Rosalie Hart Priour Autobiography "Adventures of a Family of Emigrants" with notes and commentary by historian Frank Wagner (indicated in green).
Chapter 14 The first time Mr. Robinson went out surveying he camped near where a tribe of Indians known as Tonkawas were having a dance, and as up to that time they had been on friendly terms with the whites he went to join them in their sports. He noticed that the women were eating human flesh, and enquired why they did so. They answered that it was "to make them and their children savage", and that the sweetest piece of meat they ever eat [sic] was a French man's heart or a white man's shoulder.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Eat is the preterit in England and Ireland, and was pronounced et during much of the 19th century. The apparent variation on standard English was correct at the time the memoir was written.
Discovering early that Europeans responded to tales of cannibalism with fascinated horror, the Indians often obliged them. The historian should be skeptical. European foodstuff taboos are illustrated by the subsequent abhorrence of the meat of a colt and a snake, while meat of deer and eel was acceptable. The consensus of American 19th century historians seems to have been that most of the natives of the Mississippi River valley were cannibals.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - When Mr. Robinson came back from surveying, Wat [Walter] Lambert, the man mother had hired to work the field, and he went out deer hunting, and when they came home at night, they brought home what they represented to be a quarter of venison and an eel, but the quarter of meat was so large I did not believe them, so I took the lantern out and examined it, and found a piece of skin about the size of a dollar with the hair on. I went to the kitchen and told Mrs. Robinson and mother not to cook any of that meat; it was a young colt. They questioned me to find out how I knew, and I made them bring the lantern to where it was hanging and showed them the hair, and on examining more closely they saw the hoof was that of a colt, and not a deer. This discovery made us suspect that there was something wrong about the eel, so we declined to eat any of it. The two gentlemen thought they would have a good joke on us by making us eat a piece of young colt under the impression that it was venison, and a piece of rattlesnake for an eel and in order to carry out their intention and induce us to eat some, they feasted on both, but their endeavor was useless. We firmly declined to assist them, and the joke was turned on themselves.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wat Lambert was a nephew of Col. James Power and part of the O'Brien family (Col. Power's sister's) which included Morgan and John O'Brien. Initially, he was quite poor, and worked as a hired man. He rode with Capt. Ira Westover in October, 1835 when Fort Lipantitlan in Nueces County was captured. He married Col. Power's daughter Tomasita in 1857. He served as postmaster and a county commissioner for Copano during the Civil War, and died there December 31, 1865.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mrs. Robinson took a trip to New Orleans to purchase goods to open a milliner's store and about the time she came back the Indians were so hostile we had to leave the ranch without harvesting the crop. All our hard work was entirely lost. We raised a splendid crop, but as our lives were in danger we were compelled to leave it in the fields and return to the settlement for safety.
After our return to town, mother married Mr. John James. There was no priest nearer than San Patricio and they were compelled to go there to have the ceremony performed. She left sister and me with a neighbor during her absence.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - John James was granted one league of land under the Power Colony, October 25, 1834. He was sindico of Refugio in 1835-1836. He had an illegitimate son, William, probably about 1820. Then he married in 1828 and fathered two sons, John in 1830 and Dan in 1832. Apparently his wife died of cholera in 1834. He married Mrs. Elizabeth Hart in 1835. A member of Phil Dimmit's company until it was dissolved January 10, 1836, he then joined Captain Ira Westover's company. In February or March, 1836, James sought to save the archives of Refugio by taking them to Goliad, but was captured near the San Antonio River by some Karankawa auxiliaries of the Mexican Army under command of Captain Carlos de la Garza. It is said the archives were scattered over the prairie. James was surrendered to General Jose Urrea, and placed with the men of James W. Fannin after the surrender of Goliad. His death was witnessed by William L. Hunter of the New Orleans Grays, a survivor of the massacre. Cf. Harbert Davenport, ''The Men of Goliad'', Southwestern Historical Quarterly, 43 (#1), p. 1-41 (1939-40).
Chapter 13 - Chapter 15