CHAPTER XXV

INDIAN POLICY.--TREATIES ON PUGET SOUND

Governor Stevens regarded his Indian treaties and Indian policy, and his management of the Indians of the Northwest, as among the most important, beneficial, and successful services he rendered the country. By ten treaties and many councils and talks, he extinguished the Indian title to a domain larger than New England; and by the Blackfoot council and treaty he made peace between those fierce savages and the whites and all the surrounding tribes, and permanently pacified a region equally extensive, embracing the greater part of Montana and northern Idaho; and during the four years, 1853-56, he treated and dealt with over thirty thousand Indians, divided into very numerous and independent tribes and bands, and occupying the whole vast region from the Pacific to and including the plains of the upper Missouri, and now comprising the States of Washington, part of Oregon, northern Idaho, and the greater part of Montana. Moreover, by gaining the wavering friendship and fidelity of doubtful tribes, and even many members of the disaffected, he frustrated the well-planned efforts of the hostile Indians to bring about a universal outbreak, and saved the infant settlements from complete annihilation at the hands of the treacherous savages.

His Indian policy was one of great beneficence to the Indians, jealously protected their interests, and provided for their improvement and eventual civilization, while at the same time it opened the country for settlement by the whites. The wisdom with which it was planned, and the ability and energy with which it was carried out, during this brief period, are attested by the remarkable success which attended it, and by the fact that many of these tribes are to-day living under those very treaties, and have made substantial progress towards civilized habits. It is believed that in their extent and magnitude, in their difficulties and dangers, and in the permanence and beneficence of their results, these operations are without parallel in the history of the country. Yet for several years Governor Stevens's Indian treaties were bitterly assailed and misrepresented both by hostile Indians and by officers high in authority; their confirmation was refused by the United States Senate, and he himself was made the target for virulent abuse. It was his intention to write the history of these operations, an intention which the pressure of public duties during the few remaining years of his life, and his early death, prevented. In his final report on the Northern route he remarks, in words of manly fortitude and confidence:--

"I trust the time will come when my treaty operations of 1855,--the most extensive operations ever undertaken and carried out in these latter days of our history,--I repeat, I trust the time will come when I shall be able to vindicate them, and show that they were wise and proper, and that they accomplished a great end. They have been very much criticised and very much abused; but I have always felt that history will do those operations justice. I have not been impatient as to time, but have been willing that my vindication should come at the end of a term of years. Let short-minded men denounce and criticise ignorantly and injuriously, and let time show that the government made no mistake in the man whom it placed in the great field of duty as its commissioner to make treaties with the Indian tribes."

And in another place he adds:--

"I intend at some future day to give a very full account of these large operations in the Indian service."

In his journey across the plains, amid all the cares and labors of the great exploration, Governor Stevens took the utmost pains, by messages, talks, and councils to and with the Blackfeet and other tribes, to prepare them for the great council and peace treaty which he saw was necessary for the opening and settlement of the country, and on arriving in his own Territory was equally indefatigable in impressing upon the Indians there the advantages of living at peace with the white man, of adopting his better mode of livelihood, and of securing the aid and protection of the Great Father in Washington. Among his first acts was the appointment of Indian agents, and sending them to urge these views upon the tribes. It was high time for judicious and prompt action; for the Indians, especially the powerful and warlike tribes of the upper Columbia, were becoming alarmed at the way the whites were pouring into the country, and, under the invitation of Congress given by the Donation Acts, were taking up their choicest lands without asking their consent. On his recent visit in Washington he had impressed his views upon the government, obtained its sanction and authorization for the Blackfoot council, and the necessary authority and funds for treating with the Indians of his own superintendency. He now planned treating first with the tribes on Puget Sound and west of the Cascades for the cession of their lands, then with the great tribes occupying the country between the Cascades and Rocky Mountains for their lands, and then, crossing the Rockies, to proceed to Fort Benton, accompanied by delegations from the hunting tribes of Washington and Oregon, and there hold the great pre-arranged peace council with the Blackfeet, Crows, and Assiniboines of the plains east of the mountains, and the Nez Perces, Flatheads, Pend Oreilles, etc., of the western slope.

Immediately on his return to Olympia the governor sent out the agents and messengers to assemble the Sound Indians at designated points for council and treaty making, and early in January dispatched Mr. Doty with a small party east of the Cascades to make the preliminary arrangements for bringing together in council the Indians of that region.

The Indians on the Sound, including those on the Strait of Fuca, numbered some eight thousand five hundred, and were divided into a great many tribes and bands. They were canoe Indians, and drew most of their food from the waters, chiefly salmon and shell-fish, eked out with game, roots, and berries. Those about the upper Sound had bands of ponies, with which they roamed the prairies in summer. They lived in large lodges, several families together, constructed of planks split from the cedar, with nearly flat roofs, and often thirty or forty feet long and twenty wide. They showed no little artistic skill in their canoes, paddles, spears, fish-hooks, basket-work impervious to water, and mats of rushes. Out of a single cedar-tree, with infinite pains and labor, they hewed and burned the most graceful and beautiful and finest canoe ever seen, the very model, in lines and run, of a clipper ship. These varied in size from the little fishing-craft, holding but two persons, to a great canoe carrying thirty. They held as slaves the captives taken in war and their descendants, and, singularly enough, the heads of the slaves were left in their natural state, while the skulls of the free-born were flattened by pressure during infancy into the shape of a shovel. Many of the bands were remnants of former large tribes, for they had been greatly diminished in numbers by the ravages of smallpox and venereal disease. They lacked the energy and courage of the Indians of the upper country, and lived in perpetual dread of the gigantic and savage northern Indians,--the Hydahs and other bands of Tlinkits of British Columbia and Alaska,--who would periodically swoop down the coast in their great war canoes and raid these feebler folk, ruthlessly slaughtering the men, and enslaving the women and children. They suffered also, but to a less degree, from incursions of bands of Yakimas across the mountains, equally on trade and plunder bent, whom they designated "Klikitats," or robbers, a term which has been taken as a tribal name. To these dangers were now added the fear of the all-powerful and ever-increasing whites. Thus situated and thus apprehensive, the messages and exhortations of the governor promising them protection, pointing out the way of bettering their condition, and of even imitating the envied superior race, broke upon them like a lighthouse in a dark night upon the storm-tossed mariner, relieved their fears and anxieties, and gave them hope. They hastened to assemble at the appointed council grounds, eager to listen to the new white chief, and to learn what he offered from the Great Father for their benefit.

On December 7, only two days after delivering his message to the legislature, Governor Stevens organized his treaty-making force by appointing James Doty secretary, George Gibbs surveyor, H.A. Goldsborough commissary, and B.F. Shaw interpreter, Colonel M.T. Simmons having already been appointed agent. The governor assembled these gentlemen to confer upon the projected treaties. After giving his views, and showing the necessity of speedily treating with the Indians and placing them on reservations, he had Mr. Doty read certain treaties with the Missouri and Omaha tribes, which contained provisions he deemed worthy of adoption, and invited a general and thorough discussion of the whole subject. So many points were settled by this frank and free interchange of views that Mr. Gibbs was directed to draw up a programme, or outline of a treaty, which on the next meeting on the 10th, after discussion and some changes, was adopted as the basis of the treaties to be made with the tribes on the Sound, coast, and lower Columbia.

No better advisers could have been found than the men with whom he thus took counsel; and one is struck by the clever and considerate way in which he secured the best fruits of their knowledge and experience, and enlisted their best efforts in carrying out the work. Simmons and Shaw were old frontiersmen, among the earliest settlers, and had dealt much with, and thoroughly understood, the Indians, and were respected and trusted by them. Simmons has been justly termed the Daniel Boone of Washington Territory. Shaw was said to be the only man who could make or translate a speech in Chinook jargon offhand, as fast as a man could talk in his own vernacular. The Chinook jargon was a mongrel lingo, made up for trading purposes by the fur-traders from English, French, and Indian words, and had become the common speech between whites and Indians, and between Indians of different tribes and tongues. He greatly distinguished himself afterwards in the Indian war as lieutenant-colonel of volunteers. Gibbs and Goldsborough were men of education, and had lived in the country long enough to know the general situation and conditions, and to learn much about the Indians. Gibbs, indeed, made a study of the different tribes, and rendered an able report upon them as part of the Northern Pacific Railroad exploration. Doty, a son of ex-Governor Doty, of Wisconsin, was a young man of uncommon ability and energy, who had spent the preceding winter at Fort Benton, and had studied and made a census of the Blackfeet.

The salient features of the policy outlined were as follows:--

1. To concentrate the Indians upon a few reservations, and encourage them to cultivate the soil and adopt settled and civilized habits.

2. To pay for their lands not in money, but in annuities of blankets, clothing, and useful articles during a long term of years.

3. To furnish them with schools, teachers, farmers and farming implements, blacksmiths, and carpenters, with shops of those trades.

4. To prohibit wars and disputes among them.

5. To abolish slavery.

6. To stop as far as possible the use of liquor.

7. As the change from savage to civilized habits must necessarily be gradual, they were to retain the right of fishing at their accustomed fishing-places, and of hunting, gathering berries and roots, and pasturing stock on unoccupied land as long as it remained vacant.

8. At some future time, when they should have become fitted for it, the lands of the reservations were to be allotted to them in severalty.

"It was proposed," reported the governor, "to remove all the Indians on the east side of the Sound as far as the Snohomish, as also the S'Klallams, to Hood's Canal, and generally to admit as few reservations as possible, with a view of finally concentrating them in one." It was found necessary, however, in consequence of the mutual jealousies of so many independent tribes, to allow more reservations than he first intended, but some of them were established temporarily, with the right reserved in the President to remove the Indians to the larger reservations in the future.

The schooner R.B. Potter, Captain E.S. Fowler, was chartered at $700 per month, manned and victualed by the owner, to transport the _personnel_ and treaty goods from point to point on the Sound. Orrington Cushman, Sidney S. Ford, Jr., and Henry D. Cock, with several assistants, were employed as quartermasters, to prepare camps and council grounds, make surveys, etc.

In all his councils Governor Stevens took the greatest pains to make the Indians understand what was said to them. To insure this he always had several interpreters, to check each other and prevent mistakes in translation, and was accustomed to consult the chiefs as to whom they wanted as interpreters.

"It was my invariable custom," he states in the introduction to his final railroad report, page 18, "whenever I assembled a tribe in council, to procure from them their own rude sketches of the country, and a map was invariably prepared on a large scale and shown to them, exhibiting not only the region occupied by them, but the reservations that were proposed to be secured to them. At the Blackfoot council, the map there exhibited of the Blackfoot country--of the hunting-ground common to the Blackfeet and the Assiniboines, of the hunting-ground common to the Blackfeet and the tribes of Washington Territory, and of the passes of the Rocky Mountains by which this hunting-ground was reached--was the effective agent in guaranteeing to the Indians the exact facts as to what the treaty did propose, and to give them absolute and entire confidence in the government."

He always urged and encouraged the Indians to make known their own views, wishes, and objections, and gave them time to talk matters over among themselves and make up their minds. Between the sessions of the council he would have the agents and interpreters explain the terms and point out the benefits of the proposed treaty, and would frequently summon the chiefs to his tent, and personally explain matters to them, and draw out their ideas. He also frequently invited public officers, and citizens of standing, to attend the councils, and would make use of them also to talk with and satisfy the Indians. All the proceedings of these councils, the deliberations and speeches as well as the treaties, were every word carefully taken down in writing, and transmitted to the Indian Bureau in Washington, where they are now on file. No one can read these records without being impressed with Governor Stevens's great benevolence towards the Indians, and the absolute fairness, candor, and patience, as well as the judgment and tact, he manifested in dealing with them. One is also likely to be enlightened as to the native intelligence, ability, and shrewdness of the Indians themselves.

The first council was held on She-nah-nam, or Medicine Creek, now known as McAlister's Creek, a mile above its mouth on the right bank, just below the house of Hartman, on a rising and wooded spot a few acres in extent, like an island with the creek on the one side (south) and the tide-marsh on the other. This stream flows along the south side of the Nisqually bottom, parallel to and half a mile from the river. The governor and his party, including Mason, Lieutenant W.A. Slaughter, of the 4th infantry, Doty, Gibbs, Edward Giddings, and the governor's son, Hazard, a boy of twelve, went down to the treaty ground by canoes on December 24, and found a large space cleared of underbrush, the tents pitched, and everything made ready for the council by Simmons, Shaw, Cock, Cushman, and others, who had been sent ahead for that purpose. Seven hundred Indians of the tribes dwelling upon the upper Sound and as far down as the Puyallup River, including the Nisqually, Puyallup, and Squaxon tribes, were encamped near by. It rained nearly all day. In the afternoon the Indians drove a large band of ponies across the creek, forcing them to swim. Provisions were issued to the chiefs to distribute among their people.

On the following day the Indians assembled, taking seats on the ground in front of the council tent in semi-circular rows, and the objects and points of the proposed treaty were fully explained to them. The governor would utter a sentence in simple and clear language, and Colonel Shaw would interpret it in the Chinook jargon, which nearly all the Indians understood. The governor was extremely careful to make the Indians comprehend every sentence. Colonel Simmons, Gibbs, Cushman, and the citizens present, all knew the Chinook, and attentively followed Shaw as he interpreted, so that no mistake or omission could occur. It was slow and fatiguing work, this going over the ground sentence by sentence, and after several hours the Indians were dismissed for the day, told to think over what they had heard, and to assemble again the next morning. The governor wished to give them time to fully understand and reflect upon the proposed treaty, and encouraged them to talk freely to himself or any of his assistants in regard to it.

On the 26th the Indians assembled about nine o'clock to the number of 650, and Governor Stevens addressed them as follows:--

"This is a great day for you and for us, a day of peace and friendship between you and the whites for all time to come. You are about to be paid for your lands, and the Great Father has sent me to-day to treat with you concerning the payment. The Great Father lives far off. He has many children. Some of those children came here when he knew but little of them, or of the Indians, and he sent me to inquire about these things. We went through this country this last year, learned your numbers and saw your wants. We felt much for you, and went to the Great Father to tell him what we had seen. The Great Father felt for his children. He pitied them, and he has sent me here to-day to express these feelings, and to make a treaty for your benefit. The Great Father has many white children who come here, some to build mills, some to make farms, and some to fish; and the Great Father wishes you to learn to farm, and your children to go to a good school; and he now wants me to make a bargain with you, in which you will sell your lands, and in return be provided with all these things. You will have certain lands set apart for your homes, and receive yearly payments of blankets, axes, etc. All this is written down in this paper, which will be read to you. If it is good you will sign it, and I will then send it to the Great Father. I think he will be pleased with it and say it is good, but if not, if he wishes it different, he will say so and send it back; and then, if you agree to it, it is a fixed bargain, and payments will be made."

The treaty was then read section by section and explained to the Indians, and every opportunity given them to discuss it.

Governor Stevens then said:--

"The paper has been read to you. Is it good? If it is good, we will sign it; but if you dislike it in any point, say so now. After signing we have some goods to give you, and next summer will give you some more; and after that you must wait until the paper comes back from the Great Father. The goods now given are not in payment for your lands; they are merely a friendly present."

The Indians had some discussion, and Governor Stevens then put the question: "Are you ready? If so, I will sign it." There were no objections, and the treaty was then signed by Governor I.I. Stevens, and the chiefs, delegates, and headmen on the part of the Indians, and duly witnessed by the secretary, special agent, and seventeen citizens present.

The presents and provisions were then given to the chiefs, who distributed them among their people. Towards evening Mr. Swan arrived with twenty-nine Indians of the Puyallup tribe, and reported twenty more on the way. They had started three days before, but had been detained by bad weather. The governor decided to send them presents from Olympia.

Thus it will be seen that the governor first explained the objects and terms of the treaty generally, and the next day had the text of it read to them and also explained. The idea of selling their lands and being paid for them was not new to the Indians, for the settlers were in the habit of assuring them, when they objected and complained at the appropriation and fencing up of their choicest camping, root, and berry grounds, that the Great Father would soon pay them well for their country.

The scope and policy of the treaty will best appear by the following abstract of its thirteen articles:--

1. The Indians cede their land to the United States, comprising the present counties of Thurston, Pierce, and parts of Mason and King.

2. Sets off and describes the reservations, viz., Klah-she-min Island, known as Squaxon Island, situated opposite the mouths of Hammersley's and Totten's inlets, and separated from Hartstene Island by Pearl Passage, containing about two sections of land, or 1280 acres, a square tract of two sections near and south of the mouth of McAlister's Creek, and another equal tract on the south side of Commencement Bay, now covered by the city of Tacoma. Provision is made for the Indians to remove to these reservations, and for roads through them and from them to the nearest public highways.

3. Gives the Indians the right of fishing at their accustomed grounds, except the right of taking shell-fish from beds staked out or cultivated by citizens, and the rights of hunting, gathering berries and roots, and pasturing herds on unclaimed land.

4. $32,500 to be paid in annuities of goods, clothing, and useful articles during the next twenty years.

5. And $3250 to be expended in aiding the Indians to settle on their reservations.

6. Empowers the President to remove the Indians to other reservations, when the interests of the Territory require it, by remunerating them for their improvements.

7. Prohibits the use of annuities to pay the debts of individuals.

8. Prohibits war or depredations, and the Indians agree to submit all grievances to the government for settlement.

9. Excludes ardent spirits from the reservations on penalty of withholding annuities.

10. Provides at a central or general agency a free school, a blacksmith shop, and a carpenter shop, and to furnish a blacksmith, a carpenter, a farmer, and teachers, all to give instructions for twenty years.

11. Frees all slaves and abolishes slavery.

12. Prohibits the Indians from trading outside the dominions of the United States, and forbids foreign Indians to reside on the reservations without the permission of the superintendent or agent.

13. The treaty to go into effect as soon as ratified by the President and Senate.

The twelfth article was aimed against the liquor traffic, and also to counteract the undue influence of the Hudson Bay Company. It carried out the idea expressed in the governor's instructions to McClellan and Saxton at the outset of the exploration, already quoted. "The Indians must look to us for protection and counsel.... I am determined, in my intercourse with the Indians, to break up the ascendency of the Hudson Bay Company, and permit no authority or sanction to come between the Indians and the officers of this government."

Sixty-two Indians signed this treaty, "chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Squawksin, S'Homamish, Steh-chass, T'Peek-sin, Squiaitl, and Sa-ha-wamish tribes and bands of Indians, occupying the lands lying around the head of Puget Sound and the adjacent inlets, who, for the purpose of this treaty, are to be regarded as one nation." The Indians all made their marks to their names as written out in full by the secretary. They were: Qui-ee-metl, Sno-ho-dum-set, Lesh-high, Slip-o-elm, Kwi-ats, Sta-hi, Di-a-keh, Hi-ten, Squa-ta-hun, Kahk-tse-min, So-nan-o-youtl, Kl-tehp, Sahl-ko-min, T'Bet-ste-heh-bit, Tcha-hoos-tan, Ke-cha-hat, Spee-peh, Swe-yah-tum, Chah-achsh, Pich-kehd, S'Klah-o-sum, Sah-le-tatl, See-lup, E-la-kah-ka, Slug-yeh, Hi-nuk, Ma-mo-nish, Cheels, Knut-ca-nu, Bats-ta-ko-be, Win-ne-ya, Klo-out, Se-uch-ka-nam, Ske-mah-han, Wuts-un-a-pum, Quuts-a-tadm, Quut-a-heh-mtsn, Yah-leh-chn, To-tahl-kut, Yul-lout, See-ahts-oot-soot, Ye-tah-ko, We-po-it-ee, Kah-sld, La'h-hom-kan, Pah-how-at-ish, Swe-yehm, Sah-hwill, Se-kwaht, Kah-hum-kit, Yah-kwo-bah, Wut-sah-le-wun, Sah-ba-hat, Tel-e-kish, Swe-keh-nam, Sit-oo-ah, Ko-quel-a-cut, Jack, Keh-kise-be-lo, Go-yeh-hn, Sah-putsh, William.

Lesh-high, the third signer, was the principal chief and instigator of the Indian war that broke out the following year, and, after the outbreak was suppressed, was tried and executed for the murder of settlers, after an excited controversy and strenuous efforts to save him on the part of some of the regular officers. Born of a Yakima mother, he was a chief of unusual intelligence and energy, had much to do with the Hudson Bay Company's people at Fort Nisqually, by whom he was much trusted as a guide and hunter, and was supposed to be well affected towards the whites. The first signer, Qui-ee-muth, was Lesh-high's brother, and met with a more tragic fate, being slain by a revengeful settler after he was captured. Sta-hi, the fifth signer, was killed during the Indian war.

The witnesses who signed the treaty, nineteen in number, including well-known public men and pioneers, were the following: M.T. Simmons, Indian agent; James Doty, secretary; C.H. Mason, secretary of the Territory; W.A. Slaughter, 1st lieutenant, 4th infantry, U.S. A.; James McAlister, E. Giddings, Jr., George Shazer, Henry D. Cock, Orrington Cushman, S.S. Ford, Jr., John W. McAlister, Peter Anderson, Samuel Klady, W.H. Pullen, F.O. Hough, E.R. Tyerall, George Gibbs, Benjamin F. Shaw, interpreter, Hazard Stevens.

The governor became satisfied at a later date that the reservations set off for the Nisquallies and Puyallups were inadequate for their future needs, being of inferior soil and heavily timbered, and in 1856 caused them to be exchanged for two larger tracts of fine, fertile bottom land,--one on the Nisqually, a few miles above its mouth, and the other at the mouth of the Puyallup River, directly opposite the city of Tacoma, which the Indians still occupy.

In the evening, after the council broke up, the governor had another long conference with his advisory board, and settled the points and programme for other treaties. The next morning, directing Gibbs to survey the lines of the two reservations on Nisqually and Commencement bays, and dispatching Simmons and Shaw with the rest of the party in the schooner to the lower Sound to assemble the Indians for the remaining treaties, he returned to Olympia with Mason and Doty. The treaty was immediately forwarded to Washington, and was ratified by the Senate, March 3, 1855, but little over two months after the council.

THE TREATY OF POINT ELLIOTT.

The next council was held at Mukilteo, or Point Elliott, where, between January 12 and 21, the Indians of the east side of the Sound assembled to the number of 2300. On the latter date Governor Stevens arrived on the Major Tompkins, accompanied by Secretary Mason, and by his friend, Dr. C.M. Hitchcock, of San Francisco, who was visiting the country. After a long conference with his assistants in regard to the most suitable points for reservations, and the views and feelings of the Indians, he appointed Gibbs secretary, in place of Doty, who had departed on his mission east of the mountains, and directed him to prepare the draft of a treaty embodying the points decided upon, and in terms similar to the one recently concluded.

The next morning the Indians all assembled; the four head chiefs--Seattle, chief of the Duwhamish and other bands on White River and the Sound within twenty miles of Seattle; Pat-ka-nim, chief of the Snohomish; Goliah, chief of the Skagits; and Chow-its-hoot, chief of the Bellingham Bay and island Indians--took seats in front on the ground; the sub-chiefs occupied a second row, and the various tribes took places behind them in separated groups. The governor then addressed them as follows, Colonel Shaw interpreting:--

"My children, you are not my children because you are the fruit of my loins, but because you are children for whom I have the same feeling as if you were the fruit of my loins. You are my children for whom I will strenuously labor all the days of my life until I shall be taken hence. What will a man do for his own children? He will see that they are well cared for; that they have clothes to protect them against the cold and rain; that they have food to guard them against hunger; and as for thirst, you have your own glorious streams in which to quench it. I want you as my children to be fed and clothed, and made comfortable and happy. I find that many of you are Christians, and I saw among you yesterday the sign of the cross, which I think the most holy of all signs. I address you therefore mainly as Christians, who know that this life is a preparation for the life to come.

"You understand well my purpose, and you want now to know the special things we propose to do for you. We want to place you in homes where you can cultivate the soil, raising potatoes and other articles of food, and where you may be able to pass in canoes over the waters of the Sound and catch fish, and back to the mountains to get roots and berries. The Great Father desires this, and why am I able to say this? Here are two thousand men, women, and children, who have always treated white men well. Did I not come through your country one year since? Were not many of you now present witnesses of the fact? [All said Governor Stevens came.] Did I then make promises to you? [All said he did not.] I am glad to hear this, because I came through your country, not to make promises, but to know what you were, to know what you wanted, to know your grievances, and to report to the Great Father about you. I have been to the Great Father and told him your condition. Here on this Sound you make journeys of three and four days, but I made a journey of fifty days on your behalf. I told the Great Father I had traveled six moons in reaching this country, and had never found an Indian who would not give me food, raiment, and animals to forward me and mine to the great country of the West. I told him that I was among ten thousand Indians, and they took me to their lodges and offered me all they had, and here I will pause and ask you again if you do not know that I have been absent several months on this business? [All shout, 'Yes.'] I went away, but I left a good and strong man in my place. I call upon Governor Mason to speak to you."

Mr. Mason then addressed them, and then the governor called upon Colonel Simmons, who made them a speech in Chinook, at the conclusion of which the Indians cheered.

The governor then resumed:--

"The Great Father thinks you ought to have homes, and he wants you to have a school where your children can learn to read, and can be made farmers and be taught trades. He is willing you should catch fish in the waters, and get roots and berries back in the mountains. He wishes you all to be virtuous and industrious, and to become a happy and prosperous community. Is this good, and do you want this? If not, we will talk further. [All answer, 'We do.']

"My children, I have simply told you the heart of the Great Father. But the lands are yours, and we mean to pay you for them. We thank you that you have been so kind to all the white children of the Great Father who have come here from the East. Those white children have always told you you would be paid for your lands, and we are now here to buy them.

"The white children of the Great Father, but no more his children than you are, have come here, some to build mills, some to till the land, and others to build and sail ships. My children, I believe that I have got your hearts. You have my heart. We will put our hearts down on paper, and then we will sign our names. I will send that paper to the Great Father, and if he says it is good, it will stand forever. I will now have the paper read to you, and all I ask of you two thousand Indians is that you will say just what you think, and, if you find it good, that your chiefs and headmen will sign the same."

Before the treaty was read, the Indians sung a mass, after the Roman Catholic form, and recited a prayer.

Governor Stevens: "Does any one object to what I have said? Does my venerable friend Seattle object? I want Seattle to give his heart to me and to his people."

Seattle: "I look upon you as my father. All the Indians have the same good feeling toward you, and will send it on the paper to the Great Father. All of them--men, old men, women, and children--rejoice that he has sent you to take care of them. My mind is like yours; I don't want to say more. My heart is very good towards Dr. Maynard [a physician who was present]; I want always to get medicine from him."

Governor Stevens: "My friend Seattle has put me in mind of one thing which I had forgotten. You shall have a doctor to cure your bodies. Now, my friends, I want you, if Seattle has spoken well, to say so by three cheers. [Three cheers were given.] Now we call upon Pat-ka-nim to speak his mind."

Pat-ka-nim: "To-day I understood your heart as soon as you spoke. I understood your talk plainly. God made my heart and those of my people good and strong. It is good that we should give you our real feelings today. We want everything as you have said, the doctor and all. Such is the feeling of all the Indians. Our hearts are with the whites. God makes them good towards the Americans." [Three cheers were given for Pat-ka-nim.]

Chow-its-hoot: "I do not want to say much. My heart is good. God has made it good towards you. I work on the ground, raise potatoes, and build houses. I have some houses at home. But I will stop building if you wish, and will move to Cha-chu-sa. Now I have given you my opinion, and that of my friends. Their feelings are all good, and they will do as you say hereafter. My mind is the same as Seattle's. I love him, and send my friends to him if they are sick. I go to Dr. Maynard at Seattle if I am sick." [Cheers for Chow-its-hoot.]

Goliah: "My mind is the same as the governor's. God has made it so. I have no wish to say much. I am happy at heart. I am happy to hear the governor talk of God. My heart is good and that of all my friends. I give it to the governor. I shall be glad to have a doctor for the Indians. We are all glad to hear you, and to be taken care of by you. I do not want to say more." [Cheers were given for Goliah.]

The treaty was then read and interpreted to them, and the governor asked them if they were satisfied with it. If they were, he would sign it first, and then they should sign it. If not, he wished them to state in what they desired it to be altered. All having signified their approbation, it was signed first by Governor Stevens, and afterwards by the chiefs and headmen.

The hour being late when the signing was finished, the distribution of the presents was deferred to the next day.

Tuesday, January 23. The Indians having reassembled, Governor Stevens informed them that he was about to distribute some presents. They were not intended as payment for their lands, but merely as a friendly token of regard. He gave them but few things at this time, but the next summer he should again give them a larger present, when the goods intended for them arrived.

Seattle then brought a white flag, and presented it, saying:

"Now, by this we make friends, and put away all bad feelings, if we ever had any. We are the friends of the Americans. All the Indians are of the same mind. We look upon you as our father. We will never change our minds, but, since you have been to see us, we will always be the same. Now! now! do you send this paper of our hearts to the Great Chief. That is all I have to say."

The presents were then given to the chiefs to distribute among their people, the camp was struck, and the party embarked on board the steamer, which had been chartered for the purpose of expediting the preparations for the next council, that with the S'Klallams and Sko-ko-mish, but, a heavy blow coming on, she lay at anchor till morning. An Indian express arrived with news that the Indians were collected at Fort Gamble, awaiting the arrival of the governor.

The tribes, as enumerated in the treaty, furnish a long list of unpronounceable Indian names, as follows: Dwamish, Suquamish, Sk-tahl-mish, Sa-mah-mish, Smalh-ka-mish, Skope-ah-mish, Sno-qual-moo, Skai-wha-mish, N'Quentl-ma-mish, Sk-tah-le-jum, Sto-luck-wha-mish, Sno-ho-mish, Skagit, Kik-i-all-us, Swin-a-mish, Squin-a-mish, Sah-ku-me-hu, Noo-wha-ha, Nook-wa-chah-mish, Me-see-qua-guilch, Cho-bah-ah-bish, and others.

The fifteen articles of this treaty contain the same general provisions as that of She-nah-nam Creek. The territory ceded by Article 1 extends from the summit of the Cascades to the middle of the Sound, and from the 49th parallel as far south as the Puyallup River, very nearly, and comprises the present counties of King, part of Kitsap, Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island, and San Juan.

The reservations, Articles 2 and 3, included 1280 acres at Port Madison, 1280 acres on the east side of Fidalgo Island, and the island called Chah-chu-sa in the Lummi River. An entire township on the northeast side of Port Gardner, embracing Tulalip Bay, was made the principal reservation, to which the Indians might be removed from the smaller ones; $150,000 in annuities in goods, etc., for twenty years, and $15,000 for improvements on the reservation were provided. The rights of fishing, hunting, gathering berries and roots, and pasturage on vacant land were secured to the Indians. Slavery was abolished, liquor prohibited on the reservations, wars and depredations forbidden, and trading in foreign dominions prohibited. A free school, teachers, doctor, blacksmith and carpenter with shops, and a farmer were provided for, and provision made for eventually allotting the reservations to them in severalty.

The first chief to sign the treaty was Seattle, after whom was named the metropolis of the Sound; the next was Pat-ka-nim, then Chow-its-hoot, then Goliah, and then follows the long list of guttural and sibillant native names, unspeakable by white lips, some of which were accompanied by an alias, as the Smoke, the Priest, General Washington, General Pierce, Davy Crockett, etc.

The treaty was witnessed by M.T. Simmons, C.H. Mason, Charles M. Hitchcock, H.A. Goldsborough, George Gibbs, John H. Scranton, Henry D. Cock, S.S. Ford, Jr., Orrington Cushman, Ellis Barnes, P. Bailey, S.M. Collins, Lafayette Balch, E.S. Fowler, J.H. Hall, Robert Davis, and Benjamin F. Shaw,--seventeen in number.

The ratification of this and all Governor Stevens's subsequent Indian treaties was delayed some four years in consequence of the Indian war which broke out in the fall of 1855, and the misrepresentations made concerning them, and the charges that they were the cause of the war,--misrepresentations and charges originally started by the hostile Indians, and taken up by prejudiced army officers and political and personal enemies; and it was not until he entered Congress, and personally vindicated his treaties before the government and Senate, that they were ratified, on March 8, 1859.

TREATY OF HAHD-SKUS OR POINT-NO-POINT.

The next council was held at Point-no-Point, on the west side of the Sound, opposite the southern end of Whitby Island. The weather was very stormy on the 24th and 25th, but twelve hundred Indians assembled here, comprising the S'Klallams or Clallams, who occupied the shores from half way down the Strait of Fuca to the council ground; the Chim-a-kums, of Port Townsend Bay and the lower end of Hood's Canal; and the Skokomish or Too-an-hooch, from Hood's Canal and the country about its southern extremity. The Major Tompkins reached Point-no-Point on the 24th, and, leaving the schooner at anchor, and the men on shore to form camp, ran down to Port Townsend to bring up additional provisions, and returned in the afternoon. On the 25th, notwithstanding the storm, the Indians gathered at the council ground, and, having seated themselves in a circular row under their chiefs, Governor Stevens addressed them as follows:--

"My children, you call me your father. I, too, have a father, who is your Great Father. That Great Father has sent me here to-day to pay you for your lands, to provide for your children, to see that you are fed, and that you are cared for. Your Great Father wishes you to be happy, to be friends to each other. The Great Father wants you and the whites to be friends; he wants you to have a house of your own, to have a school where your children can learn. He wants you to learn to farm, to learn to use tools, and also to have a doctor. Now, all these things shall be written down in a paper; that paper shall be read to you. If the paper is good, you will sign it and I will sign it. I will then send the paper to the Great Father. If the Great Father finds that paper good, he will send me word, and I will let you know. The Great Father lives a long way off, and some time will be required to hear from him. I want you to wait patiently till you hear from him. In the mean time the Great Father has sent to you some presents simply as a free gift. Some of these presents I will give you to-day, but I shall give you more in the course of the summer. You will also have your agent, Mr. Simmons, to take care of you. This you will have all the time; and, when the paper comes from the Great Father, then you will have your own houses and homes and schools. Now, what have you to say? If good, give your assent; if not, say so. Now, sit quiet a moment, and the paper will be read."

After the treaty had been read and interpreted, Governor Stevens again asked them if they had anything to say.

Che-lan-teh-tat, an old Skokomish, then rose and said:--

"I wish to speak my mind as to selling the land. Great Chief, what shall we eat if we do so? Our only food is berries, deer, and salmon. Where, then, shall we find these? I don't want to sign away all my land. Take half of it, and let us keep the rest. I am afraid that I shall become destitute and perish for want of food. I don't like the place you have chosen for us to live on. I am not ready to sign that paper."

S'Haie-at-seha-uk, a To-an-hooch, next spoke:--

"I do not want to leave the mouth of the river. I do not want to leave my old home and my burying-ground. I am afraid I shall die if I do."

Dah-whil-luk, the Skokomish head chief, an old man, rose and said:--

"I do not want to sell my land, because it is valuable. The whites pay a great deal for a small piece, and they get money by selling the sticks [timber]. Formerly the Indians slept, but the whites came among them and woke them up, and we now know that the lands are worth much."

Hool-hole-tan or Jim said:--

"I want to speak. I do not like the offers you make in the treaty to us. You say you will give us land, but why should you give us the mouth of the river? I don't like to go on a reservation with the S'Klallams; and, in case of trouble, there are more of them than of us, and they will charge us with it. Before the whites came among us, we had no idea who made the land; but some time ago the priests told us that the Great Chief above made it, and also made the Indians. Since then the Americans have told us that the Great Father always bought the land, and that it was not right to take it for nothing. They waked the Indians up by this, and they now know their land was worth much. I don't want to sign away my right to the land. If it was myself alone I signed for, I would do it; but we have women and children. Let us keep half of it, and take the rest. Why should we sell all? We may become destitute. Why not let us live together with you? I want you to hear what I have to say. All the Indians have been afraid to talk, but I wish to speak and be listened to."

Chits-a-mah-han or the Duke of York, the head chief of the Clallams:--

"My heart is good. I am happy since I have heard the paper read, and since I have understood Governor Stevens, particularly since I have been told I could look for food where I pleased, and not in one place only. Formerly the Indians were bad towards each other, but Governor Stevens has made them agree to be friends. Before the whites came we were always poor; since then we have earned money, and got blankets and clothing. I hope the governor will tell the whites not to abuse the Indians, as many are in the habit of doing, ordering them to go away, and knocking them down."

Other chiefs of the Clallams and of the Chem-a-cums followed in the same strain as the Duke of York, approving the treaty. After further explaining its provisions the governor adjourned the council to the morrow at the request of the Skokomish chief, in order that they might talk it over and understand it thoroughly.

It will be observed that this treaty encountered considerable opposition on the part of the Skokomish, who were, however, the most benefited by it, as the reservation was located in their country. They were largely influenced by the example of the other tribes, and after much discussion among themselves, and talks between sessions with the governor and his assistants, concluded to accept it.

The next morning was a fine, pleasant one, and the Indians came to the council bearing white flags. The governor addressed them, pointing out that the treaty gave them all those things that a father would give his children, as homes, schools, mechanics, and a doctor; the right to fish, hunt, and gather roots and berries. Besides, it prohibited fire-water, and does not a father prevent his children from drinking fire-water? The Great Father was good to his children, and did not wish to steal their lands. It was for them to say what they thought right. If they had anything to say, say it now.

The Duke of York then presented a white flag, saying:

"My heart is white, so are those of my people, and we will never stain it with blood."

Dah-kwil-luk, the Skokomish chief, said:--

"My heart, too, has become white, and I give it to the chief. I put away all bad feelings. I will be as a good man, not stealing or shedding blood. We have thrown away the feelings of yesterday and are now satisfied."

He also presented a flag to the governor.

Kul-kah-han, the Chem-a-cum chief, then presented his flag, saying:--

"We can say nothing but what this flag tells. We give our hearts to you with it in return for what you do for us. We were once wretched, but since you came you have made us right. Formerly other Indians did wrong us, but since the whites came we are free and have not been killed."

Then all signed the treaty, and at a signal a salute was fired from the steamer in honor of the event.

Some hostile feelings having previously existed between the tribes, Governor Stevens now declared that they must drop them forever, and that their hearts towards each other should be good as well as towards the whites. Accordingly the three head chiefs, in behalf of their people, then shook hands. Then the presents were distributed to them. In the afternoon the party reëmbarked, Mr. Mason returning to Olympia on the steamer, and Governor Stevens with the remainder proceeding to Port Townsend in the schooner, on his way to Cape Flattery, the next point of meeting.

The tribes mentioned in the treaty as parties thereto are the Skokomish, To-an-hooch, Chem-a-cum, and S'Klallam, and the sub-bands of the last, viz., Kah-tie, Squah-quaihtl, Tch-queen, Ste-teht-lum, Tsohkw, Yennis, Elh-wa, Pishtst, Hun-nint, Klat-la-wash, and O-ke-ho, occupying lands on the Strait of Fuca and Hood's Canal.

A reservation was set off at the mouth of the Skokomish River, of 3840 acres. $60,000 in the usual annuities, and $6000 for the improvement of the reservation, were provided, and the other provisions were the same as in the Tulalip and She-nah-nam Creek treaties. This treaty was witnessed by the same gentlemen who witnessed the preceding.

COUNCIL OF NEAH BAY, AND MAKAH TREATY.

From Port Townsend the schooner sped rapidly down the Strait of Fuca, running one hundred and twenty miles in two days,--no holiday voyage, in a small vessel in midwinter, along that exposed and shelterless coast,--and reached Neah Bay on the evening of the 28th. At this point, just inside Cape Flattery, the Makah Indians had their principal village. Messengers were immediately dispatched to call in the Indians of the other Makah villages, and of tribes farther south on the coast. The tents, goods, and men were landed on the 29th, and camp established. The following day the governor, accompanied by Mr. Gibbs, crossed the Cape Flattery peninsula to the Pacific coast, and examined the country for the purpose of selecting a suitable reservation. In the evening he called a meeting of the Makah chiefs on board the schooner, the other villages having come in during the day, and explained the principal features of the proposed treaty. The Great Father had sent him here to watch over the Indians. He had talked with the other tribes on the Sound, and they had promised to be good friends with their neighbors, and he had now come to talk with the Makahs. When he had done here, he was going to the Indians down the coast, and would make them friends to the Makahs. He had treated with the other Sound Indians for their lands, setting aside reserves for them, giving them a school, farmer, physician, etc., etc. When he concluded, Kal-chote, a Makah chief, spoke: "Before the big chiefs Klehsitt, the White Chief, Yall-a-coon or Flattery Jack, and Heh-iks died, he was not the head chief himself, he was only the small chief, but though there were many Indians then, he was not the least of them. He knew the country all around, and therefore he had a right to speak. He thought he ought to have the right to fish, and take whales, and get food where he liked. He was afraid that if he could not take halibut where he wanted, he would become poor."

Keh-tchook, of the stone house: "What Kal-chote had said was his wish. He did not want to leave the salt water."

Governor Stevens informed them that, so far from wishing to stop their fisheries, he wished to send them oil-kettles and fishing apparatus.

Klah-pr-at-loo: "He was willing to sell his land. All he wanted was the right of fishing."

Tse-kan-wootl: "He wanted the sea. That was his country. If whales were killed and floated ashore, he wanted, for his people, the exclusive right of taking them, and if their slaves ran away, he wanted to get them back."

Governor Stevens replied that he wanted them to fish, but the whites should fish also. Whoever killed the whales was to have them if they came ashore. Many white men were coming into the country, and he did not want the Indians to be crowded out.

Kal-chote: "I want always to live on my old ground, and to die on it. I only want a small piece for a house, and will live as a friend to the whites, and they should fish together."

Ke-bach-sat: "My heart is not bad, but I do not wish to leave all my land. I am willing you should have half, but I want the other half myself."

It-an-da-ha: "My father! my father! I now give you my heart. When any ships come and the whites injure me, I will apply to my father, and tell him of my trouble, and look to him for help, and if any Indians wish to kill me, I shall still call on my father. I do not wish to leave the salt water. I want to fish in common with the whites. I don't want to sell all my land. I want a part in common with the whites to plant potatoes on. I want the place where my house is."

Governor Stevens asked them whether, if the right of drying fish wherever they pleased was left them, they could not agree to live at one place for a winter residence and potato ground, explaining the idea of subdivision of lands, and he desired them to think the matter over during the night. They were asked to consult among themselves upon the choice of a head chief. As they declined doing this, on the ground that they were all of equal rank, the governor selected Tse-kan-wootl, the Osett chief, as the head, a choice in which they all acquiesced with satisfaction. Temporary papers in lieu of commissions were then issued to a number of the sub-chiefs.

The Indians assembled in council on the morning of January 31. The number of the tribe was found to be six hundred. Governor Stevens explained the provisions of the treaty:--

"The Great Father sent me to see you, and give you his mind. The whites are crowding in upon you. The Great Father wishes to give you your homes, to buy your land, and give a fair price for it, leaving you land enough to live on and raise potatoes. He knows what whalers you are, how far you go to sea to take whales. He will send you barrels in which to put your oil, kettles to try it out, lines and implements to fish with. The Great Father wants your children to go to school, to learn trades."

The treaty was then read and interpreted and explained, clause by clause.

Governor Stevens then asked them if they were satisfied. If they were, to say so. If not, to answer freely and state their objections.

Tse-kan-wootl brought up a white flag and presented it, saying: "Look at this flag. See if there are any spots on it. There are none, and there are none on our hearts."

Kal-chote then presented another flag and said, "What you have said is good, and what you have written is good."

The Indians gave three cheers or shouts as each concluded. The governor then signed the treaty, and was followed by the Indian chiefs and principal men, forty-one in number, of the Neah, Waatch, Tsoo-yess, and Osett villages, or bands of the Makahs. Among the names are Klah-pe-an-hie or Andrew Jackson, Tchoo-quut-lah or Yes Sir, and Swell or Jeff Davis.

The witnesses were M.T. Simmons, Indian agent; George Gibbs, secretary; B.F. Shaw, interpreter; C.M. Hitchcock, M.D.; E.S. Fowler, Orrington Cushman, and Robert Davis.

The provisions of this treaty are the same as in the others. The annuities in goods, etc., amounted to $30,000, and $3000 were provided to improve the reservation, which embraced Neah Bay and Cape Flattery and their principal village. It was intended only for a place of residence, with enough cultivable land for potatoes and vegetables, and, what was more important, to prevent their being crowded off by fishing establishments. The locality is unfit for agriculture, being rocky and sterile, with an annual rainfall of 122 inches. And the reserve was all they needed, for the Makahs are bold and skillful fishermen and sailors, accustomed to venture thirty to fifty miles out to sea in their large canoes, and take the whale and halibut, while inshore they hunt the seal and sea-otter, and catch the salmon. They are a more sturdy, brave, and enterprising race than the natives of the Sound, more resembling the northern Indians. In their remote, rocky stronghold, protected by the strong arm of the government extended over them by this treaty, but depending upon the sea and their own efforts for a livelihood, they have prospered greatly, putting up vast quantities of fish, furs, and oil for market; and there are few white communities that have so much wealth per capita, or wealth so evenly distributed, as these industrious and manly Indians.

Immediately after the signing the presents were distributed, the camp was broken up, and in the evening the party reëmbarked. The little vessel at once hoisted sail for Port Townsend, where, after a three days' trip, being delayed by head winds, she arrived February 3. The next day the governor, with some of the party, took the Major Tompkins for Victoria, in order to confer with Governor Douglass upon the means of preventing the piratical incursions of the northern Indians upon the Sound. On the 5th he returned to Port Townsend, and reached Olympia on the night of the 6th.

This brief campaign was Napoleonic, in rapidity and success. In six weeks Governor Stevens met and treated with five thousand Indians, of numerous independent and jealous tribes and bands, and in four separate councils carefully and indefatigably made clear to them the new policy, convinced them of its benefits to them, and concluded with them four separate treaties, by which the Indian title to the whole Puget Sound basin was extinguished forever, and the great source and danger of collision between the races was removed. For the eight thousand five hundred Indians hitherto ignored by Congress and treated by the settlers as mere vagrants, to be shoved aside at the whim or self-interest of any white man, he established nine reservations, containing over 60,000 acres, for their permanent homes and exclusive possessions; provided annuities of clothing, goods, and useful articles for twenty years, aggregating $300,000; abolished slavery and war among them; excluded liquor from the reservations; extended over them the protection of the government, with agents, schools, teachers, farmers, and mechanics to instruct them; and, in a word, set their feet fairly on "the white man's road." To accomplish this astonishing work in such brief time, he traveled eight hundred miles upon the Sound and Strait in the most inclement season of the year, half the distance, and that the most dangerous, in a small sailing-craft. He disregarded the storms and rains of that inclement season, and spared neither himself nor his assistants. It is not easy to say who had the hardest task, the agents and messengers who traveled all over the Sound in canoes in the tempestuous rainy season to call the scattered bands together, or the unfortunate secretary, who had to catch and set down on paper the jaw-breaking native names.

The success and rapidity with which he carried through these treaties were due to the careful and thorough manner in which he planned them, and prepared the minds of the Indians by his tour among and talks to them a year previous, and by the messages and agents he had sent among them. Besides, the Indians realized their own feebleness and uncertain future, divided into so many bands, exposed to the depredations of the northern Indians, and dreading the advent and encroachments of the whites. Their minds consequently were well attuned for treating; and when they understood the wise and beneficent policy and liberal terms offered by the governor, they gladly accepted them, and put their trust in him as their friend and protector, a trust never withdrawn and never forsaken.

The Indian war which occurred soon after, and the delay in the ratification of the treaties, seriously militated against carrying out the beneficent policy so well inaugurated, and later the occasional appointment of inefficient and dishonest agents has proved even more detrimental; but notwithstanding all these drawbacks the Indians have made substantial advances in civilization, and it is interesting to compare their present condition, as given in the last reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and from local sources.

Their numbers have diminished only about one half. No one seeing their debased condition in 1850 to 1860 (except the Makahs) would have deemed it possible for them to hold their own so well.

Makahs 750 Tulalip Agency, lower Sound Indians 1700 Puyallup Agency, upper Sound Indians 1850 ---- 4300

All now wear civilized dress, and live in houses. Many can read and write, and many of their children attend the reservation schools.

"Among the Makahs, many of the younger Indians are turning their attention to farming and raising stock, and many of them have fine gardens. They still catch a great many fish, sending them to market in Seattle by steamer, and have caught and shipped as high as 10,000 pounds in one day. There are few places with so large a population where so little crime is committed."

All the reservations on the Sound have now been allotted, and the Indians are living on their respective allotments. A considerable number have taken up farms under the homestead laws, or purchased lands from the whites, and are farming successfully. Such Indians are frequently seen driving into the towns with good wagons and teams, as well dressed as the average white rancher, and accompanied ofttimes by their wives and children.

"Practically all these Indians dress as civilized men and women, and live in houses, some of which are good, comfortable, and roomy, fully equal to the average farm dwellings in prosperous communities of whites, and from these they grade down to the most squalid shacks imaginable. Under the influence of the teachers, and the example of the more advanced Indians and the better class of white neighbors, there is slow but sure improvement in this particular."

During the fall hundreds of them congregate on the hop-fields, where they supply the most reliable hop-pickers, whole families--men, women, and children--diligently working together. After this harvest crowds of them flock into the towns, and lay in stores of clothing and provisions for the winter before returning home.[11]

[11] Commissioner of Indian Affairs' Report for 1899, pp. 301-303, 612.

The Riverside Press

_Electrotyped and printed by H.O. Houghton & Co._

_Cambridge, Mass, U.S.A._

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Some compound words (e.g., 'wagon-master') appeared both with and without a hyphen. They are given as printed. Where a word is hyphenated on a line break, the hyphen is retained if the preponderance of other appearances indicate it was intended.

Illlustrations cannot be reproduced here, but the approximate position of each is indicated as: [Illustration: ].

Footnotes are repositioned at the end of each chapter. They have been re-numbered consecutively.

The following minor issues are noted and corrected.

The name 'Boulineau' was likely misprinted based on that of another member of Steven's party, Pierre Boutineau. The instance on p. 330 refers to Paul Boulieau.

p. 2 there is scar[c]ely a State in the Union Added 'c'.

p. 28 and Schuyler Hamilton[.] Added full stop

p. 97 ponto[o]n Added.

p. 99 Do not fa[l/i]l to Corrected.

p. 137 about twelve [P.] M. Supplied missing 'P'.

p. 141 but about nine o'clock[,/.] Corrected.

p. 182 at good esc[a/o]pette range Corrected.

p. 210 formid[id]able Removed.

p. 216 the Cerro [C/G]ordo Corrected.

p. 330 Bouli[n]eau Removed spurious 'n'.

p. 373 dress of a chief?["/'] Corrected.