t be written about the cave, but our objective point is Mexico.

Resuming our journey, and keeping still southward, Nashville, Tenn.,
Montgomery, Ala., Mobile, and New Orleans were reached respectively, and
on schedule time. The Crescent City is the greatest cotton mart in the
world, and is situated about a hundred miles from the Gulf of Mexico,
within a great bend of the Mississippi River, and hence its title of the
"Crescent City." It has over a quarter of a million of inhabitants. Its
peculiar situation makes it liable to floods each recurring spring.
Following what is known as the "Sunset Route" westward, we passed
through Texas by way of Houston, Galveston, and San Antonio.

A few hours were devoted to the latter place, in order to see the famous
Alamo, the old fort which, in 1836, the Texans so gallantly defended
while fighting for their independence. There were less than one hundred
and fifty men in the Alamo when it was besieged by four thousand Mexican
troops under Santa Anna. The Mexicans had artillery, the Texans had
none. They were summoned to surrender, but knowing what Mexican "mercy"
meant, they refused, and resolved to defend themselves to the very end.
The siege lasted for thirteen days, during which Santa Anna's soldiers
threw over two hundred shells into the Alamo, injuring no one. In the
mean time, the Texan sharpshooters picked off a great number of the
Mexicans. No shots were thrown away. If a gun was fired from the Alamo,
one of the besiegers was sure to fall. Santa Anna made several assaults,
but was driven back each time with great loss, until, it is represented,
he become frenzied by his want of success. At last, on the 6th of May, a
final and successful assault was made. When the fort was captured, every
Texan fell, fighting to the last. To be exact, there were just one
hundred and forty-four men inside the fort at the beginning of the
siege, and this handful of men either killed or wounded about one half
of the besieging force. It is said that over fifteen hundred Mexicans
were killed! This was about seven weeks before the battle of San
Jacinto, on which occasion General Houston captured, with a much
inferior force, the entire Mexican army, including Santa Anna himself,
who was running away in the disguise of a common infantry soldier. It
was with difficulty that his life was saved from the just fury of the
Texan soldiers. This decisive battle ended the war, and made Texas
independent of Mexi