on the border. I found that there were four tribes of hostile Indians in camp about 100 miles from the junction of the Little and Big Arkansas Rivers, and had been in camp about two months, and had been visiting back and forward with the Osage and other refugee Indians. It is supposed by the settlers that they are about to join. There or Texans coming and going from the Indians who are in this State, and it is supposed, to be making preparations for a raid as soon as grass comes. I saw Major Gookins, Indian agent for the refugee Indians. He told me he was afraid that there was something of that kind on foot, as his Indians had acted very strangely for some time. I found the Waco chief (that Colonel Leavenworth sent out to hunt the hostile tribes on the plains) at the junction of the Arkansas Rivers. He had a pass from Colonel Leavenworth, given by Colonel Leavenworth himself. I questioned the Waco chief as well [as] I could about the hostile tribes. He told me they were four days' travel south of the junction. I asked him if the Comanches were friendly with the whites. He made no reply, but hung his head down. I also asked him how many warriors they had. He made signs that there were 1,800. He also told me the Kiowas, Apaches, and Arapahoes came in and got some goods. I asked him if they were friendly to the whites. His answer was, "Maybe so not. " I have learned from good authority that there is a Cherokee half-breed, by the name of Chishem, claiming to be a refugee from the Cherokee Nation, who has been trading with those hostile tribes all winter. I inquired of the settlers if he was a loyal man, and all that knew him said he is not a loyal man, and Major Gookins doubts his loyalty. He (Chishem) is the man who issued the goods to them for Colonel Leavenworth-those tribes, namely, Kiowas, Apaches, and Arapahoes-and then left the next day. Chishem is the man that Colonel Leavenworth received information from that the hostile Indians wished to make a treaty of peace. The Waco chief told me that Chishem had gone to the Comanches' camp. The chief said, "Chishem heap, heap big chief-Comanche, Kiowas, Apaches, and Arapahoes. " I took if for granted that the meant over all those four tribes. Major Gookins told me he feared the Osages and Wacoes more than any other Indians on his agency. The Waco chief told me the Comanches would not come to receive any goods or make a treaty. There was a band of eight Texans came in the vicinity of Emporia last October, claiming to be refugees from Texas, and camped about three miles from town, with horses they had brought from Texas, and one of the band, by the name of Taylor, came in town and stopped one or two days and made acquaintance with a merchant by the name of Farrell, that had come from Texas. They knew each other by reputation some years ago, and on the strength of it the merchant credited him to $300 worth of goods till they could sell their horses, and on the same evening they left and took forty horses out of the settlement and made good their escape-supposed to have gone to Texas. Farrell's wife came up from Texas last January. She says Taylor had got back to Texas and was recruiting for the raid into Kansas. I also saw a man who claimed to have made his escape from Texas last January, and he said there were 4,000 Texans on the border intending to make a raid into Kansas as soon as spring opens. There is no forage in the part of the country where I have been.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

SAME PEPPARD.

Scout.