170 ENGAGE A CHEF. 



but we engaged most of the men before we started, the first 

 being a man named Brown, whom we found as a waiter at one 

 of the restaurants, taking him to drive the waggon, our chief 

 trouble being to find a cook. 



One day, however, as \ve were walking along the main street 

 of Galveston, we saw a man coming towards us, who, though 

 dressed chiefly in rags, yet had put them on so that you hardly 

 noticed what they were, and was walking along with a jaunty 

 air, as if in the best of spirits. We spoke to him, and found 

 that he was a Frenchman who had been in the Chasseurs 

 d'Afrique, and, later, had joined the force got together by the 

 filibuster Walker, in Mexico. On the death of his leader he 

 had drifted into Texas, where he had lived by his wits. There 

 was so much " go " in the man, in spite of the emptiness of 

 his pockets, that we engaged him as cook, as he said he was a 

 " Chef/' and we sent him out to the camp which we had formed 

 between Galveston and Houston. On following him to camp, 

 we were asked by Billy, what had made us engage a " frog- 

 eating mounseer " who thought of nothing but his appearance 

 and could not speak English ? Billy and Louis, as the cook 

 was called, were always falling out and having to be separated, 

 and gave us endless trouble, and later on we were obliged to 

 send Louis away. 



Meaning to complete our outfit in Houston we left for that 

 place early in December. A railway running for some way on 

 a high trestle viaduct connects Galveston with the mainland, 

 and a few hours took us to Houston, then a town of some ten 

 thousand inhabitants. Here we bought a waggon and a pair 

 of mules, harness, saddles, and supplies, besides seven horses 

 I having four and F three. Here we added another to 



