attacking by land and water, destroy the place in spite of all the warship could do to pervent.'

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On the morning of February 15, the barricades and block-houses having been completed, the finishing touches given to the roads, and the town placed in condition to welcome the enemy whenever it might suit its pleasure to appear, and after detailing Lieutenant Drake, with ten men and six marines, to guard the northern end of town, and myself with the same number, together with Lieutenant Johnson and ten men from the Active, to protect South Seattle, the remaining officers and their commands returned to the ship, with the exception of Dr. Taylor, directed to act as surgeon for both detachments.

"Early in March four companies of the Fourth United States Artillery and the Ninth Regiment of Infantry arrived at Steilacoom, where they immediately organized by companies for a vigorous prosecution of the war, and in this connection the Massachusetts, on the 20th, brought to Seattle Company B, Ninth Infantry, Captain F. T. Dent, en route for the Duwamish. and White rivers.

"The Indians, as we subsequently learned, notwithstanding their frequent threats of attacking our lines, had been so sompletely broken and dispersed after their defeat at Seattle that they were incapable of again concentrating their forces, and at this time were scattered in comparatively small bands over the country in search of food and ammunition, when the army reinforcements arrived, and were soon in hot pursuit, with a prospect of speedily terminating the war.

"On March 28, we were agreeably surprised by the appearance of the United States steamer John Hancock, Lieutenant David McDougall commanding, increasing the naval force to three substantial fighting ships, and two of the number, being steamers, greatly exercised the Indians, who, possessing a wholesome dread of pyre-ships (fire-ships), as they termed them, now began to realize the hopelessness of their cause. The Hancock, but recently returned from the Behring Sea explorations, had been hurriedly fitted at Mare Island by Commander David G. Farragut for the suppression of Indian hostilities, and proved a serviceable auxiliary to the forces operating in the territory.

On the 6th of April we received on board and confined in irons an Indian named Qui-as-kut, reported by his brethren to be the one who threw Mrs. Brennan and infant into the well during the White river massacre in October, and a few days later the John Hancock conveyed him to Olympia, where soon afterwards he was shot and killed in the street by a Mr. Brennan, a brother-in-law to the above lady; and on a subsequent date Mowitch, another Indian, said to have been engaged in the same massacre, was also

killed at Olympia by the same man, assisted by one Lake. Mowitch was shot in the head while embarking in a canoe.

"During the months of April and May the United States forces and volunteer companies in the field had succeeded so well with the enemy that the 1st of June found a delegation of Indians crossing the mountains on their way to Olympia to sue for peace. The Decatur, having accomplished her mission in the territory, was now ready for sea, and at six o'clock a. m., June 2, she took her final departure for Seattle, towed by the John Hancock and accompanied by all the northern Indians then on Puget Sound, with whom she seemed to be an especial favorite. Touching at Port Townsend for the night, an early hour the next morning saw the ship out in the straits towing towards the Pacific Ocean ninety miles away, still escorted by our Indian friends, representatives from the Tongas, Haidas, Stickene and Shineshean tribes, and when abreast of Victoria, waving us a last farewell, they paddled towards Vancouver's Island, and soon disappeared.”

CHAPTER XXIV.

CONDITIONS AT CLOSE OF WAR-THE INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY AFFAIR.

Promptly upon the return of blessed peace, the volunteer force called into the service of the territory by Governor Stevens was disbanded, and the surplus and captured property were faithfully turned over to the several quartermasters to be accounted for in the final settlement of accounts. It speaks well for the efficiency and integrity of the governor and the officers selected by him, that the expenses incurred should have been kept at a minimum, and that so large a proportion should have been liquidated by the sales of this surplus and captured property. More particularly was great credit due to General W. W. Miller, who had been appointed quartermaster general by Governor Stevens, for his careful and economical administration of the complicated duties of his office. For the long delay which occurred in the payment of these expenses by the National Government, there was absolutely no excuse. The number of volunteers mustered into the service of the territory, chiefly in the Puget Sound Country, was 1,896, of whom 215 came from Oregon. They were about equally divided between mounted and infantry troops As the number of able-bodied males in the territory at that time did not exceed 1,700, it will be seen that nearly every one of them did a soldier's part in the defence of the territory. At no one time, however, were there more than one thousand men in active service, or on duty. During the progress of the war thirty-five stockades, forts and block-houses were built by the volunteers, many of them quite extensive works, twenty-three by the settlers, and seven by the regular troops. In addition to the large

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amount of work required for their construction, many roads and trails were opened up in order to facilitate military operations. The high character of these volunteers is shown by their exemplary conduct, both during and after the war. Often under the most exasperating circumstances the Indians were treated with scrupulous good faith, and to this circumstance is largely owing the fact that hostilities were never renewed and that the two races have ever since lived in peace and harmony and will probably continue to do so as long as grass grows and water runs." It is to be regretted that the limits of this history do not permit a full record in this place of the names and deeds of these volunteers, who rendered the territory, during the continuance of the war, services of inestimable value. They were rendered, also, under circumstances of unusual hardship, peril and privation owing to a frequent lack of provisions, supplies, arms and ammunition, and to the fact that their operations were largely conducted in a country covered with dense forests, through which there were no roads, or facilities of communication away from the water.

The close of the war found most of the settlements in a wretched and pitiable condition. Houses, crops and improvements had been burned, destroyed or abandoned, stock killed by the Indians, and those settlers who had not been driven off or murdered were without the most ordinary means of subsistence. The future looked dark and discouraging in the highest degree. No one could tell whether the promised peace was to be permanent or not, or whether the professed friendship of the Indians could be relied on, after the bitter heartburnings created by death and bereavement on one side, or death and disappointment on the other, as the results of the war in which they had recently been engaged. No one could tell at what moment hostilities might be renewed and the lonely cabin of some brave settler be made food for the flames, or he himself the victim of an unseen bullet or the scalping knife of treacherous and barbarous savages. Under the circumstances, therefore, it was not surprising that the country recuperated slowly from the effects of a disastrous Indian war. Time was necessary to heal its wounds and to restore confidence to both races and to all settlers, whether in the country or in towns and villages, before an era of permanent prosperity could be ushered in. Many settlers did not return to their homes in the country until after the treaties made with the Indians were ratified by the United States senate in 1859. Courage, however, was the watchword in both town and country, and gradually industrial occupations were resumed and the presence of additional land and naval forces of the United States lent additional encouragement to settlers already on the ground, as well as to immigrants, who began to make their way in small and slowly increasing numbers to western Washington.

But before the Indian troubles were over, a speck of war appeared in the northwest which threatened not only to involve the territory, but two great nations, the United States and Great Britain, in a bloody conflict. As early as 1853 there were mutterings of disagreement as to the interpretation of the treaty of 1846, which defined the boundary lines between the possessions of these two powers on the Pacific coast. The forty-ninth parallel was agreed upon until the waters of the Pacific Ocean were reached in the Gulf of Georgia, thence, according to the treaty, by the main ship channel which separated the continent from the Island of Vancouver, it having been agreed that, although this parallel of latitude intersects that island, it should be conceded to Great Britain. There are two channels, however, which under a strained construction, might be made to answer that description. The first and principal channel, according to the usual rules of interpretation, is the Canal de Haro, which flows to the northwest of the Island of San Juan and a number of adjacent islands of great beauty and value, and the other is Rosario Straits, which flows to the southwest of these islands. Seeing the value of San Juan and these other islands for grazing, fishing and other purposes, the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company under the leadership of Sir James Douglass, set up a claim to the Archipelago and attempted to establish Rosario Straits as the national boundary. They further undertook to occupy San Juan Island, placing thereon several thousand sheep, for which the island is particularly well adapted, with a subordinate official in charge. This island, by an act of the Washington legislature, was included in Whatcom county and the property on it, real and personal, subject to taxation. In default of the payment of the taxes imposed the sheriff of Whatcom county levied upon, seized and sold March 18, 1855, a number of sheep. This action of the sheriff led to a sharp correspondence between Sir James Douglass and Governor Stevens, of Washington territory, in the course of which the governor wrote, May 12, 1855, firmly and unhesitatingly asserting the rights of the United States to the possession of the island, and supported the sheriff in his course of action. After reciting the acts of Oregon and Washington assuming jurisdiction over the islands, including San Juan, he goes on to say, "The sheriff, in proceeding to collect taxes, acts under a law directing him to do so. Should he be resisted in such an attempt, it would be the duty of the governor to sustain him to the full force of the authority vested in him. The ownership remains now as it did at the execution of the treaty of June 11, 1846, and can in no wise be affected by the alleged possession of the British subjects." This correspondence was communicated to the secretary of state at Washington, D. C., who discouraged any action by the territorial authorities until a settlement of the question at issue could be made by the respective governments. Had the firm, decided and patriotic