Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1850-12-26
Irregular Correspondents of thc Indiana scssineI.
Life on the Border
BY coma MONTGOMERY

Lille on the Borden.
aE BY Cora MoSTeonEns.
EAGLE Pass, TEXAS, Nov. 9th. 1850
i Ind my border home healthy, besntitul and repete
with comforts although this region has the reputation
being desert-and really is remote border post.
am actually in slave State, but with the exception of
one spoiled boy house servant, there sign of Ar
can ssrvtude about Eagle Pass is true there arc
several free ladies OF color who condeseend to ohae us
by washing for Us at dime pieccas Ear as their
Independent danes Of this community, and quite the en-
Wy Of the Mexican when they patronize their fan
dangoes. H however, am but little grieved with the
sight oil negro sufterng am not allowed &c forget that
am IN the mist OF Indian seryItude. | am served on
every hand by those who themselves escaped poems
or who have kin in bondage They are a singular
race, these tame Indians, ss they call themselves in
Fhis country is dotted the ruins OF those old
missions within whose walls their ancestors were aurh
the crude elements Of Christianity, and in whose now
dry and deserted fields they learned to till the earth
Their conversion was the enforced consequences of their
subjecton the Spanish yoke, hut with all their faults
il must be conceded 10y every fair student of their history
that these bgoted old priests labored earnestly TO soften
the lot OF their Indian prcsclytes This the com
opinion hut it is the truth Intolerant they were
hut their sympathes warmly enlisted for the
natives than suited the cruel avarce Of the Spanish
querors, and these very mission buildings their lonely
despoilment attest the high handed way in which the
church pundered of children and estates they had
redeemed from the wilderness. The edces have gone
decay, the churches rooess and desoatc and the
poor converts cleeflui,
plenty TO peon servitude, and of all misery have ever
is the abjectly hopeless 1t is the blacker
wrong they the natural inhertors of the soil
which they labor under taskmasters of foreign who
know mercy. These masters of Spanish descent
the enemies of the american free-booters" they no.
ely us, because institutions sufficiently
ed as We are by the canker OF African embroiments-
will not accept the added evil of peoa scrvude
1t is instructive fact that the enlargement of
boundaries this way which was so yehemently opposed
as "a project for the extension of slavery has free
or will set free If you look it, fifty thousand
souls In New Mexico and on the river Bravo are at
least that number of Indian poems who should 90
forth freed from their chains That party in New Mex
leo who especially impatient for her immediate ad
mission State had idea that the laws might be
remodeed retain their thousands of poems under
legal sanction The clause in the constitution they prof.
ered against servudc without the consent of the par
ty' was a beautiful trick The Mexican law tenderly
the consent OF the peon and that to oblge him. and
to spare him the inconvenience OF starving to death
prison, he IS permitted work his Indebtedness.
The words Of the Mexican law, like those of the ree"
clause oil the constitution proposed by the land and peon
holders of New Mexico, vrtuously careful to affirm
the of the peon. watching impatiently
what champion of human freedom" will rise in
Congress to this voluntary" system of Indian
slavery Is humanity deaf and dumb until it be
made offence to brother? Or is the seryitude
evil to but Africans! Congress will reply this win
ter.
sec the illegal fruits of peon slavery every day 1t
profitable business TO enrap them and return them
to their Mexican masters much head Three
were taken Pudras Negras, less than mile above
Fort Duncan on one Sunday SEPT 29th and carried BY
force of of the territory of the United States; who
is there since the Rey willing TO array himself
against the American cabinet in order to maintain the
honor of the American llaal Unless the renowned Don
Quxotte could to life there small hope of
one attempting to drive an unwilling supreme power to
do its duty
There arc almost under nv eye-one of
the victims actually at work under mason in our
employ. Poor Manuel Rios he sauted me gally In
| Il
commands at Pudras Negras or Camp Duncan, which
lays this side of he started to take his holiday He
advised go into that ne eghborhood
of particular kidnapper who lived there but he had
such blind confidence in the omnlpotent protection OF
the American laws that he went on without fear At
noon he taken in the front of an American house,
his hands ted and then hurried to the ferry and across
the river His last look at his safe home at Eagle Pass
from the back of horse, which he was bound
hand and loot and his back TO servtude at San
Juan. All the respectable citizens here are indignant
these frequent and denounce the kidnapping
gang but they not disposed to take any active steps
They quote the of Rey and say that the govern
will be certain sur the business put
those who stirred il false and insecure position among
the Mexicans on the border.
Not only Indians but white strangers have been made
poems. youth named Adduks-to cite an instance IN
which | know something of the partes-was made
peon, but he cast OF his servitude. Tor he
yankee and not to stay enslaved There isat this
moment protection for any Of our servants that may
owc-or be accused of owing, on the Mexican side
American citizens can be taken, aid taken and
slaved and very little said about it, Let those who
doubt these facts institute inquiries and learn how the
people have been duped leave the substance
and pursue the shadow in their crusade against the
tension of slavery. To stand sentinel against its adms
sons where the finger of God had written it could not
and live these short sighted soldiers of humanity
have opened gate for the positive increase of the sum
total of human servtude in borders and this the
Jealous of them will not pretend could be done by
change in the particular location of the existing
amount of African slavery Hdsta Luego