Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-10-18
MATERIAL FOR A NOVEL.
A Boy Rescued from the Indians
by Generals K; Z. Lee and
Baylor,
Now a Banker in Corpus Christi,
Texas.

eNNAA AlANN 0HA
An Express representative yester-
day met General John r. Baylor, now
residing in Uvalde county, who has
just returned from a trip to Laredo
and Corpus Christi. After telling the
reporter about the fine rains that
have recently visited the country he
passed through, the General proceeded
to detail
A MOST INTERESTING EXPERIENCE
he had at Corpus Christi, where he
met a Spaniard BY the name of Tito
Rivera, whom he rescued from the
Comanches. The Generals story is
given just as he toldit, and will be
read with interest by every one to
whose attention it comes. Said the
General:
"In 1856, | was United States Indian
Agent at the Comanche reservation on
the Clear Fork Of the Brazos, then
Throckmorton county. One day l
found a note on my table from a boy
who asked that he be taken from the
Indians. Soon afterwards the boy
walked into my Office with a bunch Of
turkey feathers fastened 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 HIS FATHER WAS A SPAN.
lard,
and lived in the mining town Of Tapio,
in the State of Durango, Mexico. He
spoke 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 a beautiful
hand for a boy. Questioning him as TO
how he zane to tall into the hands of
the Indians, he said that his father
owned a pack train, and one day be
went out with the mules, and the men
in charge of them, and camped. The
Indians came on them and took him
into captivity. After hearing his
story, | sent for the Indian who
claimed to own the boy, and when he
came | told him | must have Tito. He
replied hat | could not, and | told
him l would, or
WE WOULD FIGHT.
said that fight it would be, then.
The boy could not go. l went to see
General Robert Il. Lee, the hero Of
the Confederate war, 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 Katemase, Of the
Oomanches, who had heard of the
object of my visit, came to me and
said that he wanted no trouble be-
tween myself and the Indians, and
that if | would give up one hundred
dollars worth OF goods | could get the
boy. | gave him an order on the suit
Ter and he was given the goods, and
the boy was turned over to me.
l sent the little fellow to my house
and
HE LIVED WITH MY CHILDREN
for about two years, being treated as
one of the family. Afterwards, | met
Major Neighbors, who then lived near
San Antonio, on the Salado. Major
Neighbors said he wanted him, and if
| would give him to him he would
send him back to his mother. | tuned
him over to the Major, but he didn't
send him back to his mother, and the
Confederate war came on and he went
into the Confederate army. The boy
was twelve years old when l took him,
and
THE INDIANS CAPTURED HIM WHEN
NINE,
having had him three years. He spoke
the COmanche language perfectly. and
| used him as interpreter. Major
Neighbors left the boy on his ranch on
the Salado, near San Antonio, and
the boy entered the Confederate army
when about sixteen. Upon returning
from the war he stopped with Captain
Albert Wallace, on the Copolo, fifteen
miles north Of San Antonio, and from
there went to Galveston, and thence
to Corpus Christi. While with Capt.
Wallace he earned his living as a COW.
boy. | went to Corpus Christi to
see
THE BOY, TITO RIVERA, NOW CASHIER
of the bank of Davis & Dodridge, in
Corpus Christi, and one of the most
respectable gentlemen Of Corpus
Christi. He married a Miss Mollie
Woodward, and now has one boy an
two little girls, and the best Of my
visit was that the little children came
about me, threw their arms around
my neck, aud called me grandpa.
Rivera is a mar now about thirty.six
years of age, and is a magnificent
looking man.
Had General Baylor not taken this
boy from the Comanches, instead of
an honored and. respected citizen, he
might have been, under the influence
of the Indians, after their kind. Gen.
Baylor says he took forty-three boys
and girls from the Comanches while
United States Indian agent in this
country, and out Of this number
thirty returned to the Indians, giving,
as a principal reason, that they pre-
ferred buffalo meat, venison and the
freedom Of the plains, to the restraints
of town life and hile-con-carne and
tamales.
A rai;o;ors