The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, Volume II

PAPERS OF lHIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR 127 .given. Jones said nothing about paying her-about 10 days after this transaction, the whole settlement was breaking up their tents & removing to other places. Mrs. Long went up to :l\Ir. Rankinson 's at the crossing of the S'anjacinto, which was at that day the public :highway. Then she had a camp erected of boards, a mere shelter. Randle Jones & his brother James boarded with Mrs. Long; the -two .Jones had each a negro ; they hunted· & supplied the table. He said nothing about pay all this time-she continued sewing cooking wash- ing &c for them in return for the venison which they furnished.- Last of August a negro man belonging to Mr. Calvert of the U. S. ar- rived with a letter desiring Mrs. Long to return to the United States. Two days after the negro 's arriYal Mrs Long received letters from Trespelacios who had returned from Mexico and was Govr. Commt -of Texas; he was at San Antonio-saying that he would have sent money to her but that he knew the great uncertainty of her getting it; but that if she could reach Bexar, she should be supplied with every thing. She declined returning to her sisters Mrs. Calverts, and concluded to go to San Antonio to Trespelacios. She accordingly began preparing for the journey. She had a horse to procure. One was ogered for sale by a Mexican, Randle Jones told her the horse was worthless; Mr. Rankin bought the horse. Mrs Long had the horse which Calvert's negro rode & a mule which the negro had brought with him. Still she had to get another. Rankin had given three gallons of whiskey for him. lVIrs. Long purchased the horse of him at the price of $30-with the agreement that she was to return the horse or another as good She had no money to spare, having only .$25 to bear her expenses to Bexar; she accordingly placed silver spoons & other articles of greatly more value than the horse in the bands of Rankin, ,out of which he was to pay himself for the horse if it were not returned or one as good in his place. Rankin pre.ferred a horse to the money.. Mrs. Long, the jorney being long and dan- gerous, asked the two Jones what they would charge to accompany; they said they charge nothing; for they were a:qxious to go themselves to Bexar to see on what terms they were to remain in the country. They were badly dressed. clad exclusively in dirty buckskin: of which Mrs. Long had a right to be a little asshamd so she gave them some of Genl. Longs ·clothes; and being tolerably decently arrayed, they all sat out on their journey Mrs. Long her infant her daughter Ann & Kian the two Joneses & the nogro man of Calverts and the two negroes of the Jones. Randle Jones promised to pay l\Irs. Long bis due Bill at Labihia where he said he could get his $100 note changed; he however on their arrival there did not only fail to pay her, but she had to pay his tavern bill for him. They stopped at )lrs. Price's a Mexican landlady but the widdow of an American. l\Irs. Price did not charge l\Irs. Long anything. Randle ,Tonrs went through town to get his hundred note broke,. the same doubt.less which he wanted l\:Irs. Long to change when be bought the goods of her. Jones could not get it 'changed in town-he met with Jared Gross in the streets and presented the Bill to him to have it broke saying that the Bill was Mrs. Longs & he wan+ed it broke for her, that she had sent him; Gross examined the Bill which he at once rejected as counterfit. This he told to Mrs. Long six years afterward. Jones not being able to settle his bill at Prices, he had to give the lady his note of hand,

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