 In 1846, Peter Brady, an urbane citizen of the nation's capital, well-educated and well-travelled in the Mediterranean region, left the United States Navy and the capital to travel to the desert country of West Texas, full of hostile Native Americans, never to return to the east, and never, in essence, to travel anywhere else except Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico.He had no personal reason to go there, no friends or relatives, and no knowledge of the people or the terrain.The answer to this conundrum is perhaps to be found in the subsequent events of his life.