or to steal cattle, and then applied to the chief justice for certificates that they had been out on an expedition against the Indians!"[9]  Reported Secretary of War Hockley on January 25, 1842,

It has been reported often to officers of the Department, and to others, that . . . in some instances false Muster Rolls have been made by reporting names of persons said to have perform'd service, and who really were not in existence; and by a Power of Attorney, Pay Drawn; and further, that in other cases certificates have been given for services never performed, because . . . the Chief Justice was aware that such person did reside in their Counties, and presumed that it had been done. . . . The Law, as it now stands, certainly admits of the perpetration of fraud to a great extent.[10]

The expense thus incurred in the several counties in which spy companies had been organized in the aggregate was believed to have exceeded by twice the allowance made by Congress for such bodies.

If there was to be no Mexican invasion, Lamar was determined to push his project for an expedition to Santa Fé, New Mexico. In company with Colonel William G. Cooke, he visited San Antonio, arriving there on May 15 and remaining several days.[11]  Lamar was the first President of the Republic to visit Béxar and gain a first-hand knowledge of the problems confronting the frontier traders and settlers in that quarter. One of his principal objects in going to San Antonio, however, was to confer with José Antonio Navarro about the forthcoming Santa Fé Expedition.

In May a small group of Mexican soldiers descended upon Refugio, killed a few men, robbed the place, and carried off several citizens as prisoners. Captain John R. Baker immediately summoned a small party of volunteers and went in pursuit of the invaders. He followed them to the Río Grande, but failed to overtake the marauders. On the way back he encountered a caballada of horses that had been stolen in Texas. Baker's men attacked the small Mexican party and recovered the horses which they drove to Carlos' Rancho.[12]  When Lamar, acting