Early Times in Texas or the Adventures of Jack Dobell

In 1835, Texas offered young men like John C. Duval a chance for action and glory. That year he and his brother, Burr, the sons of a former governor of Florida, organized a volunteer company called the "Mustangs." Like Davy Crockett, they were fired up "to give the Texans a helping hand on the road to freedom" from Mexican rule. The first chapters ofEarly Times in Texaslead up to the Goliad Massacre on Palm Sunday 1836, in which Burr (referred to as Captain D) was killed. John was luckier. After a hair-raising escape from Goliad, he wandered across the countryside, dodging the Mexicans and living by his wits. The diary that Duval kept during these exciting months was the basis forEarly Times in Texas, which was published more than fifty years later, in 1892. In the intervening years he was a Ranger known as "Texas John" and later was recognized as one of Texas's first men of letters, the author ofThe Adventures of Big-Foot Wallace.