"We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow."

The volunteers now interfered, and told the commander the Nez Perces had always been "good Indians." The settlers on the Bitter Root had no grounds for complaint in their conduct, as they passed each year to and from the buffalo country. Besides, in the expressive frontier phrase, "they had not lost any Indians," and consequently were not hunting for any. The Indians might pass, and God speed them out of the country.

The Nez Perces not only passed by in peace, but they stopped at the villages of Stevensville and Corvallis and traded with the whites. They also left a spy at Corvallis, who stopped until Howard had come up and passed on, and then sped away to Joseph with full particulars.

Meantime General Gibbon, with about two hundred cavalry, had hastened from Helena across to Fort Missoula, on the Bitter Root, but arrived too late to intercept Joseph. Gibbon followed the Indian trail, and overtook them August 8. Waiting through the night for "that dark still hour which is just before the dawn," he swept through the camp in a furious charge, completely surprising the Indians. It seems that Joseph and his men supposed the war was over, and having started to the buffalo country, were careless about posting sentinels. Though taken by surprise, General Joseph rallied his warriors and recaptured the camp. He also drove the soldiers back to a grove of timber, where they erected rude barricades, and made. a stand.

Joseph said of General Gibbon: "Finding that he was not able to capture us, he sent to his camp for his big guns (cannon), but my men had captured them and all the ammunition. We damaged the big guns all we could and carried away the powder and lead." At eleven o'clock that night the Indians withdrew, leaving Gibbon wounded and his command so crippled that it could not pursue. Joseph had fought and won his third battle.

The Nez Perces remained long enough to bury their dead, but when General Howard joined Gibbon at this place, his

Bannock scouts, ghoul-like, dug up the bodies, and in the presence of officers and men, scalped and mutilated them. The body of Looking-Glass, their ablest diplomat, who fell here, was abused in this manner, although the Nez Perces, being neither civilized nor the allies of civilization, neither took scalps nor mutilated. It is also their proud boast that they never made war on women and children while the war lasted. Joseph said: “We would feel ashamed to do so cowardly an act.”

Continuing the retreat, Joseph and his band crossed the continental divide again into Idaho, and camped on the great Camas prairie, on the Yellowstone, west of the National Park. He had replenished his supplies, captured two hundred and fifty good horses, and his forces were in excellent condition. General Howard's troops also camped in the prairie a day's march behind. Lieutenant Bacon had been dispatched with a squad of men to hold Tacher's Pass, the most accessible roadway over the divide into the park. The pickets and sentinels were posted, and the weary troopers were soon sleeping, unconscious of war's alarms.

In the faint starlight dark forms might have been seen creeping through the tall grass. Halter ropes and hobbles were cut and bells removed from the necks of the bell-mares. Creeping away in the same manner, but with less caution, a slight noise was made. "What was that?" asked a picket of a comrade. "Nothing but a prowling wolf," was the reply. For some time nothing could be heard in the camp but the regular footfalls of the sentinel. Suddenly a troop of horsemen came in sight, riding back over the trail of the Indians. They rode in column of fours, regularly and without haste. Bacon's men returning," said the pickets. On came the troopers to the very lines of the camp, but when they were challenged by the sentinel they answered with a war-whoop. At once pandemonium was let loose. A wild yell arose, followed by a fusillade of small arms, which startled the soldiers and stampeded the horses and mules, which were seen scampering away, with heads in the air, nostrils spread, snorting with excitement, fol

"It must be

lowed by the Indians, yelling like demons. We must credit the great chieftain with a successful surprise.

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.

There was yet one hope. Days before, a messenger had embarked in a canoe and started down the Yellowstone River to Fort Keough, to inform Gen. N. A. Miles, the commandant, of the situation. General Miles at once put his forces in order and started northward to intercept the wily Joseph. He reached the Indian camp on the morning of September 30, at the head of three hundred and seventy-five men, and at once began the attack.

The Nez Perces knew of their coming only long enough to take a position in the ravines of the creek valley, and await the attack. General Miles ordered a charge upon the Indian camp, which succeeded in cutting it in two and capturing most of their horses. The soldiers, however, recoiled under the deadly fire of the Indians, with one-fifth of their force killed and wounded.

Joseph's warriors, though surprised, proved themselves worthy of the reputation they had established at Camas prairie, Big Hole and elsewhere, and fought with great valor. The con

tinuous fire and unerring aim of their magazine guns at close range inflicted a loss to General Miles of twenty-six killed and forty wounded, while Joseph's loss for the first day and night was eighteen men and three women.

Each side found foemen worthy of their steel. Never, on any occasion, did the American Indians display more heroic courage, and never did the American soldiers exhibit more unshaken fortitude.

For four days and as many nights the two forces faced each other. The whites controlled the situation, as escape from the ravine was cut off, but were unwilling to attempt to capture the camp by storm. They knew, from their first experience, that such an attempt would involve a terrible loss of life. Meantime, Joseph strengthened his intrenchments and prepared for a siege. He also dispatched a messenger to Sitting Bull, who was just over the line of the British dominions with twelve hundred discontented and hostile Sioux. The hope was that this chief and his warriors would come to their relief; but for some reason Sitting Bull failed them in their extremity.

The Indians could not escape through the lines without abandoning their wounded and helpless. Joseph said of this battle: "We could have escaped from Bear Paw Mountain if we had left our wounded, old women and children behind. We were unwilling to do this. We had never heard of a wounded Indian recovering while in the hands of white men. I could not bear to see my wounded men and women suffer any longer; we had lost enough already. General Miles had promised that we might return to our country with what stock we had left. I believed General Miles, or I never would have surrendered. I have heard that he has been censured for making the promise to return us to Lapwai. He could not have made any other terms with me at that time. I would have held him in check until my friends came to my assistance, and then neither of the generals nor their soldiers would have ever left Bear Paw Mountain alive."

On the morning of October 5 Joseph and his band surren