History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties. Page: 230

230

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

almost to desperation she resolved no longer also she saw here in these mountains a bush
to submit to the intolerant old squaw. One which had thorns on it resembling fish-hooks,
(lay when the two were some distance from, which the Indians used to catch fish with and
although still in sight of, the camp, her mis- she herself blas often caught trout with them
tress attempted to beat her with a club. D)e- in the lithie mountain streams.
termined not to submit to this, shle wrenched "()n the 19th of February, 1838, she
the (club from the hands of the squaw and reached her father's house, exactly twentyknocked
her down. The IndiaIls, who had one months after her capture. She had never
witnessed the whole proceedings from their seen hler little son, James Pratt, since soon
camp, now came running up, shouting at the after their capture and knew nothing of his
top of their voice. She fully expected to be fate. She wrote or dictated a thrilling and
killed, but they patted her on the shoulder, graphic history of hercapture and the horrors
crying: Bueio! Bueno! ! (Good! Good!! or of her captivity, the tortures and hardships
Well done!). She now fared much better, she endured, and all the incidents of her life
and soon became a great favorite, and was with her captors and observations among the
known as the , Fighting Sqnaw.' She was savages. This valuable and little book is now
eventually ransomned through the intervention rare, and out of print. The full title of the
of some Mexican Santa Fe traders, by a volume is: ' Narration of the perilous advennoble-hearted
Amnerican merchant of that tures, miraculous escapes and sufferings of
place, Mr. William Donahue. She was pur- Rev. James W. Parker, during a frontier
chased in the Rocky Mountains so far north residence in Texas of fifteen years. With an
of Santa F6 that seventeen days were con- important geographical description of the clie.iumed
in reaching that place. She was at mate, soil, timber, water, etc., of Texas. To
once made a memberof her benefactor's fain- which is appended the narration of the capily,
where she received the kindest of care and ture and subsequent sufferings of Mrs. Rachel
attention. Ere long she accompanied Mr. Plummer, his daughter, during a captivityof
and Mrs. Donahue on a visit to Independence, twenty-one months among the Comanche InMissouri,
where she had the pleasure of meet- dians, etc. (18mo., pp. 95 and 35; boards.
ing and embracing her brother-in-law, L. D. Louisville, 1844).'
Nixon, and by him was escorted back to her " In this book she tells the last she saw of
people in Texas. Cynthia Ann and John Parker. She died on
"During her stay with the Indians, Mrs. the 19th of February, 1839, just one year
Plummer had many thrilling adventures, after reaching home. As a remarkable coinwhich
slhe often recounted after her reclama- cidence it may be stated that she was born on
tion. In narrating lier reminiscences, she the nineteenth, married on the nineteenth,
said that in one of her rambles, after she had captured on the nineteenth, released on the
been with the Indians some time, she dis- nineteenth, reached Independence on the ninecovered
a cave in the mountains, and. in corn- teenth, arrived at home on the nineteenth,
pany with the old squaw that guarded lher, and died on the nineteenth of the month!
she explored it and found a large diamond, "Her son, James Plummer, after six long
but her mistress immediately demanded it, and weary years of captivity and suffering,
and she was forced to give it up. She said during which time lie had lived among many