end, they will abandon their unfruitful territory and remove to
the neighborhood of the Mexican lands, and there carry on a vigorous
predatory warfare indiscriminately upon the Mexicans and our own people
trading or travelling in that quarter.

"The Indians of the prairies are almost innumerable. Their superior
horsemanship, which in my opinion, far exceeds that of any other people
on the face of the earth, their daring bravery, their cunning and skill
in the warfare of the wilderness, and the astonishing rapidity and
secrecy with which they are accustomed to move in their martial
expeditions, will always render them most dangerous and vexatious
neighbors, when their necessities or their discontents may drive them to
hostility with our frontiers. Their mode and principles of warfare will
always protect them from final and irretrievable defeat, and secure
their families from participating in any blow, however severe, which our
retribution might deal out to them.

"The Camanches lay the Mexicans under contribution for horses and
mules, which they are always engaged in stealing from them in incredible
numbers; and from the Camanches, all the roving tribes of the far West,
by a similar exertion of skill and daring, supply themselves in turn. It
seems to me, therefore, under all these circumstances, that the apparent
futility of any philanthropic schemes for the benefit of these nations,
and a regard for our own protection, concur in recommending that we
remain satisfied with maintaining peace upon our own immediate borders,
and leave the Mexicans and the Camanches, and all the tribes hostile to
these last, to settle their differences and difficulties in their own
way.

"In order to give full security and protection to our trading parties
circulating in all directions through the great prairies, I am under the
impression that a few judicious measures on the part of the government,
involving a very limited expense, would be sufficient. And, in attaining
this end, which of itself has already become an object of public
interest and import, another, of much greater consequence, might be
brought about, namely, the securing to the States a most valuable and
increasing trade, now carried on by caravans directly to Santa Fe.

"As to the first desideratum: the Indians can only be made to respect
the lives and property of the American parties, by rendering them
dependent upon us for their supplies; which alone can be done with
com