by every one for his virtues. I sent them “ on their way rejoicing," The residue of the prisoners taken at San Antonio, thirty-six in number, were those of whom I have before spoken as being released by General Santa Anna in so handsome a manner at the time I was leaving Mexico.

Colonel Wm. G. Cooke, of the Santa Fé expedition, was engaged in the battle of San Jacinto. Two or three days after the battle two Texian boys, who were hunting for estray mules and horses, discovered a Mexican in the grass. One of the boys cocked his gun, and was taking aim at him, when the other told him not to shoot, as the man was unarmed. They found that he was a Mexican, but had no idea of the value of their prize. They determined, however, to take him to the Texian camp, some ten miles distant, and made him mount behind one of them, while the other walked. When they approached the Texian camp the Mexican prisoners exclaimed, El Presidente, El General Santa Anna. This was immediately after the massacre of the Alamo and Goliad, and the first impulse of the Texians was to put him to death. Colonel Cooke, however, rallied the guard and saved the life of Santa Anna.

After Colonel Cooke was released from imprisonment in. Mexico, with all his companions, he remained a few days at my house, and when, in answer to my inquiries, he narrated these facts, I asked him why he had not communicated this to me before, and stated my belief that Santa Anna would have liberated him instantly. His reply was, that in saving the life of Santa Anna he had done no more than his duty, and that he could not think of asking any reward for it; neither would he have accepted his own discharge without that of all of his men; that he would not under any circumstances have been released and left them in captivity. All of the prisoners were released on the 16th of June, except

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Colonel Navarro, to whose niece Colonel Cooke was then engaged, and has since been married. He could not speak of Navarro without great emotion. I asked him if I might inform Santa Anna that he was the officer who had saved his life after the battle of San Jacinto, and that he took a very deep interest in the fate of Navarro. This he could not resist. He was willing to do for a friend what he would not do for himself. I mentioned the facts to an aidede-camp of Santa Anna, who promised me that he would communicate them to him. But probably he never did so. All my efforts in favor of Navarro were fruitless. He, however, made his escape from the castle of St. Juan de Ulloa, and returned to Texas.

Amongst the prisoners of Mier, there were two of the name of Reese, Charles and William, the latter a boy of about sixteen. On his arrival in Mexico, I applied to Santa Anna and obtained his release. A few days afterwards he called to see me, and said-" My brother Charles is engaged to be married; and, besides this, I know that he would be much more useful to my father and mother than I would, and I should like, sir, to take his place as a prisoner, and let him go home." In this he was not acting a part: he spoke under deep excitement and with a glistening eye, and I do not know that his was the only moist eye in the room. I could protract these pages indefinitely in narrating similar acts. From the time of my arrival in Mexico until I left the country, there was rarely a month that it was not my good fortune to obtain the discharge of some of the prisoners, and I fully realized the truth of the lines of the greatest of poets:

"The quality of mercy is not strained,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes."

Happy as those poor fellows were, I doubt if they were happier than I was.

It is the fashion of the world to complain of ingratitude; I am sure that I shall never have cause to make that complaint against the Texian prisoners in Mexico. Those last released to me came home with me in the Bainbridge. The yellow fever was prevailing in Vera Cruz, and the surgeon of the Bainbridge thought that there would be great danger in receiving the Texians on board, and the commander of the vessel, Captain Mattison, a most worthy and excellent gentleman, determined not to do so. I had obtained their release, and brought them down to Vera Cruz, and if they had been left there they must have suffered, for they had neither money nor credit, besides the great danger they were in from yellow fever. I could not think of leaving them under such circumstances, and, impatient as I was to return, I at once determined to remain with them. Capt. Mattison, however, at length agreed to receive them on board upon my taking "all the responsibility," which I did; and I was not a little rejoiced that no injury resulted from it. There was not a case of yellow fever on board. The Texian prisoners all called to see and take leave of me in New Orleans, and it occurred, in more than half-a-dozen instances, that after beginning to express their gratitude to me they would burst into tears, and could not finish what they had intended to say. They could have made no speech half so eloquent as those tears. I advanced to the prisoners of the Santa Fé Expedition a sum which I thought was sufficient to have defrayed their expenses home; but they were unavoidably detained five or six weeks longer than I had anticipated, and must have been subjected to extreme suffering if Mr Hargoos, an American merchant in

Vera Cruz, had not, with a liberality which has few examples, advanced them more than ten thousand dollars.

When the late Mr. Forsyth was American Minister in Spain, he obtained the discharge of some Americans who had been made prisoners in Mexico, during the war of Independence. They were all sent to the United States at the expense of our government, and the charges were paid. I thought this precedent justified me in sending home the Texians, who were natives of this country. I could see no substantial difference in the two cases. Besides this, the English and Prussian ministers in Mexico sent home the Englishmen and Germans who belonged to the expedition, at the charge of their respective governments, and I had been instructed to use all my influence to obtain the discharge of the Texians-not surely to let them starve, which they must otherwise have done. The advances made by me were paid by the government. Those made by Mr. Hargoos have not been paid. I have never been able to see any reason for the discrimination. It is true, that I did not positively pledge myself to Mr. Hargoos that his advances would be paid by the government. If I had done so, I should have felt bound to pay him if the government did not, and had I the means of paying so large an amount. But I sent him the precedent in the case of the prisoners sent home by Mr. Forsyth, and said to him, that I did not doubt that our government would pay him. I still do not doubt that if the claim were presented to Congress that it would be paid.

CHAPTER X.

Catho.ic Ceremonies-Procession of the Host-Corpus Christi Day-Our Lady of Remedies-Connection of the Image with the early History of Mexico-Present state of its Worship.

THE things which most strike an American on his first arrival in Mexico, are the processions, ceremonies, and mummeries of the Catholic worship, of which I would fain hope there are more in Mexico than in any other country. The natural proneness of every ignorant people to regard the external symbols and ceremonies of religion, and an incapacity to appreciate its true spirit and sublime truths, give to the Catholic ritual, with all its pomp and circumstance, its pictures, statues, processions, and imposing ceremonial, peculiar power and influence. Yet through these conditions it may be that in a merely temporal point of view, it is the best for such a people. For the Christian religion, however it may be degraded, is immeasurably superior to all others, and it may be well, therefore, that ignorant people, who are inaccessible by mere rational means, to the great truths which it teaches, and the sublime morality which it inculcates, should have those truths and that morality impressed upon them in the only way in which it is practicable, by external objects, such as images, and the like. And I am satisfied that much good is accomplished in this way. But as to any rational idea of true religion, or any just conception of its divine author, the great mass are little more enlightened than were their ancestors in the time of Monte