[Senate Doc. 512, vol. 246, page 485]

[Extract of a letter from Maj. Thos. J. Abbott. to Col. John Crowell, dated October 13th, 1832]

" After much privation and fatigue, I am about finishing the census of the heads of families, &c., of the Eu-fau-lee town of Indians. I am now at the house of the principal chief of the town, Fos-hatch-e-marth-la, where all the head-men are at present assembled. I have had several talks with them about their affairs, and now, at their instigation and earnest desire, write this letter to you. They complain bitterly of the treatment they have received at the hands of the intruders, and of the abuses which still continue to be heaped upon them. It would be almost an endless, as well as useless, undertaking to enter into the particular cases of their wrongs. I shall not, therefore, at this time, detail them. Suffice it to say, that from the statements, and of the truth of these, they say, they have ample testimony; that their sufferings are great. One of their principal men, in a public council of the Indians of the town, by name Yel-ka-harjo, in a speech, addressed particularly to me, as an agent of the Government, stated, and with much feeling, that his people were dispersed, and in the woods; that they had been expelled their homes; that the white men were gathering corn from their fields; that many had nothing now to eat, and that he was assured, without timely assistance from the Government, numbers of them must perish, for want of sustenance, of hunger. This statement was corroborated by others, who made speeches also upon the occasion, and said that the evil had not happened to those people only, but also to themselves. They insisted that I should write to you, as their agent, immediately, with the request that, without delay, you would endeavor to procure for them some alleviation of their distress, by representing their condition properly to the commandant of the troops at the fort, and induce him to order on some part of his force to their assistance. Without some such immediate protection afforded them, before the corn is entirely taken from their fields, they say they will not have a grain left, and starvation must be the inevitable consequence; for they dare not now return to their dwellings, being, like wild beasts, hunted and driven from them."