to suffer. Grateful to Heaven for my preservation, I saddled my
faithful companion, and, wrapping myself closely in my buffalo hide, I
set off to the Comanche camp. My senses had left me before I arrived
there. They found me on the ground, and my horse standing by me.

Fifteen days afterwards I awoke to consciousness, a weak and emaciated
being. During this whole time I had been raving under a cerebral fever,
death hovering over me. It appears that I had received a
coup-de-soleil, in addition to my other mischances.

When I returned to consciousness, I was astonished to see Gabriel and
Roche by my side; the expedition had returned triumphant. The Cayugas'
villages had been burnt, almost all their warriors destroyed, and those
who remained had sought a shelter in the fissures of the earth, or in
the passes of the mountains unknown to any but themselves. Two of the
Mexican girls had also been rescued, but what had become of the others
they could not tell.

The kindness and cares of my friends, with the invigorating influence of
a beautiful chine, soon restored me to comparative health, but it was a
long time before I was strong enough to ride and resume my former
exercise. During that time Gabriel made frequent excursions to the
southern and even to the Mexican settlements, and on the return from his
last trip he brought up news which caused the Indians, for that year, to
forsake their hunting, and remain at home. General Lamar and his
associates had hit upon a plan not only treacherous, but in open
defiance of all the laws of nations. But what, indeed, could be
expected from a people who murdered their guests, invited by them, and
under the sanction of a white flag? I refer to the massacre of the
Comanche chiefs at San Antonio.

The President of Mexico, Bustamente, had a view to a cessation of
hostilities with Texas. The Texians had sent ambassadors to negotiate a
recognition and treaty of alliance and friendship with other nations;
they had despatched Hamilton in England to supplicate the cabinet of St.
James to lend its mighty influence towards the recognition of Texas by
Mexico, and while these negotiations were pending, and the peace with
Mexico still in force, Lamar, in defiance of all good faith and honour,
was secretly preparing an expedition, which, under the disguise of a
mercantile caravan, was intended to conquer Santa Fe and all the
northern Mexican provinces. This expedition of the Texians, a