With Sam Houston in Texas

WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS

_The American Trail Blazers_

“THE STORY GRIPS AND THE HISTORY STICKS”

These books present in the form of vivid and fascinating fiction, the early and adventurous phases of American history. Each volume deals with the life and adventures of one of the great men who made that history, or with some one great event in which, perhaps, several heroic characters were involved. The stories, though based upon accurate historical fact, are rich in color, full of dramatic action, and appeal to the imagination of the red-blooded man or boy.

Each volume illustrated in color and black and white.

INTO MEXICO WITH GENERAL SCOTT

LOST WITH LIEUTENANT PIKE

GENERAL CROOK AND THE FIGHTING APACHES

OPENING THE WEST WITH LEWIS AND CLARK

WITH CARSON AND FRÉMONT

DANIEL BOONE: BACKWOODSMAN

BUFFALO BILL AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH

DAVID CROCKETT: SCOUT

ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER

GOLD SEEKERS OF ’49

WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS

WITH GEORGE WASHINGTON INTO THE WILDERNESS

IN THE RANKS OF OLD HICKORY

WITH SAM HOUSTON IN TEXAS

A BOY VOLUNTEER IN THE TEXAS STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE, WHEN IN THE YEARS 1835–1836 THE TEXAS COLONISTS THREW OFF THE UNJUST RULE OF MEXICO, AND BY HEROIC DEEDS ESTABLISHED, UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF THE BLUFF SAM HOUSTON, THEIR OWN FREE REPUBLIC WHICH TO-DAY IS THE GREAT LONE STAR STATE

BY EDWIN L. SABIN

AUTHOR OF “ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER,” “BUFFALO BILL AND THE OVERLAND TRAIL,” ETC.

_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ CHARLES H. STEPHENS _PORTRAIT AND MAPS_

PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY

SEVENTH IMPRESSION

PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

TO THE AMERICAN SPIRIT OF FREEDOM AND ITS STARS IN THE AMERICAN FLAG

When Freedom from her mountain-height Unfurled her standard to the air. She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there.

――DRAKE

FOREWORD

Sam Houston should justly be regarded as a great American. He laid his course and steered by it utterly regardless of the opposition. Strong characters are known as much by the enemies that they make as by the friends that they retain. When they launch into a course that they deem is right, they do not depend upon fair winds. They go ahead, if they have real faith. Threats, ridicule and dangers do not daunt them. Sometimes they may pause, to renew their courage; but they proceed again on the same line.

Such a character was Sam Houston. To his friends he was loyal; to his enemies he was unyielding; his ideals were high; and he loved his country.

Whatever he undertook, he undertook with his whole might, in spite of censure and discouragements. This book deals with him chiefly as the six-months’ general who, out of seeming defeat, achieved the triumph of Texas arms, and at one stroke established Texas independence. But we ought to admire him as a patriot statesman, rather than as a military commander.

Some other commander could have won the victory for Texas. Freedom, well or poorly led, cannot be conquered by oppression. Justice cannot be combatted, forever, by injustice. But few other men have had Sam Houston’s rugged courage.

We see him opposed by virtually all the people whom he was seeking to benefit, while he played the humble waiting game, and gave the foe false advantages until in his own good time he struck and roundly defeated them. He endured being called a coward――although he well knew that he, with an arrow wound and two bullet wounds in his body, was no coward. We see him generous in victory, and always looking beyond the present. We also see him, as president and as governor of Texas, stanchly insisting upon the right as he viewed it, and which time has proved to be the right. And as United States senator he continued to fight for his principles of honor and wisdom. That he was unpopular among his people, and was marked for punishment, made no difference to Sam Houston. The welfare of Texas, and of the American Republic with which it united, was more to him than his own welfare.

It is a wonderful thing to know that one is right, and then to stick to the compass.

Sam Houston had his weaknesses. All men have weaknesses. The greatest men rise above them. The strength of Sam Houston was his faith in himself; his weakness was his pride in himself. When his pride was injured, by accusations and by home troubles, he went to the other extreme, apparently tried to see how low he could sink, and as if in revenge set out to throw away his career. This was no revenge. It never is. It benefits mainly one’s enemies, and harms mainly oneself and one’s friends.

Weak natures do not accept that verdict, or they take more pleasure in pitying themselves than in aiding themselves. Sam Houston sank; the world, disappointed, said that he was a failure, after all――he could not hold his course, and had abandoned the helm. But he could, and he did. He rose, he grasped the wheel again, he retrimmed his sails, and he forged on, with faith and will, to fulfil the capabilities with which he had been entrusted.

Of the boys in this book, James Monroe Hill, Leo Roark, and Sion Bostick appear in Texas history under these very names. Without doubt they had a friend and comrade like Ernest Merrill; many boys marched and fought beside the men in the Texas struggle for independence from Mexico. Names amount to very little, anyway; they simply are convenient. It is deeds that count.

EDWIN L. SABIN

CALIFORNIA, June 1, 1916

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE THE RISE OF TEXAS 13 SAM HOUSTON――THE BUILDER OF TEXAS 20 I. “I AM SAM HOUSTON” 27 II. ON THE ROAD TO TEXAS 42 III. SANTA ANNA PROVES FALSE 58 IV. “WE MUST DEFEND OUR RIGHTS” 71 V. ERNEST CARRIES THE ALARM 82 VI. GONZALES KEEPS ITS SIX-POUNDER 92 VII. THE MUSTERING OF THE TROOPS 104 VIII. THE MARCH ON SAN ANTONIO 116 IX. WITH JIM BOWIE AT THE HORSESHOE 130 X. AN APPEAL TO THE UNITED STATES 144 XI. SAM HOUSTON COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 157 XII. HOUSE TO HOUSE IN OLD BEJAR 172 XIII. GENERAL HOUSTON DESPAIRS 188 XIV. INDEPENDENCE IS DECLARED 202 XV. THE SIGNAL GUNS OF THE ALAMO 216 XVI. MESSENGERS OF DISTRESS 229 XVII. RETREAT, AND EVER RETREAT 242 XVIII. TO FACE THE ENEMY AT LAST 253 XIX. FINDING SANTA ANNA 267 XX. “WILL YOU COME TO THE BOWER?” 280 XXI. THE NAPOLEON OF THE WEST SURRENDERS 295 XXII. PRESIDENT HOUSTON RESIGNS HIS SWORD 307

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

AND AMIDST A GENERAL CRY, OVER SHE WENT _Frontispiece_

GENERAL SAM HOUSTON AT THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO 13

ERNEST BARELY DREW REIGN TO SHOUT AT A FIGURE IN THE DOORWAY: “GONZALES ATTACKED! THEY NEED MEN” 84

DOWN SANK THE LAST CANNONEER 143

“HERE WE GO!” CALLED JIM. “HOIST HIM IN, QUICK” 186

TEXAS IN 1835–1836 AND MARCH OF THE TWO ARMIES EASTWARD TO SAN JACINTO 262

BATTLE GROUND OF SAN JACINTO 290

“WHY,” ROARED THE GENERAL, “YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT, YOURSELF, YOU ARE DICTATOR” 304

Courtesy Harper & Bros.

GENERAL SAM HOUSTON AT THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO

From a painting by the Texan artist S. Seymour, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1898]

THE RISE OF TEXAS

1513–1519――The Gulf of Mexico explored by the Spanish.

1521――Following upon the conquest of Mexico by Captain Hernando Cortes, Texas forms a part of that indefinite New Spain.

1528–1536――Texas first entered by white men when the shipwrecked Spaniards, Cabeza de Vaca, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Andres Dorantes, with the negro Estavanico (Stephen), cross the interior. They assume it to be a part of Florida.

1540–1684――Penetrated by Coronado, de Soto, and other Spanish officials.

1685――Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, in the name of France takes possession of Matagorda Bay, deeming it one of the mouths of the Mississippi River. Erects inland Fort St. Louis, the first white settlement.

1689――Captain Alonzo de Leon and Father Manzanet, dispatched from Mexico to expel the French, find Fort St. Louis abandoned.

1690――The Spanish from Mexico establish the Mission San Francisco among the Tejas Indians, in East Texas, southwest of present Nacogdoches. The country begins to be called the Land of the Tejas; or “Tejas” (Texas).

1691――Don Domingo Teran de los Rios appointed first Spanish governor of the provinces of Coahuila and Texas.

1714――Captain Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis is sent from the French post at Mobile into Texas, to report upon colonizing it.

1716――The Spanish captain, Domingo Ramon, and party of sixty-four men and women, are sent to locate missions and colonies in East Texas and oppose the French, who have advanced to the Red River.

1718――The Spanish presidio of San Antonio de Bejar (Bexar), the site of the storied town, is founded. Here arises also the mission San Antonio de Valero, predecessor to the famous Alamo.

1720–1722――Other missions and forts are established, along the Sabine River, the Spanish frontier in Texas.

1721――The French claim to the Sabine River, from the east. Captain Bernard de la Harpe is ordered to reoccupy Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay. The landing party are driven off by Indians.

1722–1762――The French out-posts along the Red River and the Spanish out-posts a