WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON,. 1854
80
Twenty-three gallant fellows were wounded; and some of them, with their eyes shot out, were left in that situation. He was willing, as he says, rather than surrender himself, to abandon them, and not to lay down his life with them after he had involved them in peril. The Mexicans, however, were too wary for him, and seized the general; but, in his account of the surrender, there is a beautiful description of heroism connected with himself that would be a subject worthy of the pen of romance and the quill of poetry. They were marched to Matamoras. A capitulation was granted to them after they had surrendered unconditionally. Con- ditions were accorded to them by General Ampudia, though they had not surrendered, according to this historian, until the gutters of Mier ran with blood, so signal was the fight, so terrible the carnage of the enemy. It seems, from his account, that they did everything in the world but conquer. If they had conquered with- out great loss, it would have been much more glorious than to have lost two hundred and sixty-one gallant men by surrendering them as prisoners. From thence they were marched to Matamoras, as prisoners of war, less thirty-three killed and wounded; and, to show the cold-blooded malignity and lowness of his characte~·, and the groveling of his appetite for slander, I will mention one fact which transpired there. I find it recorded in his book. Two servants of the President of Texas had previously ran off, and taken shelter at Matamoras. They had not been reclaimed. They were smart, intelligent fellows, and I have no doubt the Presi- dent thought they would help to civilize and refine Mexico, as their associations in Texas had been remarkably good. He says: "Tom spoke much of Texas, said that he appreciated many gentlemen there highly, but that he could not consent longer to be the slave of such an unprincipled monster as Sam Houston, and regretted the necessity of leaving the country. Esau was more sulky, spoke in disrespectful terms of his old master, and insultingly to some of our men." This shows that Tom was not a fit subject for lenity which accident had afforded him, because he had forgotten that dignity and self-esteem which he ought to have borne with him to a country where his example might have influence. The Legisla- ture met at Houston ; the officers of the Government were there; he was the servant of the President. All these gave him peculiar advantages for refinement and gentility; but it appears that Tom had lost .his self-respect, and let himself down to familiar equality with this historian. The other servant, Esau, a black. boy, ap- peared to retain his self-respect better, and he was less a favorite
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