under Captain Charles M. Creaner, proceeded to Corpus Christi to serve the warrants on Kinney and Aubrey. By way of reprisal, Captain Creaner was ordered to seize any enemy goods and traders he might find.[44]  The posse, numbering twenty-three men,[45]  reached Kinney's rancho on the 23rd and found ten Mexican traders there with a small caballada of horses recently from the Río Grande. The Texans made prisoners of the traders, and in two hours time they and their horses, mules, and money were on the road to Victoria.

En route, Captain Creaner stopped at the Mission Refugio, and, after dividing the prisoners' property (their clothes, too, it was said) among his men, passed on to Victoria with his prisoners. At Victoria he learned that seven traders from Reinosa had recently passed the Mission Refugio going eastward with a drove of horses and mules. Creaner immediately detached a portion of his command to pursue and capture them,[46]  which was accordingly effected on July 28, in spite of the fact that the Mexicans claimed the laws of Texas and the proclamations of two of its presidents invited, encouraged, and protected the trade between the western settlements of Texas and the citizens of Mexico on the Río Grande. Their protest was to no avail. They were held prisoners for eleven days, and stripped of their entire property, including horses, mules, saddles, bridles, guns, pistols, and other items.[47]  They later claimed their losses amounted to $2,348.

Both groups of prisoners and their property were reported late in July to be at Victoria, awaiting the disposition of the Texan government. Colonel A. S. McDonald, the mayor of Victoria, however, cautioned the Secretary of War, "that if