164
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1858
interior without a guard of a single man, met the hostile Indians, and treated with them. He had risked his life; he was willing to lay it down to redeem his people and shield them from the up- lifted tomahawk. He made peace, and the Indians kept it; and not until after the administration of General Taylor came in and appointed another agent in place of Major Neighbors, was the peace disturbed; and even then for some time peace was main- tained on the frontier; but, the agent not going amongst them, and their old confidential friend being withdrawn, the Indians became hostile, and from that moment to the present they have been so. Ten thousand dollars, distributed under the administra- tion of the Texas government, satisfied the Indians, and kept peace from the Red river to the Rio .Grande; every dollar was accounted for. Then there was some respect for the suffering frontier; there was some sympathy for the Indian in his nomadic state; there was some respect for humanity, prospective as well as present. There were no salaries given by Texas for the elegant and refined taste of gentlemen now-a-days. They were a rude people, but they were honest. There are two reserves, one called the Brazos reserve of four leagues; and about forty miles up the Brazos along the base of the mountains, is a second reserve of two leagues, granted by Texas to the United States for the occupation of the Indians. At the upper agency there are about one hundred and fifty Indians, and at the lower agency, one the Brazos, about twelve hundred. At the upper agency, being the most exposed situation, there was a force, I think, of two companies, and Captain Evans was in command. Not very long ago, the agent wrote to him that there was danger; that he was apprised by the friendly Indians, and those on the reserve, that the hostile Indians of the north medi- tated an attack upon them. What did he do? I will show you presently. In the mean time, Camp Cooper, which had been located within the reserve, and not very far from its center, was removed by way of making a small trading transaction for the benefit of the Government. Camp Cooper was removed under a superior's order, from the land that was given by Texas to the United States, and taken about twelve miles off, by the circuitous route of the road; or eight miles by a pathway from the reserve; taken to a private ranche, .private property, with the understand- ing that all the improvements made there were to be occupied so long as the United States thought proper, and then they were to revert to the owner of the ranche. They had to haul timber some
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