Mormon and Indian Alliance

"Yesterday we had an interview with a gentleman from Carson Valley, who, from, intimacy with Mormon families, has some knowledge of their future designs and plans of operation.  If his conclusions be correct, not only the settlers east of the mountains, but even the people of this State, will have reason to deprecate the exasperation of those American Bedouins.  He says that the Mormons of Carson Valley and San Bernardino have sold their cattle and property for nearly nothing and at the bidding of their chief, have repaired to Salt Lake, with the secret design of reorganizing, arming, equipping, returning, murdering, and plundering their Gentile enemies.  They declare that they will first exterminate the troops from the east, then come west, and in predatory lands, allied with Indians, they will ravage the border, rob, plunder, and murder, until they shall have replenished the Lord's treasury, and revenged insults put on his chosen people.   

"Of their ability to execute this threat we have but little doubt.  At the order of their leader and prophet, they can muster 15,000 men, armed with the most effective instruments of destruction.  They have many thousands of the finest horses, trained to camp service, they have a foundry where cannon and shells are cast; a powder mill and a factory, where revolving rifles and pistols are manufactured, equal to those made at Hartford.  They have every munitions of war, and necessary provision and means of transportation within themselves, and even the women and children are instructed in the use of arms.  Add to this their geographical position.  To reach Salt Lake from the east, it is necessary to pass through a canyon of twenty-five miles, under hills so steep and rocky that a dozen men could hurl down an avalanche of stones on an approaching caravan, and even in the event of several thousand troops reaching the valley, the besieged with their herds, would take to the mountains, and, reinforced by their savage allies, would, in turn, besiege their besiegers, and cut off supplies until the invaders had been starved out.
 
"They have it is said 20,000 Indian allies, whom they are ready to furnish with arms and horses on an emergency.  These Indians are partially instructed in the Mormon religion - enough to make them superstitious in regard to the God of a superior race, yet modifying none of their ferocity.  With allies like these, and fighting for their homes, and, according to the belief of the ignorant, under the direct supervision of the God of battles, and from the ramparts with which nature has surrounded them, it is easy to conceive what would be the fate of a few thousand troops, who traveled a thousand miles to fight their own countrymen, brave as themselves, as well armed, better used to field life, and stimulated by their love of home and family, and assured of victory by the revelations of their prophets."