News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-02-28

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his time in patience until Feb. 4, when
Cortina, with $50 men, opened on the
steamboat Ranchero, which was descend
ing the river, laden with a valuable
cargo, including $3.50, 900 in specie. He
had already succeeded in grounding the
boat, whick was protected only by ten
armed men, when Ford crossed the river
into Mexico with forty-nine men, at
tackled Cortina, and, after a sharp bat
tie, forced him to retreat in disorder.
In this fight Ford only had two men
wounded, while COrtina's loss was twen-
ty-nine men killed and forty wounded.
Major Ford pursued Cortina almost to
the gates of Matamoras, where he was
influenced to halt under guarantees of
prompt and energetic measurers on the
part of the Mexican authorities. BY this
distinguished service Major Ford in after
years earned the esteem of Gems. Grant
and Sherman.
Cortina continuing to be demonstra-
tive, though not aggressive, Brevet Col.
/ Robert E. Lee, commanding the De-
partment of Texas, on April 7, 1860,
addressed letter to the authorities of
Reynosa, Mexico, holding them respon-
sible for depredations committed by the
bandit upon American citizens. The
Mexican authorities knowing the deter
mined character of Robert E. Lee,
forced Cortina, who had laid waste in
Texas an area of 130 by 30 miles, to re-
treat to the mountains, on the decliv
tiles of which he hung for upward of
year, the guest of banditti, the grand
jury at Brownsville having in the mean
time found twenty-six indictments
against him for theft and murder. At
! the outbreak of the war against Maxi
milian's empire, Cortina found himself
at the head of his hosts, monarch of
the mountains. He first espoused the
cause of Macmillan, but afterward went
over to Juarez, to whom he rendered
services, by which he won the spurs of
q Maj General.
In 1870 he returned to the border as
Governor of Tamauhpas and military
commander of the line of the Bravo. In
vested with power, supreme and despot-
| ic, he gave the frontier people the al
! ternatives of quashing the indictments
against him, in which event he proposed
| to recover his patrimony, or of encoun-
! tering irregular warfare. Citizens of
Brownsville who believed that their in
terests would be best subserved by
lasting peace with Cortina, petitioned
! Gov. E. j. Davis for clemency, but
others, whose interests and feeling were
| different, got up q counter petition, and
| the Governor declined to act. Cortlna
then resolved to prey without ceasing.
! He had under his command what he
! called "the Eagles of the Sierra Madre
! Mountains, +" and lawless men sought to
gain through him the advantages of
| political power and of unrestrained Ii
cense to plunder Texas. Then was in
augurated an organized system of raid
ing the Texas border by lawless bands
and detachments of Mexican soldiers
that was only comparable to the forays
of the Bashi- -Bazouks. These armed
bands would leave Mexico generally in
f=snir-=, como together mt point agreed
upon then round up from 200 to j, ,0Ot
head of cattle and drive them at run
into Mexico. The spirit engendered by
such a business led to the murder of
travellers and of all persons in the line
of the raiders march, of whose support
those raiders were not certain.
During this saturnalia of crime, which
lasted five years, the residents OF Horne
vile, chiefly retired volunteer army off
GERS and soldiers, were all murdered;
| four Custom House officers were treach-
erously shot down at their posts, and
schoolmaster named Mcmahon, a native
of Missouri, was dismembered and left
! to die on the prairie. In fine, only such
! Americans escaped the torch and sword
as abandoned their homes to seek pro
! lection under the guns of Fort Brown.
! 1t was estimated that 240,000 head of
| cattle and 5000 horses were stolen, as
| the effect of which the price of beef fell
/ in Matamoras from 5c. to 1c. pound,
/ and American horses were gambicd off
at fandangos.
| The United cavalry detailed to opcr-
! ate against the raiders carried sounding
/ swords that gave warning of their APP
proach and enabled the bandits to dis
perse. To re-enforce the cavalry the
| government sent down three men-of-
war and ariver boat. The former an
chored five miles from shore, and the
latter was permanently grounded in the
river The State Rangers did better.
Capt McNally, with force of seven
| teen men, overlook like force of Cor
tina's men in the act of driving off 240
head of cattle. A battlees sensued, in
which McNally's force killed. sixteen
raiders and only lost cne man.
| At this time Cortina, having over
| stocked his ranch and glutted the Mata-
moras market with stolen cattle, char
tered Spanish steamer Of $500 tons
burden to carry hides and cattle to
Havana. Apprised of this bold act, the
man-of-war Hartford was sent in pur-
suit of the Spanish ship, but only came
in sight of the latter as she was entering
the harbor of Havana. IN this state of
affairs President Grant was III favor of
making war during the vacation of Con-
gress, bat that policy being opposed by
every member OF his Cabinet except
Secretary Relknap, was abandoned. 1t
is matter of history, which can be
proven b. the intm Ite friends of Presi-
dent G ant, that he had regarded tenn
poriZing as dangerous method of deal
ing with an evil which had existed for
five years on the Mexican frontier, but
which could not exist n week ON the
Canadian frontier, and that he regarded
the then Mexican government as too
feeble to successfully cope with it.
Under the threat of war, however,
President Tejada in 1875 ordered Corti-
na to report to him at the city of Mex
leo. whereupon the frontier chief threw
up his commission and defied the Pres
ident. There was then stationed at
Matamoras regular army officer and
graduate of the military school ut Chap
ultepec named Jesus Christie. To him
President Tejada addressed a pri-
vate order to arrest and take Cortina to
the city of Mexico. Col. Christie found
his opportunity in a visit which Crtoina
undertook to one of his ranches. He had
only gone short distance outside &C
Matamoras when he was surrounded
and made prisoner by Christie with two
companies of calvary. Brought back to
Matamoros n prisoner, Cortina's follow
ers to the number of 1000 flew to arms,
intending to rescue their chief, but
Christie proved equal to the emergency.
He placed Cortina in the centre of n
square, with a detail of execution un-
der orders to shoot him at the first as
sault for his rescue. This stratagem
! disarmed Cortina's forces, and on tho
following night Col Christie departed
with his prisoner for the city of Mexico,
where he turned him over to the Presi-'
dent. Returning to the frontier, Col.
Christie reorganized the rural police, and
when the Rio Grande rose beyond the
possibility of wading it into Texas, he
said, hanged 100 raiders.
Cortinn is now broken-down old man,
under surveillance in the city of McXi-
co, where he lives on mere competen-
cy, his stock and ranches having been
conliscate and sold to help indemnify
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