I called Captain Brown's attention to the facts that we were at peace with Missouri; that our Legislature was then in the hands of Free-State men to make the laws; that even in our disturbed counties of Bourbon and Linn we were in a majority and had elected the officers both to make and execute the laws; that without peace we could have no immigration; that no Southern immigration was coming; that agitation such as his was only keeping Northern friends away, etc. The old man replied that it was no pleasure to him, an old man, to be living in the saddle, away from home and family and exposing his life; and if the Free-State men of Kansas felt they no longer needed him, he would be glad to go.... On account of the unfriendly criticism of his conduct, Brown left the neighborhood of Moneka January 11th and went to Osawatomie, and about the 20th, in company with Gill and Kagi, convoying the slaves, set out on the journey to the North. Stevens and Tidd were with the party at Osawatomie, but they were detailed to steal "a span of horses" the day the caravan moved, which made it necessary for them to scurry out of the neighborhood as rapidly as the horses which they had stolen could travel. Concerning this transaction Mr. Gill says,[342] that a day or two before starting he found out that a Missourian, with a span of horses, was stopping _temporarily_ a few miles from Osawatomie; also that he had a well grounded _suspicion_ that they had been stolen from Free-State men. At Garnett, he says, he communicated his suspicion "to Stevens and Tidd, who set out, the same evening that we did, to replevin these horses. After doing so they proceeded to Topeka to await us; Kagi also," he says, "scouted ahead for some purpose, most probably to arrange stopping-places for us, leaving Brown and myself alone with the colored folks." With the stealing of these horses "Brown's men wound up their business in South Eastern Kansas." It was probably their last theft in the Territory. What their first one was, and what their intermediate acts were, can only be surmised. Summarizing his work in Kansas during 1858 Mr. Villard says:[343] As for John Brown, he was ready to leave the Territory for the last time. Of constructive work there was no more to his credit than when he left the Territory in 1856.... The sole act of any significance to be credited to him during these six months in Southern Kansas is the capture of the slaves.... Certain it is that the Missouri raid, in violation of his agreement, caused many peaceful Free-State settlers to flee their homes for fear of violence, and might have resulted seriously but for the efforts of certain Missourians to keep the peace....