The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 163

Book Reviews

reader. Likewise, it may be that he labors too long with the
problems of the mission fathers at Refugio and Goliad in their
hundred-year-long effort to convert the Karankawas. On the other
hand, these recitations of details will give a student of the Karan-
kawas, as well as the history of the Gulf Coast, an opportunity to
review all of the available literature on the subject.
For the uninitiated, there is a compilation of all of the avail-
able information on the type of cannibalism practiced by the
Karankawas. A debate has been going on this subject for more
than a hundred years, and the reader is now afforded ample evi-
dence to arrive at his own decision as to whether or not the
Karankawas practiced ceremonial cannibalism or actually relied
upon human flesh as a part of their regular diet and sustenance.
There are many interesting descriptions of these large, vile-
smelling, coastal aborigines and the unusual customs which they
practiced. Certainly they did some things that would be unusual
in any form of society and the documentation, which is thorough
and complete, cannot leave any reader too proud of the first resi-
dents of what is now called the Gold Coast of Texas.
The reader should not be deceived by the cover and the illus-
trations. The book reads much better than it looks. Again, let me
emphasize the tremendous amount of research that has been done
on this book. The bibliography is a treasure.
J. P. BRYAN
Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War. By
Ludwell H. Johnson. Baltimore (The Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Press), 1958. Pp. ix+'317. Maps, bibliography, index.
$5.00.
The portion of this book which is freshest and bears most di-
rectly upon Texas history is the opening chapter wherein Professor
Johnson, building upon an earlier article by George Winston
Smith (in Louisiana Historical Quarterly, April, 1943), argues
that a desire to occupy Texas was the central element in the
genesis of the Federal campaign up Red River in the spring of
1864. This militarily strange desire is to be accounted for partly
by such familiar influences as sympathy for the Texas Unionists
and the need to counter French designs upon Mexico. What re-

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