Reaching La Grange I asked for Julius. They told me he has worked here over the summer months, however, left for Houston or Galveston. The next day I came to Sorgel's farm. Nobody was at home. I stepped into the garden over the field but could not find anybody. I had fever again and felt like lying down. Then Julius and Fritz came up, they had been picking up pecans in the woods. Cheerfully we exchanged our experiences for quite a while. Sorgel was not at home, he found a job with the Verein. He was in Galveston, sick since a quarter of a year. Schafer had left Sorgel in the most unfair way. Fritz was all by himself. Sorgel left nothing and Fritz had to borrow everything for one quarter of a year. I don't know what to think about Sorgel. A letter from Julius told me later that Schafter died in Galveston. Julius had worked in La Grange during the summer, saved $50, and came up to Fritz, left here with $20 in his pocket for Galveston saying he was going to look after his things. But I think he thought of the tasteful beer there. He spent his $20 in a hotel and came back to Fritz, homesick. There is no place in Germany where he could save $50 within four months! Then he left for New Orleans, hunting a job as a lithographer while he could make more money here as a brick layer. I do not understand him. To bind him here I sent him with my horse and papers to Cordoba. I could not go farther with my fever. I also gave him a letter of recommendation along knowing Cordoba could use a horseman.
Here I received your letter from March 1846. The cause of the late arrival was due to the boat which was shipwrecked in front of Galveston. Quite a number of immigrants lost their lives and the others had nothing but themselves. The mail bag was under water for two days before they could save it. I was worried about your sickness, dear Herman, and I am glad you recovered so well. I enjoyed reading cousin Karges report about the progress of the year, Klora Flag festival, etc. Many nice hours I have spent with old Fritz talking about Paule and Ferline, brother in laws Kannengiasser and his mustache, which he used to have when he was captain in the army, brother-in-law Burgel from Erfurt, Mienchen, August, Fritz, Kell(?), aunt Sittogen (?), of cousins and aunts. We talked everything over cornbread and kaffee to go with it. These have been the most beautiful fourteen days I have seen in Texas.
I tried to cure the fever with water but without success. Finally I sent Fritz to the German settlement Industry, a German physician gave me some quinine. I had to
portion that into six parts. Taking one dose every two hours. After four parts the pain and fever went and I became so hungry that I ate for five. Talking about health, here many settlers suffer under fever, even the old ones. Some have it two to three times every year. Some get over it while others, even newcomers, don't get it at all. There are two different types of fever. People who eat plenty meat and sit around much mostly get a kind of gaul fever, periodic fever like I had. It is described as - Nathan the first squatter in Texas. Yellow fever, although not so common, is said to be due to the climate here. It is estimated that one third of all immigrants more or less get sick and die. This is true at least in respect to all of our tripmates from the ship I came over with.Many Germans have quite some trouble with their feet here. A kind of blister. The Americans say our blood is too thick and has to become thinner. Well, I am quite all right now. Julius is back from Houston. Cordoba treated him nice, gave him $6, and promised him a job with $20 a month.
In the middle of November, 1846, we went together surveying in the hills around the Rio Blanco, a side arm of the San Marcos River between Guadalupe and Colorado. Lead our usual life in the backwood. Two Indians from the Delaware tribe were scouts and hunters. Their names were Black Bear and Black Biber. We had plenty bear meat. Julius sure like it. Rice steamed in honey, turkey, deer, and bear, etc. I was as usual sick. Had fever again. After it became cold, below freezing point. Cold showers with northers gave me rheumatism. Julius did not pay much attention to the horses like he used to do first, and when we came back to Austin after one four weeks of surveying, Cordoba fired him. He borrowed a horse from Cordoba expressing he would like to go to Houston. Cordoba told him not to ruin the horse and he should take it easy. However, Julius stopped on the way at Fritz and lost there Cordoba's horse. Very probably it was stolen.
Cordoba and I left Austin early the next morning and rode to Houston in three and one-half days --195 English miles (43 German miles). Days and weeks went by without news from Julius. I travelled around, went first to Galveston where I took care of our boxes and sent them to Houston. From Galveston I went via Harrisburg, Lynchburg, both on Buffalo Bayou to San Jacinto, then passed Liberty, went down the Trinity River to the coast and back to Houston. Left Houston again for Oyster Creek, close to the mouth of the Brazos River, and spent Christmas Eve in an alligator Swamp. The first holiday saw me on the road again. I left Houston on New Year's day and met Cordoba in Austin. Here Cordoba had a letter from Julius telling him about the stolen horse. Around the 10th of February we left for Rio Blanco without Cordoba this time. We were only six men. I refused to go first with only five, but Cordoba could not get any while almost every young man had joined the army. So we six went alone. Quite often we ran into buffalos. Fifteen to fifty heads we met quite frequently. It sure is a sight to see them running head down and tail straight in the air. We killed three. On our trip I killed a mountain lion. We ran into four and one jumped on a tree giving me a chance to kill him. The others got away. He was the size of a German butcherdog. His color was gray-brown. They do not attack anybody. This time while tossing down a bee tree we caught a waschbar. He jumped out the tree when the tree fell. An American caught his tail and another one killed him with a handaxe. He gave a good meal. In the evening around eight o'clock on February 13, we noticed a several minutes long trembling of the ground. The Austin paper write that Seguin, fifteen miles below Braunfels felt it quite a bit. It is said that a Volcanic stripe, reaching from Lake Ontario down to middle America goes through this part of Texas. A little later, a paper recorded that on February 14, all of a sudden the ice on Lake Ontario split and the water showed a moving tendency.
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Genealogists never die, they just haunt archives.
