Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
Here we laid over three days to let our horses rest up a little.
While here we had all the fish that we wanted to eat, for the lake
was literally full of the finest in the land.
In a southwesterly direction we could see, by looking through our
field glasses, a large valley, which Col. Elliott thought to be
the country which he was ordered to go to.
The second day after leaving Clear Lake we struck another lake. We
did not name it, but it has since been known as Tule Lake, and is
the outlet of Lost river, but has no visible outlet itself. Here
we laid over two days, after which we pulled out up the valley.
Two days more and we were at Klamath Lake, and here Col. Elliott
established his headquarters and started in to fortify himself
against the Indians, which were very numerous in this country at
that time.
John Riley, Fred Miller, John Boyd, George Jones and myself took
four days' rations and started out to investigate the surrounding
country north of headquarters.
The next afternoon about three o'clock we saw a band of Indians
some distance away as they were passing over a somewhat uneven
country. We were not just able to tell the number in the band, but
thought there must be about twenty, and they were driving some
loose horses.
We stopped to consider the matter as to what was best to be done.
George Jones said: "Boys, we have been out all summer and have not
got a single horse to pay for our trouble, and I think I could
fight like the devil if there was a good band of horses at stake."
The balance of the crowd seemed to think likewise, so we concluded
to follow up the Indians and give them a round. We started at
once, but before overtaking them they had pitched camp on the
shore of Lake Klamath.
After it was quite dark, George Jones and I crawled around near
the camp and counted twenty Indians.
Our intention had been to stampede the horses in stead of making
an attack on the Indians, as we thought the number too great to
tackle, but an investigation developed the fact that they had
turned their horses into a little peninsula that ran out into the
lake, and had pitched their tents so as to hold their horses in
there. Riley said there was only one of two things to do, and that
was to make the attack or crawfish. We were all well armed, the
other four having each a six-shooter and a sabre, and I had my big
knife, which was almost as good as a sabre, and two six-shooters.
We laid and watched their movements until all turned in for the
night.
They were badly scattered, making it worse for us than if they had
been in a bunch. We waited until about eleven o'clock, when we
thought they were all asleep, and having laid our plans of attack,
we all crawled up abreast to within a rod or so of where some of
them were lying, and each drew his pistol and sabre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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