Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. II

163

TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1844-1845

have heard bad talk. but I do not believe this bad talk, and this is the reason I wish to hold council. That my young men may be convinced that the talk they have heard is false and the talk of bad men. When I went out on my hunt, I got a passport from the agent, and did not meet any trouble until I got nearly back to this place. When I met this bad news When Col Williams went up into our country last summer. I was told that the object of his mission was to get all the women and children in to the council in the fall, and that the whites were then to fall upon them and kill them. The waggons with the goods were to stop below and the troops from the United States were to assist in killing them. At the last Council all of the Captains said the old men with grey beards would not tell lies.-My beard is not yet grey. I am a young man, but I speak truth. For myself I believe that these stories I have heard are lies because I hearci th~ talk of the chiefs at the last council, and I then told my white Brethren that whenever I heard any bad news, I would come to the Trading House and tell it and have the talk sent to the Great White Chief. I do not tell these things myself but tell what I hear. I intend to hold fast to what I said at the council- For my own part I am not afraid, but my people say I am a fool for staying so near the whites, as so soon as the corn gets fit to eat they intend to raise and kill them all and that the reason these goods were put here was to cheat our people out of their hunts to pay for the good white men they have killed. I have understood also that if we did not go with the whites and help kill the Waco that the whites would think we were friends to the Waco, and kill us.-The Waco say that if we do not move out, away from the whites they will steal our horses, so you see we are between two fires. What shall we do? I know that 'it is the desire of the whites to make peace with all, but it is impossible. The whites have done their best to make peace, but the Waco and others will not be friends. Two nights ago news was brought me that the Waco had stolen all the horses from 5 of my men, and that the men had left their families and pursued the Waco, and I have not heard of them since and do not know whether they are killed or not. The Waco also stoJe some horses from some Lipan a short time since, and the Lipan moved and camped in another place,

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