STUDENT Mathew Foxcroft is enjoying the journey of a lifetime, travelling across America by train. This is the latest in his series of weekly reports.

IF we succeed, the country is ours. It is immense in extent and fertile in its soil, and will amply reward our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it.

The words are those from Daniel Cloud (en route to San Antonio). He was one of the 189 men killed during the 13-day siege of the Alamo, in 1836.

San Antonio is famous, due to the Alamo. It played a critical role in the Texas revolution. It was seen as the key to the defence of Texas, and among those willing to protect it were Jim Bowie -- renowned knife fighter -- and David Crockett, the famous English frontiersman.

San Antonio and the Alamo -- just four-hour train journey from Austin, Texas -- have come to symbolise a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds, a place where men made the battle cry of "Victory or Death".

Famous and historic as it may be, not surprisingly the surrounding area around the Alamo is made up of hotels and tourists shops.

San Antonio is unlike any other Texan city. It has a Mediterranean feel, due to its predominantly Hispanic population.

We spent a couple of days in San Antonio, taking in the sights and relaxing in the surprisingly warm weather.

We left San Antonio refreshed and, with a 12-hour train journey to El Passo, it was a good job we were. The 12-hour journey, supposedly leaving at three in the morning, left two hours late.

When the sun broke, we awoke and had our first glimpse of a desolate America. It was our first sight of wide open space, with nothing but mountains and huge gorges on the horizon.

According to the Apache Indians, the great spirits dumped all the rocks here, which were left over from the creation of the world -- a tale that seemed very true.

Every two or three hours we would pass a small town, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, then nothing for another couple of hours.

The train took us through Big Bend National Park and into the city of El Passo.

The city is on the border between the US and Mexico, and, to be perfectly honest, isn't worth staying in.

What seemed amazing was that, after the 12-hour train journey (which felt like 20 hours), we were still in the state of Texas!

On arrival in El Passo, we were picked up by friends and driven for about an hour into Las Cruces in New Mexico -- the home of New Mexico State University where we were staying for five days.

Although classed as a city, Las Cruces feels like a town. No buildings are allowed above five stories, due to the city wanting to keep the spectacular views of the surrounding San Andres mountains.

Next week we are faced with either a 52-hour train journey or a six-hour flight into Seattle...