Young Joseph had proved himself a great war chief in a single engagement. From this time forth his destiny was with him. He was the last mighty Indian, and his name was Hin-mut-too-yah-lat-kekht, meaning “Thunder strikes out of water and travels to loftier heights.” Wherever one touches him he is great; every incident and circumstance discloses a big man. He exercised unerring judgment in strategy and tactics. Years afterward Joseph said, “The Great Spirit puts it into the heart of man to know how to defend himself.” The defeat of Perry threw General Howard’s command into a frenzy of activity. Orders went out for reinforcements, and troops moved toward Lewiston from every direction. By the last of June, Howard was in the field. The wily Indian leader had moved his entire nation beyond the raging Salmon River where he made a stand. Said Howard, “A safer position was unchoosable, nor one more puzzling and obstructive.”[191] Howard’s soldiers experienced great difficulty in going where Joseph’s whole band had gone. This was just the prelude to a game of hide and seek that lasted from late June to early October and lengthened into a dozen engagements as the two forces moved eastward for the space of sixteen hundred miles. In the weeks that followed, General Howard learned to respect his adroit and formidable foe. Joseph’s forces never exceeded three hundred warriors. The whole band numbered about seven hundred. General Howard’s command numbered five hundred and eighty regulars, and it was later augmented by four separate commands in the course of the pursuit. The forces of Joseph and Howard came to grips on the banks of Clearwater River. There the Nez Percé fought with such courage and precision that the battle must be written up as a draw.[192] Joseph was now ready to fight to a finish, but his captains voted for a retreat. Again he bowed to the will of the majority. They were destined to pursue a “trail of tears” during the next three months. It was a march as dramatic as the “flight of a Tartar tribe.”[193] The band was on the move, over the Lolo Trail—a terrific route. They lived on the country—roots, berries, and game. Joseph could cope with one enemy, but the military resources of the whole Western Department baffled him. He found his exit from the Bitter Roots obstructed by Captain Charles C. Rawn from Fort Missoula. Rawn demanded surrender; Joseph parleyed until his forces outflanked Rawn’s position and escaped. At this juncture we see his humanity in making a treaty of forbearance with the settlers in Bitter Root Valley.