under a Mexican colonel, collecting horses and arms for the Centralists at Monterey, to surrender without resistance. Jordan's men took possession of the three hundred muskets and large quantity of cartridges the Centralist foragers had taken up. The colonel was made a prisoner, and his men joined the Federal cause and now marched under its banner.[62]  Finally, the next day, "at a small dirty town [De Grande] or ranch at the foot of the mountains. . . . we found a number of good horses," recorded Neal, and supplying themselves with what they needed (about ninety), they rested two days and a night. At this point, a captain of a small company of Mexicans from San Antonio, Antonio Pérez, "a man well known in San Antonio, Texas, and not a coward," warned Jordan that Molano intended treachery. Jordan failed to heed Pérez; whereupon, the latter "abandoned the enterprise, stole a large Cavayard [caballada] of horses [at De Grande] and left for Texas."[63]  Later Pérez, who had seen service as a frontier spy employed by the Texas government, committed a number of murders and robberies and left Texas for San Fernando, where he became known as a notorious highwayman.

All was not at ease, however, among the Texans. They protested against advancing farther into the heart of the enemy's country unless the whole Anglo-Texan force was along. Now that they were well mounted they wished to return. López and Molano, nevertheless, continued to urge that if they would proceed on to Victoria, sixty miles away, they should be paid off. There was nothing some of the adventurers would have liked better than a little money. So Jordan and his men, with their Mexican brethren, pushed on rapidly toward Ciudad Victoria, capital of the Department of Tamaulipas, capturing Montemorelos, San Cristobal, Linares, Villagran, and Hidalgo en route. It was a long tedious march in the burning sun. At Villagran, Molano later wrote, his difficulties commenced, for the Texans, he said, were not satisfied with the lenity he observed toward the people of the towns through which they marched. They demanded the "spoils of war" that they said they had been promised when enlisting in the Federal service. Molano informed them that the "spoils of war" consisted only of what might be taken from the troops sent to fight them,