Page:Life and Select Literary Remains of Sam Houston of Texas (1884).djvu/54



three years of forest life among the Indians in Arkansas, Gen. Houston conceived the idea of becoming a herdsman. He was in the morning of life, and in the full vigor of his powers. The history of American struggles for occupancy of Texan soil had been studied by him, and stirred his interest in the cause of his suffering fellow-citizens. Gen. Jackson had requested him to confer with the Comanche Indians, and induce them to send a delegation to Fort Gibson, on the Arkansas, with the purpose of afterward visiting Washington city. The Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks dreaded the Comanches. Their power and hostile disposition prevented the emigration of other tribes, and it was thought that if a treaty of peace could be secured, that emigration, with peaceful results, would ensue.

A short distance from the junction of the Grand River and the Arkansas, and on the margin of a prairie between the Verdigris and Grand River, was the wigwam of Gen. Houston. On the ist of December, 1832, with a few companions, he set out on a journey through the wilderness to Fort Towson. He reported himself soon thereafter to the authorities at Nacogdoches, Texas, thence went on, after a few days, to San Felipe de Austin, then the seat of government of Austin Colony. Governed by the request of Gen. Jackson, he continued his journey to San Antonio de Bexar, where he had an interview with a delegation of Comanche Indians. The objects contemplated by his secret mission, it is supposed, were accomplished at San Antonio de Bexar. Having fulfilled his mission to the Indians, with two companions he returned to San Felipe de Austin. The following letter is a key to the most important events in the subsequent history of Texas : "., February 13, 1833.

"Dear Sir:— Having been so far as Bexar, in the province of Texas, where I had an interview with the Comanche Indians, I am in possession of some information which will doubtless be interesting to you. and may be calculated to forward