t they were
on their way to join a party under the command of General Pedro
Martineze. He also told him that his own name was Colonel Sawyer; that
he had been born in Texas, but had spent most of his life on the
frontier and was concerned in many of the Revolutions that disturbed the
Republic of Mexico. His principal occupation was running arm and
ammunition from the coast to the Revolutionists in the interior. For
three days they pursued their journey, camping every night. About
ten o'clock on the morning of the fourth, they were stopped by the cry
of "Halts, halta." Looking up from where the hail came, they saw the
muzzles of thirty or forty rifles pointed at them. Colonel Sawyer loudly
cried in answer to their command, "Amigos." In a few moments they
were surrounded by a skirmishing party of Revolutionists and conveyed to
the camp. Here Paul found several Americans, all soldiers of
fortune, none of whom gave him very encouraging accounts of the
prospects. Two weeks were spent in the camp from which small
expeditions were sent out every day. Paul accompanied one of these to
the National road running from Tampico to Monterey, and between
the villages of Liera and Maleta. They had a skirmish and succeeded in
capturing a carriage, hauled by four horses which contained some person
of importance as he was treated with the utmost respect by the Commander
and conveyed a prisoner to the camp. The horses were unhitched from the
carriage which was left on the road. Soon after Paul and a party under
the command of Sawyer, were sent to the town of Bagarono where a cargo
of arms had been landed. These by the aid of pack mules were safely
transferred to the camp. Soon after there was a heavy engagement in
which the entire body of Revolutionists participated near Ciudad
Victoria. The revolutionists were badly repulsed and retreated to
the mountains. After this it was nothing but a series of raids which
were both laborious and unsatisfactory. Paul was fast tiring of this
semi-barbarous mode of warfare so that he and four of his companions
decided to discharge themselves on the first favorable opportunity. It
came sooner than they expected. They were sent under command of Sawyer
and others to Metamoras for ammunition. On reaching there, they found
the schooner with the promised supply had not arrived. After waiting for
some days news came that the Revolutionists had again been repulsed