I did sleep, and when I awoke this time I felt myself a little invigorated, though my lips and tongue were quite parched.  I remembered everything; down my hand slided; I could not reach my ankle, so I put up my knee.  I removed the scarf and the poultice of master weed.  My handkerchief was full of a dried, green, glutinous matter, and the wounds looked clean.  Joy gave me strength.  I went to the stream, drank plentifully, and washed.  I still felt very feverish; and, although I was safe from the immediate effects of the poison, I knew that I had yet to suffer.  Grateful to Heaven for my preservation, I saddled my faithful companion, and, wrapping myself closely in my buffalo-hide, I set off to the Comanche camp.  My senses had left me before I arrived there.  They found me on the ground, and my horse standing by me.

Fifteen days afterwards I awoke to consciousness, a weak and emaciated being.  During this whole time I had been raving under a cerebral fever, death hovering over me.  It appears that I had received a coup-de-soleil, in addition to my other mischances.

When I returned to consciousness, I was astonished to see Gabriel and Roche by my side; the expedition had returned triumphant.  The Cayugas’ villages had been burnt, almost all their warriors destroyed, and those who remained had sought a shelter in the fissures of the earth, or in the passes of the mountains unknown to any but themselves.  Two of the Mexican girls had also been rescued, but what had become of the others they could not tell.

The kindness and cares of my friends, with the invigorating influence of a beautiful clime, soon restored me to comparative health, but it was a long time before I was strong enough to ride and resume my former exercise.  During that time Gabriel made frequent excursions to the southern and even to the Mexican settlements, and on the return from his last trip he brought up news which caused the Indians, for that year, to forsake their hunting, and remain at home.  General Lamar and his associates had hit upon a plan not only treacherous, but in open defiance of all the laws of nations.  But what, indeed, could be expected from a people who murdered their guests, invited by them, and under the sanction of a white flag.  I refer to the massacre of the Comanche chiefs at San Antonio.

The President of Mexico, Bustamente, had a view to a cessation of hostilities with Texas.  The Texans had sent ambassadors to negotiate a recognition and treaty of alliance and friendship with other nations; they had despatched Hamilton to England to supplicate the cabinet of St. James to lend its mighty influence towards the recognition of Texas by Mexico; and while these negotiations were pending, and the peace with Mexico still in force, Lamar, in defiance of all good faith and honour, was secretly preparing an expedition, which, under the disguise of a mercantile caravan, was intended to conquer Santa Fe and all the northern Mexican provinces.  This expedition of the Texans, as it would pass through the territory of the Comanches, whose villages, &c., if unprotected, would, in all probability, have been plundered, and their women and children murdered, induced the Comanches to break up their camp, and return home as speedily as possible.