The Sentinel. [volume] (Trenton, N.J.) 1880-1882, 1881-11-26
Story of an Indian Captive.

General John r. Baylor furnishes
the San Antonio (Texas) Express with
the following incident connected with
his late visit to Corpus Christi, where
he met Spaniard by the name OF Tito
Rivera, whom he rescued from the
Comanches quarter of century ago:
In 1856 I was United States Indian
agent at the Comanche reservation on the
Clear Fork of the Brazos. then Throck
morton county. One day I found a note
on my table from boy, who asked that
he be taken from the Indians. Soon
afterward the boy walked into my Office
with bunch of turkey feathers faster ed
to the top of his head, and his face
painted and dressed in the Indian
costume, and said he was the boy
who left the note on my table. asked
him where he came from, and he said
that his father was Spaniard, and
| lived in the mining town of Tapio, in
the state of Durango, Mexico. bespoke
| Spanish and also Comanche. / didn't
believe that he had written the note,
and to try him asked him to sit down
at my desk and show me how he could
write. He wrote beautiful hand for
| boy. Questioning him as to how he
came to fall into the hands of the In
dams, he said that his father owned
pack train, and one day he went out
with the mules and the men in charge
of the mules and camped. The Indians
came on them and took him into cap
tivity. A[ter hearing his story sent
for the Indian who claimed to own the
boy, and when he came / told him [
must have Tito. He replied that
could not and I told him I would or
we would fight. He said that fight it
would be then the boy could not go.
I went to see General Robert E. Lee,
who was then lieutenant-colonel of the
Second United States cavalry, at Camp
| Cooper, and who had been stationed
there to protect the Comanche camp.
| While there, Chief Cateman, of the CO.
mapches, who had heard of the object
of my visit, came to see me and said
that be wanted no trouble between my
self and the Indians, and that if would
give up 800 worth of goods [ could get
the boy. I gave him an order on the
sutler. end ne was given the goods, and
the bow was turned over to me. sent
the little fellow to my house and he
lived with my children for about two
years, being treated as one of the family.
Aftorward I met Major Neighbors, who
then lived near San Antonio, on the
Salado. Major Neighbors said he
wanted him, and if I would give him to
him he would send him back to his
mother. I turned him over to the
major, but he didA send him back to
his mother, and the war came on and
he went into the Confederate army.
The boy was twelve years old when l
took him, and the Indians had captured
him when nine, having had him three
years. He spoke the Comanche Ian
guage perfectly, and 1 used him as in
terpreter. Major Neigbbors left the
boy on his rancho on the Salado, near
San Antonio, and the boy entered the
Confederate army when about sixteen
years. Upon returning from the war
he stopped with Captain Albert Wal
lace, on the Cibolo, fifteen miles
north of San Antonio, and from
there went to Galveston and thence to
Corpus Christi. While with Captain
Wallace he earned his living as COW
boy. went to Corpus Christi to see
the boy, Tito Rivera, now cashier OF
the bank of Davis & Dodridge IN Cor
pus Christi, and one of the most respect
able men of Corpus. He married
Miss Mollie Woodward, and now has
one boy and two Ii lie girls, and the
best of my visit was that the little
children came about me threw their
arms around my neck and called me
grandpa. Rivera is man now about
thirty-six years of age and is magni-
| ficent-looking man.