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Marryat, Frederick, 1792-1848

"Monsieur Violet"

This act of cowardice sealed the fate of the
expedition, which was so constantly harassed by the Wakoe warriors, and
had lost already so many scalps, that afterwards meeting with a small
party of Mexicans, they surrendered to them, that they might escape the
well deserved and unrelenting vengeance of the warlike Wakoes.
Such was the fate of the Texan expedition; but there is another portion
of the history which has been much talked of in the United States; I
mean the history of their captivity and sufferings, while on their road
from Santa Fe to Mexico. Mr. Daniel Webster hath made it a government
question, and Mr. Pakenham, the British Ambassador in Mexico, has
employed all the influence of his own position to restore to freedom the
half-dozen of Englishmen who had joined the expedition. Of course, they
knew nothing of the circumstances, except from the report of the Texans
themselves. Now, it is but just that the Mexicans' version should be
heard also. The latter is the true one--at least, so far as I can judge
by what I saw, what I heard upon the spot, and from some Mexican
documents yet In my possession.
The day before their capture the Texans, who for the last thirteen days
had suffered all the pangs of hunger, came suddenly upon a flock of
several thousand sheep, belonging to the Mexican government.


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