Southern Argus. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1834-1842, 1842-08-23

province SO to do he hoped that we

province 50 to do he hoped that we
would excuse him. All this time
there was an assumed openness and
fairness about the fellow thatea-aas-
ly disguised his real int
Finding themse .oaAueu Dy' 1
force twenty " xeir number, with
out the reno fchance TO escape by
flight, and pleteIy imposed upon
by Saleza1 hduct, my companions
handed heir arms. | now told
the felIol at was a citizen Of the
United es,-.that l was travelling
throug ID that l had pass
mort Consul in New
whicfx fom my pocket
anU~-1anded him. WORD could
he read, but gave it ! hands Of
his second in comma Jas great ras-
cal as himself, and b was called Don
Jesus. After reading the document
he pas ed it into the hands of Salezer,
who stated that he presumed all was
right but he was reluctantly compelled
to demand my riffs and pistols and re-
tain them b..lil had seen the governor.
Finding that there was no other course.
| gave them D
We were tho ken to the first house
and there halle MIL the Mexican of
fcers should no a consultation inside.
In the meantime; and without suspec-
ting any bad faith on the part of our
captors, we watered our animals at an
irrigating ditch close by, and then loun-
ged about among the crowd of men
and half-naked women aid girls who
had been drawn to the spot from the
village, and who were now gaping and
staring at US with the greatest interest.
In half an hours time Salezar with
his ofiqgs re-appeared and politely
request to form in line. He then
said i was obliged to take any
pape icles we might have about
our all Of which would be
caref and returned TO us. Du-
ring tt cess, and very fortunately
for me her my money nor valua-
bles wd scovered, although all my
papers, pail pocket knife, with 9TH
er articl Of little value were taken.
Up to this time the fellows conduct,
with the arguments he used to sustain
our arrest aud the taking of our prop
erty, were perfectly honorable, and not
one Of us suspected the deep treacherY
which was lying uLder so fair an exte-
rior. He now ordered twelve Of his
men, armed with muskets, to march up
directly in front of us. The move
ment looked like a strange one, more
particularly when we noticed that the
men were pale and fairly trembling, but
still we did not suspect Inc horrible de-
sign of Salezar.
The suspense he kept us in was
short, however, for no sooner had he
paraded the men in front than he open
ly declared his intention to shoot us on
the spot. Fitzgerald was the first to
speak. "He's going TO shoot us, let's
pitch into them at once ~ said Ftz,
and at the same moment looked
round and noticed that the crowd be-
hind US fall back in two straight lines,
allowing passage for the balls. | no.
ticed, too, that the women were wiring
ing their hands, and flying about from
point to point apparently in despair.
"My orders from the governor" said
Salezar, care to shoot you wherever
and whenever found" at the same
time marching up to the right Of the
men he had paraded in front Of US.
That we were to be shot, thai our fate
was inevitable, was now plain enough.
An exchange of glance plainly showed
that each one of my companions was
prepared to rush upon the cowardly
and faithless miscreants the moment
they were in the act of bringing their
guns to bear upon US, and | will even
give the traitor Lewis the credit Of say
ing that in that moment Of extreme
peril he acted like a man. Our only
regret now was that we had given up
our arms-as it was we determined to
sell our lives at as dear rate as posi-
BILE.
| happened to be on the extreme
left of our line. Within a yard stood
Mexican, whom afterwards ascer-
tained to be a son of the ALcalde Of
San Miguel. He had common cot
ton handkerchief tied round his waist
and inside were placed two of Colts
fve-shooting pistols just taken from US
These had determined to seize up
on in the melee which thought inevita'
BILE, and each of my companions hac
also picked out his man for the strug,
gle.
All this occurred in far less timt
than it takes me to relate it. The
! thought that came uppermost with al
were regret that we had given up GU
Il IL