WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
15
The Texans are acquainted with Indian habits, and also their mode of warfare. They are woodsmen and marksman. They know where to find the haunts of the savages, and how to trail and make successful pursuit after them. They, too, have their families, their kindred, and their neigh- bors to protect. They have the recollection of a thousand out- rages committed upon those dear to them by the savage to impel them onward; and if, in the pursuit of the foe, they get out of rations, they can subsist on game, being dexterous hunters. What are privations, suffering and danger to them, in comparison with the plaudits of their fellow-citizens, which follow their success? They are accustomed to the heat of the Prairies, and the severe northers to which we are subject. They need no tents to shelter their hardy frames from the night winds, but are content with the earth for a bed, and a blanket for a covering. Such a force as this continually on the alert, will be a terror to the savage. The certainty of detection and punishment will keep him away from our settlements. The executive of Texas has sought most sedulously to avoid any appearance of being captious or complaining in his intercourse with the federal government, nor does he intend to render him- self obnoxious to the imputation, at the same time it is his duty to lay before the Executive of the United States such facts as he may deem worthy of consideration and attention. Within the past few hours expresses have arrived from East- land and Palo Pinto counties, announcing the murder of three men and two boys, one ten and the other eight years of age, with all the attendant barbarities of scalping and mutilation. The Indians are in small . parties along our frontier, and penetrate with unparalleled audacity to within forty miles of this place. They are ravaging the German settlements on the Medina, within thirty miles of San Antonio. Not content with murdering the settlers and carrying off their horses, they shoot all the cattle in their path. Hid in the dense brakes or mountain fastnesses, they wait an opportunity to make a foray. The consequence is, that the people are quitting whole neighborhoods and forting up at the county sites. Their little cabins are deserted, their fields of corn and wheat are left to waste. In many counties there is no bread and but a scanty subsistence for the women and children, while their men are on pursuit of the foe. Starvation is staring them in the face. Many of them attracted to the frontier by the inducements held out by the land policy of Texas, are poor and
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