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Show 252 WESTERN WILDS. of the party were coming afoot. Next day the others arrived, quite worn out, having walked a hundred miles in three days, carrying their baggage. Their account is as follows : The party consisting of Agent Miller, B. M. Thomas, ( Agency Farmer,) John Ayers and the Interpreter, Jesus Alviso, left Defiance on the 4th of June, to inspect the San Juan Valley, with a view of locating the Navajo Agency there. The examination was satisfactory, as they found one fertile and beautiful valley near the river, capable of being irrigated by a single acecquia, and sufficient to support the whole tribe. At the same time, three others left the settlements on a prospecting tour, reached San Juan one day after the Agent's party, and were camped twelve miles from them on the bluff. Neither party dreamed of danger from the Utes, as that tribe had been at peace many years ; and, though they annoyed the Navajoes greatly, had not molested white men. On the morning of the llth, just at dawn, Miller's companions were awakened by the report of a gun and whistling of an arrow, both evidently fired within a few rods of them. They sprang to their feet, and saw two Utes run into the brush ; ten minutes after they saw them emerge from the opposite side of the thicket, and ride up the bluff, driving the company's horses before them. They did not know, at first sight, that the Utes were hostile, or that they had fired at them. John Ayers spoke to Miller, who did not reply; he then shoved him with his foot, still he did not wake. They pulled off his blanket, and found him dead. The Ute's bullet had entered the top of his head and passed down behind his right eye, without disarranging his cloth-ing in the slightest. His feet were crossed, and hands folded exactly as when he went to sleep ; his eyes were closed, his lips slightly parted into a faint smile, as if from a pleasant dream all showed beyond doubt that he had passed from sleep to death without a struggle or a sigh. Thus died James H. Miller, a true Christian, a faithful official and brave man. Congress did not adjourn without passing the Indian Appropriation Bill, and soon came the welcome news that the agent at Santa Fe had started several thousand bushels of grain for Defiance. Again the em-ployed took heart; there was joy in the hogans. Mr. Thomas V. Reams, Agency Clerk, was acting in place of Miller, deceased, and I gladly acknowledge the many courtesies I received at his hands. In-deed, all the employes, like people generally in these out- of- the- way places, vied with each other in making my stay pleasant. I recall par-ticularly Dr. J. Menaul and lady, preacher and teacher for the Agency ; Lionel Ayers, post- trader; J. Dunn, wagon- master; A. C. Damon, |