would be divided into fifteen or twenty bands, each commanded by an
inferior chief. The first party will start for reconnoitering. The next
day the second band, accompanied by the great chiefs, will follow, but
in another track; and so on with a third, till three hundred or three
hundred and fifty are united together. Then they will begin their
operations, new parties coming to take the place of those who have
suffered, till they themselves retire to make room for others. Every new
comer brings a supply of provisions, the produce of their chase in
coming, so that those who are fighting need be in no fear of wanting the
necessaries of life. By this the reader will see that a band of two
thousand warriors, only four or five hundred are effectually fighting,
unless the number of warriors agreed upon by the chiefs prove too small,
when new reinforcements are sent forward.] We were divided into four
war parties: one which acted against the Bonnaxes and the Flat-heads, in
the north-east; the second, against the Cayuses and Nez-percés, at the
forks of the Buona Ventura and Calumet rivers; the third remained near
the settlement, to protect it from surprise; while the fourth, a very
small one, under my father's command, and to which I was attached,
remained in or about the boat-house, at the fishing station. Independent
of these four parties, well-armed bands were despatched into the Umbiqua
country both by land and sea.

In the beginning, our warfare on the shores of the Pacific amounted
merely to skirmishes, but by-and-bye, the Callapoos having joined the
Umbiquas with a numerous party, the game assumed more interest. We not
only lost our advantages in the Umbiqua country, but were obliged little
by little to retire to the Post; this, however, proved to be our
salvation. We were but one hundred and six men, whilst our adversaries
mustered four hundred and eighty, and yet full one-fifth of their number
were destroyed in one afternoon, during a desperate attack which they