In the fall of 1800, he pushed beyond the Mississippi with a score or so of companions, and settled on the Brazos.
The party built pens or corrals, and began to catch wild horses, for the neighborhood swarmed not only with game but with immense droves of mustangs.

The handsomest animals they kept and trained, letting the others loose again.

The following March these tamers of wild horses were suddenly set upon by a body of Spaniards, three hundred strong, with one field-piece.

The assailants made their attack at daybreak, slew Nolan, and captured his comrades, who for many years afterwards lived as prisoners in the Mexican towns.

[Footnote: Pike's letter, July 22, 1807, in Natchez _Herald_; in Col.