es.

But this trade has been totally destroyed; the Indians now seize and
plunder every caravan, either to or from San Antonio; the Texan robbers
lie in wait for them, if they escape the Indians; and should the Mexican
trader escape with his goods from both, he has still to undergo the
chance of being swindled by the _soi-disant_ Texan merchant.

If ever there was a proof, from the results of pursuing an opposite
course, that honesty is the best policy, it is to be found in the
present state of Texas.

CHAPTER XX.

Happily for me and my two companions, there still remained two or three
gentlemen in San Antonio. These were Colonel Seguin and Messrs. Novarro,
senior and junior, Mexican gentlemen, who, liberal in their ideas and
frank in their natures, had been induced by the false representations of
the Texans not to quit the country after its independence of Mexico;
and, as they were men of high rank, by so doing they not only forfeited
their rights as citizens of Mexico, but also incurred the hatred and
animosity of that government.

Now that they had discovered their error, it was too late to repair it;
moreover, pride and, perhaps, a mistaken sense of honour, would not
permit them to remove to Mexico, although severed from all those ties
which render life sweet and agreeable. Their own sorrows did not,
however, interfere with their unbounded hospitality: in their house we
found a home. We formed no intimacy with the Texans; indeed, we had no
contact whatever with them, except that one day Roche thrashed two of
them with his shillalah for ill-treating an old Indian.

Inquiries were made by Colonel Seguin as to where the Comanches might be
found, and we soon ascertained that they were in their great village, at
the foot of the Green Mountain, upon the southern fork of the
head-waters of the Rio Roxo.

We made immediate preparations for departure, and as we proposed to pass
through Austin, the capital of Texas, our kind entertainers pressed five
hundred dollars upon us, under the plea that no Texan would ever give us
a tumbler of water except it was paid for, and that, moreover, it was
possible that after passing a few days among the gallant members of
Congress, we might miss our holsters or stirrups, our blankets, or even
one of our horses.

We found their prediction, in the first instance, but too true. Six
miles from Austin we stopped at the farm of the Honourable Judge Webb,
and asked leave to water