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Show INDIAN DEPBEDATIONS 27 They continued their petty depredations and be-came bolder and more insolent daily. The settlers at Fort Utah would occassionally fire their cannon to warn the redskins that they were not unmindful of their misdeeds, and were prepared to maintain their rights. But the Indians were not to be awed by sound and smoke. Their nefarious practices went on. They were evidently provoking a conflict. Stock con-tinued to be taken from the herds, and all efforts to recover stolen property were stoutly resisted. Fi-nally the Indians began firing on the settlers as they issued from their fort, and at last the stockade was virtually in a state of siege. No longer was it arrows alone that fell around them. Bullets whizzed past their ears. The In-dians were now well supplied with fire- arms and ammunition, obtained in exchange for horses, mostly from California emigrants who had passed through the country. Captain Howard Stansbury's party, during the fall, had been surveying around Utah Lake, where they also were much annoyed by the savages. As winter came on, they suspended their labors and returned to Salt Lake City, feeling satisfied that in the existing state of affairs in Utah Valley it would be both difficult and dangerous for them to continue operations in the spring, exposed, as they would be, to attacks from the savages, either in open field or deadly ambush. The subsequent sad fate of Lieutenant John W. Gunnsion and his party on the Sevier showed that these apprehensions were well grounded. |