Adams is speaking of his ten days' mission:
once he had ridden, by daylight and by moonlight,
up little-used mountain trails to reach the Utes,
he found them ready to shoot him, as likewise
the soldiers when he met them, each side being eager
to think he was betraying it to the other;
he parleyed coolly, successfully, with both.
by the surrender of those Indians
actually guilty; for the tribe was anxious
to make peace, even the women and children
gathering around me crying and begging me
to keep the soldiers away. When I met the soldiers
I found that they had set out from Fort Russell
in a great hurry, and very ill-provided,
with only the clothes they were wearing and one
blanket apiece, and hardly in a fi t condition
to follow the Utes: their animals were weak
from lack of feed, and the whole country barren,
just dotted with sagebrush, in between the point
that they had reached on the White River, and
the Ute forces a hundred miles away.
I had an Indian pony and he nearly
broke down from want of forage when I rode
back to the Indians' camp across that country.
to have anything more to do
with the government. All we want