Sixteen White Children Recovered from the Indians.
The Commissioner of Indian Affairs has re-ceived the following interesting letter from the Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah :
SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE, Utah,
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, May 4,1859. }
SIR: I have just returned from a very laborious and difficult trip through the southern portions of this Territory.
I have succeeded in recovering sixteen children, and have them now in my possession. It is said these are all that remain of probably one hun-dred and forty men, women, and children of the Mountain Meadow massacre in September, 1857.
In December last there was a small boy among the Navajos, near the Colorado, in Mexico terri-tory, who it is supposed also belonged to this emi-grant train. I will allude to this boy in another communication. I was positively assured by the settlers in the neighborhood where I got the children that I have all that were saved. I have good reason for believing that none of these chil-dren have lived among the Indians at all.
These children average from about three to nine and a half years old; are intellectual and good-looking; not one mean-looking child among them.
I have collected the following particulars in re-lation to these children:
1st, Calvin, now seven or eight years old; does not remember his name; says they (his family) lived at Horse Head, Johnston county, Arkansas. This boy had father, mother, and five brothers older than himself; killed brothers named Henry, James, William, and Larkin; and four sisters—Nancy, Mary, and Martha; his father Joseph, and his mother Matilda. 2d and 3d, Ambrose Miram Taggit, now about seven years old, and Wm Taggit, now about four years and a half old; the elder boy says they had father, mother, and two older brothers killed. He says they lived in Johnston county, and when they left the States had a grandfather and grandmother living. 4th, Prudance Angeline, six years old; and, 5th, Annie; had father, mother, and two brothers, named James and John, all killed. 6th, a girl about four and a half years old; says her name is Frances Hawn or Kern. 7th, a boy, now about three years old. I have no account of this boy. Those with whom he lived called him William. 8th, Eliza W Huff, four years old. 9th, Sophronia or Mary Huff, about six years old. 10th, Charles Francher, seven or eight years old; and 11th, Annie, about three and a half years old; had sister. 12th, Betsey, about six years old; and 13th, Jane, about four years old; have no ac-count of these. 14th, 15th, and 16th, Rebecca, Louisa, and Sarah Dunlap.
In conversation with these children, I learn that they resided in the same neighborhood; my im-pression is, principally in Johnston county, Ar-kansas.
I remain, very respectfully, your obedient ser-vant, J. FORNEY,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
