“Very soon after we hit Mexican soil we run into one of the armies--a Liberal army, this one was, of about twelve hundred men, and its name suited it to a T. The officers were liberal about givin' orders and the men were equally liberal about makin' up their minds whether or not they'd obey. Also, ez we very quickly discovered, the entire kit and caboodle of 'em were very liberal with reguards to other folks' property and other folks' lives. We'd acquired a few careless ideas of our own concernin' the acquirin' of contraband plunder durin' the years immediately precedin', but some of the things we seen almost ez soon ez we'd been welcomed into the hospitable but smelly midst of that there Liberal army, proved to us that alongside these fellers we were merely whut you might call amatoors in the confiscatin' line. “I wish't I had the words to describe the outfit so ez you could see it the way I kin see it this minute. This purticular army was made up of about twelve hundred head, includin' common soldiers. I never saw generals runnin' so many to the acre before in my life. The Confederacy hadn't been exactly destitute in that respect but--shuckins!--down here you bumped into a brigadier every ten feet. There was a considerable sprinklin' of colonels and majors and sech, too; and here and there a lonesome private. Ef you seen a dark brown scarycrow wearin' fur a uniform about enough rags to pad a crutch with, with a big sorry straw hat on his head and his feet tied up in bull hides with his bare toes peepin' coyly out, and ef he was totin' a flint lock rifle, the chances were he'd be a common soldier. But ef in addition to the rest of his regalia he had a pair of epaulettes sewed onto his shoulders you mout safely assume you were in the presence of a general or something of that nature. I ain't exaggeratin'--much. I'm only tryin' to make you git the picture of it in your mind. “Well, they received us very kindly and furnished us with rations, sech ez they were--mostly peppers and beans and a kind of batter-cake that's much in favour in them parts, made out of corn pounded up fine and mixed with water and baked ag'inst a hot rock. Ef a man didn't keer fur the peppers, he could fall back on the beans, thus insurin' him a change of diet, and the corn batter-cakes were certainly right good-tastin'. “Some few of our dark-complected friends kin make a stagger at speakin' English, so frum one of 'em Billy inquires where is the Confederacy? They explains that it has moved on further South but tells us that first General Shelby sold 'em the artillery he'd fetched with him that fur to keep it frum failin' into the Yankees' hands. Sure enough there're the guns--four brass field-pieces. Two of 'em are twelve-pounders and the other two are four-teen-pounders. The Mexicans are very proud of their artillery and appear to set much store by it.