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Show 58 REPORT OF THE BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS. tion. I read to Mr. Merriain his editorials, published before my arrival, wherein he called me a " cold- blooded scoundrel," " red- handed assassin," & c., and said, " Colyer will soon be here. * * We ought, in justice to our murdered dead, to dump the old devil into the shaft of some mine, and pile rocks upon him until he is dead. A rascal who comes here to thwart the efforts of military and citizens to conquer a peace from our savage foe, deserves to be stoned to death, like the treacherous, black- hearted dog that he is," & c., and told him I had no hankering after that kind of u mining." The gentlemen assured me that they would protect me with their rifles and revolv-ers ; but as my official duties were wholly with the Indians, and the officers of the Government having them in charge, and I was unable to see sufficient reasons for addressing a public meeting in which I should have to be protected with rifles and re-volvers, I respectfully declined. Mr. Merriam gave me a beautiful specimen of gold quartz, and I thought we had parted pretty good friends ; but three days after he published an editorial containing several gross calumnies, and abusing mo worse than, ever. V. C. [ EigWi letter.'] RETURNING HOME. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 20, 1871. We left Prescott for home Saturday morning, October 7, accompanied with many expressions of good- will from the officers of the Army stationed at Camp Whipple. In passing through Kirkland Valley near Date Creek, the stage stopped at a farmer's house and inn toward evening, where we found the family greatly excited over the murder of an Indian. The landlord declined to give methe details of the affair, and I vainly endeavored to obtain them from a corporal and two soldiers who were standing there j they having been sent for from Camp Date Creek to protect the family. The landlord asked for seats in the stage for his wife and daughter to go to Wickenberg, saying he feared an attack upon his house that night by Apache Mohave Indians, and wished to have his family in a place of safety. As the Apache Mohaves had been for the last two years at peace, and were not included among those against whom General Crook was conducting his campaign, and, as I have reported before, are estimated to number over two thousand people, the affair was important. The ladies, who were refined and intelligent persons, were taken in the coach, and from them I learned the following particulars : " The Indian was standing in the front door of the tavern, when three white men came up the road on horseback, and demanded a Henry ritle which the Indian held in his hand. ' No/ was the reply, * this is my gun my property.' ' Jump off and take it,' says one to another ; upon which one of the riders dismounted, and reached for the rifle. The Indian stepped back. The white man sprang forward and seized the rifle, and with the butt end knocked the Indian down in the door of the tavern. We screamed, and begged the party not to murder an Indian in the house, or his tribe would retaliate by murdering the inmates. The Indian was dragged out and killed and buried there in the yard, when the party mounted and rode off with his rifle. The day following, a straggling party of the same tribe of Indians the Apache Mohaves were coming up the road, soliciting work from the farmers along the route, as is their custom. When within a mile of the tavern where the Indian was killed, three farmers, who supposed they were coming to attack our house fired into the Indians about twenty in number and wounded or killed several of them, who were carried oil* by their associates in their rapid retreat." The killing of the first Indian took place while the landlord was absent, or he said he would have prevented it. He had thought it prudent to send his family by stage to Wickenberg, but, with the aid of the soldiers and some neighbors, he intended remain-ing, and would endeavor to pacify the Indians. On our arrival at Camp Date Creek, near midnight, I awoke Captain O'Beirne, the com-mander, and delivered the orders of General Crook, arranging for the feeding of the Apache Mohaves at his post. I informed him of the above facts in the hope that he would investigate the affair. At Ceiling's Ranche Way Station on the desert, east of Ehrenberg, I found nearly two hundred and fifty Apache'Mohave Indians living in temporary wicker- ups, and hanging around begging at the ranche. I called the head men together and inquired why they did not go to the agency on the Colorado, or at Date Creek, and what were their means of obtaining a living. They said that at the Colorado Agency, Iraytabe, the chief, discouraged their coming, droVe them off, and threatened them with punishment if they returned. At Date Creek they could get nothing to eat, and " it only made the officers angry to see them. Mr. Collings fed them occasionally, but they were half starving and naked." I distributed some wheat among them and gave them a letter to Colonel O'Beirne at Camp Date Creek, requesting him to look into their condition, and if they |