among the Texan prisoners exchanged. The prisoners were held to September 14, during which time they were boarded by William Snodgrass at a cost of $10 per day for twenty-eight days.[4]

Based on information obtained from Captain Corsco and his men and several Irish settlers at the southern extremity of Padre Island, it was estimated that the whole Mexican force on the Río Grande did not exceed three hundred troops, distributed as follows: one hundred regular infantry in Matamoros; fifty men, part infantry and part cavalry, under Colonel Fernández at Camargo -- the cavalry horses were said to be so poor they could scarcely walk; forty rancheros on the Arroyo Colorado under Colonel Villareal; and higher up and north of the Río Grande were an estimated fifty to a hundred men under Colonel Ramírez ranging the country as a robber band -- "a terror to the traders of either party." No doubt the weakness of the Mexican military position along the line of the Río Grande was due to the outbreak of revolutionary disturbances in the interior of Mexico.

In spite of Arista's attitude and repeated orders from the Mexican authorities against the conduct of trade with Texas,[5]  wagons loaded with beans, sugar, flour, leather, shoes, saddles, and silver bars molded in sand, each embracing $50 to $60 of pure silver, continued to cross the prairies to be exchanged for calico (bleached and unbleached), tobacco, and American hardware. The trade persisted, although the