gate not choosing to recognize his right to levy assessments on citizens residing on land to which the Indian title had been extinguished. On this refusal by Applegate, Jim, one of the firmest of Jack's chosen friends, at the head of fifteen or twenty young warriors, set out upon a tour of the farms in Sangell valley, lying to the north of Clear lake, alarming the people by their insolent behavior, and causing them to complain to the agent at Yainax, and through him to the superintendent. These things led to the attempt to obtain a conference with Jack, to secure which he was given to understand that the killing of the doctor would be overlooked, and he allowed to remain for the time in the Lost river country upon his promise to conduct himself peaceably.
At length he informed Applegate of Clear lake that he would consent to see the commissioners appointed by the superintendent to confer with him, provided they would come to him at Clear lake, attended by not more than four men, he agreeing to have with him the same number. On this announcement Jesse Applegate sent a messenger in haste to Yainax, and Ivan Applegate and John Meacham repaired at once to the rendezvous, attended by two white men and two Indians from the reservation. The distance to be travelled was sixty miles, and they arrived there on the 15th, where they found Jack surrounded by twenty-nine warriors in the paint and feathers of war.
The conference opened awkwardly, Jack seeming embarrassed and disinclined to talk. But Black Jim occupied some time in denouncing the officers of the military and Indian departments in terms of bitter invective, after which Jack found words, and gave the commissioners a history of his grievances. He gave as a reason for not returning to the reservation that he feared the Klamath "medicine," though Camp Yainax, where the Modocs were living, was forty miles from the Klamath agency. He complained that the
