attempted to escape, but were all cut down by the cavalry. Half an hour or more after the action was over, a few men were found concealed in one of the rooms under some mattresses-General Houston, in a letter of the 11th, says as many as seven; but I have generally heard them spoken of as only three or four. The officer to whom they were first reported entreated Santa Anna to spare their lives; but he was sternly rebuked and the men ordered to be shot, which was done. Owing to the hurried and confused manner in which the mandate was obeyed, a Mexican soldier was accidentally killed with them.

"Castrillon was the soul of the assault. Santa Anna remained at the south battery with the music of the whole army and a part of his staff, till he supposed the place was nearly mastered, when he moved up with that escort toward the Alamo; but returned again on being greeted by a few rifle balls from the upper windows of the church. He, however, entered the area toward the close of the scene, and directed some of the last details of the butchery.

"The five infantry corps that formed the attacking force, according to the data already referred to, amounted to about 2500 men. The number of Mexican wounded, according to various accounts, largely exceeded that of the killed; and the estimates made of both by intelligent men who were in the action, and whose candor I think could be relied on, rated their loss at from 150 to 200 killed, and from 300 to 400 wounded. The real loss of the assailants in killed and wounded probably did not differ much from 500 men. General Bradburn was of opinion that 300 men in the action were lost to the service, counting with the killed those who died of wounds or were permanently disabled. This agrees with the other most reliable estimates. Now, if 500 men or more were bullet-stricken in half an hour, by 180 or less, it was a rapidity of bloodshed almost unexampled, and needs no exaggeration.

"Of the foregoing details, which do not refer to documentary authority, I obtained many from General Bradburn, who arrived at San Antonio a few days after the action, and gathered them from officers who were in it. A few I had through a friend from General Amador. Others again I received from three intelligent sergeants, who were men of fair education, and I think truthful. One of them, Sergeant Becero, of the battalion of Matamoras, who was captured at San Jacinto, was for several years my servant in Texas. From men of their class I could generally get more candid statements, as to loss and other matters, than from commissioned officers. I have also gathered some minor particulars from local tradition preserved among the residents of this town. When most of the details thus learned were acquired, I had not seen the locality; and hence I had to locate some of the occurences by inference; which I have done carefully and I think correctly.

"The stranger will naturally inquire, 'Where lie the heroes of the Alamo?' and Texas can only reply by a silent blush. A few hours after the action, the bodies of the slaughtered garrison were gathered up by the victors, laid in three piles, mingled with fuel, and burned. On the 25th of February, near a year after, their bones and ashes were collected, placed in a coffin, and interred with due solemnity, and with military honors, by Colonel Seguin and his command. The place of burial was in what was then a peach orchard outside the town, a few hundred yards from the Alamo. It is now a large enclosed lot in the midst of the Alamo suburb.”

PART V.

THE WESTERN STATES.

THE State of West Virginia (excluding the narrow strip in the northwest, called the "Pan-handle") lies between 37° 6' and 39° 44′ N. latitude, and between 77° 40′ and 82° 35' W. longitude. It is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania and Maryland, on the southeast by Virginia, on the southwest by Virginia and Kentucky, and on the northwest by Ohio. It is very irregular in shape.

TOPOGRAPHY.

The surface is generally hilly. The northeast part of the State is crossed by the Alleghany Mountains, west of which are the Greenbrier, Cheat Mountains, and other eminences, supposed to be a prolongation of the Cumberland Mountains. The valley between these ranges and the Alleghanies is elevated to a level of from 1200 to 2000 feet above the level of the sea.

The scenery of the State is grand and beautiful. The celebrated pass at Harper's Ferry lies in this State, and is but the beginning of a series of mountain views, unsurpassed in grandeur by any in the world.

"The scenery at Harper's Ferry is, perhaps, the most singularly picturesque in America. To attain the view here given, it was necessary to climb the Blue Ridge by a narrow winding path immediately above the bank of the Potomac. The view from this lofty summit amply repays the fatigue incurred by its ascent. The junction of the two rivers is immediately beneath the spectator's feet; and his delighted

eye, resting first upon the beautiful and thriving village of Harper's Ferry, wanders over the wide and woody plains, extending to the Alleghany Mountains. President Jefferson, who has given the name to a beautiful rock immediately above the village, has left a powerful description of the scenery of Harper's Ferry. He says: "The passage of the Potomac through the Blue Ridge, is, perhaps, one of the most stupendous scenes in nature. You stand on a very high point of land; on your right comes up the Shenandoah, having ranged along the foot of a mountain a hundred miles to seek a vent. On your left approaches the Potomac, in quest of a passage also; in the moment of their junction, they rush together against the mountain, rend it asunder, and pass off to the sea. The first glance of this scene hurries our senses into the opinion that this earth has been created in time; that the mountains were formed first; that the rivers began to flow afterwards; that in this place particularly, they have been dammed up by the Blue Ridge of mountains, and have formed an ocean which filled the whole valley; that, continuing to rise, they have at length broken over at this spot, and have torn the mountain down from its summit to its base. The piles of rock on