FORT SMITH TO THE CHOCTAW AGENCY. 
CHAPTER I. 
OBJECT OF THE EXPEDITION. 
Act of Texas Legislature.—Capt. Marcy ordered to take Command.—Departure 
from New York.—Arrival at Fort Smith—Fitting out the Train.—Departure 
for Fort Washita.—Incidents of the first two days. 
Tue great drawback to rapid settlement beyond the frontier 
of the South and West, is the depredations committed by the 
roving bands of Indians, who subsist in that region. These 
people live an entirely nomadic life, have no settled homes, 
wander from place to place over the vast plains in search of 
game or plunder, and living in this precarious way, are neces- 
sarily often reduced to a state of starvation. As they live 
entirely upon flesh, large quantities are of course consumed, 
and when reduced to short allowance, they eat horses and 
mules. This, together with the necessity of having animals 
to transport themselves and families, also to use in war and 
the chase, induces constant forays upon exposed situations, 
when murder, rapine and captivity are the inevitable results 
to the hapless settler. Many well cultivated spots have thus 
been broken up and abandoned, and the continuance of the 
evil retards emigration and enterprize to such an extent that 
large tracts of the most fertile kind are left tenantless. 
To remove this ‘scourge from her territory, the State of 
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