NCIDENTS connected with the long uncertain fate of certain prisoners of war in Matamoros, during the spring and summer of 1836, form an episode in the epic of the Texas revolution which, though not historically important, is interesting from the showing it gives of the better, as well as the worse side of the Mexican character. The events which led to the capture of those men have never been very correctly related, and merit narration from their singularity rather than the examples of wisdom they contain.

During the winter of that year, when the invasion of Texas by Santa Ana was impending, there seemed, as I observed in a former article [Magazine of American History, II, 1], little less than anarchy left to withstand it. There were seven hundred volunteers, more or less, for the number was continually fluctuating, stationed at San Antonio, and in Goliad and its neighborhood, but mostly in the latter section. Sam Houston had been commissioned by the Provisional Government a Major-General of regular troops, not yet raised, with the right to command all volunteers who might enter the service of Texas; but the split of that government into a duality led to conflicting measures which neutralized his authority, and he was unable to effect a concentration of the scattered forces under arms. The garrisons of San Antonio and Goliad acted without concert; and a smaller body, which had part of it split off from the former garrison, the rest being raised separately, entered upon independent action further west. This was a band of mounted men which, I think, once reached the number of two hundred, but did not generally exceed a hundred, and which took position, early in the winter, at San Patricio, on the Nucas, an Irish village, and the most western of the foreign settlements in Texas. This force was commanded by Colonel Frank W. Johnson and Colonel Don Diego Grant, both of whom had performed gallant service in the taking

of San Antonio, where Johnson commanded the assault after the fall of Milam. He was the ranking officer in the present enterprise, Grant being nominally his second.

Doctor James Grant, to come back to his original name and title, had come to Mexico some years before, a young Scotch physician in the service of an English company engaged in extensive leases and speculation in real estate. Grant, a few years after his arrival, gave up his position in the company, and entered upon some daring and astute operations of his own, which made him rich; and he became the owner of a large landed estate, of farm, vineyard and pasture land, in the neighborhood of Parras, in Coahuila. He was a man of great energy, versatility and resource, and was in character more like a reckless Anglo-American than a canny Scot. The success of one bold risk was sure to lead to another more rash; and in his grasp after great objects, he was prone to overlook the minor details, often essential to safety. In anticipation of being a land holder he had of course secured Mexican citizenship; and he soon plunged into politics, and became a member of the Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, and a Colonel of State troops. When Santa Ana's usurpation occurred he joined the Governor in an abortive attempt to oppose it, which led to the arrest of both: but the night after they were started, under a military escort, on their way to the City of Mexico, they succeeded in bringing over the soldiers of their guard, who changed them from prisoners into leaders, and deserted with them to Texas, where they arrived in time for Grant to take part in the capture of San Antonio.

Grant's services were well appreciated by his new associates, but his position was quite different from theirs. They as well he still professed to be citizens of the double-named State, and their home was his place of refuge; but their interests like their home lay in revolutionary Texas, while his fortune lay in Coahuila, which had not revolted. As a declaration of independence by Texas would cut him off from a recovery of his estate, all his energies were turned against the tendency which he saw in the people of Texas towards such a declaration. He was, therefore, anxious to get up an expedition for the capture of Matamoros, in the hope of there rallying around him the liberal element of Mexico, and by working out success to its cause, of preserving the union of Texas with Mexico. If his scheme could not take in the whole of Mexico, he hoped it might apply successfully to a Confederation of the northern States of that Republic. The notion was visionary, for the liberals of Mexico, having already suffered, would not have rallied

around a slender force, and Texas, even if united and earnest, could have afforded no other. That assisting force to rally around, moreover, would not have been accepted had it been alien. This truth was heard daily from ordinary men, but superior minds, like Mexia and Grant, could not see it. Genius is bound to rise above vulgar ideas, but often tries it with a rickety ladder.

Grant had much of the leader's magnetism which infuses his feeling into others, and attaches men to his person. Several prominent men at first favored his plan, and he obtained for it a qualified sanction by the Council, which, after its repudiation of the Governor, called itself the Government. Among the men of influence who sustained Grant was Colonel Johnson, who had been his commander in the attack on San Antonio, and to secure the cooperation of that officer, Grant, though the originator and soul of the enterprize, was willing still to recognize Johnson as his superior. At a time when authority was divided, weak, and without unity of plan, it was not difficult for these leaders to draw away from San Antonio a part of its garrison and of the medical and other stores which had there been put in deposit.

Soon after taking post at San Patricio, Grant surprised and captured a small Mexican detachment, under Captain Rodriquez, which had come from the Rio Grande on a reconnoissance. There was no loss on either side, and the prisoners were released on parole. The first object of these Texan leaders was to collect horses, on which to mount a larger force which they hoped soon to raise, and a part of January and February was occupied with raids on the Mexican ranchos between the Nueces and Rio Grande. That space is an arid region, mostly of prairie, with little arable land, but having scattered through it several good grazing tracts, then occupied by stock farms, where large numbers of horses, as well as of cattle, were herded. The last of the aforesaid raids, which was made in February, and extended to the neighborhood of Matamoros, was quite successful, so far as its immediate object was concerned. Large numbers of horses were seized, and Grant gave in return for them bills on the Federal Congress of Mexico, to be paid so soon as it should be reinstated. If any of those drafts have since been honored, I have never heard of it. About six months after the making of the requisitions, I conversed with a ranchero, who had parted with a hundred horses in one of those transactions. He seemed to have acquired a wholesome prejudice against unconvertible paper.

After scouring the country near the Rio Grande, the expedition fell back towards the Nueces; but on their way thither the force divided.