Chap. XIII. DANGEROUS ADVENTURE — INDIANOLA. 427 
shots, arrived, and they not only took possession of our pri- 
soner, but seized an accomplice in the courtyard, who had 
probably been keeping watch. The stage-coach arrived just 
as the two were in safe hands. My friend and I congra- 
tulated each other on our escape from injury, and I soon 
forgot the adventure in the tragi-comic circumstances of a 
night journey on a road where the carriage every few 
minutes sank in mud above the axles of the wheels. 
I learned later that our assailants were Irishmen, and 
disbanded soldiers. In November I was again in San 
Antonio, on my journey to California, and found that they 
were still in confinement under trial, for which my arrival as 
a witness had been waited; but I remained in San Antonio 
two months without its taking place, and I afterwards 
heard that they were set at liberty without punishment. 
The stage-coach journey from San Antonio was most 
peculiar, and would probably have excited the ill humour 
of a less-tried traveller ; but it only awakened merriment 
in me and my companions. I paid, if I mistake not, 
12i dollars for my seat, for which price I secured the privi- 
lege of walking three-fourths of the distance — about 160 
English miles — and was obliged to help to pull the coach 
out of the mud-holes in which it should stick fast. The 
reader can scarcely imagine what this necessity amounted 
to. Without giving the details, I will only say that it was 
the hardest and dirtiest work I ever undertook. Like all 
travellers returning from savage to civilized life, I had 
equipped myself afresh from head to foot, and all my 
bravery was ruined in this two days' journey. At Indianola 
I had to throw the whole away, and equip myself again. 
For miles I had to walk in mud and water, and in extri- 
cating myself from an unusually deep place, I lost my 
pocket-book, containing many valuable notes and letters. 
Indianola is well known as a town of German origin. 
