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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by GEORGE P. PUTNAM & CO., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. E. O. JENKINS, STEREOTYPER AND PRINTER, 114 Nassau Street.

TO Mrs. Lemuel Hawley Sherman,

OF BROOKFIELD, CONNECTICUT.

To you, dearest guide of my youth, these pages are most appropriately offered, since but for your suggestion they would, probably, never have seen the light. To you, and for you, they were written, as you earnestly desired to hear what I saw, and what I thought, of "Peon Slavery on our Border." My observations are plainly and simply told. Few will heed these hasty and undeveloped sketches; but there is subject for serious thought and Christian action in this, as in every other form of human servitude, and so I cast my tiny protest-laden shell upon the ocean of public opinion. It may never touch haven, but with yourself, and the friends who make my world, it is sure of favor and sunshine, and that will more than repay the slight labor of,

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PREFACE.

IT was not at "the urgent solicitation of friends" that this volume was given to the press, for nobody was consulted in the matter. Beyond the assurance of the only one who had the "veto power" that he would not object thereto, and the wish of the beloved relative to whom it is dedicated, to see in printed record some shadowings of our border life, the writer never heard or cared for an opinion on this small subject. Still less was it for the pride or profit of authorship, for she was in no wise ignorant that neither could arise to any tempting extent from these crude pages, thrown off without system or premeditation, as the events occurred, or the thought pressed for utterance. They were written, and are published, because the facts existed, and the writer—wishing them known, and seeing no one else disposed to take the trouble—found no better way of giving them to the world.

It may not be true long—and every ray of publicity helps the cure—but it is true now, that the interests of humanity and the honor of the country are utterly neglected on the Rio Bravo frontier. Whether it be from ignorance or inertia, it is certain that a class of the highest officials of the nation closely imitate the Mexican dignitaries of a similar rank, in profligacy of expenditure and profound indifference to the wants of the people.

Our Indian policy is a blot on the very name of Christianity, yet what Senator or what General proposes any change, except, perhaps, something a little more veiled and indirect in our inexorable system of despoilment and extermination?

We have before us abundant evidence of wrong and outrage to American citizens in various parts of Mexico, but we have no page: vi-vii (Table of Contents) [View Page vi-vii (Table of Contents) ]Switch to Image ModeCLOSE Page vi-vii (Table of Contents) evidence that one step of firm, manly and decisive protest has been taken. With Mexico diplomatic compliments cost nothing and mean nothing, for her politicians are just as rich in words, and about as poor in acts, as ours are becoming in these latter days.

Unoffending and free-born residents on our soil have been torn from it by force, and carried with lawless violence into Mexico to be enslaved for debt, and not one victim, at the end of two years' supplication, has been officially demanded or returned to us. So far from it, indeed, that the official record of impunity is given in these pages—to the eternal shame of the public servant who refused to vindicate the outraged majesty of the Union. But it is also true that if a persevering demand is made for justice, the appeal must touch, at last, the popular heart; and then it is to be hoped we shall have done with apathy and evasions, and see these principles engraved in uneffaceable letters on our American policy:—

Free-born citizens shall not be enslaved for debt in Mexico. Americans and their property shall be protected from spoliation. The sanctity of our soil shall be vindicated with firmness.

We know our derelict public servants have failed to do their duty in these matters, and they will continue derelict so long as the people are silent; but they will hasten to amend their ways when the searching blaze of popular inquiry is turned upon their acts. The corruption and imbecility of our officials will grow upon us, until the press is aroused to take up the work and apply the cautery. Before this vague and irresponsible administration of our executive trusts is reformed into something more respectable and trustworthy, we may have to impeach some cabinet officers, and bring legislators under stringent laws of penal accountability; and why not? Why should our best-paid and most learned public servants do with impunity those things for which we would send a poor, untaught, poverty-tempted domestic servant to the penitentiary?

CONTENTS.

• The Frontier, 9
• A Bird's-Eye Glance, 11
• Indianola, 13
• The Eberly House, 15
• North and South, 17
• Geographical Morality, 19
• Texas Living, 21
• A Convert, 23
• The Road, 26
• A Pioneer Mother, 28
• San Antonio, 31
• The Indian Slave, 34
• Kidnapping, 37
• Mission of San José, 40
• Communities, 42
• Our Trip, 44
• Indian Signs, 45
• My New Country, 48
• Capabilities, 50
• My New Family, 52
• A Border Chambermaid, 55
• Our Peon Servants, 59
• Fabiano, 61
• My New House, 64
• Gardening, 65
• Chino, 67
• The Mulberry Grove, 69
• Delicate Fare, 71
• The Seminole Chief, 73
• The Cane Cottage, 77
• Our Flag Insulted, 80
• The False Wife, 82
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• Cabinet Letter, 86
• Baptiste the Borderer, 90
• A Frontier Dwelling, 92
• Social Distinctions, 94
• Slavery Extension, 96
• A Character, 98
• Wells, 100
• Melon Sugar, 101
• The Blue Water, 104
• Placida, 106
• Victor in Peril, 109
• A Vexed Question, 111
• Victor Released, 113
• Mr. Webster's Management, 116
• Indian Rangers, 118
• Pablito, 120
• Shepherd Life, 123
• The Indian Alphabet, 126
• Three Forms of Slavery, 127
• Peonizing a Mother, 130
• Doña Refugia, 135
• Africans and Indians, 137
• The Colored Don, 139
• Indian Forays, 141
• Wild Cat's Policy, 143
• Slaughtered Herds, 147
• Lynch Law, 153
• The Foot-Prints, 154
• Mexican Peons, 158
• The One Man Court, 160
• The Court-Martial, 162
• The Community Court, 164
• The Border Need, 167
• Pleasant Discoveries, 170
• Our Mineral Empire, 174
• Navigating the Bravo, 177
• The True Southern System, 179