Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1858-01-23


L recognized my man.
II was near midnight when VIC reached our
deslgnatcd camp, little village ON the Me-
dellin river. l never was before or since so
iutlgucd, and stiff aud sore, us on that night.
1T was my night t. stand guard, and would
not have done it i,r n thousand dollars. |
entered the army with the understanding that
! was to be free from the restraints of discip-
bne, and to do as pleased generally. Aud
d'd DO that tltinSnll the way through. Only
one attempted to break this rule, and he has
had abundant reason to regret his folly. |
refused 10 so on guard that night, and to H.
Ho'd setting dangerous example, left the
camp.
We camped in the village on the bank of
the river. The water was bad, and brnckjsh
We made up little fires, broiled our bacon.
bolled our coffee, and with sea-buscuit adj
'dcd made soldiers supper, then wrapping
up in blanket fell down under the covering
OF tree and slept more soundly than Crnsus
III his bed of down
This village was almost deserted. A gang
OF sailors had made drunken foray upSn it
turing tho scige, and guttod it of every thing
valuable. As passed n fire where there was
crowd ofsailors, | saw them burning a
wooden image of a Deity which thcy had tn-
ken from Y, McXican's house. | have seen
these images often in the houses of the Az
tees. They are coarse, ugly things, made of
woo", after tho image of u man, and are wor-
shipped by this stupid race. Its great mis-
take to suppose that the Aztecs have been
chrlstionzed. They still worship "stock and
stones, dogs, cats, and monkeys. l have
seen all this myself
We resumed tho march early next morn
ing. had the misfortune to lose MY can
teon, while using it AZ a we'll bucket and the
prospect OF tamshing that day was very
promising We crossed the rivefon a bridge
ofboats preparedb by the navy, and soon got
oyer. was on the advance guard, and We
marched on very rapidly. We soon began to
faint and scatter. A tropical sun was pour
ing swclterihg rays upon u.s. and we had lit
tic water to aSsuage our thirst. and that was
brackish. Tongues began to hang out, and
affairs to grow desperate. All along the
beach were fragments of the wrecks of about
fifty of our small vessels, which Ind been
wrcckedby the northers. Barrels and hogs
heads were strewed along the beach, but they
contained nothing but salt water, which only
iniuriated tho thirst. saw one desperate
fellow drink a half gallon of salt wator. /
attempted to reason him out of suclIlnadness,
but might as well have reasoned with n
hyena; lie would drink if it killed him, :"
was the reply.
About noon, "'e reached the rancho of An
ton Lizardo. iiorc we halted some time and
supplied ourselves with water from two good
wells. There were several poems (Mexican
servants) at the rancho. / remember n alaunh-
able incident at this place An illitoratc sol.
dier wanted something of tho poems and he
made desperate efforts to mako them compre-
hcnd ms wishes, but in vain. He did not hG6-
10 ESpaHot, and they did not eAtiende 4ngltce
There stood the Babel barrier Of tongues be-
tween them. la vain did he specify, and in
E,, fl Il 4
1t was decidedly no so. Blu, Ire saw n solu-
tion OF the difficulty; hc saw little boy of
four or five years old. OF course all children
speak English, thought our grcenhorn and
lie would make an Interpreter of the urchin.
lie tpicdit, but the frightened urchin respon
ded in n voluble roll of Spanish, which aston
ishcd our Grecnhorn as much asifhe had seen
ghost. 1t was n rich scene. to witness the
blank astopshment expressed in his face, at
heaFing p.child speak such u diabOlical lan-
guage, Dean swift eeys that, in Paris, even
the little ehildrcn speak French. have on
iy to state tho uallywonderful fact, i'm Mex
leo, even the little children speak Spanish
At Anton Lzardo, we left the beach, and
went through the country. After dark we
eampcd on a cattle, pond. Our marches had
to bc regulated so as to camp where there
was water, which was at wide intervals in
this part of Mexico. This day we had march
dtwenty miles to get to. this muddy cattle
pond. Bad as it was, it was tho best we could
find, VI we did turn up our noses at it, the
horses did not. We made coffee of it, and
soon stretched our tired bodies on the prairie
grass, and went to tie land of sleep.
Next morning we were up with tho dawn,
and oil, having first filled our canteens with
this muddy and filthy water i had to wade
out a hundred yards into the pond to get
where II was deep enough to- fill my canteen.
Several hundred horses were plunged about
IN 1T, and o thousand long-unwnsll ed feet were
lending their odof to It. Bahl Uehl Per-
fume my handkerchief Fan mo TO keen
me from fainting! But necessity eonouers
tastdlousness. drank the water, and often
sighed even Mt the remembrance of having
such water to satisfy my thirst.
About noon of this, the ;Aird day of our
march, aud which was the arst day of April.
we were suddenly halted, Verily twas @Ali
foolssDay," for the delusiye mfr6ge, teinpting
us With it's fresh waters, aud its fine CATS
and horsestled on many n poor soldior owes
rules OF vain pursuit. The horaes and cattle
had real existence, but the water was only
Ia our eyel Reader, did YOU ever SEQ and
follow a mfageP Ifyou have, / nocd not
describe IL; and il you have not, thank God
ior 1t, and ask no questions. We were all
footed, knew something about Napoleon's
campaign ip Egypt and Isoon took tbs hint.
FCN -Bun should be cultivated as q fno
art for-itis altogether fine thing. Who
eser knew ii funny man 10 be u Daa UsaS Z a.
Onthe aontrary, ID not he, nine tirnesit ten,
generoiis, huinanef and good? To,be s.ire he
ls,a kunT-rit IS great thing. 1t snnooths the
rough pIaeosp of life, ni9kts Sc
sweet and rosy as q fresh maiden's. Kiss acat4
tcrs.sullshine and flowers wherever we GO
gives the world q round jolly copntonance,