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Show REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. 61 tell them all they wished to know, and in the plainest and most positive manner. They were readily obedient and remarkably quick of comprehension. They were happy and contented, and took every opportunity to show it. They had sent out runners to two other bands which were connected with them by intermarriages, and had received pro-mises from them that they would come in and join them. I am confident, from all that I have been able to learn, that but for this unlooked for butchery, by this time we would have had one thousand persons, and at least two hundred and fifty able- bodied men. As their number increased, and the weather grew warmer, they asked and obtained permission to move farther np the Aravapa to higher ground and plenty of water, and opposite to the ground they were proposing to plant, and were rationed every third day. Captain Stan wood arrived about the first of April and took command of the post. He had received while en route verbal instructions from General Stoneman to recognize and feed any Indians he might find at the post as " prisoners of war." After he had carefully inspected all things pertaining to their conduct and treatment, he concluded to make 110 changes, but had become so well satisfied of the integrity of their intentions that he left on the 24th with his whole troop for a long scout in the lower part of the Territory. The ranchmen in this vicinity were friendly and kind to them and felt perfectly secure, and had agreed with me to employ them at a fair rate of pay to harvest their barley. The Indians seem to have lost their charac-teristic anxiety to purchase ammunition, and had, in many instances, sold their best bows and arrows. I made frequent visits to their camp, and if any were absent from count made it my business to know why. Such was the condition of things up to the morning of the 30th of April. They had so won on me, that from my first idea of treating them justly and honestly as an officer of the Army, I had come to feel a strong personal interest in helping to show them the way to a higher civilization. I had come to feel respect for men who, igno-rant and naked, were still ashamed to lie or steal, and for women who would work cheerfully like slaves to clothe themselves and children, but, untaught, held their virtue above price. Aware of the lies and hints industriously circulated by the puerile press of the Territory, I was content to know I had positive proof they were so. I had ceased to have any fears of their leaving here, and only dreaded for them that they might at any time be ordered to do so. They frequently expressed anxiety to hear from the general, that they might have confidence to build for themselves better houses, but would always say, " You know what we want, and if you can't see him you can write and do for us what you can." It is possible that during this time indi-viduals from here had visited other bands, but that any number had ever beeu out to assist in any marauding expedition I know is false. On the morning of April , I was at breakfast at 7.30 o'clock, when a dispatch was brought to me by a sergeant of Company P, Twenty- first Infantry, from Captain Penn, commanding Camp Lowell, informing me that a large party had left Tucson on the 28th, with the avowed purpose of killing all the Indians at this post. I immediately sent the two interpreters, mounted, to the Indian camp, with orders to tell the chiefs the exact state of things, and for them to bring their entire party inside the post. As I had no cavalry, and but about fifty infantry, ( all recruits,) and no other officer, I could not leave the post to go to their defense. My messengers returned in about an hour, with intelligence that they could find no living Indians. The camp was burning and the ground strewed with their dead and mutilated women and children. I immediately mounted a party of about twenty soldiers and citizens, and sent them with the post surgeon, with a wagon to bring in the wounded, if any could be found. The party returned late in the p. in., having found no wounded and without having been able io communicate with any of the survivors. Early the next morning I took a similar party, with spades and shovels, and went, out and buried all the dead in and immediately about the camp. I had the day before offered the inter-preters, or any one who could do so, $ 100 to goto the mountains and communicate with them, and convince them that no officer or soldier of the United States Government had been concerned in the vile transaction; and, failing in this, I thought the act of caring for their dead would be an evidence to them of our sympathy at least, and the conjecture proved correct, for while at the work many of them came to the spot and indulged in their expressions of grief, too wild and terrible to bo described. That evening they began to come in from all directions, singly and in small parties, so changed in forty- eight hours as to be hardly recognizable, during which time they had neither eaten nor slept. Many of the men, whose families had all been killed, when I spoke to them and expressed sympathy for them, were obliged to turn away, unable to speak, and too proud to show their grief. The women whose children had been killed or stolen were convulsed with grief, and looked to me appealingly, as though I was their last hope on earth. Children who two days before had been full of foo and frolic kept at a distance, expressing wondering horror. I did what I could ; I fed them, and talked to them, and listened patiently to their accounts. I sent horses into the mountains to bring in two badly- wounded women, one shot through the left lung, and one with an arm shattered. These were attended to, and are doing well, and will |