Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/80

[ 26 ] Mexicans near the road. The death of the unfortunate man had no doubt saved my own life. We soon came to the fatal spot. The body had already been removed by his friends, and several Mexicans, who were found under most suspicions circumstances on the nearest rancho, had been made prisoners. This party examined several other ranchos: in one of them a Mexican uniform, American books and clothes, and a hidden Mexican, were found, which were also taken to our camp. They were examined there by some of the officers; and as only strong circumstantial evidence, but no direct proof, was found against them, they were acquitted. Some friends of the deceased, I understood afterwards, dissatisfied with the decision, followed the Mexicans on their way home, killed four or five of them, and burnt their ranchos.

San Francisco is a small village on the Rio Grande. No steamboat was in sight, but we were informed that there were several in Reynosa, 39 miles below. We left, therefore, San Francisco in the evening, and marching all night, we arrived next morning, on

June 2, in Reynosa, a small town on the Rio Grande. The river is here quite considerable, about 200 yards wide, and six or more feet deep. The banks are low, sandy, barren, and covered with chaparral, like the surrounding plains. A barometrical observation which I made here, about 10 feet above the level of the water, gave an elevation above the sea of 184 feet, so that the fall of the river from here to the mouth, a distance by water of from 300 to 400 miles, would on an average be one foot in two miles.

The long wished for sight of steamboats at last greeted our eyes; two were lying in the river, and others were coming up. The Roberts and the Aid were engaged for our regiment, and everybody prepared for embarking. Our wagons had to be driven back to Camargo, and all our riding animals sent by land, through Texas, to Missouri; but as the latter was considered tantamount to a loss, most of us gave their horses away for a trifle, or made them run off. A great many of these animals, after a rest of some months, would have been better for service than imported ones, yet unused to the climate and country; but as there was no provision made for it, the men as well as the government suffered a loss.

On June 3, I went with the battalion of artillery on board the Roberts. As we had to cross a sand bar some miles below, the cannon and baggage had to be carried there by land, and then taken on board. This delayed us till evening, and we laid by for the night.

On June 4, we started with daylight, and, running all day, we made more than half way to Matamoros. The river was rather at a low stage, and it was not uncommon to hear and feel the boat strike on sand bars; but as the sandy river bed is clear of rocks and snags, there is no danger in such collisions. The course of the Rio Grande is certainly the most tortuous that I have seen; the Mississippi compared to it is a straight line. By observing only the direction, one will often be at a loss whether he ascends or descends the river. I remembered one place particularly, where it runs directly south; after having made some five miles, it returns due north so nearly to the same place from which it started, that it is only separated from it by a small strip of sand bank. The country around it was level and flat; near the river the soil seemed to be very good; but very few settlements or cultivated land were to be seen; the chaparráls seemed to grow thinner, and trees with long beards of Spanish moss (Tillandsea asneoides) made their appearance. Sundry wooding places provided the boat with