tactics a delegation consisting of Bogus Charley^ Mary, another Indian woman named Ellen, and Boston Charley, was sent in their place with a message to the commissioners and Canby of a private nature.
The impression given out at the several interviews held up to this time was that there were two parties among the Modocs, a war party and a peace party, and that Jack was of the peace party, while Sconchin, his rival, was striving for the chieftainship by attempting to lead the majority or war party. That this was simply a device to deceive the commissioners as to their real strength and purpose was afterward made apparent; but at the time it succeeded, as the telegrams of Canby show. After the meeting of the 22nd he said; "The result confirmed the impression j)reviously reported, that the war faction is still predominant. Captain Jack's demeanor was that of a man under duress, and afraid to exhibit his real feelings. Important questions were evaded or not answered at all." This created a feeling of compassion toward Jack in the mind of the general who was conducting the negotiations, and led him to believe more in the final success of the peace commission, Meacham, feeling compelled to follow the lead given, as ordered by Delano, after the late unsatisfactory meetings, again wrote to the commissioner of Indian affairs that the principal impediment to the surrender of the Indians was the fear that the offending warriors would be punished, and that this fear was willfully increased by bad white men, who desired to have the war prolonged from mercenary motives.
This accusation, which gained most credence at the greatest distance from the seat of war, was easy of refutation, since the only men having the opportunity at first to communicate with the Indians were those sent by the commissioners, and another class who lived upon terms of equality with Modoc women, and who could have little of anything to gain by the continuance of hostilities, but whose profits had formerly
