On my asserting that “Ben Wright did wrong to kill people under a flag of truce,” he said: “You say it is wrong; but your Government did not say it was wrong. It made him a tyee chief. Big Chief made him an Indian agent.”
This half-savage had truth on his side, as far as the Government was concerned; as to the treachery of Ben Wright, that has been emphatically denied, and
just as positively affirmed, by parties who were cognizant of the affair. It is certain that the Modocs have always claimed that he violated a flag of truce, and that they have never complained of any losses of men in any other way. I have no doubt that this massacre had been referred to often in the Modoc councils by the “Curly-haired Doctor” and his gang of cut-throats, for the purpose of preventing peace-making.
Captain Jack, rising to full stature, broke out in an impassioned speech, that I had not thought him competent to make:—
“I am but one man. I am the voice of my people. Whatever their hearts are, that I talk. I want no more war. I want to be a man. You deny me the right of a white man. My skin is red; my heart is a white man’s heart; but I am a Modoc. I am not afraid to die. I will not fall on the rocks. When I die, my enemies will be under me. Your soldiers begun on me when I was asleep on Lost river. They drove us to these rocks, like a wounded deer. Tell your soldier tyee I am over there now; tell him not to hunt for me on Lost river or Shasta Butte. Tell him I am over there. I want him to take his soldiers away. I do not want to fight. I am a Modoc. I am not afraid to die. I can show him how a Modoc can die.”
I advised him to think well; that our Government was strong, and would not go back; if he would not come out of the rocks the war would go on, and all his people would be destroyed.
Before parting, I proposed for him to go to camp with me, and have dinner and another talk. He said
“he was not afraid to go, but his people were afraid for him. He could not go.”
This talk lasted nearly seven hours, and was the only full, free talk had with the Modocs during the existence of the Peace Commission.
I left that council having more respect for the Modoc chief than I had ever felt before. No arrangement was made for subsequent meetings, he going to his camp, to counsel with his people. We returned to ours, to report to the Board of Commissioners the talk, from the notes taken. Judge Roseborough, who had been present a portion of the time, and Mr. Fairchild, agreed with me that Captain Jack himself wanted peace, and was willing to accept the terms offered; but he, being in the hands of bad men, might not be able to bring his people out of the rocks.