January 29th, 1883. Rev James H Wilbur  Goldendale WT  My Dear Brother   Your favor of the 26th came to hand per to-day   s mail. I have written you two or three letters which from the tone of yours, I do not think you have received. I have had time as yet only to glance at the Statements you enclose, and cannot give an opinion   I do not wish to take hold of it till I finish the statement of Cash ex- penditures   I think you hardly comprehend the care necessary in the preparation of this. You need not   in my opinion   pay any thing but to avoid this I wish to make the statement so full and Complete that it will be accepted on your affidavit and my own. The difficulty will be here   All our payments to Indians vouchers and for labor have been somewhat irregular   that is running accounts have been  
        kept, and settlements made once in six months on such a matter   Now while there is no doubt but the Dept will accept the pay rolls of irregular Employees  amp;c provided we can show that the cash receipted for by one, was paid to another for similar labor, I very much doubt if they will accept such explanation for deficiency in payments of vouchers   therefore I shall have to go over every account   I want to make a state- ment that wil show just the right amount of cash paid, but avoid all allusion to payments made on regular vouchers and yet be true and correct   one that I can conscientiously swear to. I have got the preliminary statement up to the 2d Qr of 1882. Of course I cannot tell yet how it will come out   From what I have so far gone through I think there need be no apprehension but the statement can be made so satisfactory that they will accept it without your going to Washington. If all  that was required was a transcript of the cash book and the bank book, it would  
        be a small matter, but would require more explanation than to make the state- ment complete in the first place  My regular duties in the office are very great, and to make the statement for you it was an absolute necessity to employ some help   From your letter giving account of Charley Carter   s advice, I inferred you were anxious to get the statement as soon as possible   I therefore engaged help for a few days   I am glad to hear of  the religious prosperity at the Dalles   I wish I could say the same of this place  Sorry to hear of Mrs Wilbur   s ill health, and hope now the winters seems to be broken, she may regain all her  usual health  My wife desires to be remembered to you and Mrs Wilbur Feb 2d Since Monday, I have shut myself up and been through the entire accounts, and am able to say, that if a strait forward statement showing that every dollar received has been disbursed for the good of the service, substantially  
        as directed by instructions, we can furnish it. There are only two accounts yet to be examined, and it will not take long to finish them. It will hower take some time to complete the statement, as I shall not be likely to get so much spare time again  The statement will show the recepits from all sources and disbursements in details giving the person to whom paid, the service paid for, and when and where reported to department, or reasons why it was not reported  amp;c. You may gain from this some idea of the labor of preparing it, but I do not think any-thing less would be accepted, and though no one can tell what course the Dept may take, a statement of this kind ought to be accepted without you having to go to Washington. So far, without going through the two accounts I mentioned, I can bring the entire receipts  amp; disbursements within  31.00 or about that of balancing. this can easily be accounted for  Very Truly Yours   JH Fairchild