to strike, but suffers a collapse under an instinctive fear which prompts it to submit to its fate with its head hid beneath the coils of its body, which are closely drawn together.
The deer springs from a safe distance into the air with its four feet brought together, and it comes down on the snake with its sharp pointed hoofs which cut like a knife. The movements are rapid and often repeated until the rattler is mangled into a shapeless mass. I have seen places where snakes had been killed by deer, but have never witnessed the performance. The marks of their sharp hoofs showed in the hard beaten ground and the bones of their victims were in evidence.
Highwaymen in Mexico are called ladrones, or robbers. They usually frequented the frontier, but other parts of the country were often infested by them before they were finally suppressed by the government. Generally they were a select body of men of good appearance, who wore broad-brimmed felt hats elaborately embroidered with silver and gold thread, and dressed in the regular riding costume that was profusely ornamented with silver buttons in front, on the sleeves, and down the trousers. Their horses were the best that the country afforded, and silver mountings were lavishly displayed on their saddles and bridles.
When a band of ladrones decided to hold up a stage, after ascertaining that it was conveying a large sum of money or on other occasions, they selected an uninhabited region at a point where it was necessary for the vehicle to ascend a steep hill, and concealed themselves on both sides of the road until it approached. The first intimation of their presence was given by one of the gang, who ordered the driver to stop, when the others showed themselves and the spokesman made known his
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intentions to the passengers. Pointing to his companions, who silently awaited the result of the conference, he ex- plained that it would be folly to offer resistance, as they were ready to enforce his demands. With the greatest politeness he requested them to pass out their money, and when they complied he placed it all together on the road- side. Force was rarely used in such cases, and I never heard of an instance when the pockets of passengers were searched. The money wanted was in sacks and generally amounted to large sums in silver that could not be concealed.
When Major Porter's brother was robbed by ladrones on the national stage line near Monterey, in 1868, no resistance was offered; the passengers delivered ten thou- sand dollars to one man, who was in a short distance of his companions. After securing his treasure he ordered the driver to proceed on his journey.
I was never molested by ladrones when staging in that country, and only know of one occasion when I believed they intended to hold me up. It happened near Palo Blanco ranch, twenty-five miles northeast of Salinas. Victoria, where ten or twelve men were lined up on both sides of the road. I was riding on the outside with my driver and escort when I saw them. The speed of the team was checked and I called the attention of my passengers inside the stage to the suspicious circumstance. We all recognized them as regular ladrones by their dress, etc., which corresponded with the general description I have given, and no time was lost in getting our weapons ready to meet them. The team was in a walk when we passed between them, but evidently, seeing that we were prepared to offer resistance, they were content to extend to us their friendly greetings. My passengers were Daniel Wueste of Eagle Pass, Carlos Sada of Monterey, Pedro Morales, customs-house officer at Piedras Negras, and two Mexican army officers.
I only know of three stage robberies that occurred in
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Mexico when I was in the business. One took place within five and another in less than ten miles of Monterey, on the road leading from Saltillo; and the other was forty miles from Monterey, on the Matamoras road near Lenares. The money thus obtained, when added together, amounted to a large sum, and it was all secured without a drop of blood being shed.
CHAPTER VI
THE fact is well known that smuggling has always been conducted along the borders between the two republics, but in earlier times it was practiced with greater impunity than at present. There were two classes of smugglers then, as there are now, who operated according to their means and influence. Those who could command both met with no difficulty in advancing their measures with the aid of friendly officials who boldly passed large transactions through the doors of the customs-house at a small expense. On the other hand, persons without means or patronage and with only a bold and enterprising spirit to sustain them were compelled to resort to secret methods when conducting the same kind of business on a small scale. Much trading was done in that way with goods and animals that were acquired in legitimate transactions and the tariff due the governments was the only loss sustained ; but a much more extensive smuggling business was done by unscrupulous persons with property that was feloniously acquired. This class of thieves generally were organized to operate in gangs on both sides of the river and acted in collusion with each other by exchanging stolen property brought from Mexico for other property acquired in a like manner in Texas. In that way a large number of animals of all kinds were transferred from one side of the Rio Grande to the other with little risk of detection.
One of the most notorious characters that was ever engaged in such practices was Manuel Telamantes, a Mexican, whose home was in Eagle Pass. At one time his character was held in the highest estimation and he
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exerted a great influence among Americans. I was well acquainted with him, and at that time, in 1866, he was generally liked by all who knew him. He was also looked upon as a good and honest citizen until it was discovered that he was a leader of an organized gang of thieves and smugglers that had been in existence for years.
He was a young and handsome fellow who dressed well and made a respectable appearance; he was also liberal with his means and conducted himself properly ; although at frequent intervals he absented himself for a short time and always returned with large sums of money, his busi- ness was not suspected, but after his character was ex- posed it became known that his secret expeditions were made to meet his confederates and to receive his share of the spoils.
His career was prolonged until 1879, when it was made unsafe to engage in such enterprises, and his, like many others under similar circumstances, was closed by a vio- lent death. The particulars relating to the case, as they were represented to me, show that he entered Texas with a large herd of horses and mules, which were stolen in Mexico, and they were traded for beeves that had been stolen from ranchmen by associates in Texas. The thieves who received the horses and mules made good their escape, but Telamantes and his men with the cattle were pursued until overtaken between Fort Clark and the Rio Grande. The beeves were recovered, and Telamantes and his men were captured and hung.
I do not doubt but that he had earned his fate, but when I recalled his many good qualities I could not help feeling regret that he had come to such an end. I saw him last in 1877, in San Antonio, when he offered to sell me one hundred and fifty choice mules, which were concealed somewhere in the mountains near Devil's River. He proposed to let me have the entire lot at a bargain, but I declined his offer. He was a bold fellow, and if he was a thief he took desperate chances in enterprises that
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required brains that gave him control over men. He would have scorned the methods practiced by common thieves and highwaymen like that once attempted against me.
The incident occurred in 1867, when I was returning from Eagle Pass and after I had delivered the Castroville mail-sack to Mr. John Vanze, the postmaster. A few minutes later he returned with the mail-pouch for San Antonio, and I paid him a twenty-dollar gold piece that John Kenedy, of Sabinal, had requested me to give him. I had taken it from a sack that contained about fifty dollars in Mexican silver, which I returned to its proper place under the
