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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
sary conflicts_ wi~h superior f?rces; for even though they might be very often victorious, yet thell' repeated losses: would finally disable them from the achieYement of their ends.- · \Ve cannot enter into the minute details of their carreer-for this would protract our sketch beyond all just & reasonable bounds-and yet those Yery detailes are the most interesting and thrilling part of their whole history. We must confine ourselves to a brief outline; and notice those more prnminent events only which are necessary to a tolerable fair comprehension of their extraordinary valor and prow- ess.-The marches of the four first days brought them to a Rancho, where the fugafo·e La Mora had secreted a portion of the plunder which Col. Perry had previously captured, and which was now re- taken, and so much of it appropriated as were necessary to the comfort of the troops. La )fora himself escaped, as he had done on the former occasion; but his loss was well compensated by the representa- tive he left behind.- Two days after this event the Division captured seven hundred horses, which the enemy had collected for the pursuit of this very party. It was a serious loss to the Royalists ; and of no great benefit to the . captures; for in three days the horses stampeded and escaped during a dark and stormy night. The line of march was continued without much interruption until the 8 of June, when our adventurers struck upon the foe. It was near the Valle de Mais. In three leagues of the town, }Iina found two hundred cavalry in waiting for him, and occupying a well-selected position. They were the ad- vance guard of the main force. One vigerous charge sufficed. The enemy fled in confusion, leaving on the ground five dead. Mina pur- sued them to the Valle de 1fais-encountered the main forces-drove, them from the place-pursued them on the plains, and then returned to in triumph to town, without haveing lost a single man in either engagement. Don Joaquin . Arredondo, the general who commanded the royal forces at the Battle of )Iadina, and who had disfigured his victory on that occasion with so many unheard of atrocities, was still at this perioc1 commanding the Northern and Eastern provinces of the King- dom, making his Head-Quarters at )Ionterrey. He appears to have been sufficiently dilatory in his movements against Mina; so much so, as to allow to the latter ample time to erect a fortification at Soto la Marina and to make all the necessary preperations for his contem- plated incursion into the interior of the country. :Mina's plans were to leave a small detachment in the mud fort at Soto la Marina, and with the balance of his troops, by means of hard fighting, to form a junction with the patriot chiefs in the Interior; a disposition of affairs, however, which does not seem to have been the most wise & judicious under all the circumstances; for by the time he was ready to take up the line of march, it was known that Arredondo had put himself in movement, and was indeed already within a few leagues of Soto la Marina, at the head of two thousand men,·& seventeen peices of artil- lery. The policy of his departure, therefore, at this particular crisis, may well be questioned; for it is manifest that the small force which he might leaye in the fort would be utterly incompetent to resist the assault of so formidable an army. There was almost a moral certainty of their falling victims to the superior enemy, if they should be left
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