beat off their assailants sufficiently to enable them to gain a dense thicket. Córdova gave up the assault and moved up the river, leaving the scouting party in a difficult situation. They had lost their horses and all belongings except their arms. All of them had received painful wounds, and James Day was in serious condition.[55]  His comrades bore him to the river and secreted him under a bluff; and, while the others stayed with him, Thomas Nichols swam the river and went to Seguin for assistance. A cart was sent back under a strong guard, and Day was brought to Seguin.[56]  Upon Caldwell's arrival in Seguin the next morning, the scouts were able to supply him with the latest information of the marauders' trail.

Besides those from Gonzales, Caldwell was joined at Seguin by French Smith, Ezekiel Smith, Sr., Peter D. Anderson, George W. Nichols, Sr., William Clinton, Doctor ________ Henry, George H. Gray, Frederick Happle, H. G. Henderson, and possibly two or three others.[57]  Caldwell's force amounted to about fifty men. He took up the pursuit, and was joined near San Antonio by Colonel Henry W. Karnes' Company. When the trail divided, the two companies parted, each following one of its branches. Burleson, in the meantime, returned toward Bastrop.

Córdova's trail crossed the Guadalupe near where New Braunfels now stands, and continued through the highlands north of and around San Antonio, and thence in a western and southwestern direction to the old Presidio del Río Grande road, where it crossed the Río Frio. When last seen by a party of Mexican traders from the Río Grande, about fifty miles below Béxar on April 5, Córdova had about twenty men in his party.[58]  Caldwell broke off pursuit at the Río Frio,[59]  for it was evident from the "signs" that the Texans had gained nothing in distance on the retreating foe, whom they estimated to be some thirty or forty miles in the lead.

At different points along the route the Texans discovered wounded horses abandoned by Córdova's men. One of these, found in the moun-