I now felt it was my time to get the animals which had been stolen from the poor travelers. These people were sitting in sight, looking very much disheartened. I pointed to them and told the Indians it made me feel sorrowful to see those poor people there, and that it weighed on my heart so that I could not talk; and that I wished some of the young men would go and hunt their stock up. I never hinted that I thought they had stolen them away. After this there was some little side-talk among the Indians. The interpreter asked me to go on and talk to the people. The Indians got very much interested when I commenced to explain to them the Book of Mormon. (I will here say that in all my labors among the Indians I have never known of one failing to be interested when the Book of Mormon was introduced.) These Pimas were intelligent and capable of understanding all we said to them. I then again referred to the disagreeable subject, telling them that I still felt grieved. One of the chiefs spoke up, asking me to go on, as the stock had been found and were being brought to the owners. I now felt free to talk and gave them much instruction. Brother Tenney being a good interpreter, having had much experience among the natives of Lower California, explained with much clearness the gospel of repentance to these people. A good spirit prevailed and the Indians manifested a desire to be instructed, acknowledged their degraded condition, and said they wished the Mormons would come to their country to live and teach them how to do. We all felt well paid for the hardships we had gone through, for we could see here was a chance for a good work to be done. We were in no way annoyed. Our animals were watched and brought in regularly to feed. When we got ready to start on everything was in good shape. We bade the Indians good-bye, promising that the Mormons would visit them again and some of them would probably come and live in their country. The trader never knew how to account for our way of doing with the Pimas. From here we went a day's travel farther up the Gila to Juan Largos' villages. Juan, a Papago Indian, presided over quite a settlement of his people. His son was educated so as to read. We gave him a copy of our book. These extracts from the Book of Mormon we had been presenting to a few of the Indians, and some of the Mexicans, on our road. Many years afterwards, the Indians showed me these books. They prize them highly. At Juan Largos's the people came together and we taught them the same as we had the Pimas. Francisco Capulla went to this village with us. He became much interested in our teachings. His home was in Sonora; he was here only on a visit. I have often heard of but have never seen him since. We found that many of the older Indians on the Gila, remembered the Mormon Battalion that passed through their country in 1846. CHAPTER XXXVII.