“…I saw a Panther lying there… I was afraid to shoot at him for fear of missing him, but I had to do something for the wolfs were coming on fast and I made a leap and jumped over him and escaped….”

Tom Higgins Adventure in Mexico 1878. Autograph document signed by "E.L." Soudersburg, Lan[caster] Co., [Pennsylvania], 15 February 1878. 4 pages, folio, 8 x 12 1/2 in. 

A lively and engaging narrative describing an “Adventure in Mexico,” recounting the travels of an American party who journeyed south by way of Philadelphia and New Orleans before reaching the Mexican coast. The author introduces the small group of companions with a mix of familiarity and frontier humor: “There was six in our crowd. W. Baker Turk was an Indian we caught in Mexico, Jack Livingston, Black Joe, Sam Curtis, we called him Big Head, and myself.” The account reads at times like a dramatic frontier tale, blending travel narrative with vivid descriptions of wildlife, exploration, and danger.

One of the most dramatic episodes recounts a terrifying encounter in the wilderness:

“It was about half two at my watch when all at once [we] heard a yell like if there were a thousand wolfs on our track and so there was… we all took to heels… There was a large tree lying down and I made for that… but just as I got on the log looked down I saw a Panther lying there… I was afraid to shoot at him for fear of missing him, but I had to do something for the wolfs were coming on fast and I made a leap and jumped over him and escaped….”

The writer continues with a breathless series of near escapes—encountering wolves, snakes, and dense jungle vegetation—before reuniting with his companions, who had shot two wolves and driven the rest away.

The party later discovers a large cavern, which they decide to explore. Inside they encounter skeletal remains and what appear to be images on the walls:

“We came to the end of it where we found skeletons of men and of animals. We could make pictures out on the wall. The wall was as smooth as a wall in a house it was the prettiest sight I ever saw.”

This tantalizing description suggests the possibility that the party may have stumbled upon prehistoric cave art or petroglyphs, of which numerous examples are known throughout Mexico. Although the author offers little interpretation, the brief observation hints at the presence of ancient human activity and lends the narrative an unexpected archaeological dimension.

Further episodes describe the group’s passage through a “large and dark forest,” where they encountered a troop of monkeys “about five hundred… on a frolic,” which the author mischievously startled by firing his gun. Other encounters follow, including a large snake—described as “a spotted vine around a tree”—that had swallowed a monkey whole before one of the party shot and decapitated it. The account concludes with yet another nighttime encounter with a large predator:

“About 12 o’clock Black Joe came and aroused me and said here is a Tiger. I said it was not, it was a jaguar, and he was a big one, he looked like a Tiger.”

Beyond its colorful storytelling, the document reflects the fascination that nineteenth-century American travelers had with the landscapes and wildlife of Mexico and the broader frontier world. Written in a lively, vernacular voice, the narrative evokes the spirit of popular adventure literature of the period, stories of wilderness exploration, hunting expeditions, and encounters with unfamiliar environments that captured the imagination of readers in the United States. Such accounts circulated widely in newspapers and pamphlets, blending fact, exaggeration, and storytelling in a way that mirrored the cultural mythology of the expanding American frontier.

Intriguingly, the final line of the document reads: “To be continued next Paper.” The phrase suggests that the narrative may once have formed part of a serialized story or travel account, leaving open the possibility that additional installments may survive.

 [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Mexico, Late Indian Wars, Outlaws, Crime & Punishment]