As soon as we discovered their trail we put spurs to our horses and sped along up the river, for the trail was plain and we experienced no trouble in following it, and just above the Natural Bridge on Lost river, we came on to them.  Some were fishing, some were cooking the fish they had caught, and others were eating fish.  It seemed that each one of them caught, cooked and ate their own fish.  Seeing no arms we rode up to them.  There were twelve of them, and among them was Sconchin, the other councilman who the General was so anxious to get hold of.  Sconchin said:  “Go Fort Klamath, all Injun heap hungry, now ketchem fish, eat plenty, by and by go to fort.”

I had George Jones turn and ride back to hurry the soldiers up, for I did not deem it a safe plan for two of us to try to take the whole crowd prisoners, for even though they had no arms they might scatter all over the country and then we could not get them only by killing them, and that I did not want to do.  While I am in no wise a friend to a hostile; I believe in giving even an Indian that which is justly due him, and I must admit that all through this Modoc war I could not help, in a measure, feeling sorry for the Modocs, particularly Captain Jack, for I knew that through the negligence of one agent and the outrageous attack upon Jack by the squad of soldiers on Lost river, while there catching fish to keep his people from starving, he had been driven and dragged into this war, and I do not believe to-day, nor never did believe, that Captain Jack ought to have been hanged.

I have often been asked, since, what I thought of the arrangements Mr. Berry made for the meeting of Gen. Canby, Col.  Thomas and Captain Jack, but I have always refrained from answering that question any farther than that it seemed to me that a school boy ten years of age should have known better than to have made such a bargain as he did, knowing the nature of Indians as well as he claimed to.

But to my story—­I stayed there and engaged the Indians in conversation while George was making tracks back over the same road that we had just come to hurry the cavalry up.  I learned from them that there were no more able-bodied men left in the cave, and there were some twenty or thirty squaws and children, besides several warriors that were wounded.  In about an hour from the time George started back, the soldiers made their appearance.

I told the Indians that we would have to take them prisoners and take them back to headquarters.  This, however, was not pleasant news to them.  They objected to return with us until I had informed them that they would be fed and protected until such time as we could get them all, and they having been acquainted with me before, we were successful in persuading them to return peacefully to the General’s quarters.

It was late in the afternoon when we returned, and I at once reported to the General the number of Indians, also that Schonchin was in the gang, and that I had learned that there were no more able-bodied men in the cave.  I told him that from what I could learn, I thought it perfectly safe for three or four men to enter the cave and secure the few remaining Indians.  The General said:  “I will think the matter over until morning.”