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Office of Indian Affairs
San Francisco. Cal
Aug 29th 1864.

Sir;
On the 2d ult I informed you that I would start for the North, for the purpose of making some kind of a settlement with the hostile Indians in the Humboldt Military District. The head-quarters for the Indians who have been engaged in the war in that portion of the State for five years past, is Hoopa Valley, on the Trinity River. I arrived there on the 10th ult and found most of the hostile Indians in the valley, with their guns still in their hands. waiting my arrival. They had been induced to come in by the officer commanding the Dist. under promise of protection until terms could be arranged ; but so cunning were they. and so suspicious of white men, that they kept most of their guns hid, and were constantly on the alert, ready to break to the mountains in case any effort should be made to remove them to a reservation. They protest that they prefer death or starvation in the mountains to removal.

I found among the leaders, and those having the most influence, you men_those that I had known as boys, most of whom have had more or less experience among white men as packers, herdsmen, farmers etc. They all speak English and are intelligent. They make