As Governor Armigo very justly observed to them, if they were
traders, they had committed murder; if they were not traders, they were
prisoners of war.

After a painful journey of four months, the prisoners arrived in the old
capital of Mexico, where the few strangers who had been induced to join
the expedition, in ignorance of its destination, were immediately
restored to liberty; the rest were sent, some to the mines, to dig for
the metal they were so anxious to obtain, and some were passed over to
the police of the city, be employed in the cleaning of the streets.

Many American newspapers have filled their columns with all manner of
histories relative to this expedition; catalogues of the cruelties
practised by the Mexicans have been given, and the sympathising American
public have been called upon to give the unfortunate men who had
escaped. I will only give one instance of misrepresentation in the New
Orleans _Picayune_, and put in juxta-position the real truth. It will
be quite sufficient. Mr Kendal says:--

"As the sun was about setting those of us who were in front were
startled by the report of two guns, following each other in quick
succession. We turned to ascertain the cause, and soon found that a
poor, unfortunate man, named Golpin, a merchant, and who had started
upon the expedition with a small amount of goods, had been shot by the
rear-guard, for no other reason than that he was too sick and weak to
keep up; he had made a bargain with one of the guard to ride his mule a
short distance, for which he was to pay him his only shirt! While in
the act of taking it off, Salazar (the commanding officer) ordered a
soldier to shoot him. The first ball only wounded the wretched man, but
the second killed him instantly, and he fell with his shirt still about
his face. Golpin was a citizen of the United States, and reached Texas
a short time before the expedition. He was a harmless, inoffensive man,
of most delicate constitution, and, during a greater part of the time we
were upon the road, was obliged to ride in one of the waggons."

This story is, of course, very pathetic; but here we have a few lines
taken from the _Bee_, a New Orleans newspaper:--

"_January_, 1840. HORRIBLE MURDER!--Yesterday, at the plantation of
William Reynolds, was committed one of those acts, which revolt human
nature. Henry Golpin, the overseer, a Creole, and strongly suspected of
being a quadroon, had for some time acted im