With many others, I had joined in the operations against the Indians from conscientious motives and in good faith to chastise them for the numerous murders and frequent robberies they were committing. Our object was to compel them to keep the peace, that we might be permitted to live undisturbed by their depredations. We had sufficient general intelligence and knowledge of their character to know that we were looked upon as trespassers on their territory, but were unwilling to abandon our search for gold, or submit to their frequent demands for an ever-increasing tribute. Beside other property, I had lost four valuable horses, which were taken to satisfy their appetites. Neither Bonner’s nor Vanderbilt’s love for horses, was ever greater than was that of those mountain Indians. No horse was considered too valuable for them to eat. Notwithstanding all this sense of injury done to my personal interests, I could not justify myself in joining any scheme to wrong them, or rather, the government; and it was too plainly evident that no damages could be obtained for losses, except through the California Indian Ring that was now pretty well established. During the operations of the Battalion, the plans of the Ring were laid, and it was determined that when the war should be ended, “a vigorous peace policy” should be inaugurated. Estimates of the probable number of Indians that it would be necessary to provide for in Mariposa county alone, accidentally fell under my observation, and I at once saw that it was the design to deceive the government and the people in regard to the actual number, in order to obtain from Congress large appropriations. These estimates were cited as official by Col. McKee, and were ten times more than the truth would warrant. Major Savage justified his course in using the opportunity to make himself whole again, while acting as a trader, and in aiding others to secure “a good thing,” by the sophism that he was not responsible for the action of the commissioners or of Congress. CHAPTER XVII. Captain Boling elected Sheriff--Appointment of Indian Agents--Ten-ie-ya allowed to return to Yosemite--Murder of Visitors--Lt. Moore’s Expedition and Punishment of Murderers--Gold Discoveries on Eastern Slope of Sierras--Report of Expedition, and first _Published_ Notice of Yosemite--Squatter Sovereignty--Assault upon King’s River Reservation--The Supposed Leader, Harvey, Denounced by Major Savage--A Rencounter and death of Savage--Harvey Liberated by a Friendly Justice--An Astute Superintendent--A Mass Meeting--A Rival Aspirant--Indians and Indian Policy.