out of them but Latter-day Saints." On January the 16th, Kanosh, an Indian chief, made an address to the brethren, as follows: "I am just beginning to get my eyes opened. I know that President Young's talk is good. What he says is so. He tells us more good, and I am like the sun just rising in the East, and so with my people. We have been in the night, I have had eyes but I could not see, and ears, but I could not hear; and this has been the case with my people. Our hearts could not understand, but now our eyes see, our ears hear, and our hearts understand. All that Brigham and Heber have said is straight; but when I talk with Col. Steptoe and his men, he is not straight, I would not believe, for a tenth part of their talk is not straight, and so it is with the Spaniards, and with all the white men until I saw the Mormons. They are the first to tell me the truth. You are here to make laws. I hope you will make good laws to punish the guilty and spare the innocent. I wish to do right and have my people do right. I do not want them to steal nor kill. I want to plant and raise wheat, and to learn to plough, and do as the white people do. I want to learn to read and to write, and to have my children learn so that we may understand what you say to us." This is beautiful manifestation {367} of the confidence which the better class of Indians had in the Mormon people. After the adjournment of the legislature, and on the 26th of January, a large mass meeting was held in Salt Lake City to consider the establishment of a mail and passenger service between the Western States and California. Governor Young was chosen chairman. A committee was appointed to draft resolutions regarding the project. About this time the _First Reader_ published in the _Deseret Alphabet_ was gotten up. To this work Elder Woodruff gave much of his time. During the month of February he reports in his journal that three boys had been killed by the Indians who had driven off a number of horses and cattle. On the 3rd of March Elder Woodruff was called on a mission to the East to secure type for the _Deseret Alphabet._ On the 7th of April, during the spring conference of that year, he was appointed assistant historian of the Church. In those days missionaries were usually called at conference, and that occasion had in it surprises for many who were called to go on a mission without a moment's notice. At this time Elders Orson Pratt and Ezra T. Benson were called to England to preside over the European mission.