M'Carthy is to give me four times the value of my gold in
Confederate notes*
We left Brownsville for San Antonio at 11 A.M. Our vehicle was
a roomy, but rather over-loaded, four-wheel carriage, with a canvass roof, and
four mules. Besides M'Carthy, there was a third passenger, in the shape of a
young merchant of the Hebrew persuasion. Two horses were to join us, to help us
through the deep sand.
The country, on leaving Brownsville, is quite flat, the
road, a natural one, sandy and very dusty, and there are many small trees,
principally mosquites. After we had proceeded seven miles, we halted to water
the mules.
At 2 P.M. a new character appeared upon the scene, in the
shape of an elderly, rough-faced, dirty-looking man, who rode up, mounted on a
sorry nag. To my surprise he was addressed by M’Carthy with the title of “Judge,”
and asked what he had done with our other horse. The judge replied that it had
already broken down, and had been left behind. M’Carthy informs me that this
worthy really is a magistrate or sort of judge in his own district; but he now
appears in the capacity of assistant mule-driver, and is to make himself
generally useful. I could not help feeling immensely amused at this specimen of
a Texan judge. We started again about 3 P.M., and soon emerged from the
mosquite bushes into an open prairie eight miles long, quite desolate, and
producing nothing but a sort of rush; after which we entered a chaparal, or
thick covert of mosquite trees and high prickly pears. These border the track,
and are covered with bits of cotton torn from the endless trains of cotton wagons.
We met several of these wagons. Generally there were ten oxen or six mules to a
wagons carrying ten bales, but in deep sand more animals are necessary. They
journey very slowly towards Brownsville, from places in the interior of Texas
at least five hundred miles distant. Want of water and other causes make the
drivers and animals undergo much hardship.
_______________
* The value of Confederate paper has since decreased. At
Charleston I was offered six to one for my gold, and at Richmond eight to one.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
months in the southern states: April-June, 1863, p. 24-6
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