CHAPTER XXV.
It was during my convalescence that the fate of the Texan expedition to
Santa Fe was decided; and as the real facts have been studiously
concealed, and my intelligence, gained from the Indians, who were
disinterested parties, was afterwards fully corroborated by an Irish
gentleman who had been persuaded to join it, I may as well relate them
here. Assuming the character of friendly traders, with some hundred
dollars' worth of goods, as a blind to their real intentions, which were
to surprise the Mexicans during the neutrality which had been agreed
upon, about five hundred men were collected at Austin, for the
expedition.
Although the report was everywhere circulated that this was to be a
trading experiment, the expedition, when it quitted Austin, certainly
wore a very different appearance. The men had been supplied with
uniforms; generals, and colonels, and majors were dashing about in every
direction, and they quitted the capital of Texas with drums beating and
colours flying. Deceived by the Texans, a few respectable Europeans were
induced to join this expedition, either for scientific research or the
desire to visit a new and unexplored country, under such protection,
little imagining that they had associated themselves with a large band
of robbers, for no other name can be given to these lawless plunderers.
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