Sketches of the campaign in northern Mexico : in eighteen hundred forty-six and seven / by an officer of the First Regiment of Ohio volunteers.

WE VISIT A MEXICAN HACIENDA.
of the pocket-handkerchief, and the husk in the sombrero.
Our host was a capital cigar-maker, and while engaged iir
earnest conversation, manufactured the pleasant little rolil:
as fast as three or four persons could consume them. He wae:
a man of considerable substance, and in addition to his casca
de camcpo (country house) owned, as he informed us, a dwell
ing in the town of Reynosa. On his large estate, whic!extended for many leagues along the river, were grazing a
great number of mustangs, mules, cattle, sheep and goats;
the tithe of which, he said, were sometimes stolen by the
Camanches, at one fell swoop. Fifty of his best pack-mule;,
had recently been hired to the American quartermaster at
Camargo; and he informed us that many others were beinl
sent there by the Mexicans to be employed in transporting
our baggage and supplies to Monterey. In the course of conversation, Senor ~- asked us, how many voluntarios wercoming to Mexico? He was told in reply, that we did no!:
know what number had been ordered to the Rio Grande;
but certainly enough for present purposes; and that nearly
every man in the United States capable of bearing arms wal
ready, if required, to join Taylor's army. From the incredulious air with which the latter part of this response wareceived, it was evident that the old man knew more of thcopposition to the war at home, than had been supposed.
Possibly he may have been enligidtened by some of th:
"' Stars" and "' Torchlights," or other equally luminous an(:
rabid anti-war prints published in Ohio; whose editors, noe
content with opposing the cause of their country, engaged ii
the pitiful business of abusing those who dared not only tdiffer from them, but to take part in the strife~