175
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
as Col the Regt. and as such issued orders to Jessee Grimes 13th augt. 1832; probably because of the Nacogdoces & Anahuac scrapes-
ANTHONY BUTLER Was sent by Genl Jackson in great haste to Mexico as minister pleny- for the purpose of enabling him to say something in his message to Congress about Mexico & Texas, when suddenly Butler made his ap- pearance in Texas on his own private speculative purposes- . Jackson had been negociating for the acquisition of Texas by pur- chase- MOSES AUSTIN M. Austin, when he had finished his business m Bexar, and was nearly ready to depart, he heard that there was a man in Bexar who was on the the [sic] eave of leaving town with a gang of mules-this ·man was Kerkendall; Austin sought him out & prevailed with him to remain a few days until he Austin could get off. The journey was a long dangerous and fatiguing one, not to be performed alone. Ker- kendal consented to wait- Austin gave him money to buy powder & other outfits- He gave a fine gold watch, one his mother gave him, an old family heirloom, for a mule a fine mule & equipage- Kirken- dall & himself now left Bexar-they ·travelled on together for a good while with mutual confidence & harmony- The powder got wet & destroyed, which was the main dependence for subsistence; the small store of buiscuit was now growing very short; there was every pros- pect of sufference. One morning when Austin arose, he missed his travelling companion, who had taking his fine mule and decamped with all the stores leaving him nothing but the horse on which Austin was travelling; not a mouthful to eat and no powder to kill game- In this situation he travelled 8 days without any sustenance to support life except acorns pecans roots &C- He finally reached Hugh J\-Ic- Guffin's near the Sabine so emeciated &. worn down that he could not walk- he met here his nephew Bates who had been sent in search of him; he remaned 5 or 6 weeks before he was able to proceed home- ward- l\foses Austin had departed from home his family new not whither; after the lapse of some time Mrs Austin his wife, became so uneasy that she sent her nephew to the Spanish dominions to ascertain whether her husband had gone in direction- As this young man, Bates, was pro- ceeding toward Nacogdoches he stopped one night at a man's house by the name of Hugh McGruffin & A stranger came at night and called for assistance, a mere skelleton on the verge of death by starvation- As he entered the house, the young man Bates recognized the voice but not the form of his Uncle of whom he was in search- It was Moses Austin- he gave the preceding account of his mission and success & subsequent suffering to Bexar.
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