Proceedings were after some delay commenced against Romescos,
but,--we trust it was not through collusion with officials-he escaped
the merited punishment that would have been inflicted upon him by a
New England tribunal. Again he left the state, and during his
absence it is supposed he was engaged in nefarious practices with
the notorious Murrel, who carried rapine and death into the
unoffending villages of the far west. However, be this as it may,
little was known of him for several years, except in some desperate
encounter. The next step in his career of desperation known, was
joining a band of guerillos led by one of the most intrepid captains
that infested the borders of Mexico, during the internal warfare by
which her Texan provinces struggled for independence. Freebooters,
they espoused the Texan cause because it offered food for their
rapacity, and through it they became formidable and desperate foes
to the enemy. They were the terror of the ranchoes, the inhabitants
fled at their approach; their pillage, rapine, and slaughtering,
would stain the annals of barbarous Africa. They are buried, let us
hope for the name of a great nation, that they may remain beneath
the pale of oblivion.
In their incursions, as mounted riflemen, they besieged villages,
slaughtered the inhabitants, plundered churches, and burned
dwellings; they carried off captive females, drove herds of cattle
to distant markets. Through the auspices of this band, as is now
well known, many young females were carried off and sold into
slavery, where they and their offspring yet remain. While pursuing
this nefarious course of life, Romescos accumulated more than twenty
thousand dollars; and yet,--though ferocity increased with the
daring of his profession,--there was one impulse of his nature,
deeply buried, directing his ambition. Amid the dangers of war, the
tumult of conflict, the passion for daring-this impulse kept alive
the associations of home,--it was love! In early life he had formed
an attachment for a beautiful young lady of his native town; it had
ripened with his years; the thoughts of her, and the hope of
regaining her love if he gained wealth, so worked upon his mind that
he resolved to abandon the life of a guerillo, and return home.
After an absence of fourteen years he found the object of his early
love,--that woman who had refused to requite his affection,--a widow,
having buried her husband, a gentleman of position, some months
previous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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