Whitman, if not speedily settled, would lead to the worst of consequences to their tribe. I made an engagement, to meet them and all the tribe on the 10th of the ensuing April, to adjust differences and come to a better understanding, they earnestly wishing to adopt such laws as the Nez Percés had done. We should probably have accomplished a satisfactory settlement, had not several of the influential chiefs been too far away to get information of the meeting. We reached Wascopum on December 25, the Indians being in great excitement, having different views and impressions respecting the nature of the approaching visit. We spent four days with them, holding meetings daily, instructing them in the nature of government, civil relations, domestic duties, etc. Succeeded, in like happy manner, with them as with the Nez Percés, they unanimously adopting the same code of laws. Late information from one of their missionaries you will see in the following note from Mr. H. B. Brewer:-- "The Indians of this place intend to carry out the regulations you left them to the letter. They have been quite engaged in cutting logs for houses, and live in expectation of better dwellings by and by. For the least transgression of the laws, they are punished by their chiefs immediately. The clean faces of some, and the tidy dresses of others, show the good effects of your visit." And here allow me to say, except at Wascopum, the missionaries of this upper country are too few in number at their respective stations, and in too defenseless a state for their own safety, or the best good of the Indians, the latter taking advantage of these circumstances, to the no small annoyance, and, in some instances, greatly endangering the personal safety, of the former. You will see its bearings upon this infant colony, and doubtless give such information or instructions to the American Board of Commissioners, or myself, as will cause a correction of this evil. It has already occasioned some difficulty and much cost. I have insisted upon an increase of numbers at Mr. Spalding's mission, which has accordingly been re-enforced by Mr. Littlejohn and lady, rendering that station measurably secure; but not so at Wailatpu, or some of the Catholic missions, where some of them lost a considerable amount in herds during last winter, and, I am told, were obliged to abandon their posts, their lives being endangered. This was in the interior, near the Blackfoot country. You will observe, from the reports of the different missions, which, so far as I am otherwise informed, are correct, that they are doing some positive good in the country, not only by diffusing the light of science abroad among us, but also by giving employment to many, and, by their drafts upon the different Boards and others, creating a circulating medium in this country; but, though they make comparatively slow progress in the way of reform among the