When the branch road before spoken of was reached, the negro-drivers, with their drove of human chattels, turned off for Brazos San Diego, while the Colonel and his party pursued their way to Brownsville (opposite Matamoras), which they reached on the following day. Here, too, they saw a considerable number of negroes in confinement, awaiting boats to take them down the Rio Grande River and thence to a market. From Brownsville the Colonel and his party went into Mexico, where they remained about six months. In February, 1866, the Colonel returned to Texas, and while stopping some time with Mr. Higgins, a large landowner and extensive cattle raiser, near Bastrop, overheard a Mexican ask his son, William Higgins, to get up a fandango at his saw-mills and invite all the negroes of the neighborhood, in order that he (the Mexican) and his party might have opportunity to seize some of the negroes and run them off to a market. This, it will be borne in mind, was about ten months after the close of the war, about six months since the Colonel had seen the drove of negroes on the road to Brazos San Diego, and about _three years_ after President Lincoln's proclamation went into effect, declaring freedom to every slave within the limits of the Southern Confederacy. Of course, the Colonel was surprised at hearing such a proposition, and, though as much of a pro-slavery man as any one could be after all that had transpired, still felt curious to know all about this new business, or old business, as it might happen to be, of kidnapping, running off, and selling such as had been slaves. His inquiries resulted in developing the following facts: