Margarito Castaweda to Official copy: H. CLAY WOOD, December 15, 1871

State of Texas, County of Webb:

Before me, Samuel M. Jarvis, mayor of the city of Lavedo, county and State aforesaid, came Margarito Castaweda, to me well known, who, being duly sworn, says that he is a citizen of Mexico, and is the commandant of the custom-house guards of the post of Nuevo Lavedo, Mexico; that on or about the 22d day of November last, while on duty along the Rio Grande, about twenty miles above the town, he heard a great outcry on the Texas side of the river, and the report of fire-arms, and it being in a place where there are no settlements, they came to the river in front of where some shepherds were in charge of a flock, near the arroyo Saint Thomas, and the shepherds informed them that they had just been attacked by a party of six or seven Indians, armed with rifles, who had killed one of their number and wounded another; they said they did not know from whence the Indians had come, and thereupon deponent, knowing that the Kickapoos were then encamped about six leagues from the river, at a place called the Lagura de la Leche, on the Mexican side, started to find if their trail had come from there. He soon found where they had crossed the river, immediately opposite where the shepherds were. The Indians had killed a horse, and of the hide had made a boat in which to cross their arms, and were all mounted. Deponent thereupon took the back trail into Mexico, and followed it for about three leagues in the exact course leading to the Lagura, and being then convinced that the Indians had come from there, they did not follow it any farther.