NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.

“Last Messenger from the Alamo.”—The Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas contains an article under this caption, by their excellent historian, Mrs. Adèle B. Looscan, who therein infers that the messenger, Capt. John W. Smith, left the Alamo “in the evening of the 3d of March, in all likelihood after dark”; which inference conflicts with my conclusion in the Quarterly of July, 1901, that he left after midnight on the morning of the 3d, therefore before the departure of Rose on the afternoon of that day, and that his silence concerning Travis's speech does not tend to disprove Rose's statement.

The inference that Smith left the Alamo late in the evening of March 3d is drawn from two considerations: first, Travis's remark in the dispatch borne by Smith, and dated March 3d,—“Col. J. B. Bonham got in this morning at eleven o'clock”; and secondly—another inference—that Smith made all necessary changes of horses on the way.

I believe that my note in the Quarterly of October, 1901,—The Escape of Rose from the Alamo,—proves that Travis, being weary and pressed for time, made a blunder (surely not an extraordinary one), and that his meaning was `yesterday morning,' `last evening,' or `tonight.' If so, the above quoted inference rests solely on another inference.

The nature of Smith's route to Washington proves the impracticability of his changing horses on the way. Though I believe that there was a standing government ordinance to keep relays of horses on express routes, none were kept. I carefully read the proceedings of the governor and the council every week in the Telegraph and Texas Register till my departure for the army, on March 6, 1836; but I never saw therein any statement that such relays were established anywhere. This neglect resulted from two causes: the poverty of the government, and the impracticability of keeping relays on parts of the routes from Bexar and Goliad. The road from Bexar to Gonzales did not then, as later, lead by the present town of Seguin, but the eastern part of it lay southwest of the Guadalupe River, the entire distance being estimated at seventy miles; and, if I was not misinformed, the first dwelling thereon was that of Mr. Bateman, a little way off the road, in the edge of Guadalupe bottom, west of the ferry at Gonzales. The only two families that had, at different times, tried to settle on that long and lonesome trail had been murdered or driven away; one by Indians, the other by Mexican robbers.

The estimated distance from Gonzales to Moore's Ferry (the present town of La Grange), on the Colorado, was forty-five miles. The first dwelling on that road was that of Mr. Berry, four miles east of Gonzales; the second was that of Mr. McClure, on Peach Creek, ten miles from that town; and the third house was a small one-room cabin, near the west bank of the Colorado, and less than a hundred yards above the ferry, with one door, no window, and no fire-place. When I visited this house in March, 1836, it was unoccupied,—the families in that section all having left home in “the Runaway Scrape.” I judged that it had been occupied by a lone man, employed by Col. John H. Moore to keep the ferry;— the colonel's residence, across the river, being too distant for travelers to call a ferryman thence.

From Moore's Ferry to Washington, the distance was said to be sixty-five miles. Settlers dwelt along the whole extent of this part of the route; the average distance between dwellings being probably two Spanish leagues, and the settlements being very thin toward the Colorado, but gradually becoming thicker toward Washington.

From Gonzales to Washington, the grass on the uplands, and the wild rye and cane in the bottoms, were so bountiful as to keep all horses and cattle in fine condition during the entire year. Hence all grades of horses, when not kept at home for immediate use nor ridden abroad, ran at large, on the range. This alone was sufficient to deter a courier from relying upon chances to exchange horses on his way. Moreover, good roadsters—then termed “American horses”—could not often be bought at less than two hundred dollars each, and never less than one hundred and fifty dollars; while Mexican ponies were purchasable at from twenty-five to forty dollars each. Nearly all settlers on the route, being financially straitened, owned only the cheap class of horses, which, though able to travel twenty-five or twenty-eight miles per day, would fail within a few hours if ridden at the rate of thirty-five miles per day. It is almost certain that this was the condition of every settler between Gonzales and the Chriesman settlement,—about ninety-eight miles from that town, and within twelve miles of Washington. I knew of only four settlers within twelve miles of Washington who probably each owned one or two “American horses” that a courier could have obtained, if they were not out on the range nor in use abroad. These four gentlemen were Col. Horatio Chriesman, Capt. James G. Swisher, Judge John P. Coles, and Dr. A. C. Hoxey.

Considering the nature of Smith's route, and the condition of the settlers thereon, he could not have changed horses before reaching Gonzales, seventy miles distant from San Antonio. There he might, possibly, but not certainly, have effected an exchange, but under risk of obtaining an untried horse, that might soon have failed. Thence to the Chriesman settlement, ninety-eight miles, there was no probability of a desirable change; and thence to Washington, twelve miles, there was a second uncertain possibility for an exchange. Thus no courier could reasonably expect to change horses on that route.

The biography of Guy Morrison Bryan, in the October Quarterly, 1901, supplies an authentic illustration of the difficulty then generally experienced in changing horses by couriers, the substance of which I here repeat. A few days before Smith's departure, Travis dispatched a messenger to San Felipe, bearing a letter, in which he announced the siege of Bexar by the Mexican army, and called for help. The authorities at San Felipe forwarded that letter by another courier to Brazoria and Velasco. This courier proceeded in haste to the residence of Josiah H. Bell, near Columbia, where he and his horse arrived, both broken down; and the school-boy, Guy Bryan, relieved him by bearing the letter, on fresh horses, to its destination.

I am sure that almost or quite every citizen between the Alamo and Washington would have taken the greatest pleasure in exchanging horses with Captain Smith when he bore that dispatch from Travis,—if he had had a horse at hand suitable for such use; but, as I have shown, such was not the case.

Several of the heroes of the Alamo had ridden thither on excellent saddle-horses; and, these being useless in the fort, their owners were willing to lend them to any messenger that Travis might send out. Hence Smith's only sure plan to perform his journey in the shortest time practicable was to mount one of the best horses in the Alamo, purposing to ride him moderately all the way to Washington. So I conclude that I am correct in assuming that he could not have performed the trip in less than four days; and therefore that, as he arrived at Washington on the sixth, he left the Alamo soon after midnight on the morning of March the third.

I deem the time of Smith's departure from the Alamo a subject of special importance, because it directly bears upon the proof of the reality of Travis's speech as orally reported by Rose and published by me.

W. P. Zuber.