so if the <lrnft lrnd 1101 lrnvc hcen ordered and al'lcr llic <lrafl il was :1~rcc:cl lo hy Ihose persons who had the management of the draft lo rrlurn the draflnl mc:n .is volunteers or in other words givc:s them the: liberty of vvlunkcring after they wc1c drafted I believe the ~•mt~ thing was <lune: al Nacogdoches l started from San Augustine to Nacogdoches lo gel all ready there hy the lime the others should reach them and on my arrival there I saw Majr Smith who informed me he had started them on and was also informed that the Indians had made an attack on Parkers fort on the Navasota and had killed five men a11tl carried of two womc~n & their children and also received a confirmation of the report of an attack on the settlers on Lillie river- nearly every home was attacked in that part of the country one man was killed his wife and children carried off and his old mother burned up in the hous~ two other men were killed coming to the ph1cc and two others securely chained but they succeeded in making their escape every sr.Ulement in my colony is broken up and arc~ fortcd in this place and on the San Antonio road: the Indians have taken nearly all lhe horses and drove of and killed the gT•~atest part of the cattle in the Colony In consultation with Majr Smith he agreed that the San Augustine men 45 or 50 in number might h t! sloped here unlile an I illegible I could be sent to you asking the liberty to turn them against the Indians as rangers also those raised al Nacogdoches but when I overlook them l found part without guns and part without horses and but few of them that had guns hand either powder or bulls and I thought them of but little use as rangers and some thought it would be right to assist the suffering inhabitants if they would furnish them with horses guns and amunition and I saw but little to them particularly when I found they had a notion that they were authorized to press horses guns or anything that they wanted for their own private purposes although it was the only horse that a man had to plow and make a support for his family or the only gun that he had to defend himself and family against the Indians that would at any hour make an attack on his house. My dear sir you lrnvr. no idea the confusion that prcon th~ road on account of the grnat 11umber of press masters that passes tile road instead of st:cing the people cheered at the sight of V uluntcers going lo the Army it cuuscs consternation to prevail at every house on the road and ~vt!ry man that has not more horses than is nccrn;sary lo cultivate his farm as soon as he hears of their approach stups his plow and hides his hor:-e untilc they are 01~t of rcad1 and many more men would n'.p,m: to the standard of lus t'.OUnlry if he: wi1s 11ot affraid lo h•avc hum«· for foar that the fir:;t sd thul c:o m,i!-i 011 will ~trip his family of every thing that he might
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