A PRINCE OF BANDITS.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 206, 5 February 1875, Page 3

A PRINCE OF BANDITS.

{Nem York Times.)

Senor Juan Nepomucene Cortina has been one of the terrors, of the Texan frontier since the Mexican War. The adroit cavalier of the plains, whose life is one constant protest against law, one continuous defiance of the military power of the United States, has the coolness and daring of the Indian, the vivacity and courage of the Texan, and the fawning subtlety and splendid hypocrisy of the low-class Mexican. When his horse wets hoof in the boundary stream between Mexico and Texas there is mourning on our side the river, for well the hardy herdsmen know that their stock will be stampeded beyond the neutral line, and the American troops are too few and too widely scattered to save them. Just now he is more active than ever in raids and robberies, and he has friends who would follow him to the mouth of the pit if he wished, so complete is their confidence in his luck. When Taylor’s army arrived on the Rio Grande, Cortina was only a Mexican soldier. Dismissed from the service, he soon began a career of robbery and slaughter in Texas, which was uninterrupted from 1849 to 1858. In the latter year he was declared an outlaw. But he and his band grew rich on plunder. Alcades and other corrupt Mexican officials winked at the sprightly exploits of their countrymen, and in 1870 Cortina, elevated to the dignity of General, assumed command of the Mexican forces along the American frontier. In that position he was maintained until vigorous complaints through diplomatic channels induced his Government, in 1872, to retire the brilliant soldier and worthy patriot. He had not been idle during his two years of generalship. Many a fat priest had he roasted, and many a peasant had he disemboweled, because they had refused to lead him to the hiding place of their treasures. Cattle stealing in -Texas was his especial weakness, and he gave himself up to it with gay abandon. To-day he leads a jolly life of revel in mountain nook and on fertile plain, and is as mild a man as ever cut a throat. His ranches are protected by armed guards, and “ in the full o’ the moon ” he and a few of his trusty knights dash down, as of old, across the shallow river, over the crisp grass, and through the dusty chapparal which hides them. They stampede a hundred cattle, waylay and murder a “ few Yankee ” herdsmen, and sometimes pillage a small town. After them, as soon as the news spreads, gallop cavalrymen from the United States’ forts, but all that the pursuers get for their pains is the spray from the Rio Grande dashed in their faces by the hoofs of the retreating Mexican horses. The cattle are driven across the stream where troops cannot pursue them, and Cortina, the irrepressible, reining up his panting steed on the safe side of the river, exchanges a revolver shot or two with his enemies, and then tranquilly returns to his ranches. A gay, adventurous, chivalrous existence ! A fine instance of what enterprise and daring can do when seconded by favouring circumstances ! . Juan Nepomucene Cortina, exGeneral of the Mexican forces, must have his amusement, must earn his livelihood withal! Why shall not the cattle and the lives of the accursed Gringo suffer when Cortina’s welfare demands it? Is he not King of the whole frontier? Who says him nay, or stays him in his adventurous career? No one. Commissions from Washington come and go, and laboriously take evidence among the thousands of settlers, from whom hundreds of thousands of cattle and horses have been stolen since Cortina and his men, as well as the Kickapoo Indians, began their raids from Mexico. Commissioners discover that proporty amounting to nearly thirty millions of dollars has been stolen away from Texas by these thieves ; that the men engaged in the thieving expeditions are well mounted, well armed, well drilled ; and that oftentimes as many as 1600 cattle are driven to Mexico in one raid. They find that the frontier posts in Texas are widely separated; that there is no telegraphic commnnication between them ; and that the business of stock-raising on the borders of Western Texas is well-nigh broken up. But they do not find it etKy to

strike at the root of the evil. Irrepressible Cortina cannot be scotched, although hundreds of maddened frontiersmen hunt him day and night. The thirty millions which he has been instrumental in stealing have purchased him favour in Mexico, and he has ample protection at home. No vindictive “ Americano” peneti'ates to Soldadito, Claritas, or Palito Blancho, the pet ranches of the shrewd bandit. No Mexican official along the Rio Grande will heed the demands for the surrender of the guerrilla; all will respond with shrug of lean shoulders and melliflous Qnicn sale ? when asked where the stolen cattle are gone. Who will dare to predict that mischance will befall the ii’repressible bandit in his present campaign ? Why shall he not help to steal thirty millions more ?