Almost the first word spoken by my wife to me after I had asked the news, was that Capt.  George, Chief of the Warm Spring Indians, had been there and enquiring for me.  I asked her where he had gone.  She replied that he had come there in the evening, and she had ordered supper for him and that he had put up his horse and was sleeping at the barn.  The news was a relief to me, you may be sure.

After my friends had gone and while my wife and I were discussing the news, George walked in.  He shook hands with me and I gave him a seat.  I knew he had news for me.  But an Indian always takes his time.  After he had sat for some time, and consumed with anxiety to know the nature of his visit, I said: 

“Well, George, what is it?”

“Have you heard about the Snakes,” was his instant answer.

“Yes, I heard about it at The Dalles, and that was what brought me home.  But what do you think about it?”

“I do not believe the Snakes will come this way, but, if they do I will know it in plenty of time.  I will then bring lots of Indians over from the reservation, we will gather up your horses, all of Georges’ horses and all of Maupin’s horses and will take them and all the women and children to the reservation and then we will go out and fight Snakes and steal horses.”

That was George’s idea of war.  It mattered not to him if everybody else was killed, so long as the property and families of his friends were safe.  The conversation, of course, was carried on in the Chinook language, which is a mixture of the Wasco tongue and Hudson Bay French.

Captain George was, as I have stated, Chief of the Warm Spring and Wasco Indians.  He was one of the most perfect specimens of physical manhood I have ever beheld.  He was proud as Lucifer and would scorn to tell a lie.  In fact, he was one of the really good live Indians I have known.  Years after, when residing at Prineville, my front yard was the favorite camping place of Capt.  George, and my stables were always open for the accommodation of his horses.  He was my friend, and as he expressed it, “we are chiefs.”

Poor old George!  He has long since been gathered to his fathers.  I do not know that I shall meet George in the happy hunting grounds.  But this I know, I will meet no truer friend or braver or nobler soul than that of this brave old Indian.

The next morning after my arrival at home George went up to see my brother, and from there went on to the ranch of Mr. Maupin.  So far as I was concerned, after my talk with George, I felt perfectly at ease.  I knew he would do as he had promised.  But the whole country was in panic and it could not be stayed.  Some had abandoned their farms and fled across the mountains to the Willamette Valley, while others were getting ready to go.  I allayed the fears of immediate neighbors as far as possible by selecting the ranch of Dr. Baldwin as a rallying point in case of danger.