20 APRIL 1844, Page 14

KENDALL'S SANTA YE EXPEDITION.

Aram' from any intrinsic interest, this narrative of the piratical expedition of the Texans into New Mexico is curious for its indi- cation of American character and Southern American morality. Mr. Wthirmrs KENDALL, an editor of the New Orleans Picayune, found his health deranged, in the spring of 1841; and, instead of a quiet trip to a watering-place for change of air and scene, he "de- termined on a tour of some kind upon the great Western Prairies." Be was engaged in canvassing with New Orleans friends the merits of an excursion over the ground already visited by WASH- INGTON Iavnin, when the Texan Major HOWARD appeared on the Mississippi, to purchase goods for that Sante Fe expedition which ended in the capture of the worthies engaged in it. Mr. KENDALL says, that the Major informed him the objects were only commer- cial; the professed design being to establish a nearer route from Texas for the over-land Mexican trade, instead of the existing but longer course from the United States town of St. Louis. The Texan President, General LAMAR, had an ulterior object, which Mr. KENDALL did not find out till upon the road ; when, however, he so thoroughly identified himself with the project, both in action and approbation, as to become to all intents and purposes an accessory. The scheme, to do it justice, was original. Something like it, no doubt, is done by pirates on a smaller scale, and unscrupulous par- tisans have occasionally practised " stratagems " resembling it during open war ; but as the project of a government, it is sal generis, and appears to have been so considered, as Mr. KENDALL complains, to some extent in the United States." The speculation itself was this. Texas claims the Rio Grande as its boundary, just as the United States claims the whole of the Oregon territory ; or rather without so much of prima fade right, for the inhabit- ants on the Rio Grande district are Spaniards, have always been under Mexican government, and Texas has no other right or pre- tence of right than consists in a bold assumption. General LAMAR, however, was "led" to entertain a "well-founded belief that nine- tenths of the inhabitants were discontented under the Mexican yoke, and anxious to come under the protection of that flag to which they really owed fealty" ; and he got up an expedition, which, under the guise of commerce and peace, was to act as spy, sympathizer, invading army, or company of merchants trading to Mexico, just as occasion served. That it may not be said the facts look stronger by a condensed mode of stating them, we give Mr. KENDALL'S own representation. "Texas claims, as I have just stated, the Rio Grande as her Western boundary ; yet, so isolated were Santa Fe and such of the settled portions of 'New Mexico as were situated on the Eastern side of that stream, that the new Republic had 'never been able to exercise jurisdiction over a people really within her limits. The time had now arrived, so thought the rulers of Texas, when rule should be exercised over the length and breadth of her domain— when the citizens of her farthest borders should be brought into the common fold ; and with the full belief in their readiness and willingness for the move- ment, the Texan Santa Fe Expedition was originated. On its arrival at the destined point, should the inhabitants really manifest a disposition to declare their full allegiance to Texas, the flag of the single-star Republic would have been raised on the Government Rouse at Santa Fe; but if not, the Texan Commissioners were merely to make such arrangements with the authorities as would best tend to the opening of a trade, and then retire."

And when they approached the confines of Mexico, this was the course pursued.

"It was now determined by our principal officers, to send two men forward to the frontier town of San Miguel, for the purpose of conferring with the authorities. W. P. Lewis, Captain of the Artillery Company, and George Van Ilea, Secretary of the Commissioners, were detailed for this service. Both could speak Spanish ; and the former enjoyed in every way the confidence of Colonel Cooke, who had often befriended him. In addition to verbal instruc- tions, the young men were intrasted with letters to the Alcalde or principal officer of San Miguel; and both the instructions and letters set forth that a large trading party of Texans was now approaching, that their intentions were in every way pacific, and that the leaders of the advance-party were anxious to purchase a large quantity of provisions, to be sent back to the main command. Several of General Lamar's proclamations were also given to Mr. Van Ness, to be distributed among the principal citizens; the purport of which was, that the expedition was sent for the purpose of trading, and that if the inhabitants of New Mexico were not disposed to join, peacefully, the Texan standard, the expedition was to retire immediately. These proclamations were printed in loth Spanish and English ; and not a doubt existed that the liberal termsoffered would be at once acceded to by a population living within the limits of Texas, and who had long been groaning under a misrule the most tyrannical."

The discomfiture of the more than buccaneering expedition has been made pretty public by occasional extracts from the American newspapers; and MARRYAT, from Mr. KENDALL'S contributions to his newspaper and perhaps other sources has embodied some of the striking features of travel in the tale of sources, Violet, though -with gross exaggerations. By a species of retributive justice, the seeds of failure were sown at a very early period. Through some mis- management, the march was delayed several weeks after the proper time for starting : great quantities of provision were wasted during the first plenty of the buffalo hunting-grounds : as the country had never been traversed throughout its extent, the proper route was of course unknown; the expedition appears to have been but in- differently provided with a scientific geographer, who might have inferred the best mode of proceeding from observation; and the only officer who could take the latitude and longitude was killed by Indians. A Mexican trapper who acted as guide was misled by his Own want of knowledge and the resemblance of natural features ; and, frightened when he found be had lost himself and the ex- pedition, deserted. To what extent this wandering in the wilderness operated in the earlier part of the journey, cannot be told; not much, we suspect from the map, unless there was an easier road : but as the caravan approached the confines of Mexico, the mistake into which the party fell is matter of experience. Exhausted with toil, subdued by hunger, and dispirited by uncertainty, the main body halted on a stream, and sent forward an advance-party to ex- plore. This body took the wrong way,—which was exceedingly easy where no one knew the right ; and, bewildered amid mountains, and encountering the immense chasms of which MARRYAT has made so melodramatic a use in Monsieur Violet, was thirteen days in reaching a point that some Mexicans they hired to return to the main body accomplished in four. During the latter part of the journey, the privations undergone are described as terrific : snakes, reptiles, wild fruits ripe or unripe, with any thing of the nature of herbs, were greedily eaten • and the accident of rain more than once saved the lives of the expedition. Arriving in this plight, they were not exactly in condition to carry out their nefarious plan. The avant-couriers of the advance-guard, which we have seen starting with instructions to the Government and proclamations to the people, were arrested, with Mr. KENDALL among them as a volunteer. LEWIS, the commandant of the artillery, turned traitor, it is said, and persuaded the advance-guard, and then the main body, to surrender to General ARMIJO, the Governor of New Mexico. Thus ended the first part of the drama : and, to remove all mistake as to the designs of the Texans, or of Mr. KENDALL'S hearty approbation of them, if he will not call it participation, he thus contrasts what might have been with what was.

" Far different would have been the result had the expedition reached the confines of New Mexico a month earlier, and in a body. Then with fresh horses and a sufficiency of provisions for the men, the feelings of the inhabit- ants could have been ascertained ; the proclamations of General Lamar would have been distributed among them ; the people would have had an opportunity to come over to Texas without fear ; and the feeble opposition Armijo could have made—end I doubt whether he would have made any against the Texans in a body—could have been put down with ease. Bad it been evident that a majority of the inhabitants were satisfied under their present government and unfriendly to a union with Texas, then the goods would have been sold and the force withdrawn ; [he cautiously adds] at least, such was the tenour of the proclamations."

Mr. KENDALL is loud in his outcries against the treatment of the prisoners' and the detention of himself in particular ; and not particularly measured towards the American Embassy for ne- gotiating about his release instead of demanding Mr. KENDALL or passports. In these troubles we cannot affect to sympathize ; nor do we see that the persons composing the expedition had much reason to complain. The relations between Texas and Mexico it may be difficult to fix ; but in any case, this expedition was a gang of spies, whose lives were forfeited in strict law, however blood- thirsty the execution might have been. Two or three, indeed, were shot by ARAM° ; but it would seem to have been for breaking their parole : the prisoners in the march from San Miguel to Mexico, under the command of one SALEZAR' suffered great hard- ships through his avarice and wantonness ; but on other occasions they had little more to endure than was to be expected in so long a march through a thinly-peopled mountainous country with a primitive state of society. Their treatment varied, of course, with the character of the officers commanding ; some carrying their kindness and courtesy to a greater extent than such a horde could expect, and others standing more strictly on military forms. Nor does the Government seem to have been very culpable in the business. Mr. FALCONER was released at once on arriving at Mexico : Mr. KENDALL thinks that he himself would have been set free by ARMIJO at San Miguel, but for some representations of the traitor LEWIS; and when the negotiation was proceeding favourably at the capital, there appeared in his own newspaper a statement connecting him with the expedition. But the truth seems to be, that Mr. KENDALL has no sense of national morality, even of that formal kind which however hollow throws a decent veil over its hollowness.

The volumes in which Mr. KENDALL narrates the projects, ad- ventures, and difficulties of this expedition, consist of three sec- tions. The first part gives an account of the journey through the wilderness of the prairies and table-lands forming the base of the Rocky Mountains; the second narrates their detention at San Miguel, and subsequent march of nearly two thousand miles to Mexico ; the third describes his long imprisonment at the capital, chiefly (as he was unwell) in the hospital of the lepers. This narrative is not without interest, though its interest is diminished by diffuseness, and a sameness of detail—arising perhaps from the sameness of the subject-matter. Part of this may be ascribed to Mr. KENDALL'S profession of newspaper-writer, and to some of his narrative having been written for his journal; part of it to his having composed nearly the whole of the eight hundred pages from memory. When first arrested, his papers were taken from him ; and during his subsequent journey he had no opportunity for taking notes. As regards general effects, we dare say the nar- rative conveys a true enough idea, though particular accuracy cannot be expected : but writing such an enormous mass of de- tailed narrative from memory alone, must tend to give a character of uniformity and vagueness, which the freshness of the memo- randums might have removed. It is like painting a large picture from fancy instead of living models. As Mr. FALCONER had more facility of recording his observations, and was perhaps more capable of observing, it is to be regretted that he did not publish an account of the Santa Fe Expedition. Subject to the weariness induced by diffuseness, akin to what the original perambulators might feel on their long journey, Mr. KENDALL a Narrative may be received as an addition to the

literature of books of travels. Caravan-travelling on the Western Prairies, and the hardships undergone by explorers, are not alto- •

gether new subjects, but they are not so frequent as to have grown stale, and they are displayed in another phase by this expedition. We have had two descriptions of Mexico within a short time; but Mr. KENDALL with his companions in misfortune marched through the interior of the country, by a route rarely trodden by Europeans ; their mode of travelling was quite different from that of an Ambas- sador's wife or a Secretary of Legation ; and the variety of charac- ters in their escort-commanders, the different treatment they met at different places, and the necessary contrasts in their long and painful pilgrimage, give interest to the narrative. Neither is Mr. KENDALL himself a bad fellow. Notwithstanding the national looseness of his public morals, and notions by no means strait- laced in other respects, be seems a good-tempered give-and-take personage—not very forbearing, perhaps, but able to bear; philo- sophically submitting to any hardships or misery if he can but tell Iris troubles to the world, and determined to meet death itself for the honour of the star-spangled banner. The worst point about him is a want of delicacy in mentioning matters which in Europe are considered confidential though no confidence is stipulated. This, however, is a national failing, and in Mr. KENDALL'S case refers to a remote people, which often seems to justify the act. Besides the three main subjects of the work, there is an intro- duction, giving an account of Mr. KENDALL'S preliminary proceed- ings, and conveying a good enough idea of the wretched state of Texas as regards the common conveniences of life, and the security of life itself. But we will plunge for extracts into the heart of the

expedition.

FEEDING AFTER STARVATION, AND STARVATION SENSATION.

About the middle of the afternoon, one of the four who had been sent for- ward returned with the joyful intelligence that they had fallen in with a herd of no less than seventeen thousand sheep, and had succeeded in purchasing a sufficiency for the whole command. Again we put spurs to our horses; and a ride of half an hour brought us up with the shepherds and their charge, and to a fine camping-ground on the Rio Gallinas.

Here a scene of feasting ensued which beggars description. We had been thirteen days upon the road, with really not provisions enough for three; and now that there was an abundance, our starving men at once abandoned them- selves to eating—perhaps I should rather call it gormandizing or stuffing. No less than twenty large fat sheep had been purchased and dressed ; and every ramrod, as well as every stick that could be found, was soon graced with smoking ribs and shoulders, livers and hearts. Many made themselves sick by overeating.; but an attempt to restrain the appetites of half-starved men, except by mans force, would be the very extreme of folly. Had the food been any thing but mutton, and had we not procured an ample supply of salt from the Mexicans to season it, our men might have died of the surfeit. I have never yet seen a treatise or dissertation upon starving to death—I can " speak feelingly of nearly every stage except the last. For the fint two days through which a strong and healthy man is doomed to exist upon nothing, his sufferings are, perhaps, more acute than in the remaining stages—he feels an inordinate, unappeasable craving at the stomach, night and day. The mind rune upon beef, bread, and other substantiate: but still, in a great measure, the body retains its strength. On the third and fourth days but especially on the fourth, this incessant craving gives place to a sinking and weakness of the - -stomach, accompanied by nausea. The unfortunate sufferer still desires food, but with loss of strength he loses that eager craving which is felt in the earlier stages. Should he chance to obtain a morsel or two of food, as was occasionally the case with us he swallows it with a wolfish avidity ; but live minutes afterward his sufferings are more intense than ever. He feels as if he had swallowed a living lobster, which is clawing and feeding upon the very founda- tion of his existence. On the fifth day, his cheeks suddenly appear hollow and sunken, his body attenuated, his colour an ashy pale, and his eye wild, glassy, cannibalish. The different parts of the system now war with each other. The stomach calls upon the legs to go with it in quest of food; the legs, from very weakness, refuse. The sixth day brings with it increased suffering, although the pangs of hunger are lost in an overpowering languor and sickness. The head becomes giddy; the ghosts of well- remembered dinners pass in hideous procession through the mind. The seventh day comes, bringing increased lassitude and further prostration of strength. The arms hang listlessly, the legs drag heavily. The desire for food is still left to a degree ; but it must be brought, not sought. The miser- able remnant of life which still hangs to the sufferer is a burden almost too grievous to be borne; yet his inherent love of existence induces a desire still to preserve it, if it can be saved without a tax upon bodily exertion. The mind wanders. At one moment he thinks his weary limbs cannot sustain him a mile ; the next he is endowed with unnatural strength ; and if there be certainty of relief before him, dashes bravely and strongly onward, wondering whence proceeds this new and sudden impulse.

Captain SALEZAR, the first commandant of that division of the prisoners to which Mr. KENDALL was attached, not only shot several of them when they were unable to walk, but cheated the living of the rations which ARMIJO had allotted them. Like many other cruel persons, he seems to have had a strong sense of the humorous; which found vent on several occasions.

SCRAMBLE FOR FOOD.

Early in the morning we were ordered to continue the march, and without food. Salezar did, previous to starting, distribute some fifty small cakes among one hundred and eighty-seven half-starved men ; and the manner of this dis- tribution showed the brutal nature of the wretch. Calling the prisoners around - him; each with the hope that he was to receive something to allay the sharp Cravings of hunger, he would toss one of these cakes high in the air, and then, with a glee absolutely demoniacal, watch the scramble that ensued as it fell among the suffering throng. It was a game of the strong against the weak, this struggle for the few mouthfuls of food which Salezar threw among them. The better attributes of our nature, the kind sympathies and generous forbear- ance which lift man above the brutes, were for a time overwhelmed, in a ma- jority of the prisoners, by long starvation and great bodily suffering; and now, as the savage who had charge of them tossed the miserable pittance in the air, it was a study to watch their eager faces as it descended, to see with what wolf-like ferocity they would rush to secure the prize, and the terrible struggle which VMS sure to ensue ere some one stronger than his fellows could secure it. Salezar was accompanied by our old acquaintance Don Jesus in this distri- bution; and the satisfaction with which they watched the fierce conflicts marked a new leaf in the dreadful chapter of human depravity.

COUNTING THE PRISONERS.

We were driven, one by one, into a cow-pen or yard, and there encamped for the night; Salezar distributing a pint-cup of meal to each man, after having satisfied himself that none of as were missing. Even in his mode of counting as he exhibited his characteristic brutality ; for just as they drive sheep or cattle into pens in New Mexico with the intention of enumerating them, m had he driven na.

EFFECTS OF SHOOTING 114ALLISTER.

Among the passengers in the cart with poor M'Allister were the narrator suds man who went by the soubriquet of "Stump": there may have been others, but if there were I have now forgotten their names. In the morning, before starting, Stump had declared that he could not walk a mile—to save his life even ; and so positive was he upon this point, that a place was provided for him in the cart. When this vehicle met with the accident, of course Stump was thrown upon his feet with the rest. While the few words were passing between DPAllister and Salezar, and previous to the inhuman murder of the former, Stump was hobbling about, apparently unable to walk at all: his feet were sore, his knees were stiff, and not a bone was there in his body that did not pain him at every movement : he was curled up, the picture of despair. But no sooner did he see his comrade fall, and feel the certainty that he too would meet with a similar fate unless he put his powers of locomotion in imme- diate action, than, to use the old Captain's own words, Stump straightened up, and started at a pace that would have staggered Captain Barclay, Ellworth, or the greatest pedestrian mentioned in the annals of "tall walking." Stump went by, first one, then another of his companions, and never abated his stride until he was in the lead of the whole party of prisoners ; a position be pertina- ciously kept through the remainder of the day, and in fact during the march. In the morning he could not walk a mile; he afterward did walk something like eighteen hundred, and without flagging.

THE UNLUCKY LINGUIST.

As we were about starting, a little incident occurred in which were strangely mixed the painful and the ludicrous. For some trifling cause, Salem drew his sword, and with the fiat of it struck one of the prisoners a violent blow across the shoulders. The poor fellow had only learned one Spanish expres- sion, muchas gracias—the common phrase employed in New Mexico to thank a person for any favour received. Thinking he must say something, and not knowing any thing else to say, the unfortunate Texan ejaculated, " liftschas gracias, Senor!" Another terrible whack from the sword of Salezar was fol- lowed by a shrug of the shoulders and another "Many thanks, Sir." The Cap- tain was now more infuriate than ever. To be thus publicly and openly thanked by a person upon whom he was inflicting a painful punishment, he looked upon as a defiance ; and he accordingly redoubled his blows. How long this might have continued I am unable to say : had not some of the friends of the man told him to hold his tongue, Salezar might have continued his blows until exhausted by the very labour.