the same purpose the military stations in Oregon were depleted, there being but one company, K, of the 23d infantry, at Fort Klamath, under Lieutenant Goodale, and no cavalry; while at Camp Warner, the nearest post to Klamath, there was one company of cavalry and one of infantry. It could not be expected that one of these posts could assist the other, each having to keep in check a thousand savages, who might at any moment take advantage of relaxed vigilance to renew hostilities. Wherefore Jack continued to reside at Lost river, visiting the reservation from time to time, clandestinely, to draw away other Modocs.
But Sconchin, the head-chief of the tribe was able to keep a minority of the people on the reservation. History repeats itself in the wilderness as well as on the ashes of Empire. An Indian must be old to have any wisdom; it is always the "young men" who cannot be controlled, and who are the leaders in war. Sconchin had enjoyed his day as the blood-thirsty enemy of the white race, and many were the victims of his savage ferocity, when from a watch tower in Clear lake his spies looked for the dust of some toiling emigrant train, for which he arranged the ambush at Bloody point. That was all changed now. He had found the white men stronger than he, and wisely consented to be forgiven, and fed for the remainder of his days. Besides he was chief, and a chief must have a respectable following; therefore his advice to the Modocs was to keep the treaty, and avoid hostilities with the United States government. He had been rewarded for his good behavior by being allowed to take his people to Camp Yainax, near his former home, in Sprague valley, about the time that Jack left the reservation.
The Klamaths used formerly to be the friends of the Modocs, though they seemed not to have been so thoroughly base in their dispositions. Under Lalake they had been known to be guilty of murder and other atrocities; but after coming on the reservation,
