Finally the chiefs and leading men of all the tribes involved met
in a grand council, and resolved to combine their warrior forces
in one great effort to drive all their white enemies from the
country, before they became more numerous and formidable.


BEGINNING OF HOSTILITIES.

To prepare for this struggle for existence, they made raids upon
some of the principal trading posts in the mining sections,
killed those in charge, took all the blankets, clothing and
provisions they could carry away, and fled to the mountains,
where they were soon pursued by the soldiers and volunteer
citizens, and a spirited battle was fought without any decisive
advantage to either side.

The breaking out of actual hostilities created great excitement
among the whites, and an urgent call was made upon the Governor
of the State for a military force to meet the emergency, and
protect the settlers--a force strong enough to thoroughly subdue
the Indians, and remove all of them to reservations to be
selected by the United States Indian Commissioners for that
purpose.

Meantime the Governor and the Commissioners, who had then
arrived, were receiving numerous communications, many of them
from persons in high official positions, earnestly urging a more
humane and just policy, averring that the Indians had real cause
for complaint, that they had been "more sinned against than
sinning" since the settling of California by the whites, and that