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Whilst staying at that place, Mr. Ervin came into our camp and preachd a sermon to the emigrants, and whilst there he publicly declard that we should pass no nation of Indians on our route to Oregon more vicious than those of that place. We however met with no difficulty nor lost any property by them, though one of them had the boldness to say to one of the emigrants—

“Me good to steal horses!”

To which the emigrant replied—

“You must not steal our horses.”

The Indian still farther announced—

“Ah, me good to steal horse.”

The Indians at this place receive a very good support in consequence of the large amount of land under cultivation by the care and superintendence of the mission.

Those Indians located at Grand Island, calld the Pawnee tribe, are at present a feeble race, liable to be driven about by the Sioux at all times. They are poor, and under the necessity of stealing what buffalo meat and robes they need for their support, and whenever they are discoverd by a band of Sioux rangers, they are obligd to flee for their safety to some other place. Their pressing necessity for food and clothing makes them more inclind to trouble the emigrant trains than they otherwise would, and whenever they meet with a train that is feeble in numbers, they fall on them and plunder their food and clothing.