CHAPTER IX.

Public Release of Texian Prisoners-General spirit of Kindness to themTheir Work in the Public Streets-Anecdotes of Virtue and Disinterestedness on the part of the Prisoners.

On the 16th of June, 1842, the Texian prisoners of the Santa Fé expedition were released by General Santa Anna, that being his birth-day or rather the anniversary of his saint (Saint Antonio), which is the day kept by all Mexicans instead of their own birth-day. I knew that they were to be released on that day on the parade ground near the city, and fearing that the immense populace which would be assembled might offer them some violence, I went out knowing that my official station would protect me and might enable me to protect them. Never was fear more groundless, nor a surprise more agreeable. Santa Anna reviewed on that occasion a body of more than ten thousand troops, and there were not less than thirty or forty thousand other persons assembled in the field. When the order for their liberation was given it was received with acclamation and shouts by the Mexican troops, which extended through the whole vast concourse. The officers and others threw pieces of money to the Texians, and as they passed through the crowd, instead of jeers and insults every Mexican had a word of kindness for them, running up to them and shaking hands, and exclaiming " amigo, amigo!" my friend, my friend! I saw one poor Lepero pull off his blanket and offer it to a Texian who was rather more ragged than he was himself. As they passed along the streets men and

women would run out from their shops and offer them bread and other articles. Let it be remembered that these men had invaded their country, and that they had been sedulously taught to regard them as their born enemies, los Texanos (the Texians) having all the associations with a Mexican that the words los Moros (the Moors) had with their Gothic ancestors. I could not refrain from asking myself whether if the people of any other country had invaded ours and been made prisoners, they would under like circumstances have passed through such a crowd not only without insult, but with such demonstrations of kindness and sympathy. There were a few instances of atrocious barbarity practised upon these prisoners upon the frontiers of Mexico, when they were first captured. But after they had advanced within 1500 miles of the city the general treatment which they received was kind and respectful; I think there was no single exception to this remark whilst they were confined in the convent of Saint Jago near Mexico. It is true that they were sometimes carried out in chains to work on the streets, but this was by the orders of the government, and the Mexican officers in charge of the prisoners could not disobey the order. But their compliance with it was in mere form, for they generally said to the Texians work just as little or as much as you choose, and precious little was the work they did.

The Mier prisoners, a hundred and sixty, were several months at work on a street in Tacubaya, and all the work which they did, would have been done by two Irishmen in a week. When I say that they were kindly treated, I mean by the officers in charge of them, and would not be understood as justifying or apologising for the government, in ordering them to work on the streets at all, particularly in chains; on the contrary, as soon as I was informed of

the fact, I remonstrated against it, and it was discontinued. This, by the way, was the cause of the sparring between General Tornel and myself, to which I alluded, as having occurred the first week that I entered upon the duties of my office. But any treatment which the Texian prisoners received in Mexico, was kind and humane, in comparison with the treatment of American prisoners, during our late war with England, at Dartmoor and elsewhere. I know that they were much better fed than the Mexican soldiers were. An incident occurred, whilst the prisoners were confined in Tacubaya, which is characteristic, not only of the Mexicans of both sexes, but of woman everywhere. On one occasion, and it was one of the very few exceptions to the remark which I have just made, a subaltern Mexican officer struck a Texian who was at work on the streets; a young lady of one of the most respectable families, and I sincerely regret that I have forgotten her name, who happened to be passing by, called the officer to her, and asked him if he was a Mexican by birth. He replied that he was not. She said, "I am rejoiced to hear it, sir, and I did not suppose that you were, for I did not believe that any Mexican would be guilty of so cowardly an act as to strike a prisoner, who dare not return the blow."

Whilst bearing this testimony to the humanity and generosity of Mexicans, I cannot omit paying a just tribute to the Texian prisoners. I do not believe that the rank and file of any army was ever superior to them in courage, and other high qualities. Their number was so great that my means were altogether inadequate to supply all their wants, but I told them that when any of them were sick, to let me know it, and I would furnish them with such things as their necessities required. It more than once occurred, that when I visited them I found some of them sick, and unable

to eat the coarse food of which their rations consisted. When I asked them why they had not applied to me, their reply was, "Why, sir, you have had to advance so much money on our account, that we were unwilling to tax you any farther." I had very few applications for money, and in every instance, where I regarded the advance as a loan, I have since been paid, with not more than one or two exceptions. There are one or two instances of heroic virture, that I take special pleasure in recording. Amongst the prisoners taken at San Antonio in Texas, by General Wool, in the fall of 1843, was Mr. Samuel A. Maverick, a gentleman of very large fortune, and with a young and interesting family. He was a man of fiery and impatient temper, and chafed, under his confinement, like a chained tiger. A good deal had been said about a reannexation of Texas to Mexico, and negotiations were about being entered into to that end. I knew that Mexico only desired to save, in some degree, the point of honor, and that almost any terms would be conceded; such as that Texas should have her own laws, religion, &c.; that no Mexican troops should be quartered in Texas; the Texians to make their own revenue laws, appoint their own revenue and other officers, pay only a nominal amount to Mexico; in one word, and in the language of a distinguished member of the Mexican Cabinet, in conversing with me on the subject, "actual independence, with a mere nominal recognition of the sovereignty of Mexico." That even such a reunion, in name only, could have lasted long, no one could have believed. I know that the Mexicans themselves had no such idea. Santa Anna had boasted so much of reconquering the country, which he found himself unable even to attempt, that I have strong reasons to believe that he would have allowed the Texians to dictate the terms of even this nomi

nal reannexation, which must have been of very short duration, and would, in the meantime, have given the Texians the advantage of the market of Mexico for their cotton, the high price of which there would very soon have filled up Texas with a population large enough to have enabled her to have dictated terms to Mexico. This was early in 1843, when annexation to the United States had not been spoken of seriously, nor, so far as I knew, thought practicable by any one. I wrote to Maverick, who was then confined in the castle of Perote, saying to him, that if he was in favor of such a reannexation as that, and which would have been so in name only, and would say so to me, that I had no doubt Santa Anna would release him. I give an extract of his letter in reply.

"You say that you think that Santa Anna will release me if I say that I am in favor of the reannexation of Texas to Mexico. I cannot persuade myself that such an annexation, on any terms, would be advantageous to Texas, and I therefore cannot say so, for I regard a lie as a crime, and one which I cannot commit even to secure my release; I must, therefore, continue to wear my chains, galling as they are."

A man of principles less stern might, with an easy casuistry, have said, "I am dealing with an enemy who has violated the terms of my capitulation, and it is excusable that I should in turn deceive him." How many men are there who would not have thus reasoned? Such an act recorded by Plutarch would have added another page as bright as that which perpetuates the noble constancy and heroic virtue of Regulus.

Maverick was shortly afterwards released, as a personal favor to me, together with Mr. William E. Jones, formerly of Georgia, and Judge Hutchison, formerly of Mississippi, where he was distinguished for great learning, and beloved