prisoners they held. When they arrived they brought but one little girl, a Miss Lockhart. They were known to have others, especially a Mrs. Webster and child, taken from the neighborhood of Georgetown a few weeks previously. During the confusion after the battle, this lady escaped, and, after nearly perishing for water, finally with her child reached the city. On the 19th of March, twelve chiefs entered the building used as a court-house; where they met the Commissioners appointed by President Lamar, with the interpreter. The Indians were upbraided for not bringing more captives held by them. They said the one brought was all they held; this was said in a defiant tone. In the meantime a company of Texas Rangers came on the ground, Captain Howard and some of his men entering the house. The interpreter was told to inform them that they would be held as hostages, until the other prisoners were brought in. The interpreter at first refused to tell them, as he said they would instantly fight. But the Commissioners insisted, and placing himself near the door, he told them and left. As he had said, the chiefs immediately drew their bows and knives. One started toward the door in which Captain Howard was standing. The captain received a severe cut with a knife, but killed the Indian. A general fight ensued, in which Indians, men and women, participated. A powerful chief attacked Colonel M. Caldwell, who was not armed. He defended himself with rocks until a soldier shot the savage. In an adjoining room, Mr. Morgan was attacked by two Indians, and killed both of them. Lieutenant Dunnington was killed by a squaw, who shot an arrow through his body. Judge Thompson was in the yard, amusing himself by setting up pieces of money for the little Indians to knock out. He was killed by an arrow, before he suspected danger. Judge Hood was killed in the council-house. Colonel Lysander Wells rode into the plaza just as the fight commenced. A powerful savage vaulted on behind him, and first attempted to unhorse him. Failing in this, he tried to guide the horse out of the plaza. The colonel, held fast as he was, found himself unable to draw his pistol. Fnally, after passing two or three times around the plaza, the Indian was shot by a soldier, and Wells relieved from his awkward predicament. The melee lasted until all the warriors (thirty) were killed. Two Indian women and three children were also killed. The loss of the Texans was seven killed and eight wounded.

COMANCHE INVASION.-On the 4th of August some four hundred Comanche warriors crossed Plum creek, in Caldwell county, going down the country. They reached Victoria on the 6th, and after burning part of the town and committing other depredations, they descended to Linnville, a trading point on Lavaca Bay, entering that place early on the morning of the 8th. Most of the men of the village were absent, and the savages proceeded to pillage and burn the place. Three families took refuge on a smail sail vessel in the harbor. While Major Watts, Collector of Customs, was trying to reach the vessel, he was shot down, and his wife taken prisoner. From Linnville the Indians hastily withdrew with their valuable booty. As the news of this raid spread through the settlements, the people rallied under their favorite leaders to intercept them. Plum creek was the place of rendezvous. Here were concentrated the companies of Captains Ben

McCulloch, Clarke L. Owen, Ed. Burleson, M. Caldwell, Thos. W. Ward, W. J. E. Wallace, Monroe Hardiman, and others, all under the command of General Felix Huston. On the morning of August 18th the Indians had just started their pack mules, and were preparing to follow, when they were attacked by the Texans. The Indians hastily retreated. As they could not carry off their prisoners, they shot them. Mrs. Crosby, taken near Victoria, was killed. Mrs. Watts was found with an arrow in her breast. The arrow was withdrawn, and she recovered, and died in 1878, while keeping the San Antonio House, in Port Lavaca. During the invasion twenty-one whites had been killed, though none fell in the fight. The Indians lost twenty-seven killed and more wounded.

On the 5th of October, Colonel John Moore, with ninety Texans and twelve Lipans started on a scout to the upper Colorado. When about three hundred miles above Austin, a Comanche village was discovered. This was October 23d. Early the next morning the village was attacked. The Indians were completely surprised, and the village destroyed. Forty-eight Indians were killed in the village. As they were retreating to the river, Captain Owen was sent forward to intercept their flight. In this he was successful. Eighty more men, women and children were either shot or drowned in the stream. Thirty-four prisoners. were taken. In the village the Texans found goods taken the previous summer from Linnville. Moore had two men wounded; none killed.

1841.-Comparatively little fighting was done this year. General E. H. Tarrant destroyed an Indian village on the Trinity river, above Dallas. There were some skirmishes, especially in northern Texas, in one of which John B. Denton was killed, on a creek that bears his name, in Denton county.

1842.-During Houston's second administration, the Indians were comparatively quiet. He pursued his well-known pacific policy. There were, however, occasional raids. In March a small band visited Austin, killing a Mr. Ward and Mr. Hadley. In the same month a party visited Carlos' ranch, on the San Antonio river, and killed Mr. Gilleland and his wife, and took their children, a little girl and her younger brother, prisoners. The children were subsequently recovered by a company of rangers under Captain M. (Mustang) Gray. At this present writing, Mr. Gilleland and his sister, wife of Rev. Dr. Fisher, live in Austin.

1844. The Indians continued to be peaceable. Thomas I. Smith and John C. Nail, as commissioners on the part of Texas, met at Tehuacana creek, in Limestone county, representatives of the Comanches, Keechies, Wacoes, Caddoes, Anadaquas, Delawares, Cherokees, Lipans and Tonkawas, and entered into treaties with them. The “Indian question" has always been troublesome and expensive. In a speech in the United States Senate, July 14, 1854, General Rusk stated that Texas had, during the ten years of the republic, expended $3,815,011 in protecting her citizens against the Indians.

CHAPTER IV.

NUMBER OF INDIANS IN THE STATE AT ANNEXATION-INDIAN RESEVES-PROSPEROUS BUT SOON BROKEN UP-DOVE CREEK FIGHT-SCALPING OF MRS. FRIEND-TEXAS NOW FREE FROM INDIAN RAIDS.

T

HE last time any considerable number of hostile Indians penetrated the settlements was in the summer of 1848. About two hundred Lipans passed down the Cibolo creek, and out towards the Rio Grande, committing some murders and thefts.

1849. By the treaty of annexation the Indians were placed under the the control of the United States. Major Neighbors was Indian agent. He estimated their numbers at 29,500, distributed as follows: Comanches, 20,000; Kiowas, 1,500; Caddoes, 1,400; Lipans, 500; Keechies, 300; Wacoes, etc., 1,000; Delawares, 650; Tonkawas, 650; Apaches, 3,500.

In January, 1851, a committee of the Legislature reported that during the year 1849 the Indians had, in Texas, killed 171 persons, wounded seven and taken twenty-five into captivity, and had stolen 6,000 horses, and property valued at $100,000.

In 1853 the Forester family was killed, on the Medina river, twenty-five miles from San Antonio. It is supposed the Tonkawas did the killing, though this tribe always professed to maintain friendly relations with the whites.

INDIAN RESERVES.-It was thought the native tribes of Indians were entitled to a domicil in the State, and, in 1854, the Legislature passed a bill giving temporary control to the United States of two tracts of land, in what was then Young district, for Indian reserves. We transfer from the Texas Almanac of 1858 the following account of these reserves:

The State of Texas, by Act of the Legislature, set apart twelve leagues of land, upon which the Texas Ind ans were to be settled by the United States Government. Said twelve leagues, or 55,728 acres of land, to be reserved to the United States for the use and benefit of the Texas Indians exclusively. Under the supervision of Major R. S. Neighbors, eight leagues of land were located on the Brazos river, below the junction of the Clear Fork and Main Brazos, and about fifteen miles below Fort Belknap. This reservation is called the Brazos Agency, and contains about eleven hundred souls, consisting of Caddoes, Anadahkoes, Wacoes, Tahwacanoes and Tonkahuas. There are other Indians than those named, but they are enumerated as Caddoes chiefly. On this reserve there are six hundred acres of land in successful cultivation in wheat and corn. The mode of culture is the same, or similar to that of the Americans. These Brazos Reserve Indians have made extraordinary progress in civilization, since their settlement in 1853, and are very honest, trustworthy and industrious. They have a school, under the charge of Mr. Ellis Combes. Mr. C. reports fifty scholars in regular attend

ance; and, judging from the interest taken in this educational enterprise by the old Indians, he is inclined to the opinion that good results will come of it. On this Reservation there are several good houses, built expressly for the transaction of all and any business connected with the Indians. These buildings are situated near the centre of the Reserve, in a very pretty mesquit valley, the approach to which affords a most lovely and sightly landscape. Captain S. P. Ross, an old Texan and a worthy man, is the Special Agent of the United States Government, in charge of the Brazos Agency Captain Ross' long experience on the frontier, and superior knowledge of the Indian character, eminently fit him for the position he occupies. His salary is $1,500 per

annum.

The Comanche Reserve is about sixty miles distant from the Brazos Agency, and is located on the Clear Fork of the Brazos river, forty-five miles above its confluence with the main Brazos. Their Reserve extends over four leagues of land, and contains four hundred souls-all Comanches, known as the Southern band of that tribe. Their head chief is a good man, and has been a valuable auxiliary in the reclamation of these Indians from savage life. He is known by the name of Ketemesie. The Comanches have not made the same progress as the Brazos Reserve Indians-not that they are any more indolent or lazy, but because of their total estrangement heretofore from the manners and customs of the white man. The Indians on the Brazos Reserve have always lived near, and frequently among the white settlers, while the Comanches have been outside of all intercourse of a friendly nature. This agency is furnished with all necessary buildings, and, like the Brazos Agency, is supplied with competent and trustworthy farmers and artisans. The Comanches have a good crop this year, and will, most probably, make sufficient to bread themselves. Colonel M. Leeper is their Agent, at a salary of $1,500 per annum.

The United States Government has been very liberal in its appropriations for the benefit of the reclaimed savage, and has spared neither trouble or expense in the furtherance of the peace-policy-a policy which is now beginning to show its good effects. It does justice to the Indian-is due to the cause of humanity, and reflects great credit upon the originators thereof.

Major R. S. Neighbors is the Supervising Agent of the Government for all the Texas Indians, at a salary of $2,000 per annum. The Major is too well known throughout the country for any attempt to be made here eulogistic of his public services. To him, more than any other, should be ascribed the success of the Indian-feeding policy in Texas. The duties appertaining to the office of Supervising Agent are very onerous and responsible, and not unfrequently hazardous. His course towards the Indians must be scrupulously correct and straightforward; there cannot be one jot or tittle of deviation at all from the line of policy marked out. The Indian is liberal in extending his confidence, but it must be carefully cherished. His memory is the rock of ages; there is no "two ways" about it. Major Neighbors disburses annually about $80,000 for the use of the Texas Indians.

Texas has wisely granted jurisdiction to the United States over ten miles adjoining each Reserve. This is to prevent the sale or traffic in intoxicating liquors. The civil authority has jurisdiction in all criminal cases, on both Reserves; as well have the Indians police regulations, of the strictest sort, for their own government. Their immediate agents are constituted magistrates, before whom all or any offenders are brought for trial. There is less theft or disturbance, of any kind, among these people, than there is among the same population of Americans. Suffice it that the Feeding or PeacePolicy in Texas is a success. It has demonstrated, beyond a doubt, that Indians can be civilized and reclaimed. The Brazos Reserve Indians have tended their own crops, which will compare favorably with any in the State; and have also kept from fifty to one hundred men on ranging service during the season, and have been great protection to the frontier.

Charles E. Barnard, Esq., is the authorized Government Indian Trader for both Reserves. Mr. B. has been trading with the Indians on the frontier for a period of fifteen years or more. He is welf known to all the Indians in Texas, and enjoys their