On the other hand, Díaz felt some gratification in being left here in Texas. He could at least watch what the Americans were doing, though he had little hope that anyone in higher authority would listen to his warnings about them. No one paid much attention to a mere sergeant.

He had noted that many Americans, particularly those who had been in Texas for some years and had accumulated property, were vocal in their support for Santa Anna. They were saying that restoration of their rights under the constitution of 1824 would make them happy to remain under the benevolent banner of Mexico. But others, particularly those who had no property and therefore little to lose, loudly advocated that Texas become independent. Díaz suspected that was the true feeling of most American Texans, no matter how often they proclaimed their loyalty. They had been fed generously by the hand of Mexico, and now they were ready to bite that hand like a pampered cat turned surly and mean.

Díaz briefly saw at least a ray of hope. Colonel José Antonio Mexía, who had just captured the city of Matamoros from Bustamante’s forces, decided to make an expedition into Texas to determine for himself the true situation. Sailing up the Gulf coast to the mouth of the Brazos, he brought with him some four hundred men. That, Díaz thought, should be enough to whip the Americans into submission if Mexía chose that course. He did not see how the colonel could decide otherwise, once he observed the Texans’ perfidy.

What Díaz did not know at the time was that the Texas impresario Stephen F. Austin had hurried to Matamoros to join Mexía, to argue that the uprising against Bradburn had been over personal grievances and was not directed against the central government. Moreover, Austin had sent word to his colonists to make Mexía welcome wherever he went and to demonstrate their loyalty with fervor. By the time the Mexía expedition reached the Brazos River and a grand reception in his honor, the colonel had already been softened by Austin’s powers of persuasion. He was feted everywhere he went, treated to the best the Texans could offer in food and drink. With warm feelings toward his hosts, he gathered most of the remaining troops from Texas and ordered them to the interior of Mexico. They were needed there, he decided, to hasten Santa Anna’s victory.

Among them now was to be Sergeant Díaz. A native of the Nacogdoches area in northeastern Texas, he had never been to the interior of the country. Texas was his home, and he saw it slipping away a little at a time to people of an alien kind. The day before he was to begin the march, he saddled his horse and rode out to the farm of his old friend and former commander, Elizandro Zaragosa. They greeted one another with the abrazo, the embrace of friendship. Zaragosa said, “I heard of your orders. I will be sorry to see you leave.”