omising at least to bring back a supply of horses for the use of the
army.

On the 5th of March, the garrison of Goliad received intelligence of the
declaration of Texian independence, and of the appointment of a
government, with Burnet as president, and Lorenzo de Zavala, a Mexican,
as vice-president. At the same time, came orders from General Houston to
destroy the forts of Goliad and the Alamo, and retreat immediately
behind the Guadalupe. Santa Anna, with twelve thousand men, was
advancing, by rapid marches, towards Texas. The order reached the Alamo
too late, for the little garrison of a hundred and eighty men was
already hemmed in, on all sides, by several thousand Mexicans, and had
sent messengers, imploring assistance, to Fanning at Goliad, and to
Houston, who was then stationed with five hundred militia at Gonzales,
high up on the Guadalupe. A second despatch from General Houston gave
Fanning the option of retiring behind the Guadalupe; or, if his men
wished it, of marching to the relief of the Alamo, in which latter case
he was to join Houston and his troops at Seguin's Rancho, about forty
miles from St Antonio. Fanning, however, who, although a man of
brilliant and distinguished courage, seems to have been an undecided and
wrongheaded officer, did neither, but preferred to wait for the enemy
within the walls of Goliad. In vain did a majority of his men, and
especially the Greys, urge him to march to the rescue of their comrades;
he positively refused to do so, although each day witnessed the arrival
of fresh couriers from St Antonio, imploring succour.

One morning three men belonging to the small detachment which, under
Colonel Grant, had gone upon the mad expedition to the Rio Grande,
arrived at Goliad with news of the destruction of their companions. Only
thirty in number, they had collected four hundred fine horses, and were
driving them northward to rejoin their friends, when, in a narrow pass
between thickets, they were suddenly surrounded by several hundred of
the enemy's lancers, whose attack, however, seemed directed rather
against the horses than the escort. Grant, whose courage was blind, and
who had already witnessed many instances of the almost incredible
poltroonery of those half-Indians, drew his sword, and charged the
Mexicans, who were at least ten times his strength. A discharge of
rifles and pistols stretched scores of the lancers upon the ground; but
that discharge made, there was no time