as possible, and die like a soldier who forgets not
what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or
death!

"W. BARRET TRAVIS,
"_Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding_.

"P.S.--The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight
we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted
houses eighty or ninety bushels, and got into the walls twenty or
thirty head of beeves.

"T."

When the commandant issued this letter he had not accurate information
of the exact strength of the besieging force, but it would have made no
difference with such a man.

When the full power of the besiegers was known, and the lines of attack
became closer and closer, Colonel Travis assembled his men in the
Alamo. Relief was not in sight, but the generous nature of Travis would
not permit him to assign any other reason for this but the probability
that his friends had been already cut off by the enemy.

After an impassioned speech to his men, referring to the failure to get
relief, he thus concludes:

"Then we must die. Our business is not to make a fruitless effort
to save our lives, but to choose the manner of our death. But three
modes are presented to us. Let us choose that by which we may best
serve our country. Shall we surrender, and be deliberately shot
without taking the life of a single enemy? Shall we try to cut our
way out through the Mexican ranks, and be butchered before we can
kill twenty of our adversaries? I am opposed to either method....
Let us resolve to withstand our enemies to the last, and at each
advance to kill as many of them as possible. And when at last they
shall storm our fortress, let us kill them as they come! Kill them
as they scale our walls! Kill them as they leap within! Kill them
as they raise their weapons, and as they use them! Kill them as
they kill our companions! and continue to kill them as long as one
of us shall remain alive!... But leave every man to his own choice.
Should any man prefer to surrender ... or attempt to escape ... he
is at liberty to do so. My own choice is to stay in the fort and
die for my country, fighting as long as breath shall remain in my
body. This will I do even if you leave me alone. Do as you think
best; but no man can die with me without affording me comfort in
the hour of death."

The little pamphlet called "The Origin and