The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900 by Mike Cox
Hello and happy Tuesday everyone. Today I’m going to do something a little different and share with you an excerpt from a book. I’m hoping to make excerpts a regular thing here at The Book Stacks. I hope you like it.
Excerpt from…
The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900
(Forge, 2008) by Mike Cox
On the second day of his journey along the Colorado, he heard a loud Indian war whoop. Startled back to reality, Austin reined his horse. A tall Indian, followed by fourteen warriors, emerged from the high, thick Arundinaria (bamboo cane) along the river and walked slowly toward the American horsemen.
“These Indians were well formed and apparently very active and athletic men,� Austin later noted. Each warrior, his body smeared with alligator grease to ward off mosquitoes, carried a cedar bow nearly as long as he stood tall. Austin saw that the deerskin quivers hanging from the Indians’ muscled shoulders bristled with arrows. Signing friendship, the Indian in the lead moved toward Austin and his party.
Telling his men to get ready to fight, Austin nudged his horse with his boots and rode about twenty yards ahead to meet the Indians. He had never fought Indians hand to hand, but as an officer in the Missouri militia during the War of 1812, Austin had learned something of military strategy and tactics. A show of determination, he knew, could be as effective as resorting to arms. Talk would come before gunfire.
In Spanish, the chief asked Austin where he was from and where he was going. Austin explained that he was an American with permission from Spain to bring families to settle between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. Accepting that, the chief identified himself as a Coco, which Austin knew to be a branch of the feared Karankawas. Wary of the chief’s invitation to follow the Indians to their camp, Austin refused. Holding his flintlock rifle across his chest, the young American warned the Indians not to come closer.
Visit the author at
www.mikecoxonline.com
www.lonestarbooks.blogspot.com
www.saddlebagbooksonline.com
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