dispatches different dates, and represented one as written on the eighth day before the battle!

Shivering with cold, it was no difficult matter for us all to be alert at the first appearance of daylight, ready for the anticipated assault; but it did not come, and as the sun made its appearance in the eastern horizon and commenced to cast his warming rays upon us, we began to realize that our perils were probably over. At half-past six a citizen rode into our camp from the direction of the train, announcing himself as a courier from General Howard. He was asked if General Howard was on his way up, and a loud cheer burst from the men around me as he answered in the affirmative. He was then asked in regard to our train, but said he had seen nothing of it, and this confirmed the impression that it had been destroyed. On being cross-questioned, however, he admitted passing in the darkness a number of animals, which he took for Indian ponies, and that he might have passed the train without seeing it, which turned out to be the case. Half an hour afterwards another messenger from General Howard, a sergeant of cavalry, came in, and although his dispatch was previous to the one just received, his arrival relieved our minds in regard to the safety of our train, for he informed me that he had spent the night before at it, being unable to come to us the afternoon before on account of the Indians who were about us.

Scouts were now sent out and communicated with the train, but these encountered Indians, who again made their appearance around us, and a part of our force was sent out to bring the train to us. In the meantime we were without provisions, and now that the mental strain of anxiety was removed, empty stomachs began to assert their rights and cry aloud for food. The only one of our four horses brought out of the fight was wounded, and soon after we reached the timber he was killed by one of the shots fired at us. That night he was butchered, and before our train reached us the next day horse-steaks were voted very palatable.

After we had time to think over the incidents of the day, one was recalled which created a good deal of amusement. The second messenger who came to us, the cavalry sergeant, had a small piece of bread and a smaller piece of ham, which he very generously turned over to me. It is customary whenever men from another command reach a post to "attach" them to a company of the garrison for the purpose of drawing rations. The adjutant says that as soon as I got the sergeant's bread and ham I called to him and directed him "to attach the sergeant to a company for rations." He conducted the sergeant to where an unskinned, somewhat repulsive-looking horse-leg was lying in the dust, and said: “Sergeant,

here is the commissary, help yourself!" The sergeant replied he had been to breakfast and didn't feel hungry just then.

Our train reached us about sundown, and the camp was soon enlivened by brisk fires, around which the men gathered to recite the incidents of the fight, whilst the much-needed provisions were cooking, and for the first time we learned of the particulars of the struggle with the howitzer. In its attempt to join us, the men in charge of it were encountered by Indians, who opened fire upon them when it had reached within about a mile of us. Two of the men cowardly ran at the first fire, whilst the others loaded and fired the piece twice, and then, the horses being killed, used their rifles until, one of them being killed and two of the others wounded, the remainder succeeded in making their way back to the train under the guidance of Blodget, who was with them. They threw away the friction primers, so that the gun could not be fired, and then left it, together with over two thousand rounds of extra rifle ammunition, in possession of the enemy. We recovered the gun afterwards, but the Indians had taken off and carried away the wheels, implements, and shells, portions of which were afterwards found high up on the adjacent hills. That night late, after all but the guard were snugly wrapped in their blankets for a good night's rest, we received a parting volley from a distance, which had the effect of sending us hurriedly to our rifle-pits, but this proved to be the final farewell, and we saw no more of our foes.

Thus terminated the battle of the Big Hole, or as some of the papers got it, Big Hole Pass. It was fought on the open prairie, on the banks of Ruby Creek, a tributary of the Big Hole River, the "Wisdom River" of Lewis and Clarke. Our total loss was twentynine killed, including two officers, Captain Logan and Lieutenant Bradley, and forty wounded, including five officers, one of whom (Lieutenant English) afterwards died. The loss on the part of the Indians, was estimated at between eighty and ninety killed, most of those left on the field being buried, when we next visited the site of the village, on the 11th. On the morning of that day a party was sent over the field to bury our dead. All were recognized and buried where they fell. The number of Indian dead would have remained a matter of conjecture to us, but for the fact that the Indian scouts who came with the advance of the Oregon column, which reached our position that day, went upon the field, and with the triple purpose of recognition, scalping, and plunder, dug up the bodies. In this way the Indian loss in killed became known with tolerable accuracy.

A visit to the site of the village disclosed some facts of interest. The Indians evidently considered themselves safe from any imme

diate pursuit. Many of their teepee poles, in place of being dry poles, collected for temporary use, as in all their previous camps, were green, carefully peeled, and bored at the end for permanent use. In addition to this, large quantities of the Camas root had been collected, and pits were found where it was being prepared. for food. For this process, three days, we are told, are required, so that the Indians intended to occupy that camp at least that length of time. They evidently had not the slightest idea of being disturbed.

Whilst our burial parties were occupied on the field, on the morning of the 11th, General Howard, with a small escort, rode into our camp, and right glad were we to see him, for his arrival assured us of speedy medical assistance for our wounded. General Howard had pressed forward, ahead of his troops, with a few Indian scouts and mounted soldiers, supposing he was coming to the relief of a sorely pressed and starving party. He was, therefore, greatly surprised to find us out of all danger, and better off for food than he was. His medical officers reached us early the next morning (12th) and thoroughly examined and dressed all our wounded. To my surprise, they informed me that among all the wounded there was but one single case in which a doctor on the spot could have been of any material assistance. That was a man whose cheek had been laid open with a bullet, and had a doctor been present he could have sewed it up, and prevented an ugly scar. General Howard's cavalry got up in the afternoon, and as his supplies and infantry had not yet arrived, I turned over to him all the surplus provisions we had, and with his cavalry reinforced with fifty of my infantry, he the next day (13th) continued the pursuit of the Indians, now some twenty-five miles away, in the direction of Bannock, whilst the remainder of my force, the wounded loaded in wagons, and two of the worst cases on Indian "travoirs," constructed on the spot, moved out eastward over the rough prairie, towards Deer Lodge, some ninety miles away. The horrors of that march for those having wounds can not easily be imagined. With the exception of Lieutenant English and Sergeant Watson, who were the two carried on "travoirs" constructed in our camp, and both of whom afterwards died in Deer Lodge, all the wounded were carried in common baggage wagons without springs. For some distance there was no road, and our way lay over a rolling prairie, covered with bunch and buffalo grass and sage brush. As our wagons bounced over these, the effect on the wounded may be imagined, but cannot be described.

After we had proceeded about twelve or fifteen miles, our hearts were gladdened by the appearance of a great crowd of ambulances,

wagons, buggies, etc., loaded with all sorts of necessities and luxuries, which the good people of Deer Lodge, Butte and Helena had promptly started out to our relief. Our progress now towards the settlements was both more speedy and more comfortable, and our entrance into Deer Lodge, two days afterwards, will not soon be forgotten by any member of the little party. The whole town turned out and gave us a reception, and, best of all, the ladies of the place came forward and took complete charge of all the wounded, feeding and fostering them until the unwounded ones sighed at the absence of wounds, which would have entitled them to such attentions.

VERNACULAR VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE,
OLD AND NEW.

The Holy Bible, According to the Authorized Version (A. D. 1611). With an Explanatory and Critical Commentary and a Revision of the Translation, by Bishops and other Clergy of the Anglican Church. Edited by F. C. Cook, M.A., Canon of Exeter, Preacher at Lincoln's Inn, Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen. New Tes tament, Vol. I., St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1878. Royal 8vo.

IN

New York:

N a previous article it was shown, that it was the irreverent, impious intent of early heretics, in using Scripture for the support of their private judgment, to utterly overthrow God's Word, either by destroying its letter, or by perverting its spirit, as best happened to suit their purpose. As Tertullian says of the heretics of his time-"Alius manu Scripturas; alius sensus expositione intervertit" (De Præscript. cap. 38). That is to say, "This one boldly raises his hand (armed with the knife, machæra, as he says in parallel passages), against the Scripture; another, less bold and more cunning, uses gloss and commentary to pervert its sense." In other words, some lay violent hands upon God's Word, and cut out without scruple the book, chapter, or verse that conflicts with their private opinion; others adopt a seemingly milder but no less impious way, forcing the text by subtle exposition to coincide with the individual opinion or sectarian system they may have adopted.

To this latter plan belongs the artful pretext of translating, for

common use, the Sacred Books, from the original idiom into the languages of our day. The Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek of Scripture are all dead languages, that ceased to be spoken centuries before modern heresy arose. They are in the truest sense of the word, "unknown tongues" for the unlearned, who form the greatest portion of the class which claims an “open Bible" as its birthright; as inaccessible to them as to the great bulk of Catholics, who content themselves with reading the “dead letter" in due subordination to the Living Voice.

In days of old, especially whilst the original language of the New Testament was alive and current among the Christian people, there was little room for attempting by this process to deceive the unwary reader. But even before the birth of Christianity, Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, had died out as a spoken tongue. And it was on this alone that heresy could try her "prentice hand." True to her instincts she did so. But from the nature of things, as there were no printing facilities in that day, this could not frequently happen. The only instances we find were those of Ebionites or Judaizing Christians, to whom the version of the Seventy seemed too favorable to certain doctrines of Christianity, from which their private judgment dissented. Those of them whose versions have survived, but only in a fragmentary state, are Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus.

Their object in translating was twofold. In the first place, to break down the authority of the Septuagint, which was quoted as authority by the Christians in their controversies with the Jews. The better to effect this, Aquila translated with extreme literal rigor, in order that the difference between the original Hebrew and the quotations (according to the version of the LXX.) alleged from it in the Greek New Testament, might the more forcibly strike any common reader and inspire him with distrust of the good faith of the Seventy Interpreters. But their most important point was to weaken by studied mistranslation the force of the prophetic passages of the Old Testament, which foretold the coming of our Lord in the flesh, His wonderful Incarnation, His # Atonement, and His Godhead. Thus Aquila's renderings of Gen. i. 1, 5, and elsewhere, in which the Hebrew idiom is carried bodily into Greek, in utter defiance of grammar and sense, were only a blind. They were remote approaches intended to win the confidence of the incautious reader, and thus lead him to swallow in the end such wicked perversions as that of Isaias vii. 14, where the Hebrew word Alma is translated weaves (girl, or young woman), and not, as has been properly rendered by the LXX., Tap@vos (virgin). Thus all the significance of that noble prophecy, “Lo! a virgin shall conceive and bear a son," is lost, and one of the leading articles of