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taller. They were entirely naked, saving
a breech-cloth fastened around their
waist, and being hideously painted you
can well imagine that they presented a
most ferocious and savage appearance.
They were armed with long lances and
bows and arrows, and a few with old sin
gle-barrel shotguns. These Indians, sev
eral years afterwards, took some Texans
prisoners, whom they cruelly murdered
and eat, which so enraged the settlers
that they fitted out an expedition against
them and succeeded in exterminating the
whole tribe, with the exception of a small
remnant that effected its escape into
Mexico. This is the only tribe of canni
bals that has ever been known on the
North American continent.
Along the whole route from Copano
we had seen great numbers of deer, some
times as many as three or four hundred
in a single drove, and so tame that we
could approach openly within a feAv yards
of them without their showing the least
symptoms of fear. Os course, we had no
difficulty in procuring fresh meat when
ever we stood in need of it. Once, too,
at the distance of half a mile, wo saw a
large drove of wild horses ; but they wore
much wilder than the
deer, for when some
of us attempted to ap
proach them, they cir
cled round us out of
range of our rifles,
stamping and snort
ing, until at last one
of them that seemed
to be the leader of the
gang, started off at
full speed, and the rest
following, in a short time nothing but a
cloud of dust indicated the direction in
which they had gone.
Some years afterwards, when I was
trailing some Indians with a company of
Hangers, in the country lying between
the Nueces and Bio Grande rivers, we
met with a drove of wild horses, so large
that it took us fully an hour to pass it,
although it was travelling at a rapid rate
and in a direction opposite to the one we
were going! As far as the eye could ex
tend upon a dead level prairie, nothing
was visible except one dense mass of
horses, and the trampling of their hoofs
sounded like the roar of the surf upon a
rock bound coast! The majority of per
sons, no doubt, would be inclined to re
gard this horse story as one that should
be told to the “marines” alone; neverthe
less, it is literally true, and many persons
who were with me at the time can testify
to the facts.
During the night, a norther sprang up,
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
but as we were well protected by a thick
clump of timber, that afforded plenty of
fuel for our fires, we were not put to
much inconvenience thereby. These
northers, as they are called in Texas, are
winds that spring up very suddenly from
the North, at times during the winter
season, sometimes dry, at others accom
panied with rain or sleet, and which at
first blow with great violence, but gradu
ually subsiding in the course of one, two
or three days, and are usually followed
by a week or ten days of beautiful warm
•weather. To travelers, unprepared for
them, these northers are very disagree
able visitants, and, indeed, instances have
been known of persons freezing to death
in them, when caught out in the open
prairies without the means of kindling a
fire.
About sunrise in the morning, we struck
camp and took the road again for Goliad,
and in the course of two or three hours
wc came in sight of the dome that sur
mounts the “ Old Mission.” An hour or
so afterwards, we entered the town and
took up our quarters in a deserted stone
building just outside of the Avails that en
closed she church. Here Ave found about
four hundred men under the command of
Colonel J. W. Fannin, the nucleus of the
army with which it Avas proposed to in
vade the adjoining States of Mexico.
Good Trick.
A man had received a large lot of lob
sters, fresh and lively', when a boy stood
looking at them, accompanied by his dog.
“Suppose you put your dog’s tail be
tween the lobster’s claws,” said the man.
“Agreed,” said the boy.
The peg Avas extracted from the claws,
and the dog’s tail inserted. Away went
the dog off home, hoAvling at the squeeze
his tail got from the lobster.
“ Whistle your dog back, you young
scamp,” said the man.
“ Whistle your lobster back,” cried the
boy, and left.
♦+>
Little minds are tamed and sub
dued by misfortune, but great minds rise
aboA 7 e it.
VEGETABLE INSTINCTS.
Fa tree that is fond of wa
ter is planted near some
URc brook, it will set off all its
principal roots in that di
reetio'n. How does it knOAv
fri the water to be there? And how
LB does it knoAv that it will be able
to reach the border of it ? To say,
w in popular phrase, that the water
attracts the roots in that direction, is to
invent anew and very remarkable sort
of attraction that pulls at roots in the
ground, and turns them out at the point
of starting —is a something cimated to
account for the fact in question, which is
even more difficult than the fact itself.
Mr. Madison, for example, had an aque
duct of logs, which, in reaching his house,
passed by a tree especially fond of water
at a considerable distance from it.—
Abreast of the tree there Avas an auger
hole in the log that had been filled with
a plug of soft wood. Exactly thither
ward the tree sent off a long stretch of
roots, which forced their way through
the plug, choking uji the passage, and
Avere found there drinking like so many
thirsty animals. Was it then the soft
wood plug that attracted these roots? It
certainly should be, on the attraction
principle, for the water Avas just as near
at other points as here.
It is said that a strawberry planted in
sand, Avith good earth a little way off,
Avill turn its runners all in the latter di_
rection, and if the good earth is too far
off to bo reached, the plant Avill make no
effort on that side more than on the oth
er—which is equivalent to saying that
the plant has, in its life-principle, an in
stinct of measurement. It does not mea
sure the ground and then itself, and then
compare the two; but it has an adaptive
power by Avhich, without comparison, it
graduates its action by its possibilities.
-
A Smart Minister.
A little girl, five years old, came home
from meeting and gaA T e her mother the
following account of the minister. Older
people haA r o seen preachers not unlike
this one :
“ Mother, I haA’e heard such a smart
minister. lie stamped and pounded, and
made such a noise ; and by-and-by be got
so mad ho came out of the pulpit and
shook his fist at the folks, and there
wasn’t any one dared to go up and fight
him.”
+•* ——
‘Aunty,” said a three-year-old one
dav. “I don’t like my aprons to be starch
ed so much. So much starchness makes
the stiffness scratch my bareness.”
67