them; I sent a note to Snively telling him if it were true, to cross the river below me and I would defend him. As there was much stir and confusion round the camp, I sounded to horse. Soon I received a message that it was a false alarm. Then I received a note, which I copy:

CAPT. COOKE, Dr. Sir, The man who was wounded when I visited your camp is expiring; it will be impossible to remove him at present. If you could send a company to guard us this night I would consider myself under many obligations. Very respectfully your obt. Servt., (Signed)

J. SNIVELY.

I returned answer that there was no danger, and I could not comply; that they might come over, leaving a small party hid in the grove.

Now a committee of merchants called on me to discuss the situation. One of them said I ought to have 'slaughtered them all.' And at first they seemed uneasy, and dissatisfied that their enemies should go free. It had been ascertained that their division and separation had occurred yesterday; that the statement that it was 'three days ago' was false.

The merchants left me at dark, apparently contented.

At 10 o'clock, after sixteen hours of work, incessant and exciting, until dark, with no thought of food, I go to rest, well satisfied that, under circumstances of great responsibility, I have done my duty in the trust con. fided to me.

The following morning the Texans rode over, and I addressed them, from horseback; a large portion then accepted my offer of escort, and the others departed, homeward, they said. I left a troop in camp with them, and part of my baggage, and marched with the caravan, several days, to the crossing, and, seeing them safely over, returned. The homeward march was uneventful and pleasant; the Texans gave some trouble, and, I believe, plotted much more; I sent them adrift at the first settlements. We arrived at Fort Leavenworth, our home, early in August."

General Gaines, commanding in the West, a great enthusiast for his age, seemed determined that I should undisputably cross that boundary. He wrote me the following letter:

My Dear Captain

Hd. Qrs., Saint Louis, Mo., August 21, 1843

Understanding that the principal merchants of Santa Fé, in whose behalf the Mexican Minister at Washington solicited your present command, were apprehensive you would not go with them further than the Arkansas river; I have to request you to see these Merchants and assure them of your authority and determination to afford them protection until they shall meet a competent escort, or until they shall reach Santa Fé. Assure them of our determination to protect them at all hazards;—and if in the discharge of this duty you should find rough or perilous work, the meritorious services of your officers and your men and yourself, shall be affectionately remembered by every true hearted Soldier and

Statesman of our country, and more especially of these great and growing States of the Valley of the Mississippi, and more especially of your General and friend

Postscript

Edmund P. Gaines.

I enclose for your information and government a printed copy of my letter to General Taylor-which was intended to cover the whole ground from Independence to Santa Fé. Signed E. P. G.

Of the postscript, something more a little further on.

Accordingly, I marched again from Fort Leavenworth about September 1st, with nearly the same command. Unfortunately, this September, 1843, proved the wettest of my experience; the unwieldy caravan was almost stopped by the soft road; it was very cold, and many poor drivers and Mexican servants died. I hoped to escort the caravan to a safe point, and then be in time to return home before the grass was spoiled. But General Gaines had ordered a contract made with Mr. Bent-of Bent's Fort, a fortified trading-house on the Upper Arkansas-for our winter supplies; and he overtook me, September 23d, at Jackson Grove, bringing ten wagon loads; and it seemed necessary to give him then a required notice effecting some further large purchases; but, on my part, properly contingent upon still undetermined circumstances. This was very embarrassing; my future actions were really in a sense dependent upon the merchants; to leave them before they were satisfied that there was no more danger might lead to results probably more nearly ruinous to me than to them.

The great difficulty of the situation lay in the subsistence of horses and draft-mules. In those economical days we never took forage with us in our prairie marches; and the Arkansas grass-that low down, like that of our nearer prairies-becomes utterly innutritive after a few hard frosts.

It was October 4th that, while I was making our night camp on the river bank, a messenger brought me news of the arrival, at the crossing, a few miles above, of a Mexican army escort!

The caravan was then well up to the front; so next morning leaving my baggage, I marched to the crossing; as I approached the Mexicans saddled and mounted. I sent my adjutant over with greetings, and an invitation to their officers to spend the day with us. The commander declined, saying pointedly, that he had been ordered on no account to cross the boundary.

As soon as the caravan was over, I mounted and then, as a kind of salute fired a round from the howitzer battery; the shells were directed, in ricochet down a fine reach of the river, and after many beautiful rebounds exploded under water. I then marched back to camp.

It had now come to light that the published letter of General Gaines,

mentioned in his postscript, had been sent home by the Mexican minister; and that the Mexican President-Santa Anna-had then sent by fast couriers to Santa Fé orders to dispatch immediately an escort to meet the caravan on the Arkansas. They were just in good time.

There was now, of course, no choice but to march home, although October 6 was dangerously late for the animals. But great pains were taken; after the grass was spoiled, the men chopped it with their knives, and mixed feeds with what flour could possibly be spared for their horses, and they liberally shared with them their blankets at night. The last half of the march the horses were led much more than ridden. I had sent an express for corn, and we began to meet wagon loads several nights before the end.

Some animals were left to rest and recruit-and corn sent to them at Council Grove, and at another thick wooded creek bottom nearer home, and these the only two in the hundreds of miles. They were all turned loose to rest and graze and browse for thirty-six hours.

And so we reached home, and through a snow or two, with very little loss.

The rations sent for me were ordered to be stored at Bent's Fort, and were almost forgotten. But two years after the regiment on return march from the South Pass (of the Rocky Mountains), its commander, Colonel S. W. Kearny, turned South at Fort Laramie to the Arkansas far above Bent's Fort, and he calculated so confidently on the safety, and the good condition, too, of the stores in that dry mountain air, and so closely, that we arrived there quite out of provisions.

He judged aright in all. The Colonel made a camp at " Jackson Grove," for the purpose of taking observations for longitude and deciding the question of two years before. They were taken by Lieutenant-now General Wm. B. Franklin, of Rhode Island. And he found to my gratification, that the spot was some three minutes (miles) east of the 100° line so far within our boundary.

The Texans, whom I had disarmed, were reported to have met with disasters from faults of their own. Certain it is that they and their friends kept alive very bitter and revengeful feelings toward their captor. Ten years after, when stationed about half a year in Texas, in a night meeting, held near my post, some of them were accidentally overheard to consult, and to resolve upon my assassination.

In 1848, returning from the war in Mexico, I was at a hotel in New Orleans. I was in ill health, and, being in my room in the evening, a card was sent up to me; it was from Mr. "Colcohoun of Texas."

I fancied it a case of not exactly "pistols for two,"-for I had none at hand. The servant was told to show him up. Presently he entered and addressed me: "Captain Cooke, I have for years been looking out for you;" (I thought that hardly ambiguous, but saw that he was a gentleman) "to shake you by the hand," he continued, "and thank you for my release from a Mexican prison-as well as other Texans; you probably saved our lives."

He explained, in brief, that he had been a member of a body of Texans who attempted a revolutionary invasion of Mexico about 1841. They reached Mier, but there they were all killed or captured; the prisoners were immured in the fortress of Perote (which I had then lately inspected), and were there long subjected to cruel and degrading treatment. Our Minister, Waddy Thompson, he said, repeatedly interceded for them, but the President was obdurate. But after news of the saving of the Mexican caravan and the capture of the Texans had reached Mexico, Mr. Thompson was hopeful to make one more appeal in their behalf. He sought an interview with President Santa Anna; he was warmly received, and the President, almost anticipating his business and request, promised the prompt release of the prisoners; of the affair on the Arkansas he said emphatically it was "the first act of good faith and friendship that the United States had ever shown to Mexico."

I was on duty in Washington when General Sam. Houston, one of the first Senators from Texas, arrived in attendance on the session of Congress. I had made a very friendly acquaintance with him at Nacogdoches Texas (where I, and two regiments, were sent-by General Gaines, again— in 1836, during the Texan revolutionary war, and were there stationed for about six months, building log huts when the winter came on) yet I called on him in doubtful mind. He received me cordially; but when, thinking I must "have it out" with him, I introduced the subject of the "little unpleasantness" between myself and his "army," as he called it, on the Arkansas, his countenance took on a grim expression for some minutes: he said very little; but of Colonel Snively, he mentioned, "I forbade him my presence." Our friendly relations were unbroken.

P. J.G. Cooke

THE UNITED STATES MAIL SERVICE

The first record contained in our colonial history of any kind of mail service dates from 1677, when the court at Boston appointed Mr. John Hayward to take in and convey letters according to their direction." In 1710, Parliament passed an act to establish a general post-office for all her majesty's dominions, including North America, New York being made the chief letter office of the colonies. The rates of postage for all letters and packages from New York to any place within sixty miles were as follows: single letters, fourpence; double, eightpence; treble, one shilling; an ounce, one shilling and fourpence. In December, 1717, arrangements were made to receive letters in Boston from Williamsburg, Virginia, in four weeks in the summer season, and eight weeks in winter. In 1738, Henry Pratt was appointed riding postmaster for all the routes between Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia, to set out in the beginning of each month and return in twenty-four days. In 1753, letters and packages for all persons residing in Newton, Bristol, and Chester were sent to the postoffice in Philadelphia to be called for. In the same year, Benjamin Franklin was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General. He startled the people by proposing to run a line of stage-coaches from Philadelphia to Boston once a week, to start from each city on Monday morning and arrive on Saturday night. In 1792, the following rates of postage were established, distance and not weight being the basis:

One letter, less than thirty miles, 6 cents; between thirty and sixty miles, 8 cents; between sixty and one hundred miles, 10 cents; between one hundred and one hundred and fifty miles, 121⁄2 cents; between one hundred and fifty and two hundred miles, 15 cents; two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles, 17 cents; two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty miles, 20 cents; three hundred and fifty to four hundred and fifty miles, 22 cents; over four hundred and fifty miles, 25 cents. A single sheet of paper was counted as a single letter, and was charged a single rate. Two sheets were counted as a double letter, and were charged for at double rates. The same ratio was applied to a letter containing three sheets. Packages weighing one ounce required four single rates, and in proportion for any greater weight. Single foreign letters were charged 8 cents; double letters, 16 cents; triple letters, 24 cents. Newspapers were carried one hundred miles for I cent. For any greater distance the rate was 12 cents.