[3483] ( ---- to ----1
Natchitoches, 20 June, 1836. Dear Sir: I detain the steamer Caspian to drop you a line lo say, an express has this moment reached here, per Maj. Smith, from the Texian army. He was despatched with letters lo this place, the purport of which is, that Maj. l\ililler, Capt. Teal, Capt. Kearns and four soldiers, were ordered to Matamoras to receive some prisoners according lo treaty made with Gen. Filasola. They were furnished by Gen. Filasola with passports and solemn promise not lo be mole.sled, and to return in safety with the prisoners lo the Texian camp. Immediately on their arrival, they were taken and imprisoned, their passports taken from them and destroyed, and it is fully believed that all the Texian prisoners are murdered that were at Matamoras. Gen. Urrea has joined Filasola with 4000 soldiers, which, with 3000, with Gen. Filasola, makes 7000 in all that are now on their march into Texas. The Texians lo a man are turning out, shouldering their rifles, mounling their horses, and will defend their country lo the last. There can be no mistake in this account. About 3000 Texians, in all, will be in the field. [3484) {BURNET to GAINES]
Executive Department, Republic of Texas, Velasco, 21 June, 1836.
To Major-General Edmund P. Gaines.
Sir: This government and this people have remarked with very profound feelings, the conduct you have observed since you assumed the command of the Southern military district. We are by no means insensible to the importanl benefits thal have r~sulted to . our struggling country from the high, and honorable, and humane policy which has characterized you late measures in relation to Lhe border savages, and we know how to appreciate the motives which induced that policy. Texas will ever consider General Gaines as one of her most illustrious benefactors, while the government of our parent country will have abundant reason to he pround that he moral
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