fremantle entered the confederacy through the mexican town of matamoros, tamaulipas, on 2 april on board the royal navy frigate hms "immortalité" to avoid being in violation of the union blockade, and crossed the rio grande into brownsville, texas. within three hours of his arrival in the confederacy, fremantle encountered 'frontier justice' for the first time, finding the body of a renegade, known as montgomery, half-buried and stripped of flesh at the roadside. spending almost two weeks in brownsville, with occasional visits across the border to matamoros and the village of bagdad, fremantle became acquainted with general hamilton p. bee and several merchants and diplomats who were facilitating the trade of cotton across the border with mexico. part of the reasoning for fremantle's tenure in brownsville may have been that he wished to meet general john b. magruder, for whom he had a letter of introduction. however, magruder was delayed, and fremantle left brownsville on 13 april in a carriage in the company of some of his merchant friends. their driver and his assistant, mr sargeant and judge hyde, are particularly memorable figures from fremantle's diary, in no small part due to fremantle's astonishment that a member of the justiciary should be working on a stagecoach. later, general longstreet would recall meeting the same two men during his own service in texas.