A80 RIO FLORIDO 
passing through here in 1847.* It is probable the In- 
dians did not know who their antagonists were, but 
believed them to be Mexicans. I have been often told | 
that they will not attack a party of Americans, when 
they know them to be such; as in their contests with 
them, they usually get the worst of it. 
November 27th. On starting this morning, we found 
an addition of six or eight Mexicans, men and women, 
to our party, who were going to Parras. Our road 
wound around hills and across deep arroyos. Numer- 
* “ Two days before our arrival, a party of Lipan Indians, upon one 
of their predatory excursions, had stolen from a hacienda, near Parras, 
several hundred mules and horses, and killed several men. The pro- 
prietor, Don Manuel de Ibarra, applied to Captain Reid of our regiment 
(who was then ahead of us with Lieut. Col. Mitchell’s party) for aid 
against these Indians. The Captain, one of the most gallant officers, 
took but eight men along, and, accompanied by the Don himself, went 
back to El Pozo, where the Indians, on their march to the mountains, 
had to pass. They had hid themselves in a corral, to await the arrival 
of the Indians. Quite unexpectedly, about twenty of our vanguard came 
very early this morning to El Pozo, and increased their party to thirty 
men. Soon afterwards the Indians appeared, from forty to fifty war- 
riors. When our men rushed from the corral on horseback to attack 
them, the Indians (supposing them to be Mexicans) received them with 
sneering and very contemptuous provocations; and their confidence in 
their bows and arrows was increased, when the Americans, firing their 
rifles from horseback, killed none at the first charge. But as soon as 
our men alighted, and took good aim with their rifles, the Indians fell 
on all sides. Nevertheless, they fought most desperately, and did not 
retire till half of them were dead or wounded. But at last they had to | 
run for their lives, and leave all their dead and all their booty behind. 
Besides their stolen stock, thirteen prisoners, Mexican women and chil- 
dren, whom they had carried along, were retaken, and released from 
the brutality of their savage masters. Fifteen Indians were lying dead 
on the field.,—Dr. Wislizenus’s Memoir, p. 71. 
