The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909 Page: 297
332 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reminiscences of Jno. Duff Brown.
him to run the gauntlet, beating and slashing him as he ran.
Providentially he was not felled, but made the goal; when God
moved a woman whose son had fallen in battle to claim and adopt
my father in his place. This under their laws she had the right
to do. From this time he was kindly treated, but watched. In
some eighteen months he won their confidence and was permitted,
in the autumn of 1826, to accompany a raiding party to the con-
fines of the settlements. On the way he escaped, and shortly
after he succeeded in reaching San Felipe. It so happened that
Captain Henry S. Brown had the same day arrived from Mexico
with a number of well tried and trained Mexicans. With these
and a party of the citizens he made a rapid night march, and at
daylight surprised and annihilated the marauders, only one escaping
to tell the tale to his people.
Returning now to I-owell's Prairie, Missouri, my father rejoined
his family, who had long mourned him as one dead. His devoted
wife, however, had never given up hope of his ultimate home-
coming.
In 1827 or 1828 Father again reached Texas, this time with
his family. I was then a four year old boy. On the way we en-
countered fearful tempests on Lake Pontchartrain and the gulf
of Mexico. We landed at C6pano. Nearly eighty years have
elapsed since then, but I yet retain in memory a most vivid pic-
ture of the Indians on the shore. One stood with his bow strung
and arrow on the string, ready to shoot. I was familiar with the
story of my father's thrilling experiences on the upper Brazos,
and my little heart was filled with fear, not only for myself, but
for my parents also. I begged them earnestly to go below, out
of danger; but vainly, of course, for there was none. They bade
me go down; but they themselves were too much interested in
the shores of Texas to gratify a terrified little boy.
We were taken to Goliad in iMexican carts drawn by oxen, which
were lashed to the pole by their horns and driven with a blunt
pointed goad, often with loud cries on the part of the driver.
This, in early times, was the Mexican method of transportation,
the cart wheels being in most cases wholly of wood and sometimes
solid.
From Goliad, then commonly called La Bahfa-or by the Ameri-
cans most frequently Labberdee-we went to Major James Kerr's297
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 12, July 1908 - April, 1909, periodical, 1909; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101048/m1/335/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.