he was 

 listened to in breathless silence, he began to name its victims one 

 after another. On the first name being mentioned, a terrific howl 

 ensued, the women loosening their hair and gesticulating in a most 

 violent manner. When this had subsided, he, after much persuasion, 

 named a second, and a third, until he had numbered upwards of 



