The Mississippi Creole. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1841-1851, 1847-03-27

cases Of honor and duty, leave consequences
to take care of themselves. 1t should be new
er said we went out of our way. This was
the general voice. No, said Col. Morgan,
tha,'s not it, but may not the mules be captur-
ed, and the detachment destroyed. Thompson
said, with Capt. Latham and % men he could
carry the mules safe. Then it was determined
that we would 60 ir a body to the river and
there divide, this we did. Latham and his
men and Thompson, with the mules, crossing
the river. We, SO men, all told, wheeled to the
right for Camargo. We passed several ranch
es, hugging the San Juan The young men
were all absent, nobody to be seen but old
men, women and children, all fit TO bear arms
gone. We passed Passa Ciccata about II o.
clock. The Alcalde seemed to be expecting
us. He said the robbers had gone the back
track, we were perfectly satisfied that this was
a lie. There we found regular built stone
fort on a hill overlooking and commanding the
village and the surrounding country. The
Colonel demanded fresh horse for the guide,
getting which we proceeded. We then passed
for 10 miles through an out of the way cut
Implicitly though Rogers and Whitley, as
brave men as ever lived, rode by his side, or as
close to him as the nature of the road would
admit, with orders to shoot him should we get
lost-these orders were communicated to, and
well understood by him. 1t was indeed most
serious time, all conversation stopped, every
body communed with his own thoughts. The
silence was broken by observing vulture at
lacking a crow. In vain the crow soared--the
vulture scared still hgher-they assembled al
most out of sight, at last the crow tagged and
began to give in, blow after blow was struck,
and finally the crow fell to the ground, the
vulture on top of him. Again the party be-
came silent, more desolate became the scenery,
when to the right of the path, suspended from
limb Of muskite tree, we beheld an object
that made the brave man furious--whle It hor-
rifed all, About SO yards from The path, in
little open spot hung dead man by the heels
Col. Morgan cried out, "G--d d-n them,
know what it means, keep your places, my
lads, be ready, they are about here in ambush"
Then addressing himself TO the advance, he
said, two or three Of you ride up and see Il you
can make out who It is, Rogers, the guide, my
self and one or two Others, forget who, eing
intent on the object, rode close to the horrid
spectacle. The feet of the man across each
other, were ashed tight to the tree, the head
was within a half inch Of the ground, his
hands lassoed one over the other in front rested
On his fotshesd-his shoeswere on, pair of
Il
shirt stripped down half way his arms was
spread out like cloth on the ground, leaving
his back and head exposed to view. His back
was shockingly burnt. The blood had gushed
out Of his nostrils and mouth. Oh! God what
a ho-rid death did that poor man die!--they
had first horribly burnt him, and while yet
alive, they had tied him up by the heels to per-
ish by the gravitation Of his own blood None
but devils ncarnate could have been even hired
to do such thing-what then were they who
did it willingly! The most of our company
thought he had been hanging there for from 10
to 20 days. I believe he had been hanging
there not more than three days, and believe
he was our spy. We were told at China, that
the robbers carried through the town, a Mexi-
can tied This sight told US what we were to
expect if we were ever taken prisoners. We
had not gone two hundred yards before we
came to a small prsine. The Mexican guide
stopped short, as il bullet had passed through
his brsin-looking to the right Of the prairie,
he cried out cavallos muehos, cavsllos ombres,
uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinquo, sir, ocho, mu-
chos. We all exclaimed, there they are now.
Close up, said Col. Morgan, and sIand 10 your
places, let no man stir will ride forward
and see what IL mesns--hs rode two or three
hundred yards, he and Capt. Walker, both Of
whom had fine horses Soon Col. Morgan re-
turned, III see a great number Of nen--they
are pairing out and ssddling their horses, we
will form square and fight them here."-l
Those who could see good said that there sp-
peared to be at lesst 300 horses, perhaps 400. |
Every body saw that all we had to do was TO
fight to the last, and die like men. The ad-
vance would have suffered first, and perhaps
most, but | believe there was no man of US but
what was ready to fight, and stand and die with
his comrades. There was an awful eIpecnn-
cy, arms were examined, and all were read,.
Tree suggested to the Colonel, that as our force |
was small, and theirs large, perhaps it was best
to 60 on to the chaPPersI, where we might fight
under cover, and to more advantage. Yes,
said Morgan, we will pursue our course and
eight them whenever they aPpear--forward in
front. On we went at the same pace we had
been travelling all the morning, IL any thing
slower, for all eyes were up the prairie, soon
the chsPPersl obseured our view. When we
emerged on top Of bill about quarter Of
mile Of, the cry was they come-here they
come. We halted and looked-there was The
dust, but il was rolling the other way like the
riders were pured BY the devil. Then We
concluded that their object was to deceive ne
BY their pretended fight, make deiour and
attack rs in ambush at the many favorable
points along the road, collect all their force,
and have (ss the saying i.,) the game dead
Then the excitement and expeetsBey again
un high-iniense. Prem every thick ehsPpe-
raj We expected a wide spread blszs Of Gre.