Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest, Vol. III

TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1846-1859

116

the General Government, in the management of her Indian af- fairs, was sought to be adopted by Texas, and the necessary laws were, at an early day, enacted for the establishment and maintenance of peace, and to regulate friendly intercourse with them. Such a course was dictated both by justice and policy; and with the scanty means then at command, results superior to the general expectations then formed, for a brief period fol- lowed, and gave strong hopes of a lasting peace to our extended frontier. The favorable expectations created from the flattering manifestation of friendship on the part of the Indians, soon, however, gave place to disappointments, and the most ardent and zealous supporters of treaties became convinced that they alone were insufficient, and soon grew weary, from the unhappy incidents of the times, in their advocacy of them. Proofs derived from the saddest experience rendered it mani- fest that nothing less than the utmost vigilance of a competent military force, would sustain, with the numerous tribes, the relations of amity called for by treaty stipulations. The frontier of Texas presents, from its extent and peculiar natural features, many allurements to wandering tribes who rely solely for a precarious subsistence upon their marauding skill. The Indian tribes of this country, generally, are wild, wandering, and barbarous in their dispositions and habits, and have become very bold and adventurous, and difficult to restrain, from their unchecked successes and their predatory incursions into the Mexican Territory and their daring inroads into our own settlements; and it has become manifest from ample experience that the amicable relations with them, as established by trea- ties, are at all times liable to be broken, both from their own unreasonable whims, and the designs of base and wicked men. Presenting an unbroken line of frontier, from Red River, North, south west to the Rio Grande, five hundred miles in ex- tent, and the country above the whole extent of this line in- habited by wild and uncivilized Indian tribes, whose habits and inclinations disqualify them from any pursuit requiring indus- try and labor, it inevitably foliows, that the sparse and unpro- tected settlements below, offering inducements for depredations without the necessary means of defence, must fall a prey to savage cupidity and cunning without the protecting arm of the General or State Government. The treaty concluded with the principal Indian tribes in

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