the statement of any white man."

Notwithstanding my respect for the eminent positions so ably filled by Colonel Henley, and my personal regard for this venerable gentleman, candor compels me to say, after a careful perusal of both refutal and rejoinder, that General Carlin appears to have acquitted himself in this instance as he did some years afterwards, on the fields of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama-he moved upon the enemy's works and made. himself master of the situation.

Pending this controversy, however, the State authorities had decided in favor of employing a company of volunteers to operate against the Indians of the valley and its vicinity. The company was organized in July, 1859.

Under dates of July 22d and 28th, Lieutenant Carlin, commanding at Fort Weller in the absence of Colonel Johnson, wrote to the department commander that the captain of the volunteers had told him that he should operate against the Indians in Round Valley and Eden Valley, until they were all removed. (Eden is a smaller Valley three miles south of Round Valley; its history is really part of Round Valley's. The Yukas assembled there in large numbers at certain seasons of the year, for religious ceremonies; it was pecularly dear to them for that reason, and to this day the last remnant of the tribe look upon it with feelings approaching veneration.) Lieutenant Carlin also wrote: "Previous to the organization of this company, I had ordered Lieutenant Dillon to go out with a mounted detachment from Round Valley, and endeavor to bring the Indians on the Reservation..... found a few Indians, but did not take them into the Reservation; very few could be induced to come to him to talk on the sub

He

Major Johnson early in the following month writes on the same subject. "He succeeded in talking with twelve of these Indians, who approached after having been assured by an Indian guide that they would not be molested. They were told that if they would come into the reservation, they would not be killed, and they promised to come in. Lieutenant Dillon now reports that fifteen of these Indians have come in within the last few days. The other Indians on Eel River fled at his approach, and could not be induced to come to him. They told the runners who were sent to them that-and men from Round Valley were constantly hunting them, and that a large number of their people had been killed by them at that very place; that they had always been told by the white men 'Come on the reservation; we do not want to kill you,' but that they had been invariably deceived and killed, and now they did not know whom to believe."

Just before this occurrence, Major Johnson's report goes on to relate, a settler had gone into the mountains and killed five Indians, one of them a girl; and several other outrages had taken place. "A war of extermination, is being vigorously waged against the Indians by the citizens of Round and Eden Valleys," he says; and again: "The Indians, driven by these repeated attacks from their usual places of resort, have taken refuge in the almost inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains, where it is impossible for them to glean even a scanty subsistence, and pinched by hunger, have doubtless killed some of the stock, which, loose and unherded, ranges for many miles over that vast country; but that they have killed anything like the amount of which they are accused, I do not believe; nor is there evidence to substantiate the charge. Every head of stock that is missing is charged to the Indians. While I was

in Round Valley a citizen missed some of his hogs and the Indians were at once accused of having killed or driven them off. I went with him to his farm and to the mountains, and after a most diligent investigation not a particle of evidence could be procured implicating the Indians, and the citizen confessed that he might have made a mistake. I believe it to be the settled determination of many of the inhabitants to exterminate the Indians, and I see no way of preventing it. I have endeavored to collect them on the reservation, and several hundred are now there; but they have a great aversion to coming in, doubtless owing in a great measure to the great mortality at this time prevailing among them, some eight or ten per day having died some days previous to my leaving the valley. This mortality is attributable to a change of diet, scarcity of food, and the great prevalence of a certain class of disease brought among them by the whites."

On the 22nd of October, Major Johnson addressed to the general commanding the Department an official letter, protesting in the strongest terms against the proceedings of the volunteers, saying that they "are slaughtering indiscriminately all the Indians. they meet; men, women, and children are killed by them." This company of volunteers remained in the service of the State some nine months. The question was raised in the Legislature whether there had been really any need for their services; and it was not until an investigating committee was sent to Round Valley and reported favorably, that they were paid for them. They succeeded, it is said, in bringing about seven hundred Indians upon the reservation. The rest were never accounted for. I was told by General Foote, Adjutant General of California, under date of November 30th, 1874, that he cannot find among the records of his office any official reports of the operations of this company.

For months the poor Yukas and the other

Indians skulked like hunted wild beasts in the mountains, hiding in caves and in the most inaccessible places, and for months, whenever hunger forced them to come out of their last retreats in search of food, they were met by the bullets of sharpshooters. The reader will remember that I said that as I went on, I should try and make the solution of the problem of what became of the Indians a self-evident one. It certainly needs no further demonstration.

The operations in Round Valley, effectual as they were in removing the Indians from it, and from its immediate vicinity, had a somewhat bad effect on the neighboring settlements. Lieutenant Carlin, then at Fort Bragg, wrote to his general in San Francisco, that he had been talking with a gentleman from Long Valley, who attributed all their troubles there to the exterminating war against the Indians of Round and Eden Valleys. "The Indians that escaped death, fled westward toward Long Valley, some twenty miles from the two other valleys, and believing that all the whites were leagued against them for their extermination, they felt that they had but a short time to live, and that for that time, they might as well live on the cattle of their enemies. In fact, they had nothing else to live upon, having been driven, hunted, and slaughtered, until no place afforded them shelter but the barren greasewood mountains, and even there, they are now found and slain."

"I do not think,” Lieutenant Carlin further wrote, "the settlers will ever tell how many Indians they have killed, nor how many were women, and children. As to protecting their stock, I presume that no force could be more efficient than the owners of the stock, and I cannot see why the United States, or the State of California, should furnish troops to herd and watch the cattle of people who have nothing else to do.

"The presence of troops might, possibly, deter the Indians from coming to the valley to kill stock, and would consequently take

away all excuse for the killing of Indians by the settlers. "Mr. W thinks that the Indians are now driven back so far from the valley, and so frightened, that they will probably not disturb the settlers again soon. I think so too. If the settlers will let them alone, there will probably be no further trouble."

At about this time, October 1859, a white man, named Bland, was killed by the Wylackies under the following circumstances, as stated in the official military report of that date:

One day this man, in his rambles in the mountains after game, came across a young Indian girl and fell in love with her at first sight. He carried her away from her people by force; but she escaped from him and came to the reservation. One dark night, soon after, having ascertained her whereabouts, he came and forcibly carried her away again from among the Yuka women, where she had been placed while awaiting the arrival of her people. The officer in command of the small detachment of regular troops stationed in the vicinity, gave orders to arrest him, but Bland, in the meantime, had escaped to the mountains and could not be found. Very soon after this the girl again escaped from him, and this time got back to her people; but Bland searched the mountains for months, harassing and annoying the Indians, in his endeavors to re-possess himself of the woman, until one day, he met what was in all likelihood a well-merited death. He came across a large party of Wylackies, one evening, and after a desperate resistance he was overpowered and burnt at the stake. One of the finest mountains east of the valley, has borne his name ever since, on account of its proximity to the scene of his death. Bland Mountain is one of the best known landmarks in the vicinity of Round Valley. Although characterized in the reports of the army officers as a lawless ruffian, Bland, like all the men of his stamp, in those early days,

had many good points about him, and to his utter fearlessness he added an inexhaustible fund of good humor and reckless jollity.

The Wylackies that killed him, are supposed to have been a band called "Gun Indians," from the fact of their being armed with rifles stolen or captured from the whites. Many murders were charged to these particular Indians.

Under date of May 16th, 1860, Lieutenant Dillon, having been assigned to duty at Fort Bragg, made to the general commanding the Department an official report, from which the following are extracts:

"In leaving the detachment at Round Valley in charge of a sergeant, I deem it proper to report the condition of affairs in that valley. It might have been supposed that the settlers, being satisfied that it was the intention of the government to reserve the entire valley for Indian purposes, would have stayed the hands of slaughter and permitted the starving Digger to remain unmolested in his mountain retreat, until the Government shall have provided for him a home in his native valley; but not so-several parties have recently been on expeditions against him, and only a short time before leaving, I was informed by an Indian, that a large camp, near the forks of Eel River, had been attacked on the day previous, and that he alone had escaped."

"I was told by this Indian that in this last attack was consummated the entire destruction of the particular band to which he belonged. Only a day or two after this attack, a white man fell upon an Indian and with a hatchet literally chopped him to pieces. The only charge against the Indian was that he had stolen a knife. This same white man a few weeks previously blew out the brains of a squaw charged with killing a pig. I am not aware of any recent depredations on the part of the Indians, though there is reason to suppose that an animal is occasionally made away with."

"The presence of troops in the valley

is unquestionably a restraint upon the Indians, and necessary to the proper maintenance of the Indian Department. At the present juncture, I consider their presence of vital importance, for some of the citizens, exasperated at the idea of being compelled to leave the valley, would, I am satisfied, (could it be done with impunity,) gladly seek revenge in the destruction of crops and property, and exult in the scene of starvation and misery that would ensue.

"The General will then observe that there exists at present the same disposition toward Indians on the part of the settlers, that has heretofore been reported."

have an interest in the work of their hands, and to feel that the persons now placed over them to direct their labors are friends, not enemies. They are as well clothed as the inconsiderable sum appropriated for that purpose will admit, and they receive better and more food than they have ever been accustomed to. Above all, they appear to be cheerful and contented, and have less mortality among them than at this season of the past year."

The strength of the detachment mentioned in the above report, although re-inforced more than once, never exceeded at any time twenty-five men.

After Lieutenant Dillon's departure, it remained in the valley in charge of a sergeant until April 1861, when it was ordered to occupy a point called in those days the Forks of Eel River, where the South Folk joins the main Eel River, where it remained until ordered East, sometime afterward, to take part in the war between the States, and Round Valley was for a time abandoned by the military authorities of the United States.

A. G. Tassin.

G. Melville Upton.

"Old Charley" is one who "loves to chase the deer more than to guide the laboring steer," In one of the glorious cañons that flood and glacier have furrowed into the heart of the Sierras-so deep "the only wonder is what it can know in its clime but calm" he has reared his humble cabin. Close by he has built a rude stable, and fenced a little grassy mead by the side of the torrent. The wild, wooded steeps around left many a castellated crag that tops a dangerous incline of talus, and is abatised with tangled chaparral wherein the grizzly bear holds garrison or roams on nightly emprise.

I had formed acquaintance with Charley when in these mountains once with a party for whom he served as guide. On that occasion I had several times, when out hunting, become so bewildered and lost that I only accidentally succeeded in regaining camp at a very unseasonable hour of the right. To avoid being laughed at, I hinted that the excitement of the chase had led me very far away; but I saw by a merry twinkle in Charley's eye that he only credited what he chose of this tale. Charley was a nondescript, and in order to study him I opened a correspondence with him after our party had disbanded. I was now "raising blood." My physicians benefited me not in the least. As a last resort, I determined on "roughing it" awhile in the mountains. I had written to Charley to that effect, and I was delighted to shortly receive a very cordial invitation to visit him, closing with the statement that bears were now very plenty there, and that if I would come, he was sure I would be in the brush every night hunting until after midnight."-"Kind, honest old Charley!" I exclaimed; "he knows my fondness for hunting, but he

VOL. X.-3.

hardly guesses my opinion about bears."

The welcome I received was all I could have desired. The look of doubtful approval that he cast on my finely-finished, latestimproved Winchester rifle gave place to a glow of admiration when he had fired it a few times, and only missed the center of a distant mark by a few inches, and then always on the same side; and I had to smile when he set it down as tenderly as an infant, with no more disparaging remark than that it only needed a little re-sighting.

Old Charley had for fellow hunter and companion a frontiersman yclept Jack Small, who, however, seemed to have nothing little about him except his name and clothes, and "nothing of the bear except its skin." Nearly seven feet tall, and, although remarkably ungainly, built in proportion, he was as strong as an ox, and thought nothing when he had killed a deer of taking it on his shoulders and proceeding with it thus for hours on his hunt. Like Charley, he was dressed in greasy, abraded, buck-skin breeches, coarse woolen shirt, slouched hat, and home-made moccasins. A receding forehead, long hair, and beardless face -stamped with an expression of honest, inquiring wonderment, like a country bumpkin's when first beholding an elephant-finished harmoniously his general effect. There are mysteries in human affinities more inscrutable than those of any chemical processes, and I thought at first the only bond of congeniality between Jack and Charley must be the latter's need of some one possessing a few of the attributes of the rhinocerosas a butt for his spile-driving jokes. But underneath big Jack's uncouth exterior I soon discovered a vein of finer metal, outcroppings of which were displayed in attain