Historical+fiction+notes

It was the trappers that attracted him. It must've been. I mean, if there wasn't those mountain men that were selling those stories and hats to everyone, no one in their right mind would embark on a dangerous journey. I found out that we were going months before our parents told us. I also found out it was Jim Beckwourth himself that convinced my father once and for all. I tend to be good at that kind of stuff. 'Jim Beckwourth' I repeated in my head. That name had a slight ring to it. I shrugged and continued. Before I knew it, though, we were doing our final chores at the house and moving westward on the Oregon Trail. It was cramped on the wagon west. There was nothing to pass the seemingly endless hours that we spent on the trail west. We tried singing, but it was still very boring. Soon, though, we were not on the right trail. Not on the Oregon Trail. We were on the Santa Fe Trail, according to our makeshift map that a bunch of Mormons, li ke Brigham Young made. I figured if it was a trail, it was good. We were back on track. It was a different track, but still, a track.

Everything went normal until a man walked up to us. He spoke perfect English, yet he looked Mexican. He told us of a land. This land had all the greatest fertile fields. It had rolling plains and dense forests. It had pristine lakes and a fair government. This man was soon identified by us as an Empresario. Obviously he did his job well. We were convinced. Off to Mexico, then. I hated mexico already. And Spanish is very hard to learn.

Once we were all settled in, my father noticed that we looked slightly discouraged. We were going to go to Oregon, or at least we had thought. How did we end up here? My father sighed, "I'm sorry for all of this. I really should have asked before we moved. Now we're in southern Texas and I don't know why we're here." I forgave him. amazingly, but I did. I soon gained his faith. we would continue west in a few years. Life was finally settled down. And somewhere deep down, I hated that...

 Life was quiet still. Until there was the first gunshot. There were gunshots all the time. But these weren't normal hunting gunshots. This was a barrage of far off musket fire. The smell of spent gunpowder was drifting through the air. This was a war. I didn't really know what was happening. The hasty explanation my father gave as we stumbled to the and on the wagon was that Texas was no longer part of Mexico. That was what the war was about. He told us that long before we even settled in Texas, a man named Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla decided to overthrow Spanish rule. He failed but later the Spanish rule was overthrown. Then Mexico was made. They owned Texas. I heard later of the bloody battles of this war. There was the Alamo, where every person died, but Texas finally won with their revenge at San Jacinto. I'm glad we moved out. We decided to live near a fort along the way. We might continue on, but we might not.

- A few years later -

 I remember the big news being that Texas was part of the united states now. James K. Polk annexed it. Unfortunately, the Mexicans didn't like that we did that. My family was happy. No more war. Or so we thought...

 We were just planning to leave until my father decided that he would compulsively join the American Army! THE ARMY! i couldn't believe this! Mexico apparently was mad and we revolted with a flag that had a bear on it which was called the Bear Flag Rebellion and Dad wanted to volunteer for defending ourselves but we... we

I just hope... I just wish... He would be careful. And come back to us safe and sound

 But we were meant to be here. It is our manifest destiny.