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727

Fort Yuma,
Colorado River,
December 27th 1863.

Hon. Wm P. Dole,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Sir:

Under the general letter of
instructions furnished me by the Secretary
of the Interior, prior to my departure from
Washington, I proceeded immediately on
my arrival in San Francisco, to investigate
the condition of Indian Affairs in California.
No special instructions from your office
have yet reached me, bu your news, as
verbally expressed, coincide in the main, I
believe, with those contained in my letter of
appointment.

The result of my pressures, so far, may
be summed up in a few words. Owing to
fraud and mismanagement on the part of
employés of the government for a long series
of years, as detailed in my reports to your
department, from 1856 to 1860, the reservation
system has proved an entire failure. The
fund appropriated by Congress for the
relief of the Indians has been directed from
its legiimate object in various ways; and
the encroachments of white settlers on the