Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/243

Rh and that my captors betrayed no intention of sacrificing me, in revenge for the cruelties inflicted upon American prisoners by my people. I was allowed to wander about in any direction, nearly without restraint; and, as I before said, was occasionally employed as a guide among the mountains.

"I was still more surprised when I saw the American generals. In place of the brutal ladrones which my imagination had depicted, and in which our instructors had led us to believe—fierce tyrants with bloodthirsty visages and hides like wild beasts—I saw two agreeable, fair men, with paternal countenances and amiable manners. General Scott had a meaner look; but Taylor attracted by his unassuming dignity, and awed you by his firmness: there was something so fatherly about him, that I have loved to think upon it from that day to the present.

"I am sure many of my countrymen have a great respect for the people of the United States; they have reason to feel so. Their officers were kind, instead of cruel, to us: they spared our houses and our property; they were just towards our store-keepers.—Indeed, in many respects, our city has had