sun, would spread their blankets upon the thorn-bushes and get underneath them. They now would fain have drank

but neither had they: their good horses, too, had paid the tribute of their lives. In vain did they recollect Mark Antony's sufferings in the Alps, and the Arab tales of taking drink from the bowels of their faithful camels: it was but to augment their own sufferings. In the delirium of consuming fevers they sought

Some were chewing and eating negro-head and prickly-pear leaves, to produce moisture in their mouths, but these astringents greatly aggravated their sufferings; while others, with tongues so parched and swollen that they could not close their mouths, were scratching in the shade of bushes for cool earth to apply to their throats and stomachs; [164] yet, even yet, their sufferings were to be increased. Wild delirium seized upon those who had most freely used the astringent plants, and in their last agony they had recourse to their own urinary secretion. This was drinking living fire! and this they knew, for many were men of education; but still they drank and drank! Several expired, and all prayed for death to relieve them. To all who may chance to see these pages, and hereafter be in a similar situation, either by land or sea, recollect these facts, that it is far better to die without this last recourse, for the phosphate of lime contained in this liquid produces a consuming agony far worse than death without it.

At 1 o'clock P.M. discovered a large smoke to the right, and at first supposed it to be a signal from some of their water-hunters, and sent a messenger to Captain Cameron to inform him. At this time, most of the men, from pure inability to carry them, threw away their arms, and late in the evening started for the smoke. Some would stop to get the juice of plants to keep them from expiring, while every fifteen or twenty minutes others would have to rest. About 8 o'clock at night those in advance approached near enough to the fires to ascertain it to be a Mexican cavalry camp. They endeavoured to get around it, but found the pass ahead of them guarded by another camp of the enemy. It was now daylight, and our men, scattered, exhausted, and without arms, had no other alternative [165] but to surrender to a force which, if they had kept the road, as was the original plan, they could have easily beaten; and had they pursued the original plan, at this time they would have been safe in Texas. Before, however, Captain Cameron surrendered his party to Governor-general Mexier, he demanded