Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/245

 rights which a white man is bound to respect, while the general testimony is that they are singularly loyal to the Government, honest, peaceable, inoffensive, and patient under wrongs. Among all the dependent wards of the Government there are none so much needing or deserving her speedy and fostering care; and to relieve them from their present deplorable condition will be a truly humane and Christian work. . ..

"The one pressing want of these people now is land, on which they can cultivate their gardens, herd their stock, and feel secure in the possession of their homes. At every place I have visited, their homes are being invaded by settlers with their stock. In one settlement, Morongo, in San Bernardino County, the people have all been driven off at the point of the revolver. Everywhere the sad complaint is that their gardens are being invaded and their pastures consumed by the stock of settlers; the water turned away from their ditches to irrigate the gardens of those trespassing upon their lands; and they have no redress. And I know from observation that their complaints are but too true. This state of things cannot continue much longer without disastrous consequences. Either these helpless, non-resisting people will be driven from their lands as homeless wanderers, or will be exasperated to violent deeds of self-defence. Then we know what will follow. I cannot exaggerate the urgency of 15