770                         FOREIGN     RELATIONS.

the occurrences which have taken place in them. It will first, however, be
necessary
to enter into some details with regard to the history of these Indians.
  The Kickapoos came to this country as long ago as 1850, and to those of
the tribe
who did not return to the United States the'same year, the government made
a grant
of land, situated ten leagues from Santa Rosa. They settled there with their
families
and engaged in agricultural pursuits on a small scale, which they soon abandoned
for
the sake of deer-hunting. For thispurpose most of them left their*settlement
and
became scattered in small parties throughout the frontier towns, especially
in those of
the Rio 4randle district, where their conduct has, in general, been good,
although there
have been cases of horse-stealing in the said towns, the stolen animals having
been
taken to their settlement above Santa Rosa.
  The small value of the property stolen, the restitution which they were
compelled
to make by the authorities of Santa Rosa, and the services rendered by them
in the
war against the Comanches, Lipans, and Mescaleros, together with the occasional
assistance which they gave as agricultural laborers, contributed to cause
the faults of
those who engaged in thieving to be regarded with leniency, that is, to induce
the
authorities not to hold the whole tribe responsible for the acts committed
by some in-
dividuals belonging to it, to the injury of citizens of Mexico.
  As in Mexico, these thefts have likewise bees committed in Texas by the
Indians in
question. They have been, however, quite as insignificant as those committed
on our
side of the river. The unanimous testimony of respectable inhabitants of
the frontier
leaves no room for doubt as regards the fact of these incursions, as well
as of their
trifling importance.
  The Kickapoos having been scattered throughout various towns until April
last,
their pursuits have been invariably the same, and, with the exception of
here and
there a complaint on account of horse-stealing, the residence of the Indians
in the
towns remained unnoticed, and was only thought of when complaints were heard
from
some Texan-Americans, who charged them with the murders which had been commit-
ted in that State, and with some horse and cattle stealing. As the Indians
in question
have made no sales of cattle or horses, save in isolated cases, these charges
were disre-
garded, being attributed to that propensity, so general, among the Americans,
to exag-
gerate everything that affects them.
  During the twenty-two years that the Kickapoos have resided on the frontier,
the
  Comanches have never been at peace there, and it has been observed that
whenever
those savages have made an incursion from Texas, the Kickapoos have fought
them
with praiseworthy zeal, to which they are in a great measure indebted for
the consid-
eration which has been shown them. During the same period the Lipans -made
war,
and did not agree upon a peace until the year 1855, after having committed
horrible
outrages. Perfidious as they always are, the Lipans did not adhere to the
terms of
the peace, and excited the hatred of the people of the frontier, who, galled
by the
outrages which they had suffered at the hands of these Indians, and by complaints
from the authorities of the United States, fell upon them in 1856 and nearly
extermi-
nated their tribe, of which only a few miserable remnants were left, who,
as it was
afterward learned, sought an asylum among the Mescaleros, their kinsmen.
   Since that time the Lipans have made war against Mexico, in conjunction
with the
 Mescaleros and the Comanches, living almost constantly within the territory
of the'
 United States, from which they have committed their depredations against
the settle-
 ments on the Rio Grande, both Mexican and American.
   About the year 1862 their lack of the necessaries of life on the one hand,
and the act-
 ive hostilities, which, as is known, were carried on against them in the
United States
 where they resided, forced them once more to ask peace of the governments
of Nuevo
 Leon and Coahuila. They then remained for some months at San Fernando, from
 which town they suddenly decamped, lest the people should rise against them
to
 avenge a murder which they had committed at El Remolino. The banks of the
river.
 Pecos afforded them a shelter, as usual, and thence, during the last ten
years, they
 have carried desolation and death to the frontier towns of Mexico and the
United
 States.
   Had the commission not made minute and exact investigations with regard'to
this
 tribe, it would have been very difficult to designate the places in the
desert where
 they have found shelter during this latter period, and only through the
accounts
 given hýy captives and the subsequent revelations of the Indians
themselves has it
 been possible to reach the truth, which is that Mexico has suffered more
than the
 United States from the depredations of these savages, which have been unceasing
on
 both frontiers. The commission has unquestionable ground for believing that
the
 last bloody inroad into the Mexican frontier towns, which took' place in
1869, was
 made by these very Indians. It knows that they have lived in Texas, on the
banks of
 the Rio Pecos, and that, while they committed outrages in Mexico, they did
the same
 in the United States, escaping from pursuit in either republic by crossing
the Rio
 Graude, with which river they are perfectly familiar throughout its entire
length,
 as they are with the deserts, which can afford them shelter. This State
of war was