New York to Texas 53 



crow, the same I have heard from Berlin to this 

 lonely place; the mocking-birds sang just as they 

 did in my happiest days in beautiful Louisiana; my 

 heart went back to my home, and a foreboding of 

 evil seemed to come over me. 



Brownsville is one of those little places like 

 thousands of others in our Southern states; little 

 work and large profits give an undue share of 

 leisure without education or refinement, conse- 

 quently drinking-houses and billiards with the etc. 

 are abundant. The river here is narrow and rapid, 

 and crossed by two ferry-boats swung on hawsers 

 in the old-fashioned way stretching from bank to 

 bank of the great "Rio Grande del Norte." They 

 do a thriving business, as Matamoras contains 

 many Mexicans who do both a wholesale and 

 retail "running business," that is, smuggling. 



March lOth. Col. Webb and the company 

 came up last evening on the "Mentoria," Captain 

 Duffield. He stayed over night and after pur- 

 chasing a few barrels of rice at about twice its 

 cost at New Orleans, and one or two little additions 

 to our already large stock of necessaries, we set 

 sail in the "Corvette," Captain O'Daniel. Some 

 time was lost in our progress that night, as we 

 stuck on the bar just above the town, however we 

 soon went on, and I found this river quite different 

 from the usual run of its channel, as after every 

 rise, which is not often at this season, the channel is 



