77 IK Aa)0 TEN YEARS lA/souTM AAAL # c jpHn|nn» E 605 .P77 Copy 1 MME OF THE lilST CflllSF (e^^^^P^^ AND Ten Years in South America BY J. M. POLK AUSTIN, TEXAS A. D. 1907 Price ai^Cents. 10 or More cipies 15 Cents in Ad~< ,T5:;?'>?.=*»B(5.: :__ J. M. POLK i H > I— ( O f MEMOmES OF THE LOST CHOSE 4ND Ten Years in Sou th America \ BY J. M. POLK AUSTIN, TEXAS A. D. 1907 ar in ! T Vis # ..-. -» ± lUBRARYnf CONGRESS f i (wo Uoplijs Rxalvyj ,' I JUL 8 W}i i I l^^ COPY_^. Copyright app'd for 1907, by J- M. POLK. Austin, Texas. SAM T. HILL, Printer. 909 Con gress Avenue, u don't know." The next dav he came along' and noticed (me of our men leaving I'anks for a chei'ry tree. (Mierries were getting ripe. "Where are you going?" asked the general. "T don't know, sir." "What regiment do you belong to?" "I don't know, sir." "What do you knoAv?" "1 know (jeneral Jackson said we must not know anything till after the fight's over." "Is that all you know?" "I know I want to go to that cherry tree." "AA^ell, go on." The next day he came along, and one of our men says to him: "General, where are we going?" He turned around and looked at him a few minutes and said: "Are you a good hand to keep a secret ? " " Yes, sir. " " Well, so am I, ' ' and he rode on. Then it was a forced march to the rear of McClellan's army, which we reached about the 25th of June, and on the 27th of June, 1862, was fought the memorable battle of Gaines' Mill and the Seven Days' battle near Richmond. The whole coun+ry knows the re- sult. At Gaines' Mill our regiment, the Fourth Texas, lost its colonel and lieutenant colonel, and the major was wounded which left us without a field officer. It was reported that we had lost about three hundred killed and w^ounded. I was one of the wounded, but unless a man was killed on the field or lost a leg or an arm., it was oTily considered a furlough, so I got a furlough, and I missed the second battle "of ]\Tanassas by about three davs -5— and I never did regret it. I was wounded in the arm/ and it swelled to about the size of a stove pipe, turned as black as a pot, and the doctors thought for a while that it would have to be amputated. All the other regiments of the brigade and division lost heavily, but not so much as the Fourth Texas, because it seemed to me that we were right in front of the Federal batteries, supported by infantry. It was reported that our company lost twenty-nine killed and wounded, but I can not remember all their names. The first man killed in Winkler's company was named Fondron, and his people lived in Young county. Texas, I was within five feet of him ; he dropped his gun and said, "Oh. Lord!" and fell within about fifty steps of the battery. The first man killed in the regiment was Jim Smyley, from Robert- son county, Texas. We were then about twelve or fourteen hun- dred yards from the battery. He was struck by a shell. About that time General Hood gave the command, "Forward, guide center, march, give way to the right, give way to the left ; watch your colors, men!" Now, that is the last command you hear in going into a hard-fought battle. Then it is every fellow for him- self and the devil for all, and the man with the musket does the balance. We carried the position, but with heavy loss. Captain Hutchison, from Navasota, was killed on the field. Captain Ryan from Waco, Captain Porter from Huntsville, and Bob Lambert, from Austin, all died in the same room in Richmond, and I sup- pose I am one of the last men that saw them alive, Riclmiond was crowded with wounded men. I went down to the Chimberazo Hospital and found Jim Treadwell. Mat Beasley and, I think, Jim Shaw, all wounded. I secured a carriage and took them to the Catholic Hispital, where they received better attention, and all recovered. Jim Treadwell was a great oddity. He was shot in the instep of the foot; he said in all seriousness that he had just put on a new pair of shoes that day and that the shot ruined the shoe. When Captain Winkler was entei-ing his name on the muster roll, he asked Jim his native State. Jim said he was bom in Cowita county, Ga., but that he stopped thirty-six years in Texas to fatten his horse, went to California in '49 and was a ranger on the frontier of Texas for several years. T was informed that Dick Wade was badly wounded, but I could not learn where he was. I put in two days in search of him, and finally found him in a box car in Manchester, opposite Richmond, from which f)lace I took him to the Catholic Hospital. Dick is now living at Wootan Wells, Falls county, Texas; Mat Beasley, in Navarro county, Texas, and Jim Treadwell died in East Texas nine or ten years^igo. I do not know what became of Jim Shaw ; it has been i — 6- so lono- T have almost forj^otten him. About the 1st of September, 1862. as well as I can remember. Jim Aston of Winkler's company and myself started out from Richmond to overtake the army. When we reached Rapidan station, as far as we eonld sro on the railroad, we heard that therQ liad l)een another fi^ht at Manassas. The next day we started out on foot. We soon be^an to meet the sick, barefooted and wounded 1h;it could walk, and prisoners, some of the latter negroes. When U( leaclied Warrenton I foinid Tom Morris and Bill Spenee of ;>uf c()nii)any in the hospital, both mortally wounded. I gave them .$10. all the money I had, and left them and never saw them ;i<;ain. Their people lived in Navarro Cvounty, Texas. Wq traveled to Leesburo". then to Point of Rocks, on the Potomac. t\\cl\e miles. 1 think, and crossed it between midnight and day. The river was ■»'' with a"gt..^ W ell. It didn 't take me long to drop that gun. The best friend to man IS the dog; next is the horse, and many a poor horse tosii^ life trying to serve the man. , That night, between midnight and day, we crossed the Potomac We trajcled on about two miles and lay do™ beside the road About daylight we heard the roar of artillery and m^kery be- hind us. From this we knew that the Federals were follow ng us I '""fJ'-T'^ *""* '^™*'™' •J''*^'"' had stationed his men on the south side of the river, and when the Federals began ToZZ he gave hem a lot of dead and wounded to take care of We had no more trouble with them for a while. We traveled on and when we reached Fort Royal we had another fight and there we W (^aptam Woodward of the First Texas, who' came from Paresttoe -10- Texas. We traveled on, and one day halted on the side of the road tc rest. Bill Fuller had just come in with some whisky. He was an old man, and the captain never tried to control him. He would always go into a fight, but he was never very particular about keeping up on a march or staying in camp. Often he would try to borrow General Hood's horse to go to town to pick up strag glers. The artillery and wagons were passing, and Bill was hav ing something to say to everybody, and we were all laughing at him. About that time General Hood and his staff came along, and Bill jumped up and gave him a salute and said : ' ' Early camps to- night. General, and plenty of meat and bread." "Sir," replied General Hood, ' ' we will stop about a mile and a half from here. ' ' "If it's- all the same with j^ou. General," says Bill, "leave out the 'about,' and tell us how far it is, for we are awful hungry and tired." Captain Winkler was a good-natured kind of a man, and I never heard him utter a profane word, but he was out of pa- tience with Bill. He turned around to us and said: "You con> founded fellows, I am trying to quiet the man, and you all arQ encouraging him. I'll have the last one of you arrested if you don't let him alone. Fuller, if you don't dry up I will have you put in the guard house as soon as we stop." "All right, cap tain," replied Bill, "I am either on guard or under guard all the time, and it's all the same with me, sir." On one occasion when the minnie balls and shells begin to fly around the captain says, "hold your position, man." Bill says, "hold the devil, captain you had better let us fall back in that hollow." Bill died abou* two years ago in Wharton county, Texas. He was totally blind and his hair was as white as cotton. Captain King had agreed to take him into the Confederate home, but it was too late. When I wrote to him to come to Austin, that Sam Billingsley and myself would sign his papers, his family answered and said he had been dead about three weeks. , We were now on the south bank of the Rappahanock, near Fredericksburg, and many of the men who had been sick and wounded came in. The Federal army was on the north bank. They tried to cross and drive us south, and there we had another fight, but most of it was in front of General Jackson. It was about this time that the Eighteenth Georgia left us and went to some other department. They were a gallant set of men, and called themselves the Third Texas. We regretted to see them go, but the Third Arkansas took their place — a regiment of good men. It was now December, and there is plenty of snow, and it is —11— very cold Captain Reilly and some of the other officers called out the" men for a snowball fight. There must have been at least ten thousand men engaged in the battle. Snow flew in every direc tion Reilly 's battery was attached to Hood s brigade. Captain Roilly was "on his horse, and had the appearance of a Lager Beer" Dutchman. ' ' The men piled snow upon him until it was a., most impossible to tell the color of his horse, but still he seemed to eniov the sport. The next day we went down on the banks t)t the Rappahanock on picket. The Federals were on the opposite side. We sat there and talked to them all day. One of them said, "Boys can't vou throw me over some tobacco? All rigtit, was 'the answer. ''Throw us over some late papers and we 11 throw vou some tobacco." This we did by tying a rock to it but General Lee soon heard of this and stopped it. We had to do something: some of the men played cards; some chuck-a-luck. We organized a court martial to try some of the men. We were reminded that when the fight commenced at Manassas they were issuino- rations, and it was necessary to detail two men from each company to take the bacon and crackers and go to the rear Jor- dan and Warren started to the rear for our company and when thev were about a half mile off, where the shells from the Federal batteries would fall and explode, they pulled ioT tall timber, and it was nearly two davs before they joined the company. Bob Crawford was the marshal, George Foster was the attorney and I was the judge advocate. Warren's case was called, and it was decided to ride him on a pole, which was done; but he soon lumped ofi', with his butcher knife in his hand, and the boys had all theycouid do to keep out of his reach. All this time Jordan was -ittino' down before the fire whittling, apparently indifferent as to what was going on. When his name was called I proposed to the court that before we proceed with the regular order of busi- ness that we duestion Mr. Jordan and see whether or not he was in his right mind when he ran off with the meat. George Foster tapped him on the shoulder and said : "Come, Ira; you hear what the judge says?" "Jordan turned around in an in- different kind of way and replied: "Now, look here, boys enouoh of anything is enough. I am in my right mind now, and it vc.u fellows fool with me I'll stick my knife in some of you. Of course when he said this, the men all whooped and yelled, and some of the ofRr-ers, hearing them, interfered and broke up the court. . . , . », We soon sta)-ted south (that is, Longstreet s corps), and lett Generals Lee and Jackson in command of the position. We stopped near Ashland, twenty-seven miles north of Richmond ^ —12— Snow was on the ground and it was very cold. John Duran ar" •'•^• Bob Holloway had just come in. They were in a fine talking Ihrnnor. I think they found some applejack somewhere, for they were full of new ideas. It was after dinner; John said, "Jerry, I am hungry ; I want something to eat. " " Well, John, ' ' replied Jerry, ''"the boys eat everything up. " "The devil you say i where are my peas?" "I cooked them and they eat tham." "That's a •devil of a tale to tell. I carried them peas forty miles, and now I eome in hungry — nearly starved — and not a pea left." I will not mention the balance he said, for it would not be very edifying to church people. Jerry Caddell, Jack Hill and Stokes were killed in the ditches at Petersburg. While in those ditches Gen* eral Lee and his staff came along with an instrument, trying to make a calculation of the distance to the Federal batteries, and one of our men said to them: "Mister,, how far can you see through that thing?" "Oh, I can see a long ways/' was the re- ply. "Well, I wish you would look through that thing and tell us how far it is to the end of this war. ' ' We left Ashland and traveled on to Richmond. Snow had been falling all the time. Some of the men were almost bare- footed, and as they traveled they left blood in their tracks. We didn't know where we were going or what we were going to do. I supposed we were going to have another killing, but I didn't think many of us were fat enough for market. We traveled on from Richmond to Petersburg; snow was still falling. We were cold and hungry, but we felt that we needed rest and sleep more than anything else. When we stopped we raked aAvay the snow, spread our blankets and bunked up three and four together, The next morning we were covered with snow. At roll call two of our men were missing, Harris and Terrell. About 10 o'clock in the day somebody stepped on them; thej^ were covered with snow about ten inches deep. We cleared away the snow and raised the old tent cloth and then the blankets, then a puff of smoke went up into the air, and there they lay, sound asleep We remained at Peterburg a few days and then moved on, finally stopping near Suffolk, on the Nanceman river. Here we lost Captain Turner of the Fifth Texas and Terrell of our com- pany, trying to take a gunboat. There was a line of rifle pits about two hundred and fifty yards in front of the Federal batteries. There was a call for volunteers to go into these pits ; I was one to volunteer. We had to go in at night and come out at night; ten or twelve men in a pit and a hundred and twenty-five rounds of cartridges to each man. Now these breastworks in front of us had barrels filled with sand on —13- of them, with just enough room between them for a musket, and when we could not see daylight between the barrels of sand that was the time to shoot. I don 't remember now whether it was my first or second day in the pit, but it was about 3 o'clock in the evening, when one of the Federals shot at me, struck my hat brim and took a small piece off my right ear ; this was a close call, but a miss is as good as a mile. We were watching them carry some fellow away on a litter when one of our men cried: "Look out, boys ; that old cannon will go off directly. " We just had time to back ourselves up against the front side of the pit when boom went the cannon, and a shell about the size of a lamp post burst a little in front of us. A piece of it struck the back part of my hat brim and shaved the breast of my jacket — pnother close call. Another piece struck the ground about ten feet in front of the pit, digging a hole deep enough to bury a horse and rolling about two wagon loads of dirt in on us. I can remember that we had to rake the dirt off a man named Holms. I never saw a man more excited than he was ; he thought we were all dead. As for myself, 1 never thought I would live to see the sun go down. I don't re- member ever seeing Holms again, as he belonged to a different compaiiy, l)ut I am satisfied it is the last time he ever volunteered, to go into a rifle pit within two hundred and fifty yards of the batteries. It settled ]| with me; I thought if I did what I was ordered to do after that, that would be enough. I think we left Suffolk during March or April, 1863, and went back to Peters- burg and Rielunond, and then went north and joined General Lee somewhere on the Rappahanock. Then the whole army, with Stuai't's cavalry, started north. We all knew we would soon have another big killing. Nothing of importance happened on the march; plenty of rain, creeks all up, and a hard time on the gray backs, not many young men of ttiis generation know what a gray-back is, but if they had been in General Lee's army one month without chang jng their clothing they would know the meaning of the word General Jackson had gone' to his long home and General A. P Hill took his place. We crossed the Potomac river at Williams- port, Md.. on the 26th of June, 1863. Here we took a lot of gov ^rnment stores from the Federals, and among other things a lo* of whisky. It was rolled out on the hill, the heads knocked out :)f the barrels and issued to the men by the cupful. I don't sup pose the oldest man living in America ever saw as many drunk men at any one time. It was all the officers could do to holc^ them down; they were full of new ideas. Colonel Manning of the Third Arkansas was very strict Avith his men. and he tried to carry out army regulations. "Take that man and dip him in -14- the creek, ' " he commanded. ' * Now, set him up on his feet and see if he can walk." The man staggered a little and fell down. "Dip him in again." All the other officers had all they could do to kee]^ the men from fighting. We traveled on and stopped at Greencastle, Pa. General Lee issued orders to the men not to leave their commands, as they were now in the enemy's country, and not to depredate on the citizens. We traveled on through Chamhersburg ; the houses were all closed and the women waved the Stars and Stripes at tis. We moved on a short distance and then stopped and struck camp. The people here were all Dunkards. They seemed to think more of their stock than they did of themselves; they had a very fine barn, but lived in a very ordinary looking house. I was put on guard at one of these houses, and stood at the gate all day to keep the men from depredating on them. A woman called me in to dinner, which was one of the finest meals I ever sat down to. The old lady remarked: "Oh, this cruel war! I just wish you men with your muskets could get them big fellows • in a ring and stick your bayonets in to them and make, them fight it out. You could settle it in a few minutes." I was young then and had never given the subj^n-t a sober thought, but since I have often thought of that old woman's remarks. Of course we all know now, for we have some experience in war, that if all the leaders and men who make M'-ar speeches and excite the people knew that in case of war they would have to pick up their gim and help fight the battles and take their chances along with the men there would not be many Avars. They would adopt Dr. Franklin's plan — raise the money and pay for the territory ov property in question rather than go to war. We traveled on, and soon heard cannonading and knew that the ball had opened. Late in the afternoon we heard that oui- column had had a fight with the Federals. This was the first day's fight at Gettysburg. I always thought it was on the 2d of July, but in order to agree with everybody else I will call it the Ist of July, 1863. By sun-up the next day we passed over the battleground and saw the dead and wounded, and we could see our artillery in front of us. all unlimbered and in battle array. flags flying and men going in every direction. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon, I understand, we Avere on the right of General Lee's army; the line of battle was seven miles long. Sam Miller and I left the I'anks to get" canteens of Avater for our company and I never saw Sam any more until the Avar Avas OA'^er ; he Avas captured and sent to Fort Delaware. Mat Beasley was ordei-ed to take Captain Porter's old company, from TTimtsville, into the "lik'.'iijj'""'.- 1^ T^ P^^ 'm&-^' ^J ' O \^ m w o H ,^_<*- m -1.6- fight. They had never gone into a fight and came out with a captain or lieutenant. We all gathered around Mat and said tc him, ' ' Good-bye ; you are gone now, ' ' Bob Crawford said : "I am sorry for you, but I can't help you any." He was the only captain that ever came out alive^with that company. Moving slowly, we entered the valley in a wheat field. We could see the Federals on the hills to our left, and the Stars and Stripes waving at us. About this time a shell from the Federal batteries came along through our lines and cut a man 's head off ; his name was Floyd, from San Antonio. I was within about forty steps of him. Just then the command was given to "forward!" It was 300 oi 400 yards to the foot of the hill, on which bordered a rock fence. When we were forty or fifty steps from this fence the Federal batteries on the hill turned loose at the fence with solid shot, and rocks were flying in every direction. This scattered our men ; many of them were killed, wounded and captured. We wer€ right in front of the battery. No time for shining shoes. Sc* great was the confusion that I have no recollection of passing over the fence. I can remember when I was about half way up the hill I stopped behind a big rock to load my gun ; I could see Captain Reilly's battery a little to our right, and he was cleaning off the top of that hill. There was a solid blaze of fire in front of his battery. Right here, as well as I can remember. Bill Smith fell. He was a son of Tom I. Simith, an old pioneer, after whom Smith county, Texas, was jiamed. He left his wife with her father, W. H. Mitchell, at the head of Richland and Chamber's creek, ten miles west of Millford, Ellis county, Texas, and never saw her any more, and I doubt if she ever knew what became of him. When we reached the battery at the top of the hill the men had all left. Some dead were lying around, I don't remem- ber how many. Harris of our company was in front of me. He put his hand on the cannon and was looking over the hill. The cannon was lying on a rock, I think, and the wheels behind the rock. I could hear tfie minnie balls going over our heads. I said to him : ' ' Hold on, Harris ; we are by ourselves ; wait till the balance come up." "Oh, I want to see where they have gone," replied Harris; "thej'' are not far off." About that time a shell burst in front of us and a piece of it went through his breast, and it seemed to me that I could run my arm through that man's body. His face turned as white as cotton, and, strange to say, he turned around and tried to walk in that condition, but fell over and was dead in less than five minutes. His people lived, somewhere in Virginia, but I don't know their address. Now, I i-oidd see the Third Arkansas to our left, and could hear Colonel I Manning- 's voice ; then I saw three or four hundred Federals throw down their guns and surrender to them. I saw General Hood walking down the hill holding his arm. I understood his arm was broken above the elbow and four inches of the bone taken out. By dajdight the next morning we had a line of battle on top of that hill ; we lay there all day. About 12 o'clock in the (lay T heard firing in our rear. I saw a house on fire and thought we were surrounded and would be captured, but I soon learned that a regiment of Federal cavalry was trying to destroy General Lee's ammunition train, which was protected by two regiments f)f infantry. The Federals succeeded until they were right in among the wagons ; then the infantry closed in on them, and .1 don 't think a man escaped. The colonel refused to surrender and shot himself. Then commenced an artillery duel. General Lee had two hundred and twenty-five pieces of artillery, and he hirned all of it loose on the FederaLlines, and I suppose the Fed- erals had as many or more to reply with. Just imagine what a tliiindering noise all these cannon made, all firing, you might say. ill once, to say nothing about the loss of life and property! I (Hver did believe that any man knew the number of armed men t Imaged on both sides at the Battle of Gettysburg, but I will give !i as my opinion, from what I could see and hear, there must have l);en, all told, Federals and Confederates, at least 175,000 men ;ind the numi)er of killed, wounded and captured, on both sides i 'tween 40,000 and 45,000 men. It has been forty years now. ■ iiid I don't remember the names of my own company that were it St . iim h le>,s the army. We lost our lieutenant colonel, Carter of ill!' P'oiii'th Texas, and I heard that Hood's Brigade lost 500 or r.OO men. About 3 or 4 o'clock in the evening of the third day :ii Gettysbui'g Ave were still in line of battle on the hills; I don't know enough about the coimtry to say whether it was Cemetery I ridge. Littie Round Top, or what it was. The Federals made a thnrge and our left gave way. We fell back in the valley and fur-med in line of battle. I heard the cavalry horses and the horns. "Look out, boys!" some one shouted; ''get ready for a cavalry •liarge." But for some reason they never came. I suppose their |)riulence arid judgment got the best of them. I know nothing ;ihont the cavalry service, but I know it's a hard matter to get a lot of cavalry to charge a line of infantry. They know it's a s( rious matter, for many of them will go to their long homes when they try it. It began to get dark and commenced raining. The sci'geant ordered me to go back on the side of the mountain on |;i'kot ;J.ieutenant Mills of our company was with us. Lieutenant I'uLih Fuller. Fifth Texas, from Houston, and T sat down on a —IB- big rock. We were compelled to keep up a strong picket line all night. Dead men were all around us, and it rained all night. It was as dark as a nigger's pocket. I was sleepy, hungry and tired. I could feel the gray-backs moving around. I knew it would take a dose of red pepper occasionally and somebody to stick pins in me all night to keep me awake, but it would not do to go to sleep here. Between midnight and day I was nearly dead. completely exhausted. I lost all feeling of fear or duty and be- gan to nod a little. Lieutenant Mills came along and tapped me on the shoulder and said: "Don't go to sleep here." But if I had knoAvu that I would be shot the next minute, it would have be(ni all tlie same with me. But Mills was an old neighbor and friend, and he said nothing about it, but it would have been a serious matter with me if he had reported me. At daylight Gen- eral Lee's army moved off and left the battlefield of Gettysburg. About 8 or 9 o'clock he came riding along, and the men began to wave their hats and cheer him. He simply raised his hat, rode along and said nothing. He was plain, simple and unassuming in his manners, and never encouraged anything of this kind. We all wanted to show him that we had not lost confidence in him, and he understood it that way. General Lee was a man who had 1)ut little to say to anybody. He always looked to me like he was grieving about the Avant of men and means to carry out his plans. Patrick Henry defines it as "the illusions of hope. But, as our enemies would say, we are looking for something that we have never lost and don't expect to find. " About this time a copy of Harper's Weekly has a picture of General Robert E. Lee, and says that, ' ' although he was edvicated at th« expense of the gov- ment he is now trying to destroy, he is looked upon by the eyes of the world as master of the arts of war. ' ' We passed through Hatterstown between midnight and day, crossed the Potomac and went down through Virginia to Rich- mond; there we shipped for Bragg 's army. We stopped at Well- don, N. C. which is a junction of railroads ; here there were a lot of North Carolina men on another train going south. There must have been a thousand barrels of resin on the ground, and we began to throw resin at the tar-heels. One of them asked : "Have you got any good tobacco ? " " No, ' ' we replied, "but we have one of the begt chaws of resin you ever saw." About that time we could hear their guns click-click-cliek. It was all the officers could do to stop it; if they hadn't intervened there would have been blood shed right there. We started west and traveled north through North Carolina. The train was heavily loaded and we traveled slow. Some of us were on top of the cars; one fellow playing a fiddle; another fellow down in the car blowing a horn, all happy -19- as lords, yet knowing at the same time that we were going right into another big killing and that many of us would go to our long homes. We traveled to Atlanta, Ga., and then to a point near Dalton. It was Thursday afternoon, September 16, 1863 ; rations were issued to us and we commenced cooking. We could hear cannon- ading, but it was a long way off. We soon received orders to make preparations to move, and we traveled all that night. The next da3% Fridaj^ about 10 o 'clock, we ran into some Federal cav- alry, and knocked some of them off their horses ; some of our men secured some new cavalry hats,, but they afterward lost them at the night fight at Missionary Ridge. Bill Calhoun, Fourth Texas, from Austin, came into camp with an old cap on. "Bill, where is you hat?" asked one of the boys. "Oh, it belonged to a gen- tleman from Iowa," answered Bill, "and he came after it." We traveled all day Friday, halting some time during the night. Saturday morning we continued our march, and about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 17th or 18th of September, 1863, we were near the center of the Federals' line of battle. The booming of cannon and roaring of musketry commenced on both sides. We moved up in line of battle; Cheatham's division (Tennessee troops), I think, were in front of us, and I understand there were two lines behind us, Cleburne 's and Hindman 's making four lines of battle in front of the Federals. We were ordered to halt and lie down. Shot and shell were coming through the woods from the Federal batteries; Cheatham's men coming out wounded in every way. Occasionally an artilleryman came out with his swab on his shoulder, showing that he had lost his battery. About this time two negroes met near me, one going in, the other coming out. The one coming out ^id : "Where are you gwine ? " "I am gwine to carry Captain (somebody) his dinner," the negro answered. ' ' You are the biggest fool nigger I ever saw. Dat man 's dead. 1 speet I don't know what the white folks thinking about, nohow; the way they are killin' one another now, there w^on't be nobody left, and I don't know what they want with the country after everybody is dead." At this moment a shell from the Federal batteries came along, cutting the timber down in front of it. The two negroes dropped to the ground, filled with terror. "Now, just look at dat!" continued one of the negroes. "Any man or set of men dat will shoot such things as dat at folks, and den talk about Christianity, dey is got no raisin' and is black-hearted. Just look how de men is comin' out shot! You just ought to be up yonder where I 'se been ; some of them on de ground, hurt so bad thev can 't walk, some dead : don 't talk to me 'bout wai*. I done 20 >r('ii enoiiirli now. ' About the time he tiuished .saying this an other shell came whizzing along. "Look here!'' he cried, "we'd better get away from here; dar's gwine to be some dead niggers right here. ' ' And that was the last I saw of them. Of eonrt-;e I knew we would soon be ordered into the fight and that some of ns would never come out. I walked up to Tobe Riggs of our company. He had never missed a battle or roll call. He was a cousin of mine. He had been having chills and looked bad. "Tobe," I said to him, "you ought not to go into this fight; the doctor will excuse you." "Oh. I'm all right," he replied. I could say no more. Just then the command was given : "Attention, cap }our pieces, foi'ward, guide center, march: give way to the right, give way to the left." When we reached Cheatham's line, about two hundred and fi'fty yards distant, we found them in the edge of an old field. They were all behind trees, but so many of them had been killed and wounded that it looked more like a picket line than a line of ])attle. They yelled for joy when they saw us coming: they expected to be all killed right there. We did not take time to exchange compliments. As well as I can remember the Federal lines were in a ditch fence about Uxo hundred and fifty yards off. and we made no halt, but passed through Cheatham's lines, and T think they joined us, and as soon as the Federals discovered our approach they gave us a salute by waving the Stars and Stripes at us, in order to ridieule the idea of us coming toward them. Then they emptied their guns at us, and it seemed that every third oi- fourth man in our line was cut down. Billie ('arroll and Tobe Riggs both fell not over five or six feet from me. We lost Dock Childers and Chisum Walker, but they did not fall so near me : but all four of them were of Winkler's old company, from Cor- sicana, Texas. I suppose if we had stopped^there and given the Federals time to reload their guns they would have killed the rest of us, but we moved on to them with loaded guns. We l)roke their lines; I don't loiow what their loss was, but there were dead and wounded Federal soldiers in every direction. Aft^r we broke through their line I went back to see what had become of Riggs. I found that his leg was broken at the knee joint. Billie Carroll, who was lying near Riggs, was dead. I lifted Tobe up on feet ; of course it was painful. His face was as white as cotton. I found Abe Rogers, of Martin 's company, from Henderson county. Texas, near Tobe ; he was shot in the instep of his foot, and was making a great deal more noise than Tobe. I placed him up on his feet and walked between him and Tobe some two or three hun- dred yards and turned them over to Dr. Jones, surgeon of the P'ourth Texas regiment, and never saw them any more. I went —21— > baek and joinod my eompany, but the Federals had disappeared, I sat down beside a wounded Indiana man, and he asked me for some water. I gave him my canteen and talked to him a few min- utes. l"'here was a dead man lying near him. I opened the dead man's knapsack and proceeded to read his letters; he must have had fort}' or fifty, mostly from women in the State of Indiana. In one it seems he had been boasting about their great victory at Gettysburg. She answered him and said : "You men in the army seem to consider it a great victory for the Federals at the battle of Gettysburg, but if you could only be at home now and see the widows and orphans, made so by the battle of Gettysburg, you would not consider it much of a victory." (The battle we had just passed through was the battle of Chiekamauga, and, as well as I can remember it, was Saturday, the 18th of September. 1863. The Kansas, Illinois and Indiana men ivere in front of us, and they could stand killing better than any men I ever saw.) I was very much intei-ested in reading these letters, but I heard some one on a horse approaching behind me. I turned around, and found it was Genei-al Hood sitting on his horse looking at me. "Well," he said, "you didn't get hurt!" No, sir," I replied. "IIow did your regiment come out?" he asked. "We lost a great many men," I answered, "but I don 't krow how many." "Well. I am very sorry to hear it." he replied, and rode off. When the wai- commenced Hood was appointed cohtnel of our j-egiment (the Fourth Texas), and he knew ns all by sight, but could not call our names. Tie was a social, kind-hearted mnn. but a little impulsive at times. He would often walk up to me and shake hands with me aiul talk to me, but never knew my name. He was different from most of the old army officers. He recognized the fact that most of the men in the Confedei'ate army were good, respectable citizens at home, atid that it was public spirit and sense of duty that caused tliem to be there. General Hood could get order out of confusion on a battleiield in less time and apparently with less troul)le than any man I ever saw. I can remember that there was an Indian who went out with us to Virginia; the rattle of mus- ketry he stood as well as any of us. but whenever the artillery turned loose he would give a whoop and run like a turkey. "Too much for Injim." he would say. At the battle of Seven Pines General Hood came along the line, and this Indian was guarding some prisoners. "What are you keeping those prisoners standing there for?" question General Hood. "(Joing to take them, down in the woods and kill them," was the reply. "No, you are not going to do any such thing." said (xenrral Hood. "Sergeant," he continued, "take these i>risoners to the rear." Saturday night, the 18th of September, at Chiekamauga, we all \ —22— lay down in linf^ of battle. We oonld hear the Federals cutting down trees and bnildino; breastworks, and we knew that we would have to get np next morning and take those breastworks, regard- less of cost, and with that vast army in front of us, and they be- hind the breastworks, we knew that it was a serious matter. By, sun up Sunday morning, the 19th, we were in line of battle. Gen- eral Longstreet had just come up, and I could see him and other officers riding up and down the line, and I knew from this that we would soon have another big killing. About 8 or 9 o clock the command was given : "Attention, forward, guide center, march " Jack Massie took hold of me and said : "You get by the side of me; when you fall I want that watch you have got on." Boh Crawford said, "I want his boots." We moved forward, and when we reaclK^d the first line of breastworks, which was com- posed of t]'ees and parts of houses, the Federals were on the re- treat. Shot and shell were flying in every direction; minnie balls could be heard whizzing through the air, and the roar of artillery Avas deafening. About this time I fell to the ground. This settled it with me, and J have no recollection of AThat happened after that When I recovered I was lying in a hospital tent. Wounded men were all around me. I turned over and Jack Massie was right be- side me. I said to him, "Ts that you, Jack?" "Yes," he an- swered. "My leg's cut off; Tobe Riggs died a few minutes ago." I'hey had cut Tobe's leg off, giving him chloroform, and he never woke up. I had no idea what was the matter Avith me; I Avas bloody, sick and nearly dead from thirst, and to say that ] had a headache Avould not express it. I found that a minnie ball had struck me in the temple, in front of the- right ear, and lodged in the back of my head. I turned to Jack and asked him how long I had been there, ])iit I don't remember whether he said Tuesday or Wednesday, but helicA'e he said Wednesday; T AA'as Avounded on Sunday. Tn a few days T was able to Ava^k around a little. I could see muskets lying (m the ground in every direction, and a pile of arms and legs, whir-h had been cut oft' of men. I suppose it Avould have taken a wagon, and perhaps tAVO, to have carried the arms and legs cut oft' of men on the battlefield of Chickamauga. In a few days I was sent to Richmond, and, I think it Avas some time in December, the ball Avas cut out of my head. It was a delicate piece of Avork, a great deal of risk about it. Dr. Charles Bell GJib- son, at the corner of Clay street and Brooks avenue, Richmond, Va., performed the operation. Dr. Gibson was considered th^ finest surgeon in the Confederacy. Of course I Avas under the in- fluence of chloroform and unconscious and knew nothing of what happened, except Avhat they told me afterward. He cut the skin on the back of my head, found the outside skull hones broken, —23— lifted the pieces of bone and found the ball, about one-half the length of the forefinger, lodged in the back of my head. He was unable to secure a hold on it with his instruments and was com- pelled to use a chisel and hammer. I suppose the old gray jacket and minnie ball can be found among the war relics at Richmond today. It took about three months for my head to heal ; Mrs. Oli- ver waited on me. She washed the hole with a syringe and warm soap suds and water every twenty-four hours, for nearly three* months ; had to ke^p the place open so it would heal inside first, The doctor said if it was let alone it woiild heal outside in a few days and inflammation would set in and kill me. Mrs. Oliver, of whom I speak, I think, is long since in her grave. She saved my life several times, and my bones today would be in the sod of old Virginia had it not been for her. She carried me through one long spell of sickness in the winter of 1861, and twice afterward, when I was wounded. And I am not the only Confederate soldier she waited on. I heard General Hood say of her: "Mrs. Oliver. I have often heard my men speak of you in very high terms, and I consider it my duty to thank you for your kindness." Our women have often proven themselves heroines in war as well as peace. I have often seen them, born and reared in luxury, who had never seen a wounded man before, pass through hospitals, waiting on the patients, and the sight of it would make the msick, but they would do all that was possible for women to do. And today it's the influence of the women over the men that provides the comforts for the old Confederates in their declining years. By the month of March, 1864, I was again able to travel. Gen- eral Hood was now in Richmond. He lost his leg at Chickamauga He wrote a very complimentary letter to the Secretary of War, and said 1 had always done my duty and that I was worthy of promotion. The President endorsed the letter and said that "the within communication, and verbal assurance of members of Con- gress, convinces me of his fitness for promotion, and I commend him to your kind attention." signed Jefi:'erson Davis, James A. Seddon. The Secretary of War issued me a captain 's commission and transportation west of the'Hississippi river. General Hood told me "good-bye." and cautioned me about going inside the Federal lines; that I might get caught when I least expected it and spoil everything. I crossed the Mississippi river ani joined General Price's army; I found then at Prairie De Ann, Arkansas. I took part in a few cavalry fights, but this didn 't looic like sol- diering to me, so. at the suggestion of General Price and Colonel Campbell. I joined an expedition to go into Missouri and get out some recruits for our army. Now, this was a new business to me. and it is attended with a great deal of risk, but T had made so ^ -24- many narrow escapes that I had become perfectly reckless and never thought of danger or that I would ever see the inside of a prison. I think it was now July, 1864. It was raining all the time, and we were compelled to swim all the creeks and rivei's. We went from one neighborhood to another, and the men knew everybody, so all went well till we were near a place, I think it was Salem, Mo., or Rolla, I forget which. Here there were some Federal soldiers stationed. We camped in the woods, and the next morning, about sun up, we started out to strike the big road, Dick Kitchens and myself in front. I said, "Dick, 1 don't like this big road; let's get out of it." "We will leave it directly/' replied. Dick. Just then we came to a short turn in the road and were within forty or fifty steps of a lot of Federal cavalry, who were coming toward us. They began to pull their pistols on us The balance of our men behind us heard Dick call out, "Put up them pistols; put up them pistols." We all pulled our guns, as the only thing to be done was to run the bluff on them. Dick went right at them, with his pistol drawn, and they soon concluded that a good run was better than a bad stand and soon disap- peared. Knowing that they would soon return with reinforce ments, which they did, Dick said to us: "Now, let's get away from here." Then it was a run throiigh the brush for five or six miles. I lost my saddlebags, all my clothing and papers and fif- teen hundred dollars in Confederate money. My horse seemed to take in the situation, and it was all I could do to stick to him ; I kept in sight of Dick, as I was a sti-anger in the country. Not a man in our crowd would have surrendered on any kind of terms ; the Federals could have taken us in. because they outnumbered us, but they knew to do this there would be twelve or fifteen of them left on the ground dead or wounded, and none of them wanted to die. In those days the people of Missouri and Kentucky were divided in sentiment, some Union and some Confederate, and tliey were arrayed in deadly coinbat, r.nd in the State of Kentucky they are still that way to some extent. In Missouri it is reported that the Federals would burn down houses and turn women and children out of doors if any of the men were in the Confederate army. This made the men desparate. I understood there was a heavy reward for Dick Kitchens and several men in our crowd. I then commenced to make propositions to get what men we could together and turn back south; when I fight I like to have some show for my life. But there was a trip to be made into St. Louis by some one in the crowd, and I was the only man who was not known to the Union people. It is not often that a man will tell anything that —25- is liable to reflect on his character or good sense, but I always acted upon the principle that it was best to tell the truth and shame the devil. I consented, but I must say that I never did anything in my life with more reluctance. As General Hood said to me when we parted in Richmond: "Like all games of chance, if you are successful, you are all right; but if you fail, you are all wrong, and your best friends will doubt your loy- alty. " When I reached St. Louis I found people I had known all my life and some of them relatives. Of course I soon became reconciled, but the trouble was that I knew too many people. I did what I agreed to do, made a trip over into Illinois, and shipped everything out on the railroad, and when I was making preparations to leave a detective walked up to me and said the provost marshal wanted to see me. Well, I knew then that it was all settled with me. I was taken to the Gratiot street prison, and carried a ball and chain for six months, not know- ing at what minute I might be taken out and shot. I had not been there long before seven men were taken out and executed to retaliate for something that General Marmaduke had done. I knew one of them, Jim Mulligan; I went to school with him, I think, in Batesville, Ark., in 1854 and 1855. Soon after- ward a man by the name of Livingston was taken out and hanged as a spy; then another man by the name of Smith. Of course I thought my time would come next, but finally I was taken out and tried by coui't-martial, charged with being inside the Federal lines, trying to pilot men out of the Federal lines into the Confederate army, and shipping arms and ammunition through the lines. It was a serious matter with me. and about all the defense I had was on a line Avith the Irishman before the court for getting drunk and disturbing the peace. The judge said: "Now. Pat, are you guilty or not?" "I don't know, indeed, Mr. Judge, till I hear the evidence," was the reply. Not having any pi'oof I was sent to the old peniten- tiary at Alton, 111., to be confined there until the close of the war. Now I am a convict, not entitled to exchange or parole. I have lost my citizenship and the respect of all my friends and relatives. After about nine months, confinement and hard living my constitution gave way and I suffered with congestion of the lungs. The doctor said the next spell would take me off. When I was released from prison the Confederacy had about gone to pieces. It was all over — the chapters read and the story told. I have loft out many incidents and names for want of a better memory and better opportunities. This all happened forty years —26— ago, and I can only state everything according to the best of my recollection and I have no further explanation to make. But I hope this narrative is sufficient to show to the young men and women of our country and future generations what a horrible thing war is. As for the fate of Jolui Wilkes Booth, who killed President Lincoln, it was something that the Confederates were not implicated in. Bob Hollway told me that when General Lee surrendered he went to his home at Bowling Green, Va., on the Rappahanock river, about fifteen miles below Fredericks- burg. He had only been at home a few days when a tobacco barn was burned down one night about a mile and a half from him. The ne.Kt day he went over there and found nothing but a pile of ashes, which were surrounded by a pole fence, and in one corner of the fence was a pile of straw and leaves, and here he found an opera gless with the name of J. Wilkes Booth engraved on it. He took it home with him, and the news soon went to Washington and some officers came down and took it away from him. So that ought to settle the question. An- other incident just after the surrender. Hutch Berry tells me, that not being al)le to get back to Texas, John Duran and him- self started out on foot to make their way down into North Carolina, wliere they both had relatives. On the way they stop- ped near a place where there were some Federal soldiers camped. After some deliberation on the subject. Hutch went in at night and confiscated two good horses for John and himself to ride, and at daylight thei*e was a good wide space between them and where they found the horses. At the last reunion of Hood's Bri- gade at Marlin, Texas, June 27th, Hutch told me that John has never settled with him for that hoi-se. I noticed an* article in the Cincinnati Enq)t>rcr of recent date, from Mrs. Longstreet, in de- fense of General Longstreet 's conduct at Gettj^sburg. It is all honorable and right in the woman to try and defend the char- acter of her husband, who is now in his grave. I was in General Longstreet 's command for a long time, and was under him in the Battle of Gettysburg, but, as I can remember it now, it was a right busy time with me, going up that mountain, the Federal batteries shooting into the rock fence in front of us, rocks flying in everj^ direction, the air full of shot and shell, and men falling all around me. I had no time to look around and see what Gen- eral Longstreet or anyone else was doing, for I had all the busi- ness on hand that I could attend to, but my version of the mat- ter from what I could see and learn then and afterwards is very different from the opinion that seems to prevail among good people today. It may not be correct and I have no argument now —27— , "^ to make with anybody about it. As I have already stated, I was wounded at Chicamauga, sent to Richmond, and was there over five months, and Gen. Hood was in Richmond at the same time. I often saw him and talked with him, and on one occasion, I think it was in the month of January or February, 1864, at General Smith's house. We had been talking over the battles of the war, when Gettysburg was mentioned. Not thinking it prudent to ask him any direct question, I said to him that it was always a mystery to us that if we had those hills to charge, why we were held so long in that valley. He hesitated a moment, and said: "Well, that -was one place I went into with a great deal of reluctance, and T told General Lee that I could put my division in thei'e. and would if I was ordered to do so. and lose a lot of my men and accomplish nothing." This much T have a distinct recollection of, the balance of his talk was in a general way and I do not remember all he said, but T think he said that General Lee called a council of his officers to dis- cuss the situation. General A. P. Hill, who succeeded Gen- eral Jackson, proposed a general movement all along the line of all the infantry and aitillei'v. Genei-al Lee said we were too late by about twenty-four hours for such a movement as that. Gen- ecal Long.street then proposed a tlank movement. General Lee said that with that vast army in front of us we would not be able to protect our Avagon trains, so they separated without any settled plan of action, and General Lee, after reviewing every- ihing. decided to resume all responsibility himself: but that took time, and that accounted foi' the delay. Whether that is cor- rect or not, the most sensible view to take of the matter is that if General Longstreet was guilty of disobeying General Lee's orders, it is strange that a man of (Jeneral Lee's sense and ideas of discipline and good order nevei- noticed it and did not make any complaint and have General Longstreet removed long bePoi'e the battle of (lettysbui-g. to say nothing about what hap- pened then and afterwards. Pete Walton says that what Wf don't know about history in this world is more important than Mliat we know. But it may not apply in this case. As for the cause of the war, we all kiKtw that it was giving to the gen- eral government too much authority over the States without any regai'd for the interests or rights of the people of those States. Centralized power, or. in other words, an imperial form of government, contrary to the Constitution and system of laws handed down to us by our fore fathers, when this government Avas established, and now we have the vast accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few inrse; it's almost an everyday occurrence for some one to be hurt on the streets of our cities. Here the rights of the people generally seem to be as well protected as any other country, i find some Americans here, but less than any other nationality. 1 find another thing that we are not prepared to believe, and that IS, less feeling of felloAvship among Americans you meet in a foreign country than any other class of people in the world. Our diplomatic and consular officers put in their time well and • Iraw their pay; but I have never yet heard of them doing much for their country or people, or asserting their rights or making any effort to improve our trade relations, which is so much needed. These appointments are generally made as a reward for campaign services or some kind of favoritism, without regard for their qualifications or knowledge of the language or the people. San Paulo is a junction of railroads and a distrib- uting point for all branches of trade. We go from San Paulo to Campinas, a city of about 35,000 people, and another junction of railroads, surrounded by hills, and not a very healthy loca- tion ; but like San Paula, tributary to many of the large coffee farms. We go from here to Santa Barbara. This is where the Americans settled soon after our Civil War. Most of them were from the southern States ; but not many of them are her^ now ; some of them went back to the United States, some died, and others after learning the language, moved to different parts of th^ country. There is good agricultural lands here and level enough to plow, and that attracted the Americans. But it is not a coffee country; the people turn their attention mostly to provision crops and stock, but better country for stock is found in other I)arts of Brazil than this. I was not here long before 1 noticed about thirty or forty people going along the road on foot, and seeming to be in a great hurry, carrying a dead body to a grave- yard on a stretcher. They take it by turns; that's the custom of this coimtry. If they live twenty-five miles from the cem- etery, they must go there, or to some place where the ground has been blessed by the priest. Then one or two days out of abnost every week is a saint's day; and they firmly believe that snakes will bite them or some serious accident will happen to them if they M-ork on these days. It is my purpose to give wu some idea of the customs an, I liabits of these people, their methods of doing everything, th.- re;iiities df life, nnd tho general appearance of the country, its —34— resources, climate and seasons. All from actual observation made in ten years and in a plain, simple manner, and instead of commenting on reports from newspaper correspondents and others, I will trj^ to add something to it ; or in other words, com- mence where they left off. This, you know, is a progressive world, and as the people of other countries make advances in the Avay of modern improvements, these people try to keep up with the tide: and it is well they may, for they have as much or more interest at stake from the simple fact that they have more to do and more undeveloped country than perhaps any other part of the \\orld, and it will finally be a country of vast resources which will interest all classes of people. We are now at Santa Barbara, and it's the month of Septem- ber, 1888. I can hear something that sounds like the whistle of a steamship, and it's a long ways off. I find that it is a na- tive cart — all wood, no iron about it — and Avill carry about 3000 pounds. The yokes are light; they use small poles and rawhide instead of chains, as we do, and from six to eight yoke of oxen; the axle turns under the frame of the cart instead of the wheels, and it is the friction of the axle under the frame of the cart that makes the noise. We see the driver going alonj^j the road punching the oxen with a little pole that has a sharp nail in the end about an inch long when they don't go to suit him, he says, "Bum, Oh. de arbar." Well, de arbar is their curse word and means, "Oh, the devil." But an American —35— woman who has just arrived and don't understand their lan- guage, says she never saw so many oxen hitched to a wagon in all her life, and they call them all be arbar. Another Amer- ican woman, who thought she had picked up Portugese enough to get along, took her seat at the table of a hotel; she wanted a spoon to stir her coffee, and instead of calling for a kuyey, said she wanted a carvolly, or in other words, she wanted a horse to stir her coffee. Did you ever think of the disadvantage you labor under to be in a country where you don't understand enough of the language to ask for your dinner or a drink of water? If you never did, you ought to try it once; you will learn something. No difference how well you are educated in your own country, you are nothing here unless you can speak the language; and if you are over 50 years old, you will never learn to speak it or any other foreign language well. If you can speak Spanish, Italian or P^rench, you can learn Portugese, on account of its similarity. It is a notorious and well-established fact in the everyday walks of life, that where one man fails another, under similar circumstances, will succeed: and this fact was plainly demon- strated m two cases which I will refer to.. In the year 1865 or 1866, Charles (Juntor came to this country from Montgomery, Ala., I understand, with more money than any other American^ anti from all accounts he was a good business man and a good tradei" in liis own country. But here it was a new deal to him ; he was too old to learn the language and the strange methods of doing everything. The result was he lost his money and died a pauper. While John Cole, a jolly old soul, and about 65 years old, came here from South Carolina. He was a farmer and a man that looked at everything in a plain, practicable and sen- sible kind of way, and nobody could get any money out of him until he had value received. He succeeded well and made money, but he never learned but one word of the Portugese lan- guage, and that was ' ' Star bum. ' ' Everything was ' ' Stai- bum ' ' with him. "Star bum" in our language means that is all right. He was a good-natured kind of a man, but a very profane man, or wicked man. Some of the natives rode up to his house one day and called him out, and said to him in Portugese, of course, that the dogs had run a deer through his cotton field and they wanted permission to follow the dogs on their horses. Of course he had no more ideea what they were talking about than the man in the moon, but he yelled out at the top of his voice, "Star bum. Senor! Star bum!" Well, they thought it was all right, so away they went on their horses through the cotton field' —36- knoeking the cotton off as they went. Now, what he said to them in Enolish wonld never do to repeat before a Sunday school class but as neither understood the other, it was another stand- off 'hc had one child, a girl, and left her in South Carohna. He had lost his wife. When the girl was old enough, she mar- ried and she and her husband went to Brazil to pay the old man a visit They had only been there about two weeks when she went to him one day and said, "Father, we want to go back to South Carolina; we don't like this country." He ripped out an oath and said all right. "I will give you $10,000 m gold if you will leave here and never come back." Well, that w^ "Star bum " for that was what they went after. The next year he sold out and went back to South Carolina, and only iived a short time, but he was nearly 90 years old. ■ From Santa Barbara we go to Moggy Miram, Mooshe, as we would pronounce it, with a soft accent on the last syllable. ITns is another junction of the railroad. I don't know the popula- tion, but from appearances there must be 10,000 or 15,000 people here Only two men here who can understand one word of our language. It is a great coffee country and wealthy people living in and^'around the place. From here we go to Penha, or Penya, as we would pronounce it, the terminus of one of these railroads. Here I see the first troop of pack mules I ever saw. It is thcar principal means of transportation over this mountainous country, where they have no railroads. You see almost every day fifty to one hundred pack mules with 250 pounds of coffee to the mule, or the same amount of merchandise, going along the roads to and from market, or to the railroad stations, with some difficulty, on account of my not knowing how to talk, 1 find one family of Americans here from the State of Mississippi. We go from here to Jackitinga in the province, or State, of Minas,''or Menus, as they pronounce it, and by accident on the road I find Dr. James Warren, who came to this country in 18G5 from Nashville, Tenn. Think he said he was a surgeon in the Confederate army, and find him a very intelligent and social kind of a man. He met me at the door and I said to him th^it I was an American, just arrived. "Glad to see you, sir, come in. I suppose you don't understand the language." "No, sir, not enough to hardly ask for a drink of water." Well, I have been in this country so long and it is so seldom that I meet an Ameri- can, I can express myself better in Spanish or Portugese than I can in English." Now according to the custom among all classes of people here (in fact they look upon it as a mark of politeness), the gii'l comes in with a waiter and some coffee and cakes. You must drink coffee with them, light vour cio'arette or pipe and smoke; then if you don't know how to talk you soon feel like it is better to be alone than in such company ' We then talk a few minutes, his wife, comes in, he speaks to her and tells her that I can speak no Portugese. She makes a polite bow and walks out ; she is a native, and wealthy has a large coffee farm coffee mill, and sugar mill. They have four children, two sons and two daughters, all grown. Dinner is announced- we oo in and sit down. The doctor and I talk, and they occasiouallv ask him what we are talking about. They seem to be very mu^h niterested, but don't understand us. Dinner is over I bid the doctor good-bye and travel on to Jacktinga, and 'find some American friends from Texas. This !s nearly ;ill n ^iionntaiTion.s eoimtrv, more timber on the mountains than there is iu our valleys, and much of it is impos- s.l>!e to walk tlirtmgh. much less ride thi-ough, without a h-ek k.Ht... The laud is mostly red. or T<^rra de Rose, as they call it. If you find any open country you find more grass on one acre than you ever saw on ten in our country, and much of the tim- bered country the sun never shines on. No winter nor summer neither hot nor cold. Not frost enough to hardly check tht! growth f>f vegetation; the leaves on the trees green the whole year round. Drouths, snow and ice, and failures in crops is something that is unknown in many parts of Brazil. No muddy Avater; you never go five miles that you don't cross a beautiful clear, running stream of water; in fact, going from the United States to Brazil is like going out of one world into an- other. Nothing you see resembles anj'thing you ever saw be- fore. Now, to further illustrate, a ship is lying in the bay at Rio at night; the moon is shining bright, and one of the Irish sailors says to another: " Now, Mike, do you suppose this is the same moon we have in the old country?" "Oh, what in the devil are you talking about, man, it is a different moon altogether." Everything is different in this country. If I re- member correctly, Frank Carpenter said, in speaking of our people who traveled over Europe every year for profit and I)leasure, to say nothing of the vast amount of money they spend, that they could see more here in one day than they could in a month of Sundays in Europe. Well, I will just raise him a bean, and say a lifetime. I have often thought I would like to see some of our people here who think they have seen heavy timber, and see some parova trees and logs that I have seen lying on the ground here. I think they would give it up. And then there are the different kinds of flowers, fruits, animals, and birds that you see in the virgin forest, that you see in no other country, Parova is a hard, heavy wood; the natives use it for lumber in building houses, and it seems to me it would be the finest timber in the world for crossties for railroads, for it is said one of these logs will lie on the ground for fifty years and then be as sound as ever. From Jaekitinga we go to Sorocaba ; about 8000 or 10,000 peo- ple here; then to Boituva. This is not a coffee country; it is mostly stock and provision crops. I see cows here larger than our beef steers, and the largest hogs I ever saw in my life ; horses and mules about like ours. Sweet potatoes ; you can sit down on one end and roast the other in the Are. Did you ever see a lizard four feet long? I think I have seen them five feet long. I was talking with a .young man who came here from Alabama, and asked him if these lizards ever offered to fight. He said you oil gilt to step on their tail once; j^ou will find out then how they light. He went on to say that when these people cut down the —39- tiniber and burn it oft' to plant, that leaves their holes exposed, and the boys put the dogs after them and cut him oft" from his hole, and he backs himself up against a log, and if he ever hits the dog one lick with his tail, he not only makes the fur fly, but makes the blood come, and that is the last time that dog will ever bai-k at a lizard, nuich less run after him. It is great fun for th(^ boys, but it is rough on the dog. The natives eat these liz- ai'ds. 'Jlie meat is white and looks nice, and they say it is "Mouncha bum"; that is, very good. We stop at Boituva and make two crops of cotton. The first year we plant the seed, the next year we cut the stalks down, md ni filer more from the stump of the stalk than we did from ^- '^ ^"^ •' miii^a more cotton with less labor than we do in our (-(Mitii..N, but the grade is not so good as American cotton. We sell it lo the factories at Sorocaba and Tatey at about 2 1-2 cents per pound in the seed, and it is made up into the lower grades of goods, the seed seems to degenerate, the natives plant the seed eveiy three years. I suppose further south the climate is better adapted to it and will make a better grade of cotton, say in the State of Parana, Matagras, and Rio Grande de Sul. These people are making improvements in the culture of cotton as well as evoi-ything else. This is south of the equator, and the furthei- south you go the cooler it gets. The coolest weather we have is in the month of July, and the warmest This IS a Mongola where the Natives make F:-reinah a sub- stitute for bread— run by water power, trough on one end and Morter and Pessel at the other. —40- w«,tlw.- IS iu -lanuary. tj^e terminus of the We go fro„, ^XT^'°^^l^^C^ extended to Rio Naova, Sorocaba railroad, bnt '* .'»*\^'"f .,g'"^„t p^rts o£ the country, with other branches running '^"^J^'^fg^^ „, 10,000 and is B,„u,.ato seems .« have ^J^^^^^l^^^^^ ^,,, ,,' a function "/-inr ra^rafa^e^— „ - a ^^ ;:: rs h?::l ^'^^^ rrcSL^orE fatrn^, as we go from Botueatu to San Jao d^^^^^^ „j the these people pronounce >t, and > '^ '^^^^ J^ „( coffee farms country I have never ^^TJXltZvT^^^oranc^. coffee con- I never had any idea "f « *^ ,*^f .^t the crop of Braz.l sumed m the wor d^ I untos^a ^^^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^^ amounts to ahout »•"""'""""' ' ,. ' y^,. fi^e timber, raw this say $10 a sack, then add the India riAber n ^^^ sugar, rice, tobacco, guano,.*d hdes^yonl- ^.„ „,„.i, sells the -f ./;^^;„^" ™L that we pay these L',et anything f^^^^^^^^ American goods here seems to me *»» I could have ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^.^ ^ in ten years, hot Euiope conn factories. Italy „s well as the banking tn-nes^ 'Yj;«f ^^ is the situation furnishes a large amount of the ^o-^- ^ Washington takes ,nd will continue to be until ^^"^^^Congiess at Wa . ^^^^^ .some step to negotiate "-^^^ ^^^'tf "..port and import eountries, with such a ™ f"" 'f'™ t„:es in the matter of .tnties as will compete with other countries m rii *r ;:d commerce. But -- ^^'Ld T ChTnete waif::: "'^ tlHurunri w"dlT;" :lled in piles and some of it washed into the creeks and )ranches. In some places the yards were full of coffee, and I have no doubt there were coffee . farms that lost $15,000 or $20,000 Avorth of coffee in twenty minutes. And the large trees lying across the roads in the timber made them impassible for for some time. We coidd see signs of it in the coffee fields for twelve months. I will tell you what a "bish" is. It is an insect that looks more like a flea than anything I can think of; he gets under your toe nails or finger nails and lays an egg, and makes him a sack and hatches out some little "bishes. " The next day if you don't take the point of 5^)ur knife and ]uek him out he will give you trouble. To avoid all this you must sweep out your house reg- ularly and bathe your feet in warm water every night. If you don't know what a "baranah" is, you would not be in Brazil long before you would find out. A green fly will light on you and get under your clothing and lay an egg on your arm, or some part of the bod}-, and in a few days you feel something that stings like ;in ant, and they get to be troublesome, and I have seen Americans who had been in the country t\venty years and nevei' knew how to get rid of them. I had been in the country about four years Ayhen I found one on my arm tluit Avas giving me a ii'real deal of trouble. I rolled up my sliirt sleeve and one 7 —45— of the natives looked at it and said "sparumpoke," or "holc^; on. ' ' He went into the honse and took his pipe and ran a straw^ through the stem and came out with a live coal of fire and some' amber out of the pipe stem. He rubbed a little amber on it and dried it with his coal of fire, and two applications made him deathly sick. He took hold of my arm and squeezed it out, and it was a little hairy worm with a larg-e head. They get on the cattle and dogs, but horses and mules the hide is too tough for them. Those people are very liberal in the way of credit, but as a rule all classes have to pay their de])ts. In our Coventry it is a hard matter to collect a debt from a man who owns no property sub- ject to execution under the laws. It is different here. If a man becomes dissatisfied where he is at woi'k and goes to some other eoft'ee farmer, the boss always asks hmi how much he owes at the other place. He tells him and says all right. He writes a note to the boss on the other place to make out his account and send it to him and he will pay it, as he has employed one of his hands. While there is no law -to compel them to do this way, custom makes it right, and I suppose it will always be so in this country. Passports are not essential in entering Brazil, but it always cost you a little to leave the country. As for the investment of (';!l)ital. I don't suppose that there is a country in the world, or ''ver will be, that offers more inducements and a better prospect for profit. There are no labor troubles, or labor organizations, and I don't suppose ever will be. As for what trade or profession has the best chance of suc- cess in a country like that, one of our lawyers would have no show without a thorough knowledge of the language and laws, and for one of our doctors to get a certificate to practice med- icine, that is a difficult matter on account of the examinations he vvould have to stand: but if he is a dentist and understand;! his profession, that will always be a good business here, for the l)rices they charge for such work he can afford to get some one to talk for him until he can understand what "Entra star pronta" means, or, come in and take a seat in the chair, all ready, and it don't take long to learn that. Our missionaries seem to have a good time; they live well and have nothing much to do. The natives are all Catholics and say they are needed more in their own country than here, but I am not very well posted about that ^KT^mess. This i-^ a healthy country, if you pay strict attention to the rules of health you will live to a good old age. I have known —46— leople to come here with consumption and get well, but with a ease of rheumatism it is just the reverse. I understand an Eng- lishman about 75 years old came here; he was a telegraph ope- rator and kncM' nothing else, and as English money runs all the railroads, factories and banks, he thought, of course, he would have no trouble in finding employment as soon as he landed, The idea never occurred to him that he would have to telegraph ' in Portugese, but they gave him a job keeping gate at some ' railroad .station. If he had been an American he would have been compelled to go on some coffee farm to gathre and hoe coffee or go back to England, if he could get back. W start back to the United States on the 26th day of May, 1898, and leave Kio on the steamer "Galileo" the 4th of June. The war is going on with Spain. This is an English ship ; Amer- ican ships are all laid up, put in at Bahia for coffee and other freight. The next port reached in Purnambuke. We are draw- ing about twenty-five feet of water, too much to go into the har^ bor. We lay outside and the barges come out. The shij) had about 25,000 sacks of coffee aboard, besides other freight. They lay planks down on this coffeee and roll mahogany logs, guano, hi(les and other freight down on them. We put in at the Island of St Lucia for coal, and land in New York the 23rd of June, 1898, just nineteen days from Rio. I will now say for the satisfaction of all who may want tc know something about the expense of such a trip as this, that we never get too old to learn. When I went to Brazil I paid .^435 in gold from New York to Santos for myself, wife, and son about 9 years old, on an American ship, saloon, or first-class passage. Came back on an English ship, second-class, and from Rio to New York I paid $185 in gold, and I will say that I can see but , very little difference between second-class fare on an English ship I and first-class on an American ship, but to learn all this we must do like I did: go and try it. I think you will find that the $300 saved will be of some benefit to you some time. The English people have more system and order on. their ships than our people do. Second-class fare on an American ship is like a pen. I understand that our people are making some improvements in this branch of business. I hope they are, for there is great room foi- it. June or July is the proper time to make such a trip ; then you are less exposed to storms on the ocean or epidem- ics on the coast of South America. If I was going to make the trip again, with my experience, instead of waiting in a hotel in New York three weeks, as I did, for the regular mail steamer for ( —47— Rio, I would take the first good ship from New York to South- ampton or Liverpool, second-class, unless I had money to throw at birds, and from there to Rio. As for your money, United States currency is good at a discount, or you can put your gold into a belt and put around you, but either way you run the risk of being robbed on the road, or lose your money by some ac- cident. Then you can get exchange in New York on Liverpool or London, which is good in South America, but remember that unless you have the original and duplicate, the first and the second, when you present it to the banks at Rio or St Paulo, they will ask you where the second is. You tell them the second is in the hands of the bank at New York. They will say, how do we know but that the second has been presented and paid; we don't want it. Present the first and second and we will pay it. Every- thing is done on the old English banking system, and unless you have your exchange in that kind of shape, it is worthless in »:50uth America. I have no advise to offer any of our people to go to a foreign country, nor do I ever expect to, for that is a serious matter, but if I was young and had my life to live over and had the means to do something on my own account and knowing the country and methods of doing everything as I do, and was disposed to try my fortune in a new country, I Avoiild not hesitate to go to Brazil. It is not expected that this information will be interesting to old people who have fought the battle of life and are contented with their surroundings, and sensible of the fact that we get nothing out of this world except what we eat, drink and wear. It is intended for j'oung people and future generations who are in a condition and dis- posed to try their fortunes in a new country. I have given then, the facts, the advantages as well as the objections, and the diffi- culties they would have to contend with, and it is for them to determine whether or not they would better their condition in life by such a move. THE END W. G. DAVIS REAL ESTATE AND LAND AGENT OFFICE DRISKILL HOTEL p. O. BOX 621 AUSTIN, TEXAS. L cai lis ra h.' T ii r b o JUL 8 190- LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS ■^^l ■^^^ LIBRftRY OF CONGRP IPII ^ 010 091 495 5