Read Ebook: The Legacy of Ignorantism by Pardo De Tavera T H Trinidad Hermenegildo

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PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1896. FIVE CENTS A COPY.

TEXAS.

BY A. G. CANFIELD.

The Alamo, citadel and tomb of heroes, had fallen, and all the western part of the young republic was held by the Mexicans. Houston's hundreds were falling back towards the east; Santa Anna's thousands were in close pursuit.

For the story of the battle of the Alamo see "An American Thermopylae," in No. 876.

"I tell you," cried one, "you're risking your life by staying here. Santa Anna's just as likely as not to have you taken out and shot. Remember Goliad!"

"And if they don't shoot you," said another, "they'll clap you in irons and shut you up in a Mexican jail. For my part, I'd rather take the bullet; it's quickest over."

"All the same," said John Sibley, steadily, "I'll have to stay until Mr. Bolden sends for me. He left me in charge here, but promised to get me away before the Mexicans come."

"Huh! Think Editor Bolden's going to trouble himself to get you out of the hole? You needn't if you do. He's saved his own skin, and that's all he cares about. The Greasers might knock everything in the printing-office into pi before I'd stay here to please him."

"Come, John," said one, somewhat older than the rest, "let me persuade you out of this foolhardy project. Your young life ought not to be thrown away in mere bravado."

"It's not bravado, Captain Hays," protested the boy. "It's my plain duty. I promised my employer I would stay and look after his property. He trusted me, and I mustn't disappoint him. So please don't ask me to go with you, for I can't."

"What can a boy like you do to protect the property?"

"I can do just what anybody else would do," said John, smiling; "I can do my best."

"Well," cried one gay young soldier but little older than John himself, "you may thank your lucky stars that you're 'most as black as a nigger, and can patter Spanish like a regular Don. The Mexicans will take you for one of themselves. If they do, and you get a chance at old Wooden-leg, make him believe we're ten thousand strong. It's all right to lie till you're black in the face to fool an enemy and serve your country."

John Sibley nodded and smiled, as the troop filed through the office door with many wishes for his ultimate safety. He stood looking after them with a queer twinkle in his black eyes, saying to himself:

"I'll do the best I can, as you do, brave boys, but I'll lie as little as I can help. Wonder if I couldn't make the truth do as well?"

He passed the anxious time watching and waiting for two events--wondering which of the two would come first--news that he was relieved from duty, and the approach of the Mexican army.

The latter came first. Early one morning the vanguard appeared, soon followed by the main body, led by President Santa Anna in person.

They were surprised to find there a lad as dark-skinned as themselves, who in a resistless flood of Spanish welcomed them like brothers, assuring them in the most high-flown terms of Spanish courtesy that the office and all it contained was theirs, and would be honored by suffering destruction at their hands. But in the midst of this rodomontade he continued by many adroit and well-turned phrases and an assumption of genial camaraderie to induce his troublesome visitors to postpone their destructive designs until he had laid the case before General Santa Anna, to whom he wished to be taken immediately.

This request was granted without any difficulty, for without a word of assertion on his part they had at once adopted him as one of their own race. Who else in that country but a Spanish-American could boast such smooth and courteous manners, such densely black eyes and hair, such a copper-colored skin, and such a flood of Spanish!

When John Sibley stood in the presence of the Dictator of Mexico he trembled from head to foot, but not with fear. He was an American boy, and he could not look on the ruthless destroyer of so many of his countrymen, the treacherous executioner of Goliad, the bloody victor of the Alamo, without a shudder. But Santa Anna was used to seeing grown men tremble before him, and took no notice of the effect he produced on a boy.

"Poverty, your Excellency," he replied, in as fluent Spanish as the Dictator's own, "will, as our proverb says, make a man put up at bad inns. A poor orphan Mexican boy might well be pardoned if he took the work and pay the stranger offered. But if your Excellency thinks it was wrong, let me atone by serving my native land in any way you can make use of me."

The General examined him critically.

"You seem an intelligent youth," he said at last, "and in spite of your boyish look, you have all your wits about you. If you are sincere in your offer, you can give me useful information."

Then followed the usual inquiries as to the number, equipment, and route of the retreating army, to all of which John, contrary to precedent and the advice of his soldier friend, returned truthful answers.

"For if I tell Santa Anna that Houston has more men than he has," reasoned John, "he'll be mighty clear of following him a foot further, and will never fight if he can help it. But if I make him believe he can eat the Texans up at a mouthful, he'll push straight on, and I know what will happen then. The Texas boys will whip him out of his boots, or off his wooden leg."

When these usual questions were disposed of, Santa Anna, looking keenly at the boy, asked him if he knew the country thereabouts.

"Yes, your Excellency, I know the ground well on both sides of the Brazos, and for some way east."

"Humph!" said the General, suspiciously; "how comes a boy of your age to be so competent a guide?"

"My father was a ranchero," was the ready reply. "From a little chap, I went with him everywhere, until he died, about a year ago. I know the country almost as well as he did. Try me, and see if I fail."

"I'll take the job, and the punishment too if I fail," cried John, eagerly. Then, curbing his impetuosity, lest it should excite suspicion, he added, quietly: "I suppose your Excellency will furnish me with a horse? I have none."

This was said with a gracious smile. John felt the tiger's claws under the velvet pat; but his terror was gone now, and he exulted in the hope of outwitting the cunning Mexican.

The General's orderly showed him the corral where the captured horses were confined. There was a number of them; but the practised eye of the ranchero soon picked out the horse he wanted--a beautiful black mustang, whose satinlike skin, small head, and large bright eyes showed breeding and intelligence, while his clean-built sinewy limbs gave satisfactory promise of speed and endurance.

"This is the horse for me," said John, going up to him.

He patted the mustang's glossy neck and stroked its nose, while the horse stood perfectly still and whinnied low. Then, with a bound, John was on its back.

For a moment the mustang justified the orderly's bad opinion. With a vigorous buck it tried its best to throw its rider. But John sat firm, and his soothing voice and hand soon pacified the wild creature, which stood quietly by his side when he dismounted, rubbing its head against his shoulder.

"That horse knows you," said the orderly. "None of us can manage him; but you are an old friend."

"Maybe so. We had a black colt on the ranch that had the making of as fine a horse as this, but he was sold, and I don't know what became of him. I'll try if this is he."

He went some distance from the corral, then called "Texas, Texas!" in the caressing tone he had always used to his favorite colt. The mustang trotted up to the fence, thrust its head over it, and looked eagerly towards the place the voice came from.

"Texas! Texas!" cried John, delightedly, throwing his arms round the horse's neck and kissing the "lone star" on its forehead, the sole white spot on its glossy black hide.

The pursuit was resumed next day, and John went out regularly with the Mexican scouts, and always brought back encouraging reports. Firm in his conviction that a battle must result in a victory for the Texans, notwithstanding the greatly superior force of the enemy, John felt certain that the best service he could render his country would be to bring about a collision between her invaders and defenders as speedily as possible.

Meanwhile he learned to know his horse thoroughly. Although Texas certainly deserved the orderly's assertion that he had the worst of tempers, he never showed it to John. There was perfect understanding between horse and rider, and John knew he could rely on Texas in any emergency.

At last, when the scouts brought news that Houston had reached the San Jacinto, and would cross the river and continue his retreat next day, Santa Anna, President of the Mexican Republic and Generalissimo of her armies, felt that his time for action had come, and John Sibley, printer-boy, felt the same.

He was in the saddle before daylight next morning, ready for a long day's scout. They were to scour the country between the two armies, and send back reports to General Santa Anna. Whether the unusual number of Mexicans sent out with him that morning was intended to supply messengers, or a precaution prompted by doubts of his fidelity, John neither knew nor cared. He patted his mustang's glossy neck, and whispered in its ear that they two would do great things that day. The scouts had their work cut out for them, and were off betimes.

They had traversed a good many miles of country, seeing no signs of the Texans nor hearing anything new of their movements, when at noon they stopped on the bank of a large wooded creek to rest and refresh themselves and their horses. John's mustang was not hobbled like the rest, as he had no fear of its straying, but, to allow it to graze, freely, the bridle had been removed and was looped over the pommel of the saddle.

"Unsaddle, Juan, and let your horse roll," said Jos? Cardenas. "That rests them more than anything else."

"Suppose Houston's scouts come upon us while we're unsaddled and unbridled?" suggested John.

On my noticing the existence of so singular a case, Reverend Clemente Fernandez made it known to me that, among the conditions stipulated by the law of public instruction of Formosa, both for the government as well as the private schools, is the absolute prohibition of religious education and the presentation of images and objects of worship. This is therefore a lay school, a godless school, upon which should also fall the surprising accusation of a prelate who makes use of the liberty afforded him by our government to teach his religion in our schools, but abusing such right and attempting furthermore to impose his will upon the Government, accusing it of teaching homicide, theft, immorality, and corruption of customs in our schools.

Were We To Use the Same Procedure

There is no doubt that even under the Spanish r?gime we already knew of the existence in the Philippines of criminals condemned to death and imprisonment for murder, theft, rape, sacrilege, and all kinds of crimes, and that the corruption of customs was neither unknown nor rare. Since under the entire period of Spanish domination, instruction was under the exclusive care of the friars of the Roman Church, if we utilize the same procedure of the above-mentioned prelate, we could also accuse all the priests of having instructed the Filipinos, thru their education, in murder and in theft, and that the corruption of customs was "all the seasoned fruit of the Catholic schools." I do not propose such an accusation; I only content myself with presenting it as a logical consequence which could be deduced following the method used by the prelate in speaking to no less than his priests in a circular designed to orient the mentality of his clergy and of his parishioners. Pondering over the accusation of the Bishop, it occurred to me that it would be beneficial to recall the public instruction that was formerly given in the Philippines by the "godly schools" and consider the results obtained. Confident in the respectable character, and, to many, the sacred character of the priests, I must resort to their testimony to know what that education was and what results it gave to the Filipino people.

We should not conceal the truth when the truth portrays things that may not be pleasing to us. None like those who are dedicated to instruction have such an interest in knowing the mentality of the society in which they live and which it is their duty to educate. An exact knowledge of the moral, intellectual, and physical defects of a people is the most important factor to orient its education, and it would be absurd to close one's eyes to what is bad, because the principle of correcting a certain thing is to know if it is a mistake or not. One cannot correct an evil of which he is ignorant.

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