French Imperial Guard at Waterloo, as well as to other minor points on which I question Captain Siborne's correctness; but I shall be ready at any time to supply Captain Siborne, or any other writer on Waterloo, with the evidence which I have in my possession on these or other points, in any manner that may secure me from a controversy like that I have been engaged in, for which I have as little inclination as ability. It is very pleasant to discuss points of service with dispassionate persons, who know how difficult it is absolutely to establish the details of such proceedings, and who can correct or modify their preconceptions or impressions without any reciprocal unpleasantness of feeling; but it is different where a book has been written, and when, by shaking a fact to which a writer has committed himself, you unavoidably have to shew that the historian has come hastily to his conclusions, and, perhaps, forborne to seek the evidence which appears to have been easily within his reach. Even the very merits of a work with which you have such a controversy, will tend to stir up something like unkindness between the parties, as where those of a neglected or misrepresented portion of an army, see the trouble taken with regard to other portions of it, wherein evidence has been so industriously sought for, that the feats of the very subalterns of corps in their confined portions of utility, are ascertaiued and blazoned to the world in a detail, which makes the writer himself anticipate the comments of some old campaigners. In Captain Siborne's History there is the affair of the 7th Hussars on the 17th, of which, part of the army at the time had imbibed a wrong impression, most fully described to the advantage and honour of that corps. Twice has Captain Siborne had to speak of irregular movements of the Guards; but in the due and industrious discharge of his duty as a historian, he shews that the one instance testified "the extraordinary discipline of the men of that brigade," and the other afforded a distinguished proof of their "excellent order and self-possession, and admirable discipline." Surely, then, to one of Halkett's brigade, who sees in these cases proofs of the writer's industrious and earnest investigation of truth, it must be doubly painful to find in the one volume of his book a retreat (which we at least must think would have been discreditable) of three of their regiments, improvised for the first and only time in any history; and in the other, their co-operation in the repulse of the Guard, of which Captain Siborne. possessed disinterested and important testimony, for want of greater perseverance in the pursuit of evidence, utterly passed over as if it had never happened. Captain Siborne's rule too never without permission to reveal the names of his informants, coupled with his natural and graceful appreciation of the value of the testimonies he has sought for and obtained, involves a controversy with him in what I think we may consider more than its legitimate difficulties. For instance, when 1 first expressed my conviction that the Quatre-bras statement was erroneous, it was intimated to me that the evidence supporting it included that of "an Officer of high rank, who would generally be considered as the best authority to be obtained from the brigade to which the 30th belonged." Now, would not any one suppose this to mean the General Officer commanding the brigade; and how little would any Officer desire to find himself in collision with such authority? Indeed no one can feel this more justly than Captain Siborne, who has thus

expressed himself: "Did I not conclude, that considering the relative positions of Sir C. Halkett and Major Macready on the day of the battle, the one having been the General Officer commanding the brigade, and the other a young Ensign in one of the regiments, the latter would not feel justified in drawing the General into a controversy with himself on the subject?" Here, then, I had to choose between the probable prospect of finding myself in the unbecoming predicament so correctly deprecated by Captain Siborne, or of leaving the character of my regiment under the incorrect impression which Captain Siborne's History would have sanctioned. I certainly did not hesitate to question Captain Siborne's authority, because, in despite of his assurance, I felt convinced there was some mistake, and that good evidence from Halkett's brigade never could have supported the view he had taken: but such alternatives and dilemmas are anything but agreeable. Again, in this letter, I have to meet an authority," whose name if known, would be a sure guarantee to the whole Army for the truth of his testimony, so justly appreciated in his character for strict integrity, and for high and honourable principle;" and though, as to integrity and principle, I trust in God a man is not supposed to be divested of them because the greater part of the whole Army know nothing about him, yet it is contrary to the plain English principle of a "fair field and no favour," to see a common-place individual like myself, obliged to stand up against authority so stupendous as to have only to declare itself to convince the whole organised valour of Great Britain. I do not think the game an equal one; and whether winner or loser, I here throw up my hand. I have done my best to obtain justice for my old Regiment; and having succeeded fully in the one case and partially in the other, I am not without hopes,-indeed, I am not without the strongest persuasion, that Captain Siborne, in following up his enquiries on the subject, will eventually be as well convinced as I am, that a portion of the French Imperial Guard at Waterloo advanced against, "and was defeated by the 73rd and 30th Regiments."

I beg, Mr. Editor, to offer you my best thanks for the space you have afforded me, and for the several kindnesses for which I am indebted to you; and hoping that the sympathy of yourself and my readers (brother Officers and others) will have been with me in the object I have had in view, I cannot but apologize alike to them and you, for having unnecessarily introduced the irrelevant topic of the preliminary loss of the French Imperial Guard, which so slightly bears upon the questions, which I really thought it nothing less than a duty to lay before you. EDWARD MACREADY, Major Unattached.

THE GOLD MINE OF SAN SABA,

A RECORD OF INDIAN FIGHT.

BY PERCY B. ST. JOHN, AUTHOR OF "THE TRAPPER'S BRIDE, &c."

"PHILOSOPHERS," observed Colonel Love, addressing me, "imagine compounds to be something really different from that of which they are compounded; it is a very great mistake on the part of those learned gentlemen: this whiskey, for instance, though diluted with water from the spring at our feet, is still bond-fide real Monangahela whiskey, and nothing else, though certainly its heat is tempered by the frigidity of the crystal stream."

To explain how my friend the Colonel was induced to venture upon the above sagacious and critical remark, will require some few words of elucidation. Not far from the banks of a winding and beautiful river, picturesquely overhung by lofty trees, the boughs of many hanging into the water, and situate on the confines of Harris and Galveston counties, in the republic of Texas, is a small crescent-like opening in the forest, where the wood retreats a little, and allows the prairie to gain upon its limits. In the extreme bend of this sheltered recess appears a white man's settlement, known by the name of Todville, and established some few years since in the halcyon days of the young republic. To the right as you advance towards the open country, and some twenty yards from the skirt of the timber, is to be seen the frame-work of a very large house, its tall, bare, and weather-beaten posts and pillars rearing themselves aloft without plank for wall, floor, or roof to keep them in countenance. But so it ever is with brother Jonathan; in the universal rage for improvement, by which he is actuated, he does not calculate his resources, but begins to erect a spacious mansion, and has often set up the frame, before he discovers that his means are inadequate to the completion of the undertaking, or perhaps that the "location" is not worth preserving. To the left near the edge of an inclosed field, consisting in part of cleared woodland, and in part of prairie, yielding sweet potatoes and Indian corn, are several outhouses, stables, cowsheds, &c., which denote an advance towards comfort and civilization, little in accordance with the wild scene around, and scarcely to be expected in a spot some thirty miles from anything in the shape of a town. Nailed to a tree is a hand-mill for grinding maize; hard by lies a wood sledge, its load of pine and other logs, neatly piled up close to one of the sheds. The centre of the paysage is formed by a log hut, artistically and strongly built,-a huge Kentuckian carpenter having been the architect, but humble though romantic in its appearance, in its utter primitiveness, with rude door, and no windows, light being allowed to creep through the interstices between the logs, with a brick chimney, hard mud floor, and roof of treble shingle perfectly watertight. This is the habitation of Captain J. G. Tod, the proprietor, not only of all the visible territory, frame-house, shed, forest and prairie, but likewise of some other six thousand acres of goodly land. Behind the hut, and sheltering it from the cold northers, the green wood, alive with choral harmony, stretches itself, and close at hand a few planks

form a rude bridge across a little rivulet which falls, about a mile distant, into the river above alluded to.

A pair of Baltimore sows, with each some dozen juvenile swine, certain fowls and dogs, crowd round the hut, the former in search of a few grains of maize, and a trifle of salt thrown to them every day to keep them in the neighbourhood, and the latter lying down basking in the sun until required by their master, or growling sulkily over a bone. The door of the log-hut is presently opened, and a hunter, with sunburnt features, steps forth upon the prairie, a heavy double-barrelled gun upon his shoulder. His dress is unique: let us therefore cast a cursory glance upon it as he moves along. He wears high and coarse hunting-boots, with canvass trowsers tucked inside of them, a naval watch-coat, with the star and anchor of the Texan republic on its buttons; a narrow-brimmed straw hat surmounts his head; round his waist is a belt, from which is suspended a powder-horn and shot-pouch, while a pistol and hunting-knife,—one on the right, the other on his left side,-complete his costume and accoutrements. Such, gentle and fair readers, was the guise in which I stepped forth, one March morning in the spring of 1843, to prosecute a hunt in the prairie, and though doubtless at Almacks, or Eu, my equipment would have astonished the natives a trifle, yet, time and place considered, my habiliments were quite as appropriate as any court ladies' silks and satins. I believe sincerely "the smartest nation in all creation" have one advantage over us, that of despising dress; perhaps if they could supply themselves, without having recourse to the Britishers, this would not be the case.

But all this is neither explanatory of the Colonel's remark, nor does it bring my readers to San Saba, which is the less surprising, when we reflect that we are thirty days' distant therefrom; let us therefore advance. About three miles in the open prairie was what appeared to be an assemblage of bushes, but which in reality were low trees surrounding a pond, the favourite resort of vast flocks of geese and ducks, and thither it was I now directed my steps in search of game. Having in my own mind formed a settled determination to shoot something, were it only a turkey buzzard, 1 pushed forward, and after a progress of a few hundred yards, experienced the usual delight of a walk through a Texan prairie, when that prairie is low and swampy. The grass was about two feet high, strong, and in many places like stubble, wearing away your upper leathers at no very agreeable rate; rain, too, had lately fallen, and had decidedly not evaporated, since, at every step, I went squash! squash! up to the tops of my boots, and many times very much over them. These are, however, universal accompaniments of a shoot across a wet prairie, and must be borne with equanimity and fortitude. In some places that rejoiced in hog-wallows, I found considerable difficulty in making any progress whatever, sinking above my knees and almost sticking fast, anticipating every moment the delight of being bogged, in which case I had remained a lasting monument of the foolhardiness of the Britishers, as the Yankees, with that eloquence of tongue peculiar to themselves, denominate us. Still, however, on I trudged, striking out with great perseverance for a burn which lay at some distance between the pond and the savannah. This, after a varied series of experiments upon the philosophy and matériel of mud, I presently reached, and again experienced some pleasure in pro

gressing. The nature of these burns it will be, perhaps, desirable to explain. Towards the spring of the year the inhabitants of the Texan wilderness set fire to the prairies which blaze up without difficulty, and the flames continue their devastating progress until arrested by some stream, or a peculiarly wet portion of the immense and belles plaines. The surface of the burns, the sun being thus able to use its influence, remains ever after dry, and covered with patches of short green grass, much coveted by the deer which there congregate in vast herds upon them. I could see many of them far out of reach of shot, now grazing quietly, and now raising their heads and snuffing the wind, then leisurely walking away. They had evidently caught sight or scent of me, and distrusting my intentions, gradually made themselves scarce.

The burn was unfortunately soon crossed, the wet boggy prairie again presenting itself; and from the want of a proper knowledge of localities, I fell into a snipe swamp. On the edge of the burn there appeared some very lofty grass, reaching to the height of not less than six feet, and through this I struck, starting at every step a gray or white snipe. I soon, however, found myself in a fix, since I was actually walking through a pond some two feet deep, muddy, boggy, and so interlaced with roots of grass, as to render my advance extremely difficult. By dint of patience, however, I got through, though not without considerable fatigue. I was now about half a mile from the little lake I sought; and knowing, from former experience, the very sharp nature of the gentlemen I was in search of, especially in these flat savannahs, I very shortly began to use great caution in my progress. The nearer I advanced the higher the grass became, until, when about a hundred yards from the grove of trees, lying between me and the pond, it once more overtopped my head. When arrived at this spot, I could plainly distinguish the quacking of numberless ducks and geese, and used therefore the greatest care to circumvent my prey. I pushed forward, however, stooping slightly until I gained the grove, when I crawled on my hands and knees to the summit of the bank on which the trees grew, firing the instant the birds rose, alarmed by some slight noise I had unavoidably made. The pond was not very large, but every portion of its surface was thickly covered with wild fowl, so that my two barrels taking effect among the dense crowd as they rose on the wing, it will not, I hope, be a matter of surprise that I was disappointed when but five ducks and four geese remained upon the field: doubtless there were many others wounded, but that to me was no consolation. I almost thought my powder and shot wasted, though, as it afterwards turned out, I was mistaken.

Having bagged my prey, and there being no immediate prospect of the pond being revisited, I proceeded to examine the different features of the spot I had gained, in which I found nothing remarkable, save that the trees were in many instances covered by the wild vine, which extended its creeping tendrils to the loftiest branches. Indigenous grapes grow luxuriantly throughout Texas, and, when ripe, are of an excellent flavour; they often, as in the instance of which I now speak, attach themselves to trees, frequently enveloping them on every side, and forming the most delicious natural arbours, pendant in due season with the luscious grape, protected from the excessive heat of the sun by a luxuriant foliage, too much of which, equally with too little, is, how