The kind of men I have named do not easily give up. The Mexicans poured bomb-shells and cannon balls into their fort, battering down the walls and killing many of them, but they fought on like tigers, determined to die rather than surrender. At length so many of them were dead that there were not enough left to defend the walls, and the Mexican soldiers captured the Alamo. The valiant Crockett kept on fighting, and when he fell, the ground before him was covered with Mexican dead. Then Santa Anna ordered his soldiers to shoot down all that were left. That is what is called the "Massacre of the Alamo." It was not long before the Americans had their revenge. Their principal leader was a bold and able man named Samuel Houston. He had less than eight hundred men under him, but he marched on the Mexicans, who had then about eighteen hundred men. "Men, there is the enemy," said brave General Houston. "Do you wish to fight?" "We do," they all shouted. "Charge on them, then, for liberty or death! Remember the Alamo!" "Remember the Alamo!" they cried, as they rushed onward with the courage of lions. In a little time the Mexicans were running like frightened deer, and the daring Texans were like deer hounds on their tracks. Of the eighteen hundred Mexicans all but four hundred were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, while the Americans lost only thirty men. They had well avenged the gallant Travis and the martyrs of the Alamo. The cruel Santa Anna was taken prisoner. He had only one sound leg, and the story was that he was caught with his wooden leg stuck fast in the mud. Many of the Texans wanted to hang him for his murders at the Alamo, but in the end he was set free. All this took place in 1835. Texas was made an independent country, the "Lone Star Republic," with General Houston for President. But its people did not want to stand alone. They were American born and wished to belong to the United States. So this country was asked to accept Texas as a state of the Union. Nine years after it was accepted as one of the American states. Perhaps some of my readers may think that this story has much more to do with the history of Mexico than that of the United States. But the taking of Texas as a state was United States history, and so was what followed. You know how one thing leads to another. Mexico did not feel like giving up Texas so easily, and her rulers said that the United States had no right to take it. It was not long before the soldiers of the two countries met on the border lands and blood was shed. There was a sharp fight at a place called Palo Alto, and a sharper one at a place called Resaca de la Palma. In both of them the Mexicans were defeated.