The morning was cool, Riddle said, and Ben Wright covered himself with a
blanket, his head passing through a hole in the middle, as was the
custom of the time, the blanket answering the place of an overcoat.
Underneath the blanket he carried a revolver in each hand. He went
directly to the chief and demanded that he make his promises good. The
chief told him plainly, insolently, that he would not do so, and never
intended to do so; that he had men enough to kill the white men and that
they were now in his power. But the wily old chief little dreamed of the
desperate valor of the man before him, for no sooner had the chief's
defy passed his lips than Ben Wright shot him dead. Then firing right
and left as he ran, he made his escape out of the Indian camp.
Meanwhile, as the first shot rang out from Wright's pistol his men
opened a deadly fire with their rifles. For an instant, Riddle said, the
savages formed a line and sent a shower of arrows over their heads, but
they aimed too high and only one or two were slightly wounded. Dropping
their rifles, Wright's men charged, revolvers in hand. This was too much
for savage valor and what were left fled in terror. It was now no longer
a battle. The savages were searched out from among the sage brush and
shot like rabbits. Long poles were taken from the wickiups and those
taking refuge in the river were poked out and shot as they struggled in
the water. To avoid the bullets the Indians would dive and swim beneath
the water, but watching the bubbles rise as they swam, the men shot them
when they came up for air.

This is the true story of the "Ben Wright Massacre." It was a massacre
all right, but did not terminate as the Indians intended. Riddle told me
that about ninety Indians were killed in this fight. It broke the war
power of the Modoc Indians as a tribe for all time, and from that day
the white man could pass unvexed through the country of the Modocs.
There were probably isolated cases of murder, but nothing approaching
war ever again existed in the minds of the Modocs.

Chapter X.

Treaty With the Modocs is Made.

On the 14th day of October, 1864, the Modocs entered into a treaty with
the Federal government by which they ceded all rights to the Lost river
and Tule lake country for a consideration of $320,000. In addition to
this they were to receive a body of land on the Klamath reservation of
768,000 acres, or a little more than 420 acres for each man, woman and
c