em into thinking that
he was about to cross or had crossed the Salmon River, which he had no
thought of doing at that time. Some of the tents were pitched in plain
sight, while the women and children were hidden on the inaccessible
ridges, and the men concealed in the canyon ready to fire upon the
soldiers with deadly effect with scarcely any danger to themselves. They
could even roll rocks upon them.

In a very few minutes the troops had learned a lesson. The soldiers
showed some fight, but a large body of frontiersmen who accompanied
them were soon in disorder. The warriors chased them nearly ten miles,
securing rifles and much ammunition, and killing and wounding many.

The Nez Perces next crossed the river, made a detour and recrossed it
at another point, then took their way eastward. All this was by way of
delaying pursuit. Joseph told me that he estimated it would take six
or seven days to get a sufficient force in the field to take up their
trail, and the correctness of his reasoning is apparent from the facts
as detailed in General Howard's book. He tells us that he waited six
days for the arrival of men from various forts in his department, then
followed Joseph with six hundred soldiers, beside a large number of
citizen volunteers and his Indian scouts. As it was evident they had
a long chase over trackless wilderness in prospect, he discarded his
supply wagons and took pack mules instead. But by this time the Indians
had a good start.

Meanwhile General Howard had sent a dispatch to Colonel Gibbons, with
orders to head Joseph off, which he undertook to do at the Montana end
of the Lolo Trail. The wily commander had no knowledge of this move, but
he was not to be surprised. He was too brainy for his pursuers, whom he
constantly outwitted, and only gave battle when he was ready. There at
the Big Hole Pass he met Colonel Gibbons' fresh troops and pressed them
close. He sent a party under his brother Ollicut to harass Gibbons' rear
and rout the pack mules, thus throwing him on the defensive and causing
him to send for help, while Joseph continued his masterly retreat toward
the Yellowstone Park, then a wilderness. However, this was but little
advantage to him, since he must necessarily leave a broad trail, and the
army was augmenting its columns day by day with celebrated scouts, both
white and Indian. The two commands came together, and although General
Howard says their horses were by this time worn out, and b