 Women and children were preferred, and in a significant number of cases, young captives were raised as Comanches and did not wish to leave.On January 10, 1840, after several years of war and a major smallpox epidemic, three Comanche emissaries entered San Antonio and asked for peace, offering to send a large contingent of their leaders in 23 days to secure a new peace.They returned a white boy as a show of sincerity.