[1] See Bolton, H. E., Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century, pp. 89–90, for an account of the Parrilla Expedition. [↑]
[2] Ibid., 129, 414. See also Bolton’s De Mézières, II, 187–238. [↑]
[3] After having written the above, I was informed by Mr. Joseph B. Thoburn, secretary of the Oklahoma Historical Society, that he had received a letter from Dr. Bolton identifying “Old Spanish Fort” with the fortification attacked by Parrilla. [↑]
[5] See Roberts, Capt. Dan W., Rangers and Sovereignty, San Antonio, 1914, pp. 185–186. [↑]
THE TREASURE CANNON ON THE NECHES
By Roscoe Martin
[The treasure rammed cannon is more or less common to Texas legends. The early Spanish in Texas sometimes buried cannon on account of military expediency,[1] and it may be that the modern tradition connects back with such disposition of artillery, although the tradition is doubtless widespread.[2] A Spanish cannon stuffed with treasure is supposed to lie deep buried in a lake near Carrizo Springs, Dimmit County.[3] On the banks of the Big Sandy (or “Sandies”) of Lavaca County, legend has buried a third cannon. Mr. Whitley of McMullen County told me the story connected with it. He heard it half a century ago from a veteran of the “Mexican War” (War of Texas Independence) in the Refugio country. The veteran was named White, as I remember. [[85]]
When the Mexicans were retreating from San Jacinto towards Goliad, White was in the pursuing party of Texans. The Texans camped for the night on the eastern bank of the Big Sandies, and the next morning when White walked out to gather some firewood, he discovered that the Mexicans had been at the same site twenty-four hours before. Besides the usual camp signs, there was the trail of something that had been dragged to a motte of trees and buried. The marks of the digging were as plain as daylight. White supposed that one of the wounded Mexicans had died and been buried.