10 NOTES TAKEN. 
Texas, by an act of her Legislature, approved Feb. 6th, 1854, 
appropriated eighteen square leagues of her unlocated lands, 
to form a reserve, for the settlement of all the Indians within 
her borders, on condition that the United States government 
would cause these lands to be located and surveyed, and 
would induce the Indians to settle upon them, confine them- 
selves to their limits, go to farming, and quit their wandering 
and predatory habits—the United States government also 
agreeing to send agricultural implements, seeds, men to teach 
the Indians to farm and take care of stock, and subsistence 
for the Indians until a crop was raised. 
The Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Interior, 
issued orders in April of the same year, to Captain Marcy, 
then in New York, to repair forthwith to Fort Smith, on the 
frontier of Arkansas, and organize an expedition to carry 
out the provisions of this act. 
The previous reputation of this officer, his long experience 
and thorough knowledge of prairie and frontier life, eminently 
qualified him for this duty, connected with which he was also 
required to penetrate the terra incognita at the head waters 
of the Big Washita and Brazos rivers, explore these streams 
to their sources, and ascertain the description of country 
where they take their rise. 
‘The long and friendly intimacy that had existed between 
the Captain and myself, afforded me an opportunity to realize 
what has been to me the dream of my whole life, viz., a tour 
over the vast plains of the far South-west; and it was with 
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