and flowing plume and played the bagpipes. Up and down the great council hall he strode and played an hour while they waited for McLoughlin. "Music hath charms." The savages were so subdued they forgot their warlike errand. While still the piper played, McLoughlin entered with a treaty ready drawn up that they would never molest Vancouver. It was signed, presents were distributed, and the hostiles departed happy.
One night in that same year, Kesano and his people came with shouts and blows to the postern gate, bringing Jedediah Smith, an American trapper, who had escaped from a massacre on the Umpqua. In 1828 Jedediah led the first party that ever crossed the Sierras into California. The Spaniards viewed them with suspicion. Out of the hands of the Spaniards they fell into the snares of the Indians out of eighteen men three only escaped to the Hudson's Bay Company fort on the Columbia. Dr. McLoughlin was astounded. " Stay! "he cried. "McKay! Tom McKay! This American has been robbed, his party massacred. Take fifty men, ride light, and go down to the Umpqua."
McKay and his Canadians crossed the Columbia that night. Down on the Umpqua the Indians came in, suspecting nothing. Captain Tom counted out the peltries. " There," he said, "for these I will pay you." He handed out their value in goods. "But these with the trappers' mark belong to the men you murdered. Look to the murderers for payment." The enraged Umpquas fell upon the murderers and Tom and his men galloped out of the country. Dr. McLoughlin paid Jedediah Smith three thousand two hundred dollars for his furs. The grateful trapper left the Columbia to rejoin his friends east of the mountains.
