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Show we camped at Mountain Meadows on the rim of the Great Basin, and overtook them, the U.S. troops under command of Lt. Nivens. There men and stock were in fine health, and luxurating in the finest grass I ever saw, and on the evening of the 19th reached the Indian farm on the Rio Santa-Clara about 60 miles below the rim of the rim of the Basin. We there met with a band of the Pi-Edes numbering about 50 or 60 men besides women and children. They seemed at first to be a little shy, but soon learned our mission among them, and became more sociable. They were anxious to know if we had heard of a band of Utahs coming (?) to steal their children and were much pleased to learn that we had not heard anything of them, and that we did not believe they were coming. From what I could learn of these Indians I should say that if properly managed, they will be easily civilized. Their Cheif whose name (?) is McCoh-a-Wats or little Gun (?) a young man rather diminutive in size, but quite shrewd and possesses much influence over his people we gave them all the presents and provisions we had to spare. They all seemed well pleased with our visit and gave many faithful promises of eternal friendship. Many of them would not have us through the night, but said they would stay and mind our horses. We started on the morning of the 20th on our return and reached this city on the 27th making the distance of about 750 miles in less than 18 days, but many of our horses became jaded on the way and we had to drop them and procure fresh ones. These circumstances-with the necessity of having to hire carriages and the misfortune of geting (sic) things broke and having them |
