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ing to write a professed history of the
“ Mier Expedition.” Mj r sole object
has been to describe such scenes and
incidents as came under my own obser
vation, and to relate such anecdotes and
occurrences connected therewith as I
thought would be interesting or amusing
to my readers. This I have done to the
best of my ability, and I shall now has
ten to the close of my story.
On the last day of October we left the
city of Mexico for Puebla, and thence
on toPerote. Between Puebla and Pe
rote we were confined one night in a
house in which the small pox was ra
ging, but, strange to say, none of us con
tracted the disease.
At Perote we found the prisoners
that had been captured at San Antonio
when Gen. Woll took possession of that
place. Sometime after our arrival at
Perote, I had a violent attack of the
“jail fever,” as it was called —a sort of
epidemic prevailing among us, produced
I suppose by confinement in illy venti
lated quarters, and the want of whole
some and sufficient food. I soon be
came delirious, and in that state was
removed to the Hospital, with many
others suffering from the same disease.
In the height of my delirium I am
told I became entirely unmanageable,
and several times “cleaned out” all the
guard and other attendants of the hos
pital. They were compelled at last to
“lasso” me and tie me down to my
bed, which was effected with great diffi
culty, for my strength (and I am no
chicken at ordinary times) was increas
ed five- told under the excitement of
fever.
One day, after my frenzy had some
what abated, one of the attendants on
the hospital came to dress some blis
ters that had been placed upon me when
I was delirious. The rascal cooly pro
ceeded to handle me as if I had been as
devoid of feeling as a “ knot on a log,”
tearing the blisters from my arms by
main force, and causing me thereby the
most horrible torture. A heavy copper
stew pan happened to be within reach
of me, which I grabbed instantly, and
exerting all the strength I had I gave
him a “ clew ” on the side of the head
with it that knocked him senseless to
the floor. The guard stationed in the
room immediately rushed upon me with
their drawn sabres, and no doubt would
have made mince meat of me, if, lucki
ly for me, the Surgeon-General had not
at that moment stepped in and inter
posed his authority in my behalf and
saved my life. He said that I had serv
ed the fellow I knocked down exactly
right; that he richly merited the chas
tisement for the harshness and cruelty
with which he had always treated the
sick and helpless.
This old Surgeon-General was one of
the best-hearted men I ever knew, and
I shall never forget his kindness to me
when I was sick and a prisoner at Pe
rote. For some reason, he took a great
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
fancy to me, and always favored me as
much as he could, and when I left there
he made me a handsome present of
money and clothes. He was a Castil
lian, or Spaniard, by birth, and not a
Mexican, which may account satisfac
torily in a great measure for the fact
that he was not a bigoted tyrant in dis
position. At any rate I hope he may
live a thousand years and never lose his
front teeth, for a Spaniard or Mexican
cannot manage the “cigarito” very well
without them.
Whilst at Perote, the “ Dons” of the
city frequently came into our quarters
to get a look at the “Texas barbarians.”
They would poke us up from our lairs
with their walking sticks, just as I have
seen the beasts stirred up with a long
pole in a menagerie, now and then ap
plying some such remarks to us as
“ Carrambo! look at that fellow’s teeth
will you!” “Did you ever see such
feet and hands ?” “ Carrajo ! what red
hair that fellow’s got! I wonder if he
wouldn’t give me a lock to light my ci
garoswith?” “ Cuidado 1 don’tgotoo
near that chap with the big mouth and
bushy beard ; he has a ravenous look!”
“ I wonder when they are going to feed
them ? I should like to see that canni
bal there devour five or six pounds of
raw beef!” and other like expressions.
Sometime in March the Bexar prison
ers were released by order of Santa
Anna, and furnished with passports to
go home. We sincerely rejoiced in their
good fortune, but our own lot seemed
more cheerless and hopeless than ever
after their departure.
Not long after this sixteen of our men
escaped from one of the dungeons in
which they were confined in the castle.
When the guard entered it in the morn
ing they were astonished to find a huge
black hole burrowed down in one cor
ner, and leading down beneath the foun
dations of the castle and out into the
moat or ditch that surrounded it. Most
of these men eventually got out of the
country without being recaptured.
For a long time after the escape of
these prisoners, we were much more
stictly guarded, and subjected to harsh
er treatment than had previously been
the case.
I remained at Perote from some time
in November until the 22d day of Au
gust, when I was liberated, together
with five or six others, and furnished
with passports to return home. The
balance of our men were, I believe, all
set free shortly afterwards.
From Perote my companions and my
self went on to Jalapa, where we rested
for a day or so, and then took the road
to Vera Cruz.
A few miles beyond Jalapa we were
stopped by a company of robbers on
horse-back, (eleven in number,) who
demanded our money. We told them
that we had been prisoners i or a long
time, and had just been liberated, and
of course we were not particularly
flush of funds. The one who seemed
to have command of the party then ask
ed me if we were Texans, and if we had
passports. I told him we were Texans,
and handed him my own passport, sign
ed by Santa Ana. He looked at it and
pronounced it all right, but said that
Santa Ana was a scoundrel, and wish
ed to know why the Texans did not kill
him when they had him in their power.
I told him if I had had the keeping of
him, he never would have troubled
Mexico any more.
This reply appeared to tickle them
amazingly, and the robber chief then
asked me to what place we were travel
ing. I told him to Vera Cruz, and he
said they were going in the same direc
tion, and would keep us company and
protect us from any further molestation
on the way. I thought to myself that
such protection as they would be likely
to give us was of a very questionable
character. However, we traveled along
sociably together for seven or eight
miles, and night coming on they turned
off the main road and conducted us to
a large ranch or hacienda that appeared
to be a sort of rendezvous for gentlemen
of their profession.
The inmates of this ranch seemed to
be well acquainted with the robbers,
and when they entered it was, “ How
are you, Colonel?” and “How are you,
Major?” from all sides. Titles were as
plentiful among them as they are in
Texas when a closely contested election
is about to come off. Here an excel
lent supper was soon prepared, and we
were cordially invited to partake of it.
Supper ended, a variety of fruits and
some excellent wines were placed upon
the table. I asked the robber chief if
that was their usual style of living, and
when he replied that it was, I told him
if there was any vacancy in the corps 1
should like to enlist.
This little politic speech of mine ap
peared to please the robbers exceeding
ly, and they drank the health of the
“Gringo” in a full bumper.
After a night of general jollification,
the next morning they filled our haver
sacks with provisions, gave us half a
dollar apiece, and escorted us back to
the road, where they bid us “ adios,”
with many expressions of good will. I
told the boys I wished the robbers would
attack us every day in the same way
these had done until we reached Yera
Cruz.
We arrived at Yera Cruz without the
happening of any further incident worth
mentioning. A few days after our ar
rival I was taken with the “ vomito,”
or yellow fever, and came very near
“shuffling off this mortal coil” again.
When I recovered sufficiently to travel
we took passage on a vessel bound to
New Orleans, where we landed safely
about the 24th of September. Just as
our vessel, (which was a crazy old hulk
and totally unseaworthy,) was towed
over the bar at the mouth of the Mis
sissippi, a tremendous hurricane came
on, which would assuredly have sent us
all to “Davy Jones’ locker” had we
been half an hour “ behind time.” In
a few days 1 took passage on a steamer
for Texas, and arrived at San Antonio
in December following, after an absence
of little more than two years.
The Sensation of Drowning.
FORBES, a sailor,
T who was lost overboard from
a scow in Lake Michigan, and
nearly drowned before he was rescued,
thus describes the feelings he experien
ced on the occasion. We quote from
the Detroit Free Press:
I was feeling more courage, and stri
king out with a will, when a sudden
cramp catched me all over, and I could
not do another stroke. I felt like a
lump of lead. My head began to spin
around, a great lump rose up in my
throat and choked me, and my eyes clos
ed as if a weight had been hung on the
lids. I began to drown —I felt it; then
came a feeling something like a red hot
rod being drawn through my brain.
My head felt like fire. A humming,
roaring noise went through my ears,
and my body felt as light as a feather.
The waves carried me about without
any effort on my part, and I laughed—
it seemed so curious that I actually
laughed. I didn’t care to be picked up
—didn’t care for Lizzie—only wanted
to float and drift forever on the rollers.
The water came into my face and mouth,
but I never tried to keep my head up.
I wouldn’t have moved my finger to
have been aboard the scow. It grew
darker and darker ; the old fire feeling
came through my head again. Some
thing clutched me by the leg and drew
me down. I rocked to and fro, felt a
noise like the discharge of a cannon,
and then I dropped to sleep.
Being Somebody.
“ What is the use of being in the
world unless you are somebody ?” said
a boy to his friend.
“ Sure enough, and I mean to be,”
answered the other. “ I began this very
day. I mean to be somebody.”
Ashton looked George in the face.
“Began to-day! how? what do you
mean to be !”
“ A Christian boy, and so grew up to
a Christian man,” said George. “ 1
believe that is the greatest somebody for
us to be.”
George is right. There is no higher
manhood than Christian manhood, and
it is in the power of every boy to reach
that. Every boy cannot be rich ; every
boy cannot be President; every boy can
not be judge ; but God asks you all to a
Christian manhood —to be his sons, and
so with his Son Jesus Christ to be heirs
of heaven.
Confide all troubles to your mother.