able under the circumstances. It is certain they offered
ample pay in horses to be successfully defended, from
which it would appear they expected to stand trial.
The heart and mind of the savage is a wild stock on which it is idle to attempt to graft an advanced civiliza tion and have it bear perfect fruit. Tiloukaikt, the chief of these criminals, when curiously questioned by his captors concerning his motive in giving himself up, asked: "Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? Thus die we, if we must, to save our people." Yet he had no remorse at having slain his teachers, and when offered food from the soldiers mess, scorned to taste it, asking, " What hearts have you to offer me of your food, whose hands are red with your brother s blood?"
It is probable that the Cayuses recognized the fact that theirs was a case requiring a desperate remedy. The long threatened soldiery of the United States had made their appearance, and while they, the Indians, could not buy ammunition, their enemies now had it in abundance. For two years they had roamed about, and peace was farther off than ever, with power accumulating against them. Where hundreds of white men had come from the east before, thousands were coming now to the Pacific coast, and there would be no end of this migration with which they had been threatened. Perhaps white men who un derstood the laws of their people could free them; if not, it was only death, at the worst; and they were not afraid to die.
The prisoners were brought to Oregon City, and confined on an island in the midst of the falls, connected with the mainland by a bridge, which was guarded by a detachment of riflemen under Lieutenant W. B. Lane. The trial was set for the twenty-second of May, the prosecution being con ducted by United States district attorney Amory Holbrook, and the defense undertaken by the territorial secretary, Knitzing Pritchett, assisted by R. B. Reynolds, p
