It was not long until it became manifest that I would have to either give up the Indians or lose my standing with the white brethren. I chose the natives, and will now give as truthful a history of my labors among them as my memory will serve. In about six weeks from the time we commenced we had sufficient water out to plant some garden stuff and a few acres of com. When this was done Brother Turley took a number of teams and went to freighting for Mr. Hayden to pay the debt we had now made--some fifteen hundred dollars. This debt could soon have been paid if all hands had stayed together, but as the most left, the debt finally fell upon me to finish paying up. This tied me up on Salt river for some time. CHAPTER XLVII. Deceit of my Interpreter--Indians Apply for Baptism--Some Truehearted Natives Receive the Ordinance--Help Given on our Ditch by the Pimas and Maricopas--The U. S. Agent Forbids my Interfering with the Indians. As often as opportunity offered I talked to the Indians. As yet I had not found an interpreter that suited me; several whom I had met the year before had not come to our camp yet, their homes being some distance away. The interpreter I used, Geo. Roberts, was something of an adventurer, as the sequel will show. I was at work one day in a field, planting, after we had been settled for some six weeks, when my interpreter came to me and said there were several of the leading men of the Salt river Pimas who wished me to come down to my camp, where they were, and baptize them. I told him I did not think the Indians understood enough to be baptized; that I had not had time to teach them sufficiently. He said I had talked a great deal to him; that he understood and believed all I said, and fully explained all my words to these _capitancillos_ (little captains), who also believed and wished baptism. I did not feel satisfied. I have always been slow to baptize natives; my policy has been to teach them first, so that they would fully realize what they were doing. I have endeavored more to get them out of their degradation and savagery. When I met these Indians I asked them (using the interpreter) what they desired. They said they wished to be baptized and be Mormons. I told the interpreter to say to them that I did not want them to be baptized until they fully understood what baptism was for. I continued talking, explaining what the requirements were, etc. The interpreter insisted, after talking quite a while with the chiefs, that they fully understood me and were ready. I then told him to say to them: "Go back to your camp; talk with your head chief and your people, and explain these things. Take time to reconsider and do not be in a hurry to get baptized." A few days after this my interpreter again came to me and said many hundred Indians had come to my camp (I was again at work away from home), all ready and wanting to be baptized.