in rear of Weitchpec. I could see them running, but they were out of the range of my muskets. I took ten men into the canoe and crossed the river, leaving Lieutenant Hackett to bring over the remainder of the detachment. The river at this point was about 200 yards wide, having been very much swollen by the heavy rains, and the current so rapid that the canoe was swept down nearly a quarter of a mile before I landed. Finding it impracticable to follow the Indians to open fire upon them at so great a distance, I sent two old Indians, unarmed, to tell Seranaltin John, who had now reached the summit of the mountain, that I wanted to talk with him, thinking that I could persuade him to come in with his warriors somewhere near Fort Gaston and thus capture the entire park a message saying that if I would leave my men under the bluff near the river, in front of Weitchpec, and lay down my rifle, he would lay down his and come half-way down the mountain, where he would meet me, but that he would not go out of the range of his men's rifles. This being the only condition on which I could talk with him I consented, and proceeded to the spot where we were to meet. His men were deployed as skirmishers near him, each with his rifle in the position of ready. After shaking hands with me and conversing a few moments he said he wanted peace; that he was tired of the mountains and wanted to come in. I tried to persuade him to go to Fort Gaston, but he said he was afraid to go there; that he wanted to stop at Weitchpec and take all his Indians there. I told him he might do so, whereupon he turned to his men and told them there would be no more fighting, and they immediately discharged their rifles into the air. I then left him, rejoined my men, and returned to camp near Fort Gaston, where I arrived at 7 p. m., having traveled twenty-four miles.

Saturday, April 23, left camp near Camp Iaqua at 9 a. m. with eleven men, one packer, and five mules, with five days' rations for my detachment, and also for that of Lieutenant Geer, which left camp the previous night. Traveled southeasterly to Fort Baker, thirteen miles, thence easterly five miles to camp, where I met Lieutenant Geer and Hackett with eighteen men of Company G, Sixth Infantry California Volunteers, and two men of Company A, Mountaineer Battalion. They reported that they had tracked the cattle which were driven off by the Indians to that vicinity. On the morninf of the 24th Lieutenant Geer with two men went out to ascertain which direction the cattle had taken from the point where their tracks were last seen the previous evening, and discovered that they had been driven ove r ahigh bluff into a canon about ahfl a mile long and extending down to the Van Dusen River. This place is about one mile and a half east of Fort Baker. I took the entire command to Fort Baker, where I left the mules and ten men, and proceeded up the Van Dusen to the mouth of the canon through which the cattle passed, and there discovered there cows and two calves hamstrung and living, and four steers and two heifers dead. Some of the dead ones were in the river, and evidently had been hamstrung, and in endeavoring to cross the river were carried down by the rapid current and drowned. One steer had seven arrow holes in it. I directed Lieutenant Geer to shot those that were hamstrung and still alive. The bluff on either side of the river is nearly perpendicular, and the river is deep and full of large bowlders, and a more fit place for so cruel an act could not have been found. They could not have escaped had they not have been hamstrung. It appears to have been done purely for mischief, as none of the meat had been taken away. It is impossible to track the Indians away from the river, there being nothing but stones