But their astonishment was followed
by fear of supernatural agency; confusion spread among them, and their
silence was at last broken by hundreds of loud voices! The moment had
now come; the two Shoshone war-parties rushed upon their terrified
victims, and an hour afterwards, when the moon rose and shone above the
prairie, its mild beams were cast upon four hundred corpses. The whole
of the Bonnax and Umbiqua party were entirely destroyed. The Callapoos
suffered but little, having dispersed, and run towards the sea-shore at
the beginning of the affray.
Thus ended the great league against the Shoshones, which tradition will
speak of in ages yet to come. But these stirring events were followed by
a severe loss to me. My father, aged as he was, had shown a great deal
of activity during the last assault, and he had undergone much privation
and fatigue: his high spirit sustained him to the very last of the
struggle; but when all was over, and the reports of the rifles no
longer whizzed to his ears, his strength gave way, and, ten days after
the last conflict, he died of old age, fatigue, and grief. On the
borders of the Pacific Ocean, a few miles inland, I have raised his
grave. The wild flowers that grow upon it are fed by the clear waters of
the Nu eleje sha wako, and the whole tribe of the Shoshones will long
watch over the tomb of the Pale-face from a distant land, who was once
their instructor and their friend.
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