Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-07-05
The Captive MOdOcs.
Captain Jack Denounces the Traitors OF
His Band.


His Band.
A correspondent, writing from Gen.
Davis headquarters, says:
Hooker Jim and Steamboat Frank
were really to consummate their treach-
cry by killing Sconches and Capt. Jack.
They travelled two days, kept guard
during the intervening night, and, hav-
ing ridden sixty miles that day, found
themselves too tired and sleepy, as
Frank expressed it, to trust themselves
to shoot. Their nerves were not steady
enough to rely upon. to finish their
work. Capt. Jack has good reason to
upbraid them, and yet may not be
aware how deep a treachery they in
tended. 1 took look at Capt. Jack
to-day. He sat cross-legged, with a
clean striped shirt on, and looked about
thirty-fv He is well l-built man, has
face of some power and great intel
ligence, and would probably be picked
out as the most able man in the tribe
His favorite wife, Lizzie, sat by his
side, working moccasin. She was
neatly dressed, is rather pretty too for
an Indian, and her little girl is a very
pretty child. g nsazs Ga y
Hooker Jim and Steamboat Frank
have endured great deal of late, and
have a great deal more to endure, as
have Bogus Charley and Shack Nasty
Jim, their traitor confederates, who are
now absent attending to the removal of
the rest of the Cottonwoods to this
place. After the talk few days ago, when
they assisted in identifying the Tule
Lake murderers, Mary went back to
the Modoc quarters, and had talk
with her brother, Capt. Jack, and the
two renegades being present, the Mo-
doc chief arose and made. a passionate
harangue at their expense. He remind
ed his hearers that when the Peace
Commissioners and Gen. Candy were
trying to settle matters he was for
peace, and would have accepted the Of
fered terms, but his tribe resolved for
war, and to please them he waged war,
and now was doomed man. ........ .
He pointed to the two Modoc rene
gades and reminded them and his hear
ers that they too were for war and re-
fused to let him accept terms and make
peace. Then he tainted them with
leaving him to fig ht alone, and turning
traitor to him besides. He called them
towards; said they were squaws, and
made it SO very uncomfortable for them
generally, that they couldn't stand it,
but went off and reported that Capt.
Jack was very mad and talked very
mean. Having the field all to himself,
the shackled chief turned to the rest of
his tribe and delivered an exhortation
that created intense excitement. The
feeling rose so high that the officers of
the guard went in among them and in
sisted that the talk should cease. The
nature of the speech the Modoc chief
made, and which may be the last he
ever will make, as reported to the COM
mading General, was to this effect
Capt. Jack, in the most impassioned
and eloquent style of Indian oratory,
commented on the treason of the four
renegades and urged the tribe to edu-
cate their children to avenge it, if they
could not do it themselves. Said he :
"Capt. Jack is nothing any more. He
can do nothing to avenge himself or to
avenge you. Tell your children to
make it the business of their lives to
never let them live or die in peace and
honor, but to kill these traitors, who
have betrayed you and have betrayed
me, and send them to dishonored
graves" If this scene had been laid
down in the lines of Virgil or of Ho-
mer, if it were told to us in the poems
of Ossian, it might be counted one of
the most effective ever handed down in
song or story and it may be possible
that the lights and shadows of Modoc
history, which has so many shadows to
darken its story, will yet find poet
who can work up the tragedy and the
wonder of Modoc story. .r.g .,,..i a..