The Nez Perces next eluded Bacon and retreated through Tacher's Pass into the beautiful National Park. In the region of the hot springs and geysers, they met a party of travelers. It consisted of Mr. Cowan, his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and two guides. Three of the men were left for dead, but the other, together with the two ladies, were carried into captivity. Horrible fate! General Howard said they were "afterward rescued." But Joseph said, "On the way we captured one white man and two white women. We released them at the end of three days. They were kindly treated." On September 9 word was brought that General Sturgis was coming from the Powder River country with three hundred and fifty cavalry and some friendly Crows. Joseph was now between the two forces. Can the Indian chieftain again escape? Yes, this savage, with a genius for war which would have made him famous among the military heroes of any age or country, made a feint toward the West, fooling Sturgis, and sending him on a wild-goose chase to guard the trail down the Stinking Water. At the same time Joseph and his people, under cover of a dense forest, made their way into a narrow and slippery cañon. This was immensely deep, but the almost perpendicular walls were but twenty feet apart. Through this dark chasm slipped and floundered the cavalry and infantry. It must have been a strange sight as the column moved slowly along the bottom of the defile, men, horses, pack-mules and artillery, with only a narrow ribbon of sky high above them. All in vain, Joseph again escaped. There was but one way to reach them and that was by direct pursuit. All day long the Indians retreated, fighting desperately as they went, and at dark the exhausted soldiers withdrew to camp at the mouth of the cañon. Nothing had been accomplished during the day except to round up several hundred ponies which had been abandoned by the Nez Perces, while they continued their flight on fresh mounts. March as they would, the soldiers could not diminish the distance between pursued and pursuers. The Nez Perces retreated up the Musselshell River, and then, circling back of the Judith Mountains, struck the Missouri September 23, at Cow Island. General Joseph had fought his fourth battle, against a greatly superior force, which he had held in check, while he brought off his own people in comparative safety. Crossing the Missouri, the Nez Perces moved on leisurely to the north. Having repulsed the forces of Howard, Gibbon, and Sturgis, each in turn, the Indians began to feel secure. They were now entering a beautiful country, a veritable paradise, lying between the Bear Paw and Little Rocky Mountains. It is also rich in romance and tradition, and the reputed locality of the "Lost Cabin of Montana," the new El Dorado of miners' thoughts by day and dreams by night. The Indians established their camp on Snake Creek, a tributary of Milk River, within a day's march of the British dominions.