Murder of a Coldminer in Alaska.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7372, 21 November 1898, Page 4

Murder of a Coldminer in Alaska.

A PERILOUS ESCAPE FROM THE INDIANS. Juneau, Alaska, September 13.—Invitations to a wholesale hanging at Tagish House on lavish Lake are being extended throughout the Yukon Valley and South-eastern Alaska by the Canadian police. Three Indians will either have their necks broken or bs strangled to death there, at the same time, in a few weeks. They killed one prospector and would have murdered another but for miraculous circumstances which enabled him to escape. On this account the attendance of ingoing and outcomiag Klondikers and Indians is likely to be very large. Dawson, Dyea, Skaguay and Juneau, will be represented by delegations, Juneau, especially, as both the victims are old-time residents of this town.

The crime of the Indians was the most unprovoked and one of the bloodiest in the historj of Alaska. The only survivor, Geo, Fox, is here now. He tells the first particulars of the thrilling crime.

Wiiliam Mehan and Fox left Juneau last winter. They sledded a fine outfit to the head of the M'Clintock River, whence they intended to cross a portage to the Hootalinqua River and work some sand bars on that stream. M'Ciintock River empties into the lower end of Lake Marah, flowing from a north-easterly direction. It is the outlet of a small lake. But when the two men gob to the head of the river it was along 'a>bout the end of May, the portage was bare of snow and they could not sled their stuff over. As the easiest way out of the trap, they set about whipsawing lumber and building a boat to carry them back down the M'Clintock and up the Hootlinqua. The latter river is the outlet of Lake Teslin into the L6wis Fiver.

Near their camp was a small Tn Sian camp. The white men had pofclatched " ictus " (tobacco and other things) with the Indians and otherwise been friendly to them. When they were leaving camp with their stuff packed in the boat for down river Fox took out his watch to note the time. He told Mehan that it was just twenty minutes to eleven. He had hardly dropped his watch back into his pocket and picked up his paddle, when they were fired on by the Indians from ambush in the rear. Fox sat in the bow. He was struck in the back. He fell partly over the side, with one arm paralysed and hanging in the water. He exclaimed ; " I'm done for, Bill; pull for your life. But poor Bill did not pull. He was dead, riddled with three bullets iii the back, one through the heart. Fox could not see him, but his position enabled him to see the Indians running from the woods to the shore. Kox moved involuntarily and they let him have another volley, as he lay helpless and bleeding in the boat. One bullet had gone clear through his body and lungs. But by this time the boat had drifted into rougher water and the second volley struck low. It found lodgment in a sack of flour and a case of corned beef. The current here Bet across the river against a point about half a mile below. 1 he Indians ran back into the woods. The , moment Fox saw them run he, knew what they intended to do. They would the boat.as it grounded against the point. It woula be all up with hiin then, if he wasn't as good as dead anyhow. HisWdle luckily lay balanced on the gunwale, with just enough of it inside to keep it from, falling into the water. He tried to paddle back to shore with his uninjured right arm, but was too weak. Then another idea struck him. To remain in the boat ana be caught at the point was certain death, as the Indians would certainly kill him, having begun the job, in order to secure their outfit, the watch and their guns ; on shore there was 4 chance for. escape. In this critical emergency he placed. the. paddle into ttie wflter perpendicular to the boat and feebly turned it around toward the shore. Ohance favored

him, for in a few moments the boat grounded on a small spot of sand near a grassy spit. There was a. rotten log lying with one end near the 'water aid the other up the bank. " I realised at once," said Fox, " the importance of leaving no trail, but for all I could do I feared at least a few drops of blood would escape from my clothes and stain the grass. My clothes were soaked with it. I stepped from grass tuft to tuft as well as I could, for I was rapidly becoming weaker. When 1 stepped on the end of the log it was so rotten that it broke away. But that was the only mark I left. I knew that when the Indians got the boat, and found only one man in it, they would start back to look for me. So I saw it would not do to stay down near the river, and I made for the foothills. I headed for the mouth of the river, where white men were camped and building boats, and there was also a police camp. It took me seven hours to make these 10 miles. It was the toughest time I ever had in my life. I was so weak that I gave up several times, but after having stopped a few minutes. I would set out with renewed determination. I thought I would never get out.' Green and yellow lights flashed before my eyes I was blinded and butted my face against trees. My lees would not move. But I said to myself: ' Brace up, old man ; don't lie doWn and die like a dog ; don't lie down and die—don't lie down—don't lie down.' "And! kept saying this over and over: to myself. I grasped the branches of bushes and trees and pulled myself along, saying first to one leg, «' Come along here, old boy," and then to the other, " Come along here, old boy, don't go back on me now." Thus I shoved and pushed and pulled myself along through the foothill brush and bramble. "God ! how 1 did want a diink of water. My tongue was cracking for it. Little rivulets were right before me, but I could not reach them. I felt that if I ever got down on the ground I would never be able to rise again. Once I tried it at what I thought was a favorable brook. But as I stooped, over there was an awful pressure on my head behind—the weight of weakness. I barely caught myself in time and straightened up. It was a thousand times worse to see cool water rippling before one's lips without being able to sip it than it is to be cracked with thirst and no water in sight. Well, I finally got down the river some miles to a white man's camp. The police started right back up the river. They found the boat well grounded on the point, but no Indians were in sight. It seems that the oldest Indian, a young buck of about 21 years, had been taken sick when the four reached the point. He picked up Mehan's bag and some grub and went back to camp with the load. Finding but one body in the boat the other three, as anticipated by Fox, started back up the river to find him or traces of what had become of him. The murderous redskins were divided in opinion as to whether Fox had fallen into the river or escaped. They found the broken log, they admitted afterward, and knew he had got ashore and was alive. In the meantime the police had n-rrived-at the Indian camp. The young buck who had pleaded sickness was in his tapee. He had two squaws, a young one and an old one. He denied having seen a boat or even a white man in the vicinity. The handcuffs were put on him, and he was taken down the river.

The officers started on a hunt for the other natives, but they returned to camp Boon after the police left, and learning from the f quaws that the oldest buck had been bagged they took to the woods instantly. The police engaged the services of another Indian and eventually all three were captured farther back in the mountains, making for the Cassiar. They had to depend on their guns for food and were thus tracked. The hired Indian went into their camp pretending friendship. He seized their guns at night and all were soon helpless in handcuffs and lariats. The youngest is only 15 years old. The Indian captured with the squaws waß taken before Fox as he lay in bed. Fox had been propped up into a sitting posture. The Indian's eyes bulged out as soon as he saw Fox, as though he was suddenly confronted by an apparition. He swayed first to one side, then the other. Ke thought Fox had bean killed and that he saw his ghost. He threw up both hands and exclaimed : " Klach Which translated, means that he never saw Fox before. Fox identified all four of the natives at the trial in I'awson. The youngest one was recommended to mercy and will be imprisoned. The other three have bsen brought back to Tagish, near the scene of their crime, to be executed.

1 his is the first case known of Indiana attacking gold seekers for plunder. In the Lake Teslin basin and around the headwaters of th 6 Pelly, Stewart, Big Salmon, and other rivers of the vast water shed of the Yukon are isolated parties seeking the golden fleece.