prise the Texians, and attack them at
once in front and in rear; we succeeded beyond all expectations, the
Texians, as usual, being all more or less intoxicated. We reached their
fires before any alarm was given.

We gave the war-whoop and rushed among the sleepers. Many, many were
killed in their deep sleep of intoxication, but those who awoke and had
time to seize upon their arms fought certainly better than they would
have done had they been sober. The gallant General Smith, the bravest
of the brave and ex-butcher, escaped at the very beginning of the
affray, but I saw the Comanche chief cleaving the skull of Captain Hunt
with his tomahawk.

Before their onset, the Indians had secured almost all the enemy's
waggons and horses, so that flight to many became impossible. At that
particular spot the prairie was undulatory and bare, except on the left
of the encampment, where a few bushes skirted the edge of a small
stream; but these were too few and too small to afford a refuge to the
Texians, one hundred of whom were killed and scalped. The remainder of
the night was passed in giving chase to the fugitives, who, at last,
halted at a bend of the river, in a position that could not be forced
without great loss of life; so the Indians left them, and, after having
collected all the horses and the booty they thought worth taking away,
they burnt the waggons and returned to their own camp.

As we quitted the spot, I could not help occasionally casting a glance
behind me, and the spectacle was truly magnificent. Hundreds of
barrels, full of grease, salt pork, gin, and whisky, were burning, and
the conflagration had now extended to the grass and the dry bushes.

We had scarcely crossed the river when the morning breeze sprung up, and
now the flames extended in every direction, pining rapidly upon the spot
where the remaining Texians had stood at bay. So fiercely and abruptly
did the flames rush upon them, that all simultaneously, men and horses,
darted into the water for shelter against the devouring element. Many
were drowned in the whirlpools, and those who succeeded in reaching the
opposite shore were too miserable and weak to think of anything, except
of regaining, if possible, the southern settlements.

Though protected from the immediate reach of the flames by the branch of
the river upon the shore of which we were encamped, the heat had become
so intense, that we were obliged to shift farther to the west. Ex