, 1878-02-02

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| resounded in the ears of the command
they had 50 recently left. The day after
the writer was on the spot where they fell
and Judging from the position OF the
bodies they disdaincd to fly and tried TO
| gain fame by fighting. As it was they
died fighting, and it is an open question
if the majority had a single cartridge left
when they were killed :.
Blewett's s remains were afterwards dis
covered within a mile OF where Foster
last saw HIM. He died for Idaho, but
| with tha. delicacy and general apprecia-
| ton Of the services of those who rlsked
their lives for the gem OF the mountains,
her citizens allowed the neighborlng ter
ritory of Washington to give his remains
an honored burial. In hoe sigro riI'ces.
COL ROBBINS.
Directly after the news OF the outbreak
| reached Southern IDAHO one OF the first
| men to offer themselves was Col. Rube
Robbins. Almost simultaneous came the
news that the hostiles in strong force
were making their way across the Salmon
| river mountains intent on operating and
| depredating in the Weiser and Payette
valleys. 1t was time when men lost
| their wits and knew not what 10 do or
how to do it. With mere handful Of
| men Capt Robbins and John Gray hur-
ried to what WAS then supposed to he the
! front, on the outskirts of civilization, In
dian valley. Although, fortunately for
all, the Indians did not make their ap
| peayancc, none the less credit Is due to
those men and We must take the will for
the deed, for nothing but terrible times
| were anticipated. Towards the latter
part of July Robbins again pat in an ap-
/, pearance i'll command of about thirty
Bamnock Indians employed as scouts, and
from that time down to the end of hostili
ties he was ever i'll the advance with his
| best men and warriors. During the pas
SAGE of the Lolo for nine days, when an
ambuscade was more than likely, Robbins
! by scouting the country Iii every direction
assured the expedition of the absence of
hostiles. Many and dangerous were the
| expeditions he was sent on One or two
| are deserving of special mention. When
the news came that the brave GIbbOn had
attacked the Ncz Perccs at Big Hole,
Howard and Robbins with less than fifty
men rode forward to his much needed rs
sistance They stopped not to rest, eat
or drink, but day and night, regardless of
themselves, kept on and on The Indians
at the time thought they were attacked By
! an advance column OF Howard's command
and as they greatly outnuaered the sol
diers and citizens and had them complete
| " surrounded in 4 very tight ploce, doubt
less concluded they would ipaugura:e an
! other little Custer affair With unusual
| fcTethoaght they sent out scouts to watch
for the coming of more troops This IS
well known, for plain, fresh mocaSsin
tracks We saw plainly, and plenty of fir
Ing was heard only about fifteen minutes
before Howard and his gallant little d.
tachment reached the battle-i field. This
rapid march, let Others say what they Will,
was the sole and only cause that prevented
Gibbon and his terribly brave men from
being utterly annihilated. 1t was.by set
ting 50 good an example himself and par
taking of al the harlships with "a laugh
and joke that 0ur one armed Chief be-
came 50 popular amongst his men. No
mater villa: tie danger WAS to be per-
formed there was always man ready 10
do it OF at least to make good try. He
never asked man to do anything for him
but what, if he could, he would have
done himself On his arrival at the scene
of carnage Robbins was sent to fellow the
Indians, but his horses were worn down
with their long hot ride, while the Indians
had the start with horses that hrd rested
and fed on good grass for week, and al
thnr;h he followed on their trail for iif
teen miles he failed to overhaul them and
give them anotherseverewh whipping. Again,
when the outfit reached the Junction,
Robbins was again sent off with his men
and few soldiers, ali told 40 men. This
Was regarded as one Of the most hazard
Gus scouts of the whole campaign. 1t
was matter Of doubt which way the In
dians had gone, So OUT little crowd was
sent on with instructions that could be
construed any way the officer in charge
chose Par example, while the instruc-
tions read, worry and harras the enemy
any way possible, we were 10 return IL
AZ hours So We left at midnight and by
the next afternoon lad travelled nearly 90
miles and We're in four hours ride OF
Henry Lake, the head of Snake river.
Arriving here next day, Fondervoot, Rob
bins right hand man in every danger and
who WAS ever in advance with him, and
Tom Haley, another good scout and brave
man, returned from a scout they had
taken on their own account and reported
large band OF stock along the borders
! of the lake To find out what it realty
meant was absolutely necessary FOR the
peace of mind of all concerned. That
they were the enemy no one doubted, but
! to find out for certain required consider
able risk Lieut.. Bacon, Capt Robbins
and Scoily, our guide, put on their war
pant and proceeded to prepare for al ad-
| venture as the writer always has an IRE
sistible inclination to follow the humor of
the moment wherever it leads HIM. this
time it led him TO follow Robbins, more
especially as it appeared free thing So
We drew in the lassos, siezed saddle and rein,
| Threw them on, sinched them on, sinched them
over again
"Sprang all haste to the horse" and
tore away in haste to bring matters to
close, ON the general principle that when
one has difficult task to perform the
sooner he sets about and gets through
with it the better. When We arrived at
the edge OF the mountains skirting the
lake, We discovered multitude of stock,
| at the distance We could make out but
few men, SO it was concluded, as our
| quartette had very high estimation of
their own powers, that the best thing to
be done was to approach as closely as pos
S,hlo tho,, h. n rnddan charne mt the