162
WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1858
there; no elegant society. They cannot go to balls and parties; they cannot enjoy themselves at all. It is not a country suitable for persons of taste! How would you remunerate a man for the sacrifice of his amiability of disposition by giving him $1,500 a year, or the like of that, to serve in su~h a country? It is per- fectly ridiculous, sir! You cannot compensate a man of genius, taste, and refinement, for placing him away out there. Money is not sufficient; but they are very willing to get office, trusting to favoritism and such means as will bring them into agreeable society. Within the last year I think not less than twelve hundred horses . have been stolen from citizens of Texas and the reserve Indians. The trails have been followed; they have gone into this territory to which we have our eyes directed, and in which we wish to see the Indians located, and a regular agency established. The reserve Indians are denounced, because the reserve policy re- quires more attention on the part of the agents, and they have not so much leisure if they devote themselves to it. The civilized Comanches on the reserves sent out an expedition of their own; and they retook no less than seventy horses, part of their own ponies, many of them public horses, and others belonging to the community surrounding the reservation. They caught these horses in the possession of two Spaniards and two wild Comanches. They were striking through this region to reach Kansas; for there is a market there, and with the civilized Indians bordering upon the route. Gentlemen have told me that they have seen horses which were taken from Texas sold in Kansas as far up as Fort Leavenworth. You must arrest this commerce, or Texas is to be the constant prey of this system of horse-thiev- ing. The Indians of the reserve, by Major Neighbors' permis- sion, under the command of their sub-agent, followed and over- took the horses with two Spaniards and two Comanches. They thought it was unnecessary to be put to the trouble of taking care of all of them; and so they killed the Spaniards and brought in the Comanches, and reported them to the agents. They said to the two wild Indians that their rule was, before they came to 1 the reserve, to kill fellows for such offenses; and they executed / them. This may be fearful to a state of good morals; it partakes I a little of the lynching system; but I am not sure that it is not a good frontier system in extreme cases. Not long since, Captain Ford pursued the Indians who had stolen some three hundred horses into the very heart of this country purchased from the
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