AFFAIRS AT HOME—START FOR FORT SUPPLY—ILLNESS OF MYSELF AND FAMILY—GIFT OF HEALING—TROUBLE WITH INDIANS AT FORT SUPPLY—TURBULENT RED MEN—I HELP ONE OFF MY BED—THEY PERSIST IN TAKING OR DESTROYING OUR PROPERTY—WE STOP THEM—ONE ATTEMPTS TO KILL ME—INDIANS RETIRE FROM THE FORT—ALMOST A CONFLICT—I CHECK THE WHITE MEN FROM SHOOTING—INDIANS WITHDRAW—WE SEND TO GOVERNOR YOUNG FOR ASSISTANCE—OUR STOCK AND GUARDS DRIVEN IN—INDIAN AGENT APPEARS WITH ANNUITIES—THE SAVAGES SUBMIT—WE GUARD DAY AND NIGHT—INDIANS MORE PEACEFUL—REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE FROM THE GOVERNOR—MATTERS QUIET DOWN.

AUGUST 14, 1855, I went to Salt Lake City, and on September 3rd returned home. On the 5th my family were taken sick with cholera morbus.

Notwithstanding this sickness, I started on my return to Fort Supply, for it was the faith of myself and family that if I went to my mission they would be healed. Just as I mounted my horse to start out, my uncle, Captain James Brown, came along and said, "Jimmie, are you going off and leaving your family sick?"

I told him, "Yes, sir."

Said he, "You are cold-hearted, and I would not do it."

When I told him that they with me believed that if I would go to my missionary labors they would be healed sooner than if I should neglect my duties in that line, he, with uplifted hands, said, "Jim, you're right. Go ahead, and God bless you. Your family shall be healed, and not suffer. I will go in and pray for them." He did so, and I afterwards learned that they were healed the same hour that I proceeded on my journey. I did not see them again till December 20th, when they told me that they had not been sick one day after I left.

Although when I started out I was very ill myself with the same trouble, and had to call at a friend's and get a dose of painkiller, and take a rest for an hour or two before I could proceed on my way to Salt Lake City, yet on the 13th I started for Fort Supply, and overtook the two wagons which had preceded me the day before. I travelled with them until the 17th, then left them and went on horseback forty-five miles to the fort. I was very sick for five days, so that I had to keep my bed part of the time. I found all well and the wheat harvest ready for the laborers, a heavy frost having injured the crops considerably. On Friday, September 28th, I sent four men to invite Washakie to the fort, and on the 29th we learned that Chief Tibunduets (white man's child) had just returned with his band from Salt Lake City. October 1st I sent Isaac Bullock and Amenzo Baker to visit him. They found him and all of his band feeling very bad and revengeful.

October 10th Tibunduets and his band threw down our fencing and came charging up through our field, riding over wheat shocks, and singing war songs. At the same time the warriors from a camp above came into the fort with their weapons in their hands. Our men tried to be friendly and talked peace to them, but it was not what they wanted. They said they were "heap mad," for when they were in Salt Lake City the big Mormon captain had written with blood on their children, and a number of these had died while they were among the Mormons. These Indians refused the seats offered them, but jumped on the beds and behaved very saucily, saying they wanted pay for the death of their children who had died on the Mormon lands. Of course, we could not afford to give presents of that kind, and their demands were rejected.

Three of the hostile Indians went to my room, and one engaging me in conversation, the other two jumped on my bed and stretched themselves full length on it. My cousin James M. Brown called my attention to their rude actions, and I turned around and told them to get off my bed, but they answered with a contemptuous laugh. I told them a second time, and they sneered again. I stepped to the side of the bed and told them the third time, and as they refused, I jerked one of them off the bed so quickly that it surprised him, and the other one thought he preferred to get off without that kind of help, and did so quickly.

Tibunduets made heavy demands on us, which we could not comply with. We told him that we were not prepared to do his bidding, and he replied, "You're a wolf and a liar, and you will steal." Then the Indians turned their horses into our fields among our shocks of wheat and oats, while their women went to digging and sacking our potatoes, the Indians throwing down our fences in many places and ordering our men out of the fields. They told us to leave their lands, and continued their insults until I sent some men out to order their women out of the potato patch. The squaws only laughed at our men, who returned and reported the results. Then I went out myself, and as I passed a brush fence, I caught up a piece of brush and started towards the potato diggers, who screamed and ran away before I got near enough to use the stick.

I returned to the house and soon was followed by two young braves, who rode up in front of the door and called for the captain. I answered in person, when the braves said, "You heap fight squaw, you no fight Injun." They continued their insulting words and threats of violence, until at last I ordered them out of the fort, upon which one of them drew his bow and pointed his arrow at me, within three feet of my breast. At that one of my men pushed the horse's head between me and the arrow. At the same time Amenzo Baker handed me a Colt's revolver, and another man covered the Indian with a revolver.

At that movement the Indians started for the big gate, and as there was quite a number of warriors inside the fort I called my men out with their guns, for the Indians seemed determined on bloodshed. They rushed outside, and the white men followed them to where a young chief sat on his horse, just outside of the gate. There must have been a signal given to the camp abo............