that opened up the Santa Fe Trail to such an extent that traveling was
less dangerous and expensive.

In the second place, Colonel Boone and his party proceeded to Fort Lyon
and at once began negotiations with the Indians as per his contract with
the Indian Commissioners and President Abraham Lincoln.

When they arrived at the place appointed where the agency was to be
established, there were camped about thirty thousand Indians with their
Indian provisions, buffalo meat, venison, antelope, bear and other wild
meats, and John Smith and Dick Curtis, who were the great Indian
interpreters for all the tribes. The Comanches, Kiowas, Cheyennes,
Sioux, Arapahoes, Acaddas, and other tribes, with Colonel Boone, arrived
at a complete understanding, and for about two years the Indians were
kindly disposed toward the Whites, or as long as Colonel Boone's
administration as Indian Agent existed. Any one then could cross the
plains without fear of molestation from the Indians.



CHAPTER VII.

Colonel Boone Acquires Squire Wright's Enmity.

In 1861, however, Judge Wright of Indiana, a member of Congress during
Boone's administration as Indian Agent, brought his dissipated son to
Colonel Boone's. Colonel Boone told the Congressman to leave him with
him and he could clerk in the Government store and issue the Indian
annuities.