For the Liberty of Texas | Page 9

father from the doorway, and if you see him, beckon him to
run for it," concluded the elder brother.
CHAPTER IV.
SOMETHING ABOUT THE INDIANS IN TEXAS.
While the two boys are waiting for their father's return, and wondering
what will be the next movement of the Comanches surrounding the
ranch home, let us turn aside for a moment to consider the state of

affairs in Texas in this momentous year of 1835.
As said before, Texas and the territory known as Coahuila, lying on the
southern bank of the Rio Grande River, formed one of the states of the
Mexican Confederation. At the time Texas became bound to Coahuila
there was a clause in the constitution which allowed her to become a
separate state whenever she acquired the requisite size, although what
the requisite size must be was not specified.
The Texans were satisfied, at that time, to belong to the Mexican
Confederation, but they soon discovered that to be tied fast to Coahuila
was going to become very burdensome. The latter-named territory was
inhabited almost entirely by Mexicans who had nothing in common
with the Americans, and these Mexicans kept the capital city of the
state at Monclova or Saltillo, so that the settlers in Texas had to journey
five hundred miles or more by wagon roads for every legal purpose.
Besides this, the judiciary was entirely in the hands of the inhabitants
of Coahuila, and they passed laws very largely to suit themselves.
The first troubles came over the land grants. A number of men, headed
by Stephen Austin, had come into Texas, bringing with them hundreds
of settlers to occupy grants given to these leaders, who were known as
empresarios, or contractors. Each settler's grant had to be recorded, and
the settlers grumbled at journeying so far to get clear deeds to their
possessions. At the same time, Mexico herself was in a state of
revolution, and often one so-called government would not recognise the
grant made by the government just overthrown.
The next trouble was with the Indians. The Comanches, Apaches,
Shawnees, Wacos, Lipans, and separated tribes of Cherokees,
Delawares, and Choctaws, some driven from the United States by the
pioneers there, overran the northern and central portions of Texas, and
those on the frontier, like Mr. Amos Radbury, were never safe from
molestation. The Mexican government had promised the settlers
protection, but the protection amounted to but little, and at one time
only ninety soldiers were out to guard a frontier extending hundreds of
miles, and where the different tribes of the enemy numbered ten to
twenty thousand. The only thing which saved the settlers from total

annihilation at this time was the friendliness of some of the Indians and
the fact that the red men carried on a continual warfare among
themselves.
Some of the Indian fights had been notable. One of the worst of them
was an encounter between a band of over a hundred and about a dozen
whites under the leadership of James Bowie, better known as Jim
Bowie, of bowie-knife fame,--this knife having become famous in
border warfare. In this struggle the whites were surrounded, and kept
the Indians at bay for eight days, killing twenty odd of the enemy,
including a notable chief. The loss to the whites was one killed and two
wounded.
This fight had occurred some years before the opening of this tale, but,
only a month previous to the events now being related, another
encounter had come off, on Sandy Creek, but a few miles from the
Radbury home. A party of French and Mexican traders, thirteen in
number, had gone up to the house of one John Castleman, and during
the night the Indians came up, murdered nearly all of the number, and
made off with the traders' packs. Castleman hastened to Gonzales with
the news, and a posse was organised to follow the red men. This
resulted in another battle, in the cedar brakes along the San Marcos,
and some of the Indians were killed. But the majority got away, taking
most of the stolen goods with them.
The mentioning of these two encounters will show with what the early
settlers of Texas had to contend while trying to raise their crops and
attend to their cattle. Often a bold settler would go forth into the
wilderness, erect his rude hut, and then never be heard from again, his
habitation being found, later on, either deserted or burnt to the ground.
And men were not the only sufferers, for women and children were
often either killed or carried off into captivity. Once two well-known
ladies were spirited away in the most mysterious fashion, and they were
not returned to their homes until both had spent several years among
the red people.
Dan and Ralph