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Show 230 INDIANS I4 TEE cook or some one else had been taking too much liberty with t h lords of the soil. The moat of them were from the north, and saia they had visited the road to trade ; but their eagerness for ammuni-tion induced the emigrants to u ithhold it from them, and this appears to be the cause of the difficulty. I learned that Niu-ah-tu-cah, the old chief, was camped about twenty miles up the river, and told them that I desired to go to his camp that night, whereupon five of them offered their services to go with us, as they said it would be dark be-fore we could reach his camp, which I acce ted. We did not find the chief until noon the next day, when I tollhim the many complaints that were made against his people. He said that some of his men were tobuck, (mad,) but he had done all he could to keep their hearts good. He thought tbat the emigrants were to blame some, for I had told them the summer before that the Shoshonees and Americans were to be friendly, and treat each other as brothers; but now, when his people were starving for meat, the Americans would not sell them any powder. He said if we were friends, he did not understand why we .could not trade. He and some of his men followed us on foot about twelve miles to our camp, at night, to talk, as they said; but, perhaps, to get something to eat. I was informed that a band, under a chief named Sho-cup-ut-see had undertaken to farm at Haws' ranch this season, and was told by the Indians upon the road that they had made shaunta (plenty) of wheat, potatoes, and squashes. Mr. Peter Haws informed me that they had planted about fifteen acres, and had dope it prinoi ally with some hoes, which I sent them last spring, he having furnis f: ed them their seed. We continued to hear of depredations being committed in ~ h o n - sand Spring and Raft river valleys, and abont the junction of the roads ; but after leaving the Humboldt we encountered the same diffi-culty in seeing the Indians of this region that we had the summer before. Except the chief, Setoke, who came to us in Thousand Sprin valley, and told us the particulars of Murray's massacre, who he sai 8 was killed about two weeks prior to our passing on the outward trip by the same band of Indians whom we met in the cason, we saw none till we reached the settlements ; yet it is upon this part of the road, between the Humboldt and Bear rivers, that the Indians have been most troublesome this season. We soarcely met a train wbo had not had some of their property stolen, or been fired upou while on this aection of the road. One man (Mr. Stratton, from Missouri,) lost seventy-two head of cattle and a mule, and had himself and one of his men wounded in an attempt to recovm them. From an estimate which I made from the reports of different trains, no less than three hundred head of cattle, besides some sixty or seventy head of horses and mules, have been stolen or destroyed upou this section of the road this season. A part of the road here lies in Oregon Territory, and' the cauntry over which it passes is neutral ground between the Banacka, Snakes and Cum-i-um-has, and the moat reckless and unprinci@xl men of each of these tribes haunt the road here during the season of emigration for the purposes of rapine upon the defenceless traveller. If government should not take steps to check their growing insolence, their success will encourage others to adopt their practices. and in a short time, perhaps in another season, |