164 BRITISH GOODS. 
By far the greatest portion of the introduc- 
tions through the sea-ports just alluded to, 
have been made by British merchants. It is 
chiefly the preference given to American man- 
ufactures, which has enabled the merchandise 
of the Santa Fé adventurers to compete in 
the Southern markets, with goods introduced 
through the sea-ports, which have had the 
was given by the citizens of Red River. All seemed to vie with 
each other in rendering us every aid in their power; and our Mexi- 
can friends, Se ~ hostile attitude in which the two 
countries si er, were treated with a kindness 
which they still seaoliees acc the warmest fe alae of gratitude.” 
This forms a very notable contrast nig the treatment which the 
af ited 
Texan traders, who afterw: Visi anta Fé, received at the 
hands of the Mexicans. 
The co te now consisted of sixty or seventy wagons laden 
with merchandise, and about Mi hundred oo twenty-five men, in- 
cluding their escort of Mexican dragoon They the 
Texan border early in April, and expected to intersect their former 
track beyond the Cross Timbers, but that trail having been partially 
obliterated, they crossed it unobserved, and were several days lost 
river eir course 
south for a few days, nat = oan discovered their old 
the 
very tream was too deep to be fo aa. and. they "ea 
perthorric| to resort to an expedient ir ga of the Prai 
There being not a stick of timber anywhere to be found, of which 
to make even a raft, they buoyed up a wagon- ody b yb inding seve- 
ee yt water- kegs to the bottom, w hich served them the purpose 
of a 
When t ree reached Presidio del Norte again, they learned that 
Gov. Irigéyen, with whom they had celebrated the contract for a 
diminution of their duties, had died during their absence. 
corps of wor being in power, they were now threstened with, a 
Presidio, tigre they mai ee iiesica 
on the 27th of August, 18 
‘The de aan Saad expenses of this expedition caused 
it to reanlt bo. disastrous! y to the interests of all who x esaien 
in it, that no other enterprise of the kind has since been undertaken. 
