Lyr. Add: MUSTANG GRAY
Version; N. Howard Thorp, 1908

1
There was a brave old Texan
They called him Mustang Gray
He left his home when quite a boy
And went roaming far away.

Chorus-
He'l go no more a rangering
Those savages to affright
He has heard his last war-whoop
He fought his last fight.

2
When our country was invaded
By the Indian warrior train's
He used to mount his noble charger
And scout the hills and plains.
3
He would not sleep within a tent
No pleasures did he know
But like a brave old frontiersman
A-scouting he would go.
4
Once he was taken prisoner
And carried far away
Had to wear the yoke of bondage
Through the streets of *Monterey
5
A señorita loved him
And with a brave woman's pride
She opened the gates and gave him
Her father's horse to ride.
6
And when this gallant life was spent
This was his last command
Pray bury me in old Texas soil
On the banks of the Rio Grande.
7
And when the weary traveller
Is passing by his grave
He may sometimes shed a farewell tear
O'er the bravest of the brave.

Thorp's 1st. version, from his 1908 "Songs of the Cowboy," is incomplete, but it is the earliest in the Traditional Ballad Index.
*Spelling and punctuation retained.
It bears a relationship to "Maid of Monterrey."
There is a version in the DT from Lomax.

Ranger Mabry (Mustang) Gray was a killer, once murdering a band of innocent Mexican traders He died in 1840 of cholera. See thread 108643, Texas Ranger melody origin.