Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/357




 * —Our fires have burned far from each other. Your talk has reached me by our Delaware friend, Jim Shaw. My ears were opened to your words—they were words of peace. I have laid them up in my heart. I send you my words by the same friend. With him I send two of my young chiefs. The first is a war-chief. They have eaten bread with me. They have sat by my side. They have learned to love the red brothers. I send them that they may tell you many things. They know the counsel of peace which I have always given. They will speak to you words of truth only.

Chiefs who wish to be friendly should talk to each other. They should know the thoughts of each other, and love peace. Peace will make the red and the white men happy. If we have war our men must perish in battle. They will not return to our feasts, nor will they again sit by the council-fire. Peace will save our warriors from death. They can then kill the buffalo, and their women and children have nothing to fear.

Your people can come to our trading-houses. Such things as your people need, our traders will have to sell to them. You will not have to go to a great distance, but in the midst of your hunting-grounds you can find goods; and the journeys which you make will be in a land where you have buffalo and water. The warmth of the south will give you grass in winter, and you will no longer have to travel to the snows of the north to get your goods. They will buy your horses and your mules, your silver and your gold, and all that you have to sell. When you make peace with us, and we know that you are our friends and there is no more war upon our borders, we will sell you powder and lead, tomahawks, spears, guns, and knives, so that you can kill buffalo enough for your women and children. Friends sell these things to each other, and we can not let you have them till there is peace; and when the path between us has become smooth and all trouble is removed out of it, we will know that you are our friends and not our enemies. When you make peace you can come to see me, and none will do you hurt. Comanche chiefs and other red brothers came to me and made peace, and they returned to their people without harm. Troubles again grew up between our people. Prisoners were taken from each other. Bad traders went amongst you and hurt many of your people. At a council in San Antonio your chiefs were slain. This brought great sorrow upon your nation. The man who counseled to do this bad thing is no longer a chief in Texas. His voice is not heard among the people.

We must forget these sorrows. Our people have bled, and your people have done us much harm. You must do so no more; you have our people prisoners, and your people are amongst us, prisoners likewise. When you and your chiefs come to the council at Bird's Fort on the Trinity, at the full moon in August, and make peace, you must bring all our prisoners, and we will give you your prisoners in return. We have not