The following letter was published in the Charleston [S.C.] Daily Courier, 7 July 1856, p. 4, c. 1:

"STAR OF THE WEST, (Missouri River), June 26, 1856. --Messrs. Editors: -- This morning, having some business to attend to at Kansas City, Mo., I left Westport, after an early breakfast, and proceeded to that point. Soon after my arrival this boat arrived with a company of Michigan emigrants aboard. They had come up the river a few days before with arms and ammunition. The good citizens of Lexington took possession of the said arms. The citizens of Leavenworth and Weston, K. T., would not allow them to land, and they returned to try their luck at Kansas City, but they could not land. Fifteen of us are now acting as a guard to escort them to the State of Illinois. They are perfectly tame and submissive. As the U. S. Troops escorted us out of the Territory, we will escort the Free Soilers out. A company of Free Soilers came through Platte county yesterday with guns and ammunition. The citizens of said county are escorting them on their back track. And so we intend to do all that come. Their only chance will be to cross through Iowa. It is a long and out-of-the-way trip, and the South Carolina boys are there waiting for them. It is reported that Lane is there, on his way, with over five hundred men. He will ahve a nice time of it crossing.

Things are quiet in the Territory, but they will not remain so long. October will show a desperate game, and the South must do more. The border counties of Missouri are acting nobly. Men spend their money freely, and even put themselves forward to the life.

Aa soon as I can find a place to write, I will give you the particulars of the murder of Gale, the Indian agent. I am well posted in the case, and wish to put it before the public in its true light. The boat shakes too much for me to write, or I would no it now.

Respectfully, E. B. B."

Notes: "E. B. B." was E. B. Bell, a member of a company raised from around Charleston, which came to Kansas in April, 1856. He wrote a number of letters back to South Carolina, some of which were published in the Charleston Daily Courier, and others in the Edgefield Advertiser. Although Bell went out with the Charleston company, it appears that he was actually from Edgefield District, S.C. Those letters have been previously posted from time to time on the Kansas Board. Bell had been a member of a party which was advancing on Lawrence, but was intercepted by U. S. Dragoons under the command of COL Edwin V. Sumner and made to leave the Territory. An account of the mruder of the Indian agent was recently posted on the Kansas Board, under the heading "Murder of Indian Agent." I have not been able to find an account by Bell of the murder of Gale.