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Piedras Negras. Characteristic Scene. A Barren Prairie Land. Castaño, a Native Village. Adobe Cabins. Indian Irrigation. Sparsely Populated Country. Interior Haciendas. Immigration. City of Saltillo. Battle of Buena Vista. City of Monterey. The Cacti and Yucca-Palm. Capture by General Taylor. Mexican Central Railroad. Jack-Rabbits. A Dreary Region. The Mesquite Bushes. Lonely Graves.
Piedras Negras boasts a spacious stone hotel, two stories in height, which is quite American in appearance. The town is spread over so broad an area as to have the effect of being sparsely peopled, but it is thrifty in aspect and growing rapidly.
He and his hospitable wife and daughter drummed up the female portion of the elite of Piedras Negras and provided the house, which was the official as well as the personal residence of the commandant, while we the young officers furnished the music and such sweetmeats, candies, &c., for the baille as the country would afford. We generally danced in a long hall on a hard dirt floor.
There were quite a number of young officers at the post during the winter, and as our relations with the Mexican commandant at Piedras Negras were most amicable, we were often invited to dances at his house.
Merritt's cavalry and the Fourth Corps still being at San Antonio, I went to that place and reviewed these troops, and having prepared them with some ostentation for a campaign, of course it was bruited about that we were going to invade Mexico. Then, escorted by a regiment of horse I proceeded hastily to Fort Duncan, on the Rio Grande just opposite the Mexican town of Piedras Negras.
In Germany we are shown DONNER-KEILE, in Alsace DORMER-AXT, in Holland DONNER-BEITELS, in Denmark TORDENSTEEN, in Norway TORDENKEILE, in Sweden THORSOGGAR, Thor having been the god of thunder amongst northern nations; while with the Celts the MENGURUN, in Asia Minor the YLDERIM-TACHI, in Japan the RAI-FU-SEKI-NO-RUI, in Roussillon the PEDRUS DE LAMP, and in Andalusia the PIEDRAS DE RAYO have the same signification.
A plan of action having been decided upon, the Wilmington arrived at the blockading station from Key West on the morning of the eleventh. She found there, off Piedras Bay, the cruiser Machias, the torpedo-boat Winslow, and the revenue cutter Hudson, which last carried two 6-pounders.
You reach the prim little front door by climbing a street which runs parallel with the Rio Grande, and the church is almost the last structure you will pass before you set forth into a No-Man's land of sage and cactus and yucca and mesquite lying under the blazing sun. Harboro his name was. Of course, there was a Christian name, but he was known simply as Harboro from Piedras Negras to the City.
In the evening we went on shore at Cayo de Piedras; two rocks connected together by breakers and lying in the direction of north-north-west to south-south-east. On these rocks which form the eastern extremity of the Jardinillos many vessels are lost, and they are almost destitute of shrubs because shipwrecked crews cut them to make fire-signals.
Several of the Cayos of the island of Cuba contain fresh water; and I found this water very good in the middle of the Cayo de Piedras. When we reflect on the extreme smallness of these islands we can scarcely believe that the fresh-water wells are filled with rain-water not evaporated.
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