1
/
of
1
tbooks
Remember the Alamo (c1888)
Remember the Alamo (c1888)
Regular price
$6.99 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$6.99 USD
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Quantity
Couldn't load pickup availability
IN A. D. sixteen hundred and ninety-two*; a few Franciscan monks began to build a city. The site chosen was a lovely wilder ness hundreds of miles away from civiliza tion on every side, and surrounded by sav age and warlike tribes. But the spot was as beautiful as the garden of God. It was shielded by picturesque mountains, watered by two rivers, carpeted with flowers innumerable, shaded by noble trees- joyful with the notes of a multitude of singing birds. To breathe the balmy atmosphere was to be conscious of some rarer arid '-finder' 'life, and the beauty of the sunny skies^maryellous at dawn and eve with tints of saffron and amethyst and opal—was like a dream of heaven.
One of the rivers was fed by a hundred springs situated in the midst of charming bow ers. The monks called it the San Antonio; and on its banks they built three noble Mis sions. The shining white stone of the neigh borhood rose in graceful domes and spires above the green trees. Sculptures, basso-relievos, and lines of gorgeous coloring adorned the exteriors. Within, were splendid altars and the appealing charms of incense, fine ves tures and fine music; while from the belfreys, bells sweet and resonant called to the savages, who paused spell-bound and half-afraid to listen.
Certainly these priests had to fight as well as to pray. The Indians did not suffer them to take possession of their Eden without passion ate and practical protest. But what the monks had taken, they kept; and the fort and the soldier followed the priest and the Cross. Ere long, the beautiful Mission became a beautiful city, about which a sort of fame full of romance and mystery gathered. Throughout the south and west, up the great highway of the Missis sippi, on the busy streets of New York, and among the silent hills of New England, men spoke of San Antonio, as in the seventeenth century they spoke of Peru ; as in the eight eenth century they spoke of Delhi, and Agra, and the Great Mogul.
Sanguine French traders carried thither rich ventures in fancy wares from New Orleans; and Spanish dons from the wealthy cities of Central Mexico, and from the splendid homes of Chihuahua, came there to buy. And from the villages of Connecticut, and the woods of Tennessee, and the lagoons of Mississippi, ad venturous Americans entered the Texan terri tory at Nacogdoches. They went through the land, buying horses and lending their ready rifles and stout hearts to every effort of that constantly increasing body of Texans, who, even in their swaddling bands, had begun to cry Freedom!
One of the rivers was fed by a hundred springs situated in the midst of charming bow ers. The monks called it the San Antonio; and on its banks they built three noble Mis sions. The shining white stone of the neigh borhood rose in graceful domes and spires above the green trees. Sculptures, basso-relievos, and lines of gorgeous coloring adorned the exteriors. Within, were splendid altars and the appealing charms of incense, fine ves tures and fine music; while from the belfreys, bells sweet and resonant called to the savages, who paused spell-bound and half-afraid to listen.
Certainly these priests had to fight as well as to pray. The Indians did not suffer them to take possession of their Eden without passion ate and practical protest. But what the monks had taken, they kept; and the fort and the soldier followed the priest and the Cross. Ere long, the beautiful Mission became a beautiful city, about which a sort of fame full of romance and mystery gathered. Throughout the south and west, up the great highway of the Missis sippi, on the busy streets of New York, and among the silent hills of New England, men spoke of San Antonio, as in the seventeenth century they spoke of Peru ; as in the eight eenth century they spoke of Delhi, and Agra, and the Great Mogul.
Sanguine French traders carried thither rich ventures in fancy wares from New Orleans; and Spanish dons from the wealthy cities of Central Mexico, and from the splendid homes of Chihuahua, came there to buy. And from the villages of Connecticut, and the woods of Tennessee, and the lagoons of Mississippi, ad venturous Americans entered the Texan terri tory at Nacogdoches. They went through the land, buying horses and lending their ready rifles and stout hearts to every effort of that constantly increasing body of Texans, who, even in their swaddling bands, had begun to cry Freedom!
Share
