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34 THE CARIBOO TRAIL

bare back. A standing committee of twelve
was appointed to enforce the law till the
regular government should be organized.

It was July ’58 when the miners on the
river-bars formed their committee. And they
formed it none too soon, for the Indians were
on the war-path in Washington and the un-
rest had spread to New Caledonia. Young
M‘Loughlin,son of the famous John M‘Loughlin
of Oregon, coming up the Columbia overland
from Okanagan to Kamloops with a hundred
and sixty men, four hundred pack-horses and
a drove of oxen, had three men sniped off by
Indians in ambush and many cattle stolen.
At Big Canyon on the Fraser two Frenchmen
were found murdered. When word came of
this murder the vigilance committee of Yale
formed a rifle company of forty, which in
August started up to the forks at Lytton. At
Spuzzum there was a fight. Indians barred
the way; but they were routed and seven of
them killed in a running fire, and Indian vil-
lages along the river were burned. Meanwhile
a hundred and sixty volunteers at Yale formed
a company to go up the river under Captain
Snyder. The company’s trader at Yale was
reluctant to supply arms, for the company’s
policy had ever been to conciliate the Indians.