the captives were being burned. He replied that he learned
afterwards that the Indians told the soldiers they had all escaped
except the white one. The probabilities are that the soldiers were too
busy with their own troubles to pay any attention to what was going on
in the camp of their allies.

Johnny could speak fairly good English, but to all intents and purposes
he was as much of an Indian as any of his copper colored friends. He was
adopted into the Warm Springs tribe and remained with them for a number
of years, but marrying a squaw from another tribe moved to the
Willamette Valley, where he lived and died an Indian. He was almost
invaluable to me because of his knowledge of the ways and signs of the
Snakes. But aside from this he was absolutely useless as he was an
arrant coward and could not be depended on when danger threatened.

The next day we moved south and after a rapid march reached the Elkins
ranch on Grindstone, a tributary of Crooked River. It was known that the
Indians were returning practically by the same route they had previously
traveled, and our duty was to prevent raids from the main body and
protect the property of the settlers as far as was possible.

First gaining permission from Gen. Brown, with my scouts and four
volunteers, I started out to discover the camp of the Indians, which
from the lay of the country, I thought likely would be at the head of
Buck Creek, at a spring in the edge of the timber. About 2 o'clock we
arrived at the vicinity of the supposed camp of the Indians, and taking
an elevated position, patiently waited for dawn. Finally the gray dawn
began to peep over the crest of the eastern mountains, and leading our
horses we moved closer. When daylight finally arrived we were within a
hundred yards of the spring, but nowhere was there a sign of life.

Assuring ourselves that the renegades had not passed that point, and
that they were further back, we started to meet them, meantime keeping a
careful lookout ahead. We continued on to Crooked River and despairing
of finding or overtaking them, we retraced our steps to camp, arriving
there about dark after riding 75 or 80 miles.

The next day it was determined to send a strong detachment into the
rough brakes of the South John Day. Accordingly Capt. Humphrey detailed
36 men and I joined him with the scouts. We were absent three days and
returned to camp without encountering or seeing any signs of Indians.
After resting our ho