136
TEX,\
ST.\T£ LIBRARY
About the hou, of evening vesper , after the bridge had been lifted, two figures approached and were asked whom·thcy represented. They answered by asking that I go out and talk to them. One of them wa John ustin and the other a member of the Council. I went out at once and they told me that everything was agreed to, and that on the morrow the agreement hould be entered into. About seven i11 the morning of the appointed day, I eommis ioned the officer Lieu- tenant Juan :\foret and Second Lieutenant Jo e iiaria Rincon who, under my instructions, entered into the agreement , hich your Ex- cellency will ee by the copy which I respectfully enclose. As the schooner Brazoria on which they had their battery had been rendered useless by my cannon, they agreed to reconstruct it in order that I might go to Matamoros, in the event that they could not get the Elizabeth which was in the lower 1·iver. They immediately e,·acuate<l the chooner, placing all their munitions of war and artillery on board the l\faria Jo efa. 'I bey notified me at 11 o'clock and I ordered all the equipment, some food upplies and families to be placed on board the aforementjoued Brazoria. I formed my troops, ordered them to carry nrrns, and at the head of one hundred seventy men who were in formation, left the fort and marched to the ship where I am now awaiting its reconstruction, or the arrival of the Elizabeth. The officials who were accompanyin" me, Lieutenant Juan l\loret, commanding the detachment of the eleventh battalion, Second Lieu- tenant Jo c !aria Rincon, commanding the detachment of the twelfth, and my As i tant, Second Lieutenant Manuel Pintado, a well a the soldier , bowed the 17 reatest courage, and I do not have to mention anyone in particular, for even the wounded fought with great en- thu iasm as long as they could hold their weapon . I leave to your · consideration the just injunction of thi hort section, for your Ex- cellency better than anyone el e wilJ know how to weigh the merit to which your Excellency has become a creditor. I hope your Excellency will bear in min<l the "idows of the soldiers who died so courageou ly and whose name I will send your Excellency at the first opportunity. According to the reports which I have been able to obtain, the enemy suffered a lo of seventeen dead and forty-two wounded. For my part, I wi h to a ure your Excellency that only the most critical and <li trc ing co~ditions in which I have found myself (becau ·e of the lack of munition and the remote hope of receiving aid, due to the great distance of thi port from tho e place whence aid could come), have obliged me to enter into an agreement with the iu urrectioni ·ts; and I beg that you, taking into consideration the compromi ed situa- tion in which I found my elf, will ha\·c the conde ceu ion to pre ·erve toward me the favorable opinion which I hnve alway merited and .of which I shall never be unworthy. I rcassut·c you of my highest considerntion and {?rentcst re pc t. Oo<l and Liberty. On board the s hooncr Bruzorin at the mouth of the River Brazos. ,July l, 1 :tL D. de gartccl1ca.-1Iis ExC'd- lcncv the 'eneral of Division, .Manuel <le :\lier y Teran, Comman<ling Gcn~;·al Inspector of the Interior State of the Erv t.
Powered by FlippingBook