WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1856
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many do you think there were? Some one said thirteen. Oh! said another, thirty or forty! Well, said another, there was at least eighty-seven, so put down eighty-seven. [Laughter.] They slept on that night, and this number did not appear large enough; and the next day an addenda was made to the report, or rather a second report more official than the other, making out one hundred and fifty killed. [Laughter.] It was just so with the account of the Californians; there were between thirty and thirty- five killed. That is a very wide margin; but there must be some- thing done! The fact is that no one was killed, as far as ascer- tained, but one whom Leiutenant Heywood killed, charging out with his thirty men to meet Mr. Du Pont, who had one hundred and one men. But he must swell this into importance! Would any- body have thought the marching of two miles, and cooperating with the gallant little band that had been beleaguered there for such a length of time-·would he have thought of claiming glory and praise, when Stanley had fought a number of actions, and I do not find that Commodore Shubrick ever thought one of them worthy of a note? There were others who acted gloriously in the war with Mexico who fared badly. Stevens, the companion of Heywood, who de- fended t}_lat little fort at San Jose, and who is spoken of in terms the most laudatory and approving, was dropped. Ochiltree-a gallant young fellow spoken of on three occasions in the Pacific- once at San Jose, another time at Guaymas, and I believe at Mazatlan, was also dropped. The cause of it, perhaps, is that he went on a spree sometimes on land, but never while at sea on duty. That is a terrible thing! Mr. Weller. I know him, and he is a man of fine habits, and a gallant officer. Mr. Houston. He is a gallant, generous, and noble fellow; and I know his brother, a citizen of Texas, a man of distinction and ability. Ochiltree bears that reputation. I am glad the honor- able Senator from California knows him personally. It is a privi- lege which I have not; but I would be glad to greet with fellow- ship a man of his character and nobility of soul. He has been dropped. He is not a drunkard, but I suppose they say he is one of the "hard cases." I have noticed the dropped officers who are in the city. They are gentlemen in bearing. Some I have known for thirty years as chivalrous, elegant men, of fine persons, active, and in the prime of life; yet they have been stricken down, their prospects blasted, and their honor destroyed. These are the men
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