PARTY OF M DANIEL. 167 
from cold and privations. Most of them were 
frost-bitten, and all their animals, spent five, 
pe from the extreme severity of the sea- 
son; on which account Chavez was compelled 
to leave one of his wagons upon the Prairies. 
He had worried along, however, with his re- 
maining wagon and valuables, till about the 
tenth of April, when he found himself near 
the Little Arkansas; at least a hundred miles 
within the territory of the United States. He 
was there met by fifteen men from the border 
of Missouri, professing to be Texan troops, 
under the command of one John M’Daniel. 
This party had been collected, for the most 
part, on the frontier, by their leader, who was 
recently from Texas, from which government 
he professed to hold a captain’s commission. 
They started no doubt with the intention of 
joining one Col. Warfield (also said to hold a 
Texan commission), who had been upon the 
Plains near the Mountains, with a small party, 
for several months—with the avowed inten- 
tion of attacking the Mexican traders. 
pon n meeting Chavez, however, the party 
of M’Daniel at once determined to make sure 
of the prize he was possessed of, rather than 
take their chances of a similar booty beyond 
the U. 8. boundary. The unfortunate Mexi- 
can was therefore taken a few miles south of 
the road, and his baggage rifled. Seven of 
the party then left for the settlements with 
their share of the booty, amounting to some 
four or five hundred dollars apiece; making 
the journey on foot, as their horses had taken 
