Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. II

TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1844-1845

335

Sir,

Your are hereby appointed Secretary to the Commissioners authorized by his Excy the President to meet in council with various Indian tribes at Torreys Trading House on Tehuacana Creek on the twelfth of September. You will proceed to that place and report for duty to Messrs E More- house J C Neill and Thos I Smith Commissioners. I have the honor to be

Your obt Svt Wm G Cooke Secy of War and Marine

Indian Council Ground,

Friday Septr 12, 1845. This day Col J C Neill and Gen E Morehouse Commissioners, with their Secy Dani D Culp acting under instructions from the Hon, Wm G Cooke Secy of War of the Republic of Texas, accom- panied by L H Williams and Mr. Sloat Indian Agents, and "Jim Shaw" interpreter, left Torreys Trading House, and proceeded to the Brazos River for the purpose of meeting the Comanche Indians, brought in by Mr Sloat, Special Agent for that tribe, for the purpose of attending the Annual Council; and having met them in peace and friendship, proceeded up the River to the Council Ground near Tehuacana Creek, four miles from the Trading House, and encamped. Mo-pe-chu-cope, head chief of the Comanche with eight of his civil and War Chiefs visited the camp of the Corns, and after smoking the pipe of peace the Corns. through their interpreter, informed them as follows : "That they were happy to meet them as friends and as brothers, that their Great Chief, the President, had sent them for the purpose of renewing the friendship which had subsisted, be- tween the Red and white men. That now their red brothers could pass and repass, with their women and children to the Trading House, unmoiested by any one, that there they could find such goods as they might wish to buy, and that the white men would be glad to trade with them. That they need not be the least uneasy, for the white people would not harm them, and that if they heard any bad news, to come to the Corns, or Agents, and all would be explained-That one of the Corns, Col Smith, was not present, but that he would be in Council in a few days, and that Majr Thos G Western the Superintendent of Indian Affairs would be in Council also, in a few days, with a

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