Klamaths made him angry by assuming to own the wood, grass, and water on the reservation, drawing an effective picture of the miseries of such a state of dependence. He denied that his people had ever done anything to disturb the settlers, though they had in the summer of 1870 driven away several families who had settled around the north end of Tule lake the previous winter, when Jack and his band were on the reservation, where he was expected to remain. H. F. Miller subsequently returned, and made some arrangement with the Indians, paying them an assessment, and being one of those whites opposed to the removal of the Indians from interested motives. Jack demanded to know who had given information against him, but the knowledge was withheld, for obvious reasons.
The conference amounted to this, that Jack promised to listen to the agent's advice, not to do anything to annoy the settlers, and not to resist the military, and was given permission to remain where he was until the superintendent should come to see them. Agent Meacham wrote to the superintendent that no danger was to be apprehended at that time of any serious trouble between the Modocs and the settlers. Yet on that same night, after the commissioners had started on their return to Yainax, it was warmly debated in the Modoc camp whether or not to open hostilities at once by killing the Clear lake settlers.
The report of Meacham's conference with Jack, and his assurance that no immediate danger existed, was communicated by the superintendent to Canby, who in turn communicated the same to the commander of the division at San Francisco, and the matter rested. This impression was strengthened by the report of the military inspector, Ludington, who entered Oregon from the south by the route passing by camps Bidwell, Warner, and Harney, that the people along the route seemed free from any fear of Indians, and that any rumors to the contrary were occasioned by the
