About this time it was
reported that Gen. Wheaton had received orders to take Captain
Jack if he had to exterminate the entire tribe.
The feeling was getting to be very strong against Captain Jack in
regard to the assassination of Gen. Canby, Col. Thomas and George
Meeks, the interpreter. One evening in a conversation with Gen.
Wheaton he asked me how long I thought it would take to starve
them out. I said: "General, if they took all their horses in the
cave, which I believe they did, and we know for a fact that they
got some cattle from the Klamath river, I think it will be May or
June before you will be able to starve them out."
He said that every Indian that came out of the cave single-handed
or otherwise would not live to get through the picket line, saying
that he had a double picket line now around the entire cave, both
day and night.
The next morning after this conversation with the General, one of
my scouts came in from Rattlesnake Point and reported having seen
the tracks of twenty Indians, where they had crossed the road on
the east side of the lake, and they were all small tracks.
I reported this to the General, telling him that Jack was a pretty
smart Indian, for he was sending his women and children away so as
to make his provisions last as long as possible.
George Jones and I started out, accompanied by two platoons of
soldiers, to capture the Indians.
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