soon be naked,â Ellis said one morning as they accompanied Luciano to the plaza. âThey give us barely enough to keep from starving. If Luciano didnât bargain for us, weâd likely starve anyway.â Men in sandals, white cotton shirts, and trousers, and women in black dresses were already bringing chickens, fruit, and bread to sell.
âI wonder if thereâs any work for a gunsmith here,â Duncan said. âMy father taught me to repair guns, and all you Beans are gunsmiths. Of course, weâd have to have tools.â Luciano listened but said nothing.
âIâve repaired plenty of guns,â Ellis observed. âIâd rather make hats, or something like that, but I donât know how.â They bought some bread and fruit, then sat on a low stone wall and watched the girls. Luciano left them.
He returned at noon. âIâve been talking to some merchants,â he said. âRafael Nunez will sell you the tools you need on credit,â he told Duncan. âManuel Moreno will supply you with material for making hats,â he said to Ellis, who shrugged. âHe also knows two good hatters whoâd like to work for an Americano.â Ellis smiled.
Both got to work right away. With a vise, hammer, files, and other tools, Duncan soon had all the business he could handle. Ellisâ hats were soon in demandânone but the Americanoâs sombreros would do. They bought clothing, ate well, and soon repaid their debts. When Ellis made the last payment, Moreno invited him to his home for dinner.
The Morenos lived in a spacious, well-furnished house of adobe, with a patio and large yard filled with fruit trees and grape vines. Moreno served wine, then his wife and two young daughters joined them for dinner. Ellis admired the attractive Señora Moreno but didnât know how to behave in the presence of ladies of her class. He tried to remain silent, but she wouldnât allow it. âTell me how you came to be in Texas,â she said, and little by little drew from him the story of their misadventures. âYou are all innocent!â she exclaimed indignantly. âThey have no right to hold you!â
When they had finished dinner, she and the girlsâEllis guessed them to be ten and twelveâwithdrew, while Ellis and Moreno smoked cigars and talked.
âSpanish officials are slow to act on matters of this sort,â Moreno told him. âYou could be here the rest of your life. You already speak Spanish well. I advise you to join the church, marry, and settle down. You wonât become rich, but you can live comfortably.â
âI hadnât thought of that,â Ellis replied. âI figured one day theyâll get tired of holding us and let us go.â
âThatâs possible but unlikely. Everyone believed Nolan was invading Texas, and some still think he was. Iâm afraid youâll be here for a long time. Better think about what I said.â
âI will,â Ellis assured him. He and Duncan, along with House and Danlin, soon began the process of preparing themselves for entering the church. None of them was ready to abandon hope of being freed one day, so they declined to consider marriage.
âWe need to save as much money as we can,â Ellis told Duncan.âOne day weâll surely have a chance to leave here, but we wonât get far without dinero. â Thatâs not what we did in Tennessee, he thought. No one ever tried to save money. We spent it as fast as we made it and didnât worry about tomorrow. But now itâs different.
Late one day in January 1804, Fero, Cooley, Pierce, and the others whoâd moved to San Carlos or elsewhere appeared at the barracks in Chihuahua, escorted by soldiers. âDoes anyone know what this is all about?â Cooley asked. No one did.
At mid-morning the next day, an officer and a few soldiers marched the whole group into the city. âCan you