Note 12 — Letter 14.
Reading edition
It is not long, since a list of the peons who had escaped from the other side of the Rio Grande was published, and bitter complaints made by their masters to the Mexican Government, which was petitioned for redress! It is said that some proprietors own thousands, and they are a part of their estates. It is probable that neither slavery nor peonage can continue on the borders of the Rio Grande. During our military operations a large number of persons were freed by earning the means of paying the debts for which they were bound.