the Klamath trail with their best marksmen apparently
in the rear. One of the volunteers was hit in the breast
by an arrow which failed to penetrate, but the balls of the
frontier riflemen went home. The Indians were driven to
bay at a pass of the stream where the cliffs came down
precipitately on the south side, and the current would not
permit them to cross. Here, fighting the best they could,
seven warriors were slain, and two women wounded one
of the warriors, however, being a woman armed.
When the battle was over it was discovered that the actual marauders had eluded them, and those who had suffered were their families and camp guards. Ashamed of their easy victory, the volunteers built a large fire in a comfortable camping place, and left the wounded women to be found and cared for by their relatives. So sensitive were the participants in the "battle of the Abiqua," that it was seldom referred to, and never mentioned as among tha defensive measures of the colonists in 1848. Yet the punishment inflicted, and the knowledge imparted on and to the savages on the southeastern border, proved salutary, and put an end to raids from that quarter.
On the west side of the valley the inhabitants had some trouble with the Calapooias and Tillamooks, who mur dered an old man, and stole cattle from the settlers. A collision occurred in March, in which two Indians were killed, and ten other marauding savages taken and "* whipped. This punishment had the effect to intimidate them, and secure order in that quarter.
On the tenth of April, Superintendent Lee appointed Felix Scott sub-agent of Indian affairs, and notified him that it was advisable to raise a company for the defense of the southern frontier, and asking him to undertake the duty. This he did, enrolling a company of less than half the regulation number. 27 He was commissioned captain of the independent rifle rangers May 11, 1848, and pro-
27 No roll of Scott s company exists. It was probably never more than twenty-five
