The Indian Leschi, who we have seen contributed to the work, utilized the road to make his escape with seventy of his people, after his disastrous defeat at the hands of the volunteers and United States troops in March, 1856, to cross the summit on the snow, so that after all, in a way, he received a benefit from his liberality in times of peace.
Two years after the opening of the road, the Hudson Bay Company sent a train of three hundred horses loaded with furs, from the interior country to Fort Nisqually, with a return of merchandise through the same pass, but never repeated the experiment.
The outbreak of an Indian war, soon followed the first treaty making. The Indians had been outrageously cheated and deceived and war followed.
"October 28th, 1855, nine persons were massacred on White River, about twenty miles South of Seattle." Such is the record of that bloody day's work, eighteen miles distant from where I was living, six miles east of Fort Steilacoom.[17]
"The Indians have broken out," was passed from one settler's cabin to another by rumors, so quickly that by the morning of the 29th all were on the move towards the fort, which in fact was no fort at all—simply a few cabins and some thin board houses.
[Illustration: Type of Blockhouse of Which Seventy-five Were Built at the Outbreak of the Indian War.]
I had lived in peace with these Indians and they had gained my confidence, and as the sequel subsequently showed, I held their friendship and confidence, for in after-times, during the war, a war party held me harmless within their power, as they had said they would of those who had advocated their cause at the time the treaties were made.
Soon after the outbreak noted, I disregarded the earnest entreaties of many, went back to my stock and to the cabin and cared for the abandoned dairy and young stock. I did not believe the Indians would molest me, but took the precaution of having my rifle in a convenient place. But I did not need to use it. When nightfall came, however, I did withdraw from my cabin, not in fear of war parties, but as against individual outlaws.
As the sole military record of my life consisted in my experience with a company of 17 settlers to make a raid to the Puyallup valley soon after the outbreak described, I thought to "save" my prestige and tell about it.