The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 13, July 1909 - April, 1910 Page: 70

Texas Historical Association Quarterly.

these stones piled one upon another and why were they thrown
down-this he discovers was one of the strong holds of Popish
delusion, in which the Royalists in 1810-11 sought refuge from
the avenging fury of the Patriots who battered down the mighty
walls with their cannon-it is now a garrison-A few yds before,
him he sees the exceedingly serpentine San Antonio, coming wind-
ing around the town and gliding by as if hurried with important
despatches to the Gulph of Mexico--he looks with mortification
and disgust at the order of architecture which suddenly presents
itself on his left he crosses the little river and beholds the same
wigwam style of building which constitutes the principal part of
the town-he proceeds on finds that the streets intersect each
other very irregularly presenTly enters the public Square this is
laid off at right angles being about 150 by 300 yards in the centre
of which stands the Church-a large clumsy stone building-that
seems to have been standing for Centuries. It has a steeple of
the same materials, very well modelled of octagonal form-in this
is hung 2 bells kettle-toned and of different sizes-these have their
tongues tied with ropes and are made to bellow most horribly by
two barbarous boys who stand close by and jirk these engines of
torture to the utter dismay and confusion of the astounded stranger
perhaps 40 times per diem-this Church has also a skylight dome
at the opposite end. In the midst of this Square the traveller
stands and contemplates the buildings around him-he had before
entering been disgusted with their dwellings that [he] first met-
being formed of branches of the ,Musquite tree set up end ways
in all the zigzag varieties of their growth having the interstices
daubed with mud-these hollow squares are thatched over with
the swamp flag and stand ready to receive their inhabitants who
carry in a few chests a palate or two and some dried skins and
the mansion is furnished. But the public square presents to the
strangers eye a more solemn picture each side is formed of one
unbroken solid wall except where the streets pass thro'-these
walls have doors at neighbourly or family distances opening into
what may more properly be termed cells than rooms-as few of
them have windows-none indeed have sashes nor is their a pane
of glass in the town-they seem more like port holes than win-
dows-having bars like a prison grate; or dark shutters-these
walls show no roof above them but seem to stand as we may sup-