WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1854
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with the historian; for he says, "Esau was more sulky, and spoke in disrespectful terms of his old master, and insultingly to some of our men." I have no doubt he did to the historian himself; for I always thought Esau was a man of too much respectability to let himself down to such low associations; so that he did not disappoint his master's expectations, though Tom did. But, sir, after these men were captured at Mier and sent to Matamoros, this fellow Green is charged with having succeeded, by misrepresentation, in filching a good deal of money out of benevolent individuals from other nations who were residing at Matamoros. From thence they were marched on in the direction of the City of Mexico; and on that march it was first talked of that the prisoners, some two hundred and thirty in number, should rise upon their guards, possess themselves of their arms, and march back to Texas. This was concocted by this historian, be- cause he says he told them to be regardless of his fate and his comrades. The Mexicans took this general, the commodore- general, and some other self-created officers, separated them from the other prisoners, and sent them on in advance with a separate guard. In leaving the prisoners they stimulated them to rise upon the guard. The execution of the plan, however, was postponed from time to time until they had progressed far into the interior. There, at a place called Salado, they overtook the officer gentle- man who had been sent on in advance. They held a conference that night, and the next morning they started, he says, a little earlier than sunrise, leaving the prisoners behind. They, stimu- lated by the advice of this Green, for he takes the credit to him- self, rose on the guard, killed some of them, possessed themselves of their arms, and after doing so, attempted to return to Texas. This was a most unfeasible thing. If they had attempted it at any other place they might have succeeded, but they were then so far in the interior that they had to quit the main road for security. They got .bewildered in the mountains. Numbers died, and the remainder were retaken. It was the 11th of February when they rose upon the guard. Dispatches were immediately sent to Mexico and returned by the time they were all recaptured and brought back to the same place, Salado, with an order to decimate the prisoners. Santa Anna assigned as a reason for this that they had risen on the guards and murdered them. Black beans were given them to draw; and it is a singular fact that seventeen of the most gallant and promising young soldiers and officers in Texas were those who drew the black beans, and were shot by order of Santa Anna by the contrivance of this fellow.
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