;;:
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1843
4i9
To BENJAMIN SLOAT AND LUIS SANCHEV Executive Department, Washington, December 14th, 1843. To Benjamin Sloat and Luis Sanchez, Esquires: Gentlemen: Having been appointed to visit the Comanches and other Indians upon our frontiers and within the limits of Texas, you will proceed, with as little delay as possible, to carry out the instructions which are now extended to you. You will proceed to the lodges of the Comanches and the other Indians whom it may be proper to visit for the purpose of peace, with as much directness as possible; and when you shall have met them, you will communicate to them the object of your visit and distribute the presents entrusted to your charge-giving to the principal chief of the Comanches and to the war chief of that tribe, and to Acahquash, each, one of the robes furnished for that purpose. If either of said chiefs be dead, or it is impracticable to see him, you will present his robe to the head chief of the 'fahwaccanies. As soon as peace is made, the uniform coat and epaulettes will be given to Pah-hah-yuco. You will impress upon those to whom you make presents, that they have been sent a long distance to his red brothers by the Great Chief of Texas-as gifts of friendship but not as the offer- ings of fear. You will particularly explain to them the pacific policy of the present administration towards the Indians. You will tell them that the Great Chief of Texas has lived much among his red brothers, and has always been their friend-that he has looked upon the killing of his red brothers at San Antonio, with sorrow, and seen the other injuries which they have suffered from the whites, with the deepest pain and mortification-that the voice of the chief who permitted all these bad acts to be committed is no longer heard in Texas-that he has no more power to do harm-that the chief who now sends you to his red brothers is disposed to make a peace, which shall be firm and lasting, because he knows it will be best for both the white and the red man-that he wants his people to meet his red brothers in the prairies and everywhere, as good friends and not as enemies-that he wants · them to trade together, because he knows that it will be to each other's advantage and that the white man will sell to the red man everything he wants and buy from him all he has to sell. Tell them that if they have been deceived by white men, it shall not be so again-that five years ago I made a treaty with the
Powered by FlippingBook