A group comprising both can be seen near its centre.

It does not need the dishevelled hair and torn dresses to show they are captives; nor yet the half-dozen savages, spear-armed, keeping guard over them.

Their drooping heads, woeful and wan countenances, are too sure signs of their melancholy situation.
What are these captives, and who their captors?
Two questions easily answered.

In a general way, the picture explains itself.

The captives are the wives and children, with sisters and grown-up daughters among them, of Texan colonists.