Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. Volume 2 Page: 42 of 554
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3G6
TEXAS.
[BOOK II.
lage, as they have an abundance of soft limestone easily
vworked, and the soil is very fertile; but, from the negligence
and idleness of the MIexican inhabitants, the streets
are complete ravines. They have no gardens, and the
houses are built partly of logs and partly of mud. The
inhabitants are, almost witliout an exception, gamblers
and smugglers, and gain their subsistence by those two
occupations, and the more honourable one of carting the
goods brought to the port by foreign vessels. For this
purpose they nearly all possess very fine oxen, to purchase
some of which was now my chief object.
We remained in this village several days, and found
the Alcalde very polite and of considerable service to us.
We succeeded in purchasing eleven yoke of oxen, at an
average price of thirty-two dollars per yoke, and had a
great deal of annoyance from the people driving the cattle
out of the yard I had hired fiom them. Of course, as the
animals were bought of various persons, they immlediately
distributed themselves all over the country, putting me to
a great deal of expense andl trouble to find tlihem again.
This trick was played me twice, although I took the additional
precaution of hiring men to keep watch.
On Christmas-eve a grand ball was given by the young'
men of the place, to which we were invited in due form,
and of course "cassisted." The llouse only consisted of
one room, unfortunately without windows. There was a
very large attendance of ladies, ancld we had an ample opportunity
of seeing all the "beauty and fashion" of La
Bahia. One rather singular custom exists, which is, that
when a country-dance, for instance, is called, the gentlemen
do not at all concern themselves about partners, but
those who wish to dance go and place themselves in their
proper places, when the ladies rise and each one ranges
herself in front of the gentleman with whom she chooses
to dance. The heat being very oppressive, and no refreshment
of any kind, we quickly retired.
Dec. 30th.-We took our 1departure from La Bahia,
having hired two men to drive the cattle, and proceeded
about twenty-eight miles to the Mlission del Refugio. This
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Kennedy, William. Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. Volume 2, book, 1841; London, England. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2392/m1/42/: accessed June 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.