“Whoopee!” laughed Jim. “It’s just a little waiting game, while we get reinforcements.”
That afternoon the cannon was dug up out of George Davis’s peach orchard and was mounted on the two front wheels of one of Captain Martin’s cotton wagons; John Sowell and Dick Chisholm, who were blacksmiths, said they would make some cannon-balls for it.
That night Jesse McCoy, Joe Kent, Graves Fulshear, and Will Arrington kept watch at the ford to see that no Mexicans crossed. In the morning they reported that several dragoons had come down to the river to water horses, and could have been easily potted, but weren’t.
In the morning the whole Mexican troop were in sight, camped across the river. Lieutenant Castañeda rode forward to the ford and called over that he would receive the reply from the alcalde, as promised. First Regidor (or councilman) Joseph Clements called back that the alcalde was still absent, but he had been sent for and would reply about four o’clock. So Lieutenant Castañeda retired, because he dared not try to force the ford, in the face of the Texas rifles.
This was the 30th. Now there were some 200 volunteers, all told, in Gonzales. Mr. Chisholm and Mr. Sowell were working hard, cutting ox chains into short pieces, for the cannon, and welding iron scraps into balls. The cannon itself was mounted and ready.
Accordingly, at four that afternoon, Regidor Clements reported to Lieutenant Castañeda. He stood on the Gonzales side of the river, and yelled across to the lieutenant on the other side. Gonzales was not very hospitable; but Mr. Clements had too much sense to trust himself on the dragoons’ side.
Everybody present could hear the message.
“The alcalde is still absent,” shouted Mr. Clements, in very good Spanish. “And in his absence it has fallen to my lot to reply to the communication sent to him asking a second time for the cannon. The right of consulting with our own political chief of the department of the Brazos seems to be denied us. Therefore my reply reduces itself to this: I cannot, nor do I desire to, deliver up the cannon; it was given to us for our defense; and this is the sentiment of all the members of the council now here present. The cannon is in the town, and only through force will we yield. We are weak and few in number, nevertheless we are contending for what we believe to be just principles.”
When Regidor Clements finished reading aloud the paper that he had drawn up, the lieutenant replied. He said that the cannon had only been loaned, and had not been a gift; and that by making prisoners of the corporal and party the town had committed a crime against the dignity of the Mexican republic.
Regidor Clements stood firm, and said that the answer was what he had just read; but if Lieutenant Castañeda really desired the cannon, he might come over and get it. At that the lieutenant shrugged his shoulders, and rather comically replied: