Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 with funding from 
 Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyoftexasfrOOyoak 
 
Mission of San Jose 
 
 Uedfield Eubbsher 
 Xewlark 
 
A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION IN ONE VOLUME OF 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS 
 
 FROM 
 
 ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1685 
 
 ITS ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1846 
 
 By H. YOAKUM, Esq. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I 
 
 WITH AN EXTENDED APPENDIX 
 
 REDFIELD 
 
 34 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK 
 
 1855 
 
 Facsimile by Steck-Vaughn Company • Austin , Texas 
 
F 
 
 .V56 
 
 A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION OF THE FIRST EDITION BY 
 
 Steck- Vaughn Company • Publishers • Austin, Texas 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, 
 
 By J. S. REDFIELD, 
 
 in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Southern 
 District of New York. 
 
 library 
 
 J4A/29 1867] 
 
 STEREOTYPED BY C. C. SAVAGE, 
 13 Chambers Street, N. Y- 
 
 388307 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To Peter W. Gray, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir : I present you with the first volume of my His- 
 tory of Texas. It doubtless has many defects, and I can 
 only regret that I have nothing better to offer. It is the fruit 
 of days and nights stolen from other pursuits. 
 
 I am greatly indebted to you for papers and suggestions. I 
 owe a like debt to Jesse Grimes, Esq., Dr. B. B. Goodrich, 
 General H. H. Edwards, Colonel J. C. Harrison, Colonel S. 
 A. Miller, and several other gentlemen ; but, especially, to F. 
 Giraud, Esq., and Colonel John Forbes. 
 
 The materials for the history of Texas during the last cen- 
 tury are very slender ; yet it is believed there are more in 
 existence. For instance — 1. The correspondence of the Fran- 
 ciscan friars from 1716 to 1794 is believed to be in the parent- 
 convents of Queretaro and Zacatecas. This would throw a 
 flood of light upon that period. 2. The thirty folio volumes, 
 covering the transactions in Texas for the first half-century of 
 its history, were forwarded to the king of Spain in 1744, and 
 are probably in the archives of Salmanca, in Spain. 3. The 
 Berlandier manuscripts. Dr. Berlandier, a Swiss geographer, 
 
4 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 was engaged in Mexico and Texas from 1826 to 1850 in col- 
 lecting documents and facts, historical, geographical, <fcc., and 
 died in Matamoras in the lastrnamed year, leaving his exten- 
 sive manuscripts in the hands of his widow. These she sold to 
 an officer of the United States navy. He has deposited them 
 in the Smithsonian Institution for safekeeping, desirous to dis- 
 pose of them to the government. When accessible, they will 
 doubtless throw light upon the history of our state. 4. Don 
 Ramon Arispe, curate of Bourbon, in Tamaulipas, promised 
 the king of Spain, in his memorial of 1811, to write a history 
 of the eastern internal provinces. If he did so, I have not 
 seen it. 
 
 Besides these materials, of which I have not had the benefit, 
 there are doubtless in the archives of Mexico, Chihuahua, Sal- 
 tillo, and Monclova, many valuable historical papers. In Bexar 
 there are some yet unpublished. Our legislature directed the 
 appointment of a person to arrange and translate these last- 
 named papers, and made an appropriation for that purpose ; 
 but the gentleman appointed has made no report to my knowl- 
 edge. The want of these materials must be my excuse for not 
 furnishing something more worthy of your consideration. 
 
 The materials for the second volume, which will close with 
 our annexation, will be more ample. In the meantime, if the 
 perusal of this volume shall afford you half the pleasure I had 
 in its compilation, I shall be more than gratified. 
 
 Very truly your friend, 
 
 H. Yoakum. 
 
 Shepherd’s Valley, Texas, July 3 , 1854 . 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The gulf of Mexico is somewhat in the shape of a horseshoe, 
 having at the two heels Capes Florida and Catorce, and a per- 
 imeter of three thousand miles. Its opening is defended and 
 adorned by the island of Cuba, possessing some of the finest 
 harbors in the world. Commencing at Cape Florida, we find 
 the ports and harbors are as numerous as could be desired. 
 They are — Tampa, Apalachic, Mobile, New Orleans, Achafa- 
 laya, Calcasieu, Sabine, Galveston, Matagorda, Corpus Christi, 
 Brasos Santiago, Soto la Marina, Tampico, Vera Cruz, Tehuan- 
 tepec, Campeachy, Sisal, and Sagartos. True, some of them 
 are of small capacity ; yet they are sufficient for the vast com- 
 merce of this great inland sea, and the rich territories that 
 border it. 
 
 At the toe of this great shoe lies the territory of Texas, ex- 
 tending from the twenty-sixth nearly to the thirtieth parallel 
 of north latitude, a distance of 380 miles along the coast. 
 It extends into the interior to the parallel of thirty-six and a 
 half degrees north, and lies between the ninety-fourth and the 
 one hundred and fifth degrees of longitude west from Green- 
 wich — embracing an area of two hundred and thirty-seven 
 thousand square miles, or about one hundred and fifty millions 
 of acres. The country along, the coast is a level prairie : but, 
 
6 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as you pass to the interior, the surface gradually rises and be- 
 comes more undulating — and, still farther inland, hilly, and 
 then mountainous. Timber also begins to appear as the coun- 
 try becomes more undulating, especially in the eastern portion 
 of the state. Yet, after crossing an extensive belt of timber, 
 and reaching more than a hundred miles from the coast, you 
 find the high, rolling prairies — composed of the richest soil in 
 the world, covered with musquit-grass, and having, along the 
 streams and valleys, sufficient timber for ordinary purposes. 
 
 Texas is an alluvial country, having very little rock on its 
 surface. Everywhere is to be found unmistakeable evidence 
 of its having been submerged. In the extreme northern part 
 primitive rocks may be found, though in the inhabited portion 
 they are never seen. The variety of her latitude and eleva- 
 tion gives to her citizens a like variety of climate and produc- 
 tions. In the south, they grow oranges and sugar-cane ; in 
 the middle region, cotton ; farther north, wheat; and potatoes, 
 corn, and vegetables, everywhere. In fact, there is no coun- 
 try of like extent where a greater variety and quantity of 
 agricultural productions can be raised ; nor is there any coun- 
 try where the laborer can find a more certain and better re- 
 ward for his toil. 
 
 Circumstances alone have postponed to these latter days 
 the development of the vast resources of Texas. Galveston, 
 her principal harbor — situated about four hundred miles from 
 New Orleans, seven hundred from Vera Cruz, and eight hun- 
 dred from Cuba — affords her a commercial outlet sufficient 
 for her growing purposes. When her interior shall be sup- 
 plied with railroad facilities — and in no country can they be 
 more cheaply built — she will have nothing further to desire. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 First European Emigrants to Texas — La Salle — Discovery of the Mouth of the 
 Mississippi — Voyage of La Salle — Beaujeu — Vessels wrecked — Put in at Petit 
 Gouave — Again set sail — Coast along the Shore of Texas — Return to Mata- 
 gorda Bay — Put in there — Land and Encamp — Loss of the Aimable — La Salle 
 in Search of the Mouth of the Mississippi — Trouble with the Indians — Depart- 
 ure of Beaujeu — La Salle’s Colonists — Tour of Discovery in the Interior of 
 Texas — Return — Bad Condition of the Colony — New Location on the Lavaca 
 — Fort St Louis page 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Nearest Spanish Settlements to La Salle — Other Settlements in North America 
 — The Early Texan Indians : Lipans, Oarankawaes, Cenis, Nassonis, Camanches 
 — Ownership of Texas — Pretensions of Spain — Origin of Dispute as to the 
 Title page 26 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Further Exploration by La Salle — Loss of the Belle — Journey to the Illinois — 
 Its Failure — Return of the Party — Preparations for a Second Journey — La 
 Salle and Twenty of his Party again set out — Reach the town of Texas, on the 
 Neches — Mutiny — Death of La Salle — Mutineers kill Each Other — Heins left 
 with the Cenis Indians — Joutel and Six Others set out for France — Destruc- 
 tion of the Remnant of Fort St. Louis — March of De Tonti from the Illinois to 
 relieve La Salle page 33 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 News of La Salle’s Colony reaches Mexico — Captain Alonzo De Leon sent against 
 it — Found the Post abandoned — De Leon’s Second Visit — Don Domingo Teran 
 first Governor — Makes Settlements — Mission of San Francisco on Bernard Bay 
 — St. John, at the Presidio on the Rio Grande — Settlements and Missions aban- 
 doned in 1693 — Discovery of the Rio Grande — Movements in Louisiana — Cro- 
 zat — Huchereau St. Denis — His Visit to the Presidio on the Rio Grande, in 
 1714 — Arrested — Sent to Mexico — Released — New Steps taken by the Span- 
 iards to occupy Texas — Mission at San Bernard Bay — Adaes — Dolores — San 
 Antonio de Valero — Domingo Ramon — Nacogdoches — Aes — First Buildings — 
 Indians — Name of Texas page 44 
 
8 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Missionaries — Jesuits — Dominicans — Franciscans — Labors of the Latter in Texas 
 — Presidios — Missions — Troops — Forts — Rules in the Missions — Neophytes — 
 Reports of the Missionaries — Mode of bringing in Wild Indians — Missions of 
 Catholics and Protestants — Missionary Regulations of Government — Council 
 of the Indies — Encomiendas — Peonage — Taxes — Clergy of New Spain — Right 
 of Patronage — Mission Buildings page 63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Second Expedition of St. Denis, 1716 — Seizure of his Goods at the Presidio — His 
 Journey to Mexico — Imprisonment — Release — Escape of his Company — Crozat 
 surrenders his Charter — War between France and Spain, 1718 — Campaign of 
 La Harpe and St. Denis against Texan Missions — Repelled by De Aguayo — 
 De Alarconne new Governor of Texas — He demands more Men and Money — 
 Correspondence with La Harpe — His Demand refused, and he resigns — Belle- 
 isle — His Wanderings in Texas — His Escape from the Indians — Spanish Expe- 
 dition from Santa Fe, 1720 — Its Destruction — The ‘French reoccupy Fort St. 
 Louis on Matagorda Bay — Abandon it page 66 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 New Efforts of the Spaniards to occupy Texas — New Posts and Missions — Colo- 
 nists recommended by Aguayo — Spanish Forces in Texas — Description of the 
 Troops — St. Denis gets up a Contraband Trade — War between Spain and Eng- 
 land, 1726 — Western Limit of Texas — Order for New Colouists from the Ca- 
 naries — Reduction of the Forces in Texas — Attack of the Natchez on Natchi- 
 toches, of the Apaches on the Spaniards — Arrival of Colonists — Victory over 
 the Indians — Governor Sandoval, 173-1 — His Zeal — Dispute with St Denis 
 about the Eastern Limit of Texas — Their Correspondence — Governor Franquis 
 supersedes Sandoval — Throws him into Prison, 1736 — Tyranny of Franquis — 
 Lawsuit between him and Sandoval — Governor Boneo arrives* — Takes Testi- 
 mony in the Suit between the Ex-Govemors — Sandoval acquitted — Suit re- 
 newed — Sandoval again acquitted — Condition of Texas in 1744 — Population 
 — Mission of San Saba — Its Dest ruction, 1758 page 74 
 
 CHAPTER VII L 
 
 Affairs in Spain — War between England and France — Spain drawn into it — 
 Cession of Louisiana to Spain, 1762 — Eastern Limit of Spanish Territory — The 
 Balance of Power — Effect of the Cession of Louisiana — Abandonment of the 
 Posts of Adaes and Orquizaeo — Mission of the Marquis de Rubi — Commerce 
 between Texas and Louisiana — The Casa de Contratacion — Restrictions on 
 Trade — Galleons — Mail-Packets — Smuggling — Population of Texas in 1765 — 
 Growth of Anglo-Aineriean Colonies — Their Progress West — Part taken by 
 France and Spain in the American Revolution — Building up of Nacogdo- 
 ches page 90 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Jose Galvez — Dispute between United States and Spain about the Boundary — 
 Opinion of La Fayette — Navigation of the Mississippi — Motive of Spain in 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 3 
 
 objecting to its Navigation by Americans — The Discussion — Manuel Godoy — 
 Treaty of 1795 — Trade between Natchez and Texas — Indians — History of the 
 Alamo — Missions secularized, 1793 — The Abandonment of Adaes — Refugio — 
 La Bahia — Spirit of Progress — Death of Galvez page 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Philip Nolan — Expedition to Texas — His Company — Adventures — Horses stolen 
 and recovered — Battle of Nolan’s Creek, March 22, 1801 — Nolan killed — Bean 
 takes Command — Treaty — Bean and his Party lmnrisoned — Taken to San Luis 
 Potosi — Re-cession of Louisiana to France, October, 1800 — Obstruction of the 
 Navigation of the Mississippi — Excitement — Purchase of Louisiana by the Uni- 
 ted States — Debates on the Subject — Inquiries as to the Boundary of Louisi- 
 ana — Controversy with Spain — The Special Embassy — Discussion — Proposi- 
 tions — Influence of Bonaparte — Warlike Attitude of Spain — Spanish Outrages 
 on the Frontier — Gathering of Troops — Old Settlements on Red River — Gov- 
 ernor Cordero pa«e 111 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Americans prepare to drive the Spaniards West of the Sabine — Arrival of Gov- 
 ernor Claiborne — General Wilkinson — The two Armies separated only by the 
 Sabine — Correspondence — Agreement — The Neutral Ground — Pike’s Expedi- 
 tion — Steps taken to capture him — He gets lost — Is taken on the Rio Grande 
 — Condition of Texas at the Close of 1806 — American Squatters — The Old 
 Missions — Population of Texas — Society in 1806 — Scene at Albuquerque — 
 Commerce o f Texas — Coahuila — T'asa del Norte page 131 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Miranda — Spirit of Liberty in Mexico — Burr — His Capture — Napoleon’s Designs 
 upon Spain — Overturns the Bourbon Dynasty, and places his Brother Joseph 
 on the Spanish Throne — Effect in Mexico — Viceroy about to call a Popular 
 Assembly — Imprisoned — Influence of the Junta of Seville — Revolution in 
 Spanish America — Hidalgo — Proposals of Spanish Junta — Successes and Re- 
 verses of Hidalgo — Captured and put to Death — Colonel Delgado and Bernar- 
 do Gutierres — The Latter escapes to Louisiana — Occupants of the Neutral 
 Ground — Their Outrages — Attempts to remove them — Lieutenant Magee — 
 His Connection with Gutierres — Preparations for the Gachupin War — Battle 
 at Salitre Prairie — Rout at Nacogdoches — At Trinidad — Salcedo — Prepara- 
 tions to defend Texas — Morelos — Bean — His Adventures — Release from Prison 
 — Republican Officer in Mexico — Takes Acapulco page 143 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Gutierres advances upon La Bahia, October, 1812 — Ambush laid for them — 
 Pass around it and surprise La Bahia, November 14, 1812 — Plunder taken — 
 Salcedo besieges them there — Several Unsuccessful Assaults — Treaty between 
 Magee and Salcedo — Americans refuse to ratify it — Magee’s Death — Battle — 
 Salcedo worsted, raises the Siege, and retires toward San Antonio — Americans 
 pursue him — Battle of Rosalia — Surrender of Salcedo and his Staff — Occupa- 
 tion of San Antonio — Massacre of Salcedo and his Staff by Order of Gutierres 
 
10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 — Dismissal of Gutierres — Colonel Perry — Manchaca — Approach of Elisondo — 
 Battle of the Alazan — Flight of the Spaniards — Toledo in Command of the “Re- 
 publican Army of the North” — Battle of the Medina — Defeat and Butchery of 
 Americans — Cruelty of the Spaniards at San Antonio and Trinidad. . page 162 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Relations of Spain with the United States, 1808-1815 — Baton Rouge annexed to 
 Louisiana, October-27, 1810 — War in Mexico — Calleja — Ferdinand VII. re- 
 stored to his Throne — Toledo preparing to prosecute the War in Mexico — 
 Sympathy of the People in the Southwestern States — The Mexican Clergy — 
 Colonel Perry — Galveston Island — Don Luis Aury occupies the Island — Xa- 
 vier Mina — His Movements — Treachery of Toledo — Mina, Perry, and Aury, at 
 Galveston — Prosperity of the Place — Africans brought to the Island — Smug- 
 gled into the United States — Attack upon Soto la Marina — Perry returns — 
 Mina’s Successes, Capture, and Death — Perry’s Attack on La Bahia — His De- 
 feat and Death — Lafitte — Barataria — Broken up by Commodore Patterson — 
 Offer made to Lafitte by the British Government — His Refusal — At the Battle 
 of New Orleans — His Pardon — Occupies Galveston Island, April, 1817 — His 
 Authority — Commission from Colonel Bean tage 177 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Aury returns to Matagorda — Leaves Texas, to assist M ‘Gregor in taking Florida 
 — Lafitte prospers greatly — French Settlement on the Trinity — Lafitte’sTown 
 of Campeachy — Indians — Battle of the “Three Trees” — Discussion between 
 the United States and Spain — Treaty of 1819 — Texas abandoned to Spain — 
 General Long and his Expedition — His Government — Visit to Lafitte for Aid 
 — Advance of the Royalists — Defeat of Captain Johnson — Of Captain Walker 
 — Of David Long — His Death — Flight of Long’s Party from Nacogdoches — 
 Battle between Major Smith and Colonel Perez on the Trinity — Retreat of the 
 Americans to Bolivar Point — Lafitte in Difficulty with the United States — 
 Hangs Brown — Lieutenant Kearney sent against him — Lafitte leaves Texas — 
 Success of the Royalists under Apodaca — Treachery of Iturbide — Pronounce- 
 ment of Iguala — Apodaca deposed, and Novella made Viceroy — Arrival of 
 O’Donoju — Treaty of Cordova, August 24, 1821 — Independence of Mexico- 
 Long sets out to attack La Bahia — His Capture and Assassination. . page 193 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Austins — Moses Austin applies for a Colony Contract — Obtains it — Dies — 
 Stephen F. Austin undertakes to carry out the Contract — Erasmo Seguin — 
 Austin’s Means — Arrives in Texas in July, 1821 — First Colonists, December, 
 1821 — Austin’s Journey to Mexico — His Efforts to have his Grant confirmed 
 by Iturbide — Other Applicants — Hayden Edwards — The Cherokees — Iturbide 
 disperses the Mexican Congress — Creates a Junta — First Colonization Law — 
 Iturbide dethroned by Santa Anna and Others — Constituent Congress — Fed- 
 eral Constitution of 1824 — San Antonio — Immigrants — Carankawnes — Second 
 Battle of the “Three Trees” — More Troubles with the Indians — Battle of 
 Jones’s Creek — Peace with the Caraukawaes — Austin’s Return — His New 
 Town — Prosperity of the Colony — Austin’s Zeal page 209 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 11 
 
 CHAPTER XYIL 
 
 Mexican State Constitutions — Texas united with Coahuila — First State Congress, 
 August 16, 1824 — Chief of the Department of Texas — Saucedo — State Coloni- 
 zation Law, March 24, 1825 — Leftwitch and Edwards’s Grants — Independent 
 Immigrants on the Trinity — Boundary of Edwards’s Grant — His Difficulties 
 — Bean — John Dunn Hunter — Correspondence between Edwards and the Po- 
 litical Chief — Troubles at Nacogdoches — Tramel at Robbins’s Ferry — B. W. 
 Edwards — Haydeu Edwards’s Grant annulled — Fredonian Emeute — Norris — 
 Gaines — Martin Parmer — Treaty with the Cherokees — Expulsion of Norris 
 and his Party — Failure of the Fredonians to obtain Assistance — Advance of 
 the Mexicans under Colonel Ahumada — Retreat of the Fredonians across the 
 Sabine page 230 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Prosperity of Austin’s Colony — Dewitt’s Colony — Deaf Smith — State Constitu- 
 tion — Representatives — Ayuntamientos — Mexican Troops for Texas — Guada- 
 lupe Victoria — Poinsett — Masonic Lodges — Bravo — Expulsion of the Span- 
 iards — Poverty of the State of Coahuila and Texas — Growth of the Colonies 
 — Gonzales — Campaign against the Wacoes and Twowokanas — Trade with 
 Santa Fe — Decree in favor of Debtors — Peonage — Slavery — Election of Pe- 
 draza — Revolution — Guerrero made President — Attempts of the United States 
 to re-purchase Texas — Settlement of Liberty — Education — Mexican School- 
 master — Progress of the Settlements — Guerrero made Dictator — Slaves — Jose 
 Maria Letono — James Bowie — Decree of April 6, 1830, against American Colo- 
 nists — General Teran — Mexican Forces in Texas — Steps toward a Military 
 Despotism page 261 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 American Population in Texas in 1831 — Usurpations of the Military Authority 
 — United States propose to purchase Texas — Mexican Jealousy of American 
 Immigrants — Obuoxious Measures of the Mexican Government — Search for 
 the Silver-Mines of San Saba — Desperate Battle with the Indians — Mexican 
 Revolution of 1832 — Capture of Fort Velasco by the Texans — Feeling in Texas 
 in 1832 — Battle of Nacogdoches — Mexican Defeat page 274 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Proposed Separation of Texas and Coahuila — Civil War between Santa Anna 
 and Bustamente — Course of Colonel Austin — Sam Houston — Sketch of his 
 Life — His Mission to Texas in 1832 — Indian Wars — Election of Santa Anna 
 as President of Mexico — Constitutional Convention of 1833 — Attempt to make 
 Santa Anna Dictator — Imprisonment of Austin — Proceedings of Texan Legis- 
 lature — Change of Government in Mexico — Attempts to organize a Judiciary 
 in Texas — Civil War imminent in the State — Disputes of Saltillo and Mon- 
 dova — Release of Austin — Separation of Texas and Coahuila refused by Santa 
 Anna — Almont6’s Report on Texas — Attempt of the Creek Indians to obtain 
 a Settlement in Texas page 301 
 
12 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 First Revolutionary Movement in Texas in 1834 — Acts of the Mexican Congress 
 in 1835 — State Election in Texas and Coahuila — Revolt of Saltillo — Legisla- 
 tive Proceedings — Temporizing Policy of Santa Anna — Course of the Federal 
 Congress — Massacre and Plunder of Zacatecas — Organization of Committees 
 of Safety by the Texans — Ugartachea, the Mexican Commandant in Texas — 
 Movements of the War and Peace Parties — Conciliatory Meeting at San Felipe 
 — Meeting at Navidad — Feeling at Nacogdoches — Flight of Zavalla into Texas 
 — Mexican Spies — Orders to arrest Suspected Persons — Attempt of Santa Anna 
 to arrest Zavalla — War-Party in the Ascendency — Meeting at San Augustine 
 — Movements of Santa Anna toward Despotic Authority — Continued Hostile 
 Policy toward Texas page 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Committee of Safety and Correspondence formed at Columbia — Texan Pronun- 
 ciamento — Movement for a General Consultation of all Texas — Return of Aus- 
 tin to Texas — Address of Austin — Land-Frauds — Mexican Spy — Arrival of 
 Cos with Additional Troops in Texas — Opening Conflict of the Revolution — 
 Warlike Enthusiasm throughout Texas — Destruction of the Federal Constitu- 
 tion in Mexico — Texas Council of Safety organized — Capture of Goliad by the 
 Texans — Aid rendered the Texans in Men, Arms, and Provisions — Texan En- 
 campment at Concepcion — Battle of Concepcion, and Defeat of the Mexicans 
 — First Government of Revolutionary Texas — Proceedings of the Central 
 Council page 354 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1. Old Bexar Manuscript page 381 
 
 2. Memoir of Ellis P. Bean 403 
 
 3. Official Proceedings of Lafitte’s Government at Galveston Island. . . . 453 
 
 4. Notes on the Alamo 457 
 
 5. Hayden Edwards’s Contract 462 
 
 6. Letters from General Sam Houston to President Jackson and the In- 
 
 dian Commissioners, in 1833 465 
 
 7. Memorial of the Texan Convention of April, 1833, to the General Con- 
 
 gress of the United Mexican States 469 
 
HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The first European emigrants to Texas were led hither by 
 Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de la Salle, who landed on the west 
 side, and near the entrance, of Matagorda bay, on the 18th of 
 February, 1685.* La Salle was a brave and gallant knight of 
 Louis XIV. He was a native of Rouen, in Normandy. Born 
 of a good family, and destined for the church, he received, 
 under the guidance of the Jesuits, an excellent scientific edu- 
 cation.! He was a man of great abilities, of an enterprising 
 spirit, and possessed of a firmness of mind which peril and 
 adversity seemed only to strengthen. He kept his own coun- 
 sel, relied upon his own genius, and bore without a murmur 
 whatever ills befell him. But, with all these good qualities, 
 such was his ambition, that it rendered him morose and sullen 
 —haughty, not only to his dependants, but his associates. $ 
 
 It is remarkable that the mouth of the Mississippi was not 
 discovered until one hundred and ninety years after the dis- 
 
 * American State Paper 9, vol. xii., p. 87 : Wait, Boston, 1819. Life of La 
 Salle , American Biography , voL xi, p. 129. 
 
 f Ibid., p. 6. 
 
 $ Travel * of Captain Boaeu, vol L, p. 86: London, 1771. 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 eovery of America; and still more so, that this discovery 
 should have been made through Canada. Ferdinand De Soto, 
 coming from Florida, had seen it, and been buried in its waters 
 about the year 1543. And in 1673, Marquette, a Recollect 
 missionary, with six others, under the direction of M. Talon, 
 the intendant-general of Canada, starting out from Mackinac, 
 crossed over to the great river,* and floated down as far as 
 the mouth of the Arkansas. But it was reserved to La Salle 
 to discover its mouth, which he did on the 7th day of April, 
 1682, and, on the 9th, celebrated the discovery with great 
 ceremony, taking possession, in the name of Louis XIV., by 
 proclamation and proces verbal , of all the territory watered 
 by the Mississippi from its mouth to its source, and by the 
 streams flowing into it on both sides. f 
 
 The report of this splendid discovery, which was made known 
 in Europe, by La Salle and his followers, on their return to 
 France, created great excitement, not only at court, but among 
 the learned. The idea of a nearer route to Asia had occupied 
 the minds of commercial and learned men since the time of 
 Columbus. When the trappers and fur-traders of Canada first 
 learned, from the Indians, the existence of this great river, the 
 impression prevailed that it emptied into the Vermilion sea, 
 the name then given to the gulf of California. 
 
 * Meshassepi, in the language of the Illinois Indians, signifies all the rivers. 
 
 \ See a translation of the proces verbal in Appendix iv. to Sparks’s Life of La 
 Salle. There has been much controversy as to the discovery of the mouth of 
 the Mississippi. If discovered by Moscoso as early as 1545, it is exceedingly 
 strange that for one hundred and thirty years afterward the important fact was 
 unknown in the learned court of France, and that the savans of that capital still 
 supposed that river emptied into the gulf of California. The curious can find 
 much said on the subject in Dr. Monette’s Valley of the Mississippi, vol. i., p. 
 620 ; Professor Shea’s Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi ; Bossu, vol. i., 
 p. 70; Pickett’s History of Alabama, vol. i., pp. 51, 52; and Am. Biog., vol. x., 
 p. 268 et seq. Also the character of Garcilasso de la Vega, the writer, on whom 
 the advocates of an earlier discovery rely, can be found in the Biographie Uni- 
 verselle, in loc. 
 
DISCOVERIES OF LA SALLE. 
 
 15 
 
 La Salle had many enemies : some caused by his harsh and 
 overbearing temper ; others, through envy of his fame ; and 
 yet others, on account of the monopoly in trade granted him 
 by the king. Yet he had two friends at court — Frontenac, 
 the former governor of Canada, and Seignelay, son of the great 
 Colbert — who aided him greatly in presenting the importance 
 of his discovery, in removing the unfavorable impressions made 
 by his enemies, and, above all, in opening the way and provi- 
 ding the means for further adventures, and the permaneiit oc- 
 cupancy of the newly-discovered territory. La Salle proposed 
 to proceed to the mouth of the Mississippi by sea; and, being 
 provided with provisions, implements of husbandry, mechanics , 
 tools, and colonists, to found a colony there. All this was 
 granted, and in a manner suitable to the importance of the 
 enterprise, and the dignity and munificence of the great Louis. 
 A commission was issued to him, giving him authority to estab- 
 lish colonies in Louisiana, and to take command of the expe- 
 dition.* 
 
 A squadron of four vessels was provided and furnished by 
 the king : that is, the Joli , a frigate of thirty-six guns ; the 
 Belle , of six guns, a present from the king to La Salle ; the 
 
 * The historians of this expedition are, Joutel, whose journal was published in 
 Paris in 1713 ; and Father Anastase, whose account is published by Chretien Le 
 Clerk, in his history of the labors of the Franciscan missionaries in Canada, enti- 
 tled “ Etablissement de la Foy Paris, 1691. Dr. Sparks, in his life of La Salle, 
 has collated and weighed the facts, as given by these authors, in a manner so 
 excellent and accurate, that he has left but little to be added. Besides, he has 
 thrown new light upon the subject by the publication of original documents in 
 the archives of the marine department at Paris. — Sparks'* Am. Biog., vol. xi. 
 The accounts, as given by Charlevoix, in the Ilistoire Generate de la Nouvelle 
 France , and by Captain Bossu, in his travels through Louisiana, are taken from 
 Joutel. The facts stated in this chapter are mostly taken from Dr. Sparks, L*b 
 C lerk’s Etablissement de la Foy, and the narrative of Father Anastase Douay. 
 The latter has lately been presented in an English dress by Professor Shea. The 
 journal of Joutel is published in the first volume of the Historical Collections of 
 Louisiana. 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Aim able, a ship of some three hundred tons’ burden ; and a 
 small vessel, the St. Francis , carrying munitions. Beaujeu, 
 who commanded the Joli, was also commander of the squad- 
 ron, but was to be under the direction of La Salle, except in 
 the business of navigating the ships at sea, till they arrived in 
 America : Beaujeu was also to assist him in making prepara- 
 tions for the voyage. The whole number of persons who em- 
 barked in the expedition was more than three hundred, of 
 whom one hundred were soldiers, thirty volunteers, and the 
 rest workmen, girls, and seamen. The missionary force con- 
 sisted of seven persons, viz. : four Recollect fathers, Zenobe 
 Membre, Anastase Douay, Maxime Leclercq, and Denis Mar- 
 quet ; three priests of St. Sulpitius, Cavalier, brother of La 
 Salle, Chedeville his relation, and Majulte. Among the volun- 
 teers were several gentlemen of distinction, among whom may 
 be mentioned Joutel, the historian of the expedition ; Morag- 
 net and young Cavalier, nephews of La Salle ; Planterose, 
 Thibault, and Ory, from Rouen, the native town of La Salle ; 
 also M. Talon, a gentleman of Canada, with his family.* 
 
 On the 24th of July, 1684, the squadron set sail from Ro- 
 chelle. La Salle was on board of Beaujeu’s ship, the Joli. An 
 utter want of confidence existed between those two persons. 
 This was caused to some extent by the anomalous position they 
 occupied, the authority of each not having been defined by the 
 marine department ; but still more by the pride of Beaujeu and 
 the obstinacy of La Salle. The former had been a captain for 
 thirteen years in the French navy, and took to himself great 
 credit for consenting to obey the orders of the Sieur de la Salle, 
 who had never served in war, except against savages, and who 
 had no military rank.j And when Beaujeu would propose to 
 
 * Bossu, i., 71 ; Life of La Salle, 114. 
 
 f See his letter to the minister of the marine, as quoted by Dr. Sparks; May 
 30, 1684. Ib., p. 116. 
 
LOSS OF THE ST. FRANCIS. 
 
 17 
 
 him anything, he would haughtily reply, “ This is not the king’s 
 intention.”* Previous to the departure of the squadron, Beau- 
 jeu wrote again to the minister, reminding him how disagree- 
 able it was for him to be under the orders of a man who had 
 no military rank, and asking positive orders on the point ; sta- 
 ting that he wished the orders to be of such a character, that 
 no blame should attach to him should La Salle fail in his proj- 
 ect. He wished also to know what was to be done with the 
 soldiers, as La Salle had already set up a claim to their com- 
 mand so soon as they should land in America. The minister 
 did not enlighten him with any further instructions — nor did 
 La Salle with any intimation of his intentions. It was in this 
 awkward relation that the two chiefs left Rochelle. They had 
 not gone more than fifty leagues to sea when the bowsprit of 
 the Joli was broken, and they returned for repairs. They put 
 out again on the 1st of August. Descrying the island of Ma- 
 deira, Beaujeu proposed to anchor, and take in water and re- 
 freshments ; but La Salle refused, alleging that they had on 
 board plentiful supplies, that it would produce unnecessary de- 
 lay, and expose the design of their expedition to the risk of 
 being discovered by the Spaniards. 
 
 Near the coast of St. Domingo, the vessels were separated 
 by a storm ; but, between .the 28th of September and the 2d 
 of October, they all came into port at Petit Gouave, except the 
 St. Francis, which was taken by the Spaniards.! This was a 
 severe loss, as the stores on this bark were impoicant to the 
 success of the enterprise. La Salle was for three weeks con 
 
 * Bossu, i., 72. 
 
 f Life of La Salle, Am. Biog., xi., p. 120. On the 15th of August, 1684, the 
 truce of Ratisbon, concluded by France with Spain and the German empire, ter- 
 minated the war of the previous year. — Elliot's American Diplomatic Code , 
 vol. i., p. 5. This was perhaps not known in the West Indies before the end of 
 the year. 
 
 OL. I. — 2 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 fined at this port with fever. He, however, recovered ; was 
 visited by the governor and intendant of St. Domingo; and, 
 after laying in the proper stores and suitable domestic animals, 
 and consulting with pilots acquainted with the West India seas, 
 he prepared to depart. La Salle transferred himself and some 
 others from the Joli to the Aimable, and directed the latter, 
 the heaviest sailer of the three, to go in front. This may have 
 been the better to keep the squadron together, but more proba- 
 bly to get rid of Beaujeu. They sailed from Petit Gonave on 
 the 25th of November, and, passing round the southern shore 
 of Cuba, anchored and remained three days at the isle of Pines. 
 At length, after being driven about by adverse winds, and 
 spending some days at Cape St. Anthony, the squadron, on the 
 28th of December, 1684, discovered land. They had been sail- 
 ing a northwest course, but, from the account they had received 
 from the West India pilots of the strong gulf-stream which 
 passed around the cape of Florida, they supposed they had 
 been carried east of the mouth of the Mississippi, and were on 
 the coast of Florida. Besides, La Salle, when he discovered 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, had attempted to take its latitude, 
 but had placed it two degrees too far south. So that, with 
 these two errors, instead of being on the bay of Appalachie, 
 Dr. Sparks thinks they were a hundred miles west of the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, near the bay of Achafalaya * Joutel says 
 that, on the 2d of January, the squadron was, according to con- 
 jecture, pretty near the mouth of the Mississippi ; and that, on 
 the 10th, they passed by it, without perceiving it. It is at this 
 time impossible and unimportant to know where they were 
 when they first descried land. Conceiving themselves to be 
 east of the mouth of the Mississippi, they coasted westward. 
 La Salle landed on the 1st of January, 1685, perhaps east of 
 
 Life of La Salle, p. 128. 
 
ENTRANCE OF MATAGORDA BAY. 
 
 19 
 
 the Sabine — but, making no discoveries, and being unable to 
 learn anything from the Indians, proceeded westward till about 
 the 17th of January, when, having passed Corpus Christi inlet, 
 and finding the coast tending south, they discovered their error, 
 and that they were upon the borders of Mexico. Here Joutel 
 landed with a party in search of fresh water. They found the 
 water salt, but secured an abundance of game. All being sat- 
 isfied that they had passed the Mississippi, La Salle proposed 
 to Beaujeu to return. This he refused, unless furnished with 
 a new supply of provisions. La Salle offered him a supply for 
 fifteen days, by which time he expected they would reaoh the 
 mouth of the river. This the captain refused ; and La Salle 
 declined giving him more, fearing that he would abandon him, 
 and sail to the West Indies. The difference between the chiefs 
 of the expedition increased : but, in the meantime, the vessels 
 fell back — but by whose order, or in what way, we are not 
 informed — and sailed through Pass Cavallo into the bay of St. 
 Bernard, since known as Matagorda bay. On the 18th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1685, some of the company went ashore, while others 
 were engaged in sailing up the bay and exploring the adjacent 
 coast. On the 20th, La Salle sent orders to the commander 
 of the Aimable* to land the heaviest goods, and run her into 
 the bay. It seems that La Salle intended to be present at the 
 execution of this order ; but the marquis of Sablonniere and 
 others, who had gone out on the 18th, had been taken by the 
 Indians as they were strolling along the shore, and he found 
 it necessary to go and retake them. The channels on either 
 side of Pelican island had been sounded, and it was found that 
 the vessels could enter. The Belle had already entered, and 
 the pilot of this vessel was sent to guide the Airaable through 
 the channel ; but the commander of the latter refused his aid, 
 
 * Eossu, vol. i., p. 74. 
 
20 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 saying lie could manage liis own ship. He hoisted sail, ran 
 upon a shoal, and was lost.* 
 
 In the meantime a temporary camp had been formed on the 
 west side, and near the entrance of the bay. Another camp, 
 a considerable distance higher up, on the same side of the bay 
 — perhaps at Indian point — was formed by Captain Hurier 
 and part of the company, by the order of La Salle. 
 
 The colony was greatly refreshed by an abundance of game 
 and fish ; and, charmed with the country, and the herds of 
 buffalo and deer that were seen grazing on the prairies, they 
 began to think they would soon realize the paradise they had 
 come so far to find. La Salle had not yet lost hope that he 
 was on one of the mouths of the Mississippi ; and, though the 
 loss of the Aimablc, containing the greater portion of the arti- 
 cles provided for the use of the colony, was a serious misfor- 
 tune, his ardor was the same, his resolution unconquerable. 
 Joutel and Moragnct were sent out at the head of an exploring 
 party, to proceed up the west side of the bay. La Salle, hav- 
 ing reclaimed the men taken by the Indians, had exchanged 
 with them some hatchets for two canoes, with which he ex- 
 plored the eastern shore of the bay. The party of Joutel, after a 
 three days’ march, came to a river, probably the Aransas, which 
 they were unable to cross without a boat. Being- in full view 
 of La Salle, then on the opposite shore, he went over to them. 
 Having satisfied himself as to the extent of the bay, La Salle 
 and the party returned. 
 
 The business of saving as much as possible of the -wreck of 
 the Aimable occupied some time. La Salle procured from 
 Beaujeu the boats of the Joli, and, after taking off the crew, he 
 brought away the powder and flour, then the wine and brandy, 
 
 * It is lmrdly credible that this was done on purpose. Some allowance must 
 be made for Joutel's situation and prejudices. 
 
DEPARTURE OF BEAUJEU. 
 
 21 
 
 in all some sixty barrels. Joutel is so cruel as to charge St. 
 Aigron, the captain of the Aimable, with sinking his boat on 
 purpose ; but this can not be believed. Some blankets from 
 the wreck having been driven ashore, they were picked up and 
 appropriated by the Indians. La Salle, wishing to obtain ca- 
 noes in exchange for these goods, sent Lieutenant Du Hamel 
 of the Joli, who had volunteered for that purpose, to negotiate 
 the affair. But Du Hamel, unacquainted with the Indian char- 
 acter, or the mode of gaining their good will, rushed into their 
 village with his armed men, which so frightened them, that 
 they could not regard them as friends. Being unable to make 
 himself understood, he seized two of their canoes and a parcel 
 of skins, and returned. The Indians, in revenge for this act 
 of hostility, pursued them, and overtook them where they had 
 landed and gone to sleep, and poured into their camp a shower 
 of arrows, which killed Ory and Desloges, two particular friends 
 of La Salle, and wounded two others, one of whom was his 
 nephew.* 
 
 The failure to find the mouth of the Mississippi ; the loss of 
 the Aimable, and the greater part of the stores with which she 
 was freighted ; and the death of Ory and Desloges — the first 
 European blood shed in Texas — all combined to dishearten 
 the colonists. In addition to this, the few provisions saved 
 were nearly consumed; which, notwithstanding the prairies 
 abounded with buffalo and deer, and the waters with wild-fowls 
 and fishes, alarmed the faint-hearted, and caused murmuring 
 and discontent. And, to add to the loneliness of their situa- 
 tion, and cut them off from the civilized world, Beaujeu sailed 
 on the 12th of March for France, taking with him the captain 
 and crew of the Aimable. When he left, he carried away all 
 the cannon-balls, thus leaving La Salle with eight cannons, and 
 
 * Bossu, vol. L, p. 76. Life of La Salle, p. 134. 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 not a single ball.* Yet it seems La Salle must have furnished 
 him with provisions, or he could not have returned. 
 
 La Salle had among his colonists many enemies : some the 
 partisans of Beaujeu ; some from disgust, and want of fortitude 
 to bear up under misfortune ; others, again, who attributed to 
 his obstinacy the bad state of their affairs. In fact, his colo- 
 nists had been selected from the dregs of France ; and, with 
 the exception of a few who had volunteered to follow him, were 
 persons generally destitute of character, honesty, or enterprise. 
 Among them were Doinmaville and Mignet, two engineers, who 
 became seditious, and were unceasingly denouncing his con- 
 duct, and charging his undertakings with folly and rashness. 
 Yet La Salle was firm. His resolution seemed to rise with his 
 misfortunes. 
 
 The colonists had constructed a shelter for themselves and 
 their goods out of the wreck of the Aimable, and had surround- 
 ed it with entrenchments to protect them from the Indians ; 
 and had sown grain in the adjacent lands. The cattle, swine, 
 and fowls, they had brought from St. Domingo, multiplied and 
 prospered. 
 
 When their buildings had commenced, La Salle gave orders 
 to Joutel to complete them ; and, taking with him about sixty 
 of his men, he went on a tour of discovery. He still labored 
 under the delusion that the bay might be one of the mouths of 
 the Mississippi. While he coasted round the west end of the 
 bay, the commander of the Belle was ordered to sound it, and 
 
 * These pieces of artillery were afterward transported to La Bahia (now Go- 
 liad), and used by the Spaniards till 1812, when they were taken by the Ameri- 
 cans under Guttierez. By them they were used successfully against Salcedo. 
 After the close of the Guachupin war, they fell again into the hands of the 
 Mexicans. They were taken from the latter by Collinsworth ; retaken by Urrea 
 in 1836; and when Texas succeeded at the battle of San Jacinto, they were left 
 at Goliad, where as late as 1838 they were seen, with the impression of Louis 
 XIV. upon them. — Prairiedom, p. 140. 
 
LOCATION OF THE COLONY. 
 
 23 
 
 sail up it so as to keep in communication with him. He passed 
 the Aransas, and at length came to a river which he named 
 Les Vaches, on account of the number of buffaloes found there. 
 This, of all the names given by La Salle to the streams, bays, 
 <fcc., of Texas, is, perhaps, the only one retained by the Span- 
 iards. Sailing up the Lavaca for some six miles, he found on 
 the western bank of the river a beautiful spot for a settlement. 
 It was an elevation, from which could be seen to the north and 
 west extensive undulating prairies, covered with grass, and re- 
 lieved by occasional clusters of timber ; to the south and east 
 were spread out the bay, and timber along the coast and banks 
 of the river. Having selected this point, he began in good 
 earnest to think of making a settlement, and fortifying it. Ac- 
 cordingly, he sent Villeperdry back in a canoe, with orders 
 that all the colonists, except thirty men who were to remain 
 in the fort with Joutel, should join him. This detachment was 
 left to guard the crop which the colonists had planted. 
 
 Doubtless the new point selected was more suitable in many 
 respects, especially for health and fertility. Yet the colonists 
 were compelled to bring their timber three miles. But the 
 example of La Salle was encouraging. He was always the 
 first to put his hand to work. The master-carpenter having 
 been lost, he took his place. He laid out the tenons and mor- 
 tices, and compelled every one to work that was able. The 
 forces under Joutel being continually annoyed by the savages, 
 who had killed some of the men, La Salle sent him an order to 
 join him, with his command, on the Lavaca. The order was 
 received on the 14th of July, 1686, and immediately obeyed. 
 Sickness, arising no doubt from great fatigue and incessant 
 labor in a warm climate, soon carried off about forty of the 
 colonists. But, notwithstanding this fearful inroad upon their 
 numbers, and the consequent gloom cast over the survivors, the 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 work went on. A new shelter and entrenchment were to be 
 erected. The gun-carriages were at first used by the men to 
 haul the timbers ; but the Lavaca being found deep enough for 
 the Belle, twenty men were sent to the old fort to bring up in 
 her the materials used in its construction. This was effected 
 by forming them into a raft, and towing it up at the stern of 
 the vessel. With this addition, the fort was soon completed, 
 and named St. Louis. 
 
 We will here take leave of the colony for a short time, and 
 inquire where they were, who were their neighbors, and who 
 had claim to the soil on which they were established. 
 
OTHER SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 At the time of the landing of the French colony, and for 
 many years afterward, the territory now known as Texas was 
 peopled only by Indians, and but sparsely by them. Indeed, 
 it is more than probable that no European had previously been 
 upon her soil.* The nearest Spanish settlement was at Panu- 
 co, near Tampico, a distance of more than two hundred leagues 
 south of the Lavaca river. f On the northeast, Fort Prudhomme, 
 at the mouth of the Wabash, and Fort Crevecoeur, on the Illi- 
 nois, had, but a year or two before, been constructed by the 
 French. The Spanish colony in Florida, though formed some 
 time before, was languishing. The city of Philadelphia had 
 been founded but three years before, by the pious Penn. The 
 colonies of New England, numbering then about a hundred 
 thousand inhabitants, were struggling with Great Britain for 
 
 * This point has been much controverted. Many distinguished writers have 
 supposed that the followers of De Soto traversed the country in 1544, or about 
 that time. The authorities they refer to are mostly Spanish. If such had been 
 the fact, and these authorities reliable, it is quite remarkable that, in the long 
 controversy between the United States and Spain, touching this very question, 
 the proof was not forthcoming. — American State Papers , vol. xii. 
 
 \ Panuco is situated on the Panuco or Tampico river, and is celebrated in the 
 history of the conquest. It is still remarkable for the remains of buildings, 
 weapons, arid utensils, found in its vicinity. It is forty miles above Tampico de 
 las Tamaulipas , which was founded in 1824. Small vessels can navigate the 
 river as far as Panuco. — Encyclopedia of Geography , vol. iii , p. 329. American 
 State Papers , vol. xii., p. 313. 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 their charters, and with the Indians for their lands. New 
 York, with a population of some four thousand, had just changed 
 owners, and witnessed the assembling, for the first time, of her 
 legislature. Virginia, groaning under the despotic acts of 
 Charles II., had just closed, with defeat, the rebellion of Na- 
 thaniel Bacon, which left her unable to pay the costs so in- 
 curred. The Spaniards claim to have settled Coahuila as early 
 as the year 1600, but many circumstances go to prove this to 
 be untrue.* Chihuahua was not settled till 1691. f New Mex- 
 ico had been settled earlier. As early as 1594, two Francis- 
 can friars from Mexico visited the Indians near where Santa 
 Fe now stands. They were well received. They returned 
 with the information, and giving a favorable account of the 
 country. Juan de Onate, another monk, was sent out in 1595, 
 and made a further exploration, and perhaps took possession, 
 or entered into a treaty with the Moqui and Apache Indians. 
 It seems that a settlement was thereafter made, on the river, 
 near the site of the present town of Santa Fe. In 1680, how- 
 ever, the Indians rose en masse , fell on the Spaniards by sur- 
 prise, killed a large number of them, and obliged them to re- 
 treat to the Paso del Norte. In 1681, Otermin, governor of 
 New Mexico, made another attempt to recover the settlement. 
 From this period to 1695, the Spaniards and Indians were en- 
 gaged in a constant warfare — the former keeping their strong- 
 hold of Paso del Norte, and the latter holding the country 
 about Santa Fe. At length, during the last-mentioned year, 
 
 * Letter of De Onis to the secretary of state, Am. State Papers, vol. xii. f p. 28. 
 Mem. of Don Miguel Ramon de Arispe to the king of Spain : Cadiz, 1812. Arispe, 
 who was representative from Coahuila to the Spanish Cortes, says Saltillo was 
 founded in 1586. His ignorance on the subject is shown from his further state- 
 ments, confounding the Rio Grande with the Medina (p. 4), and fixing the settle- 
 ment of Texas at the year 1650 (p. 11). 
 f Pike’s Expedition : Appendix, p. 20. 
 
THE INDIAN TRIBES. 
 
 27 
 
 General Diego de Bargas, having conquered the Indians of 
 New Mexico, obtained the entire pacification of the country.* 
 
 From the foregoing sketch of European settlements in North 
 America, it will appear that La Salle’s neighbors were few and 
 distant. The Indians, from their mode of living, and the con- 
 tinual wars among their tribes, we may judge were thinly scat- 
 tered over the vast country lying between the Rio Grande and 
 Red river. The Camanches, then as now, were a tribe of roam- 
 ing, predatory thieves. They occupied the northern and north- 
 western portion of Texas, and the Rio Grande as low as the 
 mouth of the Salado. The depredations which they had for- 
 merly committed on the Aztecs of the great empire of Anahuac, 
 were now turned upon their European conquerors occupying 
 the colonies of Panuco, El Paso, Montclova, and Monterey. 
 From these they supplied themselves with horses, arms, silver 
 plate, &c. ; and, being in treaty with other Indians along the 
 coast, and farther east and north, the latter were thus furnished 
 with horses and firearms. 
 
 The Indians along the coast, commencing on the south, were 
 the Lipans and Carankawaes, extending from the Rio Grande 
 along the banks of the Pashahono and the Tockanhono , the 
 beautiful Indian names of the Colorado and Brasos.f They 
 
 * Pike, Appendix, p. 15. Recog. in JVew Mexico and Texas, p. 126 et seq. 
 The inscriptions on the rock of Fish spring, near the Pueblo de Zuni, in New 
 Mexico, go back to the year 1006. In relation to Governor de Bargas, the in- 
 scription is as follows : “Here served General Don Diego de Bargas to conquer 
 to Santa F6, for the royal crown, New Mexico, by his own cost, in the year 
 1692.” — lb., p. 64. 
 
 f Recog. in New Mexico and Texas, pp. 209-212. La Salle called the Colora- 
 do the Maligne, in consequence of one of his party being devoured in it by an 
 alligator. — Life of La Salle, p. 146. The French who came with La Salle were 
 so utterly unacquainted with the Indian languages, and their mode of spelling 
 what they guessed to be the names of tribes so different from outs, that it is 
 hard to identify them. Take, for example, the following : — 
 
 Cauank awaes Kirononas. 
 
 Camaxciies Choumans, Cannensis. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 lived mostly upon fish ; and, from the fact that they first en- 
 countered the rude shock of the white man, have ever been 
 considered most hostile. Indeed, from the stories of Bclile 
 and others, they have been deemed cannibals ; but no authentic 
 fact has been sufficiently established to fix upon these people 
 the horrid practice. The kind reception by them given to La 
 Salle, shows their good disposition. That they were thieves 
 is not to be set down against them, as the rights of property 
 are unknown among savages. The next tribe, going east, were 
 the Ccnis, inhabiting Buffalo bayou, the San Jacinto valley, 
 and the Trinity river. These were distinguished for their hos- 
 pitality and gentleness of disposition. The greater part of this 
 tribe occupied the banks of the Trinity, which they called Ar- 
 cokisa .* Here their villages were large and populous. Their 
 habitations were like bee-hives, and some of them forty feet 
 high.f As they devoted much time to raising corn, <fcc., they 
 were enabled to sustain a larger population, and were compar- 
 atively more wealthy. They were great traders, and had pro- 
 cured (through their allies the Camanches) from the Spaniards 
 horses, money, silver spoons, spurs, and clothing. Such were 
 their comforts and conveniences of life when found there by 
 the French in 1686. 
 
 Choctaws Tchactas. 
 
 Chick asa ws Chicachat*. 
 
 Cherokeks Cheraquift. 
 
 Cenis A-Sirnais , A-Sinaes. 
 
 Vidais Bcdais. 
 
 * Prairiedom, p. 75. 
 
 f Life of La Salle, p. 149. Narrative of Father Douay, Shea’s translation. 
 Exp. Mis., p. 204. “The village of the Cenis is one of the largest and most pop- 
 ulous I have seen in America. It is at least twenty leagues long — not that it is 
 constantly inhabited, but in hamlets of ten or twelve cabins, forming cantons, 
 each with a different name. Their cabins are fine, forty or fifty feet high, of the 
 shape of bee hives. Trees are planted in the ground, and united above by the 
 branches, which are covered with grass. The beds are ranged around the cabin, 
 three or four feet from the ground. The fire is in the middle, each cabin hold- 
 ing two families.” — Douay. 
 
INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 29 
 
 The next tribe east were the Nassonis, or Nassonites, a name 
 perhaps including several tribes living between the Cenis and 
 the Sabine river. These Indians seemed to be alike distin- 
 guished with their western neighbors for kindness to strangers, 
 and the possession of means to make them comfortable.* 
 
 Such, a century and three quarters since, were the original 
 inhabitants of Texas. They formed a portion of the great 
 Shoshonie class, occupying what is now the southwestern part 
 of the United States. The landing of the colony of La Salle 
 was to them a new era. The sight of ships and the sound of 
 firearms were to them subjects of awe and astonishment. Liv- 
 ing in the simplicity of uneducated nature, they had their do- 
 mestic wars, which were conducted without system, but in a 
 manner suited to their wild habits. They were worshippers 
 of the sun, and full of the superstitions common to the North 
 American Indians. They had their rain-makers, their game- 
 finders, and their witches. But the latter, like the witches of 
 ancient New England, found little favor : they were deemed 
 to be in communion with the evil one, and consequently were 
 put to death — most generally by the war-clubs of those that 
 suffered under their supposed incantations. 
 
 At that time, Texas was without a boundary and without a 
 name. The Spaniards had not yet penetrated east of the Rio 
 Grande, at least below the Paso del Norte ; and La Salle was 
 still endeavoring and hoping to establish the fact that he was in 
 the vicinity of one of the mouths of the Mississippi. Texas to 
 him and his people, and afterward his nation, was a part of 
 Louisiana. He had discovered the mouth of the great river ; 
 the coast thence to the confines of Mexico ; had planted a col- 
 
 * The seat of government among the Nassonites appeal’s to have been on the 
 east bank of the Neelies, at the prairie known as the Bradshaw plare. Here 
 three large mounds remain ns evidence of their former labors. This place was 
 called Texas, and doubtless gave name to the state. 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ony on one of her rivers ; had stocked it with domestic animals, 
 and planted fields with the seeds of husbandry. By all the 
 rules, then, of national law, apart from the claim of the Indians, 
 the country was French, and, if they chose to call it so, a part 
 of Louisiana. The country was French by right of discovery. 
 To Spain it was utterly unknown. The voyagers Ponce de 
 Leon, Narvaez, De Ayllon, and De Soto, had never seen any 
 of the vast extent of seacoast between Cape Florida and Soto 
 de la Marina. The pretension and claim set up by Spain to 
 this country, because she was in possession of these extreme 
 points, are not supported by any of the rules of national law 
 established by the governments of Europe in regard to their 
 American discoveries. These rules were — 
 
 1. That when any European nation takes possession of any 
 extent of seacoast, that possession is understood as extending 
 into the interior country to the sources of the rivers emptying 
 within that coast, to all their branches, and the country they 
 cover, and to give it a right in exclusion of all other nations 
 to the same. 
 
 2. That whenever one European nation makes a discovery, 
 and takes possession of any portion of this continent, and an- 
 other afterward does the same at some distance from it, where 
 the boundary between them is not determined by the principle 
 above mentioned, that the middle distance becomes such, of 
 course. 
 
 3. That whenever any European nation has thus acquired a 
 right to any portion of territory on this continent, that right 
 can never be diminished or affected by any other power, by 
 virtue of purchases made, by grants, or conquests of the na- 
 tives, within the limits thereof.* 
 
 * Letter of the secretary of state to Don Luis de Onis, March 12, 1818. Also, 
 letter of Messrs. Pinkney and Monroe to the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, 
 April 20, 1805 . — American State Paper*, vol. xit, pp. 76, 311, 312. 
 
OWNERSHIP OF TEXAS. 
 
 31 
 
 The French colony, tested by these indisputable rules of 
 natural equity, were thus upon French soil. 
 
 Spain, however, entertained a different view of the matter. 
 This kingdom, formed under the auspices of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, with the powerful aid of Cardinal Ximenes, had grown 
 to be one of the first nations of Europe. The discovery of 
 America, the receipts from the mines, and the commerce of 
 the colonies (amounting annually to over fifty millions of dol- 
 lars), and, above all, the victories of Charles Y., had imparted 
 to the nation a spirit of ambition and love of dominion which 
 knew no bounds. The sixteenth century closed with the 
 gloomy and superstitious tyranny of Philip II., which had last- 
 ed for forty-two years. During his reign the greatness of 
 Spain began to decline. He left his country bankrupt, and a 
 prey to dissensions foreign and domestic. But her ambition 
 was in nowise lessened.* Pope Alexander VI., in 1494, had 
 settled the dispute between the kings of Portugal and Castile 
 concerning their claims in America, dividing their conquests 
 by a line running from pole to pole, three hundred and seventy 
 miles west of the Azores ; and, by his bull, confirmed to Spain 
 the country west of that meridian. f In pursuance of this claim, 
 and the voyages of De Leon in 1512, De Ayllon in 1525, De 
 Narvaez in 1527, and De Soto in 1538 — although they had 
 sailed only from Cape Florida to Cape.Catorce, or perhaps as 
 high up as the Soto de la Marina — Philip II. of Spain issued 
 a royal order prohibiting all foreigners from entering the gulf 
 of Mexico, or any of the territories lying around it, under pain 
 of extermination ! And this order was repeated to the Span- 
 ish colonial viceroys and governors, requiring its strict ob- 
 servance and execution .J 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Americana, articles Spain, Philip IL 
 
 f lb., article Alexander VI. American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 79. 
 
 X Luis de Onis to the secretary of 6tate. — /&., pp. 27, 81. Mr. Adams, in reply 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Here, then, in the settlement by La Salle, under the orders 
 of his sovereign, and the monstrous pretensions of Spain, is 
 laid the foundation of a controversy, which, being transferred 
 from one party to another, is finally and for ever closed by the 
 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, made between the United States 
 and Mexico, on the 2d of February, 1848. 
 
 These facts, together with the jealousy and constant watch- 
 fulness of the Spanish rulers in Mexico, will serve as a key to 
 many of the events narrated in this history. We will now 
 return to the colonists on the Lavaca. 
 
 to this letter of De Onis, says (p. 78): “Far more honorable would it be, sir, to 
 the character of your nation and the credit of your government, to bury in the 
 profoundest oblivion the memory of that atrocious order, than at this day [1818] 
 to produce it, for the purpose of bolstering up a title for which you have in vain 
 ransacked the records of the Spanish monarchy to discover a better support” 
 
EXPEDITION TO THE COLORADO. 
 
 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 After the necessary steps had been taken to secure the col- 
 ony from the Indians, J outel was left in command of the fort, 
 and La Salle, with a company of twenty men, set out, about 
 the last of October, 1685, on an expedition to explore the coun- 
 try. The Belle was ordered to the upper end of the bay, where 
 she was stationed, and directed so to remain till further orders. 
 La Salle, dividing his company, some of them went down the 
 Lavaca in canoes, and he with the others crossed over and de- 
 scended to the head of the bay on the east side. Here he sent 
 out five men in canoes to sound the bay, and ascertain how far 
 the Belle could be brought up. Night coming on without their 
 return, he went in search of them, and found on the shore, 
 where they had encamped, their mangled bodies — the Indians 
 having murdered them, perhaps while asleep. Giving his or- 
 ders to the Belle, La Salle caused the canoes to be sunk in a 
 small creek ; and each of the company having supplied his 
 knapsack with provisions, they set out on their journey. They 
 travelled east as far as the Colorado. During this expedition, 
 which lasted till nearly spring, La Salle doubtless explored the 
 valley of the Colorado, and perhaps much of the surrounding 
 country. At any rate, he must have satisfied himself that he 
 was far from the Mississippi. 
 
 On his return, La Salle sent some of his men down to the 
 
 Vol. I. — 3 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 bay to search for the Belle, while with the others he returned 
 to the fort, where they were joyfully received.* The next day, 
 the party who had gone in search of the Belle, returned with- 
 out having found any trace of the vessel ; nor had she been 
 heard from by any of those at the fort. 
 
 In this condition of his affairs, destitute of means for sustain- 
 ing the colony, cut off from all communication with the civilized 
 world, having under his command a number of persons that 
 were sowing the seeds of rebellion against his authority and 
 perhaps his life, and surrounded by a treacherous and savage 
 foe, La Salle determined upon the bold expedient of opening a 
 communication with De Tonti in Illinois. This required a te- 
 dious and perilous journey of some two thousand miles over an 
 unexplored waste, peopled by those who had never seen the 
 face of a white man. 
 
 Having resolved upon the journey, La Salle left the fort un- 
 der the charge of his faithful Joutel, and selected a company 
 of twenty men to go with him. Among these were Father An- 
 astase, Moragnet, his brother Cavalier, Bihorel, Le Clerk, Hu- 
 rier, Nika the Canadian Indian, and Heins, a surgeon, and 
 formerly a buccaneer.! Having made the necessary prepara- 
 tions, they performed their devotions in the chapel of the fort, 
 and set out on their journey on the 22d of April, 1686. They 
 travelled in a northeastern direction, and at the end of ten 
 days reached the Colorado. Previous to this, however, they 
 
 * Life of La Salle, p. 141, ejt seq. 
 
 t From boucaner, to roast or broil flesh. This remarkable class of men, many 
 of whom figured in the early history of Texas, first began to associate on the 
 western coast of St. Domingo, in 1630, and lived upon wild cattle. They roasted 
 their meat like the Indians: hence the name given them. From simple robbe- 
 ries, they extended their operations to piracies on the seas. For a hundred and 
 fifty years they swept the West India waters of the Spanish galleons, and greatly 
 annoyed the commerce of England and France. From these men originated the 
 French settlements on the western half of St Domingo. — Raynal: History of 
 the Indies. 
 
THE CENTS INDIANS. 
 
 35 
 
 met with a party of Camanche Indians having horses and sad' 
 dies. Those that were mounted wore boots and spurs. This 
 was proof that these Texan Bedouins had held intercourse with 
 the Spaniards of Mexico. In fact, at this early period the horse 
 had been extensively introduced into Texas ; and, as the Ca- 
 manches often rode them down, they abandoned them to graze 
 on the prairies, or to die. Hence, in a few years, the prairies 
 abounded in mustangs. 
 
 At this season of the year the Texan streams are always 
 swollen, so that La Salle and his party were greatly retarded 
 in their journey. They were compelled to build rafts over 
 branches which in other parts of the year are dry. They were 
 hindered also by the necessity of killing and drying buffalo- 
 meat for their sustenance. From the direction they travelled, 
 they perhaps crossed the Colorado about Elliot’s ferry. Here 
 they changed their course more to the east, and, reaching the 
 Brasos probably not far from Columbia, they found it full and 
 running rapidly. La Salle, with part of his company, on a 
 raft, were hurried down the stream until they were considered 
 as lost. They were two days crossing this stream ; and Father 
 Anastase informs us that he carried his breviary in his cowl, 
 to keep it dry. Having all crossed over safely, they found 
 themselves in a swamp, covered with canes and vines. They 
 were engaged two days in cutting their way out. After reach- 
 ing the fine prairies and open woods, they found their condi- 
 tion more agreeable. They soon fell in with the Cenis Indians, 
 who treated them with great hospitality ; indeed, the white 
 race were, at first, everywhere so treated by the Indians in 
 Texas. This, the most numerous and civilized tribe of Texan 
 Indians, owned a large extent of country : they occupied all 
 the territory between the great prairie on the northwest and 
 the gulf-coast, and from toward the Brasos to the Neelies. 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Their centre of empire was not far from Cold Spring, in Polk 
 county. What has become of this tribe, once the proud ally 
 of the Camanche, and the hospitable retainer of the gallant La 
 Salle ? Tradition says that, after the settlement of Louisiana 
 by the French, the powerful tribes on the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi, driven west by these intruders, took refuge in Texas. 
 They first encountered the Nassonites : these retreated to the 
 north, and gave them a place to dwell. But, as other tribes 
 were driven out, they crowded on the latter. The fall of the 
 Natchez, and the expulsion of the Alabamas and Choctaws, 
 brought a further accession. Before this formidable host of 
 new-comers the peaceful Cenis retired to the banks of the 
 Trinity. Here they met, and on the left bank of this stream, 
 some seventy-five years ago, a great battle was fought, in which 
 the nation of the Cenis was utterly destroyed. 
 
 But, to return to La Salle. One of the Cenis gave him a 
 horse to ride. He and his company were received and feasted 
 by this tribe ; and, after some trading, in which, among other 
 things, we are informed that one horse was purchased for a 
 hatchet, and Father Anastase was offered another for his cowl, 
 the travellers pursued their journey. 
 
 They soon reached the country of the Nassonites. Here La 
 Salle and his nephew were attacked with fever, by which they 
 were detained two months. On his recovery, he found the 
 stock of ammunition reduced so low, that he would proceed no 
 farther. As the game they killed was their only means of sup- 
 port, it was necessary to return to the fort on the Lavaca for 
 powder. They reached the fort on the 17th of October, much 
 wearied, and with but eight men. 
 
 La Salle soon learned the history of what had transpired in 
 his absence. The Indians had been troublesome, but had made 
 no attack on the place. Duhaut had endeavored to stir up a 
 
LA SALLE’S LAST JOURNEY. 
 
 37 
 
 mutiny, but the firmness of Joutel and the mild persuasions of 
 Father Zenobe had prevented it. The survivors of the Belle 
 had come in, and reported that the vessel had been stranded 
 on the southern shore of the bay ; that six of the men had been 
 lost in a canoe while returning from the land in the night — 
 some had died on board of disease, and others had perished on 
 a raft — so that the remaining force was not sufficient to man- 
 age the ship, and thus she was lost. The survivors, saving 
 themselves, with a few articles and provisions, and the clothes 
 and papers of La Salle, landed from a raft on the strand, where 
 they remained for three months. At length a canoe floated 
 ashore, by means of which they were enabled to reach the fort. 
 However, amid all this gloom, and the wasting away of the 
 colonists, the Sieur Barbier and one of the maidens of the fort 
 afforded them some pleasure by a wedding. This was the first 
 European marriage on the soil of Texas.* 
 
 From this time to the 12th of January, 1687, La Salle was 
 preparing to start again on his journey to the Illinois. He 
 caused to be constructed a new storehouse, and made other 
 provisions for the colony, which at this time consisted of about 
 forty persons. 
 
 He selected for his companions in this, his last journey, 
 twenty persons, among them Father Anastase, his two nephews 
 Moragnet and Cavalier, his brother Cavalier the priest, Joutel, 
 Duhaut, L’Archeveque de Marne, Heins, Lietot, Tessier, Saget 
 his footman, and Nika the Indian hunter. These are all men- 
 tioned because of the part they took in the tragic scenes which 
 shortly after occurred. 
 
 In the fort were left some twenty persons, under the com- 
 mand of the Sieur Barbier. On January 12th, having called 
 them all together, and made known to them in an affectionate 
 * Life of La Salle, pp. 144, 145. 
 
38 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 address the necessity of the journey, he set out. He took with 
 him about five thousand dollars in coin and plate, and six thou- 
 sand dollars worth of goods.* They found less difficulty in 
 this their second journey on the same route, from the fact of 
 their past experience. Besides, they carried with them a por- 
 table boat of buffalo-skins, and were assisted in crossing the 
 streams by the kind-hearted Indians. They also furnished 
 them with more horses. 
 
 The party continued their journey till the 15th of March, 
 when they came near to the spot where, on the previous tour, 
 La Salle had buried some corn and beans. Previous to this, 
 however, they had learned from the Cenis Indians of a French- 
 man named Rulel, among that tribe, who had wandered from 
 La Salle on the Mississippi in 1682, and had been living with 
 these Indians ever since. Joutel went for him and brought him 
 to the camp. He was delighted with the idea of again return- 
 ing to Europe. From the route pursued, and the time they 
 had been travelling, they must have been, at this time, on the 
 Neches river. f 
 
 * Bobsu, voL i., p. 84. 
 
 f Dr. Sparks thinks they were on the waters of the Brasoa — Life of La Salle, 
 p. 158, note. Others suppose they were on the Trinity. But all the circum- 
 stances — the time, the direction, the fact of finding Rutel, and the burying of 
 the corn and beans (done, perhaps, when La Salle had turned back on his previ- 
 ous journey) — go to show that the last days of this great discoverer were spent 
 on the Neches. There is yet another reason for this belief. At that season of 
 the year (March), the buffaloes were down in the timber, and the Indians also 
 in pursuit of them. Hence, La Salle met more Indians on this second tour, and 
 Nika had no difficulty in finding buffalo. This was not the case on the Brasos 
 prairies. From time immemorial there was a great Indian trail about in the 
 course travelled by La Salle, crossing the Trinity at the present town of Swart- 
 wout. From the boggy nature of the soil in the spring, it is not unlikely that 
 the travellers pursued this trail. It passed through the centre of the Cenis na- 
 tion, and by the Indian village , occupied by the Alabamas after the extinction 
 of the Cenia La Salle’s camp was on the opposite side of the river from the 
 place where the meat was killed. Had it been the Trinity or the Brasos, horses 
 could not, at that season, have been sent over for the meat. 
 
MUTINY AND MURDER. 
 
 39 
 
 La Salle ordered Duhaut, Heins, Lietot, L’Archeveque, Tes- 
 sier, Saget, and Nika, to go and bring away the corn and beans. 
 They went to the place, but the provisions were spoiled. In 
 the meantime, Nika had killed a supply of buffalo-meat, and 
 Saget was sent to get horses to carry it into the camp. La 
 Salle directed his nephew Moragnet and De Marne to return 
 with horses in company with Saget for the meat — to send back 
 one load for immediate use, and to remain with the balance till 
 it was dried. It appears that for some time there had been no 
 good feeling between Moragnet and Duhaut ; at any rate, the 
 former reproached the latter for having laid aside some pieces 
 of the meat for himself and his company, and took them from 
 him. Duhaut, having determined on revenge, brought Lietot, 
 Heins, Tessier, and L’Archeveque, into the conspiracy. The 
 next night, when Moragnet, Saget, and Nika, were asleep, Lie- 
 tot with a hatchet knocked them on the head. The Indian and 
 Saget died immediately. As Moragnet was not yet quite dead, 
 the conspirators compelled De Marne to finish him. Having 
 gone thus far, the murderers were uneasy. They feared the 
 just vengeance of La Salle, and immediately deliberated on the 
 necessity of taking his life. Chance gave them an opportunity. 
 Two or three days had elapsed, and La Salle became anxious 
 on account of the absence of the party. Perhaps they had 
 been cut off by the savages, or had got lost, or had quarrelled. 
 He inquired if there had been any ill feeling between his 
 nephew and any of the party. Such, at length, were his fore- 
 bodings of evil, that he went himself, with Father Anastase, and 
 two of the natives for guides, in search of them, leaving the 
 camp under the command of Joutel. At a distance of some 
 six miles he found the bloody cravat of Saget, and saw buz- 
 zards flying about the locality. Concluding the party were 
 near, he fired his gun. The conspirators, on the opposite side 
 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of the river, hearing the report, and supposing it was La Salle, 
 crossed over. Duhaut and L’Archeveque, seeing La Salle ad- 
 vancing, stopped. Duhaut hid himself in the high grass, and 
 cocked his gun. L’Archeveque advanced a little farther, when 
 La Salle saw. and recognised him. “ Where is Moranguet ?” 
 asked La Salle. “ He is lower down,” replied L’Archeveque. 
 At that instant, Duhaut fired and shot La Salle in the head. 
 He fell. Anastase took him by the hand ; he did not speak, 
 but, pressing the hand of the holy father, expired.* Thus fell, 
 on the 20th of March, 1687, the Sieur de la Salle, a man of 
 genius, fortitude, and courage. “ The most unhappy thing for 
 the memory of this famous man,” says Bossu, “ is, that he has 
 not been pitied by anybody, and that the bad success that has 
 attended his undertakings has given him the appearance of an 
 adventurer among those who only judge from appearances. He 
 has further been reproached with never taking advice from any- 
 body, and with having ruined his private affairs by his obsti- 
 nacy.”! 
 
 However this may be, his discoveries hastened the settlement 
 of New Orleans, and of Texas, as we shall see. 
 
 Father Anastase expected to follow his leader ; but he was 
 soon quieted by Duhaut, who told him that what was then done 
 was an act of despair, and that the death of Moragnet was in 
 revenge for former insults. Anastase then dug the grave of 
 his kind benefactor, and buried him with his own hands, and 
 
 * Bossu, vol. i., p. 83. Life of La Salle, p. 157. 
 
 f “It is little to the credit of France or of Louisiana,” says Bunner, “that nei- 
 ther of them have shown the smallest mark of respect to his memory. A bust, 
 placed by order of Congress in the rotunda of the capitol, is the only memorial 
 of a man whose enterprising genius and persevering resolution merit the highest 
 honors .” — History of Louisiana, p. 55. The same may be said of Texas. He 
 made the first improvement on her soil, met first the rude shock of the Indian, 
 built the first fort, brought to the country the first domestic cattle, wore himself 
 out, and was buried within her borders. 
 
LA SALLE’S MURDER AVENGED. 
 
 41 
 
 erected a cross over his grave The party then returned to 
 the camp. 
 
 Joutel was not present when they came in. I/Archeveque, 
 his friend, ran to inform him of what had occurred, and to say 
 to him that he would be put to death if he expressed any dis- 
 satisfaction. When he returned, Duhaut proposed that each 
 should command by turns. He had, however, already taken 
 possession of the goods, coin, and plate. Those of the party 
 not concerned in the murders took no part in affairs, but re- 
 mained quiet. In the meantime, the conspirators quarrelled 
 among themselves : they could not agree as to the division of 
 the spoils. From quarrelling they proceeded to blows. Heins 
 shot Duhaut in the head, and killed him. Rutel then fired at 
 Lietot, which, being followed by two shots from other parties, 
 they despatched him. Thus, within a short time, these two 
 assassins met with that punishment so sternly demanded by 
 justice. 
 
 Tne Indians were astonished and scandalized with these mur- 
 ders. They looked upon these people, with some reason, as 
 barbarians, whom the Great Spirit had devoted to self-destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 After the death of La Salle, Duhaut had determined to march 
 back to the fort on the Lavaca, build a vessel, and return to 
 the West Indies ; and, before his own death, as above related, 
 had actually returned as far as the Ccnis Indians. Joutel, An- 
 astase, and Cavalier, had formed a secret design to continue 
 the journey to the Illinois. To lull the suspicions of Duhaut, 
 they proposed to him to permit them to remain among the Ce- 
 nis Indians. This he agreed to, but his death had changed 
 the position of their affairs. 
 
 After the death of the chief murderer, Heins took command, 
 and engaged with the Cenis to go with them to war. This he 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 did, leaving the friends of La Salle in camp till his return. 
 After many bloody battles, he returned, and consented that the 
 party might proceed on their journey to the Illinois. Having 
 furnished them with a supply of ammunition and three horses, 
 the company, consisting of seven persons — viz., Joutel, Anas- 
 tase, the two Cavaliers, Tessier, De Marne, and Barthelemy — 
 departed, leaving Heins the buccaneer, arrayed in the scarlet 
 uniform of La Salle, in undisputed command of the remnant of 
 the party. 
 
 Joutel and his followers, procuring Indian guides, retraced 
 their steps as far as their former journey. Thence, pursuing 
 a northeast course, they crossed the Red river at the Caddo 
 village, and thence to the mouth of the Arkansas, where they 
 found some men, stationed by De Tonti, to greet their coming, 
 and give them such aid as they might require. Resting a few 
 days at this place, they returned to France, by way of the Illi- 
 nois and Quebec. Of this company, De Marne was drowned 
 in Red river, and Barthelemy remained at the mouth of the 
 Arkansas ; so that only five of the colony returned to their na- 
 tive land. 
 
 Heins, having the goods, treasure, and uniform of La Salle, 
 and the advantage of firearms, doubtless held sway, for a time, 
 on the banks of the Trinity. From his turbulent and restless 
 spirit, and his love for human blood, we may infer that he in- 
 volved the Cenis in many wars with their neighbors, destroyed 
 their love of peace and agriculture, and laid the foundation for 
 the ruin in which that great and powerful tribe was ultimately 
 overwhelmed. 
 
 When the Indians near the fort heard of the death of La 
 Salle, and the dispersion of his company, they attacked the 
 fort, which they took, and put all the remaining colonists to 
 death, except three sons and a daughter of M. Talon, and 
 
SEARCH OF DE TONTI. 
 
 43 
 
 young Breman : these they retained as prisoners.* Thus ended 
 the first attempt to colonize Texas. 
 
 Early in the spring of 1689, the chevalier de Tonti went at 
 the head of a considerable force in search of the colony planted 
 by his late friend. He probably penetrated the country as far 
 as the Ncches, but the desertion of his men compelled him to 
 return without effecting his object, f 
 
 * The fate of those left in the fort is not very clear. The account of De Bar- 
 cia is altogether too artificial. It is most probable that, of the prisoners retained 
 by the Indians, a part or all of them were afterward reclaimed by the missiona- 
 ries, and employed as interpreters. See the extract from the Chronological Essay 
 of De Barcia, in a note to Prof. Shea’s translation of Douay’s Narrative, p. 208. 
 f Life of La Salle, p. 171. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Early in 1686, the marquis of Laguna, then viceroy of 
 Mexico,* was informed, through the prize taken by the Span- 
 iards from La Salle in the West Indies, of the French expedi- 
 tion ; but its destination was then unknown. It is probable 
 that, in La Salle’s first expedition into the interior of Texas, 
 the Camanche Indians obtained a knowledge of his location, 
 and communicated it to the Spaniards. At all events, the 
 count of Monclova, who entered on the duties of the viceroy- 
 alty in November, 1686, had immediate information of the fact. 
 A council of war was held, to deliberate upon the matter, and 
 to determine how they could most effectually carry out the 
 royal exterminating order of Philip II. f A military post and 
 settlement was established at Monclova ; and Captain Alonzo 
 de Leon was appointed to the command, under the title of gov- 
 ernor of Coaquila. 
 
 Captain De Leon was then despatched with a military force 
 of one hundred men to scour the country and hunt out the 
 French.:): The expedition left Monclova early in the spring 
 
 * Lorenzana’s Hutoria de Mejico, p. 28. 
 
 f lb., p. 29. De Onis to the secretary of state, January 5, 1818. — American 
 State Papers , vol. xii., pp. 81, 298. 
 
 \ Cevallos to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney. — lb., p. 298. The Spanish secre- 
 tary is mistaken in saying that Monclova sent out this expedition ; for the count 
 de Galve entered the viceroyalty on the 17th of September, 1688. — Historia de 
 Mejico , p. 29. 
 
EXPEDITION OF DE LEON. 
 
 45 
 
 of 1689, and arrived at Fort St. Louis, on the Lavaca, on the 
 22d of April. Two days after, he went down to the head of 
 the bay, when he saw the wreck of the Belle. Learning from 
 the Indians that some of the colonists were still wandering 
 about over the country, he visited the Cenis nation.* He was 
 received and treated by this people with the hospitality for 
 which they were distinguished. He found here the notorious 
 L* Arche veque and Grollet, and took them prisoners. They 
 were sent to Mexico, thence to Spain, whence they were sent 
 back to Mexico, and condemned to the mines. 
 
 Having completed the business of his expedition, De Leon 
 returned to his post, and reported the facts to the viceroy : he 
 spoke in high terms of the good disposition of the Indians, and 
 suggested the propriety of the establishment of missions and 
 military posts over the country. This letter, dated on the 22d 
 of May, was laid before the council of the viceroy ; and, after 
 deliberation, it was resolved to establish a mission at Fort St. 
 Louis. Accordingly, in 1690, De Leon was sent again, with 
 one hundred and ten men and some friars, and established at 
 the fort the mission of San Francisco, so named in honor of St. 
 Francis D’Assisi. The king of Spain, having information of 
 these proceedings, issued his orders for the pacification and 
 reduction of Texas, as he considered it of great importance to 
 the security of his dominions in New Mexico. 
 
 In 1691, Don Domingo Teran was appointed governor of 
 Coahuila and Texas, with a salary of twenty-five hundred dol- 
 lars per annum, and proceeded with fifty soldiers and seven 
 
 * De Onis calls them Asimais , and denies that De Leon found any of the 
 French there ; but the position he had taken in the discussion required, as he 
 thought, this denial. 
 
 f Life of La Salle, pp. 175, 176. The account given by De Barcia, in his 
 Chronological Essay, of the movement of Captain De Leon, is not reliable. See 
 note to the Narrative of Father Douay, Discovery and Exploration of the Valley 
 of the Mississippi, p. 208. 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 lay friars to establish missions and military posts. They took 
 with them cattle, and seeds for planting ; and effected settle- 
 ments on the waters of Red river, on the Neches, and on the 
 Guadalupe. But in a short time these infant colonies, as well 
 as that at Fort St. Louis, began to decline. The Indians were 
 hostile, the crops failed, and the cattle died ; so that, in 1693, 
 they were all abandoned. These facts were communicated to 
 the king : he was informed of the great expense incurred, of 
 the difficulty of controlling the Indians, and it was recommend- 
 ed that the settlement of the province be postponed to a time 
 when circumstances should offer more hopes of success.* 
 
 Concurrently with the mission of San Francisco, was estab- 
 lished on the right bank of the Rio Grande, three miles from 
 the river, the mission of San Juan Bautista. This mission be- 
 came a Spanish post of observation ; it was erected into a pre- 
 sidio ; and, in after-times, when travel became frequent between 
 Mexico and Texas, was on the great thoroughfare known as the 
 “ old San Antonio road.” 
 
 Thus Texas was once more without European settlers. Its 
 abandonment was approved by the superior government in 
 March, 1694. The post at El Paso, as being on the route to 
 the silver-mines of Santa Ft*, was still occupied ; so likewise 
 was the mission at the presidio , probably because of its conve- 
 nience for trade with the Indians. 
 
 The Rio Grande seems to have been discovered at three dif- 
 ferent points by the Spaniards ; and, without knowing it to be 
 the same stream, the discoverers gave it as many different 
 
 * See Appendix No. 1. “Testimonio de un Parecer dado en los auttos fechos 
 en virtud de Real cedilla, en qe S. M. Manda se le informe sobre surttos abusos 
 comettidos en la provincia de Texas en el tiempo que se expressa; y tambien de 
 un parapbo de ottro Parecer dado en los proprios auttos, uno y ottro del Senor 
 Audittor Gral de la Guerra, Supp or . Gov no . Ano de l 1 / 44.” — Bexar Archives, 
 parapho 25, 26, MS. Sefior Cevallos to Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, April 
 13, 1806. 
 
FRENCH GRANT TO CROZAT. 
 
 47 
 
 names, which arc used to this day. The discoverers of the 
 river at Santa Fe, in the north of Mexico, called it the Rio 
 del Norte ; at the presidio , on account of its great width, they 
 named it the Rio Grande ; and at Reynoso, where the Indians 
 were fierce and warlike ( Indios bravos ), it was denominated 
 the Rio Bravo * 
 
 The Spaniards were, however, aroused from their supineness, 
 by the vigor of the French of Louisiana. Louis XIY. had, by 
 a charter, dated September 14, 1712, granted to Anthony Cro- 
 zot the whole of Louisiana. The boundaries in the grant were 
 indefinite, yet sufficiently well expressed to give Crozat a claim 
 to the territory west as far as the Rio Grande. Crozat was a 
 merchant. He had taken the grant on speculation, and wished 
 to make the most of it. At his instance, Louis had appointed 
 Lamothe Cadillac governor of Louisiana. Crozat had in view 
 two great objects — one, the discovery of mines; the other, a 
 profitable trade with the northeastern provinces of Mexico, f 
 He accordingly so instructed the governor, requesting him to 
 find an opening for his goods in Mexico, either with or without 
 the consent of the Spanish authorities. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1714, Cadillac sent out Huchereau St. Denis, 
 
 * Testimonio de un Parecer, etc., parapho 9. Professor Shea ( History of the 
 Discovery of the Mississippi River , p. 18) says, “The Rio Grande is so called 
 merely because 6ome one mistook it for the great river of De Soto.” The Pare- 
 cer, above quoted, says: “Deestta provincia del Nuevo Mejico vaja el Rio nom- 
 brado del A T orte,que veniendo derecho el sur corre immediatto 4 dicha capittal 
 de Santa Fo, y nl expressado Real Precidio del Passo. Despues tuerse al orientte, 
 y cortte alguna partte de la Nueva Viscaya de donde recive el Rio de Conchos. 
 Attraviesa luego por medio de la provincia de Coahuila pasando tres leguas mas 
 adelantte de su Precidio de San Juan Baupttistta, clamado por ello del Rio 
 Grande. Tiene alii de anclio dicho Rio como un ttirc de vala do fucil, y mas de 
 una vara de profuudidad, laque en tiempo de avenidns suele suber aesttado y 
 medicr. Conttinua siempre & orientte, y cruzando veintte leguas mas alia de la 
 fronttera de dicho Nuevo Reyno, y de 6ii Precidio de Serralvo, desahua con nom- 
 bre de Rio Bravo , par tierras de Yndios Gcnttiles desconocidas de los nuestros.” 
 t Gayarre, History of Louisiana, pp. 110 125. 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 a young man of noble family and great enterprise, upon an ex- 
 pedition to Mexico. He was to proceed to Natchitoches, there 
 to form an establishment to oppose the Spaniards, if they should 
 be in that vicinity ; thence he was to proceed in the direction 
 of New Mexico, and ascertain the practicability of opening com- 
 mercial relations. He proceeded to Natchitoches, and left 
 there a few men to form a settlement. With twelve men and 
 some friendly Indians he continued his journey, and in August, 
 1714, reached the mission of St. John the Baptist on the Rio 
 Grande. They were received with hospitality by Villeseas, 
 the commandant of the post ; and, making known the object 
 of their long journey, were requested to wait till their business 
 was communicated to Don Gaspardo Anaya, the governor of 
 Coahuila, and an answer returned. The governor, for reply, 
 sent a guard, who seized St. Denis and Jallot his friend and 
 surgeon, and conveyed them to the capital of the province ! 
 Here they remained in prison till, by the order of the viceroy, 
 they were conducted to Mexico, and there imprisoned. At the 
 end of six months they were released, or, as some say, escaped, 
 and after two years returned to Mobile, the then capital of 
 Louisiana.* St. Denis having courted and married the daugh- 
 ter of the commandant of the mission of St. John, it is likely 
 that he made arrangements for smuggling. The influence ac- 
 quired by St. Denis over the Texan Indians was considerable ; 
 and when the Spaniards under Ramon, the uncle-in-law of St. 
 Denis, established themselves at Adaes, the Indians were alike 
 friendly with them. This all goes to sustain the assertion of 
 Du Pratz, that the Spaniards were introduced there by St. 
 Denis for illicit trade. 
 
 * Mr. Gayarre has made an intereresting romance of these adventures of St 
 Denis. — American State Papers , vol. xii., pp. 36 299, 316. Du Pratz, History 
 of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 12. 
 
SPANISH MISSIONS ESTABLISHED. 
 
 49 
 
 At all events, the vigorous movements of Crozat alarmed the 
 duke of Linares,* then viceroy of Mexico, and steps were taken 
 to occupy the country. Captain Don Domingo Ramon and a 
 few soldiers and friars were sent to Texas to establish posts 
 and missions. They came with St. Denis, who acted as guide. 
 A new mission was established in place of that of St. Francisco, 
 but lower down on the bay of San Bernard ; and another among 
 the Adaes, a small tribe of Indians on the Arroyo Honda, and 
 part of the great Caddo nation. This mission, protected by a 
 military post, was fifteen miles west of Natchitoches, the Honda, 
 a small creek, running about midway between them. The mis- 
 sion of Dolores was established nearer the coast, and west of 
 the Sabine, among the Orquisaco Indians. The fort and mis- 
 sion of San Antonio de A alerof was located on the right bank 
 of the San Pedro, about three fourths of a mile from the pres- 
 ent catholic church at San Antonio ; but, as a security against 
 the Indians, and for purposes of irrigation, it was afterward 
 removed to the San Antonio river, a noble stream, which, only 
 three or four miles above, breaks out, full grown, from the foot 
 of the Guadalupe mountains. 
 
 Shortly after this period, a small mission was established 
 
 * Historia de Mejico, p. 33 : “ Por Agosto de sette sienttos cattorce llego al 
 enunciado Precidio del Rio Grande en Coahuila Don Louis [Huchereau] de San 
 Denis y Don Medar Jalot con ottros dos Franceses ; y trabidos a Mejico de orden 
 del excelentissimo Senor virrey duque de Linares exivio aqui San Denis pattente 
 del governador de la Mobila con fecha de Septtembre del ano de trece, paraque 
 veniese con veintt.e y quattro liombres a Texas, y comprase alii bueyes, cavallos 
 y ottros ganados para la colonia de la Luciana suponiendo se raanttenien en 
 Texas nuestras missiones. Decluro San Denis, que havian venido en una pira- 
 qua desde la Mobila hasta Nachittos, donde havian desembarcado, y que llegados 
 a Texas, y no enconttrado alii a los Espanoles se havian vueltto los soldados 
 Franceses, que ^andose solo quattro en los Texas, y que con los ottros tres havia 
 pasado hastta dicho Precidio del Rio Grande. Expresso tarabien que los Yndios 
 Texas deceaban, volbiesen los missioneros Espanoles.” — Testimonio de un Pare- 
 cer, etc., parapho 26, MS. There is a considerable difference in the French and 
 Spanish accounts of this affair. 
 
 \ Afterward remeved to the east of the San Antonio, and called the Alamo. 
 
 Vol. I.-— 4 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 among the Nacogdoches Indians. Its location, at that time, 
 was below the present site of the handsome town of Nacogdo- 
 ches, and near the junction of the Bahita and Nana. About 
 the same time was located a mission among the Aes Indians, 
 and not far from the present town of San Augustine. 
 
 Thus the year 1715 may be considered the year of missions 
 in Texas. From this time may be dated its permanent occu- 
 pancy by Spain. She had wrested it from France, the rightful 
 discoverer and first possessor ; yet, it must be admitted, she 
 had acquired full possession. As the policy of Spain allowed 
 no curious traveller to penetrate her territories, it is probable 
 the French did not for some years know the extent of her tres- 
 passes , and, if they did, they had much to do in the wars then 
 prevailing on the continent of Europe, and much in taking care 
 of their other possessions. 
 
 Captain Don Ramon seems to have been the active laborer in 
 the building up of these missions. He was a great favorite 
 with the Indians ; they adopted him as a son, and assisted him 
 and his followers in their labors. The marquis de Aguago 
 went to Texas, under the order of the viceroy, as governor- 
 general of the New Philippines (the name by which Texas was 
 then known), and of New Estremadura.* 
 
 While Captain Don Ramon was at the Adaes, he paid a friend- 
 ly visit to the French at Natchitoches. He with his followers 
 were received with great politeness by the commander, and 
 treated with hospitality during their stay. This, occurring 
 shortly after the return of St. Denis, would seem to confirm 
 the assertion of Du Pratz, that the Spaniards had been intro- 
 duced there by St. Denis, as previously observed, for purposes 
 of smuggling. f 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., pp. 36, 299. 
 f lb., p. 36 ; Bossu, vol. i., p. S42. 
 
NAME OP TEXAS. 
 
 51 
 
 The first efforts at forming settlements were humble enough. 
 The buildings were but temporary shelters, and rude cabins 
 constructed by vertical pieces planted in the ground, with the 
 spaces filled up with brandies interlaced and thatched. Thus 
 were first constructed the temporary chapel, hospital, and the 
 dwellings for the priests and officers. In a climate so mild 
 and congenial, no great necessity existed for further immediate 
 arrangements. A new force had to be prepared and brought 
 into requisition to do the drudgery of more substantial im- 
 provements. The soldiers and friars came not to perform me- 
 chanical labor, but to put in operation the missionary machine 
 by which were to be wrought out of the wild Indian tribes 
 laborers in abundance. 
 
 The Indians, unaccustomed to such scenes, looked on with 
 pleasure and astonishment at these rude structures. Indeed, 
 such was their good nature, and their desire to please the new- 
 comers, that they, at first, voluntarily assisted in the work. 
 Small presents, kind looks, and opening hopes, were to them 
 a sufficient reward. 
 
 Thus matters stood for some time, the Spaniards being in 
 the quiet possession of Texas, though it was not then known 
 by that name. The name, in fact, is involved in obscurity. 
 The story, first published by Don Luis de Onis in 1818* — that 
 on the visit of Alonzo de Leon to the A-Simais (Cenis) Indians 
 in 1689, they received him with the greatest kindness, and 
 called him and his followers 44 Texas” which in their language 
 signifies friends — is, no doubt, fanciful. The country was 
 known for many years after this period as the 44 New Philip- 
 pines” and was so described in official papers ; and so late as 
 1T44, in a report made to the Spanish government of the con- 
 dition of this country, the writer says that the territory on the 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 81. 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS* 
 
 Neches is called Texas* La Harpe, in his letter to D’Alar- 
 conne, dated Nasonite (eastern Texas), July 8, 1719, calls it 
 the province of Las Telcas ;f and this is the first mention of 
 the name in any works made public. It may have been the 
 appellation of some petty tribe of Indians living in eastern 
 Texas ; or it may be of Spanish origin, and applied to the light 
 structures of the Indians on the Neches.J 
 
 * Bexar Archives, MS., parapho 21 : “Cientto settentta y dos leguas di dicho 
 Precidio de San Antonio estta el paraje nombrado propriamentte Texan , Asinays, 
 o Neclias.” As this was on the San Antonio road, it must have been the Mound 
 prairie, lately occupied by Mr. Bradshaw, that was known as Texas , and which 
 gave name to the entire country. 
 
 \ American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 10*7. 
 
 \ Teja, plural Tejas, in allusion to the covering of their tents or wigwams. I 
 am indebted to Ch. Gayarre, Esq., for this suggestion. 
 
EARLY MISSIONARIES. 
 
 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 America, as a missionary field, was not, in its early settle- 
 ment, a place to be desired. In some parts, where the precious 
 metals abounded, and fortunes were readily made, the worldly- 
 minded herald of the cross could find somewhat to tempt him ; 
 but, with this exception, it was a vast, unexplored region, but 
 thinly peopled by a strange and degraded race, who were ut- 
 terly ignorant, not only of the moral code of elevated society, 
 but even of the rights of property. As Christianity and civili- 
 zation must necessarily flourish together, the Indians had to 
 be civilized as well as converted. They were to be taught to 
 love God more than their hunting-grounds; to forgive their 
 enemies, and not to scalp them. These teachings were to be 
 the result of infinite patience, constant prayer, a living faith, 
 an upright walk, and, as God works through instrumentalities, 
 a previous mental cultivation. Who, then, was sufficient for 
 these things ? A new country had been occupied. Her vast 
 prairies and woodlands, beautifully blended, lay smiling before 
 the strangers. At that age, the missionary operations in Amer- 
 ica, with the exception of the English colonies, were carried on 
 by the Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans, the three princi- 
 pal orders of preachers of the Roman catholic church. These 
 orders, though deriving authority alike from the papal see, were 
 essentially different. The Jesuits were polished, cheerful, and 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 courtly : the Dominicans, as preachers against heretics, were 
 gloomy and fanatical. From the time of St. Dominic, they 
 found dangerous rivals in the Franciscans, with whom they 
 divided the honor of ruling church and state until 1640, when 
 the shrewd and learned followers of De Loyola superseded 
 them in directing the education and politics of the Old World. 
 
 The Franciscans are a religious order founded by St. Fran- 
 cis d’ Assisi, in 1208, at Naples. The order was distinguished 
 by absolute poverty and the renunciation of worldly pleasures. 
 Its. original object was the care of the spiritual interests of the 
 people, so much neglected by the secular clergy of that age. 
 The founder prohibited his followers from possessing any prop- 
 erty, nor were they to make learning and the polite accom- 
 plishments their study. The rule of the order, sanctioned by 
 the pope in 1210 and 1223, destined them to beg and to preach. 
 Responsible to no one but the pope, they had many privileges, 
 and their numbers were soon so increased, that they filled thou- 
 sands of monasteries. The rules of poverty became relaxed, 
 and their convents produced many learned men. The popes 
 Nicholas IV., Alexander V., Sixtus IV. and V., and Clement 
 XIV., were from this order. 
 
 The Franciscans became divided into different sects, yet had 
 a common general. The Alcantarines, or those who followed 
 the reforms introduced by Peter of Alcantara, flourished in 
 Spain, and, with the conquerors of Mexico, many of them came 
 over to America, and founded missions and convents.* Among 
 others, the convents of Quaretaro and Zacatecas, established 
 early in the seventeenth century, furnished the missionaries 
 destined to introduce to the savages of Texas the knowledge 
 of the true God.f These fathers observed strictly the rules 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Americana: articles Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits. 
 
 \ Letter of Bishop Odin, of April 6, 1853. M. 
 
THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONARIES. 
 
 55 
 
 laid down by tlieir founder : they went with their feet entirely 
 bare ; a coarse woollen frock, with a cord round the waist, to 
 which a rope with a knotted scourge was suspended, formed 
 their common dress. Their monastic vows prohibited them 
 from holding either real or personal property, and also from 
 familiar intercourse with the other sex, and required an entire 
 compliance with the rules of the order and the commands of 
 the superior.* 
 
 In Texas, in 1715, such men could well keep their vows of 
 poverty and self-denial. But they had before them a work to 
 be performed, which, without hope of future reward, and a 
 strong faith in heaven, none could have the heart to undertake. 
 As beggars, the Indians had nothing to give, and in this avo- 
 cation far outstripped their ghostly instructors ! As preachers, 
 they had almost insuperable difficulties to meet and overcome. 
 They had to learn the language of the natives ; to domesticate 
 and civilize them ; to teach them the nature of property, its 
 value, and the mode of acquiring it. But, what was most im- 
 portant, the Indian was necessitated to unlearn all that he had 
 previously acquired. His wandering life must cease ; he must 
 henceforth have a home, and a place of worship. His mani- 
 tous , as numerous as the objects around him, must all give 
 place to the idea of one great Manitou — the Creator. His 
 passions must be subdued ; his habits, manners, and his entire 
 nature, changed. f “ Nothing is more difficult,” says Father 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Americana, article Monastic Vows. 
 
 f The ingenious argument adopted by Father Mermet to convince an Indian 
 of the existence of a God is worthy of repetition. The Indian was a medicine- 
 man, and worshipped the buffalo, as his grand manitou. As the buffalo was not 
 immortal, the Indian was insensibly led to admit that it was not the animal he 
 worshipped, but the spirit of the buffalo, which was under the earth, and ani- 
 mated all buffaloes. 
 
 Mermet: Have not other animals — the bear, for instance — a manitou also? 
 
 Indian , Certainly. 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Marest, “ than the conversion of these Indians ; it is a miracle 
 of the Lord’s mercy. It is necessary first to transform them 
 into men, and afterward to labor to make them Christians.”* 
 This work was undertaken in Texas by the patient followers 
 of St. Francis. They had not the liberty of the Jesuits, in 
 not being restrained by the formalities of a tedious recitation 
 of prayers, but, under all circumstances, at oft-recurring times, 
 were bound on their consciences to repeat them. It was an 
 important object to keep the Indians together long enough to 
 make an impression on their minds. But the Indian must be 
 fed ; his only means of support was by fishing, and the chase ; 
 he knew no other. To maintain him by agriculture, he must 
 labor in the field ; and this labor must be compulsory, for lazi- 
 ness is a leading feature in the character of an Indian. Upon 
 such a basis, then, were laid down the rules for the government 
 and instruction of the red man. 
 
 The establishments thus formed in Texas were known as pre- 
 sidios ,f or missions. There was a mission at each presidio ; 
 but many missions were without soldiers, at least in any con- 
 siderable numbers. Each presidio was entitled to a command- 
 ant, and the necessary officers for a command of two hundred 
 and fifty men ; though, from various circumstances, the number 
 constantly varied, and was generally less. The troops were 
 inferior, badly clothed, idle, and disorderly. The buildings 
 were erected around a square, or plaza de armas , and con- 
 
 Mermet. If this be so, then men ought also to have a manitou which animates 
 them ? 
 
 Indiav , Nothing can be more certain. 
 
 Mermet. That is sufficient for me to convict you of having but little reason on 
 your side ; for if man be the master of all the animals — if he kills them, if he 
 eats them — then it is necessary that the Manitou which animates the man 
 should also be the Master of all the other manitous. — Kip, p. 202. 
 
 * Letter of Father Marest, November 9, 1712. Ib., p. 193. 
 
 f Presidio , a garrison of soldiers. 
 
TREATMENT OF INDIANS AT THE MISSIONS. 
 
 57 
 
 listed of the church, dwellings for officers, friars, and soldiers, 
 with storehouses, prisons, &c. The size of the square depended 
 on the population, the strength of the force intended to be sta- 
 tioned there, and also upon the extent- of the district dependent 
 on the presidio. Huts were erected at a short distance from 
 the principal edifices, for the converted Indians. The unmar- 
 ried of either sex were placed in separate huts, and at night 
 locked up by the friars, who carried the keys. They encour- 
 aged chastity among the Indians, and punished its violation by 
 public or private whipping, as the offender was a male or a 
 female.* 
 
 Forts were erected near the presidios , and sometimes the 
 church was fortified. The civil and military authority was 
 united in the commandant, which, in some matters, was subor- 
 dinate and in others superior to the ecclesiastical power. The 
 principal duty of the military was to repel the invasion of the 
 wild Indians, and to suppress the rebellious spirit of the con- 
 verts. The Indians were well fed, clothed, and cared for; 
 their labors were not heavy ; and, in these particulars, they 
 could not complain. But they were compelled to perform cer- 
 tain religious ceremonies before they could understand anything 
 of their meaning. Sundry rules were laid down for their every 
 motion, a departure from which was severely punished. It was 
 this tyranny over the minds and bodies of the Indians that en- 
 feebled and wasted them. They were willing to forego the 
 food and raiment of the missions, for the sublime scenery of 
 the vast prairies, the liberty of roaming unmolested over them, 
 and chasing the buffalo and the deer. Freedom, dear to all, 
 is the idol of the Indian. He worships the liberty of nature. 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 224, et seq. Forbes, in his history of California, is too 
 severe upon the Franciscans. Compared with the cruelty of the Spaniards and 
 Dominicans in South America and Mexico proper, the discipline of the Francis- 
 cans was tolerable. 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 When restrained from his loved haunts, he pines, and sickens, 
 and dies. Had the Franciscans, like the Jesuits on the lakes, 
 gone with their flocks on their hunting-excursions, joined them 
 in their feasts, and praised them for their skill in the chase, 
 they would have met with ^greater success. But the Jesuits 
 possessed a twofold advantage : they had the power of dispen- 
 sing with tedious and uninteresting prayers and ceremonies ; 
 and they also enjoyed the aid of the cheerful, talkative, open- 
 hearted French:* while the Franciscans, without such dispen- 
 sing power, were likewise bound to co-operate with the gloomy, 
 suspicious, and despotic Spaniards. 
 
 We are not informed respecting the daily round of spiritual 
 and temporal duties performed by the converted Indians of the 
 Franciscan missions, but presume they were not very different 
 from those described by Father Marest as practised among the 
 Illinois in 1712. “Early in the morning,” says he, “we as- 
 semble the catechumens at the church, when they have prayers, 
 they receive instruction, and chant some canticles. When they 
 have retired, mass is said, at which all the Christians assist, 
 the men placed on one side and the women on the other ; then 
 they have prayers, which are followed by giving them a homily, 
 after which each goes to his labor. We then spend our time 
 in visiting the sick, to give them the necessaiy remedies, to 
 instruct them, and to console those who are laboring under any 
 affliction. In* the afternoon, the catechizing is held, at which 
 all are present, Christians and catechumens , men and children, 
 young and old, and where each, without distinction of rank or 
 
 * Don Joseph de Gorraez, speaking of the intercourse of the French with the 
 Indians in 1744, says: “Poseben en ttodas, muclios precidios, crecidos pueblos, 
 numerosas naciones de Yndios con quienes facilmentto congenian rayandosse y 
 pintandose como illos los rosttros hablando sus idiomas, asisttiendo a sus baylas 
 casandose con los Yndios, y rescattando pieles por bujerias, cuchillos y armas 
 de fuego aque son mui propensos los* Yndios.” — Tcstimonib dc un m Parecer, &c. } 
 parapho 13. 
 
SPIRITUAL DUTIES AT THE MISSIONS. 
 
 59 
 
 ago, answers the questions put by the missionary. As these 
 people have no books, and are naturally indolent, they would 
 shortly forget the principles of religion, if the remembrance of 
 them was not recalled by these almost continual instructions. 
 Our visits to their wigwams occupy the rest of the day. In 
 the evening, all assemble again at the church, to listen to the 
 instructions which are given, to have prayers, and to sing some 
 hymns. On Sundays and festivals they add to the ordinary 
 
 exercises instructions which are given after the vespers 
 
 They generally end the day by private meetings, which they 
 hold at their own residences, the men separately from the wo- 
 men ; and there they recite the cliapelet with alternate choirs, 
 and chant the hymns, until the night is far advanced.”* 
 
 If to these duties we add the sacraments and confessions, we 
 need not be surprised that the neophytes sometimes fled from 
 the missions, and resumed the war-whoop and the chase. At 
 the French missions among the Indians, the apostates were 
 won back by persuasion. Not so among the Spaniards : the 
 troops at hand pursued them, and, if taken, they were com- 
 pelled to return — when, in addition to a severe whipping, they 
 were obliged to do penance. 
 
 The Franciscan fathers made regular reports of the success 
 of their missions to the superior, and the latter to the general 
 of the order. On these reports depended to a great extent the 
 favor shown the missionaries ; hence they were excited to zeal 
 in their efforts to make converts. Not content with the fruits 
 of persuasion and kind treatment, they made forays upon the 
 surrounding tribes. The soldiers performed this duty. The 
 prisoners taken, especially the young, were trained alike in 
 the mysteries of the Christian faith and of agriculture.! To 
 
 * Kip, p. 204. 
 
 f Humboldt Indians who did not know how to make the sign of the cross 
 were calhd Yndios bravos ; those in the missions were termed Yndios reducidos. 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 effect their training, they were divided among the older and 
 more deserving Indians of the mission, who held them in ser- 
 vitude until they were of an age suitable to marry. At the 
 proper time this rite was faithfully performed, and thus there 
 grew up a race of domestic Indians around the missions. 
 
 To add to the strength of the missions and the number of 
 the converts, reliable Indians of these establishments were sent 
 out among their wild brethren to bring them in. This was 
 sometimes done by persuasion, and sometimes by deception 
 and force. However, they were brought to the missions, and 
 incorporated among the learners and workmen of the fold. 
 
 When we call to mind the fanaticism and ignorance of that 
 age, and the important fact that the Indians who remained 
 long in the missions became greatly attached to their spiritual 
 guides and the form of their worship, we must admit that these 
 pioneers of religion deserved some praise. Their toils and 
 privations evinced their faith — their patience and humility 
 should satisfy the world of their sincerity. 
 
 Until the present century, the catholics did more for the 
 cause of missions than the protestants ; and if, a century and 
 a half ago, they committed fatal errors in their religious enter- 
 prises, it is no more than has since been done. The fate of 
 the aboriginal races of the New World, and even of the Pacific 
 islands, is peculiar. A well-defined instance of any tribe or 
 nation that has been civilized, without a total or partial de- 
 struction of its people, can scarcely be produced. This may, 
 to some extent, be attributed to the vices introduced by the 
 friends of the missionaries.* 
 
 However objectionable we may consider the Franciscan mode of reducing the 
 Indians, it is perhaps less so than the American plan of depriving them of their 
 lands, and then hunting them down like wild beasts. 
 
 * Dr. Rushinburger, Voyage of the Peacock, 1832; Captain Wilkes’s Journal ; 
 Robertson’s History of America, book viii. Dr. Robertson says that, “ after the 
 
GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS. 
 
 61 
 
 As much of the ill success of the missions resulted from the 
 regulations of the Spanish government in regard to the Indians, 
 it may be well that we should refer to them. These regula- 
 tions for the government and instruction of the natives of Span- 
 ish America emanated from the “ council of the Indies,” and 
 were sent out for observance as laws sanctioned by the king. 
 They were based upon the conclusion of the council that all 
 the people of the New World were marked out by the inferi- 
 ority of their minds for servitude, whom it would be impossible 
 to instruct or improve, except continually under the eye of a 
 master. Yet, as experience suggested the modification of these 
 regulations, they were so altered from time to time, until 1542, 
 when, by a decree of Charles Y., the Indians were restored to 
 a nominal freedom. A tax, however, of one dollar each was 
 levied upon all males between eighteen and fifty years of age, 
 three fourths of which went into the royal treasury, and the 
 other fourth was applied to the payment of the salaries of local 
 officers and parish expenses. They were also subject to a cer- 
 tain vassalage, similar to the former tenure by service in Eng- 
 land.* This vassalage consisted in the liability of the Indian 
 
 lapse of two centuries, during which the Indians have -been members of the 
 church, so imperfect are their attainments in knowledge, that very few possess 
 such a portion of spiritual discernment as to be deemed worthy of being admit- 
 ted to the holy communion.” — p. 365. But see his note, p. 181, ed. 1835, New 
 York. The resident priest at the San Jos6 mission, in 1807, in a conversation 
 with Captain Pike, said that “it appeared to him that the Indians could not 
 exist under the shadow of the whites — as the nations who formed the San An- 
 tonio missions had been nurtured and taken all the care of that it was possible, 
 and put on the same footing as the Spaniards ; yet, notwithstanding, they had 
 dwindled away, until the other two missions ( San Juan Capestrana and La 
 Purisima Concepcion) had become entirely depopulated, and the one where he 
 resided had not then more than sufficient to perform his household labor. From 
 this he had formed an idea that God never intended them to form one people, 
 but that they should always remain distinct and separate.” — Pike's Expedition \ 
 Appendix, p. 33. 
 
 * Robertson’s History of America, pp. 115, 116, 367, 368. Recop. de Leycs dc 
 las Indias, lib. vL, tit v. 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 to labor a certain number of days for his patron or the king in 
 the fields or in the mines ; and, although the time was limited 
 in Mexico to six days in the year, yet such was the distance 
 of this degraded people from the head of the government, such 
 the disregard of the laws, and such the cupidity and inhumanity 
 of the patrons and agents of the crown, that the term of service 
 was generally evaded, and the Indians treated with great cru- 
 elty.* This labor was gratuitous ; yet, in the meantime, the 
 Indians became debtors to their patrons, and were compelled 
 to continued service under pretence of payment : hence origi- 
 nated a species of servitude called peonage. The peons in- 
 creased to such an extent, that the patrons made no objection 
 to the abolition of the system of encomiendas ; for labor was so 
 cheap, that it cost little or nothing. 
 
 In addition to the capitation-tax levied from the Indians, 
 they were subject to tithes, marriage-fees, and other payments, 
 drawn from them by the church. Still further, the Indians 
 paid large sums for the bull of Cruzado. This papal bull is 
 published every two years, and grants to the purchaser an ab- 
 solution for past offences, besides the privilege of eating certain 
 prohibited articles of food during religious fasts. The elo- 
 quence and zeal of the monks were employed in the sale of 
 these pardons, and, such was the credulity of the people of 
 Mexico, that few failed to purchase. The price varied from 
 ten dollars to twenty-five cents, according to the condition of 
 the purchaser and the privileges granted. f 
 
 At the period of which we write, the clergy of New Spain 
 were inferior to that class in Europe, in both morality and in- 
 
 * In New Spain, or Mexico, the number of Indians was so great, that only 
 four in the hundred were required to labor at a time. This term of service was 
 called tanda. — Robertson ' 9 History of America : note , p. 1*79. 
 
 f Letter of Joel R. Poinsett, American State Papei*s, vol. iv., p. 326, ed. 1834. 
 Robertson’s History of America, book viii., p. 384: note 195. 
 
PAPAL GRANTS TO SPAIN. 
 
 63 
 
 telligence. With the exception of the Jesuits, and the higher 
 functionaries of the church, the entire clergy of Mexico were 
 not only destitute of the virtues necessary to their station, but 
 were in every respect profligate. Some of them, disregarding 
 their vows of poverty, turned merchants ; others, forgetting 
 their oaths of chastity, indulged in the grossest licentiousness. 
 It was in vain that the civil authorities attempted to correct 
 these abuses. The clergy held an ignorant and credulous peo- 
 ple under their control, and charged the governors with hos- 
 tility to religion. The church triumphed ; and these corrup- 
 tions continued to increase, until the inhabitants of Mexico 
 ceased to venerate the monastic orders. It was then only that 
 King Ferdinand VI. promulgated his decree prohibiting the 
 regular or monastic clergy from taking charge of the parishes, 
 but limited this right to the secular clergy. “ 
 
 Pope Alexander VI., in 1501, granted to the crown of Spain 
 all the newly-discovered countries in America, on condition 
 that provision should be made for the religious instruction of 
 the natives; and Pope Julius II., three years afterward, con- 
 ferred on Ferdinand and his successors the right of patronage, 
 and the disposal of all church benefices. These grants of the 
 popes, made at an early day, constituted the king of Spain the 
 head of the church, and gave him the absolute control of its 
 vast revenues. This fact is referred to here, because of the 
 influence it had, and still continues to have, in the revolutions 
 of Mexico. f 
 
 Such were the rules and regulations for the government of 
 the Indians, and such their condition, as also that of their spir- 
 itual instructors, in 1715. Of course, these regulations could 
 
 * MM. Frezier, Acosta, Gentil, and others, zealous catholics, admit and deplore 
 these corruptions. The decree of Ferdinand is dated in 17 57. — Robertson's His- 
 tory of America, book viii., p. 36' 
 
 f So arzono, Laws of the Indies , vol. ii., p. 498, et seq. 
 
64 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 not apply to wild Indians QYndios bravos ), but only to the 
 converted Indians ( Yndios reducidos'). The three classes of 
 the inferior or working clergy consisted of — curates, or parish- 
 priests, in the Spanish settlements ; teachers of Christian doc- 
 trine, having charge of those districts occupied by the convert- 
 ed Indians ; and missionaries, whose duty it was to go to the 
 countries of the wild Indians, and, by persuasion and other 
 means, to bring them under the protection of the government, 
 and impart to them a knowledge of their Creator. The church 
 of New Spain, in other respects, was organized as that of the 
 mother-country, having its archbishops, bishops, deans, <fcc. 
 
 The ceremonies, the solemnities, and the pomp of the Roman 
 catholic worship, were fascinating. To the natives, who never 
 reflect, or conceive an abstract idea, the sublime spiritual truths 
 of the gospel could not be taught. Only through the senses, 
 by means of striking emblems, could they learn a few simple 
 truths.* 
 
 The missionaries, while engaged in converting the wild In- 
 dians, were not unmindful of their own comfort and that of the 
 missions. The labor of the natives was employed in agricul- 
 ture, in raising stock, and in erecting large and convenient 
 edifices, by which means the fathers were not only enabled to 
 live agreeably themselves, but could extend the hospitalities of 
 the missions to travellers and friends. 
 
 * Robertson’s History of America, book iv., p. 160. 
 
ADVENTURES OF ST. DENIS. 
 
 65 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On the return of St. Denis to Mobile in 1716, another expe- 
 dition was started to Mexico. Three Canadians, De Lery, La- 
 freniere, and Beaulieu, had charge of it. They carried a con- 
 siderable amount of merchandise. Before they reached Natchi- 
 toches, St. Denis overtook them. He had left his wife at the 
 mission of St. 'John, on the Rio Grande, and wished to see her. 
 After providing themselves with mules and horses, they set out 
 on their march. On reaching the confines of the Cenis (A-Si- 
 mais) nation, they rested a few days, and laid in a new supply 
 of provisions. Again on their way, St. Denis left his company, 
 and hurried on to rejoin his wife. He took with him a few 
 travelling-companions and some goods. On reaching the mis- 
 sion, which had been raised to a presidio , his goods were seized 
 by the Spanish authorities ; and he set out for the city of Mex- 
 ico, to see the viceroy, and have them restored. But the new 
 viceroy, the marquis of Valero, who had entered upon his office 
 on the 10th of August, 1716,* was not so favorably disposed 
 toward St. Denis as the kind-hearted Linares had been. St. 
 Denis was cast into prison, where he remained a month ; but, 
 at the intercession of his wife’s relations, he was released, and 
 ultimately had his goods sold and paid for. The money was 
 paid to an agent, however, who ran off with it. St. Denis, in. 
 
 * flistoria de Mejico, p. 34. 
 
 Vol. I. — 5 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 trying to get it restored, had used some harsh and threatening 
 language ; and referred to his influence with the Indian tribes 
 in Texas, and how he would use it against the Spaniards set- 
 tled there. This coming to the ears of the viceroy, he was 
 again thrown into prison ; but, through the assistance furnished 
 by the friends of his wife, he made his escape, traversed the 
 country to the presidio of St. John, took his wife with him, and 
 at last safely reached the capital of Louisiana.* 
 
 The remainder of his company, on reaching the presidio , and 
 learning what had occurred to St. Denis, and that he had gone 
 to the city of Mexico, were alarmed for their own merchandise. 
 To secure it, they intrusted it to the care of the monks of St. 
 John, and ultimately sold it on credit; but, in the meantime, 
 hearing that St. Denis was imprisoned in Mexico, they did not 
 wait for payment, but fled to Louisiana. Thus ended the sec- 
 ond attempt of St. Denis to establish a trade with the Span- 
 iards through Texas. If he was not successful, it was not for 
 want of enterprise on his part, nor was it on account of the 
 great virtue of the Spaniards. He did them one good service : 
 he laid out the great thoroughfare through Texas, known as 
 the S an Antonio road , which, first travelled in 1714, has been, 
 for a hundred and forty years, the great highway of travel for 
 pleasure and business, for plunder and war.f 
 
 Crozat, having failed in his Louisiana speculations, surren- 
 dered his charter on the 13th of August, 1717 ; and, in the 
 month following, the colony of Louisiana was transferred to 
 the “ Company of the Indies,” controlled by the notorious John 
 
 Law.J 
 
 * Gayarre, History of Louisiana, voL i., pp. 191, 198, 242. 
 
 f It seems that Captain Alonzo De Leon first travelled and marked out the 
 La Bahia road, from the latter point to the then Indian town of Texas at the 
 Mound prairie, in 1690. 
 
 \ Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 198. 
 
WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN. 
 
 67 
 
 In December, 1718, war was declared by France, under the 
 regent duke of Orleans, against Spain.* The news reached 
 the French colony of Louisiana in the spring of the next year, 
 when hostilities to a limited extent were carried on between 
 the French and Spanish settlements in Texas. The French 
 government had anticipated this, by sending out the previous 
 year some recruits for the stations and settlements. One hun- 
 dred and forty-eight had been apportioned to Natchitoches, 
 which, before then, had but a small guard. 
 
 On the receipt of the news of the declaration of war, the 
 French immediately proceeded with such force as they could 
 raise at Natchitoches, under the command of La Harpe and 
 St. Denis ; and, driving before them the Spaniards at Adaes, 
 Orquizaco, Aes, and Nacogdoches, pursued them to the post 
 of Bexar. In the meantime, the marquis de Aguayo, governor- 
 general of New Estremadura and the New Philippines, offered 
 his services and purse to the viceroy to repel the French. He 
 collected a mounted force of five hundred men, and set out on 
 his march ; but the French had retreated, and, when he arrived 
 at Adaes, they were safely in their quarters at Natchitoches. 
 De Aguayo brought with him the parties composing three of 
 the missions that had retreated before the French, which he 
 re-established — namely, Orquizaco, Adaes, and Aes — leaving 
 a force at the garrison of Nuestra Senora del Pilar, seven 
 leagues from Natchitoches, for their protection.! The mar- 
 quis then returned to San Antonio, and Captain Don Ramon, his 
 second in command, to the presidio of the Rio Grande. De 
 Aguayo engaged in the improvement of San Antonio, and laid 
 down plans for durable missions. 
 
 * Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, vol. i., p. 7. 
 
 f American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 300. Testimonio de un Parecer , <fca, 
 parapho 31. 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 In the meantime, the viceroy Valero appointed Don Martin 
 d’Alarconne, knight of the order of St. Jago, governor of 
 Texas. He entered upon his duties in 1718. The missiona- 
 ries complained to him, after the return of De Aguayo, that 
 there were not sufficient troops, and that the government of 
 Texas was in every way badly provided. Alarconne, with a 
 view to mend matters, demanded one hundred and seventy-five 
 additional soldiers, together with money and implements.* 
 
 It seems that it was during this war, and after the return of 
 the French expedition to Bexar, that La Harpe was relieved 
 by St Denis from the command of the post of Natchitoches, 
 and sent into the interior of Texas — not so much, perhaps, for 
 the purpose of establishing commercial relations with the Span- 
 iards, as the building up of new settlements, and stirring up the 
 Indians against the Spaniards.! La Harpe took post among 
 the Nassonites, and sent a polite message to D’Alarconne. 
 He received a reply from the marquis, stating his willingness 
 to be on good terms with the French of Louisiana, but expres- 
 sing his surprise that La Harpe should be at the Nassonite vil- 
 lage, as that territory depended upon New Mexico. La Harpe 
 rejoined, urging the claims of the French to the territory by 
 reason of previous discovery and possession.^ Nothing further 
 
 * Testimonio de un Parecer, parapho 29. 
 
 f War was declared by France and England against Spain in December, 1718. 
 On the 20th of January, 1720, the king of Spain accepted and signed the quad- 
 ruple alliance which, in 1718, had been entered into between England, France, 
 the emperor of Germany, and Holland, for the purpose of guarantying to the 
 reigning families in England and France their thrones, and settling the partition 
 of the Spanish monarchy. So Mr. Gayarre must be mistaken in placing the cor- 
 respondence between D’Alarconne and La Harpe after the treaty of peace.— 
 Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 263. 
 
 $ The following is the correspondence between D’Alarconne and La Harpe: — 
 
 “Monsieur: I am very sensible of the politeness that M. de Bienville and 
 yourself have had the goodness to show to me. The orders I have received from 
 the king my master are, to maintain a good understanding with the French of 
 Louisiana ; my own inclinations lead me equally to afford them all the services 
 
BELISLE AND HIS COMPANIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 was done by D’Alarconnc in defending the Spanish claim ; but 
 his demand for more men, money, and implements, being re- 
 fused, he resigned his office and retired. 
 
 The “ Company of the Indies,” having in charge the colony 
 of Louisiana, sent out, in 1719, a thousand Europeans to people 
 it. Among them was M. de Belisle, a gentleman of distinc- 
 tion. The winds and current carried the vessel on which he 
 had- embarked into the bay of Matagorda. A boat was sent 
 ashore for water ; and Belisle, with four of his companions, 
 went in it, with the consent of the captain. As the boat had 
 to return to the ship, these five officers went out hunting. The 
 captain becoming impatient, and the hunters not returning, he 
 weighed anchor and left them. Being thus abandoned, and 
 
 that depend upon me. But I am compelled to say that your arrival at the Nas- 
 sonite village surprises me much. Your governor could not be ignorant that 
 the post you occupy belongs to my government, and that all the lands west of 
 the Nassonites depend upon New Mexico. I counsel you to advise M. Bienville 
 of this, or you will force me to oblige you to abandon lands that the French have 
 no right to occupy. I have the honor to be, <fcc. “ D’Alauconne.” 
 
 “ Trinity River, May 20, 1719.” 
 
 Reply of the French Commander. 
 
 “Monsieur: The order from his catholic majesty to maintain a good under- 
 standing with the French of Louisiana, and the kind intentions you have your- 
 self expressed toward them, accord but little with your proceedings. Permit 
 me to inform you that M. de Bienville is perfectly informed of the limits of his 
 government, and is very cortain that the post of Nassonite depends not upon the 
 dominions of his catholic majesty. He knows also that the province of Laste- 
 kas [Texas], of which you say you are governor, is a part of Louisiana. M. de 
 la Salle took possession in 16S5, in the name of his most Christian majesty; and 
 since the above epoch, possession has been renewed from time to time. Respect- 
 ing the post of Nassonite, I can not comprehend by what right you pretend that 
 it forms a part of New Mexico. I beg leave to represent to you that Don Anto- 
 nio de Minoir, who discovered New Mexico in 1683, never penetrated east of that 
 province, or the Rio Bravo. It was the French who first made alliances with 
 the savage tribes in this region ; and it is natural to conclude that a river that 
 flows into the Mississippi, and the lands it waters, belong to the king my master. 
 If you will do me the pleasure to come into this quarter, I will convince you I 
 hold a post I know how to defend. I have the honor to be, <fec. 
 
 “De la Harms. w 
 
 Nassonite, July 8, 1719. 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 lost in an unknown country, they coasted along westward for 
 several days, living upon herbs and insects. Belisle had 
 brought a young dog from the vessel: this he gave up to his 
 companions, to kill for food ; they endeavored to do so, but 
 were so weak, that the dog escaped from them, and disap- 
 peared. The four companions of Belisle died of starvation 
 and despair, before his eyes ; and for some days he continued 
 to subsist on worms and insects, when at last his dog reap- 
 peared, with an opossum which he had killed. Shortly after, 
 his dog was wounded by a wild beast, and he was compelled 
 to kill him. Being thus left alone, he turned from the coast, 
 and directed his course to the interior, in search of men. He 
 found footsteps, and followed them to a river, on the opposite 
 bank of which were some Indians engaged in drying meat. 
 Belisle was so well assured they were cannibals, that he im- 
 agined they ate human flesh. They stripped him, and divided 
 his clothes among them ; they then took him to their village, 
 and gave him to an old widow, who received him into her ser- 
 vice, and treated him so kindly, that he gradually recovered 
 his strength. He learned their language, became a warrior, 
 and had greater privileges accorded him. After some time, a 
 deputation from the Nassonites visited the tribe having him in 
 charge, and, seeing him, observed in his hearing that there 
 were men like him near their country. Without seeming to 
 notice the conversation, Belisle inquired privately of one of 
 the deputies as to these white people. He then made ink of 
 soot, and wrote on his commission, which he had preserved, 
 information of his condition, aiid procured one of the deputies 
 to take it to the white people at Natchitoches, for which he 
 would be well rewarded. The Indian, having performed his 
 duty, delivered the paper to Captain St. Denis, who gave him 
 many presents, and then began to cry, after the Indian manner, 
 
SPANISH EXPEDITION FROM SANTA FE. 
 
 71 
 
 in their presence. They inquired what was the matter. St. 
 Denis answered that he wept for his brother, who was a cap- 
 tive among the Indians. As St. Denis was a great friend to 
 the Indians, and a favorite with them, ten of thdir number vol- 
 unteered to go after Belisle, and return in two moons. They 
 were furnished with horses, arms, and a horse and clothing for 
 the prisoner. They reached the village, and discharged their 
 guns, which overawed the other Indians ; then delivering to 
 Belleisle a letter of assurance from St. Denis, he mounted his 
 horse, and the whole party galloped away and reached Natchi- 
 toches in safety, whence Belisle went to the capital of the 
 colony of Louisiana. He afterward became major of New Or- 
 leans, and major-general of the marine in Louisiana.* 
 
 The Spanish claim to the north and east was indefinite. 
 Like Louis XIV., in his grant to Crozat, they were not only 
 ignorant of the geography of the country, and of the posses- 
 sions of others, but also of what they could successfully claim 
 as their own. After the success of the Spaniards in re-estab- 
 lishing their missions and military posts in eastern Texas, they 
 determined on driving the French from their settlements on the 
 upper Mississippi. The expedition fitted out for this purpose, 
 in 1720, consisted of an engineer-captain as commander and 
 conductor, a Dominican friar as chaplain, soldiers, men and 
 women, with horses and cattle necessary to form a settlement. 
 The party lost their route, and fell in among the Missouri In- 
 dians (the fast friends of the French), mistaking them for the 
 Osages. It was from the latter tribe that the Spaniards ex- 
 pected aid in attacking the French post on the Illinois. The 
 
 * Bossu, vol. i., p. 332, et seq. Only so much of this narrative is here inserted 
 as is believed to be true. Bossu was greatly attached to the marvellous, and a 
 story never lost anything by passing through his hands. He says the tribe that 
 held Belisle as prisoner was the Attakapas. But he is undoubtedly mistaken. 
 It was most likely the Carankawaes; all the circumstances go to show this fact. 
 He also represents them as cannibals. It is strange they did not eat Belisle ! 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 Missouri chief soon discovered their mistake, but, concealing 
 the matter, affected great friendship for the Spaniards, treated 
 them with hospitality, and promised to march with them at the 
 end of three days. He required this time, he said, to hold a 
 council with his old men, and to assemble his warriors. 
 
 In the meantime, the Spanish commander distributed among 
 the Missouris fifteen hundred muskets, with pistols, sabres, and 
 hatchets. On the morning after, at break of day, the Indians, 
 thus armed, fell upon the Spaniards, and butchered the whole 
 of them, except the priest, whose singular dress did not seem 
 to them to belong to a warrior. They called him a magpie, 
 and amused themselves by making him ride a Spanish horse on 
 public occasions. 
 
 Shortly afterward, to the astonishment of the French on the 
 Illinois, the Missouris, with their chief at their head, marched 
 into the fort, arrayed in the ornaments of the chapel and the 
 garments of the slain ! The chief wore on his naked skin the 
 chasuble , and had the paten suspended from his neck for a 
 breastplate ; his head being crowned with feathers and a pair 
 of horns !* Thus ended this first and last attempt of Spain to 
 extend her empire to the north. 
 
 The patriotic De Bienville, then governor of Louisiana, was 
 not satisfied with the position of affairs in Texas. The Span- 
 iards had occupied too much of the territory, consistent with 
 the claims of France. The correspondence of La Harpe with 
 D’Alarconne was approved by the French government, and the 
 “ Company of the Indies” were ordered to take possession of 
 Matagorda bay.f 
 
 * Bos8u, vol. i., p. 150, et seq. This author, in giving us the above tragic ac- 
 count, takes occasion to remind those “officers, who, through a noble ambition, 
 aspire to military commands, that both the theoretical and practical parts of 
 geography ought absolutely to be understood by them.” 
 
 f Gayarre, History of Louisiana, voL i., p. 264. 
 
EXPEDITION TO MATAGORDA BAY. 
 
 73 
 
 In pursuance of tliis order, De Bienville, on the 10th of Au- 
 gust, 1721, proceeded to send out a vessel with a suitable force 
 to plant at the bay the arms of the king, and to build a fort. 
 BelislCy having previously been a prisoner there, and ac- 
 quainted with the Indian language, was appointed to the com- 
 mand of the twenty soldiers despatched, and La Harpe went 
 out as commandant of the bay of St. Bernard. The order was 
 obeyed, and a settlement formed ; but, such was the hostility 
 of the Indians, that the detachment did not long remain on the 
 bay.* 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 10Y. Gayarr6. History of Louisiana 
 vol. i., p. 264. 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The council of the Indies, being duly advised of the irrup- 
 tion of the French, their retreat, and the subsequent measures 
 of De Aguayo to settle the country, induced the king of Spain 
 to issue a royal order in May, 1721, directing the authorities 
 in Texas not to commit further hostilities against the French, 
 but forthwith to fortify all the important places, especially the 
 bay of St. Bernard. Accordingly, a military post and mission 
 were established at the crossing of the Neches ; and another 
 garrison, called our Lady of Loreto , was located on the bay 
 of St. Bernard, at the place formerly occupied by La Salle. 
 The mission of La Bahia, under the protection of this garrison, 
 was established on the San Antonio, some thirty leagues dis- 
 tant. “ The marquis added yet other improvements : three of 
 the missions, that had been driven by the French to San Anto- 
 nio, were located permanently on that river, which, added to 
 the one already there, made live missions under the protection 
 of the garrison at Bexar. 
 
 The marquis de Aguayo, before he returned to his official 
 residence at Monclova, recommended the introduction of colo- 
 nists, being well satisfied that' the country could never be per- 
 
 * La Bahia — the bay — from the fact that this mission was dependent on the 
 garrison at the bay for protection. Indeed, the garrison itself was afterward 
 removed to La Bahia. 
 
SPANISH TROOPS IN TEXAS. 
 
 T5 
 
 manently occupied by missionaries and soldiers alone. St. 
 Denis was still at Natchitoches, enjoying the unbounded confi- 
 dence of the Indians, familiar with their language, furnishing 
 them with arms, and disposed, at any favorable time, to light 
 the torch of w r ar. There were other considerations operating 
 on the Spanish. The expenses of the garrisons alone were 
 heavy, costing the royal treasury not less than sixty-three thou- 
 sand dollars per annum ; while the troops were not generally 
 composed of Spaniards, but of the inferior classes of natives, 
 having idle, disorderly, and turbulent habits. It was therefore 
 better to introduce colonists, who would feel that Texas was 
 their home, and have a lively interest in its improvement and 
 defence, and a like interest in preserving peace with the In- 
 dian tribes. 
 
 Do Aguayo departed for his home in May, 1722. He left 
 in Texas (or, as it was then called, the New Philippines) four 
 garrisons for its defence : that is, at the Adaes mission, one 
 hundred men ; at the Ncchcs, or Mound prairie, twenty-five 
 at the bay of St. Bernard, ninety ; and at San Antonio, fifty- 
 three, making in all two hundred and sixty-eight soldiers. 
 
 A brief notice of these troops maybe appropriately given. 
 Each soldier received four hundred dollars per annum, out of 
 which he had to pay for his clothing and provisions. What 
 he purchased was furnished by contract, at stipulated prices, 
 and transported on mules from Mexico. These prices were 
 necessarily high. The greater part of the soldiers spent the 
 
 * Tenth nonio do. un Parcccr , Ac., parapho 32. In the original this garrison i3 
 called Texas. It was on the Neelies river; but whether at the Mound, or at 
 Fort Terari, at the lower crossing, is doubtful. To avoid the Camanehe Indians, 
 the travelled route at that time, from San Antonio to Los Adaes, was bv La Ba- 
 hia, and thence to the San Antonio road at Robbins’s ferry ; and sometimes by 
 the lower crossing at Liberty on the Trinity, and Fort Teran on the Neelies. 
 From all the circumstances, it is believed that the old Indian town of Texas was 
 at the Mound prairie. 
 
76 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 remainder of tlieir pay in gaming ; they then contracted debts, 
 sold their horses and arms, and became servants to the officers 
 — caring nothing for the dignity of their station, or the public 
 service. They were always ready for a quarrel with the In- 
 dians, giving the missionaries more trouble than the savages 
 themselves ; and it was not without reason that the enterpri- 
 sing Dc Aguayo declared that, if colonists could be substituted 
 for soldiers, the friars would be enabled to gain the affections 
 of the Indians. 
 
 No sooner, however, had De Aguayo departed, than a trade 
 again sprang up between the French and the Spaniards. The 
 friends and relatives of St. Denis favored it. He was still at 
 Natchitoches ; his popularity with the Indians was unbounded, 
 and his ability to raise at any time, among the Texan tribes, 
 many thousand warriors, operated powerfully upon the fears 
 of the Spanish garrison at Adaes. This trade was greatly fa- 
 vored by the removal of the capital of Louisiana from Mobile 
 to New Orleans. The introduction of horses, mules, and cattle, 
 from the Spanish possessions into those of the French, in ex- 
 change for the goods of the Company of the Indies, was carried 
 on with little or no interruption.* 
 
 The Spanish authorities were jealous, and bound by the or- 
 ders of their government to prevent this trade and these intru- 
 sions of the French ; but the captain-general of the province 
 resided at Monclova, many leagues from the French frontier, 
 and the local officers were not more virtuous in those days 
 than at present. In 1726, however, a war broke out between 
 Spain and England, in which France took part with Spain. 
 This produced a friendly disposition on the frontier ; and while 
 Perier, governor of Louisiana, was giving indirect aid and 
 comfort to Spain, in stirring up the Choctaws against the Eng- 
 
 * Gavarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i., pp. 290, 424. 
 
SPANISH COLONISTS FROM THE CANARIES. 
 
 77 
 
 lish, Captain St. Denis, at Natchitoches, was increasing the 
 contraband trade with the people of Texas.* 
 
 At this period, the Medina seemed to be well miderstood as 
 the western limit of Texas ; and, although it was called a sep- 
 arate province, it appears to have been under the control of 
 the governor of Coahuila, or at least both provinces were un- 
 der the jurisdiction of the same governor. De Aguayo was 
 appointed by the viceroy, in 1719, as governor of both prov- 
 inces; and so the appointments continued till 1727, when a 
 governor was appointed for each province.! 
 
 In the spring of 1728, the Spanish government, impressed 
 with the necessity of colonizing Texas, ordered that four hun- 
 dred families should be sent thither from the Canary islands. 
 They were to be transported in parties of ten or twelve fami- 
 lies at a time — first to Havana, and thence to Yera Cruz, 
 whence they were to proceed by land to Texas. The govern- 
 ment was to support them for one year.f The Canary islands, 
 lying near the coast of Africa, had been conquered by Spain in 
 the latter part of the fifteenth century, and the Guanches, its 
 former occupants (a race closely connected with the Berbers 
 of northern Africa), totally extirpated. Their places had been 
 supplied by pure Spaniards, who were distinguished for regular 
 habits, respect for females, and a rigid adherence to the catho- 
 lic faith. || With these advantages, it was believed that they 
 would be good subjects, and supply the places of a licentious 
 soldiery. 
 
 In the meantime, in anticipation of these imported citizens, 
 and to relieve somewhat the royal treasury from the heavy cx- 
 
 * Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, voL i., p. 1 ; Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i, 
 p. 388. 
 
 f Testimonio de un Parccer , <tc., paretphos 30, 41. 
 
 \ lb., parapho 33. 
 
 | Leopold Yon Ducb. 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 penses of the garrisons in Texas, a considerable reduction was 
 made in the number of the forces stationed at the various forts. 
 The post on the Neelies was entirely suppressed ; the force 
 at the Adaes was reduced from one hundred men to sixty, at 
 the bay of St. Bernard from ninety to forty, and at San Anto- 
 nio from fifty-three to forty-three — thus leaving, as the entire 
 force of the three garrisons, only one hundred and forty-three 
 men.* 
 
 When we consider that the different Indian tribes of Texas 
 could at that period muster a force of ten thousand warriors ; 
 that the Spaniards were by no means their favorites ; that the 
 Camanclies and Apaches, and other tribes in the interior, were 
 naturally warlike ; and that the troops in the garrisons took 
 little pains to secure their friendship — we shall see at once 
 the bad policy of this reduction of the forces. But they relied 
 upon the friendship of the French, the good offices of St. Denis, 
 and an early arrival of the new colonists. St. Denis, however, 
 was otherwise engaged. The once-powerful tribe of the Natchez 
 had been driven from the banks of the Mississippi, and was 
 hanging in a threatening attitude around his position at Natchi- 
 toches. They had determined to attack him ; and, to prevent 
 the Spaniards from giving him aid, had the address to stir up 
 the Apaches to assail the post of Bexar, and thus bring on a 
 general war between the Indians and Europeans. The Apa- 
 ches, originally of the same tribe with the Camanches, were 
 possessed of like traits of character. They occupied the coun- 
 try between San Antonio and Santa Fe. Their principal vil- 
 lages, in 1730, were about the pass of Bandera, in the Guada- 
 lupe mountains, some fifty miles .from the post of Bexar. From 
 these strongholds they made their forays, not only upon the 
 settlement at San Antonio, but extended their depredations 
 
 * Royal order of April, 1720. — Tc Him onto de un Parccer, &c., 'para'plio 35. 
 
WARS WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 79 
 
 across the Rio Grande.* They had excellent horses, and were 
 good riders ; they had also firearms (supplied them mostly by 
 the French), and used them, as well as their bows, with great 
 dexterity. They were inveterate thieves, and exceedingly 
 treacherous, being ever ready to treat when the fight went ill, 
 and as ready to break a treaty when they had a hope of the 
 least advantage. 
 
 In 1730, the war broke out ; but St. Denis conducted it very 
 differently from the Spaniards. Rallying his small force in the 
 garrison, together with the neighboring friendly Indians, he 
 surprised the Natchez, killing many and dispersing the remain- 
 der. The Spaniards acted on the defensive only ; while the 
 Apaches came down in parties, and committed murders and 
 thefts with impunity. 
 
 In the meantime, there arrived at Bexar thirteen families 
 and two single men, conducted hither from the Canary islands 
 by order of the king. Others came from the banks of Lake 
 Teztuco: they were Tlascalans — sturdy republicans, whose 
 ancestors the powerful Montezumas had not been able to con- 
 quer. Others, again, came from the new settlement of Monte- 
 rey. These fresh colonists, uniting, laid the foundation of San 
 Fernando, around the present plaza of the Constitution in San 
 Antonio. This location answered admirably for irrigation.! 
 
 This great addition to the small European population of 
 Bexar gave an impetus to the missions, which was seen in the 
 fact that more Indians were captured, and brought in to be 
 civilized ; and, on the 5th of March, 1731, was laid the founda- 
 tion of La Purissima Concepcion de Acuna, which for many 
 years afterward was a refuge for the savage and the stranger. 
 
 * Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 424. Testitnonio de un Parccer, 
 etc., paropho 19. 
 
 \ American State Papers, vol. xii., p 300. Testimonio de un Parccer , etc., 
 paraphoa 18, 33. 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The new settlers, feeling themselves at home, and galled in 
 person and property by the inroads of the Indians, made some 
 incursions into their strongholds, but, at first, with no great 
 success. In 1782, however, a more vigorous campaign was 
 undertaken. The Spaniards met them in battle, and defeated 
 them.* This victory gave peace and a temporary security to 
 the colony, and substantial improvements were the result. Don 
 Juan Antonio Bustillos y Cevallos, the governor, appeared to 
 have at heart the welfare of the province, and, while he was 
 prompt to chastise the Indians, he was equally zealous for their 
 conversion. 
 
 In the first of the year 1734, Don Manuel de Sandoval was 
 appointed governor of Texas. He was an old soldier, and had 
 served the king for more than twenty years, rising from the 
 rank of a cadet to that of captain of grenadiers. In 1727, he 
 had been appointed governor of Coahuila, the duties of which 
 office he discharged with satisfaction for seven years. This 
 fact alone is a strong evidence of his popularity with the vice- 
 roy, as it was the policy of the superior government- to change 
 the governors of provinces at short intervals. His appoint- 
 ment to the gubernatorial office of Texas was one of the last 
 official acts of the prudent, disinterested, and renowned Casa 
 Fuerte, viceroy of Mexico. f The Apaches had again become 
 troublesome ; and the viceroy selected Sandoval, not only for 
 his integrity, but with instructions to chastise the Indians. 
 
 Governor Sandoval immediately entered upon his duties; 
 and, in pursuance of his instructions, made a campaign against 
 the Apaches, and checked their depredations for some years. 
 But, while he was engaged in his wars with the Indians, and 
 in improving and consolidating the country under his charge, 
 
 * Testimonio de un Parecer, <t<\, parapho 19. 
 
 | Historic/, de Mejico, page 33 ; Testimonio de un Parecer-, &&, parapho 41 
 
BOUND ABY DISPUTES. 81 
 
 he became involved in a quarrel, first with St. Denis, and then 
 with his own government, which gave him much trouble. 
 
 Among other instructions from the superior government, 
 Sandoval was directed to keep an eye on the French, and see 
 that they committed no trespasses ; and, if any should be com- 
 mitted, to give notice to the viceroy before engaging in hostili- 
 ties. Since 1716, the French had a settlement on the right 
 bank of Red river, among the Natchitoches Indians, and had 
 formed there the mission of St. John the Baptist of Natchito- 
 ches. Their buildings were so situated, that, on a rise of the 
 river, the water ran round them and formed an island. Making 
 known this inconvenience, they were directed by the governor 
 of Louisiana to remove their settlement some short distance 
 from the river, on the same side. Accordingly, in the latter 
 part of 1735, St. Denis, who was always active about every- 
 thing to which he turned his attention, commenced the rapid 
 removal of the fort from the island, locating it a few miles far- 
 ther toward the Adaes, which was some eighteen miles distant. 
 Sandoval was at this time at Bexar, but being informed by 
 Don Jose Gonzalez, his lieutenant, in command at the Adaes, 
 of what was transpiring, he wrote to the latter, communicating 
 his instructions, and also to St. Denis. Sandoval had no docu- 
 mentary evidence of the boundary of Texas on that frontier — 
 in fact, there was none : but he represented to St. Denis that 
 Alonzo de Leon, Teran, and Captain Don Ramon, had preceded 
 the French in that section of the country ; that Red river had 
 been considered as the boundary between the territories of the 
 two governments ; and, as his instructions required him to refer 
 such matters to his government, he proposed to St. Denis to 
 suspend further labor on the new location until they could hear 
 from their respective sovereigns ; but, should St. Denis refuse 
 this request, he would be obliged to repel him. 
 
 Vol. I.— 6 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 St. Denis, in reply, referred to the discovery of Texas by La 
 Salle in 1685 ; represented that the marquis de Aguayo estab- 
 lished the post of Adaes only in 1721, at which time he found 
 the French settled on the island of Red river, having without, 
 on the side of Adaes, houses, enclosures, and other possessions ; 
 that since that time neither De Aguayo nor any of his succes- 
 sors had opposed these establishments ; that when Don Ramon 
 visited him, in 1718, he had shown him much kindness ; that 
 the Spaniards were indebted to him for the possession of the 
 Adaes, and the foundation of its missions ; that the French 
 were acting in behalf of the Natchitoches Indians, who were 
 the owners of the lands on both sides of Red river ; that the 
 boundary-line between the two settlements had never been laid 
 down, and he thought it very strange that the Spaniards should 
 claim the entire territory to the river ; and, in short, that he 
 was acting under superior orders, which he would not disobey, 
 and, if attacked, he would defend himself, and protest against 
 the consequences.* 
 
 This is the summary of a correspondence which extended to 
 August, 1736 ; and, in the meantime, the French continued 
 their buildings, having erected, besides the fort, a chapel and 
 some fourteen other buildings, on the Texan side of the place. 
 Shortly before the close of this correspondence, however, Colo- 
 nel Don Carlos de Franquis was sent to Mexico from Spain, to 
 fill the office of governor of Tlascala ; but, on his arrival, he 
 found the office filled. Casa Fuerte had died, and Yizarron, 
 archbishop of Mexico, who knew nothing of the merit of San- 
 doval, was filling the office of viceroy. As Franquis had to 
 be provided for, Yizarron appointed him governor of Texas. 
 Franquis reached San Antonio in September, 1736. He very 
 eoon exhibited the proud and overbearing traits of his charac- 
 
 * Testimonio de un Parecer, &c., parapho 43 , et seq. 
 
TYRANNY OF GOVERNOR FRANQUIS. 
 
 83 
 
 ter. Disregarding the sacred functions of the missionaries, lie 
 acted toward them in the most insolent manner. He opened 
 and read the letters that were sent out of the province ; and, 
 to complete his tyranny, caused Sandoval to be arrested and 
 bound in fetters, deprived him of all his papers, and, to give 
 some color to these wicked proceedings, ordered a criminal 
 prosecution to be commenced against him. These transactions 
 being made known to the viceroy, and Sandoval being falsely 
 charged with conniving at the removal of the French garrison 
 at Natchitoches, the governor of New Leon was despatched as 
 a special commissioner to investigate the affair. That func- 
 tionary arrived in Texas about the first of August, 1737 ; and, 
 after taking a summary of the evidence and proceedings, he 
 sent Franquis to the garrison of the presidio on the Rio Grande. 
 But the latter thought he could do better at court, and fled to 
 the viceroy. As Franquis had no effects wherewith to dis- 
 charge the fees and costs of the commission, amounting to some- 
 thing over three thousand four hundred dollars, Sandoval had 
 them to pay. But this did not terminate the matter ; for, al- 
 though it often happens in courts of justice that the party who 
 gains his suit is mulcted in the costs, yet Sandoval was not 
 satisfied. His honor was concerned ; so also was his purse. 
 The sympathies of the Texans were on his side. They loved 
 him for his zeal in driving off the Indians, and in building up 
 their new country ; and they hated Franquis for his despotic 
 conduct while governor. Hence this suit became a state affair, 
 in which all Texas was deeply interested, and in which nearly 
 half her citizens were witnesses. But, while the two ex-gov- 
 ernors were carrying on their lawsuit, the viceroy appointed 
 Don Justo Bonco governor. 
 
 In 1738, Sandoval, after paying up the costs, presented to 
 the judge his petition against Franquis, complaining of the in 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 justice done him in the previous proceedings. The papers 
 were duly transmitted to the viceroy, and by him laid before 
 the attorney-general Yedoya. These papers consisted, not 
 only of the petition of Sandoval, but a transcript of the previ- 
 ous proceedings, and of such new charges as Franquis could 
 make out. He had made several different accusations against 
 Sandoval, who was charged with not having kept his official 
 residence at Adaes instead of San Antonio ; with not having- 
 kept a regular account with the soldiers of that garrison ; with 
 having reduced the number of paid missionaries, in order to 
 save for himself their salaries ; and also, what was most impor- 
 tant, with conniving at the removal of the French garrison at 
 Natchitoches. 
 
 On the 28th of March, 1740, a partial decision of the case 
 was had. Sandoval was not acquitted of the charge of not 
 residing at Adaes, although his presence was necessary at 
 Bexar, in defending that post against the Apache Indians ; nor 
 was he cleared in the matter of keeping the books, although 
 he showed that he could not keep them when he was not there. 
 He, however, kept a memorandum of the funds received and 
 transmitted, which exhibited a balance in his favor of more 
 than thirteen hundred dollars. On the charge of reducing the 
 number of missionaries, he was entirely acquitted. He was 
 fined five hundred dollars for the first-named offences. In re- 
 lation to the more serious charge of conniving at the encroach- 
 ments of the French, Senor Yedoya could make no decision 
 without, further evidence on various points. Sandoval, seeing 
 in this decree the influence pf Franquis at court, and the un- 
 certainly of the law, paid the five hundred dollars, and left the 
 capital. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1740, the order was sent to Governor 
 Boneo to take testimony at Adaes, and report what distance it 
 
FIRST LAWSUIT IN TEXAS. 
 
 85 
 
 was from that post to the French settlement on Red river ; 
 what houses or forts they had erected ; when this was done ; 
 who was governor of Texas at that time ; what diligence he 
 had used to prevent the removal of the French ; if he had neg- 
 lected his duty ; what he ought to have done ; if, afterward, a 
 free passage had been allowed to the French, for what reasons ; 
 had there been any negotiations for contraband trade ; and any 
 other information that would throw light on the subject in liti- 
 gation. 
 
 The governor proceeded to take the testimony. He exam- 
 ined many old soldiers that had come out to Adaes with De 
 Aguayo twenty years before, and proved that the Arroyo Honda 
 and Grcm montana , situated half way between the two posts, 
 had always been considered the boundary between the respec- 
 tive crowns ; that when the post of Adaes was established by 
 the Spaniards, they found the French at Natchitoches, and in 
 possession of the country on the hither bank of Red river as 
 far as the Arroyo Honda ; that, although Sandoval had pur- 
 sued all lawful means to prevent the removal of the French, 
 yet the Spaniards had never claimed farther than the Honda ; 
 and that as to the matter of contraband trade, notices had been 
 set up everywhere, at Adaes, prohibiting all intercourse with 
 the French. This evidence was overwhelming ; and the attor- 
 ney-general, in his opinion of November 28, 1741, entirely ac- 
 quitted Sandoval. But, in the meantime, the old archbishop 
 Yizarron had gone out of the viceroyalty, and the duke de la 
 Conquista came into office in the month of September, 1740. 
 Scarcely had he entered the palace, when he was besieged by 
 Franquis ; and Sandoval, who had gone to Yera Cruz, was pur- 
 sued and again thrown into prison ! But finally, in December, 
 1743, the proceedings coming up before Count Fuenclara, the 
 new viceroy, with whom Franquis seemed not to have so much 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 influence as over his predecessors, he acquitted poor Sandoval, 
 and enjoined Franquis from prosecuting him any further. In 
 January, 1744, Sandoval was furnished with a summary of the 
 proceedings ; and a copy of the whole, filling thirty volumes of 
 manuscript, were sent to the king of Spain ! 
 
 The details of this trial arc given, not only because it was 
 the first recorded lawsuit in Texas, but because we can gather 
 from it something of the mode of legal procedure in those days. 
 It is also an important link in the great diplomatic controversy 
 concerning the ownership of the country.* 
 
 Texas in 1744, after all the expenses that had been incurred, 
 and the pains taken by the missionaries and the government, 
 was not prosperous. Governor Bonco, with all his good inten- 
 tions, was a weak man, and ill suited for pushing forward the 
 great enterprise of settling a new country. All the efforts 
 made had not increased the population since 1722. The with- 
 drawal of the troops, the continual wars with the Indians, the 
 great insecurity of life and property, the prohibition of com- 
 merce with the French of Louisiana, all tended to continue 
 Texas a barren, isolated waste. It was in vain that the fer- 
 tility of her soil, the abundance of her waters, the mildness of 
 her climate, the excellence of her game, and her vast resources 
 in general, were painted in bright colors to the council of the 
 
 * In the discussions of 1805 and 1818, between Spain and the United States, 
 relative to Texas, both Cevallos and De Onis had before them this old record. 
 Yet De Onis said, in his letter to the secretary of state, dated January 5, ISIS: 
 “It is unquestionable, from the historical series of facts, and the most unexcep- 
 tionable documents, that the province of Texas extended to the Mississippi, and 
 that the French never crossed the river into that district but through the suffer- 
 ance or permission of the Spanish governors!” — American State Papers, vol. xii., 
 p. 37. He further states, in the same letter, that Sandoval had granted permis- 
 sion to the French to remove their garrison; for which he was taken “under 
 guard to Mexico, to be tried there before a court-martial — which vias carried 
 into effect with all the rigor of the law !” Kennedy, following De Onis. has been 
 alike deceived. — History cf Texas, vol. i., p. 221. 
 
CONDITION OF TEXAS IN 1744. 
 
 87 
 
 Indies : it seemed to be their policy from the beginning, to leave 
 the province as an unsettled frontier — a barrier against the 
 encroachments of the Europeans of the north. By a “ law of 
 the Indies,”* the governors of the colonies, were forbidden to 
 invest any amount whatever of the public funds in defraying 
 the expenses of colonization, discoveries, or improvements, with- 
 out special instructions for that purpose from the king ; and 
 these orders, when asked, were almost uniformly refused. 
 
 The European population of Texas, at this period, did not 
 exceed fifteen hundred, which, added to a like number of con- 
 verted Indians QYndios reducidos ), was divided mostly between 
 Adaes and San Antonio ; a few only being at La Bahia, and a 
 small fort and mission at San Saba, which had been established 
 out among the wild Indians for the humane reason of the friars, 
 that it was better to civilize than to kill them. If there was a 
 mission at all at this time at Nacogdoches, it was dependent 
 on the post at Adaes for protection. Spain and France were 
 now on excellent terms, and the colony of Louisiana was grad- 
 ually extending its trade, but without disturbing the Spanish 
 authorities on the frontier. The settlements on the south of 
 Texas were making but little progress. At Monclova, the 
 capital of Coahuila, there was a small garrison of thirty-five 
 men ; half way between that post and the presidio of the Rio 
 Grande (at Sacramento, on the Sabinas), theie was another 
 garrison of fifty men ; and at the presidio itself thirty-two more. 
 The province of Coahuila extended from the Medina southward 
 three hundred miles ; south of that, again, was the province of 
 New Leon, leaving along the gulf-coast a skirt of a hundred 
 miles of country unsettled and unorganized. This long line of 
 coast afforded abundance of rich pasturage, whither the flocks 
 of the provinces were driven in November, and, under the care 
 
 * Leyes de las Indias, 1. xvii., t. 1, L 4. 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 of escorts and soldiers stationed to guard them, remained till 
 the following May ; but, notwithstanding all their precautions, 
 the Indians along the coast committed frequent robberies and 
 murders.* 
 
 The Texan missionaries kept up a regular correspondence 
 with the parent-convents of Queretaro and Zacatecas, which, 
 if ever published to the world, will exhibit a painful history 
 of their trials and privations. In the ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tion of New Spain, Texas, with Coahuila and New Leon, were 
 attached to the bishopric of Guadalaxara.f 
 
 From the close of 1744 to 1758 w T e find no important event 
 in the history of Texas. The few people living in the territo- 
 ry, sunk in obscurity and indolence, seem only to have been 
 waiting events. Their lives were merely passive. It is, of 
 course, understood, however, that the faithful missionary was 
 doing his duty — that he was enlarging and civilizing his flock. 
 It is also understood that the wild Apaches and Camanches 
 permitted no opportunity for robbery or murder to pass unno- 
 ticed. 
 
 In 1758, however, a tragic scene occurred at the San Saba 
 mission. The Indians, in large numbers, assaulted the mission, 
 took it, and killed all, both pastors and flock, including the 
 small guard stationed there. Tradition informs us that none 
 were left to bear the news of the dreadful massacre. This 
 mission had been established far beyond the then Texan fron- 
 
 * Testimonio de un Parecer, <fcc., paraphos 6, 6. 
 
 f lb., parapho 1. Besides the thirty books of manuscript in regard to the suit 
 between Sandoval and Franquis, there were forty more, giving the early history 
 of Texas, which are doubtless now among the archives of Simancas, in Spain. 
 Dr. Robertson, speaking of the impossibility of obtaining these records, says: 
 “Spain, with an excess of caution, has uniformly thrown a veil over her trans- 
 actions in America. From strangers they are concealed with peculiar solicitude. 
 Even to her own subjects the archivo of Simancas is not opened without a par- 
 ticular order from the crown.” — History of America : preface, p. 4. 
 
MASSACRE AT SAN SABA MISSION. 
 
 89 
 
 tier. We have seen its benevolent object. Such a return for 
 such love, while it calls down blessings upon the heads of the 
 devoted followers of the cross, is enough to mahe one doubt 
 whether the Indian forms a part of the human Yace. This fear- 
 ful butchery had its effect in causing the missions in Texas to 
 decline. In fact, they never recovered from the blow. 
 
 Efforts were made to avenge this cruel outrage. Captain 
 Don Diego Ortiz de Parilla was despatched with a body of 
 troops to chastise the ruthless savages ; but the latter fled to 
 their strongholds, and we have no evidence that they were 
 ever punished.* 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 222. In 1752, there was discovered at San Saba 4 silver- 
 mine, which drew to the fort quite an increase of population. It is probable 
 that the bad behavior of the miners toward the Indians brought on the terrible 
 massacre of 1758. At the time of its occurrence, there was a fort, surrounding 
 an acre of ground, under a twelve-feet stone wall, enclosing a church and other 
 buildinga — Holly , History of Texas , p. 164. 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 As the destiny of the different colonies and settlements in 
 America depended upon the political changes occurring in the 
 parent-countries, it will be necessary to refer to them. 
 
 Charles II. of Spain, the last sovereign of the house of Haps- 
 burg, died in November, 1700, and by his will appointed Philip 
 of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., his successor. The object 
 of this testamentary disposition was to prevent a division of 
 the Spanish monarchy, which had been determined two years 
 before in a treaty between England, France, and Holland, in 
 order to preserve the balance of power in Europe. The testa- 
 mentary appointment of Charles detached Louis XIV. from the 
 house of Hapsburg, and thus the “ War of the Succession” be- 
 gan. After a long struggle, Philip succeeded in retaining his 
 throne ; but, by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1718, Spain was 
 greatly shorn of her power, losing Gibraltar and a large por- 
 tion. of her European possessions. She was not satisfied with 
 this treaty; and it was the ill-concealed design of Cardinal 
 Alberoni, her ambitious minister, to reclaim the vast territo- 
 ries of which she had been stripped. To counteract this inten- 
 tion, France, England, and Holland, formed a new alliance in 
 1717. This alliance was confirmed and enlarged by another 
 treaty made the following year, in which the emperor of Ger- 
 many became a party. But before the close of 1718, such were 
 
THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 
 
 91 
 
 the demonstrations of Spain, that England and France both 
 declared war against her. Finding herself alone, and all the 
 great European powers arrayed in opposition to her, Spain in 
 1720 signed the alliance. But still her ambitious minister was 
 not satisfied ; he wished to restore to her these lost possessions. 
 Alberoni was, however, degraded at the close of this year ; yet 
 the efforts of Spain to regain her territories did not cease. By 
 confirming to the emperor of Germany his portion of the spoil, 
 she detached him from the quadruple alliance, and engaged 
 him to assist her in the recovery of Gibraltar. 
 
 This last-named treaty, concluded April 30, 1725, was fol- 
 lowed by a counter-alliance between England, France, and 
 Prussia, entered into on the 3d of September following. The 
 impending war shortly afterward commenced. 
 
 Charles VI., emperor of Germany, had issued in 1724 a 
 royal ordinance, by which he settled his hereditary dominions 
 on his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa. This ordinance was 
 known as the Pragmatic Sanction. One of the provisions of 
 the treaty between Spain and the emperor was the guaranty 
 of this ordinance by the former power. After much agitation 
 and many treaties, that of Vienna, in 1731, between Great Brit- 
 ain, Holland, and Spain, guarantied the pragmatic sanction, 
 and restored a seeming peace to Europe. France agreed to it 
 in 1738 ; but, in 1740, Charles VI. died, and Maria Theresa 
 succeeded to his crown, by virtue of the ordinance so well 
 guarantied by Europe. The elector of Bavaria, however, now 
 set up his claim to the empire, and a general war ensued — 
 Spain, France, and Sardinia, supporting the elector ; and Eng- 
 land, Russia, and Poland, the empress Maria. The elector was 
 declared emperor in 1742, under the title of Charles VII. ; he 
 died in 1745, and was succeeded in the imperial office by tne 
 duke of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa, as Francis I. 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 This war of the Pragmatic Sanction , however, ended only by 
 the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748 ; but Spain was a gainer 
 by the contest, having recovered Naples, Sicily, and Parma. 
 
 In none of the previous treaties, however, had England and 
 France settled the boundaries of their American possessions. 
 This, in 1755, gave rise to a war between them, which was 
 carried on with great activity in the English and French colo- 
 nies in America. It was the school in which our revolutionary 
 fathers learned their first lesson of independence. The rela- 
 tions existing between France and Spain, since the elevation 
 of Philip of Anjou to the Spanish throne, drew the latter into 
 it. The contest continued until the peace of Paris, in Febru- 
 ary, 1763 ; it was most disastrous to France, and to some ex- 
 tent injurious to Spain.* At the close of 1761, France was so 
 greatly weakened and exhausted by the war, that she directed 
 her minister to inform the court of Spain of her inability to 
 give protection to the colony of Louisiana, and to solicit aid 
 from Spain in furnishing it with supplies, and in preventing the 
 English from obtaining its possession. The activity and pro- 
 gressive enterprise of the English colonies were well known to 
 Spain and France ; and one of the principal arguments used by 
 the French embassador, in this application, was, that Louisiana 
 was the only barrier between the English and the Spanish pos- 
 sessions south of it. But Spain was slow in action, and the 
 war grew daily more disastrous to France. At length, on the 
 3d of November, 1762, France ceded Louisiana to Spain, not 
 from the pure impulse of his generous heart , as is recited in 
 the royal act of Louis XV., but to prevent it from falling into 
 the hands of the English. By the treaty of peace in the follow- 
 ing February, France ceded to England Canada, Nova Scotia, 
 and in fact all her continental possessions in North America. 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Americana, articles Spain , France. 
 
CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO SPAIN. 
 
 93 
 
 Henceforth the line of boundary between Spain and England, 
 commencing at the source of the Mississippi river, was to run 
 down the middle of that stream to the river Iberville.; thence 
 with that stream and Lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the 
 gulf of Mexico ; Spain also ceding Florida, and the navigation 
 of the Mississippi to be free to the subjects of both England 
 and France .* This last concession was of the utmost impor- 
 tance to the possessions of England, and subsequently to the 
 United States. 
 
 The reader of history is not unacquainted with the utter in- 
 difference with which the sovereigns of the Old World trans- 
 ferred their colonics in the New. The colonists, however much 
 they may have loved their sovereign, their country, and her 
 institutions, were bought, sold, or given away, without their 
 consent, and often without their knowledge. So, in this case, 
 the act of cession by which Louisiana was transferred to Spain 
 was kept secret for more than eighteen months after its execu- 
 tion ! That portion of the province, however, which had been 
 ceded to England, was delivered to her in the fall of 1763. 
 
 By this arrangement, France had lost a vast territory ; but 
 Spain had removed her landmarks, and acquired what she had 
 not before, a well-defined boundary on the north. Her new 
 neighbors, however, were lining the left bank of the Mississippi 
 with forts, settlements, and adventurers. A people had there 
 obtained a foothold, which, with the advantage of a right to 
 navigate the Mississippi, were destined to be troublesome. 
 
 We can trace all these results — the loss to France of her 
 American possessions, and the loss to Spain of a passive power 
 between her possessions and the Anglo-American colonies — to 
 the overthrow of the house of Hapsburg, and the accession of 
 the Bourbons to the throne of Spain. To accomplish the latter 
 
 * Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 91 , et seq. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 object, Louis XIV. was willing to break a solemn treaty with 
 England and Holland. This treaty was formed to preserve the 
 balance of power : the result was, the overthrow of that bal- 
 ance of power, and the building up a new power in America, 
 which, forcing a separation from the parent-country, has far 
 outstripped all others in noble institutions and progressive 
 energy. 
 
 The doctrine of the “ preservation of the balance of power” 
 among the European states has resulted in more wars, produced 
 a more fearful devastation of human life, and a greater waste 
 of treasure, than all other causes combined ! 
 
 The accession of Louisiana to the crown of Spain was hardly 
 desirable to that government. She knew the troublesome and 
 restless spirit of the English colonists, and seemed to antici- 
 pate evil from their proximity. However, the king, to oblige 
 his cousin of France, accepted the gift. And, as the posts 
 along the old frontier were no longer necessary, the troops at 
 Adaes and Orquisaco were shortly thereafter withdrawn.* But 
 the new addition of territory to the Spanish crown required a 
 reformation of frontier defences. Accordingly, the marquis 
 de Rubi was sent over from the mother-country to examine 
 into the condition of the defences of New Spain, and report his 
 opinion thereon. After making the examination and report, a 
 new series of posts was established, forming a cordon militaire 
 from Sonora to the gulf of Mexico. In this new arrangement, 
 however, but two posts were allowed in Texas — that is, at 
 San Antonio and La Bahia. The missions, moreover, were not 
 broken up, but remained dependent upon the forces at these 
 posts for incidental protection. 
 
 The Spanish government never looked upon Louisiana as 
 altogether her own property, nor did she treat it as a legiti- 
 # American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 300. 
 
COMMERCE BETWEEN TEXAS AND LOUISIANA. 
 
 95 
 
 mate appendage of the crown ; and while the king instructed 
 D’Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, that there 
 should be no change in the administration of its government, 
 he also directed that its affairs should not be controlled by the 
 council of the Indies, but that they should pass through the 
 hands of the minister of state.* 
 
 Nevertheless, the principal obstructions to the commerce be- 
 tween Texas and Louisiana were now removed, and the two 
 provinces thereby alike benefited. Texas had, it is true, but 
 little to sell ; yet, as the neighbor of Louisiana, she was, to 
 some extent, the merchant of that colony and the internal prov- 
 inces of Mexico. She had, of her own production, horses, cat- 
 tle, and sheep : with these articles of trade she supplied the 
 Louisianians, in exchange for manufactured goods. The pre- 
 cious metals sent from Chihuahua, Coahuila, New Leon, and 
 even from New Mexico, passed through her territories to New 
 Orleans, as the nearest wholesale market, in exchange for the 
 various manufactures imported thence from the parent-state. 
 These transfers were made on mules, travelling generally in 
 caravans, with a guard deemed sufficient to protect them from 
 the Indians. 
 
 Had the Spanish government permitted a free trade between 
 her colonies and other countries, their prosperity would have 
 been greatly hastened : towns and marts of trade would have 
 sprung up on the Texan coast ; and Galveston, instead of re- 
 maining an uninhabited island even up to the date of the Texan 
 revolution, would, long before, have grown to be a considerable 
 city.f But the policy of Spain was barbarous and exclusive. 
 The trade of her colonies was regulated and controlled bv a 
 
 * Gaynrre, History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 168. 
 
 t Galveston island, first discovered by the colony of La Salle/ was known as 
 the island of St. Louis; but, about the year 1800, it was called Galveston^ in 
 honor of Don Jos6 Galvez. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tribunal known as the Casa de Contratacion , which was es- 
 tablished at Seville. The colonists were prohibited from the 
 manufacture of most of the articles which could be furnished 
 by the mother-country, and also frotii the cultivation of the 
 vine and the olive ! All their exports and imports were re- 
 quired to be conveyed in Spanish vessels. They were not per- 
 mitted to trade with the colonies of other nations ; nor were 
 they allowed to trade with each other, except to a very limited 
 extent : no person was permitted to trade with them under 
 severe penalties!* All this had a tendency to prevent the 
 growth of the Spanish colonies, and to keep them dependent 
 on the mother-country for the necessaries of life. It had a 
 further and stronger tendency to exasperate the colonists 
 against a parent so unfeeling and despotic. The prospect be- 
 fore them was indeed gloomy. The enterprising colonist saw 
 himself deprived of that hope which alone makes life tolerable. 
 He found himself on a soil blessed with unusual fertility, which 
 he was not allowed to use, except for a limited purpose. If 
 to this we add the significant fact that, under the Spanish rule, 
 none but native-born Spaniards could enjoy the important offices 
 in the colonies, we may well conclude that the cup of their op- 
 pression was full, and that they required only a favorable occa- 
 sion to throw off a yoke so galling. 
 
 The trade between Spain and her colonies in America was 
 at first carried on by a convoy of ships called galleons, which 
 made one voyage annually ; but they were discontinued in 1748, 
 and registered vessels introduced in their stead. After the 
 acquisition of Louisiana, the necessity of a more frequent and 
 direct intercourse between Spain and her colonies caused the 
 introduction of regular monthly mail-packets, which sailed from 
 
 * Recopilacion , lib. ix. tit 2’7. Robertson’s History of America, book viii., 
 
 p. 354. 
 
POPULATION AND TRADE OF TEXAS IN 1765. 
 
 97 
 
 the mother-country to Havana, whence the mails were de- 
 spatched to the different provinces. In addition to this facility 
 of intercourse, by an ordinance of the kind-hearted Charles III., 
 the trade of the West India islands belonging to Spain was, in 
 1765, thrown open to the other Spanish provinces.* Yet the 
 advantage gained by Texas in these ameliorations was small 
 and indirect. Her seacoast was a terra incognita. A chance 
 vessel of the buccaneers may have strayed into Copano, or Gal- 
 veston bay, for the purpose of concealing a prize ; but Texas 
 had no maritime trade. New Orleans and Yera Cruz were her 
 only ports. For the growth of Texas, and most of the prov- 
 inces of New Spain, they were indebted to the contraband trade 
 carried on with great activity by the English, French, and 
 Dutch. It amounted to at least one third of the exports and 
 imports, and had this advantage, that it paid no duties. It 
 was the natural result of the “ oyster policy” of Spain ; and, as 
 a question in ethics, it rests upon the same principle with that 
 other yet-undecided point, whether it be lawful to slay a tyrant. 
 
 The population of Texas, in 1765, can not be accurately as- 
 certained. The chief settlements were at Adaes,f San Anto- 
 nio, La Bahia, and perhaps a few at Nacogdoches, Orquisaco, 
 and Mound prairie. In the two first-named places there were 
 hardly five hundred inhabitants, exclusive of converted Indians. 
 The whole European population of the province did not, per- 
 haps, exceed seven hundred and fifty, to which may be added 
 a like number of domiciliated Indians. The trade with Lou- 
 isiana, including that which passed through Texas, did not 
 exceed sixty thousand dollars per annum. :f Estimating her 
 
 * Niles’s History of Mexico, p. 81. 
 
 f M. de Pages, of the French navy, who visited Adaes in 1768, describes it as 
 then consisting of forty houses, a church, and a Franciscan mission. He says he 
 obtained nothing there to eat but tortillas. — J^rairiedom, p. 29. 
 
 \ Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 353. 
 
 VOL. I.— 7 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 trade with the provinces of New Spain at twice that amount, 
 the entire annual commerce of Texas at that period, including 
 what passed through her territory, was not over one hundred 
 and eighty thousand dollars. It may be safely estimated that 
 one half of this amount merely passed through her territory. 
 This would reduce the total sum of her exports and imports to 
 ninety thousand dollars per annum. 
 
 The acquisition of the vast territory owned by the French, 
 from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the river Iberville, had given 
 to the Anglo-American colonies an impulse which hastened the 
 already-rapid development of their power. It was not perhaps 
 so much the oppression of which they complained, as the love 
 of liberty, that moved the English colonists to independence. 
 For this, they had become exiles from the Old World, and had 
 endured unparalleled hardships in the New ; and, to obtain 
 this, they now took their first steps. But it is not our prov- 
 ince to detail these memorable events, further than as they are 
 connected with our subject. 
 
 As in the approach of a great storm, the heavens, except in 
 the direction whence it is coming, gradually become clear and 
 tranquil, so, during the few years preceding the American Revo- 
 lution, nations adjacent and connected with England or with 
 her colonies seemed to enjoy that quiescence. France looked 
 on with mingled hopes and fears. She was still haunted with 
 the idea of the “ balance of power.” England had grown too 
 great, and her old enemy would gladly see her stripped of her 
 richest possessions. Furthermore, it would be to France a 
 sweet revenge for the misfortunes of the “ Seven Years’ War.” 
 On the other hand, the colonies were all republican : the dis- 
 ease might become infectious, and ultimately drive the king 
 from his throne. But the French people were with the colo- 
 nies, and they prevailed. 
 
BUILDING UP OF NACOGDOCHES. 
 
 99 
 
 Spain was more delicately situated. Her vast possessions 
 in America, seeing a successful revolt of the English colonies, 
 would doubtless follow the example. On the other hand, Spain 
 wished to recover Gibraltar, Jamaica, and Florida ; and such 
 a war would afford her a good opportunity to embark in the 
 enterprise. Besides, she was governed by the Bourbons, and, 
 of course, bound to the same destiny with France ; she also 
 thought that England was too powerful. Yet, under all these 
 considerations, Spain was timid ; and while France was secretly 
 fanning the flame of revolution, the Spanish government was in 
 favor of mediation, of peace. 
 
 In the meantime, the people of Texas, few in number, and 
 poor, were quietly pursuing their daily pleasures and toils. 
 The missions were not very successful in the conversion of In- 
 dians, yet the establishments were well sustained. The abo- 
 riginal tribes were in constant wars. The powerful nation of 
 the Ccnis were already driven from their ancient home on the 
 Trinity. The Nassonites, too, were disappearing before the 
 migrating tribes driven by the Europeans from the valley of 
 the Mississippi. The Indians on the coast were less disturbed, 
 because their lands were less desirable. Thus we see the gen- 
 eral movement of the different races : the Anglo-Americans 
 crowding westward, and driving before them the aborigines ; 
 the latter expelling other native tribes ; the Indians passing 
 through the Spaniards, but these latter also retreat before the 
 English. Statesmen and philosophers have all fallen short of 
 the truth in their predictions as to the progress of the dominant 
 race. It has outstripped their largest calculations. 
 
 The annexation of Louisiana to the Spanish possessions, 
 while it enabled Spain to dispense with her military posts on 
 the eastern frontier, likewise afforded her an opportunity to 
 build up Nacogdoches. Many persons of politeness and means 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 were induced to emigrate from Louisiana to that point. Thus 
 the old missionary station became a town, and, being in the 
 neighborhood of an active commerce, the place soon acquired 
 considerable wealth, and a trade of its own. This emigration 
 occurred about the year 1773.* Captain Gil y Barbo, the first 
 commandant of Nacogdoches, was a man of enterprise. Be- 
 sides an arsenal and barracks for the soldiers, erected on the 
 hill west of the Bafiita, he laid the foundations of the old stone 
 house, which still survives as a monument of his industry. 
 
 About the same time, the garrison was finally removed from 
 St. Bernard’s bay, and located at La Bahia, where a consider- 
 able town sprang up. 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 229. Colonel Forbes’s Notes, MS. 
 
DON JOSE GALYEZ. 
 
 101 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 During the American Revolution, Texas was quiet. She 
 was safe from danger. Her harbors were unknown ; her pov- 
 erty offered no temptation for pillage ; her scattered population 
 could afford no recruits. Yet, when Spain declared war against 
 England in 1779, and Don Jose Galvez, then governor of Lou- 
 isiana, engaged in active hostilities, the province of Texas con- 
 tributed her mite of soldiers for his armies, and joined with 
 Louisiana in rejoicing over his victories at Natchez, at Fort 
 Amity, Fort Charlotte, Mobile, and Pensacola.* But the treaty 
 
 * Don Jose Galvez was a remarkable man. He was the son of Don Mathias 
 de Galvez, viceroy of Mexico. He was born in the city of Malaga, in Spain, and 
 held, under the king, the honorable posts of intendant of the army and member 
 of the supreme council. In 1765, he was appointed visiter-general of New Spain, 
 which office he discharged with such fidelity, that in 1768, he was appointed to 
 the council of the Indies. In 1777, he was made governor of Louisiana. In the 
 Revolution, his sympathies were with the United States ; and when the king of 
 Spain informed him that he was about to commence hostilities, he joined with 
 the people of Louisiana in the joy which the news imparted. He prosecuted the 
 war with great vigor, and recovered for the king the whole of Florida, taking 
 eight hundred of the enemy prisoners. This was an effectual aid to the United 
 States. For these important services he was appointed brigadier-general; after- 
 ward captain-general of Louisiana; then, in addition, captain-general of Cuba; 
 and finally, upon the death of his father, in 1785, he was created viceroy of 
 Mexico. A more able and enlightened representative of the king had never 
 occupied the viceregal palace. He facilitated the administration of justice, 
 established intendancies for the protection of the Indians, and effected a general 
 reformation in the government. He was exceedingly popular with all classes, 
 but especially with the natives, and well deserved that his name should be per- 
 petuated in that of the chief town and island of Texas. — Historia de Mejico , p. 
 39; Banner's History of Louisiana , p. 145, et scq. ; Niles's Hist, of Mexico , p. 84. 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of peace, in 1783, put an end to the triumphs of Galvez, and 
 transferred to the United States all the territory east of the 
 Mississippi as low as Fort Adams, and north of the thirty-first 
 parallel of latitude, to the Chattahoocha river ; thence down 
 that stream to the junction of Flint river ; thence to the head 
 of the St. Mary’s river, and down the same to the sea. This 
 treaty also provided that the navigation of the Mississippi, from 
 its source to the gulf of Mexico, should for ever remain free 
 and open to the people of Great Britain and of the United 
 States.* Thus a door was opened to the egress of the people 
 of the Union. But Spain did not so regard it ; and, as early 
 as June, 1784, Don Jose Galvez, of the “Department of the 
 Indies,” made known to the United States, through the Span- 
 ish agent, that Spain was not bound by the treaty of limits 
 made between the former and Great Britain ; that both sides 
 of the Mississippi, as well as the navigation of that stream be- 
 low the thirty-first parallel, belonged to Spain, until she chose 
 to grant them in whole or in part ; and that vessels of the Uni- 
 ted States navigating that stream would be exposed to process 
 and confiscation.! Here began a controversy, which, as will 
 be seen, continued long, and ended in important results. La 
 Fayette, then in Paris, undertook an informal negotiation. He 
 proposed that Spain should cede New Orleans to the United 
 States, or at least make it a free port. But in March, 1785, 
 the marquis informed the Continental Congress that the first- 
 named proposition was impossible ; and, as to the second, he 
 could obtain no positive answer. J 
 
 * Elliot’s Diplomatic Code (treaty of September 3, 1783), yol. i., p. 237. This 
 boundary was also agreed to by Spain (see treaty of October 27, 1795, ib., p. 391). 
 
 f Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. i., p. 135, et seq. 
 
 X Ib., vol. i., pp. 336, 421, 444, 445, 455. At that time, Spain had no minister 
 near the government of the United States. Senor Gardoqui, her first minister, 
 did not arrive till the following May. — Divlomatic Correspondence , vol. vi., p. 72. 
 
UNSETTLED QUESTIONS WITH SPAIN. 
 
 103 
 
 The Congress had taken strong ground on the subject. So 
 early as June, 1784, they had resolved that our ministers should 
 negotiate no treaty with Spain by which they should relinquish 
 or cede, in any event whatever, the right of the citizens of the 
 United States to the free navigation of the Mississippi from its 
 source to the gulf of Mexico. At the close of the American 
 Revolution, Spain and the United States were good friends, 
 and sincerely so. The former had done much to achieve that 
 independence which the Union enjoyed. General Don Jose 
 Galvez, then a powerful personage at the court of Madrid, was 
 warmly devoted to the United States. Through his influence, 
 his uncle, Don Diego de Gardoqui, was appointed minister to 
 the new republic. The Spanish government had also mani- 
 fested its good will by releasing from slavery in Algiers many 
 of our citizens who had been taken by the corsairs. Galvez 
 and Gardoqui sailed in the same vessel to Havana — the latter 
 on his way to the United States, the former to take charge of 
 his captain-generalcy of Cuba. Gardoqui was empowered to 
 treat of boundaries, &c., but directed to consult Galvez.* 
 Under these circumstances, so auspicious, it might be in- 
 ferred that the boundary-line, and also the navigation of the 
 Mississippi, could be speedily settled. The territory and the 
 rights claimed by the two powers had but lately come into their 
 hands ; neither of them, therefore, could treat it as an heir- 
 loom. To understand the points at issue, let us refer to facts. 
 
 The commerce of the Mississippi river had rapidly increased, 
 even during the Revolution ; but after its close, the trade on 
 the great stream had become indispensable to the new settlers 
 on its upper tributaries, and they were not the people to sur- 
 render a right resting upon a law of nature. f It became 
 
 * Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. vi., pp. 65, 79, et seq. 
 f La Fayette, in bis letter to Jay, dated Paris, October 15, 1787, says he could 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 necessary to the existence of the Union that this right should 
 be preserved ; but, as Spain owned both banks of the lower 
 Mississippi, she claimed the right to its exclusive use : and the 
 simple right of navigation to the ocean would have been im- 
 practicable without also a place of deposite. 
 
 In regard to boundaries, it will be remembered that, in the 
 treaty of 1T62, Spain had ceded Florida to England; that, in 
 the treaty of January 20, 1783, that province was retroceded 
 to Spain; but, in the treaty of November 30, 1782, between 
 England and the United States, the former ceded to the latter 
 all the territory east of the Mississippi down to the thirty-first 
 parallel of latitude ; whereas Spain claimed, as part of Florida, 
 conquered by her arms, all the territory at least as high up as 
 Natchez, and the settlement around that place.* The treaty 
 of November 30, 1782, being anterior to that between England 
 and Spain, the latter being an ally of the United States, and 
 the disputed territory being within the chartered limits of 
 Georgia, clearly gave the United States the best right. f 
 
 What was the object of Spain in thus contesting so strongly 
 the right of the United States to this territory north of the 
 thirty-first parallel of latitude, and the joint use of the Missis- 
 sippi river ? The answer is found in the correspondence be- 
 tween the French embassador at Madrid and his government. 
 “ The cabinet of Madrid,’’ says he, “ thinks it has the greatest 
 interest not to open the Mississippi to the Americans, and to 
 disgust them from making establishments on that river, as they 
 
 never submit to the idea of giving up the navigation of the Mississippi ; that it 
 belonged to the United States by the law of nature, and to concede it to Spain 
 would be inconsistent with the character of the American Union. — Diplomatic 
 Correspondence , vol. i., p. 455. 
 
 * Oliver Pollock to John Jay, June 8, 1785. — lb., vol. vi., p. 79; American 
 State Papers ( confidential ), vol. x., p. 132. 
 
 f See the entire correspondence in the tenth volume of American State Papers, 
 and the sixth volume of Diplomatic Correspondence. 
 
NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 105 
 
 would not delay to possess themselves of the commerce of New 
 Orleans and Mexico, whatever impediments should be opposed 
 to their progress, and that they would become neighbors the 
 more dangerous to Spain — as, even in their present weakness , 
 they conceive vast projects for the conquest of the western shore 
 of the Mississippi .” He further adds that “ Spain is decided 
 to make the savages a barrier between her possessions and 
 those of the Americans.”'* 
 
 The discussion of these questions continued between the Uni- 
 ted States and Don Diego Gardoqui until the adoption of the 
 federal constitution in 1787, neither party being willing to give 
 ground. In the meantime, the settlers in the present states of 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, were taking the matter 
 into their own hands. Such men as George Rogers Clark, 
 James Wilkinson, Thomas Green, and William Blount, had de- 
 termined, at all events, to remove the Spaniards. It was in 
 vain that the federal government endeavored to restrain them. 
 They replied, in language not to be misunderstood — “If the 
 United States did not open to them the navigation of the river, 
 they would do it themselves !”f 
 
 In the meantime, Washington had become president, and Jef- 
 ferson secretary of state. England had gone to war with revo- 
 lutionary France ; and the French people having beheaded their 
 king, Spain was induced to join England in the league against 
 them. England, jealous of the rising commerce of the United 
 States, restrained Spain from making concessions to the latter. 
 But the victorious arms of France drove Spain from her alli- 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. x., pp. 185, 186. 
 
 t During the early part of this discussion, Mr. Jay, who had charge of it on 
 the part of the United States, was rather disposed to give way on the question 
 of navigation. The news soon spread over the western country. The people 
 flew to arms; and it became necessary, to prevent a war, that Jay should return 
 to his first position. A public declaration was also made by Congress that they 
 would never abandon this right of navigation. 
 
106 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ance with England, and a change of ministry occurred at Mad- 
 rid : Manuel Godoy, the “ Prince of Peace,” became the main- 
 spring of Spanish politics. Spain and France now formed an 
 alliance ; and the latter power, willing to oblige the United 
 States, and to assist iii building up a rival commerce to that 
 of Great Britain, aided in forming a treaty. Spain at last 
 yielded, but wished the United States to guaranty her Ameri- 
 can possessions. This the latter declined. Nevertheless, the 
 treaty of 1795 was agreed to and signed. It made the thirty- 
 first parallel of latitude the southern boundary of the American 
 Union, and confirmed the right of her citizens to the navigation 
 of the Mississippi. It also provided that, for the space of three 
 years, Spain would permit the citizens of the United States to 
 deposite their merchandise and effects at New Orleans ; and if 
 she did not think proper to continue this privilege longer, she 
 would then assign them another place on the banks of the river 
 of equal utility as a place of deposite.* 
 
 The Spanish settlement at Natchez, meanwhile, had opened 
 and kept up an intercourse with Texas, through Natchitoches. 
 This road had become familiar to many besides the Spaniards. 
 On their return, they would make known to the Americans at 
 Natchez the advantages of the trade in Texas, the surpassing 
 beauty and richness of the country, the abundance of the game, 
 and the thousand other attractions to adventurers. All these 
 recitals, so novel to the pioneers who had marched to the ex- 
 treme limits of the United States on the Mississippi, excited in 
 them a curiosity, a love of adventure, and a desire to see the 
 Texan region, which the dangers incident to the journey served 
 only to increase. 
 
 The Indians in Texas had again become troublesome. The 
 
 * Treaty of San Lorenzo el Real (October 27, 1795). — Elliot's Diplomatic 
 Code , vol. i., p. 390. 
 
THE OLD MISSION OF THE ALAMO. 
 
 107 
 
 Franciscan fathers had not met with the desired success in civ- 
 ilizing them ; nor were the forces at the posts sufficient to over- 
 awe them. In fact, it is not improbable that the missionaries 
 would have succeeded better without the soldiers : so little 
 does the arm of God need an arm of flesh to propagate his gos- 
 pel ! Such was the daring impudence of the Camanches, that 
 the troops at the Alamo were compelled for safety, in 1785, to 
 remove their tents within the mission walls. This venerable 
 mission, the second in Texas, deserves some consideration. 
 
 It was first founded in the year 1703 by Franciscans of the 
 apostolic college of Querctaro, in the valley of the Rio Grande, 
 under the invocation of San Francisco Solano. Here it re- 
 mained for five years, but for some reason was removed to a 
 place called San Ildephonso, where it seems to have remained 
 till 1710, at which time it was moved back to the Rio Grande, 
 and reinvocated as the mission of San Jose. Here it remained 
 under the guidance of the good father Jose de Soto till the 1st 
 of May, 1718, when, on account of the scarcity of water, it was 
 removed to the west bank of the San Pedro, about three fourths 
 of a mile northwest of the present parish-church of San Anto- 
 nio.* Here it remained, under the protection of the post of 
 San Antonio de Valero, whose name it assumed, until 1722, 
 when, on account of troubles with the Indians, it was once more 
 removed, with the post, to what is now known as the Military 
 Plaza. The main square, or Plaza of the Constitution , was 
 formed in 1730 by the colonists sent out at the request of De 
 Aguayo. The establishment around the Military Plaza was 
 
 * Bexar Archives, MS. I am indebted to my friend F. G fraud, Esq., for these 
 data in regard to the Alamo. He has a more accurate and critical knowledge 
 of the old history of Texas than any person in the state. “The baptisms and 
 other rites are said, in the ‘Book of Baptisms,’ <fcc.,” observes Mr. Giraud, “to 
 have been performed in the parish of the Pueblo of San Jose del Alamo , a name 
 which I am inclined to think was never adopted by the people generally.” See 
 Appendix No. 4. 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 properly called San Antonio de Bexar (Vejar), while the town 
 on the east of the church was known as San Fernando. 
 
 In May, 1744, the people, tired of the lawsuit between the 
 ex-governors Sandoval and Franquis, laid the foundation of the 
 church of their old mission, where it now stands unfinished, as 
 the church of the Alamo. It had been seeking a resting-place 
 for nearly half a century, and it was time that it should find 
 one. From this period until 1788 it was still known and con- 
 ducted as the mission of San Antonio de Valero. In the mean- 
 time, the number of Indians under its charge increased, and, 
 as they became civilized, were settled around the mission, thus 
 forming a town on the east side of the river. The company of 
 San Carlos de Parras was stationed there for the protection of 
 the town and mission. It enjoyed a separate organization, 
 and had its own alcalde , and place of worship. But, about 
 this last-named period, the place ceased to be a missionary sta- 
 tion. All the Indians brought in for conversion had for some 
 time previously been taken to the missions below the town — 
 perhaps the better to secure them against its corrupting influ- 
 ences ; so that, having no further missionary work to perform, 
 San xVntonio de Valero became an ordinary Spanish town, and 
 the old missionary church of the Alamo became a common 
 parish-church. On the 2d of January, 1793, the bishop of 
 Monterey directed the church-records of the mission to be 
 passed to the curate of San Antonio de Bexar. Accordingly, 
 it was done the ensuing August, by Father Lopez, the last of 
 the noble followers of St. Francis that had labored as a mis- 
 sionary in the Alamo. And, on the 10th of April, 1794, Don 
 Pedro de Nava, governor of Chihuahua, whose jurisdiction also 
 extended over Texas, secularized all the missions within the 
 two provinces ; by which all the temporalities of the missions 
 were taker, out of the hands of the friars, and delivered to the 
 
MISSIONS OP REFUGIO AND LA BAHIA. 
 
 109 
 
 civil officers of Spain. The people of the missions, however, 
 were not left destitute ; for, by the same decree, the mission- 
 lands were divided among them, and titles given to each man. 
 
 The Adaes, after the abandonment of that post by the Span- 
 ish troops, continued to languish till 1790, when it was broken 
 up and deserted, and the inhabitants removed to San Antonio, 
 where places were assigned them on the east bank of the river, 
 north of the Alamo ; and titles were also extended to them of 
 the irrigable lands between the Alamo ditch and the river. 
 This spot is still known as the Labor de los Adaesenos. 
 
 The reforms introduced by Galvez, and the general increase 
 of commerce in the Mexican gulf, had called the attention of 
 the public authorities to Aransas bay. Copano had been for 
 some time a place of landing, principally for smuggling-vessels. 
 To watch these illicit movements, the mission of our Lady of 
 Rejuge was located on Mission river, some ten miles above 
 Copano, in the direction of La Bahia. But little progress, 
 however, was made, either in the conversion of the Indians or 
 in building up the mission. A corporal with a guard was sta- 
 tioned there, and, instead of assisting in the work, took posses- 
 sion of the comfortable quarters erected by the father and his 
 Indian flock ; and instead of remaining in front of the mission, 
 to guard it, took shelter under its pickets ; and, instead of aid- 
 ing in the instruction of the Indians, were imparting to them 
 what they ought not to know.* 
 
 The mission at La Bahia had met with some success. It 
 served at least as a settlement, and a place of defence. The 
 fathers were kind to the Indians, which treatment met with no 
 bad return. This was evinced in after-years, when the latter, 
 flying from the Anglo-Americans, took refuge at La Bahia. 
 
 * Bexar Archives, MS. Letter of Brother Antonio de Jesus Garavita to Don 
 Manuel Minoz, governor of Texas, March 14, 1799. 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Suck was the situation of Texas toward the close of the last 
 century, and but little in advance of what it had been seventy- 
 five years earlier. 
 
 But the American Revolution had changed the face of things. 
 A spirit was invoked that could not be allayed : it was one of 
 liberty of thought and action — of inquiry and progress. It 
 soon found its way to Texas. It came first in search of wild 
 horses, of cattle, and of money ; it came to see and admire ; 
 it came to meet dangers and contend with them ; it came to 
 say that no people had a right to shut their doors and deny 
 the rights of hospitality ; it came to diffuse itself wherever it 
 went. It was in vain that it was resisted by old organizations 
 and systems — it must be heard. It was in vain that the con- 
 ventional code of nations was pleaded — they required a new 
 code. The shock was rude, but useful, and the result good for 
 the world. 
 
 Just at the close of the eighteenth century, Texas and Mex- 
 ico suffered a serious loss in the death of Don Jose Galvez, 
 their excellent viceroy. Such was his popularity in New Spain, 
 and such the tyranny of the parent-government, that in 1T9T 
 the people rose up to the number of one hundred and thirty 
 thousand, and proclaimed him king of Mexico. Galvez pre- 
 ferred his loyalty and honor to his ambition, and, mounting his 
 horse, rode out among the mob, attended by his guard, and dis- 
 persed them, crying, “ Long live his catholic majesty Charles 
 IY. !” A like pronouncement occurred in a distant part of the 
 country. He sent against the disaffected ten thousand troops, 
 and dispersed them, having four of the ringleaders beheaded. 
 For all this, Galvez received the applause of the Spanish court 
 — and shortly after was poisoned ! He was too much beloved 
 in New Spain to be relied on as a servant of such a tyrant.* 
 
 * Pike, Appendix to Part III., p. 49. 
 
NOLAN’S EXPEDITION TO TEXAS IN 1800. 
 
 Ill 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Philip Nolan had been engaged in trade between San An- 
 tonio and Natchez since the year 1785. This trade was not 
 legitimate, but was perhaps winked at by the Spanish authori- 
 ties. In October, 1800, he started on another expedition into 
 Texas, having with him a company consisting of twenty men. 
 Among them was Ellis P. Bean, then a young man seventeen 
 years of age.'* Nolan had, in a previous journey, procured 
 from Don Pedro de Nava, commandant-general of the north- 
 eastern internal provinces of Mexico, a passport ; yet, as the 
 present expedition was well known at Natchez before he set 
 out, Vidal, the Spanish consul at that place, entered his com- 
 plaint before Governor Sargent and Judge Bruin, asking that 
 the company be arrested and detained.* Nolan was brought 
 before these authorities, and, having exhibited his passport, he 
 was permitted to proceed. f The company crossed the Missis- 
 sippi at Walnut Hills ( Nogales ), and took a westerly course 
 for the Washita. In the meantime, Vidal the consul sent an 
 express to the Spanish commandant at Washita to stop them. 
 They had travelled some forty miles from the Mississippi, when 
 they met the Spanish patrol of fifty men. These, seeing No- 
 
 * Sec Bean’s Memoirs, Appendix No. 2. 
 
 | Winthrop Sargent was appointed governor of the Mississippi territory in 
 1798, and Peter B. Bruin one of the judges of the superior court. — Valley of the 
 Mississippi, vol. ii., pp. 342-3-14 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 Ian’s determined movements, gave way and let the company 
 pass. Nolan, avoiding Fort Washita, continued his journey 
 west, without any road, and without seeing any person. Oc- 
 casionally they halted to kill provisions and refresh themselves. 
 Before they reached Red river, three of the company (Morde- 
 cai Richards, John Adams, and John King) strayed off and got 
 lost, but subsequently returned to Natchez. After hunting for 
 them some days, the company resumed their journey. They 
 passed around the head of Lake Bistineau and crossed Red 
 river, four miles from which they came to a Caddo village, 
 where they met with a kind reception, and obtained some fine, 
 fresh horses. In six days more they crossed the Trinity, and 
 immediately entered upon an immense rolling prairie, through 
 which they advanced till they came to a spring, which they 
 named the Painted spring. This they did because at its head 
 there stood a rock, painted by the Camanches and Pawnees, in 
 commemoration of a treaty of peace once celebrated at the 
 spring by those tribes. In the vast prairie around them they 
 could find no other fuel than dried buffalo-dung. These ani- 
 mals, though once numerous there, had left, and for nine days 
 the company were compelled to subsist on the flesh of mustang 
 horses. By this time they reached the Brasos, where they 
 found plenty of deer and elk, some buffalo, and “ wild horses 
 by thousands.” Here they built an enclosure, and caught and 
 penned about three hundred head of mustangs. At this place 
 they were visited by two hundred Camanche Indians, and, upon 
 invitation, the company went with them to visit their chief, 
 Necoroco, on the south fork of Red river, where they remained 
 a month. During they stay they were visited by other tribes, 
 and made many friends. They returned at length to their old 
 camp, accompanied by an escort of the natives, who managed 
 to steal eleven head of the domesticated or gentle horses of the 
 
HORSES STOLEN AND RECOVERED. 
 
 113 
 
 company, and, in fact, all they had that could be employed in 
 capturing mustangs.* 
 
 The company at this time consisted of Captain Nolan, f five 
 Spaniards, eleven Americans, and one negro. As they could 
 do nothing without their horses, Captain Nolan, E. P. Bean, 
 Robert Ashley, Joseph Reed, David Farro, and Caesar the ne- 
 gro, volunteered to go after them. They went on foot, and, 
 after a march of nine days, found four of the horses, under the 
 care of as many Indian men and some women ; the other horses, 
 the Indians said, had been taken on a buffalo-hunt by the bal- 
 ance of their own party, eight in number, and that they would 
 return that evening. They further stated that the one who 
 had stolen the horses was a one-eyed Indian, whom they would 
 know by that mark. In the evening the Indians came in, bring- 
 ing the horses, and an abundance of meat. The whites tied the 
 one-eyed thief, and guarded him till the morning ; they then 
 took from him provisions for their journey, and returned to 
 their camp in four days. 
 
 While they were here, resting themselves preparatory to en- 
 
 * Bean’s Memoirs, p. 13, MS. Colonel Bean informs' us here of a custom of 
 the Camanches. Once a year, in the new moon in June, they assemble at the 
 residence of their great chief, on the Salt fork of the Colorado, where he causes 
 all their fires to be extinguished, and furnishes each sub-tribe with new fire for 
 the next year. Each one then supplies himself with rock-salt, and the hunting- 
 parties go out in a different direction to hunt on new ground for the following 
 season. 
 
 f The following letter by General Wilkinson, written in cipher to Governor 
 Gayoso de Lemos, may throw some light upon a suspicion that Nolan’s expedi- 
 tion was connected with the subsequent mysterious conduct of the writer: — 
 
 “Natchez, February 6, 1797. 
 
 “This will be delivered to you by Nolan, who, you know, is a child of my 
 own raising, true to his profession, and firm in his attachments to Spain. I con- 
 sider him a powerful instrument in our hands should occasion offer. I will 
 answer for his conduct. I am deeply interested in whatever concerns him, and 
 I confidently recommend him to your warmest protection. 
 
 “ I am evidently your affectionate 
 
 “ Wilkinson.” 
 
 “ Es copia. M. Gayoso de Lemos.” — Annals of Congress. 
 
 Vol. I. — 8 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 gaging in the chase of mustangs, a troop of one hundred and 
 fifty Spaniards, sent out by Don Nimesio Salcedo, commandant 
 general of the northeastern internal provinces, attacked their 
 camp. About one o’clock at night, on the 22d of March, 1801, 
 they came upon the outpost, consisting of one American* and 
 five Spaniards, engaged in guarding the horses, and took them 
 prisoners. The enemy immediately surrounded Nolan’s camp, 
 but remained quiet till day broke. The tramping of the horses 
 aroused the Americans, then consisting of only twelve persons, 
 who, seeing the danger, prepared for defence. They had built 
 a square enclosure of logs, to keep off the Indians, in which 
 they slept. At break of day the Spaniards commenced their 
 fire, which was returned from the log-pen. In ten minutes 
 Captain Nolan was killed by a ball in the head. Bean then 
 assumed the command, and continued the fight. By nine 
 o’clock, A. M., two more of the Americans were wounded. 
 The Spaniards had brought with them on a mule a swivel, with 
 which they fired grape. At this time, Bean proposed to his 
 men to charge on this piece of artillery, but the majority oppo- 
 sing, it was not done. It was next proposed to retreat, which 
 was agreed to. Each one filled his powder-horn, and the re- 
 maining ammunition was placed in charge of the negro Caesar. 
 They left the enclosure, and soon gained a small creek. While 
 here, engaged in fighting, Caesar and one of the wounded men 
 stopped and surrendered. The Americans continued the re- 
 treat half a mile without further loss, though under a constant 
 fire from the enemy on both sides. Here Bean and his party 
 took refuge in a ravine, and for a short time the fight ceased. 
 At length the enemy began to close in upon the ravine, but 
 were soon driven back. About two o’clock in the afternoon, 
 
 * As the Mexicans use the term Americanos to designate the people of the 
 United States, its English synonym will be so employed in this work. 
 
REMNANT OP NOLAN’S PARTY MADE PRISONERS. 115 
 
 the Spaniards hoisted a white flag. An American, with the 
 Spaniards, was appointed to hold a parley with Bean. They 
 said all they desired was, that the Americans would return to 
 their own country, and cease to come among the Indians in 
 Texas. 
 
 The Americans agreed to do this ; and a treaty was made, 
 in which it was stipulated that both parties should return to 
 Nacogdoches in company — the Americans not to surrender, 
 however, as prisoners, but to retain their arms. They soon 
 reached the Trinity, which was overflowing its banks. Bean, 
 who was naturally expert in contrivances, soon had constructed 
 of a dry cottonwood-tree a small canoe, and managed to carry 
 over all the Spanish troops, leaving behind their arms and com- 
 mander. 
 
 The American leader now proposed to his men to throw the 
 arms into the river, start the commander over, and again march 
 for the prairies ; but, relying on the promise of a speedy return 
 to the United States, they declined doing it. In a few days 
 they all reached Nacogdoches, where they remained a month, 
 waiting for an order from Salcedo, at Chihuahua, to return 
 home. 
 
 But, instead of their expected liberty, the Americans were 
 severally put in irons and marched off to San Antonio. Here 
 they were kept in prison three months ; they were then sent to 
 San Luis Potosi, where they remained incarcerated for sixteen 
 months. The prisoners, being without clothes, thought of 
 means to procure them. Bean and Charles King gave them- 
 selves out as shoemakers, and were permitted to work at their 
 prison-doors, by which means they earned some money. Then 
 they were started off to Chihuahua. Arriving at Saltillo, they 
 were handed over to another officer, who treated them with 
 more humanity ; he took off their irons, and permitted them, 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 at places where they would stop, to walk about and look at 
 the buildings.* 
 
 As we shall again hear of these prisoners, and especially of 
 Bean, we will not at present follow them in their sufferings, 
 but return to other events of more importance. 
 
 Notwithstanding the Spaniards at Natchez were required, 
 by the treaty of October, 1795, to surrender that place to the 
 United States within six months after the exchange of ratifica- 
 tions,! yet under various pretences they refused to do it. The 
 true reason was, that, from the depredations committed on 
 American commerce by France, they expected a war between 
 these two powers ; and as Spain was in alliance with France, 
 she wished to hold these posts above the thirty-first parallel of 
 latitude as a protection to her possessions at New Orleans. Ul- 
 timately, however, partly by force and partly by agreement, 
 the Spanish garrison was withdrawn, and the territorial govern- 
 ment of Mississippi organized. 
 
 The French government had long desired to recover the pos- 
 session of the colony of Louisiana, and had so informed the king 
 of Spain. In October, 1800, the two governments entered into 
 a secret treaty , by which the French republic engaged on its 
 part to procure for the infant duke of Parma, a grandson of 
 Ferdinand VII. of Spain, an augmentation of territory sufficient 
 to raise the population of his estates to one million of inhabit- 
 ants, with the title of king ; this augmentation to consist of 
 Tuscany, or the three Roman ecclesiastical provinces, or any 
 other Italian provinces that would form a rounded estate. 
 And the Spanish monarch engaged on his part to recede to the 
 
 * Bean’s Memoirs, p. 23, et scq., MS. This, the first conflict between the peo- 
 ple of the United States and Mexico, in which twelve men contended with some 
 success for nine hours against one hundred and fifty cavalry, was calculated to 
 make an iwpression on the people of Mexico not to be forgotten. 
 
 f Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, voL i, art ii., p. 392. 
 
REPURCHASE OF LOUISIANA BY FRANCE. 
 
 117 
 
 French republic, six months after the latter had complied with 
 her engagement, the province of Louisiana, with the same ex- 
 tent that it then had in the hands of Spain, and had while in 
 the previous possession of France, and such as it then ought to 
 be in conformity with the treaties subsequently concluded be- 
 tween Spain and other states.* 
 
 This treaty was unknown for some time in the United States ; 
 and, in fact, when the minister of the latter power applied to 
 Spain to purchase the island of New Orleans, he was informed 
 that Spain had already transferred it to France, and that the 
 United States must negotiate with that republic for such terri- 
 tory in that quarter as they wished to acquire. f 
 
 The peace of Amiens, contracted on the 25th of March, 1802, 
 between Great Britain, France, Spain, and Holland, was seized 
 upon by the Spanish governor of Louisiana, as a pretext for 
 violating the treaty between Spain and the United States, in 
 closing the port of New Orleans, without appointing any other 
 suitable place on the Mississippi as a deposite for American com- 
 merce.:!: The news of this interdict produced considerable ex- 
 citement among the people on the upper tributaries of this 
 great river. The subject was immediately laid before Congress 
 by President Jefferson. It was believed, however, that this 
 interdict of the Spanish authorities at New Orleans was with- 
 out the knowledge or approval of the king of Spain ; and so it 
 afterward appeared, as the king disavowed the act, and caused 
 the port of New Orleans to be reopened. 
 
 * Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, vol. ii., p. 197. 
 
 f American State Papers, vol. xi., p. 62. 
 
 % See the proclamation of Governor Morales, dated October 16, 1802. — Amer- 
 ican State Papers , vol. iv., p. 483 : Boston, Thomas B. Waite, third ed., 1819. 
 Dr. Monette ( Valley of the Mississippi, vol. i., p. 648) seems to have been misled 
 in placing this occurrence in the time of the elder Adams’s administration. The 
 troops sent to the mouth of the Ohio were to operate against Spain as the ally 
 of France, in case of a war with the latter power. 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The object of France in repurchasing Louisiana is not cer- 
 tainly known, though it is believed to have been done with a 
 view to sell it to the United States, and thus raise a fund to 
 carry on her wars. At that time, Spain was completely under 
 the control of France, and was compelled to oblige her in the 
 cession of this noble province. Yet it is believed, as a part 
 of the history of that transaction, that there was a secret un- 
 derstanding between the two powers that France should not 
 transfer Louisiana to the United States. However this may 
 be, the want of money on the part of France, and the fact that 
 on the 14th of March, 1803, hostilities had again commenced 
 between her and Great Britain, hastened a sale. The United 
 States, having learned through Spain that France had the dis- 
 posal of the province, sent instructions to Messrs. Monroe and 
 Livingston, the American embassadors at Madrid and Paris, 
 to purchase, not the whole of Louisiana, but only the island of 
 Orleans and Florida. The great men of the United States did 
 not, at that day, see any necessity for acquiring that vast ter- 
 ritory on which has since grown up so many noble states, and 
 given homes to so many millions of inhabitants. But fortune 
 did more for the young republic than her own statesmen : Bo- 
 naparte would sell it all together.* Just as the American 
 minister arrived in Paris, there appeared in a London paper a 
 proposition that the British government should raise fifty thou- 
 
 * “M. Talleyrand asked me this day, when pressing the subject, whether we 
 wished to have the whole of Louisiana. I told him, no ; that our wishes ex- 
 tended only to New Orleans and the Floridas ; that the policy of France, how- 
 ever, should dictate. 
 
 “Paris, April 11, 1803.” 
 
 “ Paris, May 13, 1803. 
 
 “We found, as we advanced in the negotiation, that M. Marbois was abso- 
 lutely restricted to the disposition of the whole ; that he would treat for no less 
 portion, and that, of course, it was useless to urge it. On mature consideration, 
 therefore, we finally concluded a treaty on the best terms we could obtain for 
 the whole.” — Messrs. Livingston and Monroe to the Secretary of State (Elliots 
 Diplomatic Code , vol. ii, p. 533, et. seq.) 
 
TRANSFER OF LOUISIANA TO THE UNITED STATES. 119 
 
 sand men and take New Orleans ; also, in reference to the 
 troubles in the United States concerning the navigation of the 
 Mississippi, and the probabilty that they would endeavor to 
 purchase the country, it was intimated that some two millions 
 of dollars had been distributed among the high officers of 
 France as bribes. Bonaparte, then first consul, saw these arti- 
 cles, and determined, on the one hand, that the province should 
 not fall into the hands of the English ; and, on the other, that 
 Marbois, whose integrity was unquestionable, and not Talley- 
 rand, should conduct the negotiation. The treaty was soon 
 made and ratified.* Spain had, ever since the secret transfer 
 of the province to France, kept the possession ; and, when in- 
 formed of the sale to the United States, was indignant. She 
 could not deny that France had paid the consideration agreed 
 upon. The duke of Parma had, by treaty, been placed in pos- 
 session of Tuscany, and declared king of Etruria. Yet the 
 secret understanding was violated ; and, what was of the most 
 consequence, the barrier between the United States and her 
 American possessions was removed, and a claim would be pre- 
 sented by the former to all the country east of the Rio Grande. 
 Spain therefore protested; but, overawed by Bonaparte, she 
 withdrew her protest, and gracefully declared that she did so 
 out of good feeling toward the United States. f 
 
 The ceremony of the delivery and transfer of the territory 
 of Louisiana from Spain to France, and from the latter to the 
 
 * Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, vol. i., p. 109. April 30, 1803. 
 f American State Papers, vol. v. Letter from Don Pedro Cevallos to Mr. 
 Pinkney, February 10, 1804. Annals of Congress (eighth Congress, first session), 
 p. 1,268. Pinkney’s letter to the secretary of state, dated Madrid, August 2, 
 1803: “He [Cevallos] said that, in the cession of Louisiana by Spain to France, 
 there was a secret article that France should never part with Louisiana, except 
 to Spain; that if she (France) should ever wish to dispose of it, Spain should 
 always have the right of pre-emption : from which he argued that France had 
 not the right to make such cession without the consent of Spain.” 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 dinted States, took place in December, 1803, in the city of 
 New Orleans.* 
 
 In the debates in the United States Congress, on the question 
 of the appropriations to pay the purchase-money for Louisiana, 
 we can perceive the germ of a sectional controversy between 
 the north and the south, which has since assumed an impor- 
 tance hardly consistent with that patriotic feeling which should 
 exist between the distant portions of a great confederacy. 
 Some of the arguments and predictions of the members in that 
 discussion are interesting : — 
 
 Samuel White (senator from Delaware) : “ As to Louisiana, 
 this new, immense, unbounded world, if it should ever be in- 
 corporated into this Union — which I have no idea can be done 
 but by altering the constitution — I believe it will be the great- 
 est curse that could at present befall us ; it may be productive 
 of innumerable evils, and especially of one that I fear even to 
 look upon. Gentlemen, on all sides, with very few exceptions, 
 agree that the settlement of this country will be highly injuri- 
 ous and dangerous to the United States Louisiana must 
 
 and will become settled if we hold it, and with the very popu- 
 lation that would otherwise occupy part of our present terri- 
 tory And I do say that, under existing circumstances, 
 
 even supposing that this extent of territory was a desirable 
 acquisition, fifteen millions of dollars was a most enormous 
 sum to give.”f 
 
 James Jackson (senator from Georgia) : “ The frontier peo- 
 ple are not the people they are represented ; they will listen to 
 reason, and respect the laws of their country ; it can not be 
 their wish, it is not their interest, to go to Louisiana, or see it 
 settled, for years to come. The settlement of it at present 
 
 * American State Papers, voL v., p. 19, et seq. 
 f Annals of Congress (eighth Congress, first session), p. 33. 
 
OPINIONS ON TERRITORIAL EXTENSION IN 1803. 121 
 
 would part father and son, brother and brother, and friend and 
 friend, and lessen the value of their lands beyond all calcula- 
 tion. If Spain acts an amicable part, I have no doubt myself 
 but the southern tribes of Indians can be persuaded to go there. 
 It will be advantageous for themselves : they are now [1803] 
 hemmed in on every side ; their chance of game decreasing 
 daily ; ploughs and looms, whatever may be said, have no 
 charms for them ; they want a wider field for the chase, and 
 Louisiana presents it. Spain may, in such case, discard her 
 fears for her Mexican dominions, for half a century at least . 
 In a century , sir, we shall be well populated, and pre- 
 pared to extend our settlements; and that ‘world of itself’ 
 [Louisiana] will present itself to our approaches.”* 
 
 Uriah Tracy (senator from Connecticut): “We can hold 
 territory ; but to admit the inhabitants into the Union, to make 
 citizens of them, and states, by treaty, we can not constitution- 
 ally do : and no subsequent act of legislation, or even ordinary 
 amendment to our constitution, can legalize such measures. If 
 done at all, they must be done by universal consent of all the 
 states, or partners to our political association. And this uni- 
 versal consent, I am positive, can never be obtained to such a 
 pernicious measure as the admission of Louisiana — of a world, 
 and such a world ! — into our Union. This would he absorb- 
 ing the northern states , and rendering them as insignificant in 
 the Union as they ought to be , if by their own consent , the 
 measure should be adopted”] 
 
 John Randolph (representative from Virginia) : “ Is not 
 the country west of the Mississippi valuable, since it affords 
 the means of acquiring Florida from Spain ? He had no doubt 
 of the readiness of Spain to relinquish Florida .... for a very 
 
 * Annals of Congress (eighth Congress, first session), p. 41. 
 
 f lb., p. 58. 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 small portion of the territory which we claimed in virtue of the 
 
 treaty under discussion This boundary would embrace 
 
 within the limits of Louisiana some very valuable dominions of 
 Spain, including the rich mines of St. Barbe, and the Gity of 
 Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. On the other hand, in 
 virtue of her settlement of the Adaes, Spain might claim the 
 country as far east as the river Mexicana [Sabine], and to the 
 highlands dividing the waters of the Del Norte river from those 
 of the Mississippi. ... In settling this important barrier, there 
 were ample materials for the acquisition of Florida, still retain- 
 ing to ourselves all the country watered by the Mississippi.’’* 
 
 These indications of public sentiment at that day show that 
 the northern states could not see with patience the power and 
 population of the Union extending westward ; that even the 
 friends of the west had no adequate conception of the future 
 growth of that country ; and that the strongest friends of the 
 measure only wanted the region west of the Mississippi as a 
 trading-capital with which to purchase Florida of Spain. Mr. 
 Jackson thought “ a century” hence would be soon enough to 
 think of settling Louisiana. Half that century has gone by, 
 and the settlements are on the Pacific ! In all growing coun- 
 tries, the people are ahead of their statesmen ; in countries 
 declining, it is believed to be the reverse. 
 
 No sooner, however, had the United States begun to realize 
 the great fact that they were owners of Louisiana — and, as a 
 part of it, Texas — than they began to inquire into the geog- 
 raphy and capabilities of their new purchase. Accordingly, 
 early in 1804, the committee on commerce and manufactures, 
 in Congress, were instructed to inquire into the expediency of 
 an exploration of the country. A year previous, Clark and 
 Lewis had been despatched up the Missouri ; but the Arkansas, 
 
 * Annals of Congress (eighth Congress, first session), p. 486. 
 
BOUNDARY DISPUTES WITH SPAIN. 
 
 123 
 
 Red river above Natcliitoclies — in fact, the great southwest — 
 were unknown to the statesmen of the United States. The 
 above-named committee, in their report, speak of Adaes as the 
 u capital of the province of Texas, and situated on the river 
 Mexicana”* — when there was not at that time, perhaps, a 
 single person in the place, and had not been for fourteen years ! 
 
 The republic, however, had no sooner got fairly seated in 
 her southwestern capital, than questions arose between her and 
 Spain touching the boundaries of Louisiana, both on the east 
 side and on the west. President' Jefferson, by his proclama- 
 tion, had declared the bay and river of Mobile a district for 
 the collection of duties. Spain protested against this,f and a 
 collision seemed at hand ; but, to avoid it, a special embassy, 
 consisting of Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, was despatched to 
 Madrid to treat with the Spanish government, not only on the 
 subject of the eastern and western boundaries, but likewise on 
 other differences between the two countries. The instructions 
 to the American ministers proposed that Spain should relin- 
 quish the Floridas, in consideration of which all that portion 
 of Texas lying between the Sabine and Colorado rivers should 
 remain neutral ground, not to be settled or granted by either 
 
 power for years ; and the United States to pay to Spain 
 
 a sum not exceeding two millions of dollars, out of which the 
 amount due from the latter to American citizens, should be de- 
 ducted. Such were the instructions of the 15th of May, 1804. 
 The number of years in which the above-named country should 
 be a neutral ground was not to exceed twenty, at the end of 
 which time the two powers were to adjust the boundary by 
 another treaty. But, on the 8th of July following, the Ameri- 
 
 * Anuals of Congress (eighth Congress, first session), p. 1124. Report of March 
 8, 1804. 
 
 f Proclamation of May 20, 1804. — lb., p. 1234. Also, letter of the marquis 
 de Casa Yrujo. — lb. (eighth Congress, second session), p. 688. 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 can ministers were instructed to propose the territory between 
 the Colorado and the Rio Grande as the neutral ground .* 
 The discussion, which extended over five months, resulted in 
 nothing! The history of the first settlement of Texas by 
 France and Spain, and of the subsequent occupancy of the 
 country by both nations, was as fully discussed as the slender 
 materials before them would permit.! 
 
 Spain was at that period still under the influence of France. 
 Manuel Godoy, a soldier of fortune, was omnipotent at the 
 court of Madrid, and equally obsequious to Bonaparte. The 
 latter, having an eye upon Spain and her possessions in Amer- 
 ica, became warmly enlisted in her behalf. 
 
 In the meantime, Spanish troops were gathering in Texas, 
 and moving toward the disputed boundary on the west of the 
 Mississippi. The soldiers and inhabitants having been with- 
 drawn from the Adaes, the nearest settlement in Texas to 
 Louisiana was Nacogdoches. When the Spanish authorities in 
 the former province learned of the transfer of the latter to the 
 United States, they assumed a jealous and exclusive conduct, 
 forbidding intercourse, and endeavoring, in anticipation of the 
 adjustment of a boundary-line, to extend their authority as near 
 to the Mississippi as possible. 
 
 In 1805, Colonel Freeman, a gentleman of science, who had 
 been despatched by the president to explore Red river, was 
 arrested by the Spanish troops, and sent back. About the 
 same time, three other Americans, named Shaw, Irvine, and 
 Brewster, were taken prisoners within twelve miles of Natchi- 
 toches, and conducted under a guard to San Antonio. Again, 
 several slaves, decoyed away by Spaniards, and escaped from 
 
 * Annals of Congress (eighth Congress, second session), pp. 1338, 1346. 
 
 \ This valuable historical correspondence may be found in the twelfth volume 
 of “American State Papers,” and in the Appendix to the “Annals of Congress” 
 (eighth Congress, first session). 
 
ANCIENT SETTLEMENTS ON RED RIVER, ETC. 125 
 
 Louisiana, had sought and found an asylum at Nacogdoches." 
 Again, at a village of the Caddoes, a short distance above 
 Nachitoches, the American flag was displayed. The Spanish 
 troops directed the Americans to take it down, which the lat- 
 ter refused, whereupon the troops tore it down themselves. 
 And, yet again, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, of the United 
 States army, having been ordered to explore the sources of the 
 Mississippi, became lost, and was arrested, taken to Chihuahua, 
 and deprived of his papers. These were some of the results 
 of Spanish non-intercourse — of the royal exterminating order 
 of Philip II. In addition to these specific cases of interrup- 
 tion, there was manifested a general disposition to do mischief, 
 and encroach upon the United States, along the whole frontier, 
 from the seacoast to the extreme settlements and trading-posts 
 up Red river. 
 
 These ancient settlements on the Red river, and along the 
 frontier, require some consideration. The first settlement above 
 Natchitoches was made at the mouth of Boggy river, on the 
 east bank of Red river, in 1750, by a trading-company, under 
 the direction of M. Francois Hervey, who had a permit for that 
 purpose from the governor of Louisiana. This point, near the 
 lower boundary of Lamar county, is about five hundred and 
 forty miles above Natchitoches, by the course of the river. 
 The company not prospering, Hervey removed, some two years 
 after, forty miles lower down, to the ancient Caddo village, on 
 the Texan side of the river. Here he engaged in trade, being 
 joined by Sergeant Beson, who went there with some ten or a 
 dozen soldiers under his command. They built a fort, which 
 they named Sc. Louis de Carloretlo , erected a flag-staff, and 
 mounted two small pieces of artillery. Several French fami- 
 lies settled there, and cultivated corn, tobacco, and garden- 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. v., pp. 144, 145. 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 vegetables. This was in Red river county. A creek in that 
 county perpetuates the name of this worthy commandant. He 
 was succeeded in the command by the elder Grappe, and the 
 latter by Sergeant Closo. This detachment and settlement 
 continued there until about the year 1770, when, Louisiana hav- 
 ing passed into the hands of Spain, no attention was paid to 
 the settlers, and their little colony ceased to thrive. In the 
 meantime, their children had been growing up without educa- 
 tion or the advantages of society. To remedy this, although 
 the country was fertile and pleasant, and capable of becoming 
 rich and populous, they broke up the place, and removed to 
 the vicinity of Natchitoches. 
 
 About the time of the erection of Fort St. Louis, a settlement 
 was made at Yattasse Point, on Bayou Pierre, about seventy 
 miles above Natchitoches, under the direction of M. Verge, who 
 carried on an extensive trade with the Carankawaes, Keechies, 
 Yattassees, and other Texan Indians.* 
 
 At about the period these settlements were formed on Red 
 river, Captain Bourne, the commandant at Natchitoches, estab- 
 lished a trading-house on the south side of the Sabine, some 
 fifteen miles distant from the river, and about one hundred and 
 thirty miles northwest of Natchitoches. This place, known as 
 the Dout , seems to have been removed to the east bank of the 
 Sabine, near its head, and located in a prairie, where the re- 
 mains of the fort could be seen for many years after. 
 
 All these settlements made by the French, being followed 
 by the “ family compact” of the house of Bourbon, were per- 
 mitted to take their course. And in this condition they were 
 found by the Americans when Louisiana came into their hands. 
 The United States desired that they should remain in statu quo 
 until the two nations could agree upon a boundary. But the 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. v., p. 125, et seq. 
 
WARLIKE ATTITUDE OF SPAIN. 
 
 127 
 
 policy of Spain was different. She regretted the loss of Lou- 
 isiana ; and her high functionaries — for instance, the baron de 
 Bastrop and the marquis de Casa Calvo — reported, wherever 
 they went, that the disputed territory would soon be in posses- 
 sion of the Spaniards.* This, among the uninformed, produced 
 considerable effect. 
 
 Spain was at this time really hostile to the United States. 
 Her ships-of-war had ravaged their commerce to an alarming 
 extent in both the Mediterranean and West India seas.f She 
 had levied a tax of twelve per cent upon the commerce of Mo- 
 bile river and was engaged in a constant pilfering warfare 
 along the boundary-line at Fort Adams. To sustain herself 
 against the forces she expected would be opposed to her, to 
 repel these assaults upon the Union, she was strengthening her 
 posts by reinforcements. Four hundred Spanish troops were 
 ordered from Havana to Pensacola, three hundred more to 
 Baton Rouge, and eight hundred to Texas. || The United 
 States, not wishing to commence an aggressive war, were nev- 
 ertheless determined that the Spanish forces should not cross 
 the Sabine river. Accordingly, orders were given by the sec- 
 retary of war, on the 20th of November, 1805, to Major Porter, 
 commanding the American troops at Natchitoches, to prevent 
 such aggression. § 
 
 The new governor of Texas, Don Antonio Cordero, arrived 
 at Nacogdoches in the first days of October, 1805, having with 
 him two companies of one hundred and ten men each. Five 
 other companies had reached San Antonio, and wore to ad- 
 vance east. Two other detachments, of about fifty men each, 
 were stationed, one at Matagorda and another above the mouth 
 of the Trinity, near the present town of Liberty, where they 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. v., pp. 102, 148. 
 
 f lb., pp. 52, 92. $ lb., p. 96. || lb., p. 95. § lb., vol. x., p. 493. 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 fortified themselves with pickets.* One of the companies that 
 came with Governor Cordero to Nacogdoches was despatched 
 to reinforce the station above the mouth of the Trinity .f A 
 small detachment, under the command of Ensign Gonzalez, was 
 sent forward to the old post at Adaes, where he took his posi- 
 tion. Another detachment was sent down in the vicinity of 
 Opelousas, to patrol that country. Fortifications were raised 
 at Nacogdoches, and the place provisioned and put in a state 
 of defence. Three companies were stationed at Spanish Bluff 
 (a few miles below Robbins’s ferry), on the east bank of the 
 Trinity 4 But the object of Spain was, not only to obtain mili- 
 tary possession of the country in dispute, but to settle it. Sev- 
 eral hundred families came into Texas by way of San Antonio ; 
 and a large number, that shipped from Spain for Matagorda, 
 put in at the Canary islands. || 
 
 In addition to these arrangements, the old San Antonio road 
 was put in order ; and guards were stationed at each of the 
 crossings of the Trinity, Brasos, and Colorado. Previous to 
 this period, the travel upon the above road was small. The 
 Spaniards, to avoid the Indians, went by La Bahia ; thence on 
 the La Bahia road to the old road at Robbins’s ferry. Be- 
 sides, most of the travel was for contraband purposes : hence, 
 new roads, called contraband traces , were best known and 
 most used. 
 
 The station at Spanish Bluff was made a general storehouse 
 for the army of operations. A large number of beeves and 
 
 * The station near the present town of Liberty was called Arkokisa , tbe 
 Indian name of the river. The troops and supplies for this station came by 
 La Bahia, and marked out the route known as the Atasca sito road — so termed 
 from its boggy location. 
 
 f American State Papers, vol. v., p. 146. 
 
 t This place was known by the name of Trinidad. Spanish Bluff is used in 
 the text because it is the only name by which the site is now known. 
 
 | American State Papers, vol. v., pp. 148, 149. 
 
GOVERNORS HERRERA AND CORDERO. 
 
 129 
 
 horses, and a considerable magazine of flour were collected 
 there. Several of the new settlers had established ranches on 
 the east bank of the river, and had the benefit of a priest to 
 watch over their spiritual affairs. 
 
 With these troops and immigrants, came over to Texas, on 
 a pastoral visit, Don Primo Feliciana Marin, bishop of New 
 Leon, to whose diocese the province of Texas appertained. 
 He placed the affairs of the church in order, and made a cir- 
 cumstantial report of its spiritual condition.* 
 
 At the very commencement of the difficulties between Spain 
 and the United States, the viceroy of Mexico, Itturgaray, and 
 Salcedo, the commandant-general of the northeastern internal 
 provinces, held a consultation, and determined, and so ordered 
 that, if the Americans crossed the Arroyo Honda, their forces 
 should attack them. With this view, Simon D. Herrera, gov- 
 ernor of New Leon, was appointed to take command of the 
 troops in the field ; and Antonio Cordero, governor of Texas, 
 the second in command. Herrera was a native of the Canary 
 islands, and had served in the infantry in France, Spain, and 
 Flanders. He had travelled in the United States during the 
 presidency of General Washington, and entertained a high 
 veneration for his character. He possessed a thorough knowl- 
 edge of men, was engaging in his manners and conversation, 
 spoke the French language with fluency, and likewise a little 
 English. Altogether, he was a polite gentleman, of affable 
 demeanor, and an ardent lover of liberty. He had married 
 an English lady at Cadiz, by whom he had several children. 
 
 Governor Cordero, whose residence was at Bexar, was a 
 gentleman of considerable learning, and spoke the Latin and 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 38. The bishop also visited Natchito- 
 ches, and was treated by Captain Turner, then in command there, with the 
 respect due to his profession. — Pike' a Expedition : Appendix , p. 4. 
 
 Vol. I.— 9 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 French languages fluently. He was an old soldier, and one 
 of the officers sent out from Spain, in 1772, to discipline the 
 Mexican troops, and carry out those reforms recommended by 
 Don Jose Galvez. He was popular as a governor, and, though 
 he had never married, knew as well how to please as the gov- 
 ernor of New Leon.* 
 
 * Pike’s Expedition, pp. 268, 269. 
 
SPANISH TROOPS DRIVEN BEYOND THE SABINE. 131 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 On the receipt of the order of the secretary of war, of the 
 20th of November, 1805, Major Porter made known to Gov- 
 ernor Cordero, at Nacogdoches, the limit beyond w’hich he 
 could not pass, and required of him an assurance that the Span- 
 ish troops would not cross the Sabine. The governor answered 
 the letter on the 4th of February, 1806, refusing the assurance 
 demanded. In the meantime, however, on the 1st of February, 
 Major Porter despatched Captain Turner, with sixty men, to 
 the Adaes, to compel any Spanish force he might find there to 
 withdraw beyond the Sabine ; but directed him to avoid the 
 spilling of blood, if it could be prevented. Captain Turner 
 reached the Adaes before noon on the 5th. The Spanish patrol 
 having given notice of Turner’s approach, he found their men 
 in some confusion. They saddled, mounted, and formed. A 
 conference was held; and, after a good deal of altercation, 
 Ensign Gonzalez consented to retire beyond the Sabine, and 
 Captain Turner gave him three hours to prepare to march. 
 He begged for time to hunt his horses, but was informed that 
 he could send back two or three of his men for them ; so he 
 set out on his march. The next day Captain Turner advanced 
 toward the Sabine, and, three miles from the Adaes, overtook 
 the Spanish ensign, who excused himself from proceeding on 
 account of his lost horses. Captain Turner, not wishing to 
 
HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 532 
 
 trust him further, took his written promise to retire beyond 
 the Sabine.* 
 
 The Spanish authorities, on receiving intelligence of this ex- 
 pulsion, hastened their preparations to marGh to the disputed 
 point. Governor Herrera, with his quota of thirteen hundred 
 men from New Leon, and Governor Cordero, with a smaller 
 force, advanced to the Sabine, and crossed that river about the 
 first of August, 1806. Colonel Cushing, then in command at 
 Natchitoches, addressed Governor Herrera a letter, warning 
 him that if he did not retire beyond the Sabine, he would be 
 considered an invader of the territory of the United States. 
 This letter reached Herrera at the plantation of Mr. Prud- 
 homme, a few miles only from Natchitoches. On the next day 
 (August 6th), Herrera replied, charging the government of the 
 United States with usurping the territory of Spain, but stating 
 that his orders were not to break the good understanding which 
 subsisted between the two countries. 
 
 In the meantime, Governor Claiborne had called out the 
 militia of Louisiana, and reached Natchitoches with a consid- 
 erable reinforcement about the 25th of August. He likewise 
 addressed a letter to Governor Herrera, in which he enume- 
 rated many evidences of an unfriendly feeling on the part of 
 Spain toward the United States, and assured him that, if he 
 persisted in his aggression on the east of the Sabine, he might 
 
 * Annals of Congress (ninth Congress, second session), p. 914. This document 
 is worth recording : — 
 
 “At the Adaes, February 6, 1806. 
 
 “I, Jose Maria Gonzalez, ensign, commandant of his most catholic majesty’s 
 troops on this side of the river Sabinas, hereby have agreed with Captain Ed- 
 ward D. Turner, captain in the United States army, to return all said troops of 
 his catholic majesty to the other 6ide of the said river Sabinas, as soon as my 
 horses will permit it, or in five day3, or at farthest six, and to take my march 
 this day ; and I also oblige myself not to send any patrols on this side of the 
 river Sabinas. “J. M. Gonzalez, Ensign. 
 
 “ Witness, John D. Deforest.” 
 
CONFLICT AVOIDED — THE NEUTRAL GROUND. 
 
 133 
 
 readily anticipate the consequences. Governor Herrora re- 
 plied on the 28th of August, denying and excusing the charges 
 of unfriendly feeling on the part of Spain. 
 
 By this time, General James Wilkinson arrived with addi- 
 tional forces at Natchitoches, and assumed the command. On 
 the 24th of September, he addressed to Governor Cordero a 
 final and decisive letter, and, in a tone which could not be 
 misunderstood, demanded the immediate withdrawal of the 
 Spanish troops to the west side of the Sabine. This letter was 
 directly transmitted to General Salcedo : but, in the meantime, 
 the Spanish forces fell back to the right bank of the Sabine, 
 where they took their position ; and, on the 22d of October, 
 General Wilkinson set out on his march from Nachitoches, and 
 established his quarters on the left bank of that river. The 
 two armies being separated only by the stream, and the com- 
 mander on each side- acting under positive orders from his gov- 
 ernment, seemed to render a conflict unavoidable. Herrera 
 called a council of war, laid before them the orders of the vice- 
 roy and the commandant-general, and asked their advice. They 
 were unanimous in the opinion that they should commence a 
 predatory warfare, but avoid a general engagement. Herrera, 
 in opposition to this view of the council, entered into an agree- 
 ment with General Wilkinson, that, until the question of bound- 
 ary between the two governments was settled, all the territory 
 between the Sabine and the Arroyo Honda should be a neutral 
 ground, not to be occupied by either party : and thus a conflict 
 was avoided. The agreement was approved by both govern- 
 ments, and General Herrera actually received the thanks of the 
 viceroy for his conduct in the affair !* 
 
 The fortunate conclusion of this campaign, together with the 
 
 * Annals of Congress (ninth Congress, second session), p. 913, et seq. Pike'* 
 Expedition, p. 270. 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 fact that Spain recognised the doctrine that the flag protected 
 the cargo, to which may be added the fearful war then ravaging 
 Europe, produced a temporary calm in the relations between 
 this, power and the United States. 
 
 The expedition of Captain Zebulon M. Pike, of the United 
 States army, has been referred to. Under instructions from 
 President Jefferson, he* had been successfully engaged, between 
 the 9th of August, 1805, and the last of April, 1806, in explo- 
 ring the sources of the Mississippi river. In the middle of 
 July, of the latter year, he set out again, under orders from 
 General Wilkinson, to make certain friendly arrangements with 
 the Camanche Indians, and to explore the Arkansas and Red 
 rivers.* The company consisted of twenty-three persons, 
 among whom was Dr. John II. Robinson, a gentleman of sci- 
 ence, who, though not belonging to the army, joined the expe- 
 dition as a volunteer. 
 
 While the party had been making preparations at St. Louis 
 to depart, information of the intended expedition was conveyed 
 by the Spaniards at that place to Captain Sebastian Rodriguez, 
 commandant at Nacogdoches, by whom it was transmitted to 
 Governor Cordero, and thence to the seat of government ; and 
 an expedition was immediately set on foot to intercept Pike. 
 It was placed under the command of Lieutenant Don Fecunda 
 Malgarcs, and consisted of one hundred dragoons of the regu- 
 lar service, and five hundred mounted militia. They set out 
 from Santa Fe with more than two thousand horses and mules, 
 and six months’ provisions. They descended Red river six 
 hundred miles, and then passed over to the Arkansas, making 
 friends of the different tribes of Indians, and giving to their 
 chiefs commissions, medals, flags, horses, and other presents. 
 They also arrested and took with them on the route all the 
 * Pike’s Expedition, pp. 107, 108, 111. 
 
PIKE’S EXPEDITION — HIS JOURNAL. 
 
 135 
 
 American traders they found, left them on the river above 
 Natchitoches, and returned to Santa Fe in October, without 
 having met Captain Pike, who did not cross their path until 
 they had returned.* 
 
 Captain Pike, in this expedition, appears to have been mis- 
 led in endeavoring to follow the trail of the Spaniards, and got 
 lost. He, however, made his way to the Rio Grande, where 
 his party was found by the authorities of New Mexico, about 
 the beginning of the year 1806, and conducted to Santa Fe.f 
 Here they were treated kindly by Governor Allencaster, but 
 deprived of important papers, and then sent under an escort 
 to General Salcedo, the commandant-general, at Chihuahua. 
 After some detention, Captain Pike and a portion of his com- 
 pany were despatched to Natchitoches, by way of San Antonio, 
 accompanied by an escort. 
 
 On his return to the United States, Captain Pike published 
 a journal of his expedition, with a copious appendix, giving a 
 description of the country, the inhabitants, their manners, and 
 love of independence, together with an account of the mines, 
 productions, and resources, of the different provinces. This 
 work came before the American public at a time when Spain 
 had fallen, and the crown of her sovereign was at the disposal 
 of Bonaparte. It imparted to the adventurers in the United 
 
 * Pike’s Expedition, p. 142. 
 
 f At Santa Fe, Captain Pike found Solomon Colly, one of tlie men captured 
 with Bean. He was kept at Santa F6 as a prisoner. As the captain was leav- 
 ing, Colly came to him, with tears in his eyes, and requested him not to forget 
 him when he returned to the United States. — lb., p. 218. 
 
 % Captain Pike also found at Chihuahua David Farro (or Fero), another of 
 Bean’s men. He had formerly been an ensign under Pike’s father. The meet- 
 ing was affecting. Farro, confined at St. Jerominie, had escaped, to have an 
 interview. Captain Pike promised to do for him what he could, divided with 
 him his purse, and they separated. — lb., p. 240. The old negro Csesar, of Bean’s 
 party, was also living there. Captain Pike found him extremely communicative 
 and useful. — lb., p. 247. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 States new ideas and, excited in them a sympathy for the cre- 
 oles of Mexico — who hated the French sincerely — which sym- 
 pathy they desired only an occasion to manifest, by an invasion 
 of New Spain. 
 
 At the close of 1806, Texas was in a more flourishing con- 
 dition than it had been previously. The introduction of new 
 settlers, the marching and display of so many troops, the pres- 
 ence of so many distinguished generals, and the introduction 
 from Louisiana of considerable wealth, brought in by the immi- 
 grants hither in consequence of the transfer of that country to 
 the United States — all these causes seemed to impart life and 
 cheerfulness to the province. The regular military force in 
 Texas was little short of a thousand men. Four hundred of 
 these were stationed at Spanish Bluff, the contraband crossing 
 of the Trinity ; a hundred more at Robbins’s ferry, on the same 
 river ; a hundred more at Nacogdoches ; and nearly four hun- 
 dred at San Antonio.* 
 
 At Nacogdoches, the commandant Rodriguez had been re- 
 moved and sent to Chihuahua for trial, for visiting Natchitoches 
 with the marquis de Casa Calvo ; and Don Francis Viana was 
 appointed in his place. The latter was an old veteran — one 
 of the officers sent out from Spain with Colonel Cordero. He 
 was a man of great frankness, but gave his opinions too freely 
 for promotion. j- He, however, kept a good watch over the 
 king’s interests. 
 
 In spite of guards and prisons, and even the fear of death, 
 several Americans had settled along the San Antonio road, 
 on both sides of Nacogdoches, and exhibited their nationality 
 in the opening of productive farms. Among them, Messrs. 
 Barr and Davenport, who had .come to Texas toward the close 
 
 * Pike’s Expedition : Appendix, p. 84. 
 f lb., p. 275. 
 
CONDITION OF TEXAS IN 1806. 
 
 137 
 
 of the last century, had a settlement two miles east of the An- 
 gelina ; they also carried on business in the town ; and, after 
 the cantonment of the troops at Spanish Bluff, they established 
 an extensive cattle-ranche on the east of the Trinity, below 
 Bobbins’s ferry. 
 
 Society at Nacogdoches, though not extensive, was good. 
 Dinners, dances, and other social parties, were common and 
 agreeable. The commandant, Captain Herrera, and Colonel 
 Davenport, were the leading men. They kept up a correspon- 
 dence with the United States, took newspapers, and toasted 
 the king and the governor of Texas. The town then contained 
 about five hundred inhabitants. 
 
 At the Spanish Bluff a considerable town was growing up. 
 Many Mexican families had removed there ; and the eastern 
 slope of the Trinity valley, for some miles above and below 
 the town, was covered with cattle and horses. The spiritual 
 interests of the people, under the guidance of Father Jose An- 
 gel Cabaso, were duly carried for.* 
 
 There was a guard stationed at the Brasos — as there was 
 at all the large rivers — and, what was of most importance, a 
 ferry-boat, probably the only one in Texas. 
 
 San Antonio was in a flourishing state. True, the buildings 
 were mostly mud-houses, yet the place was extensive. The 
 troops were stationed on the east side of the river, near the 
 Alamo, in the new parish of Valero, then under the care of 
 Father Clemente Delgado. The old town had a separate cu- 
 rate. The missions below the town, having been secularized, 
 were all unoccupied, except that of San Jose. These old mis- 
 sions, the work of other days, had long been the seat of hospi- 
 tality, of refuge, and of prayer; but they had survived the 
 brains that conceived and the hands that reared them, and 
 
 * Pike, p. 273. 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 stood, ir. 1806 , as they still stand, in silent majesty, surveying 
 the changes around them. Let no Vandal innovator disturb 
 their solid proportions ; but let them go down to the future, as 
 monuments of the faith of the Franciscan fathers, and the works 
 of their neophytes ! * 
 
 The population of Texas was, at this time, about seven thou- 
 sand, of which some two thousand lived in San Antonio. This 
 population was made up of Spaniards, creoles, and a few French, 
 Americans, civilized Indians, and half-breeds. Their habits 
 were wandering, the most of them being engaged in hunting 
 buffaloes and wild horses. The former furnished them meat ; 
 with the latter they carried on a contraband trade with Lou- 
 isiana. To check in some degree this rambling life, Governor 
 Cordero restricted the hunting of buffaloes to a particular sea- 
 son of the year, and obliged every family to cultivate a certain 
 quantity of land. 
 
 Society had been greatly improved in San Antonio by the 
 officers of the army as well as the new settlers. Among the 
 leaders of fashion and polite manners were, next to the gov- 
 ernor, Father M‘Guire, Doctor Zerbin, Captain Ugarte and his 
 lady, and Colonel Delgado. These attended to the hospitali- 
 ties of the town, and introduced among the inhabitants a suavity 
 of manners and a fondness for social intercourse which served 
 much to make San Antonio by far the most pleasant place in 
 Texas. Too much time, however, was spent at cards. Yet 
 at the governor’s levee in the evening, or on the public square 
 after supper, where the people, from the chief magistrate down, 
 joined in the Mexican dance, there was great cheerfulness, ele- 
 gant manners, and much interesting conversation.! 
 
 The people, with the exception of a few foreigners, were 
 
 * Pike: Appendix, p. 32. Bexar Archives, MS. 
 f lb., p. 265, ct seq. 
 
A SCENE AT ALBUQUERQUE. 
 
 139 
 
 strictly catholics — the most of them zealously and sincerely 
 so. A scene between Captain Pike and Father Guerra, at Al- 
 buquerque, as illustrative of this point, is too interesting to be 
 omitted here. “We were received,” says the captain, “by 
 Father Ambrosia Guerra in a very flattering manner, and led 
 into his hall ; thence, after taking some refreshment, into an 
 inner apartment, where he ordered his adopted children of the 
 female sex to appear, when they came in by turns, Indians of 
 various nations, Spanish, French, and finally two young girls, 
 who, from their complexion, I conceived to be English. On 
 perceiving that I noticed them, he ordered the first to retire, 
 many of whom were beautiful, and directed these to sit down 
 on the sofa beside me. Thus situated, he told me that they 
 had been taken to the east by the Tetaus [Camanches] , passed 
 from one nation to another, until he purchased them, at that 
 time infants, but they could recollect neither their names nor 
 language ; but concluding they were my countrywomen, he or- 
 dered them to embrace me, as a mark of their friendship, to 
 which they appeared nothing loath. We then sat down to din- 
 ner, which consisted of various dishes, excellent wines, and, to 
 crown all, we were waited on by half a dozen of those beautiful 
 girls, who, like Hebe at the feast of the gods, converted our 
 wine to nectar, and with their ambrosial breath shed incense 
 on our cups. Some time after the cloth was removed, the 
 priest beckoned me to follow him, and led me into his sanctum 
 sanctorum , where he had the rich and majestic images of vari- 
 ous saints, and in the midst the crucified Jesus crowned with 
 thorns, with rich rays of golden glory surrounding his head ; 
 in short, the room being hung with black-silk curtains, served 
 but to augment the gloom and majesty of the scone. When he 
 conceived my imagination sufficiently wrought up, he put on a 
 black gown and mitre, kneeled before the cross, and took hold 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of my hand, and endeavored gently to pull me down beside 
 him. On my refusal, he prayed fervently for a few minutes, 
 and then rose, laid his hands on my shoulders, and, as I corn 
 ceived, blessed me. lie then said to me, 4 You will not be a 
 Christian — oh, what a pity ! oh, what a pity !’ He then threw 
 off his robes, took me by the hand, and led me out to the com- 
 pany smiling ; but the scene I had gone through had made an 
 impression on my mind too serious to be eradicated until we 
 took our departure, which was in an hour after, having received 
 great marks of friendship from the father.”* 
 
 The Indians, overawed by such a display of military force, 
 had been quiet for some time. Along the San Antonio road 
 none were to be found, except the Tonkawas, who numbered 
 some six hundred warriors. They had lodges on the right 
 bank of the Guadalupe and on the Brasos. They were miser- 
 ably poor, and badly treated. Upon the evacuation of Louisi- 
 ana by the Spaniards, many of the Indian tribes, still wishing 
 to be under their jurisdiction, followed them over to Texas. 
 Among these may be named the Alibamons QAlabamas ), once 
 a powerful nation residing on the banks of the river that bears 
 their name, who have retreated and wasted away before the 
 white race, until a small remnant of less than a hundred, in- 
 cluding a kindred tribe, the Cushattas, are now surrounded on 
 the banks of the Trinity, where they must shortly expire. 
 
 The principal commerce of Texas in 1806 was with Mexico, 
 by way of Monterey and Monclova, and with New Orleans, by 
 way of Natchitoches — the last being contraband. Their neigh- 
 bors on the south had made some progress. The new province 
 of Santander (now Tamaulipas) had been organized ; and the 
 capital of the same name (now San Fernando) wrns located 
 forty miles from the gulf, and ninety miles south of the Rio 
 * Pike, p. 222: Journal of March 7, 1807. 
 
PASO DEL NORTE — TEXAN SOCIETY IN 1806. 
 
 141 
 
 Grande, on the Conchos river. The country between that 
 river and the Rio Grande being excellent for pasturage, some 
 flocks and herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, were found scat- 
 tered over it. 
 
 The population of Coahuila had in the meantime increased 
 to seventy thousand, of which Monclova had thirty-five hun- 
 dred ; but Parras and Santa Rosa were each more populous. 
 The presidio numbered about twenty-five hundred, mostly In- 
 dians, civilized at the four handsome missions erected there. 
 The government kept here a powder-magazine for the supply 
 of Texas. 
 
 The town of Paso del Norte was in a flourishing condition. 
 It had numerous vineyards, which, producing fine 'wines, sup- 
 plied New Mexico, Chihuahua, and even Coahuila. It also 
 produced excellent wheat and other small grains. About two 
 miles above the town, the authorities had constructed a bridge 
 across the Rio Grande, which formed the great passway from 
 New Mexico. From this bridge a canal was cut to the town, 
 which irrigated all the farms below. In addition to this, im- 
 mense flocks of sheep were raised here, and annually driven 
 to the markets. Don Francisco Garcia, a wealthy merchant 
 and planter ; Don Pedro Roderique Rey, the lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor ; Father Jose Prado, the curate ; and Captain Allencas- 
 ter, the brother of the governor of New Mexico, were among 
 the leaders of taste and good society in this place of luxurious 
 living. 
 
 When we speak of society in Texas, at the beginning of the 
 present century, allusion is made to the Spaniards, many of 
 whom had come from the polite cities of the mother-country, 
 or from the viceregal palace in Mexico. The priests generally 
 were men of good classical reading, as were many of the offi- 
 cers in the regular service. These set a good example of taste 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and elegance, which, of course, produced its imitative effect on 
 the creoles and civilized Indians. Thus was the fierce temper 
 of a frontier life guided and moderated ; and the people, hav- 
 ing no care of politics, passed their leisure time in playing at 
 games, in dancing, and in conversing, mostly upon one of the 
 subjects of money, women, or horses. 
 
 On occasions of religious festivals, so frequent in every Ro- 
 man catholic country, all ranks of the people participated with 
 a hearty good will, though not always to their own edification, 
 or to the credit of the church. 
 
DON FRANCISCO MIRANDA. 
 
 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Don Francisco Miranda was the first advocate and mar- 
 tyr of freedom in Spanish America. His grandfather was once 
 governor of the province of Caraccas, where he was born. In 
 1783, he visited the United States, and drank deep of the spirit 
 of the American Revolution. He travelled over a good part 
 of Europe on foot. In 1789, he was at St. Petersburg; and, 
 though strongly pressed by the empress Catherine II. to enter 
 her service, he felt an irresistible impulse that led him to join 
 in the wars of France. Here he became attached to Petion, 
 who had him sent on a mission to England, and gave him the 
 appointment of major-general. After engaging in many battles 
 in Belgium and Holland, he barely escaped falling into the 
 hands of Robespierre, then of the directory, and again of Bo- 
 naparte. He devoted his time and great talents to the de- 
 struction of the Spanish power in America. It is not necessary 
 further to trace the eventful history of his life, than to refer to 
 the fact that he started an expedition in 1806 from New York 
 to Central America, and then another in 1810, both of which 
 were unsuccessful. Miranda had the countenance of Pitt in 
 his expeditions : but it is equally true that the United States, 
 although sympathizing deeply with their oppressed brethren 
 under the Spanish yoke, afforded no aid and took no part in 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 Miranda’s movements. The positive declarations of Presidents 
 Adams and Jefferson on this point should be satisfactory.* 
 From the close of the American Revolution there were many 
 choice spirits in Mexico, who were impatient for an occasion 
 to achieve their independence. But the great mass of the peo- 
 ple had been too greatly oppressed, and were too ignorant, at 
 once to grasp and comprehend the great idea of civil liberty. 
 They had a dim view of it only, which made them restless. 
 The prospect of a war between the United States and Spain, 
 from the year 1801 to 1806 , excited the sympathy between the 
 people of the United States and the Mexican creoles. From 
 this grew up a correspondence, an understanding, between 
 them, that at the outset of such a war the adventurers of the 
 American Union were to invade Mexico, and join the creoles 
 in sustaining their independence. At the head of this party in 
 the United States was Aaron Burr. It was Burr’s intention, 
 in the event of such a war — then deemed almost certain — to 
 establish an independent government in Mexico ; and there is 
 little doubt that, in this enterprise, he had the promised co- 
 operation of General Wilkinson. To prepare for this state of 
 things, and be nearer the scene of action, Burr had contracted 
 for a large quantity of land on the Washita, and doubtless in- 
 tended to make it his headquarters. In the event of there 
 being no war, it is probable that Burr himself had but a con- 
 fused idea of the course he would pursue. Perhaps, in the 
 language of Commodore Truxton (who was a witness on Burr’s 
 trial), he would be on the frontier, and ready to move when- 
 ever a war took place. Burr may have intended to invade 
 Mexico at all events — in fact, it is likely that he did — but his 
 
 * This charge against the United States, of a violation of her neutrality, is 
 made by Mr. Foote, in his “ History of Texas,” vol. i., chap. vii. Encyclopaedia 
 Americana, article Miranda. 
 
AARON BURR’S EXPEDITION. 
 
 145 
 
 arrest, and the treaty between Wilkinson and Herrera, put an 
 end to all his plans.* 
 
 Burr was descending the Mississippi, and on the 17th of 
 January, 1807, surrendered himself at Bayou Pierre, with nine 
 boats and a hundred men, “ a majority of whom were boys, or 
 young men just from school.” Thus ended his enterprise, but 
 not its effects. 
 
 Burr was brought to trial ; the whole Union was aroused, 
 and information eagerly sought. The public mind was directed 
 to Burr, to his supposed plans, and to the country he proposed 
 to invade. The adventurers of America were studying the 
 geography of Mexico and of Texas. The creoles of Mexico, 
 groaning under an oppression — the more galling because they 
 saw their neighbors of the United States free and happy — had 
 also commenced the study of geography and the art of free 
 government. 
 
 The victories of Bonaparte had placed continental Europe 
 at his feet. So early as 1805 he had formed the design of 
 
 * Burr’s Trial ; Annals of Congress (ninth Congress, second session), p. 1008. 
 There is something mysterious in the conduct of General Wilkinson in the hasty 
 conclusion of the agreement with Herrera, his sudden departure for New Or- 
 leans, and his immediate action in regard to Burr and his partisans ; but, above 
 all, in sending Captain Walter Burling to Mexico. Captain Pike, in his journal 
 of the 20th of April, 1807 (he was then at Chihuahua), says: “We this day 
 learned that an American officer had gone on to the city of Mexico. This was 
 an enigma to us inexplicable, as we conceived that the jealousy of the Spanish 
 government would have prevented any foreign officer from penetrating the coun- 
 try; and what the United States could send an authorized agent to the viceroy- 
 alty for, when the Spanish government had, at the seat of our government, a 
 charge des affaires , served but to darken the conjectures. The person alluded 
 to was Mr. Burling, a citizen of Mississippi territory, whose mission is now well 
 known to the government .” It appears, from Davis’s Memoirs of Burr (voL ii., 
 p. 400), that the object of Captain Burling was to procure from the Spanish gov- 
 ernment a large sura for Wilkinson’s services in arresting the designs of Burr. 
 Burling must have obtained a passport from the governor of Texas; and this 
 matter must have been arranged on the banks of the Sabine, at the time they 
 agreed upon the neutral ground. 
 
 VOL. I.— 10 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 placing one of his family on the throne of Spain ; and, in ac- 
 quiring that country, he expected also to obtain possession of 
 her American colonies, then numbering at least fifteen millions 
 of inhabitants. It was for this reason, and with this view, that 
 he took part with Spain in her controversy with the United 
 States touching the boundaries of Louisiana.* As he had 
 formed the design to acquire the Spanish-American colonies, 
 he wished them as large as possible. Executing with celerity 
 and without scruple his plans of aggrandizement, he invaded 
 the Spanish territory. A domestic quarrel in the royal family 
 favored his designs. Charles IY. was a weak and helpless 
 monarch ; he was ruled by his wife, and she by her favorite, 
 Manuel Godoy, known as the “ Prince of Peace.” Between 
 the two latter there was said to be an intimacy not creditable. 
 Spain saw it, and Ferdinand, the king’s son, saw it ; but the 
 king did not : hence a quarrel between Godoy and Ferdinand. 
 The king and Queen took part with Godoy. In this unhappy 
 state of their affairs, Bonaparte was called in to decide be- 
 tween them. He did so by sending both parties into a more 
 honorable banishment than they deserved, and took possession 
 of their kingdom. This was ratified by the treaty of Bayonne, 
 on the 5th of May, 1808 ; and shortly thereafter, Joseph Bona- 
 parte ascended the Spanish throne. t The inhabitants of Spain 
 did not long submit to this summary transfer of their govern- 
 ment. Early in June following, the war commenced between 
 the French and the Spanish patriots. The latter were directed 
 by juntas , or revolutionary committees, acting with little con- 
 cert or system, but with desperate valor. While this contest 
 was raging in Spain, the news was received in Mexico of the 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., pp. 49, 97, 98. 
 
 f This imperial robbery of Napoleon has been elegantly decorated by Mr. 
 Abbott Had it been on a smaller scale — the act of a private individual— 
 Mr. Abbott would have been among the first to denounce it as a great crime. 
 
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN MEXICO. 
 
 147 
 
 overthrow of the house of Bourbon, and the usurpation of the 
 Bonapartes. This was immediately followed by emissaries from 
 Joseph Bonaparte and the different Spanish juntas, each asking 
 and claiming the allegiance and support of the Mexican people. 
 Here was a fine opportunity for an escape from European bond- 
 age. They were released from their oath of fealty to Charles 
 IV. ; and the parent-country was so involved in war at home, 
 that, with union and concert, the Mexicans could easily have 
 achieved their independence. 
 
 In the last days of July the news of the rising of the Span- 
 ish patriots against King Joseph Bonaparte reached the city of 
 Mexico. The native Spaniards and official authorities in Mex- 
 ico, with the exception of the viceroy Iturigaray, were willing 
 to acquiesce in the order of the council of the Indies, transfer- 
 ring the American colonies to Bonaparte ; but the viceroy and 
 the natives of Mexico opposed it. Among the revolutionary 
 juntas in Spain, that of Seville was the most prominent. The 
 emissaries of this junta demanded that Mexico should adhere 
 to the Bourbon family. These were followed by the agents of 
 other juntas, each claiming the control of the colony. 
 
 In this distracted condition of their affairs, the people of 
 Mexico proposed to the viceroy what had never been proposed 
 before in that country — the call of a convention*, or governing 
 junta of delegates from the people. The viceroy was about to 
 comply with a request so reasonable, when the Spaniards, fear- 
 ful of a popular assembly, and of the loss of the offices — for 
 they held them all — formed a conspiracy against him ; and, at 
 midnight, on the 15th of September, 1808, seized his person, 
 and committed him to the prison of the Inquisition.* All this 
 was approved by the junta of Seville, who appointed the then 
 archbishop of Mexico as viceroy. As he was a person of great 
 
 * Niles’s Mexico, p. 138. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 mildness, and much venerated by the Mexican creoles, dissat- 
 isfaction was allayed. 
 
 But the Mexican patriots were again aroused by the removal 
 of the archbishop, and the intrusting of the government, for the 
 time being, to the “ Court of Audience.” This court was the 
 exponent of genuine Spanish despotism, and justly abhorred 
 by all liberal men in Mexico. In the meantime, the victories 
 of Napoleon in Spain had overturned and dispersed the junta 
 of Seville, thus offering to the people of Mexico another hon- 
 orable and bloodless opportunity of being free. If they did 
 not accept it, they thereby proved themselves unworthy of a 
 destiny so exalted. 
 
 The junta dispersed at Seville again reappeared at Cadiz, 
 and sent out Don Jose Yenegas as viceroy. He exhibited his 
 dislike for the native Mexicans by conferring all his favors 
 upon the European Spaniards. He also stationed his most 
 reliable forces at the disaffected points, thus showing his dis- 
 position to rely upon the sword for success in keeping Mexico 
 in subjection to the junta from which he derived his power. 
 
 By this time the torch of revolution had been lighted over 
 the whole of Spanish America. England had at first encour- 
 aged and taken part in the revolt of the different provinces : 
 but when the war broke out between France and the Spanish 
 patriots, Great Britain formed an alliance with the latter;* 
 while Napoleon, finding he could not secure the colonies for 
 himself, took part in favor of their independence. 
 
 Before the arrival of the viceroy Yenegas, Don Miguel Hi- 
 dalgo, a curate of Dolores in the province of Guanaxuato, a 
 great friend to the native Mexicans, and withal a man of good 
 sense and gentle manners, had raised the standard of revolt. 
 The Indians, longing to avenge the atrocities of Cortez and the 
 
 * January 14, 1809. 
 
TERMS OF CONCILIATION REJECTED. 
 
 149 
 
 oppressions of so many years, flew to his aid. He was joined 
 by several companies of the royal troops, and marched to the 
 city of Guanaxuato, his army increasing daily. He took the 
 place with little opposition, and, what was most important to 
 him, he replenished his military chest with five millions of dol- 
 lars taken from the treasury of the city. 
 
 The town of Queretaro, equal in importance to that of Guan- 
 axuato, was in favor of the revolution ; and, to prevent it from 
 falling into the hands of Hidalgo, the viceroy, toward the last 
 of September, 1810, sent General Cadena, with three thousand 
 troops, to defend it. He also organized several corps of gue- 
 rillas ; but without effect. The revolt became general ; and 
 Hidalgo, after providing himself with munitions, and putting 
 in some sort of order the immense host of creoles, Indians, and 
 mestizoes, that followed his standard, set out on his march for 
 the capital. 
 
 The Spanish junta, in October, 1809, had decreed terms of 
 conciliation to be submitted to their revolted colonies. These 
 were — that tfib colonies should have an equal representation 
 in the national cortes ; that their American and Asiatic colonies 
 should enjoy a free trade ; that the king’s monopolies should 
 be suppressed ; that the working of the quicksilver-mines in 
 America should be free ; that native Americans should be 
 equally eligible with European Spaniards to all offices in 
 church or state ; that, to prevent disputes as to the meaning 
 of this last proposition, there should be an equal number of 
 each of the two classes ; and, to fill them, there should be a 
 consultive junta in each province to make nominations.* These 
 propositions were presented to the Mexican people on the 23d 
 of September, 1810. But they came too late. Hidalgo was 
 at the head of an enthusiastic army ; he had sufficient supplies, 
 
 * Niles’s Colombia, p. 44. 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 had thrown aside the gown and breviary for the sword, and 
 wished a solution of the questions at issue at some point nearer 
 the capital. On his march he overthrew all opposing forces ; 
 and it appeared that he would have no difficulty in making 
 himself master of the city. Venegas had only two thousand 
 troops for its defence. Cadena was supposed to be at Quere- 
 taro, and Calleja at San Luis Potosi — both too distant to afford 
 relief. At this crisis, Venegas applied the spiritual weapon, 
 which, among a superstitious people, never fails to have its 
 effect. Hidalgo and his adherents were solemnly excommuni- 
 cated. The revolted chieftain, who had too much sense to be 
 overawed by such fancies, replied. But not so with his igno- 
 rant followers. The prestige of victory had departed. He 
 marched to the suburb of the city, but the next day set out on 
 his retreat. 
 
 In the meantime, the forces of Cadena and Calleja, having 
 made forced marches to relieve the capital, united, and at- 
 tacked and defeated Hidalgo, first at Aculco, then at Guanax- 
 uato, and again on the 11th of January, 1811, not far from 
 Guadalaxara. The latter retreated to Zacatecas, and then to 
 San Luis Potosi. He was pursued by Calleja, and continued 
 his retreat, intending to pass Saltillo, and make his way into 
 Louisiana, there to remain until his affairs should be more pro- 
 pitious. But General Salcedo, commandant of the northeast- 
 ern provinces, had sent out a force to cut him off in that direc- 
 tion ; while Arredondo, in command of a Spanish force, was 
 close upon his rear. In this critical position, Hidalgo was be- 
 trayed by Don Y. Elisondo, one of his own officers, at Acatita 
 de Bajan, on the 11th of March, 1811. Many of his followers 
 were executed on the spot ; others were put to death wherever 
 found. Hidalgo was taken to Chihuahua, and put to death on 
 the 27th of July. Among his adherents, Colonel Delgado was 
 
THE NEUTRAL-GROUND FREEBOOTERS. 
 
 151 
 
 apprehended at San Antonio, executed, and his head stuck on 
 a pole at the crossing of the river between the Alamo and the 
 town. Another, Bernardo Gutierres, effected his escape, and 
 took refuge at Natchitoches. The names of some of Hidalgo’s 
 followers in the last days of his career are here mentioned, 
 because of the important parts played by them in subsequent 
 transactions in Texas. 
 
 The territory lying between the Arroyo Honda and the river 
 Sabine, which had been left as neutral ground by the agree- 
 ment between Wilkinson and Herrera, had become the rallying- 
 point and refuge of a large number of desperate men. Many 
 had removed there with their families, and established perma- 
 nent residences. They made war upon all enemies, and, like 
 the buccaneers, lived upon the fruits of their trespasses. They 
 were more particularly partial to the Mexican traders, who 
 brought horses and specie from the interior to exchange for 
 merchandise at Natchitoches. These they preferred as vic- 
 tims, because they could rob them with the greater impunity. 
 They had a regular organization, their headquarters, outposts, 
 and whatever else of contrivance they deemed necessary to 
 carry out their objects. The Spanish authorities had done what 
 they could to suppress them. Twice had the military forces 
 of the United States entered the territory, and drove them off, 
 burning their houses and fixtures.* They were not to be thus 
 driven away. 
 
 On one occasion, a number of Mexican traders, loaded with 
 silver, had reached Salitre prairie, on the west bank of the 
 Sabine, on their way to Natchitoches. A small Spanish force 
 was stationed at this point, for the protection of trade, as well 
 as to prevent adventurers from passing over to Mexico. They 
 sent to Major Wolstoncraft, then commanding at Natchitoches, 
 
 * American State Papers, voL xi, p. 806 . 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 for an escort to guard the traders across the neutral ground. 
 The request was granted, and a small guard was despatched 
 under the command of Lieutenant Augustus W. Magee.* The 
 traders were brought safely as far as La Nan, a small creek 
 west of the Adaes. At this point the creek made a bend in 
 the form of a horseshoe, the convex side being toward Natchi- 
 toches. The freebooters of the neutral ground, thirteen in 
 number, had stationed themselves opposite the bend, on both 
 sides of the road, having the creek between them and the 
 road. 
 
 When the traders had all passed into the bend, and just as 
 Lieutenant Magee and his guard, who were in front, were cros- 
 sing the creek, the robbers advanced and fired. Magee, seeing 
 himself overpowered, fled with his guard to Natchitoches ; and 
 the poor traders were relieved of all their valuables, and sent 
 back to Salitre prairie. For the time, the money taken was 
 concealed by the leaders of the gang under the bank of the 
 creek, and they repaired to their several homes to await what 
 would follow. The amount taken was so large, that it could 
 not pass unnoticed. The next day, Magee, having been rein- 
 forced, returned to make search for the robbers. He met two 
 of them going into Natchitoches, and, recognising them, took 
 them into custody. As legal proceedings at this period were 
 not much regarded, they were tied to trees and whipped, with 
 a view to make them disclose their associates. Failing in this, 
 a live coal of fire was passed along their naked backs ; but still 
 no disclosure could be obtained. They were then taken to 
 
 * Lieutenant Magee was a native of Massachusetts. He graduated at the mili- 
 tary academy on the 23d of January, 1809, and received the appointment of 
 second lieutenant in the regiment of artillery, which he held at the time here 
 referred to. — Register of Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy , 
 by Captain Cullum, p. 58. Magee, stationed at Natchitoches, had caught the 
 spirit of the Wilkinson school. The entire emigration from the United States to 
 Louisiana was full of it 
 
PLANS FOR CONQUERING TEXAS IN 1812. 
 
 153 
 
 Natchitoches, and delivered into the hands of the civil authority 
 for trial.* 
 
 During the time of these occurrences, Colonel Bernardo Gu- 
 tierres arrived at Natchitoches. He formed an acquaintance 
 with Magee, and they had together many long conferences. 
 Magee was young, bold and romantic in his disposition, and 
 drank with eagerness the marvellous tales of Bernardo. As 
 republican revolutionists of Mexico had in view a federative 
 system like that of the United States, Magee had conceived 
 the idea of conquering Texas to the Rio Grande, and building 
 up a republican state, with a view of ultimately adding it to 
 the American or the Mexican Union as circumstances should 
 admit. He informed himself fully of the geography and re- 
 sources of Texas, of the distracted condition of Mexico and 
 Spain, and made his arrangements with consummate skill and 
 secrecy. It would be necessary to have the aid of the Mexi- 
 can population of Texas ; and this would require the use of 
 the name of Bernardo as commander-in-chief. It would also 
 be necessary to have the aid of the freebooters of the neutral 
 ground : this Magee engaged himself to secure. It would like- 
 wise be requisite to have as auxiliaries the Texas Indians: 
 these could be obtained through John M‘Farland and Samuel 
 Davenport, both Indian agents, and decided republicans. And 
 finally, it would be necessary to have supplies : Colonel Daven- 
 .port had the wealth and disposition to serve as quartermaster 
 and contractor to the army. 
 
 The arrangements all being completed, proposals were pub- 
 
 * These two men were convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for a number 
 of years. When enlistments were wanted for the war with Great Britain, they 
 were offered a pardon if they would enlist. One of them, White, accepted the 
 
 offer ; the other, , remained till his time expired, reclaimed his booty from 
 
 La Nan, took it to Georgia, invested it in negroes, reformed his manners, and 
 afterward emigrated as one of the first colonists of Texas, where he died a few 
 years since much respected . — Narrative of Captain M'Kim, MS. 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 lislied, in the name of Don Bernardo Gutierres, for raising the 
 “ Republican Army of the North.”* The publication prom- 
 ised to each volunteer forty dollars per month, and a league 
 of land to be assigned him within the boundaries of the new 
 republic.! Magee saw the leaders of the freebooters, and no- 
 tified them to repair in June, 1812, to the rendezvous at the 
 Saline on the east side of the Sabine river. He himself visited 
 New Orleans, where he obtained a few supplies, and engaged 
 some young men of respectable character to join him.! Hav- 
 ing arranged these matters, he returned to Natchitoches. 
 
 To carry out the plan agreed on, Bernardo repaired to the 
 rendezvous on the 14th of June. His force there amounted to 
 one hundred and fifty-eight men. They were of the neutral 
 ground, and could not be conquered. They were ready and 
 able to do anything that the same number of men could do. 
 It was understood that Magee should remain yet longer at 
 Natchitoches, and forward supplies and recruits ; and, in the 
 meantime, the force at the Saline was to cross the Sabine at 
 Gaines's ferry, drive the enemy before them, and halt at the 
 Spanish Bluff on the Trinity for further orders. 
 
 Bernardo and his men set out about the middle of June, 
 crossed the river, attacked the Spaniards at Salitre prairie, 
 and, after a running fight of about an hour, drove them away. 
 In this fight the Americans lost two killed and three wounded ; 
 the loss of the enemy was not ascertained. The Spaniards 
 
 * “ El ezercito Republicano del Norte mandado por elson Gral en Jefe Don 
 Bernardo Gutierres So reads the caption of the original quartermaster’s ac- 
 count, certified by General Toledo, and now before me. The history of this 
 campaign, where other authorities are not referred to, is taken from the manu- 
 script narrative of Captain James M‘Kim, an old citizen of Texas, who joined 
 Bernardo at the Sabine, and continued in the service till the close of the war. 
 
 | This was the origin of the league head-rights afterward granted in Texas. 
 
 \ Breckenridge’s Memoirs, quoted by Mrs. Holly in her “ History of Texas,” 
 p. 304. 
 
ROUT OF THE SPANISH FORCES. 
 
 155 
 
 retreated and fortified the hill overlooking the town of Nacog- 
 doches on the east. The Americans being in close pursuit, the 
 breastwork was hastily constructed, and composed in part of 
 bales of wool intended for the Louisiana market. When the 
 Americans came in sight of the breastwork, they charged upon 
 it, and the enemy fled. The former did not even get a fire at 
 them ; and when they took possession of the works, the Span- 
 iards were flying through the town, and without any consider- 
 able halt continued their retreat to the Spanish Bluff. The 
 Americans sent off the wool taken on the hill to Natchitoches 
 to purchase supplies, and continued the march. Their num- 
 bers were continually increased by reinforcements forwarded 
 by Magee. The contractor, Colonel Davenport, was also inde- 
 fatigable in procuring and despatching supplies.* The fort at 
 the Bluff, occupied by about four hundred Spaniards, was evac- 
 uated on the approach of the Americans. The latter took pos- 
 session, and found also there a large supply of provisions and 
 ammunition. Here they waited for reinforcements. Magee, 
 on the 22d of June, 1812, resigned his commission, prepara- 
 tory to leaving the United States ; and, after making his ar- 
 rangements, and collecting his friends and the recruits just 
 arrived, he set out for the headquarters of the invading army. 
 He left behind him Captain James Gaines at the crossing of 
 the Sabine, to forward recruits and maintain the communica- 
 tion with the advanced forces. 
 
 The Americans remained at the Bluff till about the middle 
 of October. The Spaniards in the meantime were not idle. 
 His excellency Don Manuel de Salcedo, governor of Texas, 
 
 * There is charged in Colonel Davenport’s account the freight of twenty mule- 
 loads of flour and salt from Natchitoches. These were doubtless part of the 
 supplies laid in by Magee at New Orleans; and, with the exception of some 
 thirty or forty fanegas of corn-meal, there was no other breadstuffs furnished by 
 the contractor. 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 with the aid of the late governor, Colonel Cordero, and Simon 
 Herrera, governor of New Leon, were collecting such of the 
 royalists as could be spared from the service in the interior of 
 Mexico, and fortifying La Bahia and San Antonio. Don N. 
 Arredondo, for his services in the capture of Hidalgo, had suc- 
 ceeded Don Nimisio de Salcedo as commandant of the north- 
 eastern provinces.* But the civil war in Mexico had not ter- 
 minated with the death of Hidalgo. Morelos, another priest, 
 had raised the standard of independence in the southern prov- 
 inces of the viccroyalty ; and Victoria was conducting the war 
 with some success in the vicinity of Jalapa. The republicans, 
 though driven from place to place, still kept up an organiza- 
 tion, and a junta, whose orders were implicitly obeyed. The 
 infamous Calleja had become the general butcher of Mexico ; 
 blood and desolation followed his march. Morelos, after a 
 great and bloody battle, fought at Tixtla on the 19th of Au- 
 gust, 1811, had laid siege to the strongly-fortified town of 
 Acapulco with a part of his army, but with the main body took 
 possession of Quautla Amilpas, about seventy-five miles from 
 the capital, where he was besieged by Calleja. 
 
 It will be remembered that we left Ellis P. Bean and his 
 companions in prison at Chihuahua in 1803. They remained 
 here in confinement five years, a part of the time in irons. 
 Bean obtained leave to go to New Mexico ; but on the way 
 was again arrested and brought back, and, with his compan- 
 ions, was ironed and confined. Some days afterward they 
 were notified that it was the order of the king of Spain that 
 every fifth man of them should be shot. As there were but 
 nine of them, the order was so construed that only one should 
 suffer. Accordingly, a drum, a tumbler, and dice, were brought 
 into the prison. They were to commence at the oldest, and 
 
 * Niles’s Mexico, p. 148. 
 
ADVENTURES OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 15T 
 
 the dice being put in the tumbler, each one had a throw. The 
 lowest was to suffer. Bean, being the youngest, threw last. 
 When it came to his turn he threw five, the lowest throw being 
 four. The unfortunute victim was executed. The next day, 
 Bean and four of his companions, in heavy irons, were started 
 off to Mexico. The other three were set at liberty. Arriving 
 at Salamanca, some two hundred miles from the capital, the 
 former made a halt. Among the crowd of Mexicans gazing at 
 them appeared a ladylike woman, who quietly approached Bean 
 and asked him privately if he did not wish to make his escape, 
 saying she would set him free. She then suddenly left him. 
 Senora Maria Baldonada — for such was her name — was the 
 young wife of a rich old husband. She came the second time 
 to see Bean, and urged him to place himself under her direc- 
 tion. Before she left him, she made him agree to come and 
 see her at her house. Accordingly, the next morning, Bean 
 obtained permission to go with one of the guard into the town. 
 Having learned the residence of his fair visiter, he procured 
 accommodations at a drinking-house near by for his sentinel, 
 and went in. The lady informed Bean that her husband, whom 
 she did not love, was at his silver-mine, and would be absent 
 two weeks. In that time she represented that they could safely 
 make their escape ; that she would furnish money and horses, 
 and fly with him to the United States, and live with him there. 
 She had become fascinated with him, and trusted in his honor 
 that he would not afterward abandon her for another woman. 
 She said also that she had married her old husband against her 
 will, in order not to displease her parents. Bean, although 
 greatly smitten, and grateful for these marks of affection, ex- 
 pected his liberty when he should reach Mexico ; and, not 
 wishing to leave his companions, he declined the offer. He 
 told her, however, that when he should be set free, he would 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 return without delay to see her. At parting she gave him a 
 package, with a request that he would not open it until he 
 reached the end of that day’s journey. So he bade her adieu. 
 Bean, with his companions, were hurried off ; and, as the lady 
 had requested, he opened the package that night. He found 
 in it a gold ring, some money, and a letter from her full of the 
 most touching sentiments. 
 
 The captives were marched to Mexico, and thence to Aca- 
 pulco on the Pacific, where they were imprisoned. Bean was 
 locked up in a separate cell ; his four companions were placed 
 in another. Here he was denied all intercourse with his fellow- 
 prisoners ; and, excepting the person who brought him his daily 
 allowance of water, beef, and bread, and an occasional glimpse 
 of the sentinel as he passed the grate of his cell-door, he saw 
 no human being. The tedious hours of confinement were re- 
 lieved in some degree by taming and feeding with flies a white 
 lizard which he found in his prison. 
 
 One day he learned from a sentinel that one of his compan- 
 ions had become sick, and had been sent to the hospital. It 
 occurred to him that he too would find relief in getting ill and 
 going there. So he gave notice that he was sick. The physi- 
 cian came, and, Bean having prepared his pulse by striking his 
 elbows against the floor, was declared a patient, and sent to 
 the hospital. Here, in addition to his irons, his legs were put 
 in the stocks. His allowance of food was also greatly reduced, 
 his meat for a day consisting of a chicken’s head ! On one oc- 
 casion he inquired of the priest who ministered to him, why he 
 could not get something else than the head and neck of a 
 chicken. The reply was, that he might eat that, or go to the 
 devil ! This so excited Bean, that he threw his plate at the 
 shorn head of the friar, and cut it badly. For this offence, 
 Bean had his head put in the stocks for fifteen days. This 
 
bean’s attempts to escape. 
 
 159 
 
 confinement brought on a real fever, from which he suffered so 
 much, that, on recovering, he was glad to be marched back to 
 his cell. 
 
 Bean was reconducted to prison by a guard of two soldiers ; 
 and, on the way, it occurred to him that he would try to make 
 his escape. So, still having on hand some of the money given 
 him by the Seiiora Baldonada, he invited the guard into a 
 drinking-house, and, after they had drank, he called for more 
 liquor, and requested one of them to step with him into the 
 garden in the rear of the house. When they had got to the 
 farther side of the garden, Bean called the soldier to admire a 
 little flower. As the latter stooped down to look at it, Bean 
 seized him by the throat, and told him to surrender his sword, 
 or he would take his life. The sword was given up ; and Bean 
 told him that he was going off, and asked him to go with him,* 
 but the soldier was unwilling. Bean gave him a dollar, and 
 directed him to go to the town, get the worth of it in bread, 
 and bring it to him at the graveyard on the outskirts of the 
 town. Bean then left him, and, before the latter could give 
 notice to the officer at the fort, was in the woods, when he filed 
 off his irons with the steel he used in striking fire. He con- 
 cealed himself till night, when he returned into the town to lay 
 in a stock of provisions. Here he found an English sailor, 
 through whose means he got on board a vessel, and was se- 
 creted in a water-cask. Just before the ship sailed, he was 
 betrayed by the cook (a Portuguese), retaken, and placed 
 again in his cell, where he remained eighteen months longer in 
 solitary confinement ! 
 
 Hearing an officer speaking one day of having some rock 
 blasted, Bean informed him that he was a proficient in that 
 business. This information caused them to put him at it. In 
 a few days after he had been engaged in blasting rocks, ho 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 succeeded again in making liis escape. He travelled at night, 
 concealing himself in the daytime ; and for several days beat 
 along the coast northward, when he was retaken, and brought 
 before the governor of the castle of Acapulco. After fearful 
 threats on the part of that functionary, in reply to which Bean 
 told him to do his worst, he was chained to a large mulatto 
 criminal, the latter being promised an abatement of a year of 
 his term of punishment if he would take care of his yoke-fellow. 
 He was also authorized to whip Bean if he became insubordi- 
 nate. They had not been long together, before Bean gave the 
 mulatto such a beating, that he prayed for a separation. It 
 was granted, and Bean was sent back to his cell, to keep com- 
 pany with the white lizard : it seemed to be the only live thing 
 that had any sympathy for him, and this feeling was fully re- 
 ciprocated. 
 
 Bean was u a hard case and the governor of the castle 
 of Acapulco wrote to the viceroy that he could not be answer- 
 able for him. The latter, in reply, sent an order for his remo- 
 val to the king’s possessions in Manilla. While awaiting a 
 vessel, the revolution broke out. The prisons of New Spain 
 had been emptied for recruits. Bean was the only one left at 
 Acapulco. The Spanish authorities knew his worth, but doubt- 
 ed his faith. One day an officer questioned him on this point. 
 Bean told him he would gladly serve the king if permitted. 
 His irons w r ere knocked off, a gun and sword placed -in his 
 hands, and he became a soldier. At that time the republican 
 forces were some three hundred miles distant.* 
 
 Bean performed his duties very well for a couple of weeks, 
 when, a favorable opportunity offering, he went over to More- 
 los, carrying with him a considerable number of the royalists. 
 He continued with Morelos, growing daily in his confidence, 
 
 * Bean’s Memoirs, MS. 
 
CAPTURE OP ACAPULCO. 
 
 161 
 
 and displaying great courage ; he was infinite in his resources, 
 providing provisions and ammunition for the troops, and in 
 leading forlorn hopes. 
 
 When Morelos proceeded with the main division of his army 
 to occupy Quautla Amilpas, he left Bean (then holding the 
 rank of colonel) in command of the forces besieging Acapulco. 
 Morelos was driven from Quautla with considerable loss, but 
 was more fortunate in other places. About the close of the 
 year 1812, Colonel Bean took the town of Acapulco, with the 
 garrison, and the governor of the castle who had treated him 
 with so much cruelty. At this time the whole of New Spain 
 was engaged in deadly strife. An indiscriminate slaughter 
 seemed to follow every victory. Whole towns were razed to 
 their foundations, and entire provinces were made desolate ! 
 The long pent-up wrath of four millions of Indians, and the 
 fierce barbarity of the usurping Spaniards, were turned loose 
 upon a country romantic and lovely by nature, but wasted and 
 ruined by a cruel oppression. 
 
 Vol. I.— 11 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 From what has preceded, it will be seen that the time for a 
 successful invasion of Texas was propitious. The Spaniards 
 were not able to prevent it, and the people of the province 
 were not opposed to it. The Franciscan friars in Texas kept 
 up a regular correspondence with the parent-convents at Que- 
 retaro and Zacatecas. The latter, ardent friends of the revo- 
 lution, inspired the former with their views. The spiritual 
 advisers of the Texan population had no difficulty in directing 
 their views and feelings. 
 
 There were very few able-bodied men east of the Trinity who 
 did not join the Americans at the Bluff. On the arrival of 
 Magee, and after the principal forces were collected, they were 
 organized. Magee was elected colonel, and, in fact, commander- 
 in-chief ; although, for prudential considerations, Bernardo was 
 nominally called such, with the title of general. Kemper was 
 chosen major, and other regimental officers were appointed. 
 Before the army left the Trinity, Captain James Gaines, com- 
 manding the Mexicans east of that river, joined with his forces. 
 The troops, nearly eight hundred in number, set out on their 
 march, taking the La Bahia road. They continued the march 
 without interruption till they had crossed the Colorado, when 
 the advance captured some of the Spanish spies. They learned 
 from them that Governor Salcedo was in command at La Bahia, 
 
CAPTURE OP LA BAHIA. 
 
 163 
 
 having been informed that they would attack that place ; that 
 he had marched out with fourteen hundred troops, to lie in am- 
 bush at the crossing of the Guadalupe. This information, con- 
 firmed by other circumstances, induced Magee to change his 
 route, which he did, crossing the Guadalupe below the old 
 road. He made a forced march, and reached La Bahia before 
 day on the 14th of November.* There were but one hundred 
 and sixty Spanish troops in the fort. They surrendered with 
 little opposition, and the “ Republican Army of the North” 
 marched in, raised their flag, and found themselves in posses- 
 sion of an abundance of military stores and the Spanish military 
 chest. They found in the fort sixteen pieces of artillery of all 
 calibres ; among them, those brought to San Bernardo, by La 
 Salle, in 1685. The military chest enabled them to pay to 
 ejach of the troops all back dues. This, with the abundance 
 of provisions on hand, made them contented. 
 
 Three days after, Salcedo, burning with rage in being so 
 deceived, marched up to the fort and assaulted it with his en- 
 tire force. The Americans did not wait, but sallied out of the 
 fort, and drove him back, with a small loss on both sides. 
 Finding that victory was not so cheap, the Texan governor 
 repassed the river, and prepared for a regular siege. He 
 divided his forces into four divisions, and placed one on each 
 bank of the San Antonio above and one on each bank below 
 La Bahia. The Americans were not idle. They erected a 
 bastion of earth on each side of the fort, on which they mounted 
 the guns they found in the fort, and also the three six-pounders 
 they had brought with them. Salcedo had fourteen pieces of 
 different calibres, which he used as he could. 
 
 * Narrative of Captain M'Kim, MS. In the accounts we have of this war, 
 there is a great discrepancy in datos. The quartermaster’s account is considered 
 most reliable. 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 During the three or four weeks in which the two armies oc- 
 cupied these positions, Salcedo made three assaults on the fort. 
 The Spaniards were receiving constant accessions of strength ; 
 the Americans none. Previous to the last assault, for some 
 unknown cause, a cessation of hostilities for three days had 
 been agreed upon. During this time the officers of the two 
 armies extended to each other the civilities due among gentle- 
 men. Colonel Magee, by invitation, dined with Salcedo in the 
 quarters of the latter. Between them an agreement was made, 
 which, from the facts above detailed, can not be understood. 
 Magee had agreed with Salcedo that the fort should be deliv- 
 ered up, the Americans to return home without their arms, but 
 to be supplied on the march with provisions by Salcedo. 
 
 Magee returned to the fort, paraded the troops, announced 
 to them what he had done, and took the vote of approval by 
 asking those in favor of it to shoulder arms. The treaty was 
 unanimously voted down. The republicans were indignant, 
 and manifested it by striking the butts of their pieces against 
 the ground. Magee, confounded by this act of disobedience, 
 retired to his tent, leaving the troops on parade. The confu- 
 sion was great. Major Kemper, the next in command, went 
 for Bernardo. He kept close in his quarters, signed all the 
 necessary papers, and ate hearty dinners, but, like Mohammed’s 
 coat, was brought before the army only on trying occasions. 
 He took sides with the troops, and advised that the agreement 
 should not be regarded. In the meantime, a flag from Salcedo 
 brought a note to Magee. It was delivered to Bernardo, and 
 he read it to the army. It reminded Magee of his honor ; that 
 the hour had passed when the fort should have been surren- 
 dered, and it was not done. The flag was sent back without 
 an answer. 
 
 Shortly afterward, Salcedo made a furious assault upon the 
 
DEATH OF COLONEL MAGEE. 
 
 165 
 
 place, took the town, and advanced to the walls of the fort. 
 The Americans, thrown into disorder by recent events, and 
 without a commander, seemed not to act with their usual vigor. 
 But, rallying under Kemper, the next in command, they sal- 
 lied out and attacked the Spaniards, drove them from the walls, 
 and then out of the town, continuing the fight till darkness put 
 an end to the contest. The Spanish loss in this affair was about 
 two hundred ; the Americans lost but few. Magee had not left 
 his quarters during the battle. That night, shortly after twelve 
 o’clock, he died, and, it is said, by his own hands.* 
 
 The next morning, the Spaniards sent in a flag, asking a ces- 
 sation of arms for one day, that the dead might be cared for ; 
 which was granted. The Spaniards continued the siege, with- 
 out making any further attack, until about the 12th of March, 
 1813, when they abandoned their position and retreated to San 
 Antonio. They, however, stationed spies down the river, to 
 watch the movements of the Americans. 
 
 Major Kemper was promoted to the rank of colonel, and 
 commander-in-chief de facto , and Captain Ross was chosen 
 major. A council of war was held, at which it was resolved 
 to obtain reinforcements and march on San Antonio. f Captain 
 M‘Farland was despatched to the Lipan and Twowokana In- 
 dians for aid. An express was also sent to Nacogdoches, to 
 the commandant Guadiana, to forward in haste all the recruits 
 to be had there. The volunteers from Nacogdoches, one hun- 
 
 * Captain M ‘Kim’s Narrative. More light is needed in regard to the conduct 
 of Colonel Magee from the time of his interview with Salcedo until his death. 
 Though a young man, he acted with prudence and foresight in getting up and 
 conducting the expedition. Notwithstanding the officers of the United States 
 were vigilant in preventing troops from marching from Louisiana to make war 
 in Mexico, yet the affair was so well managed, that, although it was known that 
 the enterprise was on foot, it was extraordinary to see two of those engaged in 
 it together at any one time. — Letter of John Dick , U. S. District Attorney for 
 Louisiana ; American Slate Papers t vol. xi., p. 302. 
 f Breckenridge’s Memoirs of Travel. 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 dred and seventy in number, soon arrived. Twenty-five Coos- 
 hattie Indians, of the old missions, also joined them. With 
 these additions, the Americans set out on their march up the 
 left bank of the San Antonio, and crossed the Salado, a small 
 creek emptying into that river, about the 28th of March. Here 
 they were joined by Captain M‘Farland with three hundred 
 Lipan and Twowokana warriors. 
 
 The viceroy Venegas, notwithstanding he was sorely pressed 
 by the republicans at home, found an opportunity for throwing 
 reinforcements into San Antonio. Salcedo, receiving informa- 
 tion of the advance of the Americans, sent out his troops to 
 form an ambush. The whole regular force, consisting of fifteen 
 hundred men, and about a thousand militia, were placed under 
 the command of the officer who brought on the reinforcements 
 — he having solicited it, and pledged his sword and his head to 
 the governor that he would kill and make prisoners the whole 
 of the republican army ! The latter consisted of eight hundred 
 Americans, under Colonel Kemper ; one hundred and eighty 
 Mexicans from Nacogdoches, nominally under Colonel James 
 Gaines, but really led by Manchaca, a rough, uneducated, but 
 strong-minded Mexican of Texas ; and three hundred and 
 twenty-five Indians. The Americans, expecting a conflict, had 
 prepared for it. They marched in order of battle. The left 
 wing, under the command of Major Ross, moved in front ; the 
 right, under Kemper, was in the rear. A select corps of rifle- 
 men, under Captain Luckett, acted as flankers on the right. 
 The American left was protected by the San Antonio river, 
 along the bank of which they marched. 
 
 About nine miles from San Antonio there was a ridge, of 
 gentle slope, dividing the waters of the San Antonio and the 
 Salado. The side of this ridge next to the San Antonio, from 
 the crest to the road, consisted of prairie ; the side bordering 
 
BATTLE OF ROSALIS. 
 
 167 
 
 the Salado was covered with chapparal, a species of thick un- 
 derwood. In this chapparal the Spaniards were lying in am- 
 bush. They were discovered by the riflemen, who were march- 
 ing on the crest of the ridge, and who opened a fire upon them. 
 They immediately formed, and presented themselves to the 
 American army about four hundred yards below. The Span- 
 ish line, in the centre of which were twelve pieces of artillery,* 
 crowned the crest of the ridge for three quarters of a mile. 
 
 The Indian auxiliaries were placed in front of the American 
 lines, to receive the charge of the Spanish cavalry, until suita- 
 ble dispositions could be made to charge in turn. At the first 
 onset, they all fled, except the Cooshatties and a few others : 
 these withstood two other charges, in which they lost two 
 killed and several wounded. By this time the Americans had 
 formed at the foot of the ridge, having placed their baggage- 
 wagons in the rear, under the protection of the prisoners they 
 had taken at La Bahia ! The charge was sounded, and orders 
 given to advance to within thirty yards of the Spanish line, fire 
 three rounds, load the fourth time, and charge along the whole 
 line. The order was obeyed in silence, and with a coolness so 
 remarkable, that it filled the Spaniards with terror. The 
 Americans had greatly the advantage in ascending the hill, as 
 the enemy overshot them. The Spaniards did not await the 
 charge of their adversaries, but gave way along the entire line, 
 and then fled in the direction of San Antonio. They were pur- 
 sued and killed in great numbers ; and many who had surren- 
 dered were cruelly butchered by the Indians. When the Span- 
 ish commander saw his army flying, and that the day was lost, 
 he turned his horse toward the American line, and rushed into 
 their ranks. He first attacked Major Ross, and then Colonel 
 Kemper ; and, as his sword was raised to strike the latter, he 
 
 * Breckenridge says eix piecea 
 
168 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 was shot dead by William Owen, a private in Captain Joseph 
 Taylor’s company. 
 
 In this great Texan battle, there were nearly a thousand of 
 the enemy slain and wounded, and a few taken prisoners; 
 though the inhuman conduct of the Indians greatly reduced 
 the number of those captured.* 
 
 The next day the Americans pursued their march to the bor- 
 ders of the town of San Antonio, and sent in a flag, demanding 
 the surrender of the place and garrison. Governor Salcedo 
 asked till morning to make his arrangements for the capitula- 
 tion of the place. A second flag was sent in notifying him 
 that, if he and his staff did not immediately proceed to the 
 American camp, with the flag, they would storm the town. 
 Salcedo with his staff, fourteen in all, complied with this de- 
 mand. The governor approached Captain Taylor, and pre- 
 sented him his sword. Taylor referred him to Colonel Kem- 
 per ; the latter declined to receive it, but referred him in turn 
 to General Bernardo Gutierres. This was too much : Salcedo 
 stuck his sword into the ground in front of Bernardo, and left 
 it there ! The latter took it up. The Spanish troops, stores, 
 arms, and military chest, were all surrendered. The Americans 
 marched into the Alamo, and released seventeen of their coun- 
 trymen whom they found there imprisoned, put arms in their 
 hands, and placed them in the ranks of the “ Republican Army 
 of the North.” The spoils were distributed. Each man in 
 the army received his wages, a gratuity of fifteen dollars, a 
 suit of clothes, and an order for two horses or mules out of the 
 public caballada. The Indians were supplied with two dol- 
 lars’ worth of vermilion, together with presents of the value of 
 
 * It is a little remarkable that the locality of this engagement, known as the 
 battle of JRosalis, can not be identified. We have the accounts of Navarro, Ken- 
 nedy, and MKirn. As the latter was in the battle, his account was preferred. 
 
MASSACRE OF SALCEDO AND HIS STAFF. 
 
 169 
 
 a hundred and thirty dollars, and sent away rejoicing." The 
 Spanish soldiers taken as prisoners were set at liberty. Some 
 joined the ranks of the republicans, and the rest repaired to 
 their homes. Salcedo and his staff were permitted the liber- 
 ties of the town on their parole of honor. 
 
 About the first of April, 1813, General Bernardo (who, being 
 among his own people, had begun to assume a little more au- 
 thority) ordered the army to be paraded, and read to them 
 what he affirmed was a letter informing him that two vessels, 
 at Matagorda bay, were about to sail to the United States, and 
 stated that he considered it safest to send Salcedo and his staff 
 to New Orleans, there to remain on their parole until the war 
 was over. This proposition was acquiesced in by the troops ; 
 and that evening the governor and his suite started on their 
 march, under the guard of a company of Bexar Mexicans com- 
 manded by Captain Delgado. They were taken about a mile 
 and a half below the town, to the point of a small ridge that 
 runs down to the river ; and there, on the east bank of the 
 stream, the prisoners were stripped and tied, and their throats 
 cut ! Among them, besides Governor Salcedo, were the brave 
 and accomplished ex-governors Herrera and Cordero. f The 
 
 * Colonel Davenport’s account, MS. 
 
 f Foote’s “Texas and the Texans,” vol. i., p. 18S. Colonel Navarro gives a 
 somewhat different account of this affair. He says: “Some of these assassins 
 [Delgado’s company], with brutal irony, whetted their knives upon the soles of 
 their shoes in the presence of their victims! .... The day following the assassi- 
 nation, I myself saw this band of murderers, led by their commander, Antonio 
 Delgado, halt in front of the government-buildings. I myself heard them inform 
 Bernardo Gutierres that the fourteen victims had been put to death.” The fol- 
 lowing is the list furnished by Colonel Navarro: — 
 
 Spaniards : Manuel de Salcedo, governor ; Simon de Herrera, governor of New 
 Leon; Geronimo Herrera, lieutenant-colonel; Juan de Echeverria, captain; Jose 
 Groscochia, captain; Francisco Pereira, captain; Jose Mateos, captain; Juan Ig- 
 natio Arambido, captain ; Gregoria Amado, lieutenant ; Antonio Lopez, citizen. 
 
 Mexicans: Miguel de Arcos, captain; Luis, his son, lieutenant; Francisco, his 
 son, ensign ; Juan Caso, lieutenant. 
 
 Gutierres, in a manifesto published at Monterey, in 1827, denies having or 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 next morning, the Americans, discovering that Delgado and his 
 company were back in their quarters, suspected some treach- 
 ery. The American officers, having their honor pledged for 
 the safety of these victims, caused Delgado to be arrested and 
 tried. His defence was, that Colonel Delgado and General 
 Bernardo, having been engaged under the banner of Hidalgo, 
 when the latter fell, were making their escape to Louisiana ; 
 that Colonel Delgado — who was his father — was taken and 
 executed by Salcedo in San Antonio, and his head exposed on 
 a pole, as the Americans saw when they marched into the town ; 
 and that for this reason General Bernardo had given him per- 
 mission to put the prisoners to death. Upon this statement, 
 Captain Delgado was released, and Bernardo himself brought 
 to trial. He made the same defence as the former, with this 
 addition, that the younger Delgado had implored him on his 
 bended knees thus to avenge his father’s death The tribunal, 
 however, found Bernardo guilty of treachery and barbarity, 
 and deposed him. 
 
 Before this occurrence, Bernardo had been a mere cipher ; 
 now he had assumed authority, and in a manner so barbarous, 
 that the American officers had become disgusted with the ser- 
 vice. Colonel Kemper, Major Ross, and others, left the army 
 and returned home ; but their places were supplied with new 
 recruits,* the fame of preceding victories having drawn many 
 adventurers to San Antonio. 
 
 After the departure of the above-named officers, the troops, 
 intoxicated with success, and being without the restraint of 
 any lawful authority, abandoned themselves to great excesses. 
 But, while thus revelling in almost every species of dissipation, 
 
 dered the execution of these men, and charges it upon the Mexican junta which 
 he had assembled at San Antonio to try them. Ex-Governor Cordero, it will be 
 seen, is not in Navarro’s list 
 
 * Breckenridge ; Foote, vol. i., p. 191. 
 
APPROACH OF ELISONDO WITH FRESH FORCES. 171 
 
 they were surprised by a new army sent against them by the 
 viceroy. It was commanded by Don Y. Elisondo, the same 
 renegade who had betrayed Hidalgo to the royalists. The 
 army which he led consisted of about fifteen hundred regulars, 
 and a like number of irregulars picked up in the internal prov- 
 inces. They first surprised, killed, and dispersed the guard 
 who were out grazing the American caballada. They also 
 took the horses. The republicans, on receiving this intelli- 
 gence, were in confusion, and without any controlling head. 
 The Mexican influence was too strong to neglect Bernardo, 
 and yet the Americans could not safely trust him. Manchaca 
 was a man of great vigor, and had extensive influence among 
 his people, but was ignorant of all the high qualities necessary 
 for the command of an army. Of the American officers who 
 remained, Captain Perry was highest in rank, and perhaps the 
 most worthy. At all events, he had the chief command in fact, 
 and Bernardo was nominally reinstated for the occasion.* 
 
 Elisondo did not march directly into San Antonio, as he 
 might have done, but pitched his camp about half a mile from 
 the graveyard of the town. The Americans having decided 
 on their plan of attack, double sentinels were placed on guard, 
 no one was permitted to pass in or out of the place, and all 
 the artillery except four field-pieces was spiked. 
 
 The Spaniards had meanwhile thrown up two bastions, with 
 a curtain of four hundred yards between them. This work 
 crowned the summit of a ridge of gentle ascent, near the river 
 Alazan, a branch of the San Pedro, behind which the enemy 
 were encamped. 
 
 * Captain M ‘Kim’s Narrative, MS. It must not be understood that Bernardo 
 was without abilities, or deficient in many good qualities. He was a man of cul- 
 tivated mind, of good sense, had seen much of the world, and had some refine- 
 ment — but he was a Mexican. When the Americans found it necessary to rein- 
 state him, in order to get the hearty co-operation of his own people, they sent a 
 deputation, consisl ing of Captains Perry and Joseph Taylor, to wait on him, — 7b * 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 At ten o’clock at night, June 4, the Americans marched out 
 of the town. They moved by file, and in the most profound 
 silence, until they approached sufficiently near to hear the ene- 
 my’s advanced guard. Here they sat down, with their arms 
 in their hands, until they heard the Spaniards at matins. Or- 
 ders were given that, on notice, the Americans should charge. 
 This notice was to be given by a check from the right of each 
 company, and in silence. The signal was given, and they all 
 marched forward with a firmness and regularity becoming vet- 
 eran soldiers. The enemy’s pickets were surprised and taken 
 prisoners. The Americans advanced to the works, mounted 
 them, hauled down the Spanish flag, and ran up their own tri- 
 color, before they were discovered by the Spanish camp. This 
 was just at the dawn of day. The Spaniards, thus aroused, 
 fought gallantly, and drove the Americans back from the works. 
 The latter rallied, retook them, and charged into the Spanish 
 camp, using only the bayonet and spear. The slaughter was 
 terrible. At length, after some hours of hard fighting, the 
 Spaniards, fairly pushed off the field, turned and fled, leaving 
 a thousand dead, wounded, and prisoners. The Americans 
 lost forty-seven killed, and as many more wounded, who after- 
 terward died of their wounds. 
 
 The Spaniards who escaped, fled with their commander to 
 the Rio Grande, and the Americans returned to San Antonio, 
 where, having no further use for General Bernardo Gutierres, 
 they dismissed him from the service. This act was doubtless 
 done at the instance of the American officers, who feared fur- 
 ther dishonor and treachery. The family of Bernardo had 
 come on to San Antonio after the battle of the Salado (or Ro- 
 salis), and remained there with him. On being dismissed the 
 second time, he retired to Natchitoches.* 
 
 * Bernardo hung about the “neutral grround’’ until 1816, when he went to 
 New Orleans. On the successful issue of the Mexican revolution, he had a com- 
 
GENERAL TOLEDO. 
 
 173 
 
 Don Jose Alvarez Toledo was by birth a Cuban, of a distin- 
 guished Spanish family.* He had formerly been a member of 
 the Spanish cortes in Mexico, but was banished on account of 
 his republican sympathies.! He had been for some time in 
 Louisiana, aiding in forwarding recruits to San Antonio, and 
 was duly advised of the progress of the war in that quarter. 
 In July, 1813, he set out in person for the scene of hostilities.} 
 He arrived shortly after the final departure of Bernardo. His 
 fame as a distinguished republican Spaniard had preceded him, 
 and the troops and people of San Antonio went to meet and 
 escort him in. He was welcomed with much pomp, and imme- 
 diately elected commander-in-chief of the republican army of 
 the north. || 
 
 General Toledo at once organized a governing junta, and 
 went to work to restore order to the civil government of Texas. 
 Suitable alcaldes and other officers were appointed, and for a 
 few days law and order seemed to reign in San Antonio. 
 
 But these days of sunshine were destined to be few. The 
 republican rangers brought intelligence that another Spanish 
 army was approaching. The fugitives from the late disastrous 
 affair under Elisondo had communicated to General Arredondo, 
 commandant of the northeastern provinces, the news of the de- 
 feat. The latter united his own forces with such of the rem- 
 
 mand at San Carlos. Colonel Bean, in his Memoirs, says that at San Carlos, on 
 the 28th of June, 1825, “I found Don Bernardo Gutierres, with about four hun- 
 dred troops, in command of the place. He was my old friend, and I was very 
 glad to see him, as my horses and mules were giving out, and my money also ; 
 but, to my misfortune, I found him very poor, and unable to help himself.” In 
 1830, Bernardo was keeping a small saddlery-store at Guerrero. 
 
 * Holly’s Texas, p. 307. 
 
 f Foote, vol. L, p. 191. 
 
 X In Colonel Davenport’s account there is this item, incurred at Spanish Bluff, 
 about the 23d of July: “Por 75 lib.* de balas de ordendeelson Oral Toledo sog.* 
 recebo acomp. 0 No. 41, $23, 3|.” — MS. 
 
 | Captain M ‘Kim’s Narrative. 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 nant of Elisondo’s army as he could collect, and set out on his 
 inarch for San Antonio. On the south of the Medina he threw 
 up a breastwork : it was in the form of the letter < , with the 
 apex in the road, and the open end in the direction of San An- 
 tonio. His entire force consisted of about four thousand men. 
 Six hundred of these were thrown forward four hundred yprds 
 in advance of the breastwork, and intended as a decoy. The 
 breastwork itself was concealed by an artificial chapparal, 
 formed of bushes set up in front of it, and giving the appear- 
 ance of a natural growth. 
 
 Toledo immediately marched out to meet the enemy. His 
 force consisted of eight hundred and fifty Americans, under 
 Perry and Taylor, and about twice that number of Mexicans, 
 commanded by Manchaca. The latter was said to be envious 
 of the distinction shown to Toledo, and was consequently in- 
 subordinate. This was perhaps the cause of a fatal mistake 
 on the part of Toledo in separating the Americans, by placing 
 them on the two wings, with the Mexicans in the centre. 
 
 When they met with the Spanish advance, the battle com- 
 menced. The Spaniards, after firing a round, abandoned their 
 artillery, and made a feigned retreat, flying through the apex 
 of the breastwork. The centre of the republicans advanced 
 rapidly, and the wings followed. Toledo, seeing the ambush 
 when it was too late, ordered a retreat. The left wing obeyed 
 the order ; but the right wing refused, crying out that “ they 
 never retreated !” The centre, far in advance of the wings, 
 was already exposed to a deadly fire from its front and flanks. 
 Had the order to retreat not been given at all, or had it been 
 given earlier, the day would not have been lost. The enemy’s 
 cannon mowed down the republicans with fearful havoc. The 
 Americans on the right performed prodigies of valor; even 
 after the few survivors of the centre had fled, they continued 
 
DEFEAT AND BUTCHERY OF THE AMERICANS. 
 
 175 
 
 the fight. They could not, however, obtain possession of the 
 breastwork, and in the effort were nearly all cut to pieces. 
 Only those that obeyed the order to retreat were able to get 
 away from the field of battle. The fugitives continued their 
 retreat, the Spanish cavalry pursuing, and butchering without 
 mercy all whom they could overtake. At Spanish Bluff, on 
 the Trinity, the enemy took seventy or eighty prisoners. These 
 they marched to an island of timber at the then forks of the 
 San Antonio and La Bahia roads, where they dug a long and 
 deep grave, laid a piece of timber across it, and, after tying 
 the prisoners, set them by tens on the timber, and shot them. 
 Only ninety-three Americans succeeded in reaching Natchito- 
 ches. Among them were Colonel Perry, Captain Joseph Tay- 
 lor (badly wounded), and Captain Bullard, who had acted as 
 aid to Toledo during the battle. Thus ended the disastrous 
 war of 1812 and 1813* 
 
 The victorious party in Texas pursued with vengeance every 
 friend of the republican party. The town of Trinidad, at Span- 
 ish Bluff, was utterly desolated. Those of the inhabitants who 
 did not make their escape were cruelly butchered at a hill a 
 few hundred yards west of Robbins’s ferry, known as the Loma 
 del Toro , or Bull’s hill. The republicans of Nacogdoches fled 
 to Louisiana. The survivors of the neutral ground returned to 
 their old haunts, and formed a nucleus around which subse- 
 quent revolutionists might rally. 
 
 General Toledo, as the head of the republican party in 
 Texas, planted his standard on the left bank of the Sabine, at 
 
 * It will not be deemed surprising that we have no detailed account of the 
 important events, of the Gachupin war, when we remember that during the 
 same period there was a war in the United States, and also one in Mexico. The 
 public mind was thus drawn away from the military movements in Texas. It 
 is more than probable that the war between the United States and Great Brit- 
 ain, by drawing into its vortex the adventurous spirits of the southwestern states, 
 saved Texas from a successful revolution in 1813. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the old Saline near Gaines’s ferry, and invited thither whoso- 
 ever chose to engage in the war.* 
 
 Two days after the battle of the Medina, which was fought 
 on the 18th of August, 1813, General Arredondo, having his 
 wagons loaded with wounded and dying, marched in triumph 
 into San Antonio. Here commenced a scene of barbarity 
 which that place had never before witnessed. Seven hundred 
 of the peaceable citizens were seized and imprisoned. Three 
 hundred of them were confined during the night of the 20th of 
 August in one house, and during the night eighteen of them 
 died of suffocation. From day to day the others were shot, 
 without any form of trial ! The cruelty of the Spanish com- 
 mander went even further. He had a pTison for females. It 
 occupied the site of the present postoffice of San Antonio, and 
 was tauntingly called the Quinta. Here were imprisoned five 
 hundred of the wives, daughters, and other female relatives, 
 of the patriots ; and, for being such, they were compelled daily 
 to convert twenty-four bushels of Indian corn into the Mexi- 
 can cakes called tortillas , for Arredondo’s army. After thus 
 having satisfied his appetite for blood and revenge, the royalist 
 commander found an opportunity, about the first of September, 
 to collect and bury the bones of Salcedo and his staff. By 
 this time, Elisondo, who had proceeded as far as the Trinity 
 in pursuit of the fugitives, returned, driving before him on foot 
 the widows and orphans of those he had there slain. The 
 property of the patriots was all confiscated.! 
 
 * Foote, vol. i., p. 192. 
 
 f Colonel Navarro’s account, as furnished me by F. Giraud, Esq. In 1822, 
 Governor Trespalacios, in crossing the Medina, on his way to Bexar, passed over 
 the battle-field of the 18th of August, 1813. It was strewn with human bones. 
 He had them collected, and buried with military honors. On a large oak he 
 placed a tablet with this inscription: “Here lTe the braves who, imitating 
 
 THE IMMORTAL EXAMPLE OF LEONIDAS, SACRIFICED THEIR FORTUNES AND LIVES, CON- 
 TENDING against tyrants.” — Navarro. 
 
ANNEXATION OF WEST FLORIDA TO LOUISIANA. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XI Y. 
 
 From 1808 to 1815, Spain had no diplomatic intercourse 
 with the United States.* The gigantic policy of Napoleon 
 had, for the time, blotted her out from the list of nations. It 
 will be remembered that she still held possession of East Flor- 
 ida, and claimed West Florida, as also Texas ; while the Uni- 
 ted States likewise claimed the two latter provinces by virtue 
 of the purchase of Louisiana. While Spain was thus over- 
 whelmed at home, her possessions in America were either in a 
 state of open revolt, or subject to fall into the hands of any of 
 those powers with whom the mother-country was at war. 
 
 The people of West Florida assembled in convention at Ba- 
 ton Rouge, on the 26th of September, 1810, declared their in- 
 dependence, and transmitted their declaration to the United 
 States, requesting to be taken under their protection.! The 
 Congress of the Union having authorized President Madison, 
 on the happening of certain contingencies, to take possession 
 of the country, he accordingly issued his proclamation, and, on 
 the 27th of October following, directed Governor Claiborne to 
 annex West Florida to the then territory of Orleans,! which 
 was done. 
 
 By the joint resolution of Congress of the 15th of January, 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xi., p, 54. 
 f lb., vol. vii., p. 482, et seq. 
 
 Vol. I. — 12 
 
 % lb., p. 480. 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 1811, the president was fully empowered, in the event of an 
 attempt of any foreign power to occupy any part of East Flor- 
 ida, to take possession of the same for the United States.* 
 We have already seen what was done in Texas. In Mexico, 
 the war still continued. The vigorous conduct of Calleja, who 
 for his services had been appointed viceroy, had rendered the 
 royal cause victorious over the entire country, with the excep- 
 tion of Guanaxuato, V alladolid, and Zacatecas. Morelos, how- 
 ever, summoned a congress at Chilpanzingo, which published a 
 declaration of independence. But the political movements in 
 Europe, on which the ability of Spain to support her cause in 
 Mexico depended, had become more favorable. Bonaparte, at 
 the close of 1813, was compelled to restore the Spanish crown 
 to Ferdinand YII. ;f and, by the treaty of April 11, 1814, the 
 former renounced the sovereignty of France, and retired to 
 Elba. This enabled Spain to concentrate her forces against 
 her rebel colonies. 
 
 In the meantime, Toledo had temporarily left his headquar- 
 ters at Gaines’s ferry, and was engaged in the United States 
 collecting forces, arms, and assistance, for the prosecution of 
 the war in Mexico. The Mexican Congress had sent Manuel 
 Herrera as commissioner to the United States, to represent the 
 interests of the Mexican republicans. He brought with him 
 blank commissions, which, unfortunately, he distributed to per- 
 sons of every character and nation 4 Generals Toledo and 
 Humbert, however, succeeded in raising a small force, together 
 with supplies of ammunition and provisions, which they trans- 
 ported to El Puente del Rey, between Yera Cruz and Jalapa. 
 This place was fortified by the republicans. Morelos, hearing 
 of this arrival, and being sorely pressed by the royalists, set 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xi., p. 391. 
 
 f Treaty of Vallen§ay, December 8, 1813. 
 
 t American State Papers, yol. xi., p. 56. 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW INVASION. 
 
 1T9 
 
 out on his march to join Toledo ; but on the way he was cap- 
 tured and shot.** With the death of Morelos, the revolutionary 
 cause languished for some years. 
 
 Notwithstanding this ill success, efforts were not wanting, in 
 the southwestern portion of the American cenfederacy, to get 
 up a campaign against Texas. Many of the leading republicans 
 of Mexico, ,being compelled to fly their country, took refuge 
 in the United States. Their condition and recitals naturally 
 increased the sympathy felt for their cause. The peace of 
 Ghent gave leisure to the adventurers of the latter country, 
 and their attention was turned to Texas. True, this province 
 had again fallen into the hands of Ferdinand VII. ; but, in the 
 various disputes and collisions between the United States and 
 Spain, the people of the former had acquired a thorough con- 
 tempt for the house of Bourbon. The triumphs of Bonaparte 
 had broken the charm of idolatry which had so long hung over 
 this corrupt and imbecile line of kings. Indolence and inter- 
 marriages had deprived them of energy, liberality, and wis- 
 dom ; and, though they still held the nominal sovereignty of 
 New Spain, their power had departed for ever. 
 
 It was through the influence of the Mexican clergy, who 
 were directly dependent upon Spain, that the first effort at 
 revolution failed. It needed, then, only a diversion of that 
 influence to rekindle the flame, and consume the last vestige 
 of European authority in Mexico. 
 
 Those most influential in getting up a second invasion of 
 Texas were Jose Alvarez de Toledo, Julius Caesar Amazoni, 
 Vincent Gamble, John Robinson, Romain Very, Pierre Soeme- 
 son, Bernard Bourdin, and Colonel Perry. All these, except 
 the last-named, were indicted in the United States district court 
 of Louisiana, in 1815, for a violation of the neutrality of the 
 
 * Niles's Mexico, p. 149. 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Union.* This had a tendency to check their movements. But 
 Colonel Perry, though vigilantly watched, made his way, with 
 a few followers, through Attakapas, to a point two leagues 
 west of the Sabine, where they assembled more. From this 
 point they embarked for the coast of Mexico, but adverse 
 winds compelled them to return. f 
 
 Perry was a. bold, active, and persevering officer, and not 
 easily discouraged by misfortune. He had shown this by re- 
 maining at San Antonio after the treachery of Gutierres ; and, 
 notwithstanding his narrow escape at the battle of the Medina, 
 his privations .in the retreat, and the difficulty of raising and 
 providing for troops, he still persevered in his intentions against 
 Mexico. As his movements are connected with the first occu- 
 pation of Galveston island, it will be necessary to refer to it. 
 
 From the discovery of the island in 1686, by the colony of 
 La Salle, until 1816, it had remained unsettled. A few roving 
 Carankawaes occasionally resorted to the western end of the 
 island for the purpose of fishing, but there were no human hab- 
 itations on it. In fact, there is reason to believe that, since 
 1686, it has more than doubled in extent, by the recession of 
 the waters of the gulf. In the beginning of the year 1816, it 
 was covered with long green grass, on which fed herds of deer. 
 It also abounded in serpents, from which it was called, by the 
 pirates of the gulf, Snake island. 
 
 Some of the piratical vessels of Barrataria had sailed into 
 Galveston bay, and made known the capacities of the harbor. 
 Don Jose Manuel Herrera, the minister of the Mexican patri- 
 ots to the United States, learning from them that it would 
 answer his purposes, took steps to have it occupied. Accord- 
 ingly, he sailed to the island on the first of September, 1816, 
 taking with him Don Luis Aury, who, as commodore of the 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xi., p. 307 f lb., p. 805 
 
OCCUPATION OF GALVESTON ISLAND. 
 
 181 
 
 fleet of the republics of Mexico, Venezuela, La Plata, and New 
 Grenada, commanded a squadron of twelve or fifteen small ves- 
 sels. On the 12th of September, a meeting was held, and a 
 government organized. Amy was chosen civil and military 
 governor of Texas and of Galveston island. He took the oath 
 of fidelity to the republic of Mexico ; the several branches of 
 public administration were arranged, the republican flag was 
 raised, and Galveston declared a part of the Mexican republic. 
 Prom this time until the 20th of October the minister and the 
 commodore were engaged in completing their system. Among 
 other provisions was one permitting Governor Aury, if he 
 should deem it necessary, to change his residence to Mata- 
 gorda, or any other more suitable place.* 
 
 The vessels of Aury were immediately sent out as privateers 
 to cruise against Spanish commerce ; and so active and ener- 
 getic were they in this business, that they completely swept 
 the Mexican gulf of the shipping of the mother-country. The 
 proof of this fact is to be found in the numerous complaints 
 laid before the government at Washington by the minister of 
 Spain. 
 
 But Galveston was likewise to be the rendezvous of a force 
 to operate by land. Xavier Mina, a native of Navarre, who 
 had distinguished himself in the peninsular war against the 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xji., p. 424; vol. xi., p. 345. Luis de Aury was 
 from New Grenada. He entered as a lieutenant in the navy of the republic, on 
 the 9th of June, 1813. On the 10th of August, 1816, he was appointed com- 
 mandant-general of the naval forces of New Grenada stationed at Carthagena. 
 To his generosity and intrepidity hundreds of men, women, and children, were 
 indebted for their safety at the memorable siege of that city, when with three 
 small vessels he broke the line of the royalist squadron of thirty-five sail, and 
 thus escaped the hands of the cruel Morillo. This was on the 6th of December, 
 1815. — lb., vol. xii., p. 410. The collector of New Orleans, in his official letter 
 of August 1, 1817, says: “The establishment at Galveston was recently made 
 there by a Commodore Aury, with a few small schooners from Aux Cayes — 
 manned in a great measure with refugees from Barrataria, and mulattoes.” He 
 does Aury injustice by confounding him with the Lafittes, as the facts will 6how 
 
182 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 French, being compelled to leave his country, fled to England, 
 whence, with fifteen officers, mostly Spanish, he sailed for the 
 United States. He seems to have brought with him a consid- 
 erable amount of funds. At all events, on the 27tli of Septem- 
 ber, 1816, with three vessels, containing about two hundred 
 troops, together with arms, ammunition, and military stores, 
 he -sailed to Port-au-Prince, with the view of emancipating 
 Mexico. General Toledo, hearing of the arrival of Mina at 
 Baltimore, proceeded to that city to consult with him. A de- 
 spatch from Don Jose Feurtes, the confidential minister of 
 the Spanish government at Havana, had been intercepted by 
 the patriots, from which they were informed that Spain would 
 not transfer the Floridas to the United States. On this intel- 
 ligence they based their intended operations. The two gener- 
 als were to meet at Port-au-Prince, and from that point make 
 a combined attack upon the Floridas, wrest them from Spain, 
 establish there a free government, and make them the asylum 
 of the unfortunate emigrants from New Grenada and Venezu- 
 ela, who, obliged to fly their country, were perishing in the 
 West Indies ; and, when the new government should be estab- 
 lished, ask its incorporation with the American Union. Such 
 was their plan, and, in accordance with which, Mina had sailed 
 for the place of rendezvous. Two causes prevented its execu- 
 tion : Mina was partly wrecked in a storm ; but, what was of 
 most importance, Toledo deserted him, and went over to the 
 king of Spain.* 
 
 This sudden change of affairs produced two results : it 
 caused Spain to agree to the cession of the Floridas to the 
 United States ; and Mina to sail to Galveston, for the purpose 
 of co-operating with Aury and Colonel Perry. Mina arrived 
 
 * Don Vicente Pazos to President Monroe. American State Papers, vol. xii., 
 p. 502, et seq. 
 
AFRICANS SMUGGLED INTO THE UNITED STATES. 183 
 
 at Galveston on the 24th of November, 1816.* Texas at this 
 time was in a deplorable condition. San Antonio, prostrated 
 and ostracised by the war of 1812-’13, was nearly deserted ;f 
 the people of Nacogdoches, fugitives from their homes, were 
 wandering on the frontiers of Louisiana.^ In the entire prov- 
 ince there were not more than two hundred Spanish troops. 
 Galveston alone, so lately occupied, seemed to be in a pros- 
 perous condition — prosperous, because fed by the industry of 
 Governor Aury’s privateers. Unfortunately for Aury, he had 
 taken into his service some men of bad character, who did not 
 confine themselves to depredations against Spanish commerce. 
 Three or four American vessels, engaged in a lawful trade, be- 
 came victims to their cupidity. Governor Aury had on the 
 island his court of admiralty, in which he sat as judge. Among 
 the prizes taken were many Spanish slavers. The slaves were 
 brought into Galveston. It became a question of some impor- 
 tance what to do with them. The new government had no use 
 for them ; there were no purchasers for them in Texas ; it 
 would not do to return them to the enemy ; and it was a viola- 
 tion of the laws of the United States to introduce them there. || 
 The latter alternative, however, as most profitable and conve- 
 nient, was adopted. There were two modes of transferring 
 these captive negroes into the United States : one by water, 
 through the bayou La Fourche ; the other by land, from Point 
 Bolivar to Bayou Bceuf and Alexandria. The Barratarians, 
 who had engaged in the service of Aury, undertook the former 
 mode. They were well acquainted with all the outlets of the 
 Mississippi, and likewise with the inhabitants of La Fourche. 
 Those of Louisiana wishing to purchase would repair to Gal- 
 
 * Kennedy, History of Texas, vol. i., p. 291. 
 
 f American State Papers, vol. xi., p. 346. \ Bean’s Memoirs. 
 
 |j Letter of Vicente Pazos. American State Papery yoL ii, p. 416. 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 veston, the mouth of the Sabine, or Calcasieu, and engage the 
 lot they wanted, which were afterward driven to them by night. 
 Those introduced by land were purchased by companies, brought 
 to a customhouse-officer in Louisiana, and denounced as imports 
 ed Africans. They were then sold under the law by the mar- 
 shal, repurchased by the company, who as informers obtained 
 half of the purchase-money, and by them resold to the planters. 
 The price of negroes at Galveston was a dollar per pound, or, 
 on an average, one hundred and forty dollars per head.* 
 
 The rich and valuable prizes brought into Galveston sup- 
 ported the establishment handsomely. The troops and officers 
 were regularly paid at the end of every month. Provisions 
 and munitions of all kinds were readily procured from New 
 Orleans. General Bernardo Gutierres, as agent at Natchito- 
 ches, was promptly supplied with funds. f The government of 
 Aury kept up a regular correspondence with the patriots in 
 Mexico, through the port of Nautla. 
 
 The chiefs at Galveston consisted of Aury, military and civil 
 governor of Texas, with a command of three or four hundred 
 men, besides his privateers ; Colonel Perry, stationed at Boli- 
 var point, with about one hundred men ; and Xavier Mina, with 
 some two hundred more. Each of the commanders, ambitious 
 of distinction, and bound to obedience by no superior authori- 
 ty, manifested more or less jealousy of the others. The object 
 of the latter two was to invade Mexico, but in this project they 
 did not have the hearty co-operation of Aury. Nevertheless, 
 preparations were made for the invasion. In March, 1817, 
 
 * Letter of John J. Bowie to De Bow’s Review, 1853. The three Bowies — 
 Reson, James, and John — made sixty-five thousand dollars in this trade. On 
 one occasion, in 1818-19, a lot of negroes escaped from James Bowie, on the 
 route to Alexandria They were perhaps taken off by the Indians. He pur- 
 sued them to the upper waters of the Colorado, but the Indians became so hos- 
 tile, that he returned without effecting his object 
 
 f American State Papers, vol. xi, p. 346. Kennedy, vol. i., p. 293. 
 
CAPTURE OP SOTO LA MARINA. 
 
 185 
 
 one of Aury’s privateers captured a Spanish vessel from Tam- 
 pico, and from its correspondence learned of the defenceless 
 condition of Soto la Marina, a town standing on an elevation, 
 on the left bank of the Santander, about sixty miles from the 
 mouth of the river. The three commanders immediately de- 
 termined to take possession of that place. Accordingly, on 
 the 6th of April, they sailed, with their entire naval and mili- 
 tary force,* and the town fell into their hands without oppo- 
 sition. 
 
 It is proper here to remark that, in this expedition, Colonel 
 Perry disclaimed the authority of Aury, and placed himself 
 under the command of Mina. Aury, after landing the force, 
 disgusted with what he chose to call the insubordination of his 
 co-ordinate chiefs, left them and returned. 
 
 General Arredondo, commandant-general of the northeastern 
 internal provinces, receiving intelligence of this invasion, took 
 measures to raise a large force for meeting it. Mina, after 
 fortifying and arming his position at Soto la Marina, was 
 ready to march into the interior, his force consisting of only 
 three hundred men. Colonel Perry, after declaring that the 
 force was too small to effect anything, and that to advance 
 would end in their destruction, determined to abandon the ex- 
 pedition. He did so, taking with him about fifty of his men.f 
 
 General Mina, although left with so small a force, was in no 
 wise discouraged, and set out on his march. On the 8th of 
 June, 1817, he gained a victory, at Valle de Mais, over four 
 hundred cavalry. At Peotillos, on the 14th, he defeated an 
 army of seventeen hundred men ; but in this last battle his loss 
 in killed and wounded was fifty-six. On the 18th, he took 
 Real de Rinos with its garrison of three hundred men ; and, 
 
 * Letter of Vicente Pazos. American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 409. 
 f Kennedy, vol. i., p. 296. 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 after various successes and reverses, he was defeated and cap- 
 tured by General Orrantia, at Venadito, on the 27th of Septem- 
 ber, 1817, and by order of the viceroy Apodaca was shot at 
 Kemedios on the 11th day of November.* 
 
 We will now return to Colonel Perry. He set out on his 
 march by land to return to the United States. For three hun- 
 dred leagues he was compelled to traverse the territory of the 
 enemy. Shortly after his departure from Soto la Marina, the 
 forces of Arredondo attacked and recaptured that town, while 
 a detachment of two hundred royalist cavalry was despatched 
 in pursuit of the retreating republicans. Unconscious of this 
 enemy in his rear, Perry advanced to La Bahia, the scene of 
 so many battles with Salcedo. He immediately demanded the 
 surrender of the garrison ; but, while the necessary negotiation 
 was in progress, the royalist cavalry came up. The garrison, 
 encouraged by this unexpected aid, sallied out of the fort ; and 
 Perry found himself engaged, in front and rear, by an enemy 
 of five times his own numbers. He continued the unequal con- 
 flict, however, until every one of his men had fallen ! Seeing 
 himself thus helpless, the intrepid soldier blew out his own 
 brains with his pistolf — thus ending his life as did his gallant 
 commander Magee, at the same place, five years before. 
 
 Let us now recur to Galveston. Jean Lafitte, it appears, 
 was the eldest of three brothers, natives of Bordeaux in France. 
 At an early age he ran away from home, and joined a British 
 vessel-of-war. His father pursued him, and brought him back. 
 He absconded the second time, and joined the British frigate 
 Fox. Here, after serving for some time, he deserted, and 
 went to live with a French family at Deptford. He did not 
 remain long in this family, but, finding quarters in a vessel 
 for South America, he took passage, and went to Carthagena, 
 
 * Kennedy, vol L, pp. 298, 299. 
 
 f lb., p. 297. 
 
LAFITTE — THE BUCCANEERS OF BARR AT ARIA. 
 
 187 
 
 and afterward to Santa Martha, which last-named place he for 
 a time made his home. Here he managed to fit out a priva- 
 teer, with which he often visited the coasts of the United States, 
 particularly Charleston. But, having killed a rival in an affair 
 of the heart, he left that port, and frequented the West India 
 seas.* In the year 1807, the United States laid an embargo 
 upon foreign commerce, which offered great temptation to per- 
 sons of easy virtue to engage in illicit trade. New Orleans 
 afforded a good market ; while the various bays, lakes, and 
 bayous, about the mouth of the Mississippi, furnished a secure 
 retreat and means of smuggling. 
 
 The island of Grand Terre, situated about sixty miles from 
 the delta of the Mississippi, stands in the entrance of a lake 
 behind it, which connects by a narrow pass on each side of the 
 island with the gulf of Mexico. The surface of the island is 
 undulating, and covered with a small growth of wood, and its 
 waters abound in turtle and fish. Previous to its occupation 
 by the buccaneers, it was uninhabited, but frequented by fish- 
 ermen. About the year 1810 or 1811, it was selected as the 
 rendezvous of individuals of various nations, who, driven from 
 their homes by the wars which for so many years had ravaged 
 Europe and America, had engaged in a clandestine and lawless 
 trade. f From the nature of this traffic, the island soon ob- 
 tained, by general consent, the name of Barrataria.% Though 
 there were many leaders engaged in this business, and con- 
 nected by no other tie than that of plunder, yet Jean Lafitte, 
 from the superiority of his privateers, his prudence in their 
 
 * Such is the account given of Lafitte by his favorite lieutenant, “ Jim Camp- 
 bell.” — United Service Magazine , 1852. 
 
 f Proclamation of President Madison, February 5, 1815. 
 
 t From barat (an old French word), signifying strife , deceit ; hence barratry 
 (in commerce), any species of cheating or fraud, in a shipmaster, by which the 
 owners or insurers are injured — as, by running away with the ship, &c. — Web- 
 8ter t in loc. 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 management, and the completeness of his arrangements, soon 
 acquired over the other chieftains of Barrataria an authority 
 and power nearly absolute. His two brothers, Pierre and 
 Henri, or Antoine, were located at New Orleans, and acted 
 as his factors in disposing of his prizes, and in furnishing him 
 with supplies. So adroitly did Jean manage this business, 
 that, though his brothers were often brought within the clutches 
 of the law, he always escaped. In addition to his other ad- 
 vantages, he had interested in his business many of the princi- 
 pal merchants and traders in and about New Orleans. Thus, 
 in a year or two, the honest and fair traders of that city were 
 greatly injured, and the public morals so corrupted, that the 
 state of Louisiana was well-nigh disgraced.* 
 
 To correct this state of things, Governor Claiborne, on the 
 15th of March, 1813, issued a proclamation, commanding the 
 Barratarians to disperse. Failing in this, the governor then 
 offered a reward of five hundred dollars for the head of Jean 
 Lafitte. The daring freebooter replied by an offer of fifteen 
 thousand dollars for the head of his excellency ! The latter, 
 seeing his authority thus set at defiance, sent a company of 
 militia to Barrataria, to break up the establishment. Unfor- 
 tunately, it was commanded by one of Lafitte’s old captains. 
 Lafitte surrounded them, loaded them with presents, and sent 
 them home.f All these steps being reported to President 
 Madison, Commodore Patterson, of the United States navy, 
 was ordered, early in 1814, to destroy the establishment. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 11th of June, 1814, the commodore left 
 New Orleans, accompanied by Colonel Ross and seventy-one 
 
 * Report of the grand-jury of the United States district court of Louisiana, 
 July 28, 1814. 
 
 \ Pe Bow’s Review, 1851, and United Service Journal, 1852. The author of 
 the article in De Bow is certainly not much acquainted with the Texan portion 
 of Lafitte’s history. 
 
LAFITTE IN THE UNITED STATES SERVICE. 
 
 189 
 
 picked men of the 44th regiment, United States infantry. He 
 took with him the schooner Caroline and the United States 
 gunboats at the Balize. On the morning of the 16th he reached 
 Barrataria. The town consisted of about forty houses, of dif- 
 ferent sizes, badly constructed, and thatched with palmetto. 
 The vessels of the freebooters consisted of six fine schooners 
 and one felucca, as cruisers, and one armed schooner, under 
 Carthagenian colors. The rovers came out to meet the com- 
 modore, and formed their vessels into line of battle, having 
 mounted on them twenty pieces of cannon, and exhibiting a 
 force of eight hundred or a thousand men. But when they 
 saw the commodore determined, and still advancing, they aban- 
 doned the place and fled, concealing themselves in the numer- 
 ous morasses of the surrounding country. The commodore re- 
 turned to New Orleans on the 23d of June, bearing with hiip. 
 the vessels and spoil of Barrataria. 
 
 This expedition so crippled the freebooters, that they could 
 only operate afterward with great secrecy. The war between 
 the United States and Great Britain prevented further attempts 
 against them. They were, however, approached by the British 
 in a different manner. On the 3d of September, 1814, Captain 
 Lockyer, commander of his majesty’s man-of-war Sophia, put 
 in to the shore at Barrataria, and offered Lafitte the rank of 
 post-captain in the British navy, the command of a frigate, and 
 thirty thousand pounds sterling, to join his majesty’s forces. 
 Lafitte asked two weeks’ time to consider the proposal, giving 
 the captain some hope, however, that he would accept it. 
 
 The next day, Lafitte enclosed the written propositions to 
 Governor Claiborne, writing him also a polite letter, tendering 
 his services to the United States, on condition that he and his 
 adherents should be protected from further interruption. The 
 offer was accepted ; and Lafitte and his men, stationed at the 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 guns near the levee , on the 8th of January, 1815, did such ser- 
 vice as to call forth a general pardon from the president of the 
 United States.* 
 
 The vigilance of the government, and the promises of La- 
 fitte, prevented him from re-establishing himself at Barrataria. 
 After a visit to Washington city, in which he squandered his 
 wealth with princely profusion, he endeavored to establish his 
 headquarters at Port-au-Prince, f but failed. "While he was 
 wandering over the gulf of Mexico with his adherents, Aury 
 sailed from Galveston on the expedition against Soto la Ma- 
 rina ; and, in a few days afterward, the island was occupied 
 by the buccaneers of Lafitte. 
 
 The number of his followers on the island was about forty 
 persons. On the 15th of April, 1817, the captains and owners 
 of vessels then present, consisting of Louis Itourribarria, Louis 
 Derieux, A. Pironneau, John Ducoing, Kousselin, Rd. Espagnol, 
 and Bartholomew Lafon — seven in all, Lafitte not choosing to 
 have his name used — met on board the schooner Carmelita, for 
 the purpose of taking the necessary oath of fidelity to the Mexi- 
 can republic. Derieux, as commandant, was duly sworn by 
 Itourribarria; the others were severally sworn by Derieux. 
 Having reduced this proceeding to writing, they signed it, and 
 filed it as an evidence of the existence of a government at Gal- 
 veston. 
 
 By the 20th of the month, other sailing-craft had come in ; 
 and, after due notice given, all the captains and owners of ves- 
 sels assembled on board the schooner Jupiter, and proceeded 
 to choose officers, and lay down such rules of government as 
 they required. Derieux was confirmed as military command- 
 ant, Pironneau was appointed adjutant commandant, Ducoing 
 
 * Dated February 6, 1815. 
 
 f Letter of Collector Chew ; American State Papers, vol. xi., p. 351. 
 
LAFITTE’S CONNECTION WITH BEAN. 191 
 
 judge of admiralty, Rousselin administrator of the revenue, 
 Espagnol secretary of the public treasury, and Jean Jannet 
 marine commandant of the place.* 
 
 The laws established by the buccaneers consisted of regula- 
 tions concerning the mode of distributing the gains of their 
 profession, and the payment of the officers’ salaries. 
 
 This new government had not the odor of legitimacy which 
 attached to that of Aury. The latter was duly appointed by 
 Manuel Herrera, commissioner from the Mexican republicans 
 to the United States ; and Herrera certainly received his ap- 
 pointment from President Morelos. f Whether with or without 
 the sanction of Aury, the Lafitte government stipulated for the 
 payment of all the old debts of Aury’s administration, provided 
 the creditors were not non-residents. This clause had the 
 happy effect of withdrawing from Aury’s banners such of his 
 followers as held claims against the old government. J 
 
 The extent of Lafitte’s authority as a cruiser will appear 
 from a statement of his connection with Colonel Ellis P. Bean. 
 In the latter part of 1814, Bean was despatched by General 
 Morelos, the then president of the revolutionary party in Mex- 
 ico, on a mission to the United States, to procure aid for the 
 patriot cause. At the port of Nautla, Bean found one of La- 
 fitte’s vessels, Captain Dominic master, and, informing him of 
 his business, was taken on board, and landed at Barrataria. 
 Here Bean saw Lafitte, and imparted to him the object of his 
 mission. The buccaneer-chief conducted him by a near way 
 to New Orleans ; and, upon an invitation from General Jack- 
 son, with whom Bean was an old acquaintance, the latter took 
 command of one of the guns at the levee on the 8tli of January, 
 and fought by the side of Lafitte in that battle. It was from 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xi., pp. 358, 386, et teq. 
 f See Bean’s Memoirs. \ See Appendix No. 8. 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Colonel Bean that General J ackson received a detailed account 
 of the conduct of the Barratarians on that day. Lafitte, being 
 pardoned, and hoping for more honorable employment through 
 the agency of Colonel Bean, furnished a fine schooner to trans- 
 port the latter, and the munitions he had procured, back to 
 Nautla. There is no doubt but that Bean gave Lafitte a com- 
 mission to cruise against the enemies of the Mexican republi- 
 can party ; but, whether this commission was given before or 
 after the battle of New Orleans, is uncertain. We are also in- 
 formed, from Colonel Bean’s letters, that this appointment was 
 afterward confirmed by the republican authority in Mexico.* 
 
 * These facts are collected from Colonel Bean’s letters to Captain William 
 Shaw, his uterine brother (MS.). 
 
RETURN OF AURY TO TEXAS. 
 
 193 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 Commodore Aury, having returned to the coast of Texas 
 about the 10th of May, 1817, put in at Matagorda bay, for the 
 purpose of making preparations to remove his government to 
 that point ; and, after spending some days at this place, he 
 proceeded to Galveston. At his departure from the island on 
 the 5th of April, he had burnt and destroyed all the houses 
 and cabins, leaving only an advice-boat and his collector, Pedro 
 Rousselin. But when he returned, he found the Lafitte gov- 
 ernment in “Tull blast,” and his collector Rousselin occupying 
 the same office in the new administration ! He found also that 
 the place had degenerated into a nest of pirates ; that the pri- 
 vateers cared little for the nationality of the vessels they met 
 with on the sea, provided the cargo was valuable ; and that, 
 although Ducoing was pretending to act as judge of admiralty, 
 yet his decisions were dictated by the captors, who, unless it 
 suited their interest or convenience, would not even furnish 
 him with a paper on which to form a judicial opinion.* Aury, 
 to acquit himself of the charge of being connected with these 
 offenders, addressed a letter to Manuel Herrera, the Mexican 
 minister, dated July 21, 1817, informing him that he had for 
 the present determined to abandon Galveston, that he had 
 
 * Letter of Captain Charles Morris, of the navy : American State Papers, voL 
 xi., p. 376. 
 
 VOL. I.— 13 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 taken Rousselin the collector with him, and that all proceed- 
 ings there after the 31st of July would be without his consent. 
 He addressed a similar letter to Beverly Chew, the collector 
 at New Orleans, on the 28th of the month.* 
 
 But Aury did not remain long at Matagorda. When Toledo 
 deserted the patriots and went over to the royalists, he com- 
 municated to the Spanish government the designs of the former 
 upon Florida. Spain then concluded to cede that province to 
 the United States. Of this fact the patriots received intima- 
 tion, and took immediate steps to conquer the territory in ques- 
 tion before Spain should part with it. The agents of the re- 
 volted colonies of Venezuela, New Grenada, Mexico, and La 
 Plata, then at Philadelphia, on the last day of March, 1817, 
 commissioned Sir Gregor M‘ Gregor to take immediate posses- 
 sion of both the Floridas.f Accordingly, on the 30th of July 
 following, he took possession of the small island of Amelia, 
 lying on the west of the peninsula, between the mouths of the 
 St. John and St. Mary rivers. Aury, getting news of this, 
 hoisted sail, taking a final leave of Texas, and went to assist 
 M‘ Gregor in his conquest . J 
 
 By the close of the year 1817, the followers of Lafitte on 
 Galveston island had increased to nearly a thousand men. 
 They were of all nations and languages — refugees from justice 
 and victims of oppression, who had fled from their own coun- 
 tries, and, hearing of his prosperous state, came hither to find 
 employment. Lafitte made a show of fair dealing, and obtained 
 commissions from some of the revolted colonies of Spain ; but, 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. xii., p. 423 ; ib., vol. xi., p. 355. 
 
 f See his commission, American State Papers, vol xii., p. 421. 
 
 % Ib., pp. 408, 409. Aury, after serving the cause of the patriots for some 
 years, returned to New Orleans, and, being a fine-looking man, married a rich 
 widow. Some time after, however, they separated; and, as late as 1845, he was 
 tesiding at Havana. — United Service Journal , 1852. 
 
THE BUCCANEERS — RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 
 
 195 
 
 though lie assumed to act as a privateer, he was in reality a 
 pirate, and so were his chief men. The names of Dominic, 
 Jim Campbell, Churchill, Franks, Roach, Lambert, Marotte, 
 Pluche, Giral, Felix, Lopez, and Brown, his active lieuten- 
 ants, were a terror to the commerce of the gulf of Mexico.* 
 Complaints of their rapacity were repeatedly made at Wash- 
 ington city ; and the authorities of the United States would 
 have broken them up, but for the Spanish minister. The 
 island of Galveston was claimed by both governments ; and 
 the jealousy of Spain would not suffer that the United States 
 should disperse the buccaneers from their haunt, lest the latter 
 power should afterward hold it on her own account. f On the 
 other hand, as Spanish commerce suffered ten times as much 
 by their depredations as that of any other country, if that gov- 
 ernment was willing to submit to it, of course, the United 
 States ought not to object ! In fact, Lafitte’s men inflicted on 
 Spanish commerce in the gulf a blow from which it has never 
 recovered. It was a retributive justice visited upon that na- 
 tion for her bigoted adherence to the royal exterminating order 
 of Philip II. They had sown to the wind, and had reaped the 
 whirlwind ! 
 
 About this time, Texas was reinforced by a party of French 
 under General Lallemand, of the artillery of the imperial 
 guard. After the second restoration of the Bourbons, several 
 of the military officers of Napoleon retired for safety to the 
 United States. They were kindly received ; and a large tract 
 of the public lands in Alabama was given them, on condition 
 of their cultivating there the vine and the olive. They were 
 not, however, successful. Some of them, attributing the failure 
 to the climate, sought one more favorable. Among these were 
 Generals Lallemand and Rigaud. They were about a hundred 
 
 * United Service Journal, 1852. f American State Papers, voL xii., p. 11. 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 in number ; and, proceeding up Galveston bay and Trinity river, 
 they settled at the first high land. After erecting a fort, they 
 prepared for cultivating the soil. But the scarcity of provis- 
 ions, the privations they underwent, and the jealousy of the 
 Spaniards, soon induced them to return to Galveston, where 
 they added grace and elegance to the society of Campeachy. 
 General Lallemand returned to the United States, to furnish 
 them with an excellent treatise upon artillery. Many of his 
 followers remained upon the island, and probably others pro- 
 ceeded to New Orleans. They were on excellent terms with 
 the Indians, and it is probable that, if they had not been inter- 
 rupted by the Spaniards, they would have ended their days at 
 the Champ (TAsile y the significant name given by Lallemand 
 to their settlement. 
 
 Lafitte was a well-formed, handsome man, abont six feet two 
 inches in height, strongly built, with large hazel eyes, black 
 hair, and generally wore a mustache. He dressed in a green 
 uniform and an otter-skin cap. He was a man of polite and 
 easy manners, of retired habits, generous disposition, and of 
 such a winning address, that his influence over his followers 
 was almost absolute. He located his town on the ruins of 
 Aury’s village, built him a house, which he painted red, and 
 threw up around it a fort. Very soon many other houses were 
 erected. His followers, who had wives or mistresses, brought 
 them there, and society at Galveston, whatever may be said 
 of its morals, began to have all the elements of permanency. 
 Through New Orleans they were supplied with building-mate- 
 rials and provisions ; a “ Yankee” boarding-house sprang up ; 
 and, to complete the establishment, they constructed a small 
 arsenal and dockyard.* 
 
 * United Service* Journal. The knowledge we have of Lafitte’a establishment 
 was acquired through the agents of General Long, who visited him in 1819, and 
 were entertained by him with great hospitality for some weeks. 
 
BATTLE OF THE u THREE TREES.” 
 
 197 
 
 The Cooshattie Indians, who, out of regard to the Spaniards, 
 had emigrated west as far as the banks of the Trinity, were 
 constant visiters at Galveston. So likewise were the Caran- 
 kawaes, who sometimes resorted to the west end of the island. 
 On one occasion, some of Lafitte’s men stole away one of their 
 best-looking squaws, and detained her. Determined to have 
 revenge, the Indians sought an opportunity, when a party of 
 the buccaneers were hunting down on the island, and killed 
 four of them. 
 
 When the Indians came over from the main land, they left 
 their canoes in an inlet on the bay-side, and encamped at the 
 “Three Trees.” This fact was soon known at Campeachy 
 (the name Lafitte had given his town), and preparations were 
 made to attack them. They were about three hundred strong. 
 Lafitte marched against them with two hundred men and two 
 pieces of artillery. The battle consisted of repeated skirmishes, 
 and lasted two or three days. The Indians were at length 
 compelled to retreat to the main land, with a loss of thirty 
 killed, and a large number wounded. Lafitte lost none of his 
 men, but had many wounded with arrows. The Carankawaes 
 once again ventured to come on the island while Lafitte was 
 there, but fled on the approach of his men sent against them. 
 It was this conduct of the pirates toward these Indians that 
 afterward made the latter so hostile to the Texan colonists 
 under Austin. 
 
 The condition of the settlements on the frontiers of Louisi- 
 ana, and the other states bordering on Florida, had now become 
 such, that an immediate treaty of limits was indispensable. 
 Spain having announced her willingness to part with the Flori- 
 das, the main difficulty was in settling the boundary between 
 Louisiana and Texas. The United States proposed the Colo- 
 rado : Spain proposed a line near Red river. In the discus- 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sions between the two governments in 1808, Mr. Pinkney had 
 offered, as a consideration for certain territory, that the United 
 States would guaranty to Spain her possessions west of tho 
 Mississippi. At that time Spain did not want that guaranty ; 
 but in 1818, the Spanish government, as a condition of the 
 cession, insisted upon this guaranty, which the United States 
 refused. This point being settled, the American government 
 first proposed, in lieu of a guaranty, to make a desert of twenty 
 leagues west of the Colorado. It then modified it by propo- 
 sing that for thirty miles on each side of that river no one 
 should be permitted to settle. The cabinet of Madrid wisely 
 refused such a proposition, but whether with a wise motive is 
 doubtful. At last, the Sabine was agreed on as the boundary- 
 line between the two nations, and the treaty was signed on the 
 22d of February, 1819.* 
 
 This treaty, though ratified by both governments, was unsat- 
 isfactory to many, inasmuch as it bartered Texas — to which 
 they considered that the United States had a just claim — for 
 Florida, which they did not esteem as valuable. As it was a 
 fundamental maxim with the United States never to relinquish 
 any part of her territory, the demurrers to the treaty consid- 
 ered the abandonment of Texas to Spain as a violation of that 
 maxim, and of the constitutional integrity of the Union. This 
 dissatisfaction continued, and was only allayed by the disrup- 
 tion of Texas from Mexico in 1836, and her reannexation to 
 the Union in 1845.f 
 
 * American State Papers, edition of 1834, vol. iv. ; Foreign Relations, vol. iv., 
 p. 517, et seq. 
 
 \ Henry Clay (speech of April 3, 1820), speaking of the cession of Texas to 
 Spain, said it was unconstitutional, as being beyond the treaty-making power in 
 the government. Robert J. "Walker (letter to the people of Carroll county, Ken- 
 tucky, in 1844) says it was a violation of our treaty of 1803 with France, by 
 which we pledged ourselves to that nation, as well as to the people of the terri- 
 tory, to incorporate them into the Union. 
 
OCCUPATION OF TEXAS UNDER GEN. LONG IN 1819. 199 
 
 The province of Texas, unconscious of these negotiations of 
 the high contracting parties, and prostrated by the Gachupin 
 war and the terrible visitation of the conquerors, had almost 
 relapsed into a state of nature. But preparations were making 
 at Natchez to bring her again to life. A public meeting was 
 held in that place early in 1819, and a company of volunteers 
 raised for the invasion of Texas. The command was tendered 
 to Dr. James Long, formerly of Maury county, Tennessee. He 
 had been a surgeon in Carroll’s brigade at the battle of New 
 Orleans, and at the close of the war had settled at Natchez, 
 where he was pursuing his profession. He accepted the com- 
 mand, and, on the 17th of June, set out on his march with 
 a force of seventy-five men,* continuing his course without 
 opposition to Nacogdoches. On the route he had received 
 large additions to his party, so that at Nacogdoches he mus- 
 tered a force of about three hundred men. Among them were 
 Colonel Samuel Davenport (the contractor in Magee’s expedi- 
 tion), Bernardo Gutierres, and other refugees from Texas, who 
 sought this opportunity of returning to their country, from 
 which they had been absent about six years. 
 
 On arriving at Nacogdoches, General Long and the leading 
 patriots established a provisional government, controlled by a 
 supreme council. This council was composed of Horatio Big- 
 elow, Hamlin Cook, Stephen Barker, John Sibley, Samuel Dav- 
 enport, John G. Burnett, J. Child, Pedro Procello, and Ber- 
 nardo Gutierres. The council issued a declaration, proclaim- 
 ing Texas to be a free and independent republic.! They then 
 proceeded, in a few days, to pass such laws in regard to their 
 organization, the raising of revenue, and the disposition of the 
 
 * Foote, vol. i., p. 203, et seq. 
 
 \ Mr. Foote says, in his account of the affair, that the council met on the 22d 
 of June, and declared their independence the next day. This must be an error, 
 if they left Natchez on the 17 th. 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 public lands, as their present necessities required. Among 
 their land-laws, they provided for the sale of lands on Red 
 river at not less than one dollar per acre, and other lands far- 
 ther in the interior at prices corresponding with their quality. 
 One fourth of the purchase-money was to be paid in cash, and 
 the balance in annual instalments. They also established a 
 printing-office, the first in Texas, of which Mr. Bigelow was 
 the editor. 
 
 The next step taken was to occupy the country. David 
 Long, a brother of the general, was despatched with merchan- 
 dise to the upper crossing of the Trinity, to trade with the 
 Indians. Major Smith, who had come with a command of forty 
 men, by way of Galveston, was stationed at the Cooshattie vil- 
 lage on the Trinity. Captain Johnson was sent to establish a 
 trading-post at the falls of the Brasos. Captain Walker, with 
 twenty-three men, was despatched to fortify the position a mile 
 below the present town of Washington ; and Major Cook was 
 sent to Pecan point.* 
 
 Having made these dispositions, General Long was desirous 
 of obtaining the aid of Lafitte. He accordingly despatched 
 Colonel Gaines and another person to Galveston, to lay the 
 matter before him. Arriving at Anahuac, they procured ca- 
 noes, and coasted to the island. They were conducted to the 
 “ Red House,” where, as previously remarked, they were re- 
 ceived and treated with great hospitality by the pirate-chief. 
 They made known the object of their mission, but received no 
 aid. Lafitte informed them that General Long had his best 
 wishes for his success ; that he himself had been engaged for 
 eight years in waging war against the royalists of Spain ; but 
 that the fate of Perry, Mina, and others, should be a warning 
 against an invasion by land except with a considerable force. f 
 
 * Foote, vol. L, p 205. 
 
 f United Service Journal. 
 
DEFEAT OF THE REPUBLICANS. 
 
 201 
 
 General Long, believing that a personal application to the 
 buccaneer would meet with greater success, set out himself to 
 visit Galveston. At the Cooshattie village, however, he re- 
 ceived intelligence of the approach of the royalists, under 
 Colonel Perez. He immediately despatched orders to his out- 
 posts to concentrate at the Cooshattie village, and hastened on 
 his journey to Galveston. 
 
 During the general’s absence, Major Cook, who had returned 
 from Pecan point, and been placed in command of Nacogdo- 
 ches, resumed his old habit of drunkenness. His example was 
 readily followed by the republican garrison ; and thus the post 
 was rendered an easy prey to the enemy. General Long, meet- 
 ing with no success at Galveston, returned to the Indian village 
 before mentioned, where he was informed, by a letter from his 
 noble wife, then at Nacogdoches, of the rapid approach of the 
 royalists, and the wretched condition of the forces under Cook. 
 
 In the meantime, the royalists, on the 11th of October, 1819, 
 attacked the trading-post of Captain Johnson on the Brasos, 
 and took eleven of the party prisoners ; while the others, seven 
 in number, fled down the river to Walker’s fort, at La Bahia 
 crossing. They were pursued by three hundred and fifty of 
 the enemy, who, on the 15th, attacked the fort, and drove the 
 republicans out of it. The latter fled, leaving their arms, bag- 
 gage, and provisions. 
 
 While the retreating forces of Walker and Johnson, about 
 thirty-five in all, were making their way to the Cooshattie vil- 
 lage, the royalists set out to attack the trading-post of David 
 Long, on the Trinity. After a gallant defence, Long was 
 killed, and his forces fled to Nacogdoches. They were pur- 
 sued : but when the royalists entered the place, they found it 
 entirely evacuated. General Long had barely time to escape 
 with his family to the Sabine 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 At Nacogdoches Colonel Perez sent a detachment of his men 
 in pursuit of the fugitives, while with the main body he marched 
 against the republicans under Major Smith, at the Cooshattio 
 village. Smith, with the addition of Walker’s and Johnson’s 
 commands, had about seventy-five men. Hearing of the ad- 
 vance of Perez, he retreated to a prairie on the river, about 
 forty miles below the village, but was pursued, and a consider- 
 able battle was fought, in which there were several killed on 
 both sides, but the republicans were routed and fled. The 
 greater portion of them obtained canoes, and passed over the 
 Trinity to Bolivar point, where they awaited the further orders 
 of General Long. The latter, after conducting his family to 
 Natchitoches, passed down, by way of Calcasieu, to Bolivar 
 point, where he met the remnant of the republican army.* 
 Here he established a fort, and fortified it. In this work he 
 had the aid of Colonel Trespalacios. Having completed his 
 arrangements, he repaired to New Orleans to obtain further 
 reinforcements and supplies. 
 
 To return to Captain Lafitte. In 1819, he was taken into 
 the service of the republican party of Mexico, and appointed 
 governor of Galveston. But he soon got into a difficulty with 
 the United States. A ferocious character, by the name of 
 Brown, had applied to Lafitte to be taken into his service. 
 After some hesitation, he was received, but with the express 
 understanding that, if he interrupted the commerce of any other 
 nation than Spain, he should be hanged. In October, 1819, 
 Brown left the island, in command of two armed boats, and 
 shortly after robbed an American vessel near the Sabine pass. 
 The boats were pursued and captured by the United States 
 revenue-schooner Lynx, Captain Madison, while the robbers 
 
 * James Bowie accompanied General Long in his first expedition. — United 
 Service Journal. 
 
Rrdfield Publisher 
 
 NewTffrk 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MOVEMENTS OF LAFITTE. 
 
 203 
 
 escaped to the land, and followed the coast to Bolivar point, 
 and thence went over to Galveston. The Lynx sailed down to 
 the island in pursuit of them. Lafitte, suspecting the object 
 of Captain Madison, performed his promise to Brown, and hung 
 him on a conspicuous gibbet. Captain Madison, seeing Brown 
 thus suspended, could not suppose that Lafitte, the polite re- 
 publican governor of Galveston, would harbor such men. He 
 therefore sent his lieutenant, M'Intosh, over to the island, to 
 demand Brown’s associates. They were promptly delivered 
 up. This conduct appeared satisfactory ; yet the Lynx still 
 hovered upon the coast. Lafitte, not wishing to be watched 
 so closely, addressed a note to Captain Madison, informing him 
 that Galveston belonged to and was in the possession of the 
 republic of Texas, and was made a port of entry on the 9th of 
 October, 1819 ; that he was appointed governor of the place ; 
 and that if the captain of the Lynx had any demands against 
 him or his people, to make them known, and they should be 
 attended to.* No further attention was given by the United 
 States to the movements of Lafitte until the following year. 
 
 In 1820, among other depredations committed by Lafitte’s 
 cruisers, an American vessel was taken, plundered, and scut- 
 tled, in Matagorda bay. A commission, consisting of Messrs. 
 Davis, Oliver, and Johnson, was sent by the United States to 
 examine into the affair. Their report was unfavorable to La- 
 fitte, which, together with the repeated complaints of the Span- 
 ish minister at Washington, induced the American government, 
 early in 1821, to despatch Lieutenant Kearney, with the brig 
 Enterprise, to break up the establishment at Galveston. La- 
 fitte went over the bar to meet the lieutenant, conducted him 
 to the “ Red House,” and treated him with that politeness and 
 
 * De Bow’s Review, October, 1861. This letter of Lafitte was dated Novem- 
 ber 1 , 1819. 
 
204 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 hospitality which, as the prince of freebooters, he knew so well 
 how to dispense ; but Kearney’s orders were positive, and were 
 communicated to Lafitte. The buccaneer, therefore, immedi- 
 ately prepared for his departure from the island. He paid off 
 his followers, supplied them with money, and gave them leave 
 to disperse. He then sent to New Orleans for William Coch- 
 rane, one of his trusty lieutenants, who repaired to Galveston 
 with sixty men. He had the Pride, his favorite vessel, got in 
 readiness ; and the very day he was to sail, General Long, with 
 Colonel Milam and other recruits, reached the island. Long 
 dined with Captain Lafitte ; and the next tide carried outside 
 the bar the Pride and other vessels comprising the fleet of the 
 renowned buccaneer-chief, who abandoned the shores of Texas 
 for ever.* 
 
 Before proceeding further with the movements of General 
 Long, it will be proper to refer to the more important features 
 of the Mexican revolution. 
 
 The viceroy Apodaca, w r ho superseded Calleja in September, 
 1816, found that the royalists had rather dispersed than con- 
 quered the republicans ; and, to win them back to their loyalty, 
 he adopted a mild and pacific policy. This had almost the 
 desired effect. The partisans of the revolution threw down 
 their arms and surrendered upon the mild terms of Apodaca. 
 This was so universal, that, with the exception of the country 
 between the capital and Acapulco, there was not a single re- 
 
 * Lafitte and Cochrane still continued to cruise against Spanish commerce for 
 some years. In 1822, the former visited Charleston. Cochrane was captured, 
 and thrown into the castle of San Juan d’Ulloa, off Vera Cruz, where he re- 
 mained till the close of the Mexican revolution, when he was received into the 
 service of the new republic, and rose to the rank of commodore. Lafitte occa- 
 sionally visited Sisal, and the island of Margarita, near the mouth of the river 
 Orinoco. He died at Silan, a town of Yucatan, about fifteen miles from Merida, 
 in 1826, and was buried in the Campo Santo of that place. — De Boic's Review , 
 October, 1851; United Service Journal , 1852; Letter of Thomas M. Duke, of 
 May , 1843, to F. Pinckard. 
 
GENERAL AUGUSTIN DE ITURBIDE. 
 
 205 
 
 publican remaining under arms. In an almost inaccessible 
 mountain on this road, however, the revolutionary chieftains 
 Guerrero, Asensio, and Colonel Bradburn (of Virginia, who 
 had gone to Mexico with Mina), had fortified themselves, and 
 with some fifteen hundred followers made occasional excursions 
 into the surrounding country. 
 
 For the purpose of reducing this last stronghold of the revo- 
 lutionists, the viceroy appointed General Iturbide to the com- 
 mand of the department of the south, and gave him a force of 
 three thousand veteran troops. lie had his headquarters at 
 Iguala, on the road to Acapulco, and about eighty miles from 
 the city of Mexico. 
 
 To have a better understanding of the events that followed 
 in Mexico, it is necessary to observe that a revolution had oc- 
 curred in Spain : the old constitution was re-established, and 
 the cortes had introduced many reforms among the Spanish 
 clergy. The intelligence of these important changes had but 
 recently reached Mexico, and produced great alarm among all 
 classes of the clergy ; and they found no difficulty in persua- 
 ding the lower orders of the people that the introduction of 
 such reforms into Mexico would be followed by the ruin of 
 their ancient religion !* The viceroy himself was opposed to 
 the peninsular reforms, and made no secret of his aversion to 
 their introduction into the colony. The Mexican press, more- 
 over, under the new liberty it enjoyed, declared that indepen- 
 dence of the mother-country was the only remedy against such 
 impending evils. 
 
 Iturbide, though by birth a native, was the son of European 
 Spaniards, and was capable of anything that would promote 
 his own ambitious views. He had distinguished himself in the 
 
 * Letter of James Smith Wilcocks, dated Mexico, October 25, 1821 : American 
 State Papers, Foreign Relations , vol. iv., p. 837. Ed. 1834. 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 royalist cause ; but he saw in the late revulsion of popular feel- 
 ing, and in his present position, that a change of sides would 
 be to his advantage. After forming his plans, and securing 
 the co-operation of the clergy, together with the aid of the 
 patriots Guerrero, Asensio, and Bradburn, he seized a million 
 of dollars of the king’s treasure, then on its way to Acapulco 
 for transportation, and issued his pronunciamento , drawn up at 
 Iguala. This document proposed the independence of Mexico ; 
 that the government should be a constitutional, limited mon- 
 archy ; that the crown should be tendered to the Bourbon fam- 
 ily in succession, commencing with King Ferdinand VII. ; if 
 they all refused, then the Mexican cortes should designate the 
 monarch ; and that the Roman catholic religion should be pro- 
 tected. 
 
 The pronunciamento was dated on the 24th of February, 
 1821. Iturbide sent a copy of the plan to the viceroy, for his 
 approbation. Apodaca, left to himself, would have concurred 
 in it ; but he was overruled by his council, and Field-Marshal 
 Lilian despatched with an army against Iturbide. The latter, 
 however, having the patriots, a good portion of the Spaniards, 
 and, above all, the clergy, on his side, had taken Acapulco, 
 and was on his march to Valladolid, before Linan left the capi- 
 tal. The whole country was soon in arms. The royalists 
 were everywhere defeated ; and those of them yet remaining 
 in the city of Mexico, suspecting the fidelity of Apodaca, pro- 
 ceeded, on the 5th of July following, to imprison him, and place 
 General Novella in the viceregal chair. 
 
 A few days after this event, Lieutenant-General Don Juan 
 O’Donoju, who had been sent out by the reformed government 
 of Spain as captain-general and political chief of Mexico, ar- 
 rived at Vera Cruz. Learning the state of things then exist- 
 ing, he wrote to Iturbide, applauding what he had done, and 
 
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 207 
 
 requesting an interview. It took place at Cordova ; and, on 
 the 24th of August, 1821, the two chieftains agreed to the plan 
 of Iguala, with some modifications, and signed and published 
 the treaty.* 
 
 Until intelligence could be received from Spain, a regency 
 of six persons was appointed, of which Augustin de Iturbide 
 was president ; and, until the assembling of a Mexican con- 
 gress, there was likewise appointed a legislative junta of five 
 persons, of which O’Donoju was a member. Thus the revolu- 
 tion in Mexico was accomplished ; and, by the refusal of Spain 
 to acknowledge the treaty of Cordova, she became independent. 
 
 General Long remained only a short time at Galveston after 
 the departure of Lafitte ; but, collecting his forces in transports, 
 he sailed down the coast to' the mouth of the San Antonio river, 
 and marched upon La Bahia. It appears that, in this expedi- 
 tion, the Mexican colonel Trespalacios was playing the part of 
 Gutierres : he was nominally in command. But, in order to 
 raise funds, Trespalacios and Milam, instead of landing at the 
 mouth of the San Antonio, proceeded on to Mexico. The forces 
 under Long took possession of La Bahia without difficulty. f 
 
 The proclamation of the treaty of Cordova put an end to the 
 royalists and the campaign. Yet it seems that Long and a 
 portion of his followers were taken prisoners and sent to the 
 city of Mexico. The general himself was set at liberty, and 
 then assassinated in the city. His men were released and sent 
 home on the 11th of November, 1822, at the instance of Joel 
 R. Poinsett. $ 
 
 The faithful wife of General Long remained at Point Bolivar 
 many months, awaiting her husband’s return. At last, receiv- 
 
 * American State Papers, vol. iv., Foreign Relations, p. 841, et seq. Ed. 1834. 
 
 \ This part of General Long’s history is quite contradictory. Kennedy, vol. i., 
 p. 300; Foote, vol. i., p. 216. 
 
 X Poinsett’s Notes on Mexico, p. 122. 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ing news of his death, she rejoined her friends in the United 
 States. 
 
 Thus, in 1822, Galveston was again desolate. The town of 
 Campeachy was laid waste, and the island only visited by oc- 
 casional hunters after Lafitte’s buried treasure. 
 
 We have herein traced the history of Texas through the dim 
 records of a hundred and thirty-six years, rarely finding in that 
 long period a congenial spot for human happiness. Ignorance 
 and despotism have hung like a dark cloud over her noble for- 
 ests and luxuriant pastures. But a new era is about to dawn 
 upon the province. Austin and Edwards are preparing for a 
 conquest more glorious than those of Napoleon, and infinitely 
 more useful to the world. 
 
THE AUSTINS. 
 
 209 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 If he who, by conquest, wins an empire, and receives the 
 world’s applause, how much more is due to those who, by un- 
 ceasing toil, lay in the wilderness the foundation for an infant 
 colony, and build thereon a vigorous and happy state ! Surely 
 there is not among men a more honorable destiny than to be 
 the peaceful founder and builder of a new empire. Such was 
 that of the younger Austin. His father, Moses Austin, was a 
 native of Durham, Connecticut. His life, like that of his son, 
 was one of enterprise. After marrying in Philadelphia, he en- 
 gaged in business in the lead-mines of Wythe county, Virginia. 
 His operations here proving unsuccessful, he removed to certain 
 mines situated in Washington county, Missouri, then forming 
 a part of Louisiana. It was about the beginning of the pres- 
 ent century that he departed for that point, taking with him a 
 small colony of emigrants and operatives.* 
 
 The great expenses of his establishment, and the generosity 
 of his disposition, again involved Austin in financial difficulties. 
 As he had lived for the first three or four years in Missouri 
 under the Spanish government, he had acquired a knowledge 
 of the customs, laws, and perhaps the language, of that people, 
 and had gained, withal, some information in regard to the 
 
 * Holly’s Texas, p. 282, et seq. 
 
 VOL. I.— 14 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS- 
 
 province of Texas. He had long cherished the idea of making 
 a settlement and bringing a colony to the country. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1820, he set out for the province, and in 
 December of that year reached Bexar. Making known his 
 object to the baron de Bastrop, with whom he had some pre- 
 vious acquaintance at New Orleans, he was introduced to Gov- 
 ernor Martinez, to whom he explained his projected enterprise. 
 
 A suitable memorial was drawn up, and, after being ap- 
 proved by the local authorities, was forwarded to the com- 
 mandant-general of the northeastern internal provinces.* The 
 memorial asked for permission to colonize three hundred fami- 
 lies. The commandant-general, Don Joaquin Arredondo, then 
 resided at Monterey, and the answer to the application would 
 necessarily require some time. Austin, unable to await the 
 result, left the baron de Bastrop to act as his agent in the 
 affair, and set out on his return from Bexar in January, 1821. 
 At that time the route from Bexar to the Sabine was an unset- 
 tled waste. In journeying over it, Austin was robbed and de- 
 serted by some who were travelling with him, and left to make 
 his way, as best he could, to the Louisiana settlements. The 
 exposure and fatigue were too much for him, but he reached 
 home in the spring. A cold, however, thus contracted, pro- 
 duced a disease of the lungs, of which he died on the 10th of 
 June, 1821. A few days before his death, however, he re- 
 ceived the welcome news of the success of his application to 
 plant a colony in Texas ; and one of his last injunctions was, 
 that his son, Stephen F. Austin, should consummate his enter- 
 prise.! 
 
 * Kennedy says that, when Moses Austin first presented himself to Governor 
 Martinez, he was treated as an intruder, and ordered to quit the province; and 
 while preparing to depart he met with Bastrop, who made known his merits 
 to the governor, had the order rescinded, and procured the granting of his me- 
 morial. — History of Texas , vol. i., p. 316. 
 
 f lb., p. 318. Lord Bacon lays it down as a general rule that he who has no 
 
SPANISH OATH OF NATURALIZATION. 
 
 211 
 
 Considering that this application of Moses Austin was made 
 while the Spanish authority was still predominant in Mexico, 
 his success was rather surprising. But it will be remembered 
 that it was after the revolution, in Spain, when the cortes was 
 re-established, and a much more liberal system adopted. 
 
 This first grant to found a colony in Texas, dated on the 
 17th of January, 1821, provided that the colonists should be 
 Roman catholics, or agree to become so before they entered 
 the Spanish territory ; that they should furnish undoubted evi- 
 dence of good character and habits, and take an oath of fidelity 
 to the king, to defend the government and political constitution 
 of the Spanish monarchy.* In addition, they were to be Lou- 
 isianians. 
 
 children is more patriotic than he who has; and for this reason, that the affec- 
 tion, which he would otherwise bestow upon his family, he gives to his country. 
 If the rule be true, it will apply to Austin, for he was truly the father of his colony. 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 319. The Spanish oath of naturalization will appear by 
 the following instance : — 
 
 ‘‘To the Senor Don Manuel de Salcedo, lieutenant-colonel of the royal army, 
 political and military governor of the province of Texas. 
 
 “In the town of Nacogdoches, on this day, month, and year before me I, 
 Don Jose Maria Guadiana, lieutenant of cavalry, and political and military com- 
 mandant of this town, by virtue of the commission which I hold from the gov- 
 ernor of this province, having called to my assistance, in default of the notaries 
 required by law, Anselmo Pereira and Manuel Delgado, came Don Samuel Dav- 
 enport and Don William Barr, residing in this place, and took a solemn oath of 
 fidelity to our sovereign, and to reside permanently in his royal dominions; and, 
 more fully to manifest it, put their right hands upon the cross of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and, being questioned by me, swore, each of them, before God and the 
 holy cross of Jesus Christ, to be faithful vassals of his most catholic majesty, to 
 act in obedience to the general and special laws of Spain and the Indies, hence- 
 forth abjuring all other allegiance or adhesion to any other prince or potentate 
 whatever, and to hold no correspondence with any foreign power without per- 
 mission from a lawful magistrate, and to inform against such as may do so, or 
 use seditious language unbecoming a good subject of Spain ; they severally swore 
 also to acknowledge, obey, and respect the lawful authorities, under the supreme 
 central junta, happily governing as under the authority of Don Ferdinand YIL 
 
 In faith whereof we sign, <fcc. 
 “ Assisting Witnesses. 
 “January 15, 1810." 
 
 “JOSE MARIA GUADIANA. 
 “ William Barr, 
 
 “Samuel Davenport. 
 
 [Translated, from MS. testimonio. ] 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Don Erasmo Seguin, who had been appointed by Governor 
 Martinez to notify Austin of the grant, and to see that its con- 
 ditions were executed, met Stephen F. Austin at Natchitoches, 
 and on the 5th of July, 1821, they both set out for San Anto- 
 nio.* After consultation with the governor, Austin furnished 
 him with a plan for the distribution of lands among the colo- 
 nists. It proposed to give to each man, over twenty-one years 
 old, six hundred and forty acres, with an addition of three 
 hundred and twenty acres for the wife, one hundred and sixty 
 acres for each child, and eighty acres for each slave. This 
 plan received the sanction of the governor on the 19tli of the 
 following month. Colonel Austin next proceeded to explore 
 the country watered by the Guadalupe, Colorado, and Brasos 
 rivers, for the purpose of discovering a suitable location for his 
 colony. He had a choice of the country, and the wisdom of 
 his selection has been fully approved. Having satisfied him- 
 self on his point, he returned to New Orleans, and advertised 
 for colonists upon the terms proposed in his contract. 
 
 Austin’s means were limited ; but he found a friend in New 
 Orleans, by whose liberality he was greatly aided. Through 
 J. L. Hawkins, the schooner Lively was fitted out with the 
 necessary provisions and implements for a colony, and in No- 
 vember sailed for Matagorda bay with eighteen emigrants on 
 board. Austin himself proceeded up Red river to Natchito- 
 ches ; thence, with other colonists, he continued his course to 
 the Brasos. They arrived at the old La Bahia crossing in 
 December. Austin sought along the coast for the Lively, but 
 
 * Austin was accompanied by Edward Lovelace, Neil Gasper, Henry Holstein, 
 William Little, Joseph Polly, James Beard, William Wilson, Dr. Hewitson, W. 
 Smithers, and Messrs. Belew, Beard, Marple, Barre, and Erwine. These were 
 the tirst of the three hundred colonists. They reached the Brasos on the 1st of 
 August, 1821, and San Antonio on the 12th of that month. — Letter of Guy M 
 Bryan , July 1, 1852. 
 
Austin’s colonization. 
 
 213 
 
 she was never heard of more The want of the provisions and 
 implements on board this vessel reduced .the colonists to great 
 straits. In the meantime, James Austin, a brother of the em- 
 presario , had reached the colony; and the two brothers, with 
 twenty others, set out for San Antonio, to make a report to 
 the governor. They arrived there about the middle of March, 
 1822.* 
 
 The news of Austin’s intended colony had spread over the 
 western country. The love of adventure, and the desire to 
 find comfortable homes, excited quite a spirit of emigration. 
 About the middle of June, 1821, and before Austin had made 
 his selection, several families at Pecan point, in Arkansas, 
 started for the Brasos, and on the first of January, 1822, en- 
 camped at the crossing of the old San Antonio road, two miles 
 above the mouth of the Little Brasos. Here they found the 
 families of Garrett and Higgins, who had reached the crossing 
 a few days before them, and were engaged in erecting cabins. f 
 
 Before this, however, on the western bank of the Colorado, 
 opposite the present town of La Grange, had settled Buckner 
 and Powell. :£ During the summer of 1822, among other emi- 
 grants to Austin’s colony were Philip Dimmitt, Jesse Burnham, 
 and Robert Kuykendall— names well known among the pio- 
 neers of Texas. 
 
 On reaching San Antonio, Austin was surprised to learn that, 
 on account of the recent changes in Mexico, it would be neces- 
 
 * Guy M. Bryan’s letter of July 1, 1852; Kennedy, vol. i., p. 323. 
 
 f Among the emigrants from Pecan point was the Cherokee John Williams. — 
 Dewees’s Letters from Texas , p. 23, et seq. It is probable that Garrett and Hig- 
 gins were the first settlers on the Brasos. This is, however, claimed for Andrew 
 Robinson, who settled near the present town of Washington. Dewees, who was 
 one of the Pecan-point emigrants, says (page 24) : “ About the time of our arrival 
 here, a few families settled below us on this river, near the old La Bahia cros- 
 sing.” 
 
 \ Letters from Texas, p. 80. A creek, emptying into the Colorado opposite 
 La Grange, perpetuates the fact that he was thero first 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sary for him to proceed to the capital, to obtain from the Mexi- 
 can Congress a confirmation of his contract, with instructions 
 and details relative to the formation and government of his col- 
 ony. However unprepared he might have been for this jour- 
 ney, yet such was his zeal for the consummation of his great 
 object, that he immediately set out. Leaving the affairs of the 
 colony in care of Josiah PI. Bell, he started, in company with 
 Dr. Robert Andrews and one other person, to perform this long 
 journey by land, through a country infested with Indians and 
 robbers. When two days out from San Antonio, they were 
 attacked and robbed by the Camanche Indians ; but after suit- 
 able explanations — the Indians learning that Austin was an 
 American — their property was restored, and they were per- 
 mitted to proceed.* They reached the city of Mexico on the 
 29th of April, and found the political affairs of the nation in 
 great confusion. 
 
 The plan of Iguala (of the 24th of February, 1821), and the 
 treaty of Cordova (of the 24th of August following), guaran- 
 tied protection to the Roman catholic religion, which satisfied 
 the clergy ; the independence of the kingdom, which satisfied 
 the leading creole aristocracy ; and the indissoluble union be- 
 tween the Europeans and Americans, which satisfied the Span- 
 iards.! But there was no guaranty for the liberty of the great 
 masses. This the latter desired and expected ; but Iturbide, 
 the ruling spirit among them, had not the most distant idea of 
 granting such a boon. It was manifest, then, that the form of 
 government he had adopted could not stand the ordeal of de- 
 liberate public opinion, even in Mexico. Without reciting the 
 details of occurrences which happened between the treaty of 
 Cordova and the assembling of the first Congress — which lat- 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 324; Holly, p. 156. 
 
 t Letter of J. Smith Wilcox< American State Papers, vol. iv., Foreign Rela- 
 tion s, p. 837, 
 
THE FIRST MEXICAN CONGRESS. 
 
 215 
 
 ter event occurred on the 24th of February, 1822 — it will suf- 
 fice to say that Iturbide and the Congress quarrelled. The 
 majority of the representatives were in favor of a republic, and 
 Iturbide desired a monarchy. It was, indeed, an unfavorable 
 period to secure the attention of the government to the subject 
 of founding colonies in a distant province ; yet that attention 
 was solicited and obtained. 
 
 Austin was not the only person in the Mexican capital seek- 
 ing such contracts. Hayden Edwards, General James Wilkin- 
 son, Robert Lefwitch, and Green Dewitt, were also there. To 
 these may be added the Cherokee chiefs Bolles, Nicollet, and 
 Fields, who came, not to obtain a contract, but a grant of lands 
 for their tribe, lately emigrated to eastern Texas. 
 
 Hayden Edwards, a wealthy and intelligent gentleman from 
 Kentucky, having brought his family to Louisiana, left them 
 there, and repaired, early in 1822, to the Mexican capital, to 
 procure the concession of a large amount of lands in eastern 
 Texas. He kept an open house, and used freely his ample 
 means to forward the great object of founding a colony. Gen- 
 eral Wilkinson thought, no doubt, that his conduct in the affair 
 of Burr would entitle his claims to consideration. In regard 
 to the Cherokees,* their wants were different. This powerful 
 nation of Indians was once the owner of a territory embracing 
 more than half of what is now the state of Tennessee, the south- 
 ern part of Kentucky, the southwest corner of Virginia, a con- 
 siderable portion of the two Carolinas, a large part of Georgia, 
 and the northern region of Alabama ! Between the period of 
 the American Revolution and that of which we now write, the 
 Cherokees had, by voluntary and forced sale, parted with the 
 greater portion of their territory ; and that which remained to 
 them was claimed by the state of Georgia and other states : so 
 
 * Tsalakee is the proper name. See American Encycloptedia, in log. 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that they found no other means of postponing their destruction 
 than by a total abandonment of their haunts in the American 
 Union. A large number of them, under the direction of the 
 above-named chiefs, had come to find a home in Texas. It is 
 due to truth and justice to declare that, during the present 
 century, the Mexican people have treated the claims of the 
 Indian with more respect and consideration than have been 
 shown by the United States. Their motives for this we will 
 not inquire into. The business of the Cherokees was soon 
 adjusted. They had already entered into an agreement* with 
 Don Felix Trespalacios, by which they were permitted to enjoy 
 the lands on which they had settled in common. The agree- 
 ment was confirmed by Iturbide on the 27th of April, 1823, 
 with the understanding that the Indians were to retire farther 
 into the interior, and that no additional families of them should 
 immigrate till the publication of the general colonization law.f 
 So many applications induced the appointment of a commit- 
 tee, who reported in favor of a general colonization law. The 
 bill before the Congress was about to receive the final sanction 
 of that body, when, on the morning of the 31st of October, 1822, 
 Iturbide (who had previously caused himself to be declared 
 emperor) abruptly ejected and dispersed thcm.J The emperor, 
 after an apology to the Mexican people for this high-handed 
 measure, called a congress, or junta , of forty-five members, 
 
 * This agreement bears date of November 8, 1822. 
 
 f Order of April 27, 1823, to Felipe de la Garza, commander-in-chief of the 
 northeastern internal provinces, in the archives of the general land- office. 
 
 \ Kennedy, vol. i., p. 325. Poinsett’s Notes on Mexico, p. 63 : “ Soon after 
 the members assembled this morning, Brigadier-General Cortazar appeared in 
 the hall, and read the imperial mandate dissolving the Congress. He then in- 
 formed them that it was his majesty’s pleasure they should disperse forthwith, 
 and that, if they did not retire in ten minutes, he would be compelled, in obedi- 
 ence to superior orders, to drive them out of the hall. The president immedi- 
 ately directed that the order should be spread on the journals of Congress, and 
 called upon the general to sign it , ichich he did, and the members retired.” 
 
MEXICAN COLONIZATION LAW. 
 
 217 
 
 nominated by himself. This body, in pursuance of the wishes 
 of Iturbide, shortly afterward prepared and passed a new colo- 
 nization law, which received the imperial sanction on the 4th 
 of January, 1823. As this exhibits the general features and 
 conditions of those subsequently enacted, they may be here 
 properly referred to : — 
 
 1. The first step, being an abrogation of the royal extermi- 
 nating order of Philip II. against foreigners, is an agreement to 
 protect them in their liberty, property, and civil rights. 
 
 2. But, as a condition precedent, they must be such as pro- 
 fess the Roman catholic apostolic religion, the established re- 
 ligion of the empire. 
 
 3. To encourage the immigration of such, the government 
 will distribute to them lands out of the vacant domain. 
 
 4. Not less than a labor , or one hundred and seventy-seven 
 acres, will be given to each farmer ; and not less than one 
 league , or four thousand four hundred and twenty-eight acres, 
 to each stock-raiser.* 
 
 5. Immigrants could come on their own account, and receive 
 their lands, or be introduced through an empresario. 
 
 6. As an inducement to immigrants, they were to be free for 
 six years from the payment of all tithes, taxes, duties, Ac. 
 
 7. There was to be no sale or purchase of slaves, and the 
 children of slaves born in the empire were to be free at four- 
 teen years of age. 
 
 8. The empresario s , for each two hundred families they 
 should introduce, were entitled to fifteen leagues and two la- 
 bors, or sixty-six thousand seven hundred and seventy-four 
 acres of land ; but this premium could not exceed forty-five 
 
 * A labor is one thousand varas square, or one million square varas. A league 
 is five thousand varas square, or twenty-five millions of square varas. The lineal 
 vara is thirty-three and one third inches English measure. The lineal league is 
 two and twelve nineteenths miles. 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 leagues and six labors, whatever number of families should be 
 introduced. The empresario was, however, bound to have 
 such lands peopled and cultivated within twelve years from 
 the concession, and to sell or dispose of two thirds of it within 
 twenty years. 
 
 Such were some of the inducements held out by this general 
 law of Mexico to contractors and immigrants. The law hav- 
 ing passed, Austin was desirous of having a special confirma- 
 tion of his previous contract. In this respect, he found a use- 
 ful friend in Herrera, the former commissioner of the- Mexican 
 patriots to the United States, and now minister of foreign and 
 internal relations under Iturbide. The grant w~as accordingly 
 confirmed on the 18th of February, 1823.“ While Austin was 
 preparing to return to Texas, where his presence was greatly 
 needed, another revolution occurred in Mexico, which caused 
 him to postpone his journey. 
 
 The castle of San Juan d’Ulloa had still remained in the 
 possession of Spain. Iturbide was desirous of securing the 
 fortress by treaty. For this purpose he proceeded to Jalapa, 
 and requested the Spanish commandant of the castle to meet 
 him there. This the latter refused. f They then agreed on 
 the appointment of commissioners, who met at Yera Cruz, but 
 without coming to any conclusion. 
 
 General Echavarri was at that time commander of the south- 
 ern division of the empire, including Yera Cruz, and Santa 
 Anna was in command of the town. These two officers quar- 
 relled, and Echavarri preferred charges against Santa Anna. 
 The latter, who had been a great friend to Iturbide, and had 
 aided him in the revolution, immediately repaired to the court 
 of the emperor, at Jalapa, to answer the charges of Echavarri. 
 To his surprise, Iturbide treated him harshly, and dismissed 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 325. 
 
 f Poinsett’s Notes, p. 281. 
 
SECOND MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 
 
 219 
 
 him from his command at Vera Cruz. This fatal step ruined 
 the emperor. Santa Anna suddenly departed for Vera Cruz, 
 and reached there before the news of his dismissal. He pa- 
 raded his troops, denounced the emperor, and raised the stand- 
 ard of revolt. The people and troops, wearied with the op- 
 pression of the usurper, and disgusted with his treachery, soon 
 joined in the insurrection. Guadalupe Victoria, Guerrero, 
 and Bravo, all distinguished in the wars of the revolution, took 
 their places as leaders of the populace. Iturbide, alarmed, 
 and seeing the army and people all arrayed against him, re- 
 turned to the city of Mexico, and on the 8th of March, 1823, 
 called together as many as he could of the old Congress, and 
 tendered his resignation as emperor ; but a quorum of that body 
 not being present, they refused to act. At length, on the 19th 
 of March, seeing himself totally abandoned, Iturbide sent in 
 a letter of abdication to the Congress, and retired to Tulan- 
 cinigo. The Congress, which by this time had assembled, re- 
 fused to accept his resignation (as that would legalize his 
 usurpation), but permitted him to leave the country, upon an 
 annual allowance of twenty-five thousand dollars. He accord- 
 ingly embarked, with his family, for Leghorn, and thus left the 
 republicans of Mexico to manage the government of their coun- 
 try as they chose.* 
 
 The old Congress immediately established a provisional gov- 
 ernment, and appointed Bravo, Victoria, and Negrete, to act 
 as the executive for the time being. A new Congress, known 
 as the Constituent Congress , was called, which assembled in 
 
 * Iturbide, not satisfied to remain in Italy, proceeded to London; and thence, 
 in the summer of 1824, he set out on his return to Mexico. Although the Mexi- 
 can Congress had passed a decree of outlawry against him, he landed in disguise 
 at Soto la Marina on the 14th of July (1824); but he was betrayed and taken 
 by his old friend Don Felipe de la Garza, and delivered up to Bernardo Gutier- 
 ivs, who executed him at Badillos, on the 24th of the same month. — Kennedy 
 vol. i., p. 305 ; Forbes's Notes , MS. 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 August, 1823. They proceeded, among other things, to de- 
 clare the acts of the late emperor void. This decree rendered 
 it necessary to enact another colonization law. But, in the 
 meantime, Austin, unwilling to wait for this action of the re- 
 publican Congress, made an application to the executive for a 
 confirmation of his former grant. This confirmation was had 
 on the 14th of April, 1823, and the empresario returned to his 
 colony. 
 
 The Mexican revolution produced some alterations in the 
 internal organization of the country, to which it may be well 
 to refer. Previous to the revolution, the geographical divis- 
 ions of New Spain consisted of eleven intendencies and three 
 provinces ; but, by a decree of the sovereign junta, passed in 
 January, 1822, the empire was divided into six captaincies- 
 general.* The federal constitution of 1824, however, produced 
 an entirely different organization, which will be noticed here- 
 after. 
 
 The Constituent Congress were engaged, not only in re-enact- 
 ing a general or national colonization law, but also in maturing 
 a constitution. The former was passed on the 18th of August, 
 1824, and differed little from that of Iturbide, except that it 
 provided for the passage of special colonization laws by the 
 legislatures of the several Mexican states, and was quite gen- 
 eral and liberal in its terms. As a restraint upon speculation, 
 and to prevent a monopoly of the public lands, it was provided 
 by the twelfth section that there should not be united in the 
 same hands more than one league suitable for irrigation, four 
 leagues of arable land not irrigable, and six leagues of gra- 
 zing-land. 
 
 The federal constitution was not proclaimed till the 4th of 
 October, 1824. Before directing our attention to this cele- 
 
 * Poinsett’s Notes, p. 238. 
 
NACOGDOCHES — SAN ANTONIO — AUSTIN’S COLONY. 221 
 
 brated instrument, it will be well that we should notice the 
 progress of the settlement of Texas. 
 
 After the promulgation of the tfeaty of Cordova, the old 
 citizens of the towns of Nacogdoches and San Antonio, who 
 had fled for safety to Louisiana, gradually returned. In the 
 latter part of 1821, the town of Nacogdoches already contained 
 a hundred inhabitants : they were a mixed population of Span 
 iards, French, Americans, and free negroes. Captain Dill was 
 their worthy commandant.* The population of the place was 
 gradually increased by immigrants, even before it had become 
 the centre of a colony ; and many of the immigrants for Austin’s 
 colony, from one cause or another, were induced to stop at this 
 point and settle. 
 
 The large number of troops stationed at San Antonio caused 
 that place to flourish. In 1823, it is said that the population 
 amounted to five thousand. f Yet the Camanche Indians vis- 
 ited the town at their pleasure, and when there, were masters 
 of the place. They brought in dried buffalo-meat, deerskins, 
 and buffalo-robes, which they exchanged for sugar, beads, &c. 
 Their trading was carried on mostly with Americans, though 
 they were on good terms with the Mexican population. 
 
 The immigrants to Austin’s colony came in as fast as could 
 be desired. In fact, it was difficult for those already there to 
 raise a sufficiency of provisions to support the new-comers till 
 they, in turn, could cultivate the soil. Their privations in this 
 respect were great ; and they were often reduced to the neces- 
 sity of living on the proceeds of the chase alone, and to clothe 
 themselves with skins. 
 
 The chief trouble of the colonists, however, for the first three 
 or four years, was with the Carankawae Indians.^ This tribe, 
 
 * De wees’s Letters, p. 21. f lb., p. 34. 
 
 X “ Those of us who have no families of our own, reside with the families in 
 
222 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 occupying the coast opposite the colony, had been greatly ex- 
 asperated against the whites by the conduct of the Lafitte men. 
 Again, in 1821, after the pirate-chief had left Galveston, some 
 twenty persons, under the direction of Dr. Purnell, visited the 
 island- in search of supposed buried treasures. The company, 
 failing to discover the treasure, found that a hundred of the 
 Caraukawae Indians were at the “ Three Trees.” It appears 
 that a fine schooner had been run into the bay by pirates, and 
 there abandoned. The party of whites ascertained that the 
 Indians had visited the schooner, and had taken away the sails 
 and stretched them as an awning at the Three Trees. They 
 therefore concluded to attack them. Having made the neces- 
 sary preparations, they set out in time to reach a bayou, run- 
 ning into the pass, just at dark. They landed, and found the 
 Indians under the live oaks, dancing and singing. The com- 
 pany was divided into two platoons, and thus, marching up to 
 within forty yards of the Indians, opened the fire by platoon. 
 At the first discharge, the savages flew to their weapons, strung 
 their bows, and sent a shower of arrows in the direction of the 
 enemy. They soon, however, retreated into a swamp of high 
 grass, carrying off their dead and wounded. The Americans, 
 
 the settlement. We remain here, notwithstanding the scarcity of provisions, to 
 assist in protecting the settlement. We are obliged to go out in the morning, a 
 party of us, to hunt food, leaving a part of the men at home to guard the settle- 
 ment from the Indians, who are very hostile to us. Indeed, we dare not go out 
 to hunt, except in companies, as we are obliged to keep on the lookout, lest the 
 savages fall on us ; and one can not watch for them and hunt too. Game is now 
 so scarce, that we often hunt all day for a deer or turkey, and return empty- 
 handed. 
 
 “It would make your heart sick to see the poor, little, half-naked children, 
 who have eaten nothing during the day, watch for the return of the hunters at 
 night. As soon as they catch the first glimpse of them, they eagerly run to meet 
 them, and learn if they have been successful in their hunt. If the hunters re- 
 turn with a deer or a turkey, the children are almost wild with delight ; while, 
 on the other hand, they suddenly stop in their course, their countenances fall, 
 the deep, bitter tears well up in their eyes, and roll down their pale cheeks.” — 
 Dewees’s Letters (. December 1 , 1823), p. 43. 
 
INDIAN OUTRAGES. 
 
 223 
 
 with the exception of Purnell, escaped unhurt. He had an 
 arrow shot through his cap and the skin of his head, which, it 
 is said, he did not discover till the fight was over. The Ameri- 
 cans carried off a young Indian as prisoner.* 
 
 All these provocations rendered the Carankawaes hostile to 
 the colonists ; and they never failed, when the occasion offered, 
 to take revenge upon the innocent and defenceless. They are 
 described as being a very fierce and warlike tribe. They aver- 
 aged over six feet in height, and were stoutly built. Their 
 weapons were bows and arrows ; each warrior carrying a bow 
 of his own length, and so very strong, that but few Americans 
 could string them. It was said that they could shoot their 
 arrows with the accuracy of a rifle !f 
 In the summer of 1823, three young men, named Loy, Alley, 
 and Clark, went down the Colorado in a canoe for corn. The 
 Carankawaes were at that time encamped at the mouth of 
 Skull creek, and lay in ambush for the canoe as it returned. 
 When it came near enough, they shot and killed Loy and Al- 
 ley ; and Clark leaped into the river, and endeavored to escape 
 by swimming to the opposite shore. This he did, but received 
 seven wounds from their arrows. 
 
 The same evening, Botherton, another colonist, coming down 
 on horseback from the settlement, fifteen miles above, fell in 
 among these Indians. Thinking them to be a friendly tribe, 
 he was surprised, his horse and gun taken from him, and, as 
 he attempted to fly, was slightly wounded with an arrow. 
 
 News of these outrages reaching the settlement, a party of 
 fourteen men was raised that night, and they marched to the 
 Indian camp and surrounded it before daylight. Here they 
 lay till daybreak. When it became light enough for them to 
 see, they opened a murderous fire upon the savages, and suc- 
 * Statement of L. M. Choate, MS. f De wees’s Letters, p. 40. 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ceeded in killing nineteen out of twenty-one in the camp. The 
 Indians were so completely surprised, that they did not return 
 the fire.* 
 
 Again, in 1824, several of the immigrants had been cut off, 
 on their way from the mouth of the Brasos to the colony : and 
 the bodies of white men were found in the prairie. This was 
 correctly charged to the Carankawaes. To prevent a recur- 
 rence of such outrages, Colonel Austin ordered Captain Randal 
 Jones, with a company of twenty-three men, to proceed down 
 the Brasos, and along the coast as far as Matagorda bay ; and 
 should he learn that they had been concerned in those murders, 
 or discover in them any hostile designs, he was commanded to 
 attack them. Accordingly, in September, Captain Jones pro- 
 ceeded, with his company, by water, down to the mouth of the 
 river. Here they were visited by some of the Indians, who, 
 seeing their preparations, appeared quite friendly. At this 
 point Captain Jones learned that about thirty of the tribe were 
 encamped on Jones’s creek, a tributary of the San Bernardo, 
 and about seven miles distant : also that ten or twelve more 
 had gone to Bailey’s, higher up on the Brasos, to purchase am- 
 munition. Jones, on receipt of this information, sent two of 
 his company up the river, to raise additional force. These two, 
 arriving at Bailey’s, found eight or ten of the colonists already 
 collected there to watch the motions of the Indians sent for 
 ammunition. They perceived their designs to be so manifestly 
 hostile, that they attacked them the following morning at day- 
 break, killed some, and drove the others away. 
 
 Captain Jones, not waiting for the additional forces for 
 which he had sent, returned up the river, opposite to the Ca- 
 rankawae camp on Jones’s creek, and disembarked with his 
 company. Here they concealed themselves till evening, and 
 * Dewees’s Letters, p. 39. 
 
BATTLE OF JONES’S CREEK. 
 
 225 
 
 sent out spies to discover the locality of the Indian camp. The 
 spies, returning at midnight, did not give such description of 
 the locality as to enable them to proceed. Jones remained 
 quiet the next day, and just at sunset heard the howling and 
 war-whoops of the savages at their camp. This had been 
 caused- by the return of their comrades, who had on that morn- 
 ing been defeated at Bailey’s, and brought with them their 
 killed and wounded. 
 
 Having thus ascertained the situation of the Indian camp, 
 which was on the west bank of the creek, where it widens out 
 into a lake, before emptying into the St. Bernard, Jones con- 
 ducted his company across the creek, half a mile above their 
 camp, and came down on the west side. Arrived within sixty 
 yards of the enemy, the company halted to wait for daybreak. 
 So soon as it was light enough to see the sights of their rifles, 
 they discovered the Indian camp immediately on the margin 
 of the creek, surrounded by reeds and tall grass. Captain 
 Jones formed his men, and advanced rapidly to the attack. 
 Upon the first discharge, the savages concealed themselves in 
 the long grass, from which they returned the fire with balls 
 and arrows. The whites, being exposed, and having one of 
 their number killed and several wounded, retreated up the 
 creek, recrossed it, and retired in the direction of the settle- 
 ment. The Indians pursued them till they crossed the creek. 
 Just at this time, Captain Jones, observing an Indian pointing 
 an arrow at him, shot him down. Thus the engagement ended. 
 The whites lost, in killed, young Bailey, Singer, and Spencer ; 
 the Indians had fifteen killed : and there were some wounded 
 on both sides. The whites returned home, and the Indians 
 retreated west across the St. Bernard.* 
 
 About this period, another affair with the same tribe oc- 
 
 * Note from General Lamar, quoted by Foote, vol. i., p. 295. 
 
 Vol. I. — 15 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 curred on the Colorado. An old man by the name of White, 
 with two Mexicans, came round in a yawl from La Bahia to 
 the mouth of the Colorado to procure corn. They were taken 
 prisoners by the Indians at the mouth of the river. White, to 
 save his life, promised to go up the stream, purchase corn, and 
 come down to trade with them. Retaining the Mexicans and 
 the yawl, they permitted him to depart alone, with the under- 
 standing that he should set the prairie on fire, two miles above 
 the mouth of the river, on his return, that they might know 
 where to find him. White proceeded up the river, and re- 
 ported the facts in the settlement, when Captain Burnham 
 raised a company of thirty men, and marched down nearly to 
 the mouth of the river, where they found the two Mexicans 
 and the yawl. The Mexicans reported that the Indians were 
 either at the mouth of the river or on the peninsula across the 
 bay. Captain Burnham divided his company, half remaining 
 where they were, while the other half marched a mile farther 
 down. Those above gave the signal to the Indians by setting 
 the prairie on fire. In a short time, a large canoe, full of In- 
 dians, was seen coming up the river. When it arrived opposite 
 the lower half of the company, the savages were attacked, and 
 ultimately all killed.* 
 
 In a short time afterward, the Carankawaes, tired of this 
 unprofitable warfare, in which their numbers were rapidly melt- 
 ing away before the rifles of Austin’s colonists, sued for peace. 
 They proposed to meet Colonel Austin at La Bahia, and make 
 a treaty. The latter, collecting a hundred volunteers, met 
 them at the creek four miles east of La Bahia. Peace was 
 made, and the Indians obliged themselves not to come east of 
 the San Antonio. This pledge they ever after observed.! 
 
 * Dewees’s Letters, p. 50. 
 
 \ Foote, vol. i., p 29V ; Dewees’s Letters, p. 65. 
 
RETURN OF COLONEL AUSTIN. 
 
 227 
 
 These were days of want and peril in the colony ; yet its 
 members continued to toil, and their numbers were increased 
 by new immigrants. In April, 1822, the schooner Revenge, 
 Captain Shires, brought upward of eighty colonists. They 
 landed at Bolivar point, spent a night there, and looked at the 
 remains of Fort Bolivar, lately occupied by the forces under 
 Long. They .then proceeded up the bay, and ran aground on 
 Redfish bar. The passengers left the vessel, and went ashore 
 on the west side of the bay. From this point they proceeded 
 in search of homes. Two of them, Moses L. Choate and Colo- 
 nel Pettis, went up the San Jacinto river some ten miles above 
 its mouth, where they made, perhaps, the first improvement 
 ever effected on that stream.* 
 
 Early in the summer of 1823, Austin returned to his colony. 
 He stopped at Monterey, on his way back from the capital, to 
 ascertain from the captain-general of the northeastern internal 
 provinces the extent of his authority, and to have the same de- 
 fined. This was done, in the Spanish form ; and Austin was 
 declared to have full power to administer justice in the colony, 
 to make defensive war against the Indians, and to command 
 the militia with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In fact, he was 
 clothed with legislative, executive, and judicial powers, being 
 required to report his proceedings to the governor of the state, 
 and being responsible to the captain-general of the provinces.! 
 
 On his return to the colony, Austin proceeded to lay off a 
 town on the Colorado, eight miles above the Atasca sito cros- 
 sing ; but, after surveying the lots, he concluded to change the 
 location to the Brasos. Here, accordingly, he laid the foun- 
 dations of San Felipe de Austin , as the colonial town.J 
 
 The return of Colonel Austin infused new life into the col- 
 
 * Statement of M. L. Choate, MS. 
 
 f Kennedy, vol. i., p. 327. J Dewees’s Letters, p. 42. 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ony. The news of the confirmation of his grant, of the over- 
 throw of Iturbide, and of the prospect of a permanent republi- 
 can form of government, caused the colonists to believe that 
 they had homes — free homes — for themselves and their chil- 
 dren. They went to work to select and survey their lands. 
 Don Luciana Garcia, the governor of Texas, was friendly to 
 their interests-, and did all that he could to promote them. 
 On the 17th of July, 1823, he appointed the baron de Bastrop 
 commissioner to extend land-titles. Thus the governing sys- 
 tem of the colony was completed.* 
 
 Although Austin’s powers were almost absolute, he gov- 
 erned with parental mildness. His soul was absorbed in the 
 great business of the successful completion of his enterprise. 
 He was esteemed by each colonist, not so much as a ruler, as 
 a father and friend. By example and precept he inspired 
 them with a love of order and industry. True, he was often 
 annoyed by bad men, intruders in the colony ; yet his forbear- 
 ance, even in such cases, was great. When he found it'neces- 
 sary to use strong measures, and inflict wholesome lessons of 
 punishment or restraint, he did it, but with regret. 
 
 To illustrate this : in 1823 and 1824, the colony began to 
 be infested by robbers — men who had fled from justice in the 
 United States, and came to the colony with the hope of com- 
 mitting their depredations with greater impunity. At first, 
 they were pursued, the property reclaimed, and the robbers 
 whipped and turned loose. It was found that this only exas- 
 perated them, and caused them to add murder to robbery, in 
 order to prevent detection. Austin, on being appealed to, di- 
 rected the application of a more efficient remedy. An oppor- 
 tunity soon offered. Gorasco, a Mexican, with his servants, 
 was driving a caballada of mules through Texas to Louisiana. 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 327. 
 
PIONEER LIFE IN TEXAS. 
 
 229 
 
 After crossing the Colorado, they were attacked, and all mur- 
 dered, with the exception of a Mexican servant, who escaped, 
 badly wounded, to a settlement of the colonists. The robbers, 
 with their booty, proceeded toward Louisiana. As they were 
 crossing the Brasos, they were overtaken, and all instantly 
 killed except one, who escaped. The head of one of the 
 robbers was cut off and set on a pole, as a warning to like 
 offenders.* 
 
 These were rough times among the Texan pioneers. Yet 
 they were engaged in a good work, and met and overcame 
 difficulties with manly firmness. They had no other luxuries 
 than such as were afforded in beholding the loveliest natural 
 scenery, and in taking part in the stirring adventures of the 
 chase. The common dress of the men and children was made 
 of buckskin, and even the women were often obliged to wear a 
 like dress. Rarely were they able to obtain from some strol- 
 ling pedlar a piece of “ domestic,” or calico, at the high price 
 of seventy-five cents per yard.f 
 
 Austin was anxious to fulfil his contract, and introduce the 
 requisite number of families. As many young men and unmar- 
 ried persons came into the colony, he suggested the propriety 
 of their uniting in pairs, making one the head of the family, by 
 which means the two would obtain a family headright , and the 
 number of families be increased. This arrangement was made 
 in many cases, and with a fortunate result to all concerned.^ 
 
 * Dewees’a Letters, p. 53. 
 
 f lb., p. 45. 
 
 X lb., p. 49. 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Mexican federal constitution of 1824 — about which 
 so much has been said — -was formed upon that of the United 
 States, but with some fatal differences. Among the most im- 
 portant of these were — the absence of the right of trial by 
 jury ; the prohibition of any other than the Roman catholic 
 religion, and defining that as the faith of the nation ; making 
 Congress, instead of the courts, the final interpreter of the con- 
 stitution ; permitting the president, under any circumstances, 
 to command the armies of the republic in person ; and failing 
 to define more clearly the rights of the several states of the 
 confederacy.* 
 
 However, Congress, after a labor of five months, adopted 
 the instrument on the last day of January, 1824, though it was 
 not proclaimed until the 4th of October following. The newly- 
 created states also went to work to establish state constitutions, 
 and to organize under them. They labored under difficulties 
 which the states of our Union had not to encounter : ours were 
 states anterior to the compact — theirs were created by it: our 
 states were watchful, and jealous of their rights — theirs had 
 no rights, except such as the national government gave them ; 
 and, as the federal Congress alone had the right to construe 
 
 * The constitution of Mexico may be found in Edwards, Holly, and Kennedy, 
 and in Dewees’s Letters. 
 
TEXAS UNITED WITH COAHUILA. 
 
 231 
 
 the constitution, the states were entirely at its mercy. Yet, 
 after all, the success of any and all systems of government 
 must depend upon the intelligence of the governed. In this 
 particular, the citizens of the federation north were infinitely 
 superior to their southern brethren. The former had been 
 trained up under the healthy influences of Magna Cliarta , and 
 the vital principles of the common law, which, whatever may 
 be said of its clumsiness and want of flexibility, is the faithful 
 guardian of liberty. The latter, just emerged from the tyranny 
 of centuries, had but a dim idea of their civil rights, and often 
 confounded them with the wild liberty of nature. Their indi- 
 vidual rights were determined by the civil law, a system which, 
 whatever may be said of its elegant adaptation to equitable 
 rights, is the offspring of implicit obedience, and is utterly in- 
 applicable to a country of free institutions. 
 
 It will be remembered that, previous to 1824, Texas, as a 
 province, was in nowise connected with Coahuila. But, by the 
 second article of a decree of the Constituent Mexican Congress, 
 passed on the 7tli of May, 1824,* known as the “ Constitution 
 Act,” Coahuila and Texas, not being sufficiently populous to 
 form each a state, were united into one state, and known as 
 the state of Coahuila and Texas. This decree also provided 
 that, when Texas should possess the necessary elements for 
 that purpose, she should be admitted into the Mexican Union 
 as a separate state. 
 
 The first congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas was 
 duly installed on the 15th of August, 1824, at Saltillo, and 
 entered upon the discharge of its legislative duties. Provision 
 was made foi a temporary governor and council, the latter con- 
 sisting of a vice-governor and four other persons. The other 
 officers and authorities in the state were confirmed in their 
 
 * La Acta Constituiiva. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 power, and existing ordinances continued in force till further 
 laws were passed.* All the authorities — civil, military, and 
 ecclesiastic — and the soldiers and citizens of the state, were 
 directed and required to take an oath of fidelity to the state 
 and the Constituent Congress ; all of which was done, and the 
 installation of the congress celebrated by chanting a solemn 
 Te Deum in the churches, and public prayer offered for Divine 
 aid to guide its deliberations.! 
 
 Upon the organization of the new state, the political chiefs 
 of the former provinces of Texas and Coahuila ceased their 
 functions, and the archives of their offices were transferred to 
 the governor. But the distance of the executive from Texas, 
 and the necessity of having some one in the territory to guard 
 her interests, induced the congress of Coahuila and Texas, on 
 the 1st of February, 1825, to create a political authority, styled 
 “ Chief of the Department of Texas f to be appointed by the 
 governor, and be responsible to him ; to reside at Bexar ; to 
 watch over the public tranquillity ; to inflict punishments ; to 
 command the local militia ; to issue and examine passports ; to 
 preside over popular meetings and festivals ; to solve all doubts 
 raised by his subordinates ; to be the sole channel between his 
 subordinates and the government ; to see that the laws were 
 administered ; and to report, his proceedings and observations 
 to the governor 4 
 
 Don Jose Antonio Saucedo was appointed to this office, and, 
 as the first constitutional functionary placed over Texas, was 
 scarcely competent to fulfil its duties. The majority of the 
 citizens under his jurisdiction were colonists, mostly Ameri- 
 cans, toward whom his prejudices were such, that little favor 
 was to be expected at his hands. 
 
 * Decree No. 1, Laws of Coahuila and Texas. f lb., Decree No. 4. 
 
 $ lb., Decree No. 13. 
 
STATE COLONIZATION LAW. 
 
 233 
 
 In pursuance of the national colonization law, the state of 
 Coahuila and Texas, with a view to “ augment the number of 
 immigrants, advance the raising and increase of stock, and the 
 progress of commerce and the arts,” published her celebrated 
 decree of March 24, 1825. 
 
 This law provided that any foreigner, who should settle him- 
 self in the state, upon making proper application, and taking 
 the oath required, might designate the lands which the decree 
 allowed 1 him, and obtain a title to the same. The eighth arti- 
 cle, however, was the most important, as it provided for the 
 creation of empresarios , through whom any number of families, 
 not less than one hundred, might be introduced. By that arti- 
 cle it is made the duty of the governor, when a proper appli- 
 cation is made by one wishing to become an empresario , to 
 admit him, and immediately designate the lands whereon he 
 shall locate his colony.* Contracts made by the empresarios 
 with the families which should come at their expense, were 
 guarantied by the law. 
 
 There were two features in the colonization law which will 
 arrest attention. 1. In the distribution of lands, a preference 
 was given to Mexican citizens. When we look at the superi- 
 ority of the colonists over the natives, this clause was produc- 
 tive of constant jealousies. 2. The third article required for- 
 eigners, who wished to become colonists, to make a declaration 
 to that effect before the ayuntmniento of the place he should 
 select as his residence ; by which, in that case, he should be 
 sworn to obey the federal and state constitutions, and observe 
 the religion prescribed in the former. It is not unsafe to affirm 
 that, in the face of this law, nineteen twentieths of the colonists 
 of Texas neither observed nor believed in the religion pre- 
 scribed in the Mexican constitution ; and it may be further said 
 
 * Y Senalara luego a los capitulantes el terreno en que han de situarse. 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that they believed that constitution had no right to prescribe 
 any rule of faith on the subject. Men never become religious 
 by contract or compulsion. Yet such was the law. 
 
 However, under the state colonization law, empresarios and 
 immigrants flowed into Texas. On the 15th of April, 1825, 
 Robert Leftwich obtained a contract for two hundred families ; 
 three days afterward, Hayden Edwards secured one for eight 
 hundred families ; on the 4th of June, Austin obtained author- 
 ity to introduce five hundred families in addition to his first 
 concession ; and, on the 6th of October of that year, Green De- 
 witt contracted for three hundred families, and Martin de Leon 
 for one hundred and fifty more. In addition to these contracts, 
 emigrants under no contractor, and at their own expense, re- 
 moved to Texas, and obtained lands where they found selec- 
 tions to please them. Thus the year 1825 was the year of emi- 
 gration for Texas. It was an impulse of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race crowding westward. The land was rich and inviting, the 
 scenery was lovely, the climate unsurpassed. 
 
 Many of these immigrants, coming on their own account, 
 had settled on the Trinity. They applied to Governor Gon- 
 zales, praying to be admitted citizens of the state. He trans- 
 mitted their petitions to Colonel Saucedo, chief of the depart- 
 ment of Texas, directing him to inform them, through Stephen 
 F. Austin, that the lands they then occupied were about to be 
 colonized, and if, when that was done, they were found quali- 
 fied, they would be admitted.* This fact is referred to here, 
 because of the consequences resulting from it, to be noticed 
 presently. 
 
 Among the empresarxo contracts, as has been already men- 
 tioned, was that of Hayden Edwards. He was a gentleman 
 of high moral character, strict honor, and liberality. He had 
 
 * Governor Gonzales to Colonel Saucedo, May 19, 1825. 
 
GRANT OF HAYDEN EDWARDS. 
 
 235 
 
 devoted much of his time in Mexico in forwarding the general 
 colonization law. He had his colony greatly at heart, and had 
 expended thousands of dollars in getting up the 'enterprise. 
 The contract with the state was sufficiently liberal. It admit- 
 ted him as an empresario under the general state law. The 
 lands designated were bounded on the east by a line beginning 
 twenty leagues from the Sabine and ten leagues from the coast ; 
 thence through Nacogdoches, and fifteen leagues beyond it; 
 thence west to the Navasoto ; thence down this river to the 
 San Antonio road, and with this road to the San Jacinto; 
 thence down said river to within ten leagues of the coast ; and 
 along the coast, ten leagues from it, to the place of beginning. 
 This boundary included the fine lands of the Trinity, Neches, 
 and Angelina ;* and, with the exception of Austin’s grant, it 
 was perhaps the most desirable location in Texas. 
 
 Hayden Edwards, on receiving his grant, returned to the 
 United States, and requested his brother, Benjamin W. Ed- 
 wards, then at Jackson, Mississippi, to visit Texas, with a view 
 to aid him in building up his colony. The latter, complying, 
 proceeded immediately to the new state, and spent some months 
 with Colonel Austin, during which he conversed with him freely 
 on the subject of the great enterprise of peopling the country 
 with North Americans.! 
 
 Edwards labored under a disadvantage in regard to his col- 
 ony from which Austin was entirely free. The territory of the 
 former was in part occupied by Mexicans and the old settlers 
 on the “ neutral ground,” while that of Austin was unsettled. 
 The Mexicans about Nacogdoches had but recently returned 
 there, having fled, with Long, from the vengeance of Colonel 
 Perez. They were, to some extent, hostile to the Americans, 
 and entirely unwilling that an American should be placed over 
 
 * See the contract, in Appendix No. 5. f Foote, yoL i, p. 225. 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 them. Some of them, too, were bad men, who had fled to the 
 confines of Mexico to avoid the punishment due to their crimes. 
 Here they met many of a like class — heroes of the ^neutral 
 ground” — who, having no particular objection to Hayden Ed- 
 wards because he was an American, were opposed to all rules 
 and all subordination of any kind. With such men the latter 
 was compelled to deal in carrying out his contract. 
 
 Among the settlers found in Edwards’s colony was Colonel 
 Ellis P. Bean. After the death of Morelos, and the concilia- 
 tory propositions of Apodaca, the fires of the Mexican revolu- 
 tion had so far expired, that Bean left the country and visited 
 his native state. He reached the residence of his half-brother, 
 Captain William Shaw, in White county, Tennessc , in the 
 spring of 1818. After remaining here some time, he formed a 
 matrimonial alliance with a daughter of Isaac Midkiff. He 
 then emigrated with his family and father-in-law to Smackover 
 creek, in Arkansas. Here they settled, without a neighbor 
 within thirty: miles of them, and commenced raising stock. At 
 the end of three years, his father-in-law died. This event, to- 
 gether with the news of the liberation of Mexico, and the call 
 for colonists, induced Bean to come to Texas. He located 
 himself at the M&md prairie , the ancient town of Texas , and 
 obtained from the Mexican government, for his services, a 
 grant for a league of land, including his residence.* 
 
 At this place Bean resided quietly till the summer of 1825, 
 when he set out for Mexico. He reached the capital on the 
 18th of October, and remained there till the 21st of July, 1826. 
 Here he met his old companions-in-arms, and possessed himself 
 of a knowledge of the interesting events that had transpired in 
 the country during the past seven years. For his services in 
 the revolution he received, in addition to the grant of land 
 * Memoirs of Captain William Shaw, MS. 
 
JOHN DUNN HUNTER. 237 
 
 before mentioned, the appointment of colonel in the permanent 
 forces of the republic. 
 
 While in Mexico, Bean found there John Dunn Hunter, who 
 had been sent there by the Cherokee Indians, to endeavor to 
 procure for them the long-promised title to their lands.* They 
 did not succeed in obtaining anything more than vague prom- 
 ises. The government was willing to admit these Indians as 
 colonists, but would not grant them a body of land in commu- 
 nity. Hunter returned with the result to his people, which 
 greatly exasperated them. 
 
 Hayden Edwards, after making the necessary arrangements 
 in the United States for bringing on colonists, set out for his 
 new home, and reached Nacogdoches with his family about the 
 middle of October, 1825. The want of a conveyance prevented 
 him from reporting his arrival to the political chief, at Bexar, 
 before the 6th of January following. He then informed that 
 functionary that he had been using his best efforts since his 
 arrival to restore order, and persuade the people to place 
 themselves under the laws ; and that he had generally suc- 
 ceeded, with some two or three exceptions : these were Jcse 
 
 * John Dunn Hunter arrived in Mexico on the 19th of March, 1826. — Bean's 
 Notes , MS. Hunter was a remarkable man. He published in 1823 a history 
 of his life, with sketches of the manners and customs of the Indians. He says 
 that, when a child, he was taken by the Indians, but knows not when or where. 
 His parents, he supposes, were killed. He was raised by the Indians until he 
 was nineteen or twenty years old. This was about 1816. He had become iden- 
 tified with them ; and, from his expertness in hunting, the Indians gave him the 
 soubriquet of Hunter. He added the balance of his name out of respect for John 
 Dunn, of Missouri, who had rendered him great services. He formed an ac- 
 quaintance with the fur-traders, and gradually learned the English language; 
 acquired the habits of his race ; left the Indians; had a great thirst for knowl- 
 edge, and was much aided by kind friends who had heard his romantic story. 
 He visited the eastern cities and Europe, producing quite a sensation among 
 philosophers aud sympathizers; and finally returned to live among the Texan 
 Cherokees, where he immediately obtained a position and influence among them 
 not inferior to that of their head chief. It is alleged, however, in the “North 
 American Review,” that Hunter was an impostor. — Revicio , 1825-’26. 
 
238 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Antonio Sepulveda and Luis Procela, a couple of infamous men 
 — the first had been guilty of forging drafts for money, and 
 land-titles for sale ; the other had fled from confinement in the 
 United States, leaving his family there : and Procela, since he 
 had come to Nacogdoches, had been acting as alcalde by proxy, 
 a thing unheard of in a republican country. Edwards further 
 informed the political chief that his prospect for fulfilling his 
 contract was good ; and, after enclosing to him copies of all 
 his official acts, hinted to him very delicately that if these tur- 
 bulent characters had been citizens of the United States, he 
 would have dealt with them in a summarv manner, as he had 
 a right to do under his contract.* 
 
 This letter seems not at all to have been relished by the 
 chief. Edwards had referred to the ignorance of these two 
 bad characters. They were Mexicans ; so likewise was the 
 chief. But there was another cause of offence. It will be re- 
 membered that, in 1819, Nacogdoches was completely swept 
 by the invasion of Long. There was not a human being left in 
 the place to govern or be governed. Nor did any return for 
 some time. Previous to 1819, there had been made a few old 
 grants of land. The owners, if alive, had left the country, and 
 most of the grants may be said to have lapsed for the want of 
 an owner. After Mexico had achieved her independence, how- 
 ever, a few of the old citizens of Nacogdoches had come in, and 
 also some new-comers ; so that by the time Edwards reached 
 there, the town and its vicinage may have included a hundred 
 people of all ages and colors. Among them came Sepulveda 
 and Procela. Finding the lands were likely to become valua- 
 ble, the first^named person became industrious in getting up 
 old titles to the best lands ; and when it became necessary to 
 make an old title, it seems he engaged also in that business ! 
 
 * Hayden Edwards to Jose Antonio Saucedo, January 5, 1826, MS. 
 
TROUBLES AT NACOGDOCHES. 
 
 239 
 
 By the second article of Edwards’s contract, the possessions 
 found in Nacogdoches and its vicinity, with the corresponding 
 titles, wei*e to be respected by the colonists ; and it was made 
 Edwards’s duty, should any of the ancient possessors claim the 
 preservation of their rights , to respect them. To ascertain 
 the extent of these claims, the empresario , in November, 1825, 
 gave notice for all persons having such titles to exhibit them 
 to him, in order that they might be received or rejected accord- 
 ing to law ; and, if they did not so present them, the lands 
 would be sold, and those who had just claims would have to 
 pay for improvements made on them. This notice gave great 
 offence to the Mexican authorities. The first part of the noti- 
 fication seemed necessary, to enable the empresario to know 
 what claims to respect. As to the sale of the land, the empre- 
 sario could not mean that he possessed the authority to do so, 
 for it was not given him. 
 
 About the same time, Edwards issued a notice for the elec- 
 tion of militia-officers, to occur on the 15th of December, 1825 ; 
 and, in the same notice, he advised the people to elect an al- 
 calde. The election, it seems, was held by Sepulveda, the for- 
 mer alcalde. There were two candidates for the alcaldeship 
 — Chaplin, the son-in-law of the empresario ; and Norris, the 
 brother-in-law of James Gaines, of the neutral ground. Chap- 
 lin was elected ; but, as he had obtained most of the votes 
 between the Attoyac and the Sabine, occupied by immigrants, 
 and not within the ceded land, though under the alcalde’s juris- 
 diction, Sepulveda and his party threw them out, and declared 
 for Norris. The other party included these ballots, and de- 
 cided in favor of Chaplin. The latter thereupon proceeded to 
 take possession of the archives of the office, and entered upon 
 its duties. All this being reported to the political chief of the 
 department, he declared in favor of Norris, wrote to the old 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 alcalde to swear him into office, and, if Chaplin did not deliver 
 up the archives to him, to proceed to take them with the aid 
 of the national militia.* 
 
 On the receipt of this document, the people were all assem- 
 bled to hear it read. They obeyed the injunctions of Saucedo, 
 and Samuel Norris was duly inducted into the office of the ma- 
 gistrate or local judge. 
 
 But another cause of difficulty now arose. Before Edwards 
 had made his contract, a man by the name of Tramel had emi- 
 grated from Pecan point, in Arkansas, to Nacogdoches. After 
 he had reached the latter place, he learned from the alcalde 
 that that functionary had received orders from Governor Tres- 
 palacios to place some one at the old crossing of the Trinity, 
 to keep up a ferry on the San Antonio road. Tramel agreed 
 to occupy the post, and, with the order of the alcalde, he re- 
 moved to the ferry and settled himself. He finally sold out to 
 another person, who still kept up the ferry. Ignatius Sertuche, 
 a Mexican, and the only surviving inhabitant of the old town 
 at the Spanish Bluff, below the ferry, was starving together 
 with his family. The occupant at the ferry invited him to re- 
 move up to the crossing, and he would supply his family with 
 food. Sertuche, finding the situation pleasant and profitable, 
 managed to dispossess the occupant. The facts being made 
 known to Edwards, he took steps to repossess the true occu- 
 pant. This was all reported to the political chief, and Ser- 
 tuche was again placed at the ferry. The only reason given 
 by Saucedo for this arbitrary act was, that Sertuche was a 
 Mexican, and entitled to the preference !f 
 
 In several other instances, these invidious distinctions were 
 made ; and Americans, who had come into the country and 
 
 * Jose Antonio Saucedo to the alcalde of Nacogdoches, February 13, 1826, M S . 
 
 f The same to Hayden Edwards, May 1, 1826, MS. 
 
hayden edwards’s troubles with saucedo. 241 
 
 wrought improvements, were compelled to give place to Mexi- 
 can favorites of Sepulveda and Norris, the two alcaldes, who 
 occupied the judicial chair during the years 1825 and 1826. 
 
 It would be doing injustice to the character of the Ameri- 
 cans to suppose that they bore these things patiently ; and that 
 they did not express their opinions freely, not only of the acts 
 themselves, but also of the actors — the government and the 
 Mexican people generally. 
 
 But, says the political chief Saucedo to Hayden Edwards, 
 in his letter of the 1st of May, 1826 : “ Hitherto, the accusa- 
 tion against you, which has arrested the attention of the su- 
 preme government of the Union, is the ordinance which you 
 yourself published, in October of the past year, proclaiming* 
 yourself the military chief of that part of the state, and de- 
 manding of the old inhabitants the titles of the lands which 
 they possess ; for which acts the corresponding 1 charges shall 
 be made when the government shall so order” 
 
 By the sixth article of his contract, Edwards had power to 
 raise the national militia, of which he was declared to be chief, 
 until some other disposition was made. No other disposition 
 had been made. Hence it was no usurpation in him to order 
 an election of militia-officers, and to announce that he was by 
 his contract their chief. His position in this respect was little 
 different from that of Austin, who held the rank of lieutenant- 
 colonel, organized and controlled the militia of his colony, and 
 called them into service when it became necessary. But Aus- 
 tin had Americans only under his command. 
 
 Hayden Edwards left for the United States early in the sum- 
 mer of 1826, leaving his brother, Benjamin W. Edwards, who 
 had returned to the colony in the preceding April, to act as 
 his agent. The latter, being in full possession of all the facts 
 connected with the settlement of the colony, and the difficulties 
 Vol. I. — 16 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that surrounded the enterprise, sat down and wrote a long let- 
 ter to Colonel Austin, detailing a history of those difficulties, 
 and asking his advice.* On the 24th of July following, he 
 also wrote to the baron de Bastrop, then a member of the state 
 congress at Saltillo, informing him of the facts in question. In 
 the succeeding month he received a friendly answer from Aus- 
 tin, advising him to write directly to the governor of the state, 
 giving a particular account of the conduct of both parties at 
 Nacogdoches.f 
 
 Following the recommendation of Austin, B. W. Edwards 
 addressed to Governor Blanco a long and manly letter, present- 
 ing a full history of the difficulties in the colony, detailing the 
 stupidity of Norris the alcalde ; the treachery of Colonel James 
 Gaines, his brother-in-law, who directed and controlled him in 
 his adjudications and orders ; and also of the efforts made and 
 still making by Hayden Edwards to bring on immigrants. He 
 further stated that he understood serious charges had been pre- 
 ferred against his brother, and alluded to them, as detailed on 
 the preceding page ; that his brother had no notice of them, 
 and was at that time absent, engaged in filling his contract, 
 but would return in a few weeks, until which time he asked 
 the governor to wait, that the empresario might have an oppor- 
 tunity ‘to defend himself, and be furnished with a specific state- 
 ment of the charges against him. This letter, dated on the 
 
 * B. W. Edwards to S. F. Austin, July 21, 1826, MS. 
 
 f Foote, vol. i., p. 269. Austin says, in his reply : “ The subject has caused 
 me great unhappiness, but I had determined not to interfere with it in any way. 
 It is a dangerous one to touch, and particularly to write about You wish me 
 to advise you. I scarcely know what course will be best The uncertainty as 
 to the precise nature of the charges against you, renders it difficult nay, impos- 
 sible, to make a regular defence. I think, however, I would write directly to 
 the governor of the state. Give him a full statement of facts, and a very minute 
 history of the acts of your principal enemies and their opponents, and their man- 
 ner of doing business in every particular, both in regard to your brother as well 
 as all others.” 
 
HAYDEN EDWARDS’S GRANT ANNULLED. 
 
 243 
 
 5th of September, was worthy of a freeman, and in a free 
 country would have been applauded. 
 
 Edwards received an answer from Governor Blanco, dated 
 on the 2d of October, in which, after sthting that the letter of 
 the former is not sufficiently respectful, and recapitulating the 
 charges before named, concludes his reply in this style : — 
 
 “ In view of such proceedings, by whioh the conduct of Hay- 
 den Edwards is well attested, I have decreed the annulment of 
 his contract , and his expulsion from the territory of the repub- 
 lic, in discharge of the supreme orders with which I am in- 
 vested. He has lost the confidence of the government, which 
 is suspicious of his fidelity ; besides, it is not prudent to admit 
 those who begin by dictating laws as sovereigns. If to you or 
 your constituent these measures are unwelcome and prejudi- 
 cial, you can apply to the supreme government ; but you will 
 first evacuate the country, both yourself and Hayden Edwards ; 
 for which purpose I this day repeat my orders to the authori- 
 ties of that department — in the execution of which, as they 
 will expel from the country all evil-doers, so they will extend 
 full protection to those of worth, probity, and useful skill, that 
 have settled therein, and are submissive to the laws and con- 
 stituted authorities.”* 
 
 * “ En bien de tales procedimientos por la quales esta bien calificada la con- 
 ducta de Haden Edwars h6 decretado la anulacion de su contrata y la expulcion 
 del territorio en la republica, bn cumplemiento delas snpremas ordenes con que 
 me hallo. El h& perdido la confiansa del gobierno, dudo de su fidelidad, y no es 
 prudencia admitir hombres que comiensan por dictar leyes como soberanos. Si 
 & v. 6 su poderdante le son estranas 6 perjudiciales estas providencias pueden 
 ocurrir al gobierno supremo, pero habiendo antes evacuado el pais, tanto v. como 
 Haden Edwars , p\ lo cual hoy repito mis ordenes & los autoridades de este de- 
 partam 1 ® en el concepto deque, asi como se expel eriln d^l territorio 4 todos loe 
 malvados, se dispensaria todos proteccion & los hombres de bien, de probidad y 
 de conocimientos utiles que esten establecidos 6n 61, • y sujetor 6 las leyes, y & las 
 auctoridades constituidas. Dios y libertadl Saltillo, 2°. de O’bre, de 1826. 
 
 “ BLANCO. Juan Antonio Padillo, Bee. 
 
 “ A Don B. W. Edwars Agente de Haden Edwars.” 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Previous to the receipt of this letter, Hayden Edwards had 
 returned to Texas ; but the rumor came that his contract was 
 to be annulled. This threw everything into confusion. The 
 Mexican population, in anticipation, immediately set up claim 
 to all the valuable places occupied by the Americans ! The 
 servile alcalde, Norris, granted all the orders they asked ; and 
 Gaines, his brother-in-law, was ready with a company of regu- 
 lators to enforce them. By these means, the Americans were 
 dispossessed, driven from their homes, fined, and imprisoned.* 
 Matters had become intolerable. The tyranny of Norris and 
 Gaines had grown to such a height, that their American parti- 
 sans had nearly all deserted them ; and measures were being 
 concerted by the Americans to take vengeance for the accu- 
 mulated wrongs they suffered. In fact, on the very day of the 
 date of the decree, annulling the contract of the empresario , 
 and expelling him and his, brother from the country, B. W. 
 Edwards was writing a letter to his friend Thompson, at Aes 
 bayou, to dissuade him from proceeding immediately against 
 Gaines. “ Let us wait,” says he, “ and not prejudice our pros- 
 pects by premature operations on our part. The government 
 may yet act with faith and justice toward the Americans. . . . 
 The eyes of the government are at this moment upon us all, 
 and much may depend upon our present deportment. Gaines 
 and Sepulveda have been represented to the proper authorities, 
 and in a little time an investigation must take place”] 
 
 At length, official information was received of the abroga- 
 tion of the contract, and the decree for the expulsion of the 
 empresario and his brother. This was an act of high-handed 
 and inexcusable tyranny. The empresario had expended fifty 
 thousand dollars in his enterprise ; and he had enlisted the ser- 
 
 * Foote, vol. i., p. 232. 
 
 \ B. W. Edwards to B. T. Thompson, October 2, 1826, MS. 
 
DECREE OF RESCISSION UNLAWFUL. 
 
 245 
 
 vices of hundreds, who had come, or were on the way, or pre- 
 paring to assist in carrying out the contract. His offences, at 
 most, were but venial, and could not compromit the rights of 
 the state, for she had the right, the law, and the power to en- 
 force them. Why, then, was he not tried ? why was not pro- 
 cess issued, that he might have a day in court to defend him- 
 self? His right was vested, and even under the constitution 
 of Mexico the decree of rescission was unlawful. The state 
 constitution, it was true, had not yet been proclaimed ; yet, by 
 the decree of the 25th of August, 1825, it was declared that, 
 “ for infringement of constitution or law, a process shall always 
 be instituted.”* In this case there was none. In one of the 
 letters written at that time, it was suggested that there must 
 have been some other cause — some potent influence at the 
 capital of Mexico, other than the alleged offences of Hayden 
 Edwards — to produce this extraordinary act on the part of 
 the authorities of the republic. However this may have been, 
 it was done, and, in its consequences, greatly retarded immi- 
 gration, and taught Mexico that the Americans, however small 
 their numbers, would never submit to her system of adminis- 
 tration — that something more than the name of “liberty” was 
 needed to satisfy their views of a free country. 
 
 The colonists have been charged with ingratitude. Where- 
 in ? They were invited to a desert. They came, and found it 
 inhabited by Indians — and those of such audacity, that even in 
 San Antonio, where the Mexicans mostly lived, they compelled 
 the citizens and soldiers in the place to hold their horses while 
 they paraded about the town ! These savages the colonists 
 had to subdue at their own expense and on their own account. 
 Mexico gave them nothing : the lands only were valuable, be- 
 
 * Decree 19, article 13 : “ Por infraccion de constitucion 6 ley siempre se les 
 mandara formar.” 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 cause they made them so. They were invited to a free coun- 
 try : they were determined to keep it free, not only from Indian 
 cruelty, but Mexican tyranny. If Mexico was slow in learning 
 this fact, it was not the fault of the colonists, for they employed 
 every suitable occasion to impress it upon the rulers of their 
 adopted country. 
 
 The occasion for a lesson now occurred. The settlers on 
 Edwards’s grant were determined to resist. The ill temper of 
 the Indians, in not obtaining the titles they had expected for 
 their lands, caused them to make threats against the Mexican 
 government ;* and they thought also to avenge themselves upon 
 the white settlements in Texas. Hunter, exercising his great 
 influence among them, induced them to suspend their action till 
 he could visit Nacogdoches. He did so, conferred with the 
 Edwardses, ascertained their feelings, and a mutual league and 
 union were agreed on. The Indians were easily brought into it. 
 
 On the 13th of December, 1826, Hayden Edwards and his 
 brother visited the settlers beyond the Attoyac, for the purpose 
 of raising forces. On their return they learned at that river 
 that the enemy were expected at Nacogdoches that night. 
 Preparing a flag, B. W. Edwards and fifteen men hurried into 
 the town on the morning of the 16th. They here ascertained 
 that the enemy consisted of Colonel Ellis P. Bean, who had 
 hastened on from the city of Mexico with a command of about 
 thirty-five Mexican troops ; that he had approached within a 
 few miles of the town, learned the state of public feeling there, 
 and had retreated in the direction of the Trinity, to await re- 
 inforcements.! 
 
 * Foote, vol i., p. 234. 
 
 f lb., p. 251. Bean seems not to have taken this war much to heart In a 
 memorandum-book, in his own handwriting, there is this entry: “December 6, 
 1826. If the justices of Nacogdoches are imprisoned, or hindered in their func- 
 tions, then I pay twenty-five dollars; if not then Senor Y gives me one 
 
 jack and three bottles of wine.” 
 
THE FREDONIANS — MARTIN PARMER. 
 
 247 
 
 By the 18th, the “ Fredonians as the American colonists 
 were then styled, numbered about two hundred men. They 
 took possession of the stone house in Nacogdoches, and com- 
 menced fortifying themselves. Having raised the flag of inde- 
 pendence, they began to organize their forces and government. 
 Colonel Martin Parmer,* one of the most daring and vigilant 
 men in the colony, was appointed to the command of the mili- 
 tary ; and suitable alcaldes , or, as they preferred to call them, 
 justices of the peace, were chosen for the different settlements. 
 On they 18th they held a court-martial for the trial of Manuel 
 Santos for giving aid and comfort to the enemy, of which he 
 was honorably acquitted. On the 20th, Hunter and Fields, 
 representatives of the Indians, with some other chiefs, came in 
 to consummate the treaty of allianae with the whites. They 
 
 * Martin Parmer was only one of the extraordinary characters that appeared 
 in Texas about that time. His life had been a thrilling romance. He was born 
 in Virginia, in 1 7'76. At twenty years of age he emigrated to Tennessee, where 
 he married Miss Sarah Hardwick. He was engaged for some time in superin- 
 tending the works of Montgomery Bell, of Dickson county. But his ambition 
 was not satisfied. In 1818, he emigrated to Missouri, and settled fifty miles 
 above the highest county formed in the then territory — surrounded by the 
 Sioux, Iowa, and Osage Indians. He gave fifty dollars for a bear-dog, and by 
 the chase kept such supplies of meat as drew the Indians around him. One of 
 them, called Two Heart (from the fact that he had killed a white man, and eaten 
 his heart), came to partake of his bounty, when he spread before him a large 
 quantity of meat, and, standing over him with a drawn knife, forced him to eat 
 till it ultimately killed him 1 Parmer had numerous and fearful fights with the 
 savages, but at last acquired an influence over them, which induced the govern- 
 ment at Washington to appoint him an Indian agent. He was elected a colonel 
 of the militia, and then a member of the convention to form a state constitution. 
 It was shortly after taking his seat in this body, that, two of the members get- 
 ting into a fight, he interfered in behalf of one of the parties, announcing him- 
 self as the “ Ring-tailed Panther” by which name he was afterward known in 
 the west After serving two or three terms in the Missouri legislature, Parmer 
 emigrated to Texas, and settled near the Mound prairie. It is said he fired the 
 first gun in the Fredonian war. Among the numerous stories told of him, it is 
 related, upon good authority, that when his bear-dog died, he sent fifty miles 
 for a clergyman to attend the funeral, which he actually did — supposing it to 
 be one of Colonel Parmer’s family 1 His son, from whom the above account is 
 obtained, says he heard the sermon. 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 entered into a general council, and, after three days’ delibera- 
 tion, a solemn league and confederation between the whites 
 and Indians was adopted and signed by the agents of the re- 
 spective parties, and on the same day ratified by the commit- 
 tees, as representatives of both parties. The objects of the 
 treaty were twofold, as follows : — 
 
 1. To divide the territory of Texas between the Indians and 
 Americans. This was done by giving to the former all that 
 portion lying north of a line beginning at the mouth of Sulphur 
 fork ; thence to a point not far from Nacogdoches ; thence west 
 to the Rio Grande. All the territory south of that boundary 
 to belong to the other party. 
 
 2. To prosecute together the war against Mexico, until their 
 independence was consummated.* 
 
 This war was commenced with a view and in the expectation 
 that all the American settlers and Indians in Texas would join 
 the insurgents. It was further expected that volunteers from 
 the United States would rally to the “ Fredonian” standard. 
 Had these results followed, the revolution might have been 
 successful. But various causes prevented. In regard to the 
 Indians, some of the tribes — the Kikapoos, for instance — had 
 been so badly treated by the whites, that they could not be 
 induced to join them. In addition to this fact, Mexican emis- 
 saries had been among them. Bean was in the neighborhood, 
 and had an influence with the Indians. f 
 
 * The treaty was made by Hayden Edwards and Harmon B. Mayo, on the 
 part of the Americans, and Richard Fields and John Dunn Hunter, on the part 
 of the Indians. The Fredonia legislature or committee that ratified it was com- 
 posed of the following persons, viz. : Martin Parmer, president ; Hayden Ed- 
 wards, W. B. Ligon, John Sprow, B. P. Thompson, Joseph A. Huber, B. W. 
 Edwards, and H. B. Mayo, on the part of the Americans ; and Richard Fields, 
 John Dunn Hunter, Ne-ko-lake, John Bags, and Kuk-to-ke, on the part of the 
 Indians. Foote has published the treaty, vol. i., p. 255. 
 
 fin Bean’s note-book we find this entry: “December 26, 1826. Sent an 
 express to Fields.” 
 
THE FREDOMAN EMEUTE. 
 
 249 
 
 A proclamation was sent to Natchitoches for volunteers ; but 
 Huber, who carried it, betrayed his friends, and gave such an 
 unfavorable account of affairs at Nacogdoches, that no assist- 
 ance was obtained from that quarter. The express with an 
 address to Austin’s colony met with like ill success. 
 
 Saucedo, the political chief of the department, had set out 
 for Nacogdoches with some two hundred troops under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Mateo Ahumada, and reached San Felipe de 
 Austin about the first of January, 182T. Here he issued a 
 proclamation, rather conciliatory in its terms, promising lands 
 to those who were subordinate, and pledging the faith of the 
 government.* His presence in the colony, and the delicate 
 position of Austin, together with the fact that he was ignorant 
 of the wrongs Edwards and his colony had actually suffered, 
 induced him and his colony, not only to refuse any aid to the 
 Fredonians, but to join in opposing them.f 
 
 After the first day or two of excitement had passed, and 
 there being no immediate danger of an attack from the enemy, 
 the Fredonians retired to their homes, leaving Colonel Parmer, 
 with a few men, to guard the place. Norris, who had been 
 deposed from his office, seeing the town so poorly defended, 
 collected about eighty followers, of whom ten or twelve were 
 Americans, mostly his relatives, and on the 4th of January 
 marched into Nacogdoches, for the avowed purpose of hanging 
 the Fredonians. Arriving within two hundred yards of the 
 stone house , where the latter were stationed, they dismounted, 
 and took a position behind some old houses. The Americans, 
 eleven in number, to whom were united eight Cherokees under 
 Hunter, marched out and charged upon Norris and his forces. 
 
 * Proclamation of Jose Antonio Saucedo, January 4, 1827, MS. 
 
 f Proclamation of Stephen F. Austin, January 22, 1827’. Address of B. W. 
 Edwards to the Citizens of Austin’s Colony, January 16, 1827. — Foote , vol. i., 
 pp. 260, 266. 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 In a few minutes the latter fled, leaving one killed and ten or 
 twelve wounded, together with about half their horses. 
 
 The report of this conflict drew many of the Fredonians into 
 the place, and a better organization of their strength was 
 made. Benjamin W. Edwards was elected colonel and com- 
 mander-in-chief of the Fredonian forces, and set out in pursuit 
 of Norris. The latter, however, was safely across the Sabine. 
 
 In the meantime, the Mexican troops under Ahumada were 
 approaching Nacogdoches. The Fredonians thereupon sent 
 an express to Acs bayou,* for assistance ; but Bean had de- 
 spatched an emissary in advance to these people, promising 
 them pardon and lands. They also sent an express to the In- 
 dians, but Bean had likewise anticipated them here, and had 
 promised the Cherokecs and their associate bands that they 
 should have the lands they had applied for. Hunter alone 
 was faithful, and the Indians murdered him.f 
 
 The Indians had joined the Mexicans, and, on the morning 
 of the 27th of January, 1827, their entire forces were within 
 ten or twelve miles of Nacogdoches. Under these untoward 
 circumstances, the remaining Fredonians evacuated the place, 
 and crossed the Sabine on the 31st. The Mexican troops en- 
 tered the town shortly after the Fredonians had left, and, 
 through the influence of Austin, treated the inhabitants and 
 prisoners with humanity. Thus ended an affair in every way 
 unfortunate for Texas. 
 
 * From Colonel Bean’s note-book: “December 28, 1826. Sent an express to 
 Aes bayou. Sent a spy to Nacogdoches.” This spy -was John Williams. The 
 Fredonians arrested him as such, but subsequent events prevented the action of 
 the court-martial. 
 
 f Colonel Bean, through the instrumentality of John Williams, Elliott, and 
 others, succeeded in detaching the Indians from the whites. These agents, for 
 this service, received each a league of land. It is said that Bowles was hired to 
 assassinate Fields and Hunter. Fields was first killed, and shortly afterward 
 Hunter suffered the same fate near the present town of Henderson. Fields was 
 only a quarter-breed Indian, was very intelligent, and, while in the city of 
 Mexico, joined' the York lodge of freemasons. 
 
ERASTUS SMITH, THE TEXAN SPY. 
 
 251 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 While this war was progressing in Edwards’s colony, the 
 pioneers in Austin’s grant were prospering greatly. Settlers 
 also had been coming into other colonies. Colonel Green De- 
 witt, of Missouri, commenced the settlement of his colony in 
 1825. His surveyor, James Kerr, arrived on the Brasos in 
 April, 1825. After losing his own family, he, with six other 
 single men, settled with that of Mr. Berry, near the town of 
 Gonzales, in the autumn of the above year. Among these sin- 
 gle men was Erastus Smith, afterward so distinguished as a 
 spy in the Texan wars.* They raised some cabins and settled 
 
 * Erastus Smith (known as Deaf Smith, because he was hard of hearing) was 
 the son of Chiliab and Mary Smith, and was born in New York, on the 19th of 
 April, 1787. At the age of eleven years he emigrated with his parents to the 
 Mississippi territory, and settled near Natchez. His parents were exemplary 
 members of the baptist church, and gave him such moral and intellectual train- 
 ing as the circumstances around them would permit He first came to Texas in 
 1817, perhaps with some of the patriot forces that were constantly arriving at 
 that time in the province. He soon, however, returned home; but, in 1821, he 
 came again to Texas, for the purpose of making it his home. This he did, never 
 leaving it lie was in the country before Austin, but in what section is not 
 known. His nature was to ramble alone, and to be by himself' When Dewitt’s 
 settlement commenced at Gonzales, Smith went with the first company; but it 
 appears he did not remain there long, but proceeded to San Antonio, where he 
 married a Mexican lady, by whom he had several children. He had a fine prop- 
 erty at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, but he did not attend to it One of his sons, 
 Trinidad Travis Smith, was educated by K. A. Martin, Esq., of Baldwin, Missis- 
 sippi Deaf Smith died at Fort Bend, November 80, 1887. He was a man of 
 remarkable gravity, and of few words. In fact, he seldom answered at all, ex- 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 themselves, preparatory to the work of surveying. The settle- 
 ment was increased that fall by the arrival’ of Edward More- 
 house, Henry S. Brown, Elijah Stapp, and some others. In 
 1826, while a portion of the colonists had gone to join in cele- 
 brating the 4th of July at Beason’s on the Colorado, and others 
 were out on a buffalo-hunt, an attack was made by the Indians. 
 John Wightman was killed, Durbin wounded, and part of the 
 settlement robbed and burnt. The survivors fled to the settle- 
 ments on the Colorado ; and afterward, when Dewitt came on, 
 with other families, he built him a fort ten miles above Texana, 
 where he remained a year or two.* 
 
 The settlement at Victoria, under Martin De Leon, com- 
 menced also in 1825. 
 
 After the revocation of Edwards’s grant, the territory em- 
 braced in it was divided between David G. Burnet and Joseph 
 Vehlin, and immigrants from the United States continued to 
 flow into it. Being the nearest colony to the American Union, 
 many settlers stopped there that had, at first, intended to pro- 
 ceed farther. 
 
 The congress of the state of Coahuila and Texas at last 
 agreed upon a constitution. It was published on the 11th of 
 March, 1827. f Every officer and citizen was required to take 
 an oath to sustain it, and a programme of the ceremony of its 
 installation was duly prepared. 
 
 cept in monosyllables. When he did speak, it was said to be to the point. His 
 coolness in danger and battle was affirmed to be unsurpassed. The Texan army 
 was greatly favored in having his services as a spy. The country had no truer 
 friend. — Letter of Alexander Calder , Esq., August 2, 1852 ; and Letter of K. A. 
 Martin, 1840* MSS. 
 
 * “Indianola Bulletin,” 1852. 
 
 f It was published in pamphlet form, in the city of Mexico, in 1827, and has 
 on the second page the following: “Esta Constitucion es propriedad del Estado 
 de Coahuila y Tejas, y nadie puede reimprimirla sin permiso del Congreso .” 
 What would be thought of any one of our states that would forbid the publish- 
 ing of her constitution except by permission of the legislature ? 
 
COAHUILAN-TEXAN STATE CONSTITUTION. 253 
 
 Of the twelve deputies of which the constitutional congress 
 was to be composed, Texas was to have two. These repre- 
 sentatives were not to be elected directly by the people ; but 
 on the first Sunday in August preceding the meeting of the 
 new congress, the people met in primitive assemblies, and voted 
 viva voce , or in writing, for eleven electors (if they had only 
 one representative to elect, or twenty-one electors if they had 
 two). The election closed on Monday evening. 
 
 Fifteen days after the fourth Sunday in August, these elec- 
 tors met at the towns of their respective districts, and elected 
 their representatives. The same electors who met to choose 
 representatives, voted for electors to repair to the capital of 
 the state, to elect representatives to the general Congress. 
 The same district electors voted for a governor, vice-governor, 
 and council. 
 
 The ayuntamientos , embracing the alcaldes , sindicos , and 
 regidores , were elected by the people, on the first Sunday in 
 every December, and entered on the discharge of their duties 
 the Sunday following. The alcalde combined the duties of our 
 mayors and justices of the peace, with larger powers ; the regi- 
 dore may be assimilated to an alderman, and the sindico to a 
 recorder. The whole together formed the ayuntamiento , hav- 
 ing jurisdiction over the entire municipality. Every town of a 
 thousand or more inhabitants was entitled to an ayuntamiento. 
 These town councils were strictly popular bodies, and with 
 their great power protected Texas from oppression until the 
 troops were introduced. 
 
 In looking over the constitution of the state of Coahuila and 
 Texas, we see at once that it was framed by novices — men who 
 were not only ignorant of the fundamental laws of free states, 
 but were afraid to intrust power to the people. For instance : 
 “Article 3. The sovereignty of the state resides originally and 
 
254 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 essentially in the general mass of the individuals that compose 
 it ; but they shall not, of themselves, exercise any other acts 
 of sovereignty than those pointed out in this constitution , and 
 in the form which it prescribes.” Again: “Article 27. The 
 government of the state is popular representative, federal.”* 
 The makers of the instrument, no doubt, did the best they 
 could, and were actuated by genuine patriotism. Whatever 
 puerilities may be found in the constitution, and in the laws 
 enacted under it, the people of Texas were indifferent and 
 heeded them not, so long as they were left to themselves, and 
 did not feel the weight of strange systems and unmeaning cere- 
 monies. And it is due to the truth of history to declare that 
 the Texans did not feel themselves at home under the Mexican 
 laws. They kept aloof from Mexican politics. They brought 
 with them here, as household gods, their own first lessons in 
 politics, morals, religion, and business, and they wished not to 
 unlearn those lessons to learn others. They did not blend or 
 assimilate with the opposite race, but kept themselves apart — 
 justly reasoning that, if their own institutions were not supe- 
 rior, they were as good as they wished. The Mexicans were 
 aware of this, and endeavored to change by force, when it was 
 too late, what they could not otherwise direct. 
 
 Some account of the Mexican regular troops destined for 
 Texas at this period may not be uninteresting. By the decree 
 of the federal Congress, of the 24th of August, 1826, provision 
 was made for raising a permanent cavalry force for the defence 
 of the frontiers. The state of Coahuila and Texas was required 
 to raise seven companies, of one hundred and twenty-four men, 
 rank and file, each. One company was to be stationed at La 
 
 * The general constitution of Mexico, Article 4, says: “The Mexican nation 
 adopts for its government the form of republican representative, popular-federal.” 
 The fathers of the state constitution supposed they were doing right to “follow 
 copy.” — “El gobierno del estado ea popular representative) federado. n 
 
FIRST DAYS OF THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 255 
 
 Bahia, and another at Bexar. By the decree of the state, of 
 the 29th of April, 1826, the ayuntamientos were authorized to 
 proceed with an armed force, if necessary, to make levies, and 
 take thence a sufficient number of individuals to fill the list. 
 Out of the levies, vagrants and disorderly persons were to be 
 preferred for military service ; then single men ; finally, recruits 
 might be raised by entrapment and decoy ! Such were to be 
 the troops for the defence of the frontiers.* 
 
 But soldiers were little needed during the year 1827, except 
 to overawe the Indians, and that duty devolved upon the colo- 
 nists. Austin’s settlement had so far progressed, that, in the 
 spring of 1826, Gaspnr Flores came to Texas as commissioner 
 to issue titles to the five hundred families provided for in the 
 second contract. And, in November, 1827, Austin obtained 
 another contract for a colony of a hundred families east of the 
 Colorado and north of the Bexar road.f 
 
 Affairs being thus prosperous with the colonies, the progress 
 of the Mexican nation, in its new career of independence, may 
 be noticed. Liberal governments were not slow in acknowl- 
 edging the independence of the republic* and in forming com- 
 mercial treaties with her. Having adopted her constitution, 
 the first Congress assembled under it in the beginning of 1825, 
 and Guadalupe Victoria, her first constitutional president, en- 
 tered upon his duties, as did also the vice-president, Nicholas 
 Bravo, on the 1st day of April of that year. J 
 
 The antagonism between the republicans and the aristocracy 
 soon made its appearance. It required only a nucleus, or ral- 
 lying-point. It found two. Soon after the inauguration of 
 John Quincy Adams to the presidency of the United States, 
 
 * Decree No. 26, Constitutional Congress : “ Yerificadas que senn dichas levas, 
 se destinaran con preferancia al senicio militar los vagos y mat entretenidos .” — 
 Article 6. f Dewees’s Letters, p. 116. 
 
 \ Constitution of Mexico, Article 101. Niles’s Mexico, p. 193. 
 
256 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 he despatched Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, as minister 
 of our country to Mexico. Poinsett was a stern republican, a 
 man of strong intellect, and an earnest well-wisher of the new 
 republic to which he had been accredited. As the Mexican 
 nation had taken our federal constitution as a model for the 
 construction of their own, the republicans of that country natu- 
 rally looked to our minister for countenance and advice in their 
 political labors. Though he refrained from interfering in their 
 internal concerns, he could hardly avoid making suggestions in 
 his private conversations. This exasperated the anti-republi- 
 can party.'* At that time the masonic lodges in Mexico were 
 working under the Scotch rite ; but, as a greater antiquity and 
 correctness of masonic usage attached to the York rite, they 
 requested Poinsett to procure for them charters authorizing 
 them to work under the latter. Accordingly, as he was in- 
 formed by two members of President Victoria’s cabinet that 
 the government did not disapprove of it, he sent for the proper 
 warrant, and installed them at his own house. The leading 
 members of the Scotch lodges, being the old Spaniards and 
 aristocracy of Mexico, immediately connected this affair with 
 the politics of the country. Bravo, the vice-president, being 
 of the anti-republican party, and perceiving the influence of 
 the American minister thus thrown in the scale against his 
 party, employed in his turn whatever influence he possessed 
 against him. He succeeded in procuring from the legislatures 
 of Puebla and Vera Cruz petitions to the general government 
 for the dismissal of the American embassador from the country. 
 Further to aid him, a papal bull was issued against the masonic 
 lodges ; and a bill was introduced into the national Congress, 
 and finally passed, for their suppression.! 
 
 * Sketch of Joel R. Poinsett: Democratic Review, March, 1838. 
 
 | Kennedy, vol. i., p. 366. This author sa\t the bilbwas rejected; but he is 
 
SUPPRESSION OP MASONIC LODGES. 
 
 257 
 
 Nevertheless, Bravo was unable to succeed in the overthrow 
 of the republican party. He next attempted a revolution ; and 
 for this end he raised a small army, and, after making some 
 approaches toward the capital, returned to Tulancingo, whence 
 he was dislodged and taken prisoner, but was afterward re- 
 leased. During all this contest, the French and English min- 
 isters, Moricr and Ward, were throwing their influence on the 
 side of the aristocratic party. 
 
 In this affair the Mexican republicans were right ; but not 
 
 mistaken. I have before me the official copy of the law, transmitted to “ the 
 receptoria of Nacogdoches,” as follows: — 
 
 “First Secretaryship of State, Department of the Interior. 
 
 “Section 1. The most excellent president of the Mexican United States has 
 been pleased to direct to me the following decree : 
 
 “The president of the Mexican United States to the inhabitants of the repub- 
 lic, know ye, that the general Congress has decreed — 
 
 “ 1. The prohibition of every clandestine meeting, which, by settled rules and 
 institutions, forms a body or college, and makes a profession of secrecy, is re- 
 newed. 
 
 “ 2. Citizens who shall resort to such meetings, after the publication of this 
 law, shall, for the first offence, be suspended from their rights one year ; for the 
 second, two years; and, for the third, confinement in the Californias four years. 
 If those confined there shall repeat the offence, they shall be expelled from the 
 republic for two years. 
 
 “ 3. Federal officers, and those who may become such in the district and ter- 
 ritories, including those of popular appointment, besides the penalty of suspen- 
 sion from office and salary, shall suffer, during the time of their suspension, a 
 deprivation of the rights of citizenship, by virtue of the former article; and, if 
 there shall be a third repetition of the offence, they shall be disqualified for all 
 the offices of which the present article speaks. 
 
 “4. Natives, or naturalized persons, not having the rights of citizenship, shall 
 suffer, for the first offence, six months’ imprisonment ; double the time for the 
 second ; perpetual deprivation of the rights of citizenship for the third ; and, for 
 the fourth offence, shall be banished for ever from the republic.” 
 
 (Here follow some further provisions in regard to minors and foreigners.) 
 
 “ Antonio Fernandez Monjardin, President of the Senate. 
 
 “Santiago Villegas, President of the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 “ Jose Augustin Paz, Secretary of the Senate. 
 
 “ Anastasio Cerecero, Deputy Secretary. 
 
 “Therefore I order it to be printed, published, circulated, and that it be duly 
 executed. “GUADALUPE VICTORIA. 
 
 “ Palace of the Government of Mexico, October 25, 1828.” 
 
 Vol. I. — 17 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 so on the other point which they raised. The revolution had 
 left, among its ill effects, a general hatred against the natives 
 of Old Spain still residing in Mexico. The nation had long 
 felt a desire to expel them. Several of the states set the ex- 
 ample ; and the general Congress finally, on the 8th of Decem- 
 ber, 1827, adopted a law for their expulsion. The congress 
 of Coahuila and Texas did not go so far, but merely decreed 
 that they should hold no office in church or state until Spain 
 should acknowle*dge the independence of the Mexican republic.* 
 These were barbarous laws, violative of the constitution, the 
 claims of hospitality and humanity, and unworthy of the high 
 stand Mexico had assumed as a free country. In addition to 
 this, she thus banished from her society those who possessed 
 nearly all the intelligence and refinement in the nation. Mis- 
 erable indeed is the condition of that country which supposes 
 that its safety requires the banishment of its most accomplished 
 and useful citizens ! 
 
 At the period of which we write, the state of Coahuila and 
 Texas was very poor. The local congress had employed all 
 its efforts to raise funds ; it had even leased out the cock-pits , 
 in order to increase the revenue ; but still the treasury was 
 empty. The colonists in Texas were pretty much exempt from 
 taxation, and the Mexicans seldom paid any. The latter had 
 no energy ; they made nothing. In fact, they had been station- 
 ary for three centuries. What little they possessed went to 
 pay their priests and decorate their festivals. A tortilla , a 
 roasted squash, a little boiled milk, and now and then a cur- 
 dled cheese, and string-beef dried in the sun, formed their com- 
 mon diet. The skins of animals furnished their chief clothing. 
 Such was the condition of the public funds in the spring of 1828, 
 that, on the 17th of April of that year, the state suspended 
 
 * Decree No. 41 : Niles’s Mexico. 
 
IMMIGRATION INTO TEXAS IN 182T-8. 
 
 259 
 
 some of her constitutional officers, for want of funds to pay 
 them ; and the establishment of the state treasury was also sus- 
 pended for a like reason.* The days of her poverty were the 
 days of her virtue. The new governor, Jose Maria Viesca, 
 seemed to conduct himself with great propriety, and to watch 
 zealously over the interests of his constituents. Neither he 
 or his congress appeared to have any temptation to do wrong, 
 or to prolong the legislative sessions beyond the time required 
 for the more important and necessary business. Yet, even in 
 the first constitutional congress, monopolies were creeping in. 
 Leon R. Alemy obtained the exclusive right, for six years, of 
 boring Artesian wells ;f John L. Woodbury and John Came- 
 ron had a like privilege, for twenty-three years, of working 
 iron and coal mines in the state and John Davis Bradburn 
 and Stephen Staples obtained a similar contract, fori fifteen 
 years, for navigating the Rio Grande with steam or horse 
 power. || 
 
 By a provision of the state constitution, the congress should 
 close its sessions with the month of April, unless prolonged for 
 urgent business. § The condition of the treasury required this 
 to be done. Accordingly, it was prolonged to the middle of 
 May, during which time the state authorities succeeded in bor- 
 rowing funds from the church. 
 
 Colonists in the meantime continued to emigrate to Texas. 
 In 1827 and 1828 there was quite an addition to Dewitt’s col- 
 ony. The town of Gonzales had been laid off, and named after 
 Rafael Gonzales, the provisional governor of the state. On 
 the 29th of July, 1828, Austin obtained another contract, to 
 colonize three hundred families on the reserved lands on the 
 coast.** But most of the immigrants that now began to settle 
 
 * Decrees Nos. 60 and 2, Constitutional Congress. f lb., No. 26. 
 
 $ lb., No. 46. 1 lb., No. 49. § Article 87, Constitution. 
 
 Decree No. 69 ** Dewees’s Letters, p. 116. 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 in Texas came on their own account — some locating in one 
 colony, and some in others, or on lands not included in any 
 grant. Few of the empresarios had taken any steps to fulfil 
 their contracts. Zavala, Burnet, and Vehlin, had sold out 
 to a New York company on speculation.* The contract of 
 Leftwich fell into the hands of the Nashville company.! The 
 grant of Milam, lying between the Guadalupe and Colorado 
 rivers, and north of the Bexar road, could not well be settled 
 because of hostile Indians. 
 
 Indeed, during the years 1828 and 1829 the Indians had 
 become troublesome and dangerous to the settlers on the Colo- 
 rado and Brasos. Numerous cases of murder and theft had 
 occurred, and it became necessary to apply a remedy. During 
 the winter of 1828-’9, Thomas Thompson had opened a small 
 farm near the present town of Bastrop, and occasionally visited 
 it to cultivate it and take care of his crops. On going there in 
 July, 1829, he found the Indians in possession. He returned 
 below for assistance, and obtained ten men, with whom he ap- 
 proached the Indian camp in the night. At daylight they 
 killed four of the savages, and the others fled. 
 
 This opened the war. Colonel Austin raised two companies 
 of volunteers, of fifty men each, under the command of Captains 
 Oliver Jones and Bartlett Simms ; the whole being under the 
 orders of Colonel Abner Kuykendall. About the same time, 
 the depredations ahd murders by the Indians in the vicinity of 
 Gonzales induced the raising of another company there, under 
 the command of Captain Henry S. Brown. J 
 
 Learning that a party of Wacoes and Twowakanies were 
 encamped at the mouth of the San Saba, the two commands 
 marched to that point. They halted when near enough, and 
 sent out scouts to ascertain the localities. The Indian scouts 
 
 * Almonte’s Journal f Dewees’a Letters, p. 116. \ Indianola Bulletin, 1852. 
 
TRADE WITH SANTA FE. 
 
 261 
 
 discovered them, and gave notice to the others ; so that, when 
 the Texans charged into the camp of the enemy, they had fled, 
 and they only succeeded in killing one. Captain Simms and 
 fifteen others pursued them some miles farther, and took from 
 them many of their horses. This expedition had a happy effect 
 in alarming the Indians, and depriving them of many of their 
 animals, together with their peltries and camp-equipage. The 
 volunteers returned after an absence of thirty-two days, during 
 which time they suffered greatly for want of provisions. They 
 subsisted for three days of the time upon acorns and persim- 
 mons P 
 
 These annoyances from the Indians prevented a trade from 
 springing up between Texas and northern Mexico. Their 
 position was favorable to it. As it was, in 1824, a company 
 of Bordeaux merchants landed at Copano, with a large quan- 
 tity of goods for Santa Fe. They conveyed them some distance 
 beyond San Antonio on packs, when their animals were stolen 
 by the Camanclies. They then obtained oxen and carts from 
 San Antonio, and finally succeeded in reaching Santa Fe in 
 safety. During the Mexican revolution, New Mexico, being 
 remotely situated, wisely took no part in it. Her intercourse 
 with the rest of the world was thus for many years cut off, and 
 large sums of gold and silver accumulated within her limits. 
 The manufactures of other countries were in great demand ; 
 and the venture of the Bordeaux merchants consequently met 
 with extraordinary success. 
 
 The danger from the Indians, however, was too great to per- 
 mit a continuance of the intercourse. The United States, 
 shortly after, opened a route for traffic from St. Louis, and her 
 merchants realized the benefits of that distant commerce. 
 
 The state congress, among its first acts, at the short session 
 
 * De wees’s Letters, p. 127. 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 in September, 1828, decreed the removal of the capital from 
 Saltillo, in the extreme southern corner of the state, to Mon- 
 clova, some hundred miles farther to the north.* 
 
 Among the colonists in Texas were many who had left heavy 
 debts against them in the country whence they came. These 
 debts were, to some extent, sent against them, and generally 
 placed in the hands of some one in the colony, who was made 
 interested in their collection. To favor the colonists, it was 
 decreed that they should not be sued for such debts for twelve 
 years ; and further, that their headlight lands should never be 
 subject to the payment of such debts. f This was one of the 
 first decrees of the first session of the local congress of. 1829 ; 
 but, shortly after, it prohibited merchants of foreign nations 
 from retailing goods in the state . J This gave great offence to 
 the Texans, and for the reason that they were thus deprived 
 of the cheapest market, and compelled to purchase their mer- 
 chandise of Mexicans. 
 
 The subject of peonage , forming as it does an important item 
 in the domestic relations of the state, and being regulated by 
 statutory provisions, requires some notice. By the decree of 
 the 30th of September, 1828, it was provided that the contract 
 between the master and servant should be set down at the 
 head of the account, in presence of witnesses. Articles fur- 
 nished the servant for his labor should be at the market price : 
 and the master was forbidden to credit him for more than a 
 year’s wages, except in case of sickness. The master must 
 
 * Decree No. 64. The seat of government was not removed till the spring of 
 1833 (Decree No. 214). It was doubtless the first cause of the misunderstanding 
 that afterward divided the Mexican portion of the state. 
 
 f Decree No. 70. 
 
 \ See Decree No. 83, vetoed by the governor, and Decree No. 91, finally 
 adopted by the congress, which was still more prejudicial to the interests of the 
 people of Texas. The decree (No. 183) of the 9th of April, 1832, was even more 
 severe and prohibitory- 
 
PEONAGE — RELATIONS OP MASTER AND SERVANT. 263 
 
 show his account to the servant on request ; and servants could 
 sue their masters before an alcalde. Masters or overseers 
 were authorized to punish idle or disobedient servants by ar- 
 rest or confinement with shackles for not more than four days ; 
 but the use of the whip was forbidden. The master was to 
 furnish the servant with necessary medicinos and sustenance 
 during sickness, and charge the same to his account. 
 
 The decree of the 4th of April, 1829, modified these rules. 
 It prohibited joint accounts against servants ; required masters 
 to retain one third of servants’ wages, and apply the same as 
 a credit on their accounts, except in case of serious sickness, 
 or the absolute nakedness of the servant and his family ; also 
 required servants, wishing to be employed, to bring a state- 
 ment from their former master of the indebtedness to him, and 
 made the new master pay such debt ; masters who charged their 
 servants more than the market price for articles, were liable 
 to be fined in five times the excess. So much of the former 
 decree as prohibited the whipping of servants was repealed, 
 and masters and overseers were permitted to chastise their 
 servants in a parental manner ; but they were responsible for 
 excessive punishment. If the servant left his master’s service, 
 the alcalde could compel his return, and punish him according 
 to the facts. When the servant wished to leave his master, he 
 could compel the latter to furnish him a statement to show to 
 his new master. Actions of servants against their masters 
 were privileged suits. Masters were not required to bury 
 their servants who died in their debt.* 
 
 Such were the rules under which a majority of the Mexican 
 population were held in perpetual servitude. Their wages 
 were so extremely low, and their improvidence was so great, 
 that it was a rare occurrence for one to be out of debt. 
 
 * Decrees 67 and 86. 
 
264 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 The American portion of the population of Coahuila and 
 Texas had, in lieu thereof, the institution of slavery , which oc- 
 cupied a peculiar position under the state and federal laws. 
 
 The constitution of Coahuila and Texas made it what is 
 technically called “ a free state.” It provided specially, that 
 “from and after the promulgation of the constitution in the 
 capita 1 of each district, no one should be born a slave in the 
 state ; and, after six months, the introduction of slaves, under 
 any pretext, should not be permitted.”* The state congress, 
 in pursuance of this provision, required the several ayunta- 
 mientos to take a list of the names, ages, and sex of the ne- 
 groes in their municipalities, at the end of six months from the 
 promulgation of the constitution ; and also to keep a register 
 of all slaves born in the state after its publication. The death 
 of slaves was likewise to be noted in the register. The owners 
 of slaves, dying without children, made the slaves free ; and, 
 when they had children, the tenth part of the slaves were to 
 be free. | This decree further required that free children born 
 of slaves should receive the best education that could be given 
 
 them.J 
 
 It was provided by another decree, passed in 1827, that any 
 slave who, for convenience, wished to change his master, could 
 do so, provided the new master would pay the old one the 
 amount he gave for him, as stated in the bill of sale. |J 
 
 Meanwhile, in the capital of Mexico, the usual scenes of an- 
 archy and bloodshed were transpiring. At the dose of Presi- 
 dent Victoria’s term there was a most excited co *est between 
 the two political parties in regard to his successor. The re- 
 publican or federal party brought forward Vincent Guerrero, 
 
 * Article 13, Constitution. f Decree No. 18. 
 
 \ If it was only intended that the free negro children should have an educa- 
 tion equal to that of children free born, it was literally complied with — for the 
 matter was wholly neglected 1 J Decree No. 35. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION — REVOLUTION. 
 
 265 
 
 and the centralists or strong-government party placed in nomi- 
 nation Manuel Gomez Pedraza., as their respective candidates. 
 Pedraza was at heart favorable to the aristocracy, but had 
 occasionally acted with the republicans, which doubtful course 
 gave him greatly the advantage over Guerrero, who was a con- 
 sistent republican, and known to be such. The election came 
 off in September, 1828 ; and, although Guerrero had a large 
 majority of the popular vote, Pedraza received ten states in 
 the electoral college, while his opponent obtained but eight.* 
 In the United States, the constitution would have taken its 
 course, and such evils would have been corrected at the ballot- 
 box. Not so in Mexico. 
 
 As the president elect was not to be installed until the fol- 
 lowing April, the liberal party determined to place Guerrero 
 in the presidential chair. The movement was revolutionary, 
 and Santa Anna and Zavalaf were at the head of it. Santa 
 Anna pronounced at Xalapa , and Zavala raised an army in the 
 capital. After a bloody battle of some days, the party of 
 Guerrero triumphed, and he was installed as president. The 
 state of Coahuila and Texas, had been favorable to Guerrero, 
 and approved of the plan of Xalapa ; but when the revolution 
 was over, they recommended a perfect oblivion of passed po- 
 litical differences, declaring that they would not be parties to 
 a system of revenge. $ 
 
 The United States were not satisfied with the treaty of 1819, 
 by which Texas had been ceded to Spain. On the 26th of 
 March, 1825, directly after John Quincy Adams was installed 
 
 * Sketch of Joel R. Poinsett: Democratic Review, March, 1838. 
 
 \ Zavala was a native of Yucatan, and had been imprisoned by the Spanish 
 government for his liberal principles. Released by the revolution from the cas- 
 tle of San Juan d’Ulloa, ho was one of the first representatives from Yucatan in 
 the federal Congress. He was governor of the state of Mexico at the time lie 
 joined iu this attack upon the constitution, little thinking that he was establish- 
 ing a precedent for his own ruin. \ Decree No. 110. 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 in the presidential chair, Henry Clay, as secretary of state, 
 gave special instructions to the American minister to endeavor 
 to procure from Mexico the- re-transfer of Texas. The instruc- 
 tions were repeated on the 15th of. March, 1827. Like in- 
 structions were given by Martin Yan Buren, secretary of state, 
 on the 25th of August, 1829.* In the meantime, however, as 
 good faith on the part of the United States required a confir- 
 mation of the treaty of limits of 1819, Joel R. Poinsett con- 
 cluded such a treaty with the Mexican government on the 12th 
 of January, 1828, with a provision that the line between the 
 two countries should be run immediately.! 
 
 The increase of colonists induced the granting, on the 11th 
 of June, 1829, to James Powers, of a contract for settling two 
 hundred families between the Coleto and the Nueces ; and to 
 M‘Mullen and M‘Gloire, on the 17th of August of the same 
 year, a like contract on territory between the San Antonio 
 and Nueces rivers. $ A considerable town had sprung up at 
 La Bahia, and the state congress had honored it with the name 
 of a ville , and called it Goliad. || 
 
 The neighborhood of Liberty had been settled as early as 
 1805, but scarcely possessed vitality until about this period, 
 when settlers began to extend along the banks of the Trinity. 
 About the same time a sparse settlement sprang up on the 
 Texan side of Red river; but immigrants came and located 
 there on their own account. Not knowing to what jurisdiction 
 they belonged, they kept aloof from all municipal laws, except 
 those of their own making, and lived as they best could. In 
 
 * Texas Question: Democratic Review, April, 1844. 
 
 f Elliot’s Diplomatic Code, vol. ii., p. 111. For various causes, this line was 
 not run until Texas achieved her independence. One of the despatches taken 
 by “Deaf Smith,” just before the battle of San Jacinto, was an order to Santa 
 Anna to proceed east with his army and protect Almonte, the commissioner, 
 while he was running the line. 
 
 X Dewees’s Letters p. 117. j] Decree No. 73, February 4, 1829. 
 
EDUCATION IN MEXICO — A MEXICAN SCHOOL. 267 
 
 complexion, however, they were greatly superior to their pre- 
 decessors of the neutral ground. 
 
 The legislature took some steps to establish a system of edu- 
 cation. Two laws were enacted for this purpose. The first, 
 in May, 1829, made provision for a school of mutual instruc- 
 tion, on the Lancastrian plan, in each department. It provided 
 that the teachers should instruct the pupils in reading, writing, 
 arithmetic, the dogma of the Roman catholic religion, and all 
 Ackerman’s catechisms of arts and sciences.* In April fol- 
 lowing, the legislature passed another law, establishing tempo- 
 rary schools on a like plan.f But all this effort resulted in 
 nothing. The people did not second the views of the legisla- 
 ture. To give an idea of the state of education in Mexico, we 
 caii not do better than refer to the description of an intelligent 
 eye-witness : — 
 
 (C I have just returned,” says Mr. Poinsett, “ from visiting a 
 school, and have been much amused with the appearance of 
 the pedagogue. In a large room, furnished with two or three 
 cowhides spread on the floor, and half a dozen low benches, 
 were ten or twelve little urchins, all repeating their lessons as 
 loud as they could bawl. The master was stalking about the 
 room, with a ferule in his hand, and dressed in a most gro- 
 tesque manner. He had an old manta wrapped about his loins, 
 from under which there appeared the ends of tattered leather 
 breeches, hanging over his naked legs ; sandals were bound 
 round his ankles ; a leather jerkin, the sleeves worn off, and a 
 dirty handkerchief twisted round his head, above which his 
 shaggy hair stood erect, completed his dress. He seemed per- 
 fectly unconscious of his uncouth appearance, but received me 
 very courteously, dismissed his scholars immediately, and at 
 once entered into conversation on the state of the country. . . . 
 
 f Decree No. 129. 
 
 * Decree No. 92. 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 He told me that lie was bom in that house, and had never 
 wandered beyond the precincts of the village. Several of the 
 country-people came in while we were talking, and treated the 
 pedagogue with great respect. He appeared to be their 
 oracle.”* 
 
 Those Texan settlements that would justify it, established 
 private schools for the instruction of their children. In cases 
 where parents could afford it, their children were sent to the 
 United States to be educated. 
 
 But little can be said of the religious progress of the Texans 
 as early as 1830. They may have furnished certificates of 
 their catholic leaning, but they employed very little of their 
 time in its exhibition.! 
 
 Father Henry Doyle, a catholic clergyman, and a native of 
 Ireland, located himself in the Irish colony, early in 1830, and 
 attended to the religious rites for that portion of Texas. In 
 addition to the regular priests at San Antonio, Goliad, and 
 Nacogdoches, there were occasional visits from other catholic 
 ministers to the different settlements, for the purpose of attend- 
 ing to the ordinances of the church. Among these was Father 
 Michael Muldoon, likewise from Ireland — a man of a warm 
 heart, a social and generous spirit, who will be long held in 
 grateful remembrance by the old settlers of Texas. $ Anterior 
 to this, some protestant clergymen visited the eastern part of 
 the state, and in one or two instances penetrated even as far 
 as San Antonio ; but this will be noticed hereafter. 
 
 The first part of the year 1830 passed quietly in Texas. 
 Mexico, however, was gradually encroaching upon the rights 
 of the colonists. The subject of slavery was one cause of it. 
 Spain, with a view to re-establish her authority in the republic, 
 
 * Poinsett’s Notes (November 28, 1822), p. 190. 
 f De wees’s Letters, p. 137. % Decrees Nos. 165 and 139. 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN MEXICO. 
 
 269 
 
 sent out from Havana, in July, 1829, an expedition of four 
 thousand men, under General Barradas. These troops landed 
 at Tampico, and produced such alarm in Mexico, that the fed- 
 eral Congress, overlooking the restrictions of the constitution, 
 gave to President Guerrero unlimited powers. He determined 
 to send a secret agent to Boyer, president of Hayti, to obtain 
 his aid in exciting the slaves of Cuba to revolt. Preparatory 
 to this step, Guerrero, acting under the decree appointing him 
 dictator, proceeded, on the 29th of July, 1829, to abolish 
 slavery in the Mexican republic.* 
 
 This proceeding, though high-handed and in violation of 
 vested rights, was acquiesced in by the Mexican people. Among 
 the Mexican owners, it was only in the sugar-plantations that 
 the negro was valuable. “ One hundred free negroes,” says 
 Edwards, “ though receiving double the wages of the Indian, 
 are found to produce as much sugar as two hundred do in Cuba, 
 
 without the owner supporting their wives and children 
 
 These negroes are, however, over-paid, and in consequence be- 
 come drunkards, vicious, and unruly. Indians, properly taught, 
 would perform the same labor at half price. ”f And so thought 
 the Mexicans. They argued that the peons were more profit- 
 able, and that their employers were without the necessity of 
 supporting their families. 
 
 The American colonists, however, still continued the prac- 
 tice of introducing their slaves, under the appellation of ser- 
 vants. Austin, fearful of the effects of the decree of abolition 
 on the prosperity of his colony, applied to President Guerrero, 
 who agreed to modify it in favor of the American colonists. 
 Guerrero’s administration, however, was suddenly closed by 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. S68; M. Van Buren, Secretary of State, to A. Butler, 
 Charge des Affaires to Mexico, November 30, 1829 ; Foote, vol. i., p. 308. 
 
 f History of Texas, p. 120. 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 his tragic death. Bustamente, the vice-president, who was a 
 strong centralist, pronounced against him, drove him from the 
 capital to the mountains, assumed the presidential chair, and 
 exercised the functions of his office in a manner so sanguinary 
 and proscriptive, that Guerrero, in again attempting to resume 
 his station, was taken and shot. Bustamente, now undisputed 
 master of Mexico, soon exhibited his narrow policy in regard 
 to the Texan colonies. On the 6th of April, 1830, he issued a 
 decree, substantially forbidding people of the United States 
 from settling as colonists in Texas, and suspending all colony 
 contracts conflicting with this prohibition.* By the same de- 
 cree, the further introduction of slaves was forbidden. 
 
 The congress of Coahuila and Texas, perplexed with the 
 repeated revolutions in the national capital, and wishing to 
 keep on good terms with the successful party, did not know 
 what course to pursue. They ordered a bust of the “ illustri- 
 ous’’ Guerrero to be set up in their hall, but, when adversity 
 came upon him, they repealed the order. They also named a 
 town after Bustamente, and then, by another decree, struck 
 out his name ! 
 
 The September elections of 1830 showed that Jose Maria 
 Letona was elected governor and Juan Martin Veramendi vice- 
 governor of the state. This result was favorable to Texas, as 
 the latter was a resident of San Antonio, and a man of liberal 
 principles. At this time appeared before the state congress 
 James Bowie. He had married a daughter of Yeramendi, and 
 under his auspices went to Saltillo to establish a cotton and 
 woollen manufactory. With this view, the legislature natu- 
 ralized him, and granted him a charter ; but more important 
 duties awaited him, and nothing was done.f 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. i., p. 375. 
 
 f Decrees Nos. 159 and 160. James Bowie, a son of Resin Bowie, was born 
 
STATE VERSUS CHURCH. 
 
 271 
 
 Among the proceedings of the state congress at this period, 
 as well as in other Mexican states, may be seen a gradual en- 
 croachment upon the alleged rights of the church. The state 
 would exact loans from it, forbid it from despatching its eccle- 
 siastical orders without consent of the secular power, and with- 
 drew the right of exacting forced contributions for festivals : 
 in fact, the church was brought into subjection to the civil 
 power. These were seeds sown in the Mexican republic, which, 
 being well cultivated by the priests, and properly directed by 
 ambitious leaders, brought forth that bitter fruit which, in a 
 few years after, the Texans were required to eat. 
 
 It was a feeling of jealousy toward the American colonists 
 in Texas that induced the decree of April 6, 1830. The privi- 
 leges allowed them at first, in regard to importations, were 
 about to cease, and they were to be subdued and made as sub- 
 missive as the Mexicans themselves under Bustamente. With 
 a view to this, customhouses were not only established at Nac- 
 
 in Burke county, Georgia. Of his parents, it is said they were from Maryland. 
 The father was a man of strong mind and sound judgment. The mother was a 
 pious and excellent lady, and from her it was thought that the children inher- 
 ited their remarkable energy of character. They had five children, viz., David, 
 James, Rezin P., John J., and Stephen, who were all large, muscular men. In 
 1802, the family removed to Chatahoula parish, Louisiana. On the 19th of 
 September, 1827, James Bowie was engaged, on a bar of the Mississippi, in a 
 duel with Norris Wright and others — one of the bloodiest rencontres of this 
 class on record — in which he was wounded, and two men were killed. Shortly 
 after this he cqme to Texas, as did also his brother Rezin P. Bowie. The above 
 facts are collected from “ De Bow’s Review.” In the same periodical may be 
 found a complete sketch' of James, by his brother John J. James Bowie was 
 about six feet high, of fair complexion, with small blue eyes, not fleshy, but well 
 proportioned ; he stood quite erect, and had a rather fierce look ; was not quar- 
 relsome, but mild and quiet, even at the moment of action. He was quite so- 
 ciable, and somewhat disposed to intemperance, but never drunk. He had a 
 wonderful art in winning people to him, and was extremely prodigal of his 
 money. His muscular power was as great as his daring : his brother says he 
 had been known to rope and ride alligators 1 His great speculation was in pur- 
 chasing negroes from Lafitte, and smuggling them into Louisiana. This is the 
 most unpleasant feature in his history. 
 
272 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ogdoches and Bexer, but at Copano, Yelasco, and Galveston, 
 or rather at Anahuac, at the head of the bay. General M. 
 Mier y Teran, a stern and merciless monarchist, was appointed 
 commandant-general of the eastern states. Colonel John Da- 
 vis Bradburn, one of the heroes of Iguala, tired of navigating 
 the Rio Grande with steam and horse power, had sought and 
 obtained the position of commander of the forces at Anahuac. 
 Colonel Dominic Ugartachea had command at Yelasco, the 
 port at the mouth of the Brasos ; Colonel Piedras at Nacogdo- 
 ches ; while Don Ramon Musquiz presided as a political chief 
 at Bexar. 
 
 In addition to these high officers, Ellis P. Bean, a colonel in 
 the regular army of Mexico, had been stationed in eastern 
 Texas, rather as agent for the central government to the dif- 
 ferent Indian tribes. In the contest which seemed to be now 
 approaching, neither party appeared willing to trust him. He 
 was assigned a position at Fort Teran, on the Neches, where 
 was stationed a detachment of troops. The forces at the fore- 
 going points were as follows : at Nacogdoches, three hundred 
 and twenty; at Anahuac, one hundred and fifty; and at Ye- 
 lasco, one hundred and twenty-five. These, with the two pre- 
 sidial companies at Bexar and Goliad, constituted the Mexican 
 power that was to overawe twenty thousand colonists, and 
 bring them to submit to the arbitrary measures of Yice-Presi- 
 dent Bustamente. The state congress, among its last decrees,* 
 placed one hundred and fifty more troops at the disposal of 
 General Teran. The character of these forces may be inferred 
 from the description furnished by the law, and given on a pre- 
 vious page, of the kind of soldiers preferred. 
 
 Colonel Bradburn took the first step in carrying out the 
 views of his superiors. He introduced martial law for the 
 
 * Decree of September 28, 1830. 
 
GRIEVANCES OF THE TEXAN COLONISTS. 
 
 273 
 
 citizens ; he took from them their property without their con- 
 sent and without consideration ; he had many of them arrested 
 and imprisoned in the fort of Anahuac ; and his troops, who 
 were guilty of robbery and stealing, were by him protected 
 from punishment.* 
 
 These were some of the grievances of which the colonists 
 of Texas complained before the close of the year 1830. It was 
 not the entertainment to which they had been invited ! 
 
 * T. J. Chambers’s pamphlet, 1833. 
 
 Yol. I. —18 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The year 1831 found the American population of Texas still 
 increasing. They now numbered about twenty thousand ; and, 
 notwithstanding the general law of April 6, 1830, prohibited 
 natives of the United States from immigrating, they still con- 
 tinued to come. They had friends and relatives in Texas, and 
 wished to be with them. Others, attracted by the generous 
 nature of the soil and the fine climate, were induced to come 
 in order to find homes in the new state. The greater part of 
 these prohibited immigrants had settled east of the Trinity. 
 They had fixed upon their homes, designated their lands, and 
 desired titles. They had come under the control of no empre- 
 sario, but under the general provisions of the law, on their own 
 account. They made repeated applications for titles to their 
 lands. 
 
 As early as 1829, the state of Coahuila and Texas had de- 
 spatched Juan Antonio Padilla as commissioner-general to 
 eastern Texas, to extend titles to the colonists ; and with him 
 came Thomas J. Chambers* as surveyor-general of the state. 
 
 * Thomas J. Chambers, a native of Orange county, Virginia, ■went to the city 
 of Mexico in 1826 , and for three years was diligently occupied in the study of 
 their laws, manners, and institutions. Though young, he was already a ripe 
 scholar when he went to the city, lie soon made himself master of their laws 
 and language. An acquaintance formed with Don Victor Blanco, then vice- 
 governor of Coahuila and Texas, introduced him to the authorities of that state, 
 
USURPATIONS OF THE MILITARY AUTHORITY. 
 
 275 
 
 But the jealousy of those opposed to the settlement of eastern 
 Texas caused Padilla to be arrested upon a false accusation, 
 and thus broke up the commission.* 
 
 The colonists in eastern Texas, not to be outdone in this 
 way, held public meetings, and sent their petitions to the state 
 government, asking the appointment of another commissioner.! 
 In the meantime, the state legislature had assembled at Saltillo, 
 and Licentiate Jose Maria Letona was declared duly elected 
 governor, and Juan Martin de Veramendi vice-governor, of the 
 state.J The latter, a resident in San Antonio, indicated a fa- 
 vorable disposition toward Texas. The applications for a 
 commissioner to extend titles was attended to ; and Francisco 
 Madero was despatched to the Trinity, with Jose Maria Car- 
 bajal, his surveyor, for that purpose. || Madero was a gentle- 
 man of popular manners, and much esteemed by the colonists. 
 He proceeded with energy in the discharge of his duties, but 
 was suddenly arrested by order of General Manuel Mier y Te- 
 ran, commandant-general of the eastern states, and, with Car- 
 bajal, confined in the prison of Anahuac. Teran was a gen- 
 uine monarchist, and a fit instrument to carry out the designs 
 of Bustamente. The alleged excuse or ground of their arrest 
 was, that they were extending titles to natives of the United 
 States who had immigrated since the decree of the 6th of April, 
 1830. It is probable that such titles had been extended ; but 
 this was an affair of the state, appertaining to the civil authori- 
 ties : and, although they had the authority of Bustamente for 
 their proceedings, it was as clearly illegal as was the decree 
 
 to which he emigrated in 1829. Gifted with talents of a high order, and with 
 persuasive manners, he soon gained the confidence of the state government 
 This, added to his devotion to free institutions, enabled him to do much for 
 Texas in the days of her infancy . — Sketch of T. J. Chambers : Galveston , 1858. 
 
 * Sketch of T. J. Chambers, p. 9. f lb., p. 10. 
 
 $ Decree of January 5, 1831. j Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 6. 
 
276 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of the 6th of April. Though these officers were acting under 
 the law, -and the authority of the state, nothing could be done 
 by the latter toward their release without drawing upon it the 
 vengeance of Bustamente.* 
 
 Among the acts of Commissioner Madero was the erection 
 of the municipality of Liberty. The ayuntamiento was duly 
 elected and organized, holding its sessions at the town of Lib- 
 erty, some thirty miles above Anahuac. As the design of the 
 military was obviously to bring the country under their subjec- 
 tion, Colonel Bradburn, commandant at Anahuac, dissolved the 
 ayuntamiento of Liberty, and ordered one for the same munici- 
 pality at Anahuac. f Such was the tyranny of Bradburn, how- 
 ever, that his ayuntamiento fled from him, and took refuge in 
 Austin’s colony. 
 
 The sudden change in the policy of Mexico in regard to her 
 Texan colonies can not be attributed altogether to a mere ty- 
 rannical disposition on the part of the acting president, Busta- 
 mente. The introduction of so many troops, the usurpation of 
 the military, the interference of the supreme government in 
 preventing the state from extending titles to the colonists, the 
 imposition of taxes, the prohibition of merchandise on the part 
 of the colonists, and numerous other grievances, and hindrances 
 to their prosperity, had their origin mainly in an apprehension 
 on the part of Mexico that the United States would, in some 
 way or other — through their citizens domiciliated in Texas 
 — set up a claim to the country. Reference to some facts will 
 place this matter in a clear light. 
 
 The retrograde movement commenced in the latter part of 
 1829. We have referred to the repeated applications of the 
 
 * Governor’s Message, 1832. 
 
 f This place had been previously known as Perry’s point. Its position, at the 
 head of Galveston bay, caused it to be erected as a port of entry. It was known 
 at that time as the port of Galveston, the island not being then occupied. 
 
PROPOSITIONS TO PURCHASE TEXAS IN 1826. 
 
 277 
 
 United States to purchase Texas of Mexico. The boundary -line 
 between Louisiana and Texas, as established by the treaty of 
 1819, had not been run previous to the treaty of Cordova in 
 1821. Mexico, acquiring her independence, became a party 
 to the former treaty instead of Spain. In the instructions to 
 Mr. Poinsett, our first minister to Mexico, dated March 26, 
 1825, he was directed to sound that government upon the ques- 
 tion of making a new line.* The proposition was made, but 
 Mexico insisted on the treaty-line. In 1827, he was instructed 
 to propose to the Mexican government the purchase of Texas, 
 and to offer for the country as far as the Rio Grande a million 
 of dollars ; or, if that should not be accepted, half a million 
 for the part lying east of the Colorado.! These propositions 
 were rejected ; and, although the United States had repeatedly 
 acknowledged the validity of the boundary as agreed to with 
 Spain in 1819, yet such was the uneasiness of Mexico, that her 
 chamber of deputies passed a resolution that they would not 
 
 * “The line of the Sabine approaches our great western mart nearer than 
 could be wished. Perhaps the Mexican government may not be unwilling to 
 establish that of the Rio Brasos de Dios, or the Rio Colorado, or the Snow 
 mountains, or the Rio del Norte, in lieu of it.” — Mr. Clay to Mr. Poinsett , 
 March 26, 1825. 
 
 f Among the reasons assigned by Mr. Clay for making the purchase are the 
 following: “ The great extent and the facility which appears to have attended 
 the procurement of grants from the government of the United Mexican States, 
 for large tracts of country to citizens of the United States, in the province of 
 Texas, authorize the belief that but little value is placed upon the possession of 
 the province by that government. These grants seem to have been made with- 
 out any sort of equivalent, judging according to our opinions of the value of 
 land. They have been made to, and apparently in contemplation of being set- 
 tled by, citizens from the United States. These emigrants will carry with them 
 our principles of law, liberty, and religion ; and, however much it may be hope4 
 they might be disposed to amalgamate with the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, 
 60 far as political freedom is concerned, it would be almost too much to expect 
 that all collisions would be avoided on other subjects. Already some of these 
 collisions have manifested themselves, and others, in the progress of time, may 
 be anticipated with confidence. These collisions may insensibly enlist the sym- 
 pathies and feelings of the two republics, and lead to misunderstandings.” — Mr. 
 Clay to Mr. Poinsett , March 15, 1827. 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 take into consideration the treaty which the two governments 
 had agreed on, until an article was inserted recognising the 
 boundary named in the treaty with Spain. The government 
 of Mexico also despatched General Teran, in 1828, to run the 
 line agreed on by that treaty. This was on its own account, 
 the convention for running the line not having been concluded. 
 Again, in 1829, Mr. Van Buren, secretary of state, instructed 
 Mr. Poinsett to - make another proposition to purchase Texas. 
 He proposed to give four millions of dollars for the territory 
 east of the line dividing the waters of the Rio Grande and the 
 Nueces. If that could not be obtained, then the minister was 
 to offer a sum in proportion for the territory east of the Lava- 
 ca ; or, if that could not be acquired, then the line of the Col- 
 orado, and lastly that of the Brasos, was to be proposed.* 
 During the period of these negotiations, the growth of the 
 colonies, the emeute of the “ Fredonians,” the general sturdy 
 spirit of the settlers, and, above all, the reasons advanced by 
 the United States in favor of a sale of Texas, had excited in 
 the Mexican mind a general feeling of jealousy and uneasiness. 
 This feeling soon found its way to the public. Lucas Alaman, 
 secretary of state, in his report to the Mexican Congress in 
 1829, uses the following language : — 
 
 “ The North Americans commence by introducing themselves 
 into the territory which they covet, on pretence of commercial 
 negotiations, or of the establishment of colonies, with or with- 
 out the assent of the government to which it belongs. These 
 colonies grow, multiply, become the prominent part in the pop- 
 ulation ; and as soon as a support is found in this maimer, they 
 begin to set up rights which it is impossible to sustain in a se- 
 rious discussion, and to bring forward ridiculous pretensions, 
 founded upon historical facts which are admitted by nobody, 
 
 * Mr. Van Buren to Mr. Poinsett, August 25, 1829. 
 
MEXICAN JEALOUSY OE AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS. 279 
 
 such as La Salle’s voyages, now known to be a falsehood , but 
 which, at this time, serve- as a support for their claim to Texas. 
 These extravagant opinions are, for the first time, presented 
 to the world by unknown writers ; and the labor which is em- 
 ployed by others in offering proofs and reasonings, is spent in 
 repetitions and multiplied allegations, for the purpose of draw- 
 ing the attention of their fellow-citizens, not to the justice of 
 the proposition, but to the advantages and interests to be ob- 
 tained or subverted by their admission. 
 
 “ Their machinations in the country they wish to acquire are 
 then brought to light by the appearance of explorers, some of 
 whom settle upon the soil, alleging that their presence does 
 not affect the question of the right of sovereignty, or possession 
 of the land. These pioneers, by degrees, excite movements 
 which disturb the political state of the country in dispute ; and 
 then follow discontent and dissatisfaction calculated to fatigue 
 the patience of the legitimate owner, and to diminish the use- 
 fulness of the administration and of the exercise of authority. 
 When things have come to this pass — which is precisely the 
 present state of things in Texas — the diplomatic management 
 commences. The inquietude they have excited in the territory 
 in dispute, the interests of the colonists therein established, 
 the insurrections of adventurers and savages instigated by 
 them, and the pertinacity with which the opinion is set up as 
 to their right of possession, become the subjects of notes, full 
 of expressions of justice and moderation, until, with the aid 
 of other incidents, which are never wanting in the course of 
 diplomatic relations, the desired end is attained of concluding 
 am arrangement, onerous for one party, as it is advantageous 
 to the other." 
 
 * Don Aiaman waa not aware of the accurate sketch he was drawing of the 
 mode by which Spain wrested Texas from France ! 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 “ It lias been said further, that, when the United States of 
 the North have succeeded in giving the predominance to the 
 colonists introduced into the countries they had in view, they 
 set up rights, and bring forward pretensions, founded on dis- 
 puted historical facts, availing themselves generally, for the 
 purpose, of some critical conjuncture to which they suppose 
 the attention of government must be directed. This policy, 
 which has produced good results to them,* they have com- 
 menced carrying into effect with Texas. The public prints in 
 those states, including those which are more immediately un- 
 der the influence of their government, are engaged in discus- 
 sing the right they imagine they have to the country as far as 
 the Rio Bravo. Handbills are printed on the same subject, 
 and thrown into general circulation, whose object is to per- 
 suade and convince the people of the utility and expediency 
 of the meditated project. Some of them have said that Provi- 
 dence had marked out the Bio Bravo as the natural boundary 
 of those states ; which has induced an English writer to re- 
 proach them with an attempt to make Providence the author 
 of all their usurpations ! But what is most remarkable is, that 
 they have commenced that discussion precisely at the same 
 time they saw us engaged in repelling the Spanish invasion, 
 believing that our attention would, for a long time, be thereby 
 withdrawn from other things.”! 
 
 In addition to the above causes of uneasiness, a report had 
 been circulated in the newspapers of the United States that 
 Texas would be invaded by American adventurers ; and, al- 
 though it had no foundation in fact, it found ready hearers in 
 
 * Referring to the course taken by the United States in regard to the Flor- 
 idas. 
 
 f General Barradas, -with four thousand five hundred Spanish troops, landed 
 at Tampico on the 20th of July, 1829 ; and, after various conflicts with the Mexi- 
 can forces under Santa Anna, capitulated on the 12th of September following. 
 
OBNOXIOUS COURSE OF THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT- 281 
 
 the jealous Mexicans.* It was, then, clearly more through 
 fear of the growing strength of the colonies, than the tyranni- 
 cal disposition of Bustamente, that steps were taken against 
 them by the supreme government. The tyranny consisted in 
 the illegal mode of passing and enforcing its decrees. Their 
 inexpediency was manifested in the result. All the misfor- 
 tunes of Mexico in planting and rearing her colonies have 
 arisen from her ignorance of the character of her colonists. 
 She wished to nurse them when they did not ask it : she 
 wished to correct them when they would not bear it. 
 
 Having taken her measures, she sent troops to enforce them ; 
 and directed that these troops should be paid out of taxes to 
 be raised from the colonists through the customhouses. To 
 this the latter were not inclined to submit ; especially when 
 they saw that the military were to supersede the civil authori- 
 ties. The better to enforce the collection of the customs du- 
 ties, and prevent smuggling, orders were published by the com- 
 mandants at Anahuac and Yelasco, closing all the maritime 
 ports except the port of Galveston at Anahuac. As this would 
 draw the commerce of the greater part of Texas to these ports, 
 the colonists resolved to have the decree rescinded. 
 
 Accordingly, a large meeting of the citizens was held in the 
 town of Brasoria, on the 16th of December, 1831, to consider 
 the matter. Branch T. Archer and George B. M‘Kinstry were 
 
 * Extract of a letter from John A. Wharton to Sam Houston : — 
 
 “ Nashville, Tennessee, July 25, 1829. 
 
 . . . . “ I have heard you intended an expedition against Texas. I suppose, if 
 it is true, you will let some of your Nashville friends know of it. It is stated in 
 the papers, and believed generally, that Spain is fitting out an expedition against 
 Mexico. Twenty-five hundred men are to start from Havana, and land at Cam- 
 peachy, there to await the arrival of four thousand more; and in the fall to 
 commence the attack, and reduce that government to its former state. Should 
 this be true, I make no doubt but you will join the Mexicans. I certainly will 
 do it. ... . “John A. Wharton. 
 
 “General Sam Houston, Cantonment Gibson” 
 
282 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 chosen by the meeting commissioners to proceed to Anahuac, 
 and demand of Colonel Bradburn that he should rescind the 
 obnoxious order, or they would attack the place. The com- 
 missioners discharged their duty faithfully. Bradburn asked 
 time till he could communicate with General Teran : but they 
 would not allow it, and drew from him the order of revocation. 
 Thus did the colonists exhibit a specimen of their spirit. 
 
 As they increased in power, they received the more consid- 
 eration from the state legislature. The department of Texas 
 was divided into two districts, the line of division being the 
 dividing ridge between the Trinity and the Brasos and San 
 Jacinto rivers. Nacogdoches was made the residence of the 
 political chief of the eastern district ; while the chief of the 
 western district continued to reside at Bexar.* This decen- 
 tralizing movement was democratic. 
 
 The year 1831 did not pass away without being witness to a 
 battle, which, considering the numbers engaged, and its results, 
 was the best-contested field in Texas. On the 2d day of No- 
 vember, Bezin P. Bowie, James Bowie, David Buchanan, Rob- 
 ert Armstrong, Jesse Wallace, Matthew Doyle, Cephas D 
 Hamm, James Cornell, Thomas M‘Caslin, and two servant- 
 boys, Charles and Gonzales, set out from San Antonio in search 
 of the old silver-mines of the San Saba mission. “ Nothing 
 particular occurred,” says Rezin P. Bowie,f whose graphic 
 narrative we quote, “ until the 19th, on which day, about ten, 
 A. M., we were overhauled by two Camanche Indians and a 
 Mexican captive. They stated that they belonged to Isaonie’s 
 party (a chief of the Camanche tribe), about sixteen in num- 
 ber, and were on their road to San Antonio, with a drove of 
 horses, which they had taken from the Wacoes and Twowoka- 
 nas, and were about returning to their owners, citizens of San 
 
 * Decree No. 164. 
 
 f Holly, p. 161. 
 
SEARCH FOR THE SILVER-MINES OF SAN SABA. 283 
 
 Antonio. After smoking and talking with them about an hour, 
 and making them a few presents of tobacco, powder, shot, &c., 
 they returned to their party, who were waiting at the Llano 
 river. 
 
 “~We continued our journey until night closed upon us, when 
 we encamped. The next morning, between daylight and sun- 
 rise, the above-named Mexican captive came to our camp, his 
 horse very much fatigued, and who, after eating and smoking, 
 stated to us that he had been sent by his chief, Isaonie, to in- 
 form us we were followed by a hundred and twenty-four Two- 
 wokana and Waco Indians, and that forty Caddoes had joined 
 them, who were determined to have our scalps at all risks. 
 Isaonie had held a talk with them all, the previous evening, 
 and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose ; but they 
 still persevered, and left him, enraged, and pursued our trail. 
 As a voucher for the truth of the above, the Mexican produced 
 his chief’s silver medal, which is common among the natives in 
 such cases. He further stated that his chief requested him to 
 say that he had but sixteen men, badly armed, and without 
 ammunition ; but, if we would return and join him, such succor 
 as he could give us he would. But, knowing that the enemy 
 lay between us and him, we deemed it more prudent to pursue 
 our journey, and endeavor to reach the old fort on the San 
 Saba river before night — distance, thirty miles. The Mexican 
 then returned to his party, and we proceeded on. 
 
 “ Throughout the day we encountered bad roads, being cov- 
 ered with rocks, and, the horses’ feet being worn out, we were 
 disappointed in not reaching the fort. In the evening we had 
 some little difficulty in picking out an advantageous spot where 
 to encamp for the night. We, however, made choice of the 
 best that offered, which was a cluster of live-oak trees, some 
 thirty or forty in number, about the size of a man’s body. To 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the north of them was a thicket of live-oak bushes, about ten 
 feet high, forty yards in length and twenty in breadth ; to the 
 west, at the distance of thirty-five or forty yards, ran a stream 
 of water. 
 
 “ The surrounding country was an open prairie, interspersed 
 with a few trees, rocks, and broken land. The trail which we 
 came on lay to the east of our encampment. After taking the 
 precaution to prepare our spot for defence, by cutting a road 
 inside the thicket of bushes, ten feet from the outer edge all 
 around, and clearing the prickly pears from among the bushes, 
 we hoppled our horses, and placed sentinels for the night. We 
 were now distant six miles from the old fort above mentioned. 
 
 Nothing occurred throughout the night, and we lost no 
 
 time in the morning in making preparations for continuing our 
 journey to the fort ; and, when in the act of starting, we dis- 
 covered the Indians on our trail to the east, about two hun- 
 dred yards distant, and a footman about fifty yards ahead of 
 the main body, with his face to the ground, tracking. The 
 cry of ‘ Indians !’ was given, and all hands to-arms. We dis- 
 mounted, and both saddle and pack horses were immediately 
 made fast to the trees. As soon as they found we had discov- 
 ered them, they gave the war-whoop, halted, and commenced 
 stripping, preparatory to action. A number of mounted In- 
 dians were reconnoitring the ground. Among them we discov- 
 ered a few Caddo Indians — by the cut of their hair — who had 
 always previously been friendly to the Americans. 
 
 “ Their number being so far greater than ours (one hundred 
 and sixty-four to eleven), it was agreed that Rezin P. Bowie 
 should be sent out to talk with them, and endeavor to compro- 
 mise rather than attempt a fight. He accordingly started, with 
 David Buchanan in company, and walked up to within about 
 forty yards of where they had halted, and requested them, in 
 
DESPERATE BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 285 
 
 their own tongue, to send forward their chief, as he wanted to 
 talk with him. Their answer was, 4 How de do ? how de do V 
 in English, and a discharge of twelve shot at us, one of which 
 broke Buchanan’s leg. Bowie returned their salutation with 
 the contents of a double-barrelled gun and a pistol. He then 
 took Buchanan on his shoulder, and started back to the en- 
 campment. They then opened a heavy fire upon us, which 
 wounded Buchanan in two more places, slightly, and piercing 
 Bowie’s hunting-shirt in several places without doing him any 
 injury. When they found their shot failed to bring Bowie 
 down, eight Indians, on foot, took after him with their toma- 
 hawks, and, when close upon him, were discovered by his 
 party, who rushed out with their rifles, and brought down four 
 of them — the other four retreating back to the main body. 
 We then returned to our position, and all was still for about 
 five minutes. 
 
 “We then discovered a hill to the northeast at the distance 
 of sixty yards, red with Indians, who opened a heavy fire upon 
 us, with loud yells — their chief, on horseback, urging them 
 in a loud and audible voice to the charge, walking his horse, 
 perfectly composed. When we first discovered him, our guns 
 were all empty, with the exception of Mr. Hamm’s. James 
 Bowie cried out, 4 Who is loaded V Mr. Hamm answered, 4 1 
 am.’ He was then told to shoot that Indian on horseback. 
 He did so, and broke his leg, and killed his horse. We now 
 discovered him hopping round his horse on one leg, with his 
 shield on his arm to keep off the balls. By this time, four of 
 our party, being reloaded, fired at the same instant, and all 
 the balls took effect through the shield. He fell, and was im- 
 mediately surrounded by six or eight of his tribe, who picked 
 him up and bore him off. Several of these were shot by our 
 party. The whole body then retreated back of the hill, out 
 
286 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 of sight, with the exception of a few Indians, who were run- 
 ning about from tree to tree, out of gunshot. 
 
 “ They now covered the hill the second time, bringing up 
 their bowmen, who had not been in action before, and com- 
 menced a heavy fire with balls and arrows, which we returned 
 by a well-directed aim with our rifles. At this instant another 
 chief appeared on horseback, near the spot where the last one 
 fell. The same question of 4 Who is loaded V was asked. The 
 answer was, 4 Nobody when little Charles, the mulatto ser- 
 vant, came running up with Buchanan’s rifle, which had not 
 been discharged since he was wounded, and handed it to James 
 Bowie, who instantly fired and brought him down from his 
 horse. He was surrounded by six or eight of his tribe, as was 
 the last, and borne off under our fire. 
 
 44 During the time we were engaged in defending ourselves 
 from the Indians on the hill, some fifteen or twenty of the 
 Caddo tribe had succeeded in getting under the bank of the 
 creek, in our rear, at about forty yards’ distance, and opened 
 a heavy fire upon us, which wounded Matthew Doyle, the ball 
 entering the left breast and coming out at the back. As soon 
 as he cried out that he was wounded, Thomas M 4 Oaslin hast- 
 ened to the spot where he fell, and observed , 4 Where is the 
 Indian that shot Doyle ?’ He was told by a more experienced 
 hand not to venture there, as, from the reports of their guns, 
 they must be riflemen. At that instant they discovered an In- 
 dian ; and, while in the act of raising his piece, was shot 
 through the centre of the body, and expired. Robert Arm- 
 strong exclaimed, 4 D — n the Indian that shot M 4 Caslin, where 
 is he ?’ He was told not to venture there, as they must be 
 riflemen ; but, on discovering an Indian, and while bringing his 
 gun up, he was fired at, and part of the stock of his gun cut 
 off, and the ball lodged against the barrel. During this time 
 
PROGRESS OF THE FIGHT. 
 
 287 
 
 our enemies had formed a complete circle round us, occupying 
 the points of rocks, scattering trees, and bushes. The firing 
 then became general from all quarters. Finding our situation 
 too much exposed among the trees, we were obliged to leave 
 them, and take to the thickets. The first thing necessary was, 
 to dislodge the riflemen from under the bank of the creek, who 
 were within point-blank shot. This we soon succeeded in do- 
 ing, by shooting the most of them through the head, as we had 
 the advantage of seeing them when they could not see us. 
 
 u The road we had cut round the thicket the night previous 
 gave us now an advantageous situation over that of our enemy, 
 as we had a fair view of them in the prairie, while we were 
 completely hid. We baffled their shots by moving six or eight 
 feet the moment we had fired, as their only mark was the 
 smoke of our guns. They would put twenty balls within the 
 size of a pocket-handkerchief, where they had seen the smoke. 
 In this manner we fought them two hours, and had one man 
 wounded — James Cornell — who was shot through the arm, 
 and the ball lodged in the side, first cutting away a small bush, 
 which prevented it from penetrating deeper than the size of it. 
 
 “ They now discovered that we were not to be dislodged 
 from the thicket, and the uncertainty of killing us at random ; 
 they suffering very much from the fire of our rifles, which 
 brought half a dozen down at every round. They now deter- 
 mined to resort to stratagem, by putting fire to the dry grass 
 in the prairie, for the double purpose of routing us from our 
 position, and, under cover of the smoke, to carry away their 
 dead and wounded, which lay near us. The wind was now 
 blowing from the west, and they placed the fire in that quar- 
 ter, where it burnt down all the grass to the creek, and then 
 bore off to the right and left, leaving around our position a 
 space of about five acres untouched by the fire. Under cover 
 
288 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of this smoke they succeeded in carrying off a portion of theii 
 dead and wounded. In the meantime, our party was engaged 
 in scraping away the dry grass and leaves from our wounded 
 men and baggage, to prevent the fire from passing over them ; 
 and likewise in piling up rocks and bushes to answer the pur- 
 pose of a breastwork. They now discovered they had failed 
 in routing us by the fire, as they had anticipated. They then 
 reoccupied the points of rocks and trees in the prairie, and 
 commenced another attack. The firing continued for some 
 time, when the wind suddenly shifted to the north, and blew 
 very hard. 
 
 “We now discovered our dangerous situation, should the 
 Indians succeed in putting fire to the small spot which we oc- 
 cupied, and kept a strict watch all around. The two servant- 
 boys were employed in scraping away dry grass and leaves 
 from around the baggage, and pulling up rocks and placing 
 them around the wounded men. The point from which the 
 wind now blew being favorable to fire our position, one of the 
 Indians succeeded in crawling down the creek, and putting 
 fire to the grass that had not been burnt ; but, before he could 
 retreat back to his party, was killed by Robert Armstrong. 
 
 “ At this time we saw no hopes of escape, as the fire was 
 ^coming down rapidly before the wind, flaming ten feet high, 
 and directly for the spot we occupied. What was to be done ? 
 We must either be burnt up alive, or driven into the prairie 
 among the savages. This encouraged the Indians; and, to 
 make it more awful, their shouts and yells rent the air — they, 
 at the same time, firing upon us about twenty shots a minute. 
 As soon as the smoke hid us from their view, we collected to- 
 gether and held a consultation as to what was best to be done. 
 Our first impression was, that they might charge on us under 
 cover of the smoke, as we could make but one effectual fire : 
 
CESSATION OP THE FIGHT. 
 
 289 
 
 the sparks were flying about so thickly, that no man could open 
 his powder-horn without running the risk of being blown up. 
 However, we finally came to a determination, had they charged 
 us, to give them one fire, place our backs together, draw our 
 knives, and fight them as long as any one of us was left alive. 
 The next question was, should they not charge us, and we re- 
 tain our position, we must be burnt up. It was then decided 
 that each man should take care of himself as well as he could 
 until the fire arrived at the ring around our baggage and 
 wounded men, and there it should be smothered with buffalo- 
 robes, bearskins, deerskins, and blankets ; which, after a great 
 deal of exertion, we succeeded in doing. 
 
 “ Our thicket being so much burnt and scorched, that it 
 afforded little or no shelter, we all got into the ring that was 
 made around our wounded men and baggage, and commenced 
 building our breastwork higher, with the loose rocks from the 
 inside, and dirt dug up with our knives and sticks. During 
 this last fire the Indians had succeeded in removing all their 
 killed and wounded which lay near us. It was now sundown, 
 and we had been warmly engaged with the Indians since sun- 
 rise ; and they, seeing us still alive and ready for fight, drew 
 off at a distance of three hundred yards, and encamped for the 
 night with their dead and wounded. 
 
 “ Our party now commenced to work, in raising our fortifi- 
 cation higher, and succeeded in getting it breast-high by ten, 
 P. M. We now filled all our vessels and skins with water, 
 expecting another attack next morning. We could distinctly 
 hear the Indians, nearly all night, crying over their dead, 
 which is their custom ; and at daylight they shot a wounded 
 chief — it being also a custom to shoot any of their tribe that 
 are mortally wounded. They, after that, set out with their 
 dead and wounded to a mountain about a mile distant, where 
 Vol. I. — 19 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 they deposited tnem in a cave on the side of it. At eight in 
 the morning, two of the party went out from the fortification 
 to the encampment, where the Indians had lain the night pre- 
 vious, and counted forty-eight bloody spots on the grass, where 
 
 the dead and wounded had been lying.* 
 
 “Finding ourselves much cut up — having one man killed 
 and three wounded, five horses killed and three wounded — 
 vve recommenced strengthening our little fort, and continued 
 our labors until one, P. M., when the arrival of thirteen Indians 
 drew us into it again. As soon as they discovered we were 
 still there, and ready for action, and well fortified, they put off. 
 We after that, remained in our fort eight days.” 
 
 The company then set out for San Antonio, where they ar- 
 rived safely, with their wounded and horses, in twelve days.f 
 The Mexican government had been, during the year 1831, 
 collecting the materials that were to burst into a conflagration 
 in the course of the following year. Blackburn, at Anahuac, 
 guarding at once the land from surveyors sent by the state to 
 run it off, and the port of Galveston from smugglers, was in 
 the vicinity of the most impracticable portion of the Texan 
 population. Nor did he seem to use any means to conciliate 
 them. On the contrary, his conduct was, in every way, des- 
 potic. He compelled their servants to work for him without 
 remuneration ; he took, for his own use, their property ; he de- 
 clared martial law ; his soldiers ravaged and plundered the 
 country around the fort. On one occasion, a soldier having 
 committed an outrage, the citizens, indignant, arrested the 
 offender, and inflicted upon him summary punishment. Black- 
 burn thereupon caused some of those concerned to be taken 
 and cast into the dungeon of the fort. Of these were William 
 
 * The Indians had eiglity-two killed and wounded! — Holly, p. 172. 
 f The reader will excuse the length of this account of a model Indian fight 
 
DESPOTIC COURSE OF COLONEL BRADBURN. 
 
 291 
 
 B. Travis, Patrick H. Jack, and Monroe Edwards — the latter 
 since as notorious for his crimes as the former for his defence 
 of the rights of Texas. 
 
 These multiplied wrongs could no longer be borne. The 
 people of Trinity flew to arms, and, to the number of sixty, 
 under the command of Colonel Francis W. Johnson, marched 
 to the fort at Anahuac, to demand a release of the prisoners 
 and a redress of grievances.* Blackburn at first declined the 
 negotiation ; but, finding them in earnest, and the place already 
 invested, and some little fighting having already occurred, he 
 agreed to their proposition, provided they would first retire 
 some miles from the fort, and deliver up the prisoners they had 
 taken. They retired to Turtle bayou, where they awaited his 
 compliance. Their retirement gave Bradburn an opportunity 
 to secure some military stores from a house they had occupied, 
 and to notify Colonel Piedras, commandant at Nacogdoches, 
 and Colonel Ugartachea at Yelasco, of his situation. While 
 the Texans were waiting at Turtle bayou, for a compliance on 
 the part of Bradburn, they held a public meeting, and drew up 
 a paper, setting forth the arbitrary and unconstitutional con- 
 duct of Bustamente ;f and also their adherence to the consti- 
 tution of 1824, and their determination to support it. They 
 invited all the people of Texas to co-operate with them, and 
 
 * The different accounts of this affair are very conflicting: Foote, vol. ii, p. 
 16 ; Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 6 ; Holly, p. 322 ; Dewees’s Letters, p. 142. 
 
 f The meeting was held on the 13th of June, 1831. — Holly , p. 323. The lis 
 of grievances and resolutions are given in Edward , p. 186-187. The resolu- 
 tions, inter alios, declare — that “we view with feelings of the deepest interest 
 and solicitude the firm and manly resistance which is made by those patriots, 
 under the highly-talented and distinguished chieftain Santa Anna, to the numer- 
 ous encroachments and infractions which have been made by the present ad- 
 ministration upon the laws and constitution of our beloved and adopted coun- 
 try.” By the last resolution they invited all the people of Texas to co-operate 
 with them in the “ correct enforcement and interpretation of the constitution 
 and law. according to their true spirit” 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sent a committee, with a copy of their proceedings, to lay the 
 same before the proper Mexican authority in Texas. 
 
 In the meantime, Colonel Bradburn, having made his ar- 
 rangements, eschewed the agreement he had made with the 
 Texan forces, and set them at defiance. Exasperated at this 
 treachery, the latter despatched messengers for reinforcements. 
 They sent to Yelasco for artillery, but Colonel Ugartachea 
 would not allow it to come. However, a company under Cap- 
 tain Abner Kuykendall shortly arrived from San Felipe, and 
 others, in smaller detachments, came in from the Trinity ; and 
 they soon found themselves two or three hundred strong. 
 They took their position at Taylor White’s, six miles from 
 Anahuac. 
 
 By this time, Colonel Piedras, with part of the forces from 
 Nacogdoches, and fifty or a hundred Shawnee and Cherokee 
 Indians,* was advancing to the relief of Colonel Bradburn. 
 The Texans, learning of his approach, sent a committee to 
 meet him, and lay before him the conduct of Bradburn. Colo- 
 nel Piedras was a gentleman of mild manners, loyal to his gov- 
 ernment, and of a conciliatory disposition. He listened to the 
 complaints of the colonists, and granted their requests. The 
 prisoners were released, and Colonel Bradburn sent to New 
 Orleans, whence he returned to Mexico. f The forces under 
 Colonel Johnson, having achieved the object for which they 
 had collected, dispersed to their homes. 
 
 During this year, events had been transpiring in Mexico 
 which greatly aided and excused the Texans in their hostile 
 movements. The despotism of Bustamente had become intol- 
 
 * It is said that the Indians were overreached by Piedras ; and that when, 
 on the march, they learned his destination was against the Texans, they desert- 
 ed him. 
 
 f Foote, voL ii., p. 18. Bradburn returned to Texas with Santa Anna in 1836 
 He was in one of the rear divisions, and was not taken. 
 
MEXICAN REVOLUTION OF 1832. 
 
 293 
 
 erable. On the 2d of January, 1832, the officers of the garri- 
 son of Yera Cruz pronounced in favor of the constitution, and 
 drew up an address to Bustamente, denouncing the course pur- 
 sued by the government, and demanding the dismissal of his 
 ministers.* At the same time the garrison called upon Santa 
 Anna to assume the command. In fact, he was secretly at the 
 head of the movement. He repaired immediately to Yera 
 Cruz, and took the command. Bustamente sent a force, under 
 General Calderon, against the insurgents ; but they failed in 
 their object, and retired. The troops at Tampico, and then 
 the state of Zacatecas, joined Santa Anna. Soon he became 
 strong enough to march upon the capital. But it was not un- 
 til November of this year that Bustamente, seeing himself 
 deserted, and Santa Anna approaching with a powerful army, 
 resigned his authority, and fled from Mexico. 
 
 The people of Texas, selecting from the plans presented by 
 the Mexican factions, were ever ready to adopt the most lib- 
 eral ; and though, in the beginning of the emeute at Anahuac, 
 they did not have in view the support of any of these plans, 
 they gladly availed themselves of the plan of Yera Cruz, then 
 in progress. Hence their warm and doubtless sincere profes- 
 sions of attachment to the constitution of 1824 and the “ heroic” 
 
 * Niles, p. 202. “ Whenever a set of people in Mexico become dissatisfied 
 
 from any common cause, or from mere want of excitement, they begin by utter- 
 ing complaints and imprecations against the existing form of government, or its 
 members, mingled with praises of some other system or persons : this, the first 
 stage of a revolution, is termed a grilo. If the grito continues unchecked for 
 some days, a public meeting is held, in which the grievances and modes of re- 
 dress are discussed, and arrangements are made for expressing them more clearly: 
 this second stage is called a pronunciamento. Then comes the plan, always bear- 
 ing the name of the place at which it was concluded. Every large city in Mex- 
 ico has its plan; in more than one instance the garrison of a little post, headed 
 by a sergeant, has issued its propositions for a change of government, accompa- 
 nied by the resolutions of the framers to die in its support” — Democratic Re- 
 view, March , 1838. 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Santa Anna, who was then fighting, as they firmly believed, the 
 battles of the people. 
 
 Lieutentant-Colonel Dominic Ugartachea, in command at 
 Fort Yelasco, had a force of one hundred and twenty-five men 
 and a small piece of artillery. lie was subject to the orders 
 of Colonel Bradburn, his superior officer. Exception was ta- 
 ken to his refusal to permit the Texans on the Brasos to trans- 
 port artillery to Anahuac. As early as the 11th of May, a 
 meeting had been held in Brasoria in reference to an attack 
 upon the post, but the proposition failed.* Again, another 
 meeting was held in the early part of June, having in view the 
 same object. The success of Santa Anna in Mexico deter- 
 mined the Texans as to the course they would pursue. 
 
 On the morning of the 25tli of June, the Texans, to the num- 
 ber of one hundred and twelve, under the command of Captain 
 John Austin, approached Fort Yelasco, and made a formal de- 
 mand of the surrender of the place ; promising, if the summons 
 was obeyed, that the soldiers should retire with their arms, 
 provided they should be sent out of Texas. The summons 
 being totally disregarded, Austin made his preparations for an 
 attack. A schooner, lying aground above the fort, was dis- 
 lodged and set afloat ; and forty Texans, under the command of 
 Captain 'William I. Russell, were placed on board of her. She 
 was supplied with a light piece of artillery, an abundance of 
 ammunition, and floated down and moored close to the bank, 
 near the fort. The land-forces of the Texans w'ere marched 
 to within twenty-five paces of the fort, when the engagement 
 commenced. The Texans were much exposed ; but the artil- 
 lery in the fort, which was directed against the schooner, over- 
 shot them. The Texan rifles, however, were very fatal to 
 those in the fort. A Mexican soldier who raised his head 
 
 * Foote, vol. ii., p. 19. “By one vote," says Foote. 
 
CAPTURE OF FORT VELASCO BY THE TEXANS. 
 
 295 
 
 above the parapet seldom escaped. The action having begun 
 in the night, but little execution was done until daylight on 
 the morning of the 26th. At one time during the fight, the 
 Texan fire from the schooner was so fatal, that the Mexicans 
 rushed out of the fort to take the vessel, but the fire of the 
 besiegers from the land-side drove them back with loss. At 
 length, after a bloody contest of eleven hours, the Mexicans 
 exhibited the white flag, and capitulated. The enemy were 
 deprived of their arms, furnished with provisions, and set at 
 liberty.* The loss of the Texans in this battle was seven 
 killed and twenty-seven wounded ; that of the Mexicans, thirty- 
 five killed and fifteen wounded. 
 
 At the beginning of the military display in Texas, the Mexi- 
 can commandants had written home that the object of the Tex- 
 ans was a separation from Mexico ; and these reports received 
 credit among the officers of the “ Liberating' army.”f Colonel 
 Joso Antonio Mexia, with a squadron of five vessels, having 
 on board four hundred men, sailed from Tampico with orders 
 to reduce Matamoras, then in possession of the partisans of 
 Bustamente, and afterward to chastise the Texan revolters. 
 Arriving at Brasos Santiago, he came to an agreement with 
 Colonel Guerra, the commandant at Matamoras, who was in- 
 duced to espouse the cause of Santa Anna ; and, on the 14th 
 of July, Mexia sailed for the mouth of the Brasos, where he 
 anchored on the 16th, bringing with him Colonel Stephen F. 
 Austin, on his return from the legislature. 
 
 Mexia immediately addressed a letter to John Austin, en- 
 closing a copy of the agreement made with Guerra at Matamo- 
 
 * Letter of John Austin to Colonel Mexia : Edward, p. 184. 
 
 f Santa Anna had the command of the first division of this army, operating 
 against Bustamente. Montezuma, the commandant of Tampico, and the first to 
 join Santa Anna in support of the plan of Vera Cruz, had command of the sec- 
 ond division. 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS’. 
 
 ras, stating the object of his visit to Texas, and what would 
 have been his course had the late movements in that depart- 
 ment had for their object its dismemberment from Mexico.* 
 Captain Austin, in his reply, set forth in a manly spirit the 
 wrongs of the Texans inflicted by the military, and declared 
 the adherence of his people to the Mexican confederation — 
 affirming that “ they were Mexicans by adoption, were so in 
 heart, and would so remain ; that if the laws had granted to 
 them the honorable title of ‘citizens? they wished that title 
 should be respected : and that they should be governed by the 
 authorities established by the constitution of the state.’ , 
 
 All these things being in accordance with the republican 
 views of Colonel Mexia — for he was a sincere republican — a 
 deputation of the citizens of Brasoria waited on him, on board 
 the “ Santa Anna,” and invited him to proceed with Colonel 
 S. F. Austin to the town. They were accordingly conducted 
 to Brasoria, where Colonel Mexia was presented by the com- 
 mittee from Turtle bayou with the resolutions of the meeting 
 at that place on the 13th of June. The proceedings of the 
 day closed with a dinner, in which many sentiments were 
 drunk indicative of the temper of the Texans. f 
 The ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin took advantage 
 of the presence of Colonel Mexia, and of the political chief of 
 Bexar, Don Ramon Musquez — who had visited that town for 
 the purpose of investigating the difficulties in question — to 
 ascertain the sentiments of all the colonists, and present them 
 
 * See the letter, and Austin’s reply, in Edward, p. 184. Captain John Austin 
 was at that time second alcalde of the second department of Austin’s colony. 
 The seat of justice was then at Brasoria, 
 
 f Edward, p. 187. Among the toasts, Edward gives the following: “The Re- 
 public of Mexico and the States of the North : They are the same in principle 
 and object, and need only know each other to be united in feelings and warm 
 friendship.” — “ Coahuila and Texas: They are dissimilar in soil, climate, and 
 productions ; therefore they ought to be dissolved.” 
 
NATIONAL LOYALTY OP TEXAS IN 1832. 
 
 297 
 
 to those functionaries in legal form. This they did on the 
 27th of July, 1832. 
 
 After denouncing the calumnies that had been circulated in 
 Mexico against the loyalty of Texas, the ayuntamiento charged 
 the late outbreaks to u the tyrannical and illegal acts of Colo- 
 nel Bradburn they solemnly adhered to the principles of the 
 republican party headed by Santa Anna ; they disclaimed hav- 
 ing in view any other object than to u contribute in sustaining 
 the constitution, and the true dignity and decorum of the na 
 tional flag.” They further declared that the general and state 
 constitutions ought to be religiously observed as the only guar- 
 anty for public tranquillity and national freedom. After de- 
 nouncing a large standing army, and the usurpations of Busta- 
 mente, they ordered that a copy of their proceedings should 
 be sent by Colonel Mexia to Santa Anna, and a like copy by 
 Musquez to the state legislature.* 
 
 Colonel Mexia then returned with his fleet and forces to 
 Matamoras, taking with him such of the Mexican soldiers in 
 Texas as were disposed to act against Bustamente. Previous 
 to his departure, however, he had addressed a communication 
 to Colonel Piedras, the commandant at Nacogdoches, asking 
 his adherence to the party of Santa Anna. This was refused. 
 
 It was known to the citizens of Nacogdoches that Colonel 
 Don Jose de las Piedras was opposed to Santa Anna, and that 
 he was at heart a monarchist. His officers were also generally 
 adverse to him in politics ; but they feared to take any steps 
 in opposition to his authority. During the latter days of July, 
 1832, the civil authorities of Nacogdoches communicated with 
 those of Aes bayou, Teneha, and Bevil ; and it was agreed to 
 unite in compelling the Mexican force at Nacogdoches to de- 
 clare for the constitution of 1824, or else to fig! t. Accord- 
 
 * See these resolutions in Edward, p. 190. 
 
298 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ingly, the troops from these settlements concentrated on the 
 last day of July ; and, on the night between the 1st and 2d of 
 August, they encamped directly east of the town, and all the 
 families evacuated the place. After a conference between the 
 civil and military authorities, Isaac W. Burton, Philip A. Sub- 
 lett, and Henry W. Augustin, were appointed a committee to 
 wait on Colonel Piedras, and present to him the alternative 
 agreed on. He chose to fight. The committee reported his 
 answer to the Texan forces, then amounting to about three 
 hundred men. They elected James W. Bullock, of San Au- 
 gustine, to the command, and, at noon on the 2d of August, 
 marched into Nacogdoches, where they manoeuvred for some 
 time, waiting to be attacked ; but, finding that the enemy did 
 not show himself, they advanced into the centre of the town. 
 When a little north of the stone house , they were suddenly 
 charged by the Mexican cavalry, numbering about one hundred 
 men. The latter fired and wheeled, and received a round from 
 the Texan rifles as they retired. In this charge the Mexicans 
 killed Don Encarnacion Chirino, the alcalde of the town. The 
 Texans then took possession of the houses on the north and 
 east sides of the square, and, whenever any of the enemy 
 showed themselves, they were shot. The Mexicans made one 
 sortie in the evening. It was commanded by a young officer 
 who was known to be friendly to the Texans and to their cause, 
 and who had shown his friendship for them in the Fredonian 
 troubles of 1827. The Texans spared him. With the repulse 
 of this sortie, the fighting ceased. During the night, Piedras 
 and his troops evacuated the place, leaving behind him his 
 killed and wounded, public stores, and clothing. His ammu- 
 nition he had thrown into the wells. 
 
 Colonel James Bowie, who was engaged in this action, was 
 despatched, with a few chosen men, to pass by the retreating 
 
BATTLE OF NACOGDOCHES — MEXICAN DEFEAT. 
 
 299 
 
 Mexicans, and give them a warm reception as they crossed the 
 Angelina, twenty miles distant. He succeeded in this, by ta- 
 king the lower road. As the advanced guard of the enemy, 
 commanded by Sergeant Marcos, rode into the water, and 
 stopped to allow their horses to drink, the Americans fired on 
 them. Marcos fell. The Americans then drew back, and the 
 Mexican troops proceeded on their way to a house on the hill 
 west of the river, where they passed the night. Bowie’s men, 
 twenty in number, encamped a mile below. The next morn- 
 ing, upon a demand to surrender, Colonel Piedras turned over 
 the command to Major Francisco Medina, who declared imme- 
 diately in favor of the constitution of 1824.* 
 
 The Mexican loss in this battle was forty-one killed and as 
 many wounded, while that of the Texans was but three killed 
 and five wounded. The prisoners, three hundred and ten in 
 number, were sent, under the care of Colonel Bowie, to San 
 Felipe. Colonel Piedras was placed in charge of Captain Asa 
 M. Edwards, to be by him delivered to Colonel Mexia at Ana- 
 huac. On the way, Edwards received news of the sailing of 
 Mexia for Matamoras ; he therefore took Piedras to Colonel 
 S. F. Austin, by whom he was forwarded to Tampico.f 
 
 The Texans, in order to reduce the entire department of 
 Texas into acquiescence with the measures adopted by them, 
 
 * The chief portion of this account is taken from a statement of the late Colo- 
 nel A. Sterne, dated January 25, 1851. He was in the battle. I have before me 
 the official account made out by Colonel Bullock, dated August 9, 1832. It is a 
 meagre affair. Among other things, he says: “At the time we made the attack, 
 about sixty Cherokees, under Bowles, well armed and mounted, were in gun- 
 shot. I sent for them, and, after much explanation, they appeared to under- 
 stand the object for which we were fighting; stating that they had been deceived 
 by Colonel Piedras, who had told them many lies, <fcc. We, however, doubted 
 their sincerity, and they no doubt would have assisted him had we not so com- 
 pletely succeeded.” 
 
 f This disposition of the prison* *s is taken from the “Journal of Asa M. Ed- 
 wards,” now before me. The numbers of killed and wounded are derived from 
 Colonel Bullock’s report 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 began to assemble at Gonzales ; but the intelligence arrived 
 that the state of Coahuila and Texas had come into the plan,* 
 whereupon the towns all submitted, and the people returned to 
 their homes. 
 
 “ Thus ended/’ says Edward, “ the warlike commotions of 
 these colonies, on the 2d of September, 1832, just as the in- 
 habitants were informed that their greatest arch-enemy, Gen- 
 eral Teran, and his troops, on their way to Mexico from Mata- 
 moras, had been surrounded by the liberal forces of General 
 Montezuma, and that too on the identical plain where the inju- 
 dicious Iturbide lost his life. Teran, having determined within 
 himself neither to unite with the liberals nor to submit to them 
 as a prisoner, retired to a private place and fell on his own 
 sword! — appearing to those who found him, while still alive, 
 as inexorable in the hour of death as he was uncompromising 
 in political life.” 
 
 * Decree of August 11, 1832. This decree was passed by the standing depu- 
 tation (deputation pcrvnanente\ and was afterward confirmed by the state con- 
 gress, Decrees Nos. 201 and 205. 
 
PROPOSED SEPARATION OP TEXAS AND COAHUILA. 
 
 301 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Texans had thus far triumphed ; but, in so doing, they 
 had the aid and countenance of one of the powerful factions 
 which alternately sway the destinies of Mexico, and drench 
 her fields with blood. Notwithstanding they were on the pop- 
 ular side, they had been unfortunate in exhibiting to the states- 
 men of Mexico their power. It had been seen that, unaided, 
 they had swept their own department of the Mexican soldiery, 
 and defied the officers of the customs. It was a lesson not to 
 be forgotten. 
 
 The experience of the past few years had satisfied the Tex- 
 ans that they should be separated from Coahuila. It will be 
 remembered that, from 1T2T to 1824, Texas was a separate 
 province, and in nowise connected with Coahuila, more than 
 with any other political division of Mexico.* The Constitu- 
 tional Congress of the last-named year had temporarily united 
 it with Coahuila ; providing, however, by the second article of 
 the Acta Constitutiva , that “ so soon as Texas should be in a 
 
 * “ Under the plan of Iguala and the treaties of Cordova, it [Texas] was enti- 
 tled to one deputy in the cortes of the Mexican empire, which it was provided 
 should be called. When the Constitutional Congress had determined to adopt 
 the federal form of government, and provided for the election of the convention, 
 or congreso conslituyente, to form the constitution, Texas had continued iu the 
 same isolated situation, and was allowed one representative, whom it accord- 
 ingly sent.” — Thomas J. Chambers's Pamphlet , 1833. 
 
302 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 situation to figure as a state by itself alone, it should give no- 
 tice of the same to the general Congress for its resolution.” 
 
 The Texans had many just grounds of complaint against 
 their union with Coahuila. The latter had three fourths of 
 the representation in the state legislature ; and its population, 
 being composed almost wholly of Mexicans, would naturally 
 be disposed to keep the former in subjection. Hence the ad- 
 ministration of justice in Texas was neglected ; the right of 
 trial by jury was postponed ; the laws were published in a lan- 
 guage unknown to the colonists ; and many other abuses and 
 ills they suffered, which, with a state organization of their own,* 
 they might have remedied. * x * 
 
 Having found themselves able to drive the Mexican soldiery 
 out of their territory, the Texans believed their department 
 was “ in a situation to figure as a state,” and took measures to 
 call a convention to adopt a constitution, and lay it before the 
 supreme Congress for its resolution. Accordingly, after a 
 short notice, the convention met at San Felipe, in October, 
 1832, and entered upon the discussion of a separate state con- 
 stitution. The work was one of delicacy. Two things were 
 to be attained : the instrument was to be so framed as to pass 
 the ordeal of the national Congress, and not come too much in 
 conflict with Mexican prejudices ; and it must contain all those 
 elements of Anglo-Saxon liberty usual in such cases — such as 
 trial by jury, the habeas corpus , the absence of restraints upon 
 the rights of conscience, and opposition to a standing army. 
 The shortness of the notice given for the assembling of the 
 convention, and the absence of a number of the delegates, pre- 
 vented a satisfactory conclusion of their labors. Accordingly, 
 after sitting a week, they adjourned. What they had done, 
 however, was important, inasmuch as the subject was brought 
 
 * Chambers’s Pamphlet, 1833. 
 
PEACE BETWEEN SANTA ANNA AND BUSTAMENTE. 303 
 
 before the public mind ; and the convention which, in the April 
 following, met for the same purpose, came together more fully 
 instructed and prepared.* 
 
 The civil war between Santa Anna and Bustamente contin- 
 ued to rage in Mexico ; but after the death of his favorite gen- 
 eral Teran, Bustamente proposed terms of peace, which were 
 accepted by Santa Anna. It was agreed that Pedraza, the 
 legally-elected president of 1828, should be reinstated in his 
 office, and that both parties should unite in support of the con- 
 stitution ot 1824. The national Congress, however, refused to 
 ratify this agreement. The two generals, notwithstanding, en- 
 forced it, and, on the 26th of December, 1832, placed Pedraza 
 in the presidential chair. f Having accomplished this object, 
 Santa Anna retired to await the reward which he expected for 
 his patriotic efforts in behalf of the constitution of 1824. 
 
 Thus, in the autumn of the year 1832, Texas seems to have 
 been at peace ; and, at the close of that year, the ship of state 
 in Mexico appears to have got under way. But these were 
 treacherous signs of peace. Already were some engaged in 
 forging the chains of slavery, and others in storing up muni- 
 tions of war .f 
 
 On the 28th of April, 1832, the state legislature made an 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 18. 
 
 f lb., p. 11. The convention between Santa Anna and Bustamente was con- 
 cluded at Zavaleta, on the 28d of December, 1832. 
 
 \ What reliance can be placed upon historians, when we find such contradic- 
 tions as the following, in regard to the last months of 1832 in Texas? “The 
 Texan colonists were exposed to severe trials at the close of this year. Hardly 
 had they been relieved from the Mexican soldiery, when they* were threatened 
 with a formidable irruption of frontier Indians. Against these savages their 
 own moral and physical resources constituted the sole means of defence, with the 
 exception of less than seventy soldiers maintained by the citizens of Bexar.” — 
 Kennedy , vol. ii., p. 14. “ For a short period now, Texas enjoyed peace, pros- 
 
 perity, and happiness. Immigration began to flow in again from the United 
 States, and to strengthen the claims of the province to admission into the Mexi- 
 can confederacy as a coequal member thereof.” — Foote, vol. ii., p. 25. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 entire change in the colonization law. They repealed the gen- 
 eral colonization law of 1825, known as Decree No. 16, and, 
 instead thereof, limited the empresas to Mexicans ; modifying 
 the terms of sale to Mexican purchasers, extending the rights 
 of colonists, and excluding natives of the United States.* Yet 
 they showed some liberality in recognising existing contracts, 
 and even in extending the time within which some of the em- 
 presarios were to introduce the requisite number of colonists. f 
 The legislature also, at the instance of the Texan delegation, 
 introduced the practice of creating municipalities, and direct- 
 ing the election, by the people, of municipal officers .$ This 
 was a point gained — a continuance of that decentralizing pro- 
 cess by which the people were extracting power from the po- 
 litical chiefs. These municipal corporate bodies, elected by the 
 people, sympathized with them, and two years afterward be- 
 came nuclei around which they rallied and organized in defence 
 of their rights. 
 
 In the midst of all these scenes, Colonel Austin was calm. 
 His object was to consummate his great work. He desired 
 that his colony should live, and grow, and prosper. At the 
 same time he wished it to be free ; and, although he foresaw, 
 as did all men of discernment, that a people of the elevated 
 and independent character of his colonists could not and would 
 not long live in subjection to the changing, antiquated system 
 of government followed by Mexican statesmen, yet, before the 
 separation came, he wished to see his people in their manhood 
 — able to grapple with an enemy who would not easily surren- 
 der so great a prize. 
 
 The statesmen of Mexico looked at these scenes with very 
 different eyes. They would gladly have cherished Texas, and 
 conferred upon her many favors ; but they were afraid of her. 
 
 * Decree No. 190. f Decree No. 192. \ Decree No. 196. 
 
SKETCH OF SAM HOUSTON. 
 
 305 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon love of liberty — the lofty bearing of the 
 humblest of the colonists — their enterprise, intelligence, and 
 abhorrence of the bloody scenes of Mexico — and their general 
 contempt for the Mexican rulers — made them an object of 
 dread to the supreme government at the capital. The active 
 movements of the summer of 1832 began to attract the atten- 
 tion of the people of the United States, and the love of adven- 
 ture drew to the colonies many enterprising and daring spirits. 
 These, by the prominent stand they took in Texas, increased 
 this dread. 
 
 Among the new-comers into Texas in the year 1832 was Sam 
 Houston, late governor of the state of Tennessee, a man of ex- 
 traordinary fortunes. By birth a Virginian, but brought up in 
 Blount county, among the mountains of East Tennessee, he vol- 
 unteered at an early age as a soldier in the army ; was pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant ; fought at the battle of the 
 Horse-shoe , in which he was severely wounded ; returned to 
 Tennessee, where he attracted the attention of General Jack- 
 son, and was taken into his military family ; was appointed 
 Indian agent for the Cherokees ; he afterward studied law, 
 was elected attorney-general for Tennessee, and major-general 
 of the state militia ; represented the Nashville district in Con- 
 gress ; was elected governor of the state ; married — which 
 soon proving unfortunate, he resigned his office of governor, 
 and in April, 1829,* went into voluntary exile, among those 
 
 * Houston was appointed second lieutenant in the 39th regiment of infantry, 
 by President Madison, on the 20th of April, 1816, “to rank as such from the 
 20th of May, 1814 and first lieutenant in the 1st regiment of infantry* hy Presi- 
 dent Monroe, on the 5th of March, 1818, “to rank as such from the 1st of May, 
 1817.” In November, 1817, he was appointed sub-agent of the Cherokee In- 
 dians. On the 14th of December, 1821, he was elected major-general ot the 
 middle division of Tennessee militia. In August of the years 1823 and 1826 he 
 was elected a representative to Congress; and in August, 1827, he was choeen 
 governor of the state of Tennessee. 
 
 Vol. I. — 20 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 Cherokee Indians for whom he had been agent twelve years 
 before. But they had been removed, and in 1829 were living 
 on the Indian lands near Cantonment Gibson Houston had 
 been adopted by the chief John Jolly, and on the 21st of Oc- 
 tober of the above-mentioned year was admitted to the rights 
 of citizenship,* by an official act of the authorities of the na- 
 tion. Among these people he subsisted by trade, making an 
 occasional trip to the older states until 1832. During the time 
 of his exile, the papers were filled with stories in regard to the 
 gigantic projects he had in view. At one time he was repre- 
 sented as intending to join Mexico against the Spanish inva- 
 sion of 1829. At another, it was said that he intended to re- 
 treat into the Rocky mountains, and engage in the fur-trade. 
 Again, that he intended to invade and detach Texas from the 
 Mexican confederacy — one account stated, with the Cherokee 
 Indians ; another, with adventurers gathered from all parts of 
 the United States, meeting at a rendezvous in Arkansas. All 
 these reports were equally untrue. Houston, stricken with a 
 grief strictly private, and of which the world knew not, had 
 gone from society to find a resting-place for a troubled spirit. 
 Time alone could restore his mind to its wonted elasticity. It 
 may well be supposed that, during that period of depression 
 and gloom, he was hatching no treason against the Union, nor 
 was his mind employed in any such gigantic projects. These 
 reports, however, had spread far and wide. They had reached 
 
 ♦The instrument says: “In consideration of his former acquaintance with 
 and services rendered to the Indians, and his present disposition to improve 
 their condition and benefit their circumstances, and our confidence in his integ- 
 rity and talents, if he should remain among us — we, as a committee appointed 
 by order of the principal chief, John Jolly, do solemnly, firmly, and irrevocably 
 grant to him for ever all the rights, privileges, and immunities, of a citizen of the 
 Cherokee nation, <tc “Walter Webber, Pres't Com. 
 
 “Aaron Price, Vice- Chief 
 
 “ John Brown, C'erlc. 
 
 “ Approved, JOHN JOLLY Principal Chief” 
 
president jackson’s letter to Houston in 1829. 307 
 
 the ears of President Jackson. A letter from him, dated at 
 Washington city, June 21, 1829, shows that he disbelieved 
 them : “ It has been communicated to me,” said he, “ that you 
 had the illegal enterprise in view of conquering Texas ; that 
 you had declared you would, in less than two years, be emperor 
 of that country, by conquest. I must have really thought you 
 deranged to have believed you had such a wild scheme in con- 
 templation ; and particularly, when it was communicated that 
 the physical force to be employed was the Cherokee Indians ! 
 Indeed, my dear sir, I can not believe you have any such chi- 
 merical, visionary scheme in view. Your pledge of honor to 
 the contrary is a sufficient guaranty that you will never engage 
 in any enterprise injurious to your country, or that would tar- 
 nish your fame.”* 
 
 In December, 1830, President Jackson received a letter from 
 a Dr. Mayo, stating that Houston had imparted to him his de- 
 sign of conquering Texas by means of the “ Indians in the Ar- 
 kansas territory, and recruits among the citizens of the United 
 States.” The president, on receipt of this letter, wrote confi- 
 dentially to William Fulton, secretary of state for Arkansas, 
 at Little Rock, stating the intelligence he had received, and 
 that, although he “ believed the information was erroneous,” 
 yet such was his detestation of the criminal steps alluded to, 
 that he wished him to Watch the course of things, and keep 
 
 * An eloquent passage from this same letter will not be unacceptable: “My 
 affliction was great, and as much as I well could bear, when I parted with you 
 on the 18th of January last I then viewed you as on the brink of happiness, 
 and rejoiced. About to be united in marriage to a beautiful young lady, of ac- 
 complished manners and of respectable connections, and of your own selection 
 — you the governor of the state, and holding the affections of the people : these 
 were your prospects when I shook you by the hand and bade yon farewell l — 
 You can well judge of my astonishment and grief in receiving a letter from you, 
 dated at Little Rock, A. T., 11th of May, conveying the sod intelligence that you 
 were then a private citizen, * an exile from your country T What reverse of for- 
 tune 1 How unstable are all human affairs I” 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 him constantly advised of any such movements. Colonel Ful- 
 ton made the proper inquiries, and informed the president that 
 there were no such hostile movements on foot in Arkansas 
 against Texas or Mexico.* This correspondence obtained con- 
 sequence from the use made of it by Ex-President John Quincy 
 Adams in 1838. 
 
 As to the time when Houston first determined to come to 
 Texas, it is useless to inquire : it is, however, tolerably certain 
 that he did not determine to make it his home until 1833. As 
 early as the autumn of 1829, he received strong solicitations 
 from his friends to immigrate hither.f It was on the 10th of 
 December, 1832, that he first crossed Red river, near Jones- 
 borough, on his way to Nacogdoches. He had two objects in 
 view : first, to act as a confidential agent of the government of 
 the United States in looking into the condition and disposition 
 of the Indian tribes, particularly the great nation of the Ca- 
 manches : and to examine into the character of the country, 
 With a view to its value to the United States should they pur- 
 chase it. His second object was that of an agent for claimants 
 of lands. In furtherance of the first object, he was furnished 
 by the secretary of war with a passport requesting all the tribes 
 of Indians, “ whether in amity with the United States, or, as 
 yet, not allied to them by treaties,” to permit him to pass freely 
 through their territories.^: He was also furnished with secret 
 
 * See these letters in the “Extra Globe,” July 21 and September 13, 1838. 
 Also in John Quincy Adams’s speech in the house of representatives, from June 
 16 to July 7, 1838. 
 
 f Letters of John A. Wharton and Leonard W. Groce, October 26, 1829. 
 Wharton says : “ I therefore request you once more to visit Texas. It is a fine 
 field for enterprise. You can get a grant of land, and yet be surrounded by 
 your friends; and what may not the ‘ coming on of time’ bring about?” — “ I am 
 now on my way to Texas, in company with my brother and his lady, Major 
 Royd, and Mr. Groce.” 
 
 X Passport, August 6, 1832. 
 
Houston’s mission to texas in 1832 3 09 
 
 instructions to induce those Iudians who had come to Texas 
 from the United States to return.* 
 
 Between Jonesborough and Nacogdoches, Houston found 
 but two houses. After remaining a while at the latter place, 
 he proceeded to San Felipe, with a view to meet Colonel Aus- 
 tin ; but the latter was not at home. Houston, after partaking 
 of a Christmas-dinner at San Felipe, set out for San Antonio, 
 in company with Colonel James Bowie. Arriving there, he 
 made the acquaintance of Beramendi, the vice-governor of the 
 state, and father-in-law of Bowie ; also that of Buis, the Mexi- 
 can commandant. Having stated his object, with their pernus- 
 sion he held a consultation with the Camanche chiefs, and dis- 
 tributed to them medals. He then returned to Nacogdoches, 
 by way of San Felipe, where he reported himself to Colonel 
 Austin, and made his acquaintance.! At Nacogdoches, Hous- 
 ton was urged by the American residents to settle among them, 
 which he partially promised, and shortly afterward concluded 
 to do. On his return to Natchitoches, he reported to the presi- 
 dent, and also to the commissioner for Indian affairs.^ 
 Notwithstanding the consultation with the Camanche chiefs 
 was held in the presence of the Mexican officers at San Anto- 
 nio, and through their interpreter, and they were distinctly in- 
 formed that the object of the United States was to get them to 
 meet commissioners at Cantonment Gibson to make a treaty 
 of peace, yet a feeling of jealousy prevented the consummation 
 of that desirable end. Although the authorities at San Anto- 
 nio did not openly oppose it, they did not aid it, but, on the 
 contrary, by their conduct and objections prevented it.|| 
 
 * The Mexicans were complaining of these intrusions of the Indians, They 
 were in violation of the thirty-third article of the treaty of friendship between 
 the two countries. — Exec. Doc., Senate , No. 14, 32c? Congress, 2 d session, p. 4. 
 f Letter to Guy M. Bryan, November 15, 1852. 
 
 \ 8ee Appendix No. 1. 
 
 | Houston to the Secretary of War, July 80, 1833. 
 
310 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 The Indians along the Texan frontier were generally mis- 
 chievous. In fact, there was scarcely a month that passed, 
 but some murder or robbery was perpetrated by them. The 
 year 1832 was not an exception. Hence it was some consola- 
 tion to the Texans that, during that year, the different tribes 
 had a good deal of fighting among themselves, especially a 
 great battle between the Camanches and Shawnees, in which 
 the former were badly defeated.* 
 
 According to the federal constitution of 1824, the legisla- 
 tures of the several Mexican states were required, on the 1st 
 day of September, 1832, to vote for president and vice-presi- 
 dent of the republic. This, it appears, they did not do until 
 the 29th of March, 1833. f Santa Anna was elected president 
 without opposition. He took his seat on the 16th of May fol- 
 lowing, the most popular man, with the exception of the viceroy 
 Jose Galvez, that had occupied the national palace. A hero 
 of the revolution of 1821, the conqueror of the tyrant Iturbide, 
 the friend of Victoria, the victor over Barradas in 1829, and 
 the supposed unyielding friend of the republican constitution 
 of 1824, he declared, in his inaugural address, that it had been 
 the object of his life to secure to Mexicans the full enjoyment 
 of their rights, and to break the triple yoke of ignorance, tyr- 
 
 * In 1832, a party of five hundred Camanches came into San Antonio. At 
 that time a party of Shawnees, twenty-five in number, were encamped in the 
 hills, about thirty-five miles north of the town. A Camanche Indian attempted 
 to carry off one of the Shawnee women, who was in the town. She fled to her 
 people, gave them information of what had occurred, and they prepared an am- 
 bush for their enemies at a point where they expected them to encamp. The 
 Camanches came as anticipated, and took off their packs. Just at this time the 
 Shawnees opened a fire on them; and, though they rallied often, so deadly was 
 the fire, and so secure the position of the attacking party, that the Camanches 
 at last fled, leaving one hundred and seventy-five dead on the field I The dis- 
 comfited party returned to San Antonio, and the Mexican authorities sent out a 
 large force to assist them. — Telegraph and Texas Register , August 14, 1839. 
 
 f Mexican Constitution, Section 7, Article 79 : Niles’s History of Mexico^ 
 p. 204. 
 
CONSTITUTIONAL CONTENTION OF 1833. 
 
 311 
 
 anny, and vice ; that he would attend to the interests of edu- 
 cation ; and that his administration, like his own character, 
 should be mild and tolerant. Such were his professions, and 
 such the happy auspices under which he assumed the reins of 
 power. In making these professions, he seems to have exhib- 
 ited his contempt for the Mexican people, for he seized the first 
 occasion to give the lie to all he had said ! 
 
 In the meantime, on the first of March, 1833, the people of 
 Texas had renewed their election of delegates to the postponed 
 convention to frame a constitution. The Mexicans did not 
 participate in this election, because it had not been ordered by 
 the political chiefs. The delegates assembled on the first of 
 April following, at San Felipe. A body of more distinguished 
 men had not met in Texas. Among them were Branch T. Ar- 
 cher, Stephen F. Austin, David G. Burnet, Sam Houston (one 
 of the five delegates from Nacogdoches), J. B. Miller, and 
 William H. Wharton. The latter was chosen president of the 
 convention. The members entered upon their labors in ear- 
 nest. The requisite committees were appointed : among them 
 were the important committees on the constitution, and on a 
 memorial to the supreme government of Mexico. Sam Hous- 
 ton was appointed chairman of the first and David G. Burnet 
 of the second named committee. The constitution framed was 
 a model of republicanism, with now and then an indication, 
 however, that some clauses were inserted and some principles 
 retained to please the Mexican ear. The right of trial by 
 jury, the writ of habeas corpus , the right of petition, freedom 
 of the press, direct and universal suffrage, and all those clauses 
 usual in a bill of rights, were inserted. On the subject of reli- 
 gious liberty, however, they were silent. 
 
 A considerable debate was had on the subject of the banking 
 clause. B. T. Archer was in favor of, and Sam Houston op- 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 posed to allowing them. The latter prevailed and it was 
 declared by the convention that no bank, or banking institu- 
 tion, or office of discount and deposite, or any other moneyed 
 corporation or banking establishment, should ever exist under 
 that constitution.* 
 
 The convention completed its labors, and adjourned on the 
 13th of April. The memorial to the supreme government was 
 drawn up by David G. Burnet. It is an excellent document, 
 and delineates with forcible elegance and correctness the un- 
 happy position of Texas, f There were other matters claiming 
 the attention of the convention. Unprincipled men, for the 
 sake of gain, had been engaged in the piratical practice of im- 
 porting negroes from Africa into Texas ; and, though some of 
 them had been arrested and hung by the British cruisers, the 
 business still continued. Strong resolutions were offered and 
 passed prohibiting this traffic. 
 
 It was necessary to select delegates to present to the supreme 
 government the wants and wishes of the people of Texas. Ste- 
 phen F. Austin, William H. Wharton, and J. B. Miller, were 
 chosen for that purpose, the former by the largest vote. They 
 were instructed to present to the central government, not only 
 the application for a separate state organization, but also for 
 the repeal of the odious decree of April 6, 1830, prohibiting 
 natives of the United States from emigrating to Texas ; also 
 the enactment of a law establishing regular mails in Texas, the 
 defence of the colonies against the Indians, and the regulation 
 of the tariff.:): 
 
 For various causes, Austin was the only one of the commis- 
 sioners that went to Mexico. He set out shortly after the 
 
 * See the constitution of 1838, in Edward, p. 196. 
 
 f See Appendix No. 2. 
 
 X Victor Blanco to the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, October 6, 183A, MS. 
 
ATTEMPT TO MAKE SANTA ANNA DICTATOR. 
 
 313 
 
 adjournment of the convention, and reached the capital in time 
 to see it the scene of confusion and intrigue. As his stay in 
 Mexico was lengthy, and greatly prolonged by political events, 
 it will be proper to refer to them in this place. 
 
 On the first of June next following the installation of Santa 
 Anna, General Duran pronounced in favor of the church and 
 the army — that is, a strong government — at the same time 
 nominating Santa Anna as dictator. It has been suggested 
 that Santa Anna was at the bottom of this movement, though 
 without any other evidence than that of his subsequent conduct. 
 He sent out a strong force, under the command of Arista, for 
 its suppression, accompanying the expedition in person. On 
 the march, Arista himself declared for the plan of Duran, and 
 secured the person of the president, at the same time proclaim- 
 ing him dictator. This declaration was echoed back from the 
 army in the city. But Gomez Farias, a civilian, and an honest 
 supporter of the constitution of 1824 — the vice-president, and 
 acting as president in the absence of Santa Anna — suspecting 
 that the latter had some hand in this matter, proceeded, with 
 the aid of Lorenzo de Zavala, then governor of Mexico, to 
 raise a force of republicans, and in a short time put down this 
 attempt upon the constitution. Santa Anna appears to have 
 remained a> willing captive in the hands of Arista. It was 
 only when he found that the movement was abortive, that he 
 pretended to escape from his captors, and returned to the capi- 
 tal.* Arista was pardoned, and Duran banished. This little 
 farce is an epitome of the life of Santa Anna, and co-ordinate 
 with the Mexican mind. 
 
 Upon these new laurels Santa Anna retired to his estates, 
 leaving the government in the hands of Farias and a republi- 
 can Congress. The country was deeply in debt, the revenues 
 
 * Niles, p. 204 ; Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 24. 
 
3U 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 were exhausted : the active means and resources of the nation 
 had fallen into the possession of the clergy. To lighten the 
 public burden, the army was reduced ; and, to raise further 
 means to meet the public wants, a part of the revenues of the 
 church were appropriated. These admirable decrees of the 
 Congress were duly approved by Farias. The church was 
 thereupon aroused, and, uniting with those opposed to the fed- 
 eral form of government, poured in their petitions for the re- 
 peal of these laws. Santa Anna, while in his retirement, medi- 
 tating on his ambitious projects, had determined in his mind 
 to abandon the republican party, overturn the constitution, and 
 establish an absolute government. His instruments to be used 
 for the accomplishment of these ends were the church and the 
 army — acting at once on the superstitions and fears of the 
 people. Hence he gave countenance and encouragement to 
 these petitions, and openly expressed his dislike for Farias 
 and his administration. 
 
 While Santa Anna was thus fanning the flame of a civil war, 
 in which he expected to reap the principal harvest, Austin, the 
 faithful representative of Texas, was endeavoring in vain to 
 obtain the action of the government upon the matters by him 
 laid before it. His petitions were referred to a committee of 
 Congress, where they slept, while a revolutionary contest was 
 raging in many parts of the republic, and especially about the 
 capital.'* To add to the confusion, the cholera broke out with 
 great virulence, and in a few weeks carried off ten thousand 
 of the inhabitants in the metropolis alone. f The epidemic had 
 deranged the meetings of Congress ; and so desponding were 
 the hopes of Austin, that, in his letter of the 2d of October, 
 
 * Austin’s letters of the 14th of August and the 2d of October, 1833. 
 
 -j- It also extended to Texas, where it made fearful inroads among her scat- 
 tered population. Among the victims were the gallant John Austin and Asa M. 
 Edwards. 
 
IMPRISONMENT OF AUSTIN BY FARIAS. 
 
 315 
 
 1833, to the municipality of Bexar, he recommended that all 
 the municipalities of Texas should unite in organizing a state, 
 under the provisions of the Acta Constitutiva of May 7, 1824, 
 and, by union and harmony, prepare for a refusal of their ap- 
 plication by the supreme government. He further advised 
 them that, if they did not take matters into their own hands, 
 Texas was ruined for ever. While this letter was on its way, 
 Austin succeeded in procuring the repeal of the law of April 
 6, 1830, prohibiting natives of the United States from immi- 
 grating hither as colonists, and set out for home on the 10th 
 of December, 1833. But his letter of the 2d of October was 
 transmitted by the municipality of Bexar to Vice-President 
 Farias, who, finding in it what he believed to be treasonable 
 matter, despatched an express for Austin, had him arrested at 
 Saltillo, and taken back to Mexico and imprisoned. 
 
 Farias, though in principle a republican, was not accustomed 
 to the freedom of speech natural to the Texans. In the Octo- 
 ber previous, Austin had told him very plainly that the Texans 
 had determined, if the federal government did not remedy the 
 evils which threatened them, “ to remedy them themselves, 
 without waiting any longer — on the ground that self-preserva- 
 tion rendered such a step necessary, and would justify it.” 
 Farias construed this into a threat and personal insult ; and, 
 though he had become partially reconciled to Austin before he 
 departed on the 10th of December, the letter to the corporation 
 of Bexar renewed and increased his exasperation.* 
 
 Austin was shut up in prison on the 13th of February, 1834, 
 where he remained in close confinement for three months, ex- 
 cluded from the use of books or writing-materials, or even the 
 light of day. 
 
 We will now turn our attention to the state legislature and 
 
 * Austin’s letter of August 25, 1834. 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 its proceedings. This body, having met on the first of January, 
 1833, reaffirmed its recognition of Pedraza as president of the 
 republic ; at the same time it declared that the state would 
 not support any agreement ( convenio ) tending directly or indi- 
 rectly to attack the federal form of government and the state 
 sovereignty. It further declared that it recognised as the wil 
 of the nation only what was approved by a majority of the 
 legislatures.* It shortly after proceeded to attack the right 
 of petition, and declared that any person or corporation, who as- 
 sumed the voice of the people by making any petition, usurped 
 the rights of society, and excited disorder. More than three 
 persons were forbidden to join in a petition ! The entire law 
 is an attack upon the liberties of freemen :f but we must see 
 and know the people of Coahuila before we pronounce too 
 strongly against the legislature. 
 
 On the 9th of March following, the legislature carried into 
 effect its previously-expressed determination to remove the seat 
 of government to Monclova, and ordered the state officers to 
 appear at the latter place by the first of April. This exas- 
 perated the people of Saltillo, and they were found ready to 
 join any party that might rise in opposition to the legislature. 
 This feeling was increased, on the meeting of that body, by 
 the enactment of a decree disbanding the civic force of thirty 
 men at Saltillo which had been supported by the state. :f 
 
 Among other things, the legislative body repealed the law 
 of the 9th of April, 1832, prohibiting persons not born in the 
 republic of Mexico from retailing goods in the state. || This 
 law had given just cause of offence to the people of Texas, and 
 its repeal was due to their growing influence. To this influ- 
 ence may likewise be assigned the law granting to Madero (a 
 
 * Decrees Nos. 205 and 206. f lb., No. 212: March 1, 1833. 
 
 t lb., Nos. 214 and 216. || lb., No. 217. 
 
CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT IN MEXICO IN 1834. 317 
 
 favorite with the Texans) the exclusive right to navigate the 
 Trinity.* 
 
 During the latter, part of the year 1833 began the settlement 
 of the colony of Beales and Grant. They had obtained a-con- 
 cession for eight hundred families, to be located between the 
 Rio Grande and the Neuces. In the last days of December, 
 about sixty colonists, under Mr. Beales, reached the new set- 
 tlement, and laid off the town of Dolores, on Las Moras, a 
 small stream about ten feet wide and two feet deep. They re- 
 mained there about a year, when they dispersed. They were 
 Europeans, and but poorly qualified for such an enterprise. 
 Kennedy — himself an Englishman — speaking of the failure of 
 this colony, says it supplied “ further evidence of the superi- 
 ority of the Anglo-Americans in forming colonies. The North 
 Americans are the only people who, in defiance of all obsta- 
 cles, have struck the roots of civilization deep in the soil of 
 Texas. Even as I trace these lines, I reflect upon their prog- 
 ress with renewed wonder and admiration. They are indeed 
 the organized conquerors of the wild, uniting in themselves 
 the threefold attributes of husbandmen, lawgivers, and sol- 
 dier s.”f 
 
 The year 1834 was occupied in Mexico in changing the form 
 of government from that of a republican confederation of states 
 to a purely national government, controlled by a single man, 
 without any other restraint than he might choose to place upon 
 his own actions. Farias met the complaints and petitions of 
 the clergy and the monarchists by banishment and the prison. 
 Santa Anna, who had been watching the progress of things, 
 now discovered that the combined influence of the clergy, the 
 army, and the monarchists, would be sufficient to answer his 
 purpose. He accordingly came out from his retreat, and re- 
 
 f Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 57. 
 
 * Decree No. 218. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sumcd his seat as president of the nation. It was very soon 
 ascertained that the Congress would not repeal the obnoxious 
 laws lately enacted ; and that body, in consequence, became 
 very odious to the centralists. By the constitution of the re- 
 public, Congress was required to close its sessions annually on 
 the 15th day of April, with liberty to continue its sittings 
 thirty days longer (Sundays and solemn festivals excepted), 
 should they deem it necessary, or if the president should re- 
 quire it.* At the close of its regular session in 1834, Con- 
 gress declared it necessary to sit thirty days longer. This 
 period would expire on the 14th of May following. It appears 
 that, on the day preceding, Santa Anna notified the members 
 that, if they did not disperse, he would use a military force to 
 turn them out of their hall. The Congress adjourned on the 
 14th, declaring that its rights had been invaded by Santa Anna. 
 The latter, however, immediately appealed, by a proclamation, 
 to the people, setting forth the alleged tyranny of the vice- 
 president Farias and the majority of the Congress. f 
 
 The popularity of Santa Anna gave weight to his address ; 
 and the consequence was a pronunciamento and plan , drawn up 
 at Cuernavaca, on the 25th of May. It proposed — first, that 
 the late laws against the church, and those for the banishment 
 of the monarchists, who had taken an active part against the 
 federalists, should be declared void ; second, that the Congress 
 should be dismissed, and another convened with power to form 
 a new constitution ; and, third, that Santa Anna should be sus- 
 tained in carrying into execution the views he had published. 
 This plan was almost universally adopted ; but, as it required 
 some time to go through a decent formality, and to elect a new 
 Congress, we will return to other events. 
 
 * Mexican Conatitution, Section *7, Article 71. 
 
 f Democratic Review, April, 1838, p. 110; Edward, p. 218. 
 
LEGISLATIVE ACTION IN TEXAS IN 1834. 319 
 
 The legislature of Coahuila and Texas met on the -first of 
 January, 1834 ; and, in default of the governor and vice-gov- 
 ernor, Councillor Francisco Yidaurri y Villasenor was duly in- 
 vested with the executive functions.* The influence of Texas 
 was much felt in this body, and the presence of Thomas J. 
 Chambers at Monclova added greatly to that influence. The 
 new municipalities of Matagorda and San Augustine were cre- 
 ated at this session ;f Texas was divided into three depart- 
 ments, and it was provided that both the Spanish and English 
 languages should be used in public affairs ; an additional rep- 
 resentative in the legislature was also allowed her,J thus giv- 
 ing to Texas three out of eight in that body. Acting in the 
 spirit of Gomez Farias, the legislature did what they could to 
 restrain the privileges of the clergy : it prohibited the found- 
 ing of edifices by charitable donations ; also debarring any one 
 from disposing of more than one fiftieth of his estate for the 
 benefit of his soul ; likewise forbidding the ecclesiastical au- 
 thority from intervening in civil affairs, and the bishops from 
 making the testament visit ( visita testamentos') .|| It may be 
 proper to state here that the political chiefs , of which Texas 
 was to have three, were selected in the following manner: the 
 ayuntamientos of each department named three persons to the 
 council of state ; if that body approved of them, it nominated 
 them to the governor, out of which he selected and appointed 
 one as political chief for the department. He held his office 
 for four years, and receiyed a salary of eight hundred dollars 
 per annum. § 
 
 * Decree of January 8, 1834. 
 
 f Decree of March 6, 1834. San Patricio and Mina -were established subse- 
 quently at the same session. 
 
 \ Decree of March 18, 1834. The new department of Texas was that of Bra- 
 to 8, having its capital at San Felipe. 
 
 | Decree No. 263. 
 
 § Article 147, Constitution of the State of Coahuila and Texas: Decree No. 270. 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Another decree, passed at this session of the legislature, for 
 the sale at auction of vacant lands, is important for other mat- 
 ters embraced in it.* Its provisions exhibit considerable lib- 
 erality. The lands were to be surveyed into labors (one hun- 
 dred and seventy-seven acres each), and sold for not less than 
 ten dollars each, the purchaser paying down one third in cash, 
 and the balance in one and two years. Foreigners were like- 
 wise allowed to purchase ; and, what had not before. been per- 
 mitted, they were allowed a year in which to bring their fami- 
 lies to Texas. But the most important article provided that 
 “ no person should be molested for political and religious opin- 
 ions, provided the public order was not disturbed.” 
 
 This law for the sale of lands was in a few weeks dispensed 
 with, to make way for more gigantic projects. The Mexican 
 members of the legislature, who themselves set no value upon 
 wild lands, had discovered that the Texans did. As the for- 
 mer loved money, and the latter real estate, an arrangement 
 of interests was mutually effected. At this time the memorial 
 sent by Austin, for a separation of Texas from Coahuila, was 
 still pending before the federal government, and the issue was 
 uncertain. The state legislature, fearful of losing the rich 
 lands of Texas without consideration, was disposed to make 
 the most of them while it had the power. f Many complaints 
 had been made of the depredations committed by the Indfans 
 on the Texan frontier. A proposition was therefore made to 
 provide a body of rangers, $ and to pay them in lands , for which 
 purpose four hundred leagues were to be set apart. The prop- 
 osition passed into a decree ; but, in its engrossment, a fraudu- 
 lent alteration was made, by which the executive was author- 
 
 * Decree No. 272, March 26, 1834. 
 f Thomas J. Chambers’s Pamphlet, 1837. 
 \ Decree No. 278. April 19, 1834. 
 
ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A JUDICIARY. 
 
 321 
 
 ized to sell the lands.* Accordingly, the lands were sold, and 
 the settlers on the frontier left to battle with the Indians as 
 they had done before, f 
 
 The great necessity for a well-organized judiciary, and the 
 numerous complaints of the Texans on that subject, induced 
 the passing of a decree on the 17th of April, 1834, making 
 Texas a judicial circuit, dividing it into three districts, and 
 prescribing the mode of procedure. The most important fea- 
 ture in this law was the provision establishing trial by jury. 
 In other respects it was as much assimilated to the rules of 
 common-law courts as Mexican prejudices would permit. Thom- 
 as J. Chambers was appointed judge of the circuit; but, after 
 making efforts to organize the courts in the several districts, 
 such was the confusion incident to the approaching revolution, 
 that the law became useless. 
 
 The legislature closed its session on the last of April, leav 
 ing the government of the state in the hands of Villasenor, the 
 acting governor, and the council and standing deputation. 
 
 * In General Chambers’s own words: “The article of the decree relating to 
 the subject required, in the first place, that the executive should call out a suffi- 
 cient number of the militia to repress the audacity of the savages, and then pro- 
 vided that the troops should be paid, or rewarded, with vacant land, in the fol- 
 lowing terms : * Y para pagar 6 premiar d los milicianos podra hechar mano de 
 las tierras valdias hasta in cantidad de cuatro cientos siiios, repartiendoselos 
 bajo las rcglas y condiciones qve cstablesca .’ These were the terms in which it 
 received the sanction of Congress, and, if it had remained thus expressed, the 
 executive could never have sold the land to speculators. For repartiendoselos 
 is a compound word, composed of the participle of the verb rcpartir (to divide 
 among), and the two pronouns se and los , one of which refers to the land and 
 the other to the troops ; making it obligatory upon the executive to divide the 
 land among the troops. But the ingenious member caused the pronoun refer- 
 ring to the troops, to be omitted in engrossing the decree; and it received the 
 sanction of the executive, and was published as a law, with the compound word 
 changed into fepartiendolos , leaving the executive free to dispose of the four 
 hundred leagues of land, by dividing them out, without determining among 
 whom.” — Pamphlet , 1837. 
 
 f Abstract of Land-Titles, p. 175. 
 
 Vol. I. — 21 
 
322 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 These functionaries, on receiving intelligence of the plan of 
 Cuernavaca, assembled on the 24th of June, and declared that 
 the state would not permit the exalted name of religion to 
 be invoked within her limits, under any such pretence ; that 
 the executive should take measures to banish from the state 
 such as endeavored to do so ; and that he should not permit 
 the troops of the standing army to be introduced into the state 
 under any pretence.* 
 
 On the same day, an extra session of the legislature was 
 convoked to meet on the lltli of August, to take measures for 
 the safety of the federal system of government, and for the 
 regulation of the public treasury, which was exhausted. The 
 acting governor was also authorized to levy and organize such 
 number of the civic militia as he might deem necessary for the 
 defence of that system. f In a short time, however, the will 
 of the nation having expressed itself so fully in favor of Santa 
 Anna and his strong government, the executive of the state 
 and his council withdrew their opposition, and declared for the 
 
 dictator.^ 
 
 Four days previous to this, however (July 19), the town of 
 Saltillo issued its pronunciamento against the government of 
 the state, and established a government of its own, appointing 
 the licentiate Jose Maria Goribar as governor. At the same 
 time it declared all the acts of the state congress and govern- 
 ment, since the first of January, 1833, to be a nullity ! || 
 
 Thus a civil war was about to commence in the state. The 
 respective parties flew to arms. The call for an extra session 
 of the legislature was not obeyed. To add to the confusion, 
 a meeting, composed of the ayuntamiento of Monclova, three 
 
 * Laws of Coahuila and Texas, p. 278. 
 
 f Decree of June 26, 1834. X R>*, 23, 1834. 
 
 j Sketch of General T. J. Chambers, p. 32, et seq. 
 
DISPUTES OF SALTILLO AND MONCLOVA- 
 
 323 
 
 members of the legislature, and two of the council, was held 
 on the 80th of August, at which the constitutional governor 
 was deposed, and Colonel Juan Jose Elguezabal appointed in 
 his stead.* On the next day, Elguezabal issued his proclama- 
 tion, declaring that he had “ taken the administration by the 
 free suffrage of the representatives of the people and that 
 the state recognised Santa Anna as president, and would con- 
 form to whatever a majority of the national Congress, with his 
 approval, would do. He then advised the two parties of Sal- 
 tillo and Monclova to make peace. f The warlike preparations 
 of these rival factions, however, continued. It was only after 
 some skirmishing, and the speedy prospect of bloodshed, that 
 the acting governor, on the part of Monclova, and Vicente Cam- 
 pos and Ignacio de Arispe, on the part of Saltillo, met at the 
 former town, on the 6th of November, 1834, and at midnight 
 made a treaty of peace. The terms of the agreement were, 
 that the question of difference between them should be referred 
 to Santa Anna ; that, in the meantime, all prisoners and prop- 
 erty taken should be restored, the troops disbanded and sent 
 home, and everything placed in the position it occupied before 
 the difficulty occurred. $ 
 
 The Texans were not a party to these disgraceful scenes. 
 They beheld with astonishment two petty aspirants claiming 
 to be governor of the state in which they lived, neither one 
 having the least color of a claim to the office ! But they were 
 not indifferent. The pending confusion had prevented the con- 
 stitutional recurrence of the elections ; the government under 
 the constitution was in fact destroyed. Under xhese circum- 
 
 * Decree of August 30, 1834. This decree is not published in Carbajal’s col- 
 lection. The fifth article of the decree softens the facts considerably. The gov- 
 ernor is said to be deposed “ because of his infirmities.” 
 f Dated August 31, 1834. MS. J MS. 
 
324 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 stances, Jose Antonio Vasquez and Oliver Jones, the Texan 
 representatives to the state legislature, and Thomas J. Cham- 
 bers, superior judge of Texas, in a short address, dated at 
 Monclova, on the 1st of September, 1834, * presented to the 
 people of Texas the unhappy condition of their affairs, and 
 proposed a congress, to meet at Bexar, on the 15th of Novem- 
 ber following, to take into consideration the political situation 
 of their own department of the state, and, if necessary, to form 
 a provisional government. The adoption of this measure, it is 
 believed, was prevented by the uncertainty of their affairs in 
 the Mexican capital. Santa Anna, after his resumption of the 
 reins of power, on the 13th of May, 1834, released Austin from 
 the dungeon of the Inquisition, in which he had been confined, 
 but kept him in confinement elsewhere until the 12th of June, 
 when the military tribunal, to whom his case had been referred, 
 decided that they had no jurisdiction over it. It was then re- 
 ferred to a civil tribunal, which also disclaimed jurisdiction ; 
 a like decision was made by the judge of the federal district 
 of Mexico, to whom the case was referred. The matter was 
 then submitted to the supreme court of the nation, that they 
 might declare what court had jurisdiction. This body never 
 made the decision, nor was Austin ever tried ; neither can it 
 be for a moment supposed that he was made to run the round 
 of these courts for any other reason than to gain time, and hold 
 him as a sort of hostage for the good behavior of Texas. His 
 letter of the 25th of August following, and the flattering atten- 
 tion of Santa Anna, show this fact conclusively.! But, after 
 the reference of the affair of Monclova and Saltillo to the de- 
 cision of the president, and a temporary calm was experienced 
 in the state of Coahuila and Texas, Santa Anna found it to be 
 good policy to enter seriously into the discussion of the peti- 
 
 * Sketch of Thomas J. Chambers, p. 31. f Edward, p. 210. 
 
CONTINUED UNION OF TEXAS AND COAHUILA. 
 
 825 
 
 tions with which Austin had been charged by the Texan con- 
 vention of 1833, and to decide upon them. Accordingly, on 
 the 5th of October, 1834, the president convoked a meeting, 
 composed of his four secretaries of state, the three representa- 
 tives from Coahuila and Texas, three of his confidential gener- 
 als, Lorenzo de Zavala, and Stephen F. Austin. The session 
 was opened at eleven o’clock in the morning. The president 
 having stated the topics to which the discussion was limited, 
 Austin laid before the meeting the object of his mission, and 
 the grounds of his petition. After a discussion which lasted 
 three hours, embracing every head of the question, and in which 
 several of the members participated, Austin urged lastly the 
 separation of Texas from Coahuila, and its formation into an 
 independent state. This was opposed by the representatives 
 of the state in the national Congress, and particularly by Vic- 
 tor Blanco, who spoke last on the subject. Santa Anna then 
 resolved — 
 
 1. That he would meditate maturely the decree repealing 
 the 11th article of the law of the 6th of April, 1830, and, if 
 no objections were presented, would give it his sanction. 
 
 2. That a corps, composed of cavalry, infantry, and artillery, 
 four thousand strong, should be stationed at Bexar, for the 
 protection of the coast and frontier of the country, to be under 
 the command of General Mexia. 
 
 3. That proper steps should be taken to have regular mails, 
 and to remove all obstacles to the agricultural and other in- 
 dustry of the inhabitants, “ who are viewed with the greatest 
 regard.” 
 
 4. That Texas must necessarily remain united with Coahu- 
 ila, because it had not the elements warranting a separation, 
 nor would it be convenient. Amd, though it might be allowed 
 to form a territory, if the inhabitants called for it, yet the dis- 
 
326 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 membering of a state was unknown to the Mexican laws, and 
 he would be at a loss how to proceed.* 
 
 Thus was decided all the matters embraced in Austin’s mis- 
 sion. Still he was detained in Mexico. His continued ab- 
 sence necessarily produced much feeling in Texas. This, added 
 to the chaotic proceedings in the state and federal governments, 
 not only excited but exasperated the colonists against Mexico, 
 and everything that pertained to her. 
 
 The reference of the dispute between Saltillo and Monclova 
 to Santa Anna was accepted, and a solution given. It was as 
 follows : — 
 
 1. The seat of government should remain at Monclova. 
 
 2. Alguezabal to continue to act as governor until a new 
 election. 
 
 3. A new election for governor, vice-governor, and members 
 of the legislature, to be ordered for the entire state. f 
 
 This arrangement referred the matter to the people; and, 
 although there was no law for the election, it was satisfactory. 
 The decision was made on the 2d of December, 1834 ; and 
 Austin hastened to communicate the fact, in a letter of that 
 date,J advising the people of Texas to sustain this adjustment 
 of their difficulties by the president. “All is changed,” said 
 he, “ since October of last year. Then there was no local gov- 
 ernment in Texas ; now there is, and the most of your evils 
 have been remedied, so that it is now important to promote 
 union with all the state, and keep down all kind of excitement. 
 All is going well. The president, General Santa Anna, has 
 solemnly and publicly declared that he will sustain the federal 
 
 * Victor Blanco to the Governor of Coahuila and Texas, October 6, 1834. 
 
 \ The time for the election, under the constitution, was the previous Septem- 
 ber. Texas had elected Messrs. Austin, Jones, and Vasquez; but the civil war 
 in Coahuila had prevented the elections there. 
 
 \ Austin to Messrs. Durst and Thorn, MS. 
 
almonte’s report on texan affairs. 
 
 327 
 
 representative system , as it now exists , and he will be sustained 
 by all parties.” 
 
 In the spring of 1834, Colonel Juan N. Almonte, who, after 
 his return to Mexico, had become distinguished, w T as sent by 
 Santa Anna to visit Texas, and report upon its condition, physi- 
 cal and moral. He devoted some months to this business, 
 spending most of his time with his old friend, and the friend 
 of his father, Colonel Ellis P. Bean.* On his return, he pub- 
 lished so much of his report as was deemed expedient. In 
 that report, he attributes the rapid advance of the Texans to 
 their industry, and the absence of that civil strife so common 
 in Mexico. He estimated the population at twenty-one thou- 
 sand souls, f though there were doubtless at that time thirty 
 thousand. He computed the number of negroes at only eleven 
 hundred, when they were undoubtedly three times that number. 
 The trade of the three chieftaincies of Texas was estimated as 
 follows : Brasos, six hundred thousand dollars, mostly in cot- 
 ton ; the imports about three hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 dollars : Nacogdoches, four hundred and seventy thousand dol- 
 lars in cotton, skins, grain, and cattle ; the imports about two 
 hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars : Bexar, only eight or 
 ten thousand skins of exports, and a few articles imported from 
 New Orleans — thus making the total foreign trade of Texas, 
 in 1834, about one million, six hundred and eighty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 * After the Fredonian war, Colonel Bean ceased to be actively engaged in 
 public affairs. He continued to hold his appointment as a colonel in the Mexi- 
 can service, and was Indian agent. During the troubles of 1832, he was sta- 
 tioned with a detachment of troops at Fbrt Teran. His command was ordered 
 to Nacogdoches by Piedras, and were taken prisoners by the Texans. Bean, 
 not wishing to lose his commission, did not take part in that contest. 
 
 \ Population of Texas in 1834, by municipalities: Bexar, 2,400; San Patricio, 
 600; Matagorda, 1,400; Nacogdoches, 3,500; Jonesborough, 2,000; Goliad, 700; 
 San Felipe, 2,500; Gonzales, 900; San Augustine, 2,500; Victoria, 300; Colum- 
 bia, 2,100 ; Mina, 1,100 ; Liberty, 1,000. Total population, according to Almonte, 
 21 , 000 . 
 
328 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 On the return of Colonel Almonte to Mexico, in the autumn 
 of the foregoing year, it was proposed that he should again 
 proceed to Texas, in the capacity of colonial director , and aid 
 in introducing a larger number of Mexicans into that depart- 
 ment ; but the subsequent troubles prevented, and he did not 
 return till he came with the army in 1836. 
 
 It was during the year 1834 that an attempt was made by 
 the Creek Indians to obtain a settlement in Texas. Through 
 some influence, the chiefs Apothtayoha and Ben Hawkins came 
 to Nacogdoches, and entered into an agreement to procure the 
 lands lying north of that town, which were then under the con- 
 trol of a New York company. A part of the purchase-money 
 was advanced by the Indians, and further steps were taken to 
 complete the title. In the meantime, the report of this project 
 having gone abroad, and been made public by the newspapers, 
 aroused the American settlers, and also the Cherokees. Colo- 
 nel Bean, the Indian agent, was consulted ; and in a short time 
 the public mind became so exasperated, that the matter was 
 abandoned. Hawkins was killed by the Cherokees.* 
 
 * “ September 15, 1835 : F. Thorn, president ; T. J. Rusk, secretary. Resolved , 
 That General Houston be appointed to take such steps as he may deem necessary 
 in attempting to arrest the progress of one Benjamin Hawkins, who, we have 
 every reason to believe, is attempting to introduce a large body of Indians from 
 the United States into Texas.” — Proceedings of Vigilance Committee, Nacog- 
 doches. 
 
FIRST TEXAN REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS. 
 
 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The first strictly revolutionary meeting in Texas was held 
 at Bexar, on the 13th of October, 1834, in pursuance of the 
 recommendation of the representatives and superior judge of 
 the department. At this assembly, on motion of Erasmo Se- 
 guin, the call for a convention, to meet at Bexar, on the 15th 
 of November following, was approved. The proceedings were 
 sent to the other municipalities ; but, as previously stated, the 
 movement did not succeed. A meeting followed on the 20 th 
 of October, at San Eelipe, under the auspices of the political 
 chief of Brasos, which went further than was at first recom- 
 mended, by proposing a perpetual dissolution of the connection 
 between Coahuila and Texas. But it appears that the conven- 
 tion of April, 1833, previous to its adjournment, had appointed 
 a grand central committee to look after the public interests. 
 This committee, considering that the movement was premature 
 — that Austin was still in confinement, and his safety jeoparded 
 by such action — and following his advice, as transmitted from 
 Mexico — replied to these proceedings, and recommended ac- 
 quiescence for the present.* 
 
 The Mexican national Congress met on the first of January, 
 1835, in pursuance of the plan of Cuernavaca. The central- 
 
 * See the arguments of each party in Edward, p. 220, et seq.; Kennedy, voL 
 ii. p. 64. 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ists had triumphed everywhere, except in the two states of 
 Zacatecas and Coahuila and Texas. Zacatecas resolved that 
 she would adhere to the constitution of 1824, and so instructed 
 her representatives. Among the first acts of Congress was the 
 banishment of Gomez Farias, the vice-president, who, though a 
 rough believer, was at the head of republicanism in Mexico. 
 Another act was to deelare Zacatecas in a state of rebellion ; 
 and yet another, reducing the number of the militia to one sol- 
 dier for each five hundred inhabitants, and disarming the re- 
 mainder. This arbitrary decree was a sufficient justification 
 of Texas for her subsequent acts.* Every one who knows the 
 Texans, or who had heard of them, would naturally conclude 
 that they never would submit to be disarmed-. Any govern- 
 ment that would attempt to disarm its people is despotic ; and 
 any people that would submit to it deserve to be slaves ! 
 
 In the meantime, in pursuance of the award of Santa Anna, 
 the state of Coahuila and Texas proceeded to hold elections 
 for governor, vice-governor, and members of the legislature. 
 Augustin Yiesca was elected governor, and Ramon Musquiz 
 vice-governor, f They were both republicans ; the legislature 
 was of the same political character. It may be stated in ad- 
 vance, that, however patriotic these gentlemen assumed to be, 
 they were men of easy virtue ; and, in escaping from under 
 the ruins of a falling government, they managed to carry off 
 more plunder than belonged to them. The first evidence of 
 legislative corruption appeared in a decree, passed on the 14th 
 of March, 1835, authorizing the governor to sell four hundred 
 leagues of land, without being subject to the provisions of the 
 general colonization law of 1825. The lands were shortly dis- 
 
 * Democratic Review, April, 1838 ; Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 82. 
 
 f Decree No. 204. Governor Elguezabal sent in his resignation at the open- 
 ing of the session; and, as the votes for governor had not yet b6en returned, 
 Jose M Cantu was invested with the executive power for the time being. 
 
REVOLT OP SALTILLO — LEGISLATIVE MEASURES. 331 
 
 posed of to speculators ; but the law itself was abrogated by 
 the general Congress on the 25th of April following.* The 
 town of Saltillo, devoted to Santa Anna, and ever ready, since 
 the removal of the seat of government from that place, to take 
 advantage of any errors committed at Monelova, seized this 
 occasion to revolt. Her deputies retired from the legislature, 
 leaving their protest. On their return home, the people of 
 Saltillo pronounced. General Martin Pcrfecto de Cos, com- 
 mandant-general of the eastern states, gave them aid and coun- 
 tenance, by a letter to Governor Yiesca, supporting their views : 
 and not only this, but he set out, with a body of troops, for the 
 capital of the state, to enforce the points laid down in his 
 letter ! f 
 
 The legislature, being informed of these facts, passed a de- 
 cree, dated the Tth of April, authorizing the governor to raise 
 such force as he might deem necessary to secure the public 
 tranquillity, and to protect the civil authorities in the exercise 
 of their functions. That body further declared that no portion 
 of the standing army should be stationed in the capital, except 
 by the express orders of the president of the nation. 
 
 At the time Santa Anna determined against the admission of 
 Texas as a state , he held out some hope that he would organize 
 it into a territory . The Texans did not desire this, any more 
 than their union with Coahuila. However, the idea had be- 
 come general in the state ; and G'ovcrnor Yiesca, on taking his 
 seat, published an address, advising union between all sections : 
 and in a note appended to the address it was stated that Santa 
 Anna wished to reduce Texas to the condition of a territory — 
 “ to separate her from Coahuila, in order that the people might 
 be considered as foreigners.” This address was dated on the 
 15th of April, 1835 — for Yiesca did not in fact assume the 
 
 * Laws and Decrees, p. SOI. 
 
 f lb., p. 284. 
 
332 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 executive functions until that day; but Austin, writing from 
 Mexico, under date of the 15th of March, said : “ The territo- 
 rial question is dead. The advocates of that measure are now 
 strongly in favor of a state government ; and that measure is 
 now before Congress. A call has been made upon the presi- 
 dent for information on the subject; and I am assured the 
 president will make his communication in a few days, and that 
 it will be decidedly in favor of Texas and the state.”* 
 
 Thus was Santa Anna temporizing with Texas, through Aus- 
 tin, until he could get the country occupied with his troops. 
 Coahuila, at the same time, was courting her regards, and 
 urging her to remain as part of the state, while she was heart- 
 ily tired of them both. 
 
 The state government, finding that the transfer of so large 
 a body of the public lands of Texas into the hands of specula- 
 tors had produced quite an excitement in the mind of the 
 general community, undertook an apology, which was published 
 in “ La Gaceta del Gobierno Supremo del Estado ” of the 1st 
 of April. Therein it was stated that, by the defection of Sal- 
 tillo, the treasury of the state was exhausted, and that the gov- 
 ernment must have means. Still, this hardly justified the pri- 
 vate sale of four hundred leagues of excellent lands at less 
 than two cents per acre ! But much was promised to Texas. 
 
 “For the satisfaction of the people of Texas,” says ‘ La 
 Gaceta ,’ “ and the friends of freedom generally, we will state 
 that bills are now presented to the legislature, and others will 
 soon be presented, which will greatly promote the advance- 
 ment and prosperity of that fair portion of our country — such 
 as the regulation of the colonization system upon a liberal and 
 practicable basis ; the regulation and termination of Indian 
 claims and Indian wars ; the appropriation of sufficient sums 
 
 * Edward, p. 241. 
 
ATTEMPTS AT CONCILIATION. 
 
 333 
 
 of money out of the proceeds of public lands to establish in 
 Texas a state college and good rudimental schools ; the settle- 
 ment of all the loose families in Texas ; the decision of all 
 land claims and disputes ; and to put an end to many abuses 
 practised upon the people, and ultimately many other projects 
 highly favorable to the state in general, and to Texas in par- 
 ticular.’ ? 
 
 Thus were the hopes of the Texans flattered, while they were 
 robbed of their fair domain ; and thus did this legislature ren- 
 der itself worthy to be driven from its halls by the minions of 
 Santa Anna. The federal Congress had under consideration 
 a decree of conciliation and amnesty. It proposed only to ex- 
 tend the act of oblivion to a time limited, and to include none 
 but natives of Mexico. The state legislature very properly 
 recommended that the provisions of the amnesty should be en- 
 larged, so as to cover the entire past, and also include natu- 
 ralized foreigners." This suggestion, had it been adopted, 
 might have postponed the impending political crisis somewhat 
 longer : for Texas, composed almost entirely of foreigners, 
 would not otherwise obtain any benefit from the decree. The 
 legislature, forgetting awhile its selfish ends, and being witness 
 to the scandalous and bloody scenes enacting in the city of 
 Mexico, declared, in an address to the federal Congress, that 
 notwithstanding plans were formed, and pronunciamentos , ac- 
 companied by appeals to arms, constantly occurred, and the 
 principles of the constitution and the rights of the people were 
 as constantly proclaimed, yet, unfortunately, action had never 
 corresponded with declaration ; but that, on the contrary, dis- 
 trust, discord, and a disposition to persecution and revenge, 
 constituted their settled course of procedure. That body fur- 
 ther declared that it represented a people who were proud of 
 
 * Decree of April 8, 1835. 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 having always sustained the constitution of 1824, and hat they 
 would firmly continue to sustain it. It warned the federal 
 Congress that “ reforms,” at all times and in all places danger- 
 ous, would then be still more so in Coahuila and Texas ; that 
 it was bordering on a flourishing sister-republic, and was set- 
 tled by thousands of inhabitants with whom the changes contem- 
 plated would not agree, as they could not conform to them ;* 
 and that such changes would highly compromit , not only the 
 internal peace of the country, but the very integrity of the 
 nation. 
 
 Santa Anna and his pliant Congress disregarded these pro- 
 phetic warnings. That body, after declaring its own almost 
 unlimited powers, proceeded gradually in its work of destroy- 
 ing what little of republican liberty yet remained in the Mexi- 
 can confederacy. In April, the president-dictator set out, at 
 the head of three thousand four hundred troops, to chastise the 
 people of Zacatecas ; and, about the same time, he ordered his 
 brother-in-law, General Cos, then stationed at Matamoras, to 
 proceed, at the head of a suitable force, to disperse the legis- 
 lature at Monclova. 
 
 Don Francisco Garcia, governor of Zacatecas, had assem- 
 bled, on the plains of Guadalupe, not far from the city, a force 
 of five thousand men, with several pieces of artillery. On the 
 10th of May, Santa Anna approached with his army, and sent 
 a demand to the governor to surrender. The latter refused 
 with spirit. On the next morning, at five o’clock, the battle 
 commenced, and, after a bloody engagement of two hours, the 
 Zacatecans were entirely routed. Two thousand of them were 
 killed, and twenty-seven hundred more were made prisoners. 
 All their arms and ammunition fell into the hands of the vic- 
 tors. Santa Anna, with his troops — of whom, according to 
 
 * Laws and Decrees, p. 288. 
 
MASSACRE AND PLUNDER OF ZACATECAS. 
 
 335 
 
 his own bulletins, he had scarcely lost a hundred in the battle 
 — marched into the capital of the state, where for two days 
 they were engaged in the butchery of the unfortunate inhabit- 
 ants and the plunder of their city ! Zacatecas was one of the 
 wealthiest mining-districts in Mexico. It had likewise been 
 one of the earliest and most constant friends of the national 
 revolution, in which it had suffered greatly. The spirit of lib- 
 erty had taken deep root in the state ; but this great blow had 
 utterly prostrated her, and submission to the dictator was the 
 only alternative." The intelligence of this disaster produced 
 a painful sensation in Texas. 
 
 Meantime, General Cos with his force was slowly approach- 
 ing the capital of the state of Coahuila and Texas. The legis- 
 lature prepared to meet this invasion of its rights, not by force 
 of arms, but by the enactment of laws for extending land-titles. 
 It found time, during its last days, to create a bank, to be or- 
 ganized, under the auspices of an empresario , in Texas. f Gov- 
 ernor Yiesca called out the militia, to defend the legislature ; 
 but the public mind of the state, especially in Texas, was so 
 thoroughly convinced of the selfishness and corruption of that 
 body, that the stirring appeals of his excellency could not 
 arouse them. They declared that it was too much to risk 
 their blood to sustain those who had wantonly squandered 
 their lands. $ The legislature, therefore, after passing a de- 
 cree authorizing the provisional location of the seat of govern- 
 ment at such point as the governor might select, hastily ad- 
 journed. || Thus closed for ever, on the 21st day of April, 
 
 * First official account of the battle, May 11, 1835 ; Niles’s Mexico, p. ‘207. 
 
 f Decree, No. 308. \ Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 89. 
 
 | Decree No. 325. The legislature of Coahuila and Texas granted to Jose M. 
 Carbajal a license to publish in the Spanish and English languages the laws and 
 decrees of the state (Decree No. 319). Through Colonel Carbajal, a copy was 
 procured by the government of Texas, translated by Dr. Kimball, and published 
 in both languages in 1839. 
 
HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 OOft 
 
 ooO 
 
 1835, the legislature of Coahuila and Texas. It fell by the 
 hands of a tyrant, but unpitied by the people. 
 
 The governor, having selected Bexar as the future temporary 
 capital of the state, collected the archives, and set out on his 
 journey thither, with an escort of one hundred and fifty of the 
 militia, and some few Texans. After proceeding as far as 
 Hermanos, he returned to Monclova, with a view to surrender 
 and make terms with Santa Anna ; but subsequently, appre- 
 hending that he would be safer in Texas, he set out on his way 
 to that department, in company with Colonel Milam and John 
 Cameron. The party were, however, captured in the mount- 
 ains by the forces under Cos, and started to Vera Cruz. Mi- 
 lam escaped at Monterey, and the others at Saltillo, and finally 
 all reached Texas. Such of the legislators as did not escape 
 were imprisoned and banished. The federal Congress after- 
 ward deposed the state authorities, and annulled all the decrees 
 of the late session.* 
 
 We will return to the occurrences in Texas. The people 
 of that department were now without a government ; and it 
 devolved on them, either to establish a system of their own, or 
 submit to the will of Santa Anna. From their character, the 
 latter could not be expected. The national decree, dissolving 
 the civic militia, exposed the country to the constant depreda- 
 tions of the Indians, who had already become very troublesome 
 and dangerous. As an instance of this, early in 1835, an Ital- 
 ian and several Mexicans, engaged in transporting goods, were 
 attacked in the morning by about seventy Indians, on the road, 
 fifteen miles west of Gonzales. The merchants, forming a 
 breastwork of their goods, continued the fight till evening. 
 But gradually their numbers were thinned by the fire of their 
 adversaries, till they were no longer able to defend their posi- 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 90. 
 
ORGANIZATION OF COMMITTEES OF SAFETY. 
 
 337 
 
 tion. An assault was then made on the survivors by the sav- 
 ages, and every one was butchered and scalped.* Such a 
 scene, on the great thoroughfare of the country, was sufficient 
 "to prove the necessity of an organized militia, and that militia 
 well armed. 
 
 The first step toward an independent organization in Texas 
 was through committees of safety. The first committee of 
 safety was appointed at Mina (now Bastrop), on the 17th day 
 of May, 1835, It was chosen, not in reference to a rupture 
 with Mexico, but in consequence of repeated outrages commit- 
 ted by the Indians. The people assembled on that day, to 
 make some arrangement for their protection.! Samuel Wolf- 
 enbarger was called to the chair, and J. W. Bunton appointed 
 secretary. A previous meeting of the ayuntamiento and a few 
 citizens had convened on the 8th of the month, and nominated 
 D. C. Barrett, John M‘Gehee, and B. Manlove, as a committee 
 of safety. The meeting of the 17th confirmed it, and added to 
 it the names of Samuel Wolfenbarger and Edward Burleson. 
 This example was soon followed by all the municipalities ; so 
 that in a short time they were found in the active discharge of 
 their functions, laboring with a zeal and constancy worthy of 
 the noble cause in which they were engaged. 
 
 Early in 1835, Captain Tenorio, with twenty Mexican troops, 
 was stationed at Anahuac, to guard and protect the port of 
 Galveston. Some of the Texans, headed by William B. Tra- 
 vis, determined that taxes should not thus be collected from 
 them to support a standing army in their own country, attacked 
 and drove them off. They retired to San Felipe, where they 
 were hospitably received, and assisted on their way to Bexar. 
 
 * Indianola Bulletin, 1853. 
 
 f Proceedings of the Committee of Mina, MS. I am indebted to B. C. Frank- 
 lin, Esq., for this, as well as some other valuable papers, emanating from that 
 municipality. 
 
 Vol. I. — 22 
 
338 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Santa xVnna, having deposed the governor of the state, filled 
 the office by the appointment of Don Miguel Falcon, a creature 
 of his own ; but Falcon shortly afterward proving impractica- 
 ble, he removed him, and invested the commandant-general Cos 
 with the civil as well as the military power. This, added to 
 the rumored approach of a standing army, increased the public 
 alarm. Colonel Ugartaclica, the Mexican commandant, was 
 stationed at Bexar. He was a man of courage, and of many 
 amiable qualities ; in fact, he was personally popular with the 
 Texans. He saw the approaching storm, and did what he 
 could to avert it ; but he was a soldier, and acted under or- 
 ders. Cos was a different nian ; yet he was capable of as much 
 hypocrisy as he deemed necessary to conceal his designs and 
 ensnare the Texan patriots. He did not, however, deceive 
 them long. He sent them a circular, dated the 12th of June, 
 1835, full of the paternal views of the national government. 
 At the same time he despatched a message to the commandant 
 at Anahuac, informing him that the two companies of New 
 Leon and the battalion of Morales would sail immediately for 
 Texas ; and that they would be followed by another strong 
 force, which he had solicited the government to send. With 
 this despatch also went another, from Ugartachea, giving the 
 information that the force which had conquered Zacatecas, and 
 which was then at Saltillo, had likewise been ordered to Texas, 
 and would soon regulate matters ! The courier bearing these 
 documents was arrested by a party at San Felipe, and the 
 papers opened and read.* 
 
 The intelligence thus received served only to increase the 
 public excitement. There were two parties in San Felipe, 
 
 * Address of R. M. Williamson, chairman of the meeting of San Felipe, of Juno 
 22, 1835. Letter of J. B. Miller, political chief of Brasos, to General Martin 
 Prefecto do Cos, July 1 , 1835. 
 
WAR AND PEACE PARTIES — THEIR MOVEMENTS. 339 
 
 and, in fact, throughout Texas. The war-party, on receipt of 
 the news of the flight of Governor Yiesca, and his subsequent 
 arrest, held a meeting, and resolved to rescue the governor, 
 and drive the Mexican troops from San Antonio. Notwith- 
 standing this, the peace-party did not co-operate, but urged 
 the bad faith of the governor and legislature as a reason why 
 they should not interpose in their behalf. “ But,” rejoined the 
 war-party, “ the sale of the four hundred leagues of land has 
 nothing to do with the subject. You are justly indignant at 
 that sale — so also are we ; but that can and ought to have no 
 weight with the public mind at this time. It is too inconsid- 
 erable to be noticed when compared to the importance of our 
 country, our property, our liberty, and our lives, which are all 
 involved in the present contest between the states and the mili- 
 tary.”* Thus, while the peace-party were engaged in making 
 apologies, and in soothing Cos and Ugartachea, the war-party 
 were publishing flaming documents, full of the wrongs of Texas, 
 and of her threatened ruin. 
 
 The meeting of the war-party, on the 22d of June, was fol- 
 lowed by an address from the chairman, R. M. Williamson, 
 which produced a powerful effect on the public mind. As Ra- 
 mon Musquiz, the vice-governor, was in Bexar, and was willing 
 to act as governor if the colonists would sustain him, it was 
 proposed to take that place, install him in the executive office, 
 and have him appoint commissioners to extend to the colonists 
 the titles to their lands. The legislature, before its flight, had 
 authorized such appointments, but the governor was arrested 
 before he could make them. 
 
 These views were supported by several of the municipalities, 
 but others rejected them. The ayuntamiento of Liberty, on 
 the 1st of June, issued an address, denouncing the conduct of 
 
 Williamson’s Address, July 4, 1835. 
 
840 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the party that had expelled the troops from Anahuac, declared 
 them a mob, and threatened to punish all such offenders against 
 the laws of Mexico.* John A. Williams, a considerable per- 
 sonage in the jurisdiction of Liberty, published a circular, de- 
 nouncing the meeting at San Felipe of the 22d of June.f “ We 
 arc told,” says he, u much about extravagant reforms, danger- 
 ous innovations, and extraordinary prerogatives assumed by 
 the general Congress, yet not one word is said about the pub- 
 lic fraud committed by the governor and legislature in the ille- 
 gal sale of four hundred leagues of land to their favorite specu- 
 lators I fear,” he continues, “ the people are now ready 
 
 to plunge headlong into the yawning jaws of a hopeless civil 
 war. It seems to me that I never heard of an attack so dar- 
 ing, so ungrateful and unprovoked, as that held forth by the 
 people of San Felipe. To capture and occupy San Antonio, to 
 make treaties with the Indians, to send forces and rescue the 
 governor, to protect the frontiers, and sustain our position 
 against the combined forces of the Mexican United States, are 
 what we are urged to do ! 0 vanity ! 0 ignorance ! what have 
 
 ye done ? Will my countrymen ever be the prey of political 
 jugglers ?” 
 
 Dr. James B. Miller, the political chief of Brasos, while he 
 despatched a letter of peace to General Cos, proceeded to or- 
 ganize the militia of his jurisdiction — though this he might 
 well do to oppose the Indians, for they had become trouble- 
 some. In pursuance of previous notice, however, there was 
 held on the 17th of July, at San Felipe, a meeting of the rep- 
 resentatives sent from the jurisdictions of Austin, Columbia, 
 and Mina,$ to take into consideration the state of the country, 
 
 * Edward, p. 235. f Pine Bluff, July 3, 1835. MS. 
 
 \ Delegates from Columbia: John A, Wharton, x James F. Perry, Stirling 
 M'Neil, James Knight, and Josiah H. Bell. From Austin: A. Somerville, John 
 R. Jones, Wylie Martin, Jesse Bartlett, and C. B. Stewart. From Afina : D. C 
 Barrett — Journal of Proceedings , MS. 
 
CONCILIATORY MEETING AT SAN FELIPE. 
 
 341 
 
 and the alleged outrages against Mexico. Wylie Martin was 
 chosen president, Charles B. Stewart secretary, and the meet- 
 ing duly organized. After a session of four days, but little 
 was accomplished. A reply was made to the letter of Ugarta- 
 chea, in which he had assured the Texans of the good will of 
 the central government. The reply represented the existence of 
 a like conciliatory spirit on the part of Texas, and expressed 
 regret for the recent outrages, requesting Ugartachea to inter- 
 pose with Santa Anna and Cos. Captain Tenorio, who was 
 present at this meeting, was mollified, by sending to Harris- 
 burg for his arms, and to Patrick II. Jack for his private pa- 
 pers that had been taken from him at Anahuac.'* On the sec- 
 ond day of the convention, John A. Wharton moved for a call 
 of a general council of the people of Texas, but the proposition 
 was voted down. A committee of five was then appointed, to 
 draw up a statement of facts in regard to the late disturbances, 
 but the next day it was discharged, for want of the necessary 
 information as to what constituted the facts. A commission, 
 however, consisting of two persons (D. C. Barrett and Edward 
 Gritton),was appointed, to proceed to Matamoras, and explain 
 to General Cos the recent occurrences, and to assure him of 
 the adherence of Texas to the general government and its in- 
 stitutions.! The meeting, having left all unfinished business 
 in the hands of the political chief at his request, adjourned to 
 meet again on the first of August following. 
 
 * “This day, 25th of July, gave Captain Tenorio an order from the political 
 chief to Wray, comisario at Harrisburg, for the ai ms and accoutrements which 
 were taken at his surrender; also an order to P. Jack for his (Tenorio’s) private 
 papers.” — Journal. 
 
 \ Journal, p. 6. Edward Gritton was an Englishman, who had been for some 
 time domiciliated in Mexico, and had come to Texas in 1834, in company with 
 Colonel Almonte. There remains now but little doubt of his treachery. The 
 meeting raised by subscription five hundred and forty-seven dollars, and paid it 
 over to these commissioners as an outfit. Gritton was a brother-in-law of Colo- 
 nel Carbajal. 
 
342 
 
 HTSTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The proceedings of this convention had the effect to calm 
 the feelings of the war-party, and place them in the minority. 
 In the letter of Ugartachea, referred to on the previous page, 
 he stated to the Texans that they had nothing to fear from the 
 introduction of troops into Texas ; that they would be placed 
 in detachments at the commercial points to prevent smuggling, 
 and also on the frontiers to repress the incursions of the In- 
 dians." Nevertheless, it was the object of the peace-party to 
 prevent, if possible, the introduction of troops into Texas ; and 
 they declared to Colonel Ugartachea, in their reply of the 17th 
 of July, that if troops were despatched to attack the colonists, 
 or were sent in great numbers for any purpose, it would cause 
 the reunion of all parties, and a fearful civil war would be the 
 result. 
 
 The people on the Navidad took a warlike view of public 
 occurrences. They held a meeting at the house of William 
 Millican, on the 19th of July, and, after appointing James Kerr 
 chairman and Samuel Rogers secretary, declared their belief 
 that Santa Anna was hostil * to state sovereignty and the state 
 constitution ; that they would oppose any force that might be 
 introduced into Texas for other than constitutional purposes ; 
 that, whereas there were then at Goliad two hundred infantry, 
 on their march to Bexar, they recommended the chief of the 
 department to intercept them ; and they further advised the 
 taking of Bexar. They concluded their proceedings by calling 
 on the militia, and directing them to be ready to march at a 
 moment’s warning. An account of these spirited proceedings 
 was speedily sent to San Felipe, but a change of feeling had 
 occurred there since the meeting of the 22d of June, and the 
 people were awaiting the result of the mission of Messrs. Bar- 
 rett and Gritton. 
 
 * Letter of July 7, 1835, MS. This was brought from Ugartachea by Gritton. 
 
THE WAR-PARTY — LETTER FROM TRAVIS. 343 
 
 The people of Nacogdoches, though farther removed from 
 the seat of disquiet, had already chosen a committee of safety 
 and vigilance. Henry Rueg,* the political chief of that depart- 
 ment, was friendly to the war-party, and aided the committee 
 in its labors. Among the leaders of the war-party, the most 
 prominent at that time were Travis, Bowie, Williamson, and 
 Johnson. A letter from Travis, at San Felipe, to. Bowie, at 
 Nacogdoches, dated July 30, 1835, will give some idea of the 
 views of his party at that date. “ The truth is,” says Travis, 
 u the people are much divided here. The peace-party , as they 
 style themselves, I believe are the strongest, and make much 
 the most noise. Unless we could be united, had we not better 
 be quiet, and settle down for a while ? There is now no doubt 
 but that a central government will be established. What will 
 Texas do in that case ? Dr. J. H. C. Miller, and Chambers, 
 from Gonzales, are, I believe, for unqualified submission. I 
 do not know the minds of the people upon the subject ; but if 
 they had a bold and determined leader, I am inclined to think 
 
 they would kick against it General Cos writes that he 
 
 wants to be at peace with us ; and he appears to be disposed 
 to cajole and soothe us. Ugartachca does the same. . . . God 
 knows what we are to do ! I am determined, for one, to go 
 with my countrymen : right or wrong, 4 sink or swim, live or 
 die, survive or perish,’ I am with them !’’ 
 
 On the 12th of July, General Cos addressed a letter to the 
 political chief of Brasos, inquiring as to the late proceedings, 
 
 * Henry Rueg was a native of Switzerland. He came to the United States in 
 1818, and, with his partner Norgelle, brought a number of Dutch families to a 
 tract of land near Compt6, on Red river; but the colony, not prospering, was 
 abandoned, and Rueg proceeded to Texas in 1821. After engaging for a while 
 in the mule-trade, he set up a small store in Nacogdoches. Here an intimacy 
 sprang up between him and Piedras the commandant, which, when that town 
 was erected into a separate chieftaincy, resulted in his appointment to that office. 
 He was the first and last political “chief of the department. 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 and directing him to take measures for the suppression of dis- 
 turbances. J. B. Miller was absent and sick at the time this 
 paper reached San Felipe, and it was answered by Wylie Mar- 
 tin, the chief pro tem .* He assured General Cos that he had 
 already taken steps to allay the disturbances, and had made 
 known to the people the friendly assurances of his excellency. 
 He further informed him of the appointment of commissioners 
 to visit him at Matamoras, and make explanations. 
 
 In the meantime, early in July, Lorenzo de Zavala, late 
 governor of the state and city of Mexico, and embassador to 
 France, had fled from the tyranny of Santa Anna, and sought 
 refuge on the shores of Texas. No sooner had the Mexican 
 authorities learned this fact, than an order was despatched to 
 have him arrested. Captain Antonio Tenorio, late of Anahuac, 
 made the application for arrest to Wylie Martin, acting politi- 
 cal chief, on the 24th of July. On the 26th the chief replied 
 that he could not, in his civil capacity, proceed to arrest Za- 
 vala, because he had received no order to that effect from the 
 government ; and therefore he refused. 
 
 But there were spies at San Felipe, watching and reporting 
 to Ugartachea the movements of the war-party. Dr. James 
 H. C. Miller, of Gonzales, who was then at San Felipe as a 
 delegate to the approaching convention, of the first of August, 
 thus wrote to John W. Smith, of Bexar, under date of July 25, 
 1885 : “All here is in a train for peace. The war and specu- 
 lating parties are entirely put down, and are preparing to 
 leave the country. They should now be demanded of their 
 respective chiefs — a few at a time. First, Johnson, William- 
 son, Travis, and Williams ; and perhaps that is enough. Cap- 
 tain Martin, once so revolutionary, is now, thank God, where 
 he should be, in favor of peace, and his duty ; and by his influ- 
 
 * Letter of Wylie Martin to General Cos, July 25, 1835. MS. 
 
ORDERS TO ARREST SUSPECTED PERSONS. 
 
 345 
 
 ence, in a good degree, has peace been restored. But now 
 they should be demanded. The moment is auspicious. The 
 people are up. Say so, and oblige one who will never forget 
 his true allegiance to the supreme authorities of the nation, 
 and who knows that, till they are dealt with, Texas will never 
 be quiet. Travis is in a peck of troubles. Dr. J. B. Miller 
 disclaims his act in taking Anahuac, and he feels the breach. 
 Don Lorenzo de Zavala is now in Columbia, attempting to 
 arouse, Ac. Have him called for, and he also will be deliv- 
 ered up. Williams, Baker, and Johnson, are now on a visit 
 to him, and no doubt conspiring against the government. Fail 
 not to move in this matter, and that quickly , as now is the 
 time.” 
 
 Smith immediately exhibited this letter to Ugartachea, who, 
 being misled by it, and supposing the people of Texas would 
 surrender their leading men, issued an order to each of the 
 alcaldes, ordering them to take every possible means to arrest 
 Zavala, Johnson, Williamson, Travis, Williams, and Baker; 
 and, when in safe custody, to deliver them to Captain Tenorio 
 at San Felipe. He further stated in the order, that, should 
 they not do so, they would not only be compromitted them- 
 selves, but he would send a respectable force to arrest those 
 persons.* 
 
 The commissioners to General Cos reported their proceed- 
 ings to the committee of safety at Mina, and they were approved 
 on the 29tli of July. Haying made the necessary preparations, 
 the commissioners set out. Their correspondence is long and 
 pointless. They left Bastrop on the 30th of July,f and arrived 
 at Gonzales on the night of the 1st of August, where they met 
 
 * Order from Bexar, July 31, 1835. 
 
 f Letter fron Edward Gritton to Wylie Martin, July 30, 1835. The prii ci- 
 pal business of the commission on the route appeared to be the collection of 
 
 funds. 
 
346 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the order of Ugartaclica for the arrest of Zavala and the other 
 suspected persons. They succeeded in detaining the express 
 until Gritton could hasten to Bexar, and endeavor to effect the 
 revocation of the order. He succeeded only so far as to have 
 rescinded that portion which required the prisoners, when ar- 
 rested, to be delivered to Captain Tenorio. 
 
 The commissioners reached Bexar on the 5th of August, and 
 had several interviews with Colonel Ugartachea. He could 
 not understand what was meant by conventions, commissioners, 
 and committees of safety, but looked upon them with jealousy 
 as a sort of j uronunciamcwtos, and of rebellious tendency. But 
 they were operating, as they supposed, favorably upon the kind- 
 hearted Mexican commandant of Texas, when — “ Lo ! at this 
 auspicious moment,” say the commissioners, “ a courier from 
 General Cos arrived, interdicting’ all communication with the 
 colonies, leaving them to go to the devil in their own way !”* 
 Cos had received a copy of the 4th-of-July address of R. M. 
 Williamson : hence the interdict. 
 
 That night the commissioners went to bed — not to sleep, but 
 “ haunted by visions of broken heads, mangled limbs, and an 
 ill-natured and unnatural conflict, unnecessarily provoked, and 
 for the want of time to effect a proper understanding among 
 all the parties concerned.” But the next morning another 
 courier arrived from Cos, countermanding the order of the pre- 
 ceding evening. He had received the account of the proceed- 
 ings of the peace-convention of July 17-21, which changed the 
 face of things, and consequently his own feelings. In his last 
 despatch, however, General Cos still required, as a condition 
 of peace, that the disturbers of public order should be given 
 up. Nor did he act without the authority of Santa Anna. In 
 a letter from Tornel, the minister of war and marine, to Cos, 
 
 * D, C. Barrett to the political chief of Brasos, August 8, 1835. 
 
SANTA ANNA’S ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND ZAVALLA. 347 
 
 dated the 1st of August, lie stated that it was Santa Anna’s 
 
 “ will that the delinquents be chastised that those who 
 
 had attempted to disturb order should be given up, to be 
 placed at the disposal of the tribunals.” The order was also 
 repeated on the 3d, so that General Cos had no discretion in 
 the matter ; and, while he was determined to obey these com- 
 mands, as far as he could, he took care to make them public.* 
 As the Texan commissioners were not authorized to surrender 
 any one to the Mexican authorities, or to agree that it should 
 be done, it was concluded to send back Mr. Gritton for further 
 instructions, thus intimating pretty clearly that the surrenders 
 should be made. 
 
 In pursuance of the foregoing arrangement, Mr. Gritton re- 
 turned to San Felipe, while Mr. Barrett remained at Bexar ; 
 both, however, were to meet at Goliad on their way to Mata- 
 moras. But to return to more important events. 
 
 Santa Anna was extremely solicitous to obtain possession of 
 the person of Zavala. The latter had been his friend, and had 
 sustained him in a trying hour. But the aid was given for the 
 cause of liberty ! Santa Anna had deserted that cause, and 
 now wished to sacrifice an ancient friend, who might live to 
 reproach him for his perfidy. “ I give this supreme order,” 
 says Tornel to Cos, “ having the honor to direct it to you, re- 
 quiring you to provide and bring into action all your ingenuity 
 and activity in arranging energetic plans for success in the 
 apprehension of Don Lorenzo Zavala, which person, in the 
 actual circumstances of Texas, must be very pernicious. To 
 this end I particularly recommend that you spare no means to 
 secure his person, and place it at the disposition of the supreme 
 government.” 
 
 * I have before me certified copies of these orders distributed by Colonel 
 Ugartachea. 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Cos, in transmitting this order to Ugartachea, on the 8th of 
 August, directed him, if Zavala was not given up, to proceed 
 at the head of all his cavalry to execute the command, and to 
 give to the local authorities on the route information as to his 
 sole object. General Cos also approved of Colonel Ugarta- 
 chea’s requisition upon the alcaldes for the other obnoxious 
 individuals previously mentioned, and especially Travis, whose 
 arrest he ordered, that he might be conducted to Bexar, to be 
 tried by a military court. 
 
 The next point was to execute this “ supreme order.” Za- 
 vala was needed by the Texans in organizing their defence : 
 and the time had not yet arrived when Travis should be shot 
 at Bexar. But efforts to execute the order were postponed, 
 to await the result of the application for new instructions to 
 be furnished Mr. Gritton. The points on which the Texan 
 commissioners wished instructions were — 1. What disposition 
 they should make of the individuals demanded for punishment. 
 2. As to the modification of the Mexican tariff, the general 
 Congress being then in session. 3. With respect to a direct 
 mail communication from Mexico, through Texas, to the Uni- 
 ted States. 4. As to the right of carrying on a coasting-trade 
 in foreign bottoms. 5. In regard to citizenship. 6. The ap- 
 pointment of commissioners to extend land-titles to those Tex- 
 ans unprovided, and three fourths of them were in that condi- 
 tion. T. As to the sending of troops into Texas. 8. With 
 regard to the practice of sentencing convicts to Texas, making 
 it a sanctuary for rogues.* Thus it will be seen that the 
 simple embassy of peace, long before it reached its destination, 
 had grown to one of plenipotentiary powers. 
 
 It will be remembered that the meeting that had appointed 
 these commissioners had adjourned to meet again on the 1st 
 
 * Exhibit No. 7 to Barrett’s letter of August 8, 1835. MS. 
 
THE WAR-PAJRTY IN THE ASCENDENCY. 349 
 
 of August. On that day but three municipalities were repre- 
 sented. After waiting till the 3d of the month, the political 
 chief dissolved the council, saying that, if anything should oc- 
 cur, he would call another meeting ;* so that, when Mr. Gritton 
 presented himself, he found no one able to furnish him with 
 instructions. The acting political chief, Wylie Martin, in re- 
 ply, however, stated that the body that had appointed the com- 
 missioners had ceased to exist ; and that a new election and 
 convocation would require four weeks, and that would defeat 
 the object of the mission — which was simply one of pacifica- 
 tion. He regretted their delay, believing their powers suffi- 
 cient for the main object ; and concluded by informing them 
 that those persons proscribed had left the department of Bra- 
 sos, and that the balance of the war-party were still urging 
 Texas to ruin, by attempting to bring about a general conven- 
 tion of the department. 
 
 The report that the proscribed persons were on their way 
 to the United States was eagerly seized by Ugartachea as an 
 excuse for not marching in pursuit, at the risk of losing all "his 
 cavalry. General Cos wrote to him on the 20th of August, 
 stating that it was useless for the commissioners to come to 
 see him, for the purpose of making explanations, unless the 
 disturbers of public order were first given up. But, in order 
 to make matters easier, Ugartachea procured Barrett to write 
 to the political chief of Brasos on the subject, and request of 
 him affidavits of the fact that Zavala had left the country. The 
 affidavits, however, were not made.f 
 
 In the meantime, the news of the demand made for these 
 men had been extensively circulated in Texas, and excited a 
 thorough war-spirit. The war-party was in the ascendency. 
 
 * Journal of the council, MS. 
 
 f Barrett to the political chief of Brasos, August 17, 1835. MS. 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Rueg, the political chief of Nacogdoches, had become fully 
 aroused on the subject. He addressed a circular letter to his 
 department, declaring his adherence to the federal form of 
 government. It was published in the “ New Orleans Bulletin” 
 of the 7th of August, and met the eye of General Cos. “ You 
 are made responsible,” said Cos to him in his letter of the 17th 
 of the month, “ for the consequences which such a document 
 may produce ; for it is your duty to give to your subordinates 
 an example of submission and respect to the laws of the coun- 
 try. You have invited and conducted them toward rebellion 
 and open resistance to its superior dispositions. The plans of 
 the revolutionists of Texas are well known to this command- 
 ancy ; and it is quite useless and vain to cover them with a 
 hypocritical adherence to the federal constitution. The con- 
 stitution by which all Mexicans may be governed is the consti- 
 tution which the colonists of Texas must obey , no matter on 
 what principles it may be formed.” 
 
 It is clear enough that the Texans could not subscribe to 
 this military dogma of General Cos, without a total abandon- 
 ment of their rights. 
 
 The people of the “Red Lands’’ had also organized. In 
 a series of resolutions introduced by Sam Houston, at a meet- 
 ing in San Augustine, they declared their adherence to the 
 Acta Constitutiva , and the constitution of 1824 ; that the ar- 
 rest of Governor Viesca and the members of the legislature, 
 and the intended introduction of an army into Texas, were evi- 
 dences of tyranny, dangerous to liberty, and a violation of the 
 terms on which the colonists had been invited hither ; and that 
 there was no legitimate head to the state government, the gov- 
 ernor being imprisoned, and a creature of Santa Anna’s being 
 placed in his stead — in the exercise of powers unknown to 
 the constitution. The resolutions further provided for negoti- 
 
DESPOTIC COURSE OF SANTA ANNA. 
 
 351 
 
 ations with the Indian tribes, for raising and organizing the 
 militia, and for appointing a committee of safety. They also 
 declared that those who should fly the country should forfeit 
 their lands. 
 
 In the meantime, Santa Anna was engaged in Mexico in the 
 consolidation of a despotism. There were in that nation many 
 genuine friends of liberty, ardent supporters of the constitution 
 of 1824 ; but the terrors of banishment and death restrained 
 them. Those who dared to oppose him were pursued and 
 hunted down like wild beasts ! Of this number were Zavala 
 and Mexia. The Congress was completely in his hands. With 
 the clergy and the army he fulminated his spiritual and mili- 
 tary thunders. Over a timid and superstitious people his 
 power had become nearly omnipotent. All but Texas had 
 bowed the neck to the imperious tyrant. To him she was like 
 “ Mordecai sitting in the king’s gate.’ , His plan for her sub- 
 jugation was, however, skilfully laid. It was, to fill the coun- 
 try gradually with military forces, under different pretences. 
 In fact, five hundred troops were embarked for Texas in April 
 of the present year (1835), but the disturbances in Zacatecas 
 caused them to be recalled. The time which the dictator had 
 fixed for the overthrow of the constitution was in the following 
 October. Events had, however, hurried him on so rapidly, 
 that he was compelled to change his plaji, and despatch troops 
 to Texas more rapidly. In July, he accordingly sent two hun- 
 dred and fifty ; in the first days of August, three hundred more ; 
 and therfe were a thousand more on the route.* 
 
 Under these threatening circumstances, the peaceful mission 
 of Messrs. Barrett' and Gritton died a natural death. So much 
 was the public mind directed to the impending danger, that 
 the diplomatic functions of the commissioners expired like an 
 
 * Address of tlie Committee of Columbia, August 20, 1835. 
 
HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 352 
 
 exhausted taper, and no record was left to inform us of the 
 closing scene. It is certain, however, that they never reached 
 the court to which they were accredited. 
 
 The western and middle colonies of Texas, during the sum- 
 mer of 1835, prepared and sent out an expedition against the 
 Indians. The four small companies of Captains Robert M. 
 Williamson, John H. Moore, George W. Barnett, and Philip 
 Coe, assembled on the last days of July at Tenoxtitlan — 
 whence, on the 31st of that month, they marched to Parker’s 
 fort, on the NavaSoto, to the relief of Captain Colemam Here 
 they organized by the election of John H. Moore as major of 
 the command. Thence they proceeded to Twowokana. The 
 Indians, however, getting news of their approach, abandoned 
 the town. The expedition returned after a campaign of some 
 weeks, in which they had a number of adventures .with the re- 
 treating savages. This seasonable display gf force on the 
 frontier was of great service, as it overawed the Indians, and 
 also tended to discipline the volunteers, and prepare them for 
 the toils and triumphs that awaited them at home.* 
 
 By the month of August it was clearly understood that the 
 federal constitution was to be destroyed. The plan of Toluca 
 — countenanced and perhaps started by Santa Anna — pro- 
 posed a central government. The doctrine had already gone 
 forth that the authority of the national Congress was unlim- 
 ited — that it could do anything which Santa Anna desired. It 
 was further understood that the president was to hold his office 
 for eight years, and was to have some sort of advisory body, a 
 council or Congress, but this body was to be dependent on him. 
 
 In regard to the Mexican policy toward Texas, it had been 
 manifestly hostile since 1832. The troops were to be in that 
 department by the time of the change in the form of govern- 
 
 * Captain Williamson to the political chief of Brasos, August 16, 1835. 
 
MEXICAN POLICY TOWARD TEXAS. 
 
 353 
 
 ment, fixed for October. Customhouses were to be established 
 and defended. All those who had immigrated into Texas from 
 the United States, since the law of April 6, 1830, were to be 
 driven from the country. A number of proscribed, of which a 
 long list was preserved, were to be arrested and tried by a 
 drum-head court ! The slaves were to be freed, and introduced 
 to citizenship. The empresarios were to be dismissed from 
 their functions, and future immigrants supplied fpom Mexico.* 
 This appears to have been the future designed for Texas, and 
 digested, no doubt, from the notes of Almonte. 
 
 * EL A. Alsberry to the People of Texas, August 28, 1835. 
 
 Vol. I.— 23 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 The idea of a general consultation of all Texas had its ori- 
 gin in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Columbia. The 
 people approved and recommended it in a meeting held there 
 as early as the 23d of June, 1835. xlt another assembly, in 
 the town of Columbia, on the 15th of August, a committee of 
 fifteen persons was appointed, to be called “ a committee of 
 safety and correspondence for the jurisdiction of Columbia.” 
 It was “ instructed to prepare an address to all the jurisdic- 
 tions of Texas, requesting them to co-operate in the call for a 
 consultation of alt Texas.”* The committee published its 
 address, and it was sent by express to every municipality in 
 
 * Address of the People of Columbia to the People of Texas, August 20, 1835. 
 The committee appointed at the meeting of the 15th of August consisted of John 
 A. Wharton, W. D. C. Hall, Henry Smith, Silas Dinsmore, James F. Perry, John 
 
 G. M‘Neil, Robert IT. Williams, W. II. Jack, F. A. Bingham, John Hodge, Wade 
 
 H. Bynum, Branch T. Archer, William T. Austin, P. Bertrand, and Isaac T. 
 Tinsley. — Journal of the Consultation, p. 4. To do justice to Zavala, it is proper 
 to state that, in an address made by him on the 7th of August, 1835, at Harris- 
 burg, he said that “Coahuila and Texas formed a state of the republic, and, as 
 one part of it is occupied by an invading force, the free part of it should proceed 
 to organize a power which would restore harmony, and establish uniformity in 
 all the branches of the public administration, which would be a rallying-point 
 for the citizens, whose hearts now tremble for liberty. But as this power can 
 only be organized by means of a convention, which should represent the free 
 will of the citizens of Texas, it is my opinion that this step should be taken, and 
 I suggest the 15th day of October as a time sufficient to allow all the depart- 
 ments to send their representatives.” — Foote , vol. ii., p. 83. 
 
TEXAN PRONUNCIAMENTO. 
 
 355 
 
 Texas. This was a genuine pronunciamento ; the consequent 
 plan being that each jurisdiction or municipality should elect 
 five individuals as representatives, the elections to be holden 
 on the 5th of October, and the consultation to convene at the 
 town of Washington on the 15th of the same month. Each 
 member elect was to ascertain and bring with him the number 
 of people in his jurisdiction ; and those jurisdictions that had 
 not already appointed committees of correspondence and safety, 
 were to do so. 
 
 This arrangement for a consultation was wise : it was in- 
 tended to unite and direct the energies of the whole people in 
 compliance with the wishes of the majority. There were in 
 Texas, at that time, three parties, as follows : the war-party, 
 who thought the country should fight at once ; a second party, 
 that wished to consult and be united before adopting warlike 
 measures ; and a third party, known as submissionists , who 
 were opposed to war under any circumstances. A general 
 consultation would heal these divisions, and enable Texas to 
 present an undivided front to her enemy. 
 
 The Mexicans commenced their warlike movements at Go- 
 liad. Colonel Ugartachea had been too long in Texas, knew 
 too much of the character of her people, and was entirely too 
 humane in his disposition, to answer the ends of General Cos ; 
 besides, he had not been as active in arresting the persons pro- 
 scribed as it was supposed he ought to have been, though his 
 experience at Yelasco had taught him the necessity of great 
 prudence in his dealings with the colonists. He was accord- 
 ingly made to give place in the Texan commandancy to Colo- 
 nel Nicholas Candelle, a man of barbarous antecedents, and 
 much prejudiced against the Texans. He commenced his ca- 
 reer in Goliad by putting the alcalde in jail, and extorting 
 from the administrador the sum of five thousand dollars, under 
 
356 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the penalty of being sent on foot a prisoner to Bexar in ten 
 hours. He also stripped the town of its arms, pressed the 
 people into the ranks as soldiers, and gave notice that the 
 troops would be quartered upon the citizens — five to a family 
 — and should be supported by them.* 
 
 The movement for a general consultation met with a general 
 and favorable response from the different municipalities ; and, 
 after some correspondence with regard to the place of meeting, 
 it was concluded, inasmuch as the principal* political characters 
 resided near San Felipe, and a printing-press was located there, 
 that the meeting should occur at that place. Accordingly, the 
 public mind was directed to the points to be settled by the 
 consultation, and to suitable persons to carry out the will of 
 the people. 
 
 Shortly after the capture of Captain Tenorio and his force 
 at Anahuac by Travis, General Cos despatched the schooner- 
 of-war Correo Mexicano , commanded by Captain Thompson, 
 to the scene of action, to give protection to Mexican commerce 
 in that quarter. Thompson remained some time in Galveston 
 bay, and was quite insolent to traders and citizens, threaten- 
 ing to burn down the town of Anahuac. f While engaged in 
 “ protecting the revenues,” he captured a small vessel engaged 
 in the Texan trade. This conduct exasperated the public mind 
 against him ; and a merchant-vessel, the San Felipe , was pur- 
 chased and armed at New Orleans, placed under the command 
 of Captain Hurd, and sent in pursuit of him. By the aid of 
 the steamboat Laura , the Correo was captured (in September, 
 1835), and Captain Thompson sent to New Orleans to be tried 
 for piracy 4 
 
 * Address of the people of Columbia, <fcc. 
 
 t Travis’s letter to Bowie, July 30, 1835. MS. 
 
 % Letter of Captain Thomas M. Thompson to the editor of the “Telegraph," 
 October 15, 1837. Captain Thompson remained six months in prison in New 
 
RETURN OF AUSTIN TO TEXAS. 
 
 357 
 
 In the first days of September, Stephen F. Austin, after a 
 detention so long and painful in Mexico, returned to Texas. 
 The old pioneers who had come with him into the country, and 
 been with him in days gone by, and who had witnessed and 
 partaken of his toils and privations, gathered round and re- 
 ceived him as one risen from the dead. Such demonstrations 
 of regard were fully reciprocated by Austin. He was a genu- 
 ine lover of his race, and especially of those for whose happi- 
 ness he had devoted- the best energies of his life. If there was 
 any one desire nearer to his heart than all others, it was to 
 see his colony prosper. He was greatly distressed to find 
 Texas in her then unsettled condition. “ I fully hoped,’’ said 
 he, “ to have found Texas at peace and in tranquillity, but re- 
 gret to find it in commotion — all disorganized, all in anarchy, 
 and threatened with immediate hostilities. This state of things 
 is deeply to be lamented.” 
 
 Austin’s many friends invited him to a dinner at Brasoria, 
 on the 8th of September. On that occasion he addressed them 
 in some sensible remarks touching their affairs. He declared 
 in favor of their “ constitutional rights, and the peace and se- 
 curity of Texas ; also for a general consultation of the people.” 
 The great popularity and personal influence of Austin sufficed 
 to bring over to the side of a consultation nearly all its oppo- 
 nents. Wylie Martin, the acting political chief, who had been 
 so strongly opposed to revolutionary measures, and who had, 
 in fact, been at the head of the peace-party, surrendered his 
 opposition, and joined the friends of civil liberty. In his ad- 
 dress, Austin stated that Santa Anna had “ verbally and ex- 
 pressly authorized and requested him to say to the people of 
 
 Orleans, at the expiration of which time he was tried and acquitted. He was 
 an Englishman, and had been in the Mexican service some years. He was very 
 kind afterward to Texan prisoners at Matamoras, and ultimately took the side 
 of the Texans. 
 
358 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texas that he was their friend, that he wished for their pros- 
 perity, and would do all he could to promote it ; and that in 
 the new constitution he would use his influence to give to the 
 people of Texas a special organization suited to their educa- 
 tion, habits, and situation.” 
 
 In a few days, Austin was placed on the committee of vigi- 
 lance and safety at San Felipe, and gave a fresh impulse to the 
 revolutionary correspondence of the committees. On the 12th 
 of September, the committee at San Felipe sent out a circular, 
 noticing, among other things, the rights of the Indians. It is 
 true they qualified it by speaking only of their just and legal 
 rights. This was a point of vast importance to eastern Texas, 
 and, in fact, to the whole country, for there were more than a 
 thousand warriors among the different tribes that had emi- 
 grated from the United States, and almost surrounded the 
 frontier of eastern Texas. Colonel Bean, who had been for a 
 long time Mexican agent for these Indians, possessed great in- 
 fluence over them ; and they had only to turn their savage arms 
 upon Texas to decide the contest in favor of Mexico. It was 
 generally admitted that they had some rights, though they had 
 never been distinctly defined by the Mexican government. The 
 committees of San Augustine and Nacogdoches had jointly sent 
 a deputation, which included the names of Houston and Rusk, 
 to conciliate them. They declared to the Indians that “ they 
 had ordered all their surveyors to keep away from their lands, 
 and not to make any marks on them ; that they did not intend 
 that any white man should interrupt them on their lands.” 
 These promises, to which others were afterward added, as we 
 shall see, served to keep the Indians quiet.* Besides, Bean 
 was probably at heart in favor of the Texan cause ; but he had 
 
 * Letter to the Cherokees, September 18, 1835 : MS. Big Mush and Bolles 
 to the political chief of Nacogdoches, September 17, 1835 : MS. 
 
LAND-FRAUDS — WAR INEVITABLE. 
 
 359 
 
 grown old, was very poor, and was receiving a colonel’s pay 
 in the Mexican service : therefore he did not wish to compro- 
 mit either his office or his countrymen. 
 
 The desire of the colonies to perfect the titles to their lands 
 was not suspended by the approach of war ; and many, who 
 had bought up headright claims, were still more anxious to 
 have the titles extended. On the 3d of September, Colonel 
 Ugartachea addressed an order to the political chief at Nacog- 
 doches to suspend all persons, so engaged, from giving titles, 
 till the further commands of the supreme government should 
 be received. This order was referred to the committee of 
 safety, who resolved that, under the laws, the settlers were 
 entitled to their lands, and that, under the constitution, Colonel 
 Ugartachea had no right to control the civil authority ; and 
 that therefore they would resist such an assumption of power, 
 and would sustain the land-commissioner in extending titles. 
 This was all manly and patriotic in the committee, though it 
 would have been better if they had restrained the commis- 
 sioner ; for, during the contest which followed, and while the 
 worthy of the land were in the army, monstrous frauds were 
 perpetrated by the commissioner, and hundreds of leagues per- 
 haps were passed away in the names of fictitious persons, and 
 of such as had fled the country, never to return ! 
 
 In the beginning of September, very few doubted that war 
 was inevitable. The commission of Messrs. Barrett and Grit- 
 ton will be remembered. Gritton had been sent from Bexar 
 to San Felipe for instructions. He returned without them, but 
 with a letter from Wylie Martin, stating that no further in- 
 structions were necessary. Barrett himself then returned to 
 San Felipe, leaving Gritton at Bexar. It was shortly after- 
 ward discovered that Gritton was a spy ; at least, the facts 
 looked strongly that way. His intimacy with the Mexican 
 
360 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 officers ; his desire to have the proscribed persons surrendered ; 
 his holding out the olive-branch to Texas until the enemy had 
 almost filled the country with troops — these, and other facts, 
 rendered him justly suspected. Barrett was advised, by a let- 
 ter from Gonzales, of the suspicious conduct of his colleague, 
 and, for a while at least, did not write to him.* 
 
 The Mexican officers, though they had seen, in the proceed- 
 ings of the great meeting at Columbia, of the 15th of August, 
 a resolution declaring that the proscribed persons would not 
 be surrendered, still renewed and revised the list, and sent it 
 to the different political chiefs. Even as late as the 3d of 
 September, a new list was sent off.f With this list, they in- 
 formed the Texans, through Edward Gritton, that they would 
 certainly march into the colonies ; and, among other things, 
 when they came, they would remove intruders from the public 
 lands. 
 
 At length, a despatch was received from the secretary of 
 state of the supreme government, J declaring that “ the colo- 
 nists, in adopting Texas for their country, subjected themselves 
 to the laws which a majority of the nation might establish.” 
 If the colonists had been allowed a voice in making those laws, 
 even then there would be a limit to their obedience — which 
 limit would depend upon the character of the laws, and the 
 
 * E. Bailey to D. C. Barrett, September 10, 1835: MS. 
 
 \ “Lista de los yndividuos cuya aprehension se ha recomendado en verifiea* 
 tivo al gefe politico de los Brasos: — 
 
 “ Jonson, “ Baker, 
 
 “Willerson, “ Juan H. Moore, 
 
 “ Travis, “ D“. J. M\ Carvajal, 
 
 “ Villiams, “ D n . Juan Zambrano. 
 
 Ademas los que abrieron la correspondencia oficial de la Com R . Gral. y de esta 
 Prat Bejar, 3 de Sep te ., de 1835. “ Ugartachea.” 
 
 The above is from the original before me. Carvajal and Zambrano were 
 taken shortly afterward, and sent into the interior. 
 
 X Secretary of state to Mr. Ponton, August 12, 1835. 
 
COS WITH ADDITIONAL TROOPS IN TEXAS. 
 
 361 
 
 prospect of a successful resistance ; but, having absolutely no 
 voice in making the laws, the proposition was wholly inadmis- 
 sible, and incompatible with civil liberty. 
 
 To add to the war-feeling among the Texans, positive intel- 
 ligence arrived that General Cos, with an additional force, was 
 on his march to Bexar, to overrun and disarm the country, to 
 drive out all Americans who had come into Texas since 1830, 
 and to punish those who had trampled upon Mexican authority. 
 On the receipt of this news, the committee of safety at San 
 Felipe, of which Stephen F. Austin was chairman, warned the 
 people that “ war was their only resource,” and advised that 
 volunteer companies be immediately formed.* 
 
 About the middle of September, Cos landed at Matagorda, 
 with five hundred additional troops, and proceeded on his way 
 to Bexar. f On his arrival in Texas, active operations com- 
 menced. In 1831, the commandant at Bexar had furnished 
 the corporation of Gonzales with a piece of artillery, to aid 
 them in their defence against the Indians. They continued to 
 retain it, and claimed it as a gift. The Mexicans averred that 
 it had only been loaned. :f Ugartachea, wishing to disarm 
 them of this cannon, despatched, through the political chief of 
 Bexar, an order for it. They refused to deliver it up, on the 
 ground of the alleged gift, declaring that the only object of 
 the military at Bexar was to disarm them ; and that they had 
 no use for the cannon at Bexar, as they had there, besides those 
 mounted, eighteen pieces unmounted. This refusal being made 
 known at the latter place, Ugartachea despatched a force of 
 one hundred cavalry, under Captain Castonado, to exact the 
 delivery, giving him orders first to send a demand to the 
 
 * Circular of Committee, September 49, 1835. 
 
 f John W. Moore to Sam Houston, September 20, 1835. 
 
 \ Ugartachea to Austin, October 4, 1835: MS. Letter of G. W. Davis.— 
 Foote , vol. ii., p. 69. 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 alcalde for the cannon, and, if refused, then to employ force. 
 When Castonado with his cavalry arrived on the west bank of 
 the Guadalupe, he found that the ferry-boat and canoes had 
 all been removed to the left bank of the river. This was on 
 Tuesday, the 29th of September. On the first demand, how- 
 ever, the committee of safety for Gonzales had despatched an 
 express eastward for aid, as they anticipated this force of the 
 enemy. A movement had already been made to send a body 
 of Texans to Copano, to intercept the troops under Cos : but, 
 on the receipt of the news from Gonzales, the volunteers di- 
 rected their course, by a forced march, to that point.* The 
 intelligence of the Mexican advance reached Bastrop on the 
 morning of the 27th. Energetic measures were immediately 
 taken, and the volunteers from that quarter rendezvoused at 
 the “ house of James Curtis” on the 28th. f 
 
 On the 29th, the actual force at Gonzales was only eighteen 
 men, under the command of Captain Albert Martin. In reply 
 to the demand for the cannon which was made by the Mexicans 
 across the river, they were informed that the alcalde was not 
 at home, but would return in the evening. This answer was 
 given in order to gain time. The enemy then retired to a 
 point on the prairie about half a mile from the ferry, where 
 they encamped.^ 
 
 The alcalde not having made his appearance, the regidor of 
 the town informed the Mexicans that the authorities could do 
 nothing until they had consulted with the political chief of 
 Brasos. It is proper here to state that Santa Anna had lately 
 appointed Don Rafael Musquiz governor of Coahuila and Texas, 
 
 * Austin to F. W. Johnson, of Naeogdoches, September 30, 1835 : MS. 
 
 f Journal of the Committee of Safety at Mina: MS. 
 
 X Letter of David. B. Macomb. — J Foote, vol. ii., p. 99. Kennedy says Casto- 
 nado had one hundred and fifty men ; Foote says two hundred. As it was only 
 a captain’® command, Ugartacheas statement is most probably correct 
 
OPENING CONFLICT OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 863 
 
 and that the political chief of Bexar had surrendered to his au- 
 thority, but no other chief of Texas had done so. The people 
 on the right bank of the Guadalupe, at the first alarm, had 
 passed over to the side of Gonzales, and swelled the number 
 of its defenders. The volunteers from the Colorado and Bra- 
 sos did not wait to organize, but advanced rapidly to the point 
 of danger. On Wednesday, the 30th, the Texan force num- 
 bered about a hundred men. The enemy made one or two 
 feints at the ferry and at the ford, about half a mile below, 
 but, finding the Texans vigilant, they retired to a mound about 
 three hundred yards from the ford, where they passed Wednes- 
 day night. By Thursday, the Texan force had increased to a 
 hundred and sixty-eight men. They now organized, and elect- 
 ed John H. Moore colonel, and J. W. E. Wallace lieutenant- 
 colonel. 
 
 Finding themselves strong enough to make an attack, on 
 Thursday evening, at seven o’clock, the Texans set out on 
 their march across the Guadalupe river. Fifty of their men 
 were mounted ; and they likewise carried, with them the brass 
 six-pounder, the bone of contention. The Mexican picket hav- 
 ing fired on the advance of the Texans, aroused the main body 
 of the enemy, and both parties immediately formed in order 
 of battle. Here they rested on their arms ; but at four o’clock, 
 on Friday morning, the 2d of October, the enemy, taking ad- 
 vantage of a thick fog, retired to a high mound, and formed. 
 The Texans did not discover this movement till daylight. As 
 soon as they saw it, they advanced upon the Mexicans, under 
 cover of the fog. The Texan' scouts discovered the enemy, 
 fired their pieces, and retired, the Mexicans in pursuit ; but a 
 discharge from the six-pounder caused the latter to retreat 
 precipitately to their former position, three hundred and fifty 
 yards distant. The Texans then took possession of a cornfield, 
 
364 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and levelled the fence, so as to make room for the fire of the 
 six-pounder. 
 
 At this moment, the enemy sounded a parley, and sent 
 
 Smithers (a Texan, who, in retiring from San Antonio, they 
 had made a prisoner) to request an interview. By this time 
 the fog had cleared away, and the opposing forces were in full 
 view of each other. Colonels Moore and Wallace met Captain 
 Castonado on the prairie, when the latter demanded why they 
 were fighting. Moore replied that the cannon which the Mexi- 
 cans were attempting to take had been placed at Gonzales for 
 the defence of the constitution and the constitutional authori- 
 ties, and that no other authority would be obeyed. Castonado 
 stated that he was a republican, and did not wish to fight the 
 Texans ; that his orders were to demand the cannon, and, if 
 not delivered up, to take a position in the vicinity, and await 
 further order. But Colonel Moore was not to be evaded in 
 this manner : he accordingly summoned Captain Castonado to 
 join the Texans, or to surrender. This not being admissible, 
 the commanders retired to their respective lines. The Texans 
 now opened the battle with their artillery, and charged upon 
 the enemy. The latter soon fled in the direction of Bexar,* 
 and the Texans returned to Gonzales, where they arrived at 
 two o’clock in the afternoon, well satisfied with this first ren- 
 contre, and without the loss of a man. The Mexicans had a 
 few killed. 
 
 The ball of revolution was now fairly put in motion. The 
 news of the defeat of the Mexicans reached San Antonio on 
 the 4th of October, when Colonel Ugartachea, as an old friend 
 
 * Letter of David B. Macomb. — Foote , vol. ii., p. 99. Kennedy states that 
 when Gonzales applied to Bastrop (Mina) for aid, the latter referred the appli- 
 cation to San Felipe. Not so : the volunteers of Bastrop repaired to the aid of 
 Gonzales with as great speed as ever aid was furnished a neighbor in distress. 
 — Kennedy , vc ii., p. 105 ; Journal of the Committee of Mina. 
 
WARLIKE ENTHUSIASM THROUGHOUT TEXAS. 
 
 365 
 
 of Colonel Austin, addressed him a letter referring to that and 
 previous transactions. After stating that Captain Castonado 
 had retired from Gonzales by his order, he informed him that 
 he would himself set out the next day (the 5th), “with the 
 knowledge of Cos, with a force composed of every description 
 of arms, sufficient to prove that the Mexicans would never suf- 
 fer themselves to be insulted.” He stated, however, in con- 
 clusion, that if Austin “ would use his influence with the politi- 
 cal chief to have the gun delivered up to the writer, wherever 
 it might meet him, from that spot he would immediately re- 
 turn ; if not, he would act militarily, and the consequence 
 would be, a war declared by the colonists, which should be 
 maintained by the nation with corresponding dignity.”* 
 
 The news of the affair at Gonzales soon spread throughout 
 Texas. In the extreme eastern settlements the people' were 
 aroused. On the evening of the 5th of October, they held a 
 meeting at San Augustine. Great enthusiasm was manifested, 
 and a company was raised to leave for the seat of war on the 
 10th. Houston and Rusk were there. They set out for the 
 west on the 6th. F. W. Johnson, one of the proscribed, 
 started on the 5th. f Zavala quitted his residence on the San 
 Jacinto, and repaired to San Felipe. Expresses and circulars 
 were sent everywhere, to raise volunteers. The object, “ to 
 take Bexar, and drive the Mexican soldiery out of Texas,” was 
 
 * la this letter, Ugartachea, speaking of the conduct of Captain Thompson, of 
 the Correo, says: “I know you are right to complain of Thompson’s proceed- 
 ings, which I still less approve, as they were arbitrary ; he having no authority 
 to act in such manner.” In the note of Monasterio, minister of foreign relations, 
 to the secretary of state of the United States, dated Mexico, November 19, 1835, 
 he says: “The ship Correo , commanded by Thompson, was a ship-of-war, under 
 the full authority of the government; Captain Thompson, as well as the whole 
 of his crew, belonged to the national marine of the Mexican republic, and were 
 found in the seas of Texas in the execution of the orders received from the com- 
 petent authority.” 
 
 f Houston and Rusk to the committee at Nacogdoches, October 5, 1835 : MS. 
 
366 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 boldly announced at San Felipe, and repeated by every com- 
 mittee of safety in the country.* Then came a stirring appeal 
 from Colonel John H. Moore, dated at Gonzales, on the 6th 
 of October, at eleven o’clock at night. Colonel Ugartachea 
 had set out from Bexar on the 5th, with five hundred troops 
 and three pieces of artillery, and was expected at Gonzales on 
 the T tli. “Hasten your march,” says Colonel Moore, “ and 
 join us as soon as you possibly can.” Moore then had three 
 hundred men at Gonzales ; bn Captain W. D. C. Hall and 
 others were on the march. 
 
 At this period, Texas had no head, but the nearness of dan- 
 ger enabled the people to act energetically without one. By 
 common consent, however, San Felipe was adopted as a sort 
 of centre of action, and Stephen F. Austin was looked to for 
 orders and advice. 
 
 While these events were passing in Texas, the destruction 
 of the federal constitution was consummated in Mexico. By a 
 decree of the 3d of October, 1835, the state legislatures were 
 abolished, and their places supplied by a department council. 
 The governors of the several states, and, in fact, all officers, 
 were made dependent on the supreme power. This was the 
 work of Santa Anna, yet his name does not appear in the de- 
 cree. f It was the finishing blow in the overthrow of civil 
 liberty in Mexico. The people of Texas saw it, and foresaw 
 it. The arrival of the news did not change their purpose or 
 their action, for these had been already determined on. The 
 affair at Gonzales was the first overt act on the part of their 
 oppressors. They met and repelled it, as did the people at 
 Lexington and Concord. There was no time to enroll, organ- 
 
 * Circular from the committee at San Felipe, October 3, 1835. — Foote , voL 
 il, p. 84. 
 
 f Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 111. 
 
COMMITTEE OF SAFETY ORGANIZED. 
 
 367 
 
 izc, or to provide for pay and rations. The instinct of patriot- 
 ism was sufficient for the crisis, and the Texans met it like 
 men who knew the worth of liberty. 
 
 The people of San Augustine nominated General Sam Hous- 
 ton to take the command of the troops in eastern Texas ; and 
 on the 8th of October, the committee at Nacogdoches concurred 
 in the nomination, requesting him to take measures to raise 
 volunteers in Texas and the United States. In the absence 
 of ready means, the land and customhouse dues, in the hands 
 of government-officers in Texas, were appropriated.* For the 
 rest, and for horses and other property occasionally pressed 
 into the service, promises of payment were made, and certifi- 
 cates given. 
 
 The volunteers continued to arrive at Gonzales, and in a 
 short time the force there was such, that Colonel Ugartachea 
 halted in his purpose. The Texans were well supplied with 
 provisions, but needed arms and ammunition ; and, to obtain 
 these, extraordinary exertions were used by the committees. 
 As a temporary head was requisite to give direction to these 
 hasty and energetic movements, the committee at San Felipe 
 proposed that one member from each of the other committees 
 of safety should be appointed to repair without delay to San 
 Felipe, and form a permanent council. f The proposition was 
 immediately accepted : a council was organized, and R. R. 
 Royall chosen president. This plan of organization came from 
 Austin, who up to that time had been obliged to act as “ a kind 
 of natural chief,” which was a responsibility he did not wish 
 to assume. The appointment of this council enabled them to 
 dispense with t^e services of Austin at San Felipe, that they 
 might be employed in the army. He arrived at Gonzales on 
 
 * Proceedings of the committee of San Augustine, October 7, 1835: MS. 
 
 ■f Circular of the committee at San Felipe, October 4, 1S35 : MS. 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the evening of the 10th of October, and was elected commander- 
 in-chief of the forces. 
 
 It was determined to set out on the march for Bexar on the 
 12th of October, with a force of five hundred men, together 
 with the notable six-pounder.* On that day they crossed the 
 Guadalupe, and encamped on its western bank. Previous to 
 Austin’s arrival, the force at Gonzales had been reduced by 
 sending off a detachment of one hundred and ten men, under 
 the command of Captains Benjamin Fort Smithf and Allen, to 
 the protection of Victoria. Before the departure of the army 
 from Gonzales, a popular meeting was held at that place, re- 
 questing a postponement of the assembling of the general con- 
 sultation until the first of November following. This arrange- 
 ment was proposed for the reason that many of the members 
 elect were in the army, and the others were requested to join 
 in the attack upon Bexar. Austin also sent an express to 
 Houston, to summon the Rcdlandcrs to unite with him. The 
 latter complied with this request, and despatched a messenger 
 for the purpose to eastern Texas. :f 
 
 It was likewise determined, on the part of the patriot forces, 
 to capture Goliad as well as Bexar, and drive the Mexicans 
 out of Texas. About forty of the planters from the banks of 
 Caney and Matagorda, under the command of Captain George 
 Collingsworth, set out on the march for the former place. His 
 
 * M. T. Martin to Dr. Clow ; Gonzales, October 11, 1835: MS. 
 
 f Benjamin F. Smith was a native of Kentucky. He removed with his father 
 to Hinds county, Mississippi, and was the first representative from that county 
 to the legislature. He was for a while agent among the Chickasaw Indians. At 
 the age of sixteen he volunteered for the army, was with General Jackson in 
 every engagement with the Indians, and during the whole of the campaign of 
 1814— ’15. “He always sustained the character of a brave and valuable officer.” 
 — Letter of General Jackson , July 18, 1827 ; Foote , vol. ii., p. 109. 
 
 % Sam Houston to G. M. Bryan, November 15, 1852: MS. Houston says, “I 
 gave to the express the only and last five dollars I had, to bear his expenses 
 east.” 
 
CAPTURE OF GOLIAD BY THE TEXANS. 
 
 369 
 
 advance reached the ford of the San Antonio, below the town, 
 just before midnight on the 9th of October. Two or three 
 men were sent into the town to reconnoitre, while the others 
 waited for the arrival of the main body of the command. The 
 latter, having got lost, were detained ; but on their route they 
 fell in with the gallant Milam, who, having escaped from prison 
 in Monterey, had rode night and day to reach Texas. He 
 had stopped in a musquit-thicket to rest, when the Texans dis- 
 covered and recognised him. A nobler volunteer could not 
 have joined their ranks. Their number now being forty-eight, 
 they advanced upon the town, guided by pioneers acquainted 
 with the localities. They first attacked the quarters of Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Sandoval, the commandant. The sentinel hav- 
 ing fired, was shot down ; the door of the commandant was 
 then broken open with axes, and he was taken prisoner. The 
 Mexicans were completely surprised, and surrendered uncon- 
 ditionally. Of the enemy there was one killed and three 
 wounded ; the Texans had one slightly wounded, and they took 
 about twenty-five prisoners — the balance escaped. 
 
 The most important results of this capture were the acquisi- 
 tion of military stores to the value of ten thousand dollars, 
 some pieces of artillery, and three hundred stand of arms, all 
 of which were greatly needed ;* also the interruption of the 
 communication between the Mexicans at Bexar and the gulf, 
 which the latter were never afterward able to restore. Santa 
 Anna, in subsequently attempting it at Anahuac, lost his army 
 and his liberty. The commands of Captains Smith and Allen 
 reached Victoria only after the enemy had retreated. They 
 then marched to join the force under Collingsworth, hoping to 
 overtake it before the assault upon Goliad, but they were too 
 
 * Foote, vol. ii., p. 115; Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 117 ; Austin to the committee at 
 San Felipe, October 13, 1835. 
 
 Vol. I. — 24 
 
370 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 late ; the place had been taken the night before, as previously- 
 related. 
 
 A portion of the members to the consultation had assembled 
 at Washington, and others at San Felipe. The former, after 
 advising together, repaired to the latter place. They found 
 everything in the right spirit, and the people all united. “ It 
 required,” said the committee of San Felipe, in their circular 
 of the 13th of October, “ more patriotism to keep men at home 
 than to get them into the service.” The consultation met on 
 the 16th. R. R. Royal was called to the chair, and Samuel 
 Whiting chosen secretary. Thirty-two members were present, 
 which not being a quorum, they adjourned till the next day. 
 A communication from General Austin, inviting the members 
 to repair to the army, and assist in taking Bexar, was read. 
 On the 17th, a quorum not being present, they adjourned until 
 the 1st of November, in the meantime granting leave for such 
 as desired it to go and join the army, and others to remain 
 and assist the council in keeping up the revolutionary corre- 
 spondence.* 
 
 A large number of the members accepted the invitation of 
 General Austin, and repaired to the army. Austin reached 
 the Cibolo on the evening of the 16th, when he halted to await 
 reinforcements from eastern. Texas. At San Augustine, Bev- 
 ils, and Nacogdoches, the committees were active in sending 
 forward men, arms, and provisions. The intelligence of the 
 capture of Goliad kindled a flame of enthusiasm throughout 
 the country.! 
 
 The jurisdiction of Liberty, which had held out the longest 
 on the side of peace, at length came over to the party of the 
 
 * Journal of Consultation, p. 5 ; Houston to Bryan, November 15, 1852 : MS. 
 
 Austin to Committee at San Felipe, October 16, 1835; Committee at Nac- 
 ogdoches to Committee at San Felipe, October 20, 1835 : MSS. 
 
CALL OP THE TEXANS FOR AID. 
 
 371 
 
 revolution. They announced their position in an address 
 (from the spirited pen of David G. Burnet), and sent forth 
 their assistance to the army. To sustain the finances of the 
 country, a committee, consisting of J. L. Hood, Jacob Garrett, 
 and Peter J. Menard, was appointed by the council to receive 
 and receipt for public moneys at Nacogdoches and San Augus- 
 tine ; and R. R. Royal and J. H. G. Borden were appointed a 
 like committee for the other jurisdictions. The several vigi- 
 lance committees collected more by subscriptions and donations. 
 All who could contributed. The call for assistance was made, 
 not only on the Texans, but on the friends of the cause in the 
 United States, to aid in men, provisions, arms, and ammuni- 
 tion. The people of Natchitoches responded nobly at a public 
 meeting on the 7th of October. At New Orleans, still more 
 energetic measures were pursued. The Grays , two fine com- 
 panies were fitted out in that city : one left by way of Natchi- 
 toches on the 17th, and the other by the gulf-route on the 19th 
 of October. These companies will be noticed hereafter. 
 
 On the 20th of October, Austin moved forward to the Sala- 
 do, a small creek, five miles east of San Antonio, where he 
 was joined by the members of the consultation. The army 
 remained at this point some days, having an occasional skir- 
 mish with detachments of the enemy, in which the latter were 
 invariably worsted. Houston, though he had been selected by 
 some of the eastern committees to the command of their forces, 
 did not assume any leadership over them. In a conversation 
 between him and Austin, while at the Salado, the latter frankly 
 stated that his attention had not been directed to military sub- 
 jects, and that he was satisfied he could render more service 
 to the country in other situations than at the head of the army, 
 and urged Houston to take the command. The latter declined 
 it, and for the reason that Austin had been elected by the 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 troops, at their first assembly at Gonzales, and those who had 
 subsequently joined had done so with the belief that he was to 
 command them ; and if, from any cause, Austin were to resign 
 the command, it would furnish a ground for discontent. Aus- 
 tin replied that, as the committees of Nacogdoches and San 
 Augustine had nominated Houston to the command of the 
 forces east of the Trinity, there could be no reasonable objec- 
 tion to his assuming the supreme charge as commander-in-chief. 
 Houston assured him, however, that he could not, under the 
 circumstances, in any way interfere with the command, unless 
 it should be to carry out the orders of General Austin.* Here 
 the matter dropped. 
 
 Austin had been waiting for reinforcements. Impatient of 
 further delay, and receiving some additional forces, he pre- 
 pared to move. Before leaving the Salado, however, it became 
 necessary that the members of the consultation should decide 
 as to their return to San Felipe. The force under Austin did 
 not much exceed six hundred men. General Cos had been 
 diligently engaged in fortifying San Antonio, and in providing 
 munitions for a siege. He had received large reinforcements ; 
 and it was concluded by the Texans that the place could not 
 be taken in a short time, without a loss which they were not 
 able to sustain. In the meantime, it was necessary to organ- 
 ize a provisional government, and provide means for its sup- 
 port. The matter was submitted by Austin to the army, and 
 it agreed almost unanimously that the members should return. 
 Nevertheless, at the suggestion of Austin, they remained with 
 the army some days longer. The forces then marched to the 
 mission UEspada , on the San Antonio river, about nine miles 
 below Bexar. The members of the consultation left them on 
 the night of their arrival, and returned to San Felipe. 
 
 * Houston to Bryan, November 15, 1862 : MS. 
 
PATRIOT ENCAMPMENT NEAR BEXAR. 
 
 373 
 
 The commander-in-chief, wishing to obtain a position nearer 
 to the enemy, despatched Captains Fannin and Bowie, with a 
 command of ninety men, to examine the missions above that 
 of L’Espada, and select the most eligible situation near Bexar 
 for an encampment. They set out on the 27th of October, and, 
 after visiting San Juan and San Jose, they proceeded to the 
 mission of Concepcion , about one and a half miles from Bexar, 
 and selected a piece of ground in a bend of the river, about 
 five hundred yards from the mission. The river was skirted 
 with timber ; the prairie, which was a level plain, extended 
 into the bend ; but within the bend there was a river-bottom, 
 nearly a hundred yards wide, from six to ten feet lower than 
 the plain in front. This depression of the surface presents a 
 bluff of that height, except in two places. The command was 
 divided into two parties, each one taking a position along the 
 skirt of timber on the upper and lower sides of the bend, hav- 
 ing the open plain in front of them. It was naturally a strong 
 position, the river and timber being in the rear of each divis- 
 ion, with this natural parapet to fall behind in case of an at- 
 tack. Having placed a strong picket-guard, they encamped 
 for the night. Half an hour after sunrise the next morning 
 (Wednesday, October 28), the advance of the enemy rode upon 
 the Texan line. This was, no doubt, accidental, for a dense 
 fog obscured every object. Henry Karnes* happened to be 
 
 * Henry Karnes- is another of those remarkable characters whose true history 
 is a romance. He was raised in Tennessee. At an early age he joined a com- 
 pany of Arkansas trappers, who turned their attention to attacks on the Pawnee 
 villages on the head-branches of Red river ; but, having disagreed, they sepa- 
 rated. Karnes, with three or four others, proceeded across to the head of the 
 Trinity. Here, having their horses stolen, they obtained a canoe, and floated 
 down the river to Robbins’s ferry. Karnes procured employment at Groce’s 
 Retreat, where the war found him. He entered the Texan service, and fought 
 with a hearty good will. One who was often with him, and by his side at Con- 
 cepcion, says he never knew him to swear before or since that day. But when 
 he came into the lines, after being shot at so often, and began to load his rifle, he 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the sentinel at the point of contact. The Mexicans fired on 
 him, and he returned the fire. Some of them then charged on 
 him, and he fired with his pistol, which caused them to retire, 
 when he retreated within the Texan lines. 
 
 At the first alarm, the Texans flew to their arms, but could 
 not see the enemy, who had almost surrounded their position, 
 and opened a fire on them — at such a distance, however, that 
 it produced no effect. Shortly after, the fog cleared away, 
 when the Texans discovered that they were nearly hemmed in 
 by their foes. The right flank of Fannin’s division, occupying 
 the lower part of the bend of the river before described, was 
 extended to the south, and Bowie’s detachment was placed on 
 the same side, on the left of Fannin ; so that, if the enemy 
 should attempt to charge into the angle formed by the two 
 skirts of timber, they could rake him without being exposed to 
 the fire of their own men. This disposition brought the whole 
 Texan force together, so that the two detachments could aid 
 each other. In the meantime, the men cleared away the 
 bushes and vines under the hill and along the margin ; and, at 
 the steep places, steps were cut in the side of the bluff, so that 
 they could easily ascend to fire, and descend to reload. Be- 
 fore this work was fairly completed, however, the Mexican 
 infantry was seen to advance with trailed arms, to the right 
 of Fannin’s division, and form a line of battle about two hun- 
 dred yards from the Texan right flank. It was supported by 
 five companies of cavalry, covering the front and flanks of the 
 Texan position. 
 
 exclaimed, with some wrath, “ The d d rascals have shot out the bottom of 
 
 my powder-horn ! w Karnes rose to the rank of colonel in Texas. He was of 
 low stature, and weighed about a hundred and sixty pounds ; was quite sober 
 and temperate, and had an effeminate voice. He was wholly illiterate, yet he 
 had remarkable gentleness and delicacy of feeling, and was otherwise amiable 
 in private life. He died at San Antonio, in August, 1840, surrounded by his 
 numerous frienda 
 
BATTLE OF CONCEPCION. 
 
 375 
 
 About eight o’clock in the morning, the battle was opened 
 by the crack of a rifle from the Texan right. Immediately the 
 firing became general. The Mexican line presented a contin- 
 ual sheet of flame ; the Texans fired more slowly, but with 
 deadly aim, each one falling below the bank to reload, while 
 another took his place to fire. In about ten minutes, the ene- 
 my opened a fire of grape and canister from a six-pounder 
 stationed about eighty yards from the Texan right flank, and 
 at the same time a charge of cavalry was sounded. “ But the 
 cannon,” says a narrator of the engagement, “ was cleared, as 
 if by magic, and a check put to the charge.” Three times did 
 the enemy repeat the attempt to charge, supplying the places 
 of those who fell at the cannon, but without success. In the 
 meantime, the Texans were moving by the right flank under 
 the hill nearer to the cannon. So instinctively and harmoni- 
 ously was this movement made, that “ The cannon and victory” 
 became the war-cry. The enemy had fired it but five times, 
 and the Texans had cleared it three times, when the former 
 made a precipitate retreat. The Texans advanced and took 
 the cannon, and turned it upon the retreating foe ; but it was 
 found that there were but two cartridges remaining, and Bowie 
 ordered his men to withhold their fire, as the Mexicans might 
 rally. But the latter did not return. The enemy’s loss in the 
 engagement, which lasted* only thirty minutes after it fairly 
 commenced-, was about sixty killed, many of them officers, and 
 perhaps as many wounded.* The Texans lost but one killed 
 (Richard Andrews), and none wounded. The Mexican force 
 engaged was about four hundred men. 
 
 Among the incidents of these two days, it may be mentioned 
 that the Texans had reached the battle-ground on the 27th by 
 noon. Their presence was discovered by the Mexicans, whose 
 * Report of Bowie and Fannin. — Foote , vol. ii., p. 121. 
 
376 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 cavalry appeared on the prairie that evening. There was an 
 occasional skirmish between detachments the entire afternoon. 
 Bowie, seeing the danger of their situation, despatched M‘Comb 
 at sunset as exp?'ess to Austin, eight and a half miles below ; 
 but the main army of the Texans did not reach the battle- 
 ground until half an hour after the affair was over. At the 
 second fire of the enemy’s artillery, the Texans killed the mule- 
 driver in charge of the caisson containing the ammunition. 
 When the driver fell, the team ran off with great fury through 
 the lines of the Mexican infantry, throwing them into confu- 
 sion. There were sixteen of the enemy found dead around the 
 cannon when it was taken. The last one killed was attempt- 
 ing to spike the piece, when he was shot by Samuel Whiting. 
 The enemy pointed their artillery to the north skirt of the bend, 
 which had been occupied by Bowie, supposing him to be still 
 there ; hence they did no execution. 
 
 At noon, on the 28th, a flag came out from the Mexicans, 
 in charge of the parish-priest, for leave to bury the dead, which 
 was granted.* 
 
 This battle was a brilliant affair, and well deserved the com- 
 mendation bestowed by the consultation, which, on the 3d of 
 November, on motion of Sam Houston, thanked the officers 
 and men for their heroic gallantry and valor, f 
 
 To return to the civil government of Texas. On the recom- 
 mendation of the committee of San Felipe, that one from each 
 of the other committees should attend to form a central coun- 
 cil, a temporary head was formed. Those of the consultation 
 that assembled on the 16th of October, found it in session ; 
 
 * When the Texans first encamped at Concepcion, the enemy, in order to as- 
 certain if Austin was present, sent out a Mexican with a bag of piloncillos and 
 a bottle of muscal, as a present from the priest to General Austin. In the ab- 
 sence of the latter the officers in command received and used the gifts. 
 
 f Journa. of the Consultation, p. 9. 
 
FIRST GOVERNMENT OF REVOLUTIONARY TEXAS. 377 
 
 and when, on the 17th, they adjourned till the first of Novem- 
 ber, they recognised it by declaring that those members “ who 
 could not join the army, might remain, with the permission to 
 unite with the council of Texas, and have access to all the in- 
 telligence in possession of the council relative to the [then] 
 present crisis.” This body was thus the government of Texas, 
 duly acknowledged, and never disputed. It proceeded to a 
 further organization by appointing A. Huston, one of the 
 members from San Augustine, as secretary. 
 
 To prevent further depredations upon the public lands in 
 the absence of the volunteers, the council declared that “ all 
 land-offices be closed until the present difficulties of Texas are 
 removed, or until the consultation meets and acts on the mat- 
 ter ; and further that all commissioners cease to grant orders 
 of surveys, that all surveyors cease their operations in survey- 
 ing, and that all transactions in regard to public lands whatso- 
 ever shall cease until the consultation meets and acts on the 
 subject.” The council directed copies of this order to be 
 served on the land-commissioners, which was done. The com- 
 mittees of Nacogdoches and San Augustine, taking up this sub- 
 ject, fixed upon the first of November when all such officers 
 should cease their functions.* The council proceeded further 
 to declare and recommend that the four hundred league trans- 
 action be declared void. 
 
 On the subject of the Indians there was much difficulty in 
 the council. Their position was threatening, their disposition 
 wavering. The word of promise had for thirteen years been 
 given them, and during that time they had occupied their lands. 
 They had also made improvements : those of the Cherokees a 
 short day’s journey northwest of Nacogdoches ; those of the 
 
 * Order of the General Council. Letter of Committee at San Augustine to 
 Committee at Nacogdoches, October 29, 1835: MSS. 
 
378 
 
 HISTORY OF .TEXAS. 
 
 Shawnees between the Cherokee improvements and the Neelies ; 
 and those of the Cooshatties on the east bank of the Trinity. 
 A deputation had been appointed, as has been already stated, 
 by the eastern committees, to confer with them. The mouth- 
 piece of the upper Indians was a free negro by the name of 
 William Goyens, who on all occasions proved himself honest 
 and faithful to the Texans. Arrangements had been made, 
 through Goyens, that the Indians should have a representative 
 before the consultation. On the 14th of October, Houston 
 wrote them that they should “have their land above the road, 
 and between the Neelies and the Angelina, so as to include 
 their villages.” On the 25th of the same month, Austin wrote 
 that he was “ decidedly in favor of securing to the civilized 
 Indians who had emigrated to Texas their lands and rights ; 
 and would agree to whatever the consultation did on the sub- 
 ject, so far as it depended on him.” On the 26th of October, 
 the council invited them to come to San Felipe, where “ their 
 case would be attended to.” These promises kept the civil- 
 ized Indians quiet. To overawe the wild tribes, rangers were 
 sent out on the frontier, and, upon the representation of the 
 people of Bastrop, the ranging-service was extended west of 
 the Colorado. 
 
 The Texan government — that is, the council — had much 
 to do. The correspondence was immense ; the authority of 
 the councillors limited by the precarious tenure of their offices. 
 But they had willing co-operators. The union was complete. 
 With their slender resources they managed to send a weekly 
 mail through Texas to Fort Jcsup, thus keeping up a regular 
 communication with the United States. Messrs. Baker and 
 Borden had established a printing-press at San Felipe, which 
 sent out the weekly “ Telegraph,” and extras without number. 
 The people of eastern Texas were also about establishing, at 
 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTRAL COUNCIL. 379 
 
 Nacogdoches, “ The Emigrant’s Guide.” Thus the elements 
 of civilization and progress were mingling with the ravages 
 of war. 
 
 During the brief existence of the council, that body appoint- 
 ed Sims Hall army-contractor ; it sent an able address to the 
 people of the United States ; it appointed T. F. McKinney an 
 agent to contract a loan at New Orleans of a hundred thousand 
 dollars ; it granted to several persons letters of reprisal : these 
 were some of the more important acts of this first government 
 of revolutionary Texas.* 
 
 * Journal of Consultation, p. 11. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

APPENDIX NO. I. 
 
 OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 Supp oe Gov N0 . Ano-De 1744. 
 
 Testimo de un Parecer dado en los Autlos fechos en Vxrtud de 
 Real Cedula en q e S. M. manda se le imforme sobre surttos 
 abusos comettidos en la Provincia de Texas en el tiempo que 
 se expressa ; y Tambien de un Parrapho de ottro Parecer 
 dado en los proprios Auttos , uno y ottro del S°r Audittor 
 Gral de la Guerra. 
 
 Swo. Dn Joh. de Gorraez. 
 
 Hib 
 
 Un Quartillo. 
 
 Sello quarto, un quartillo, ano de mil setecientos y quarenta. 
 Con ouio motivo podra tambien Y. excelencia repettir a dicho 
 governador aplique todo su mas debido punttual zeloso desvelo aque 
 los Franceses se conttengan denttro de sus limittes, sin propassar los 
 en manera alguna, proporsionando aestte fill los medios mas oporttu- 
 nos, y celando, que el numero deaquellos religiosos missioneros y 
 presidiales estte siempre completto por las pernisiosas gravissimas 
 consequencias delo conttrario, y solicittando con la mas exactta efi- 
 cacia diligentte y acttivo exmero familias Espanolas, quese avezin- 
 den, y pueblen aquella fronttera para su mayor resguardo, y que 
 
382 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 asu exemplo aquellos Yndios se docilitten, y radiquen en nuestra 
 Santta Fee, fidelidad, Lealttad, y aplicacion al travajo procurando 
 sean bien ttrattados, agasajados, y acariciados delos reverendos pa- 
 dres missioneros, delos soldados precidiales y demas vezinos Espa- 
 noles como ttan importtante todo al servicio de ambas magesttades 
 en que Y. excelencia mandara lo que mejor estitimare Mexico marzo 
 seis de mill settesientos quarentta y quattro. 
 
 El Marques de Alttamira. 
 
 Excelenttissimo Senor : Ademas del serio imforme pedido en la 
 precedentte Real Oedula de quinse de Julio de settesienttos quar- 
 entta, tiene su magesttad ordenado por la via reserbada en cartta de 
 veintte yttres de Marzo, y por el Consejo en Real Cedula de primero 
 de Diziembre de settesienttos quarentta y uno, se le embie testti- 
 monio deesttos autos ; lo que muchas vezes se ba mandado por esa 
 capittania-general, y han embarazado los recurzos. delas parttes, y 
 el cumulo del processo, compuestto de treentta confusos inttrincados 
 quadernos. Compendio el audittor lo principal deellos con sus foli- 
 axes en dicttamen de dos del passado al final del quarderno formado 
 sobre ocho mill, y mas pesos demandados por el sittado Don Carlos 
 Franquis Benittes de Lugo asu anttescessor el Capittan Don Manuel 
 de Sandoval. Ahora summara dicho compendio, y la sittuassion con 
 finis calidades descubrimientto, progressos, y esttado de la provincia 
 de Texas, Nuevas Philipinas con algun razgo deestta septentrional 
 America. 
 
 Opuestto el ysthimo de Panama a la reunion de los dos mares de 
 nortte, y Sur quitta el ser Ysla a la America Austtral trabandola a 
 la septtentrional. Corre des de alii estta, enttre ambos mares cotao 
 mill leguas al nortte liastta esta capittal de Mexico, quedando en 
 sus disttancias los Obispados de Nicaragua, Honduras, Guattliemala, 
 y Chiapa en disttintto de la Real Audiencia de Guattliemala, y los 
 de Campeche, Oaxaca y Puebla en territtorio de estta Real Audi- 
 encia Mexicana Tiene Mexico al orientte el puertto de Nueva Vera 
 Cruz en el Ceno Mexicano mar del nortte ; y al Ponientte quazi en 
 igual disttancia, el puertto de Acapulco en el mar del Sur o Pacifi- 
 co ; disttanttes enttre si ambos puerttos como cientto, y cinquentta 
 leguas. 
 
 Des de Mexico para el nortte sigue estta Nueva Espana hasta el 
 esttrecbo de Anian, pero solo hay des cubierttas pocomas de seis 
 cienttas leguas enttre ambos referidos mares. La costta del Sur, 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 383 
 
 aunque no bien poblada estta entteramentte pacificada cuyas ulti- 
 mas conce guttibas provincias del Rosario Culiacan, Sinaloa, Ostti- 
 muri, y Sonora componen la capittania-general, y governacion de 
 Sinaloa, Sique su rumbo (con intterposission del Mar Bermejo, o 
 caual de Oalifornias) la Ysla de estte Nombre ; en lague ay tam- 
 bien pacificadas como doscienttas y cinquentta leguas. 
 
 En la costta del mar del nortte o Oeno Mexicano solo hay pobla- 
 das como settentta leguas des de dicho puertto de Nueva Vera Cruz 
 hastta el de Tampico. Aun por lo mas intternado se ofrece anttes 
 la Sierra Gorda, Rio Verde, y ottros desierttos demas de ottras se- 
 ttentta leguas en que liavittan podavia Yndios barbaros Chichimecos 
 cuya pacificacion solicitta hay de orden de V. excelencia sin costto 
 alguno de la Real Hacienda el Thenientte de Capittan-General Don 
 Joseph de Escandon. Siguese a esttos des poblados la capittania- 
 general y governacion del Nuevo Reyno de Leon, que disttara de 
 Mexico como cientto y cinquentta leguas, y ttendra ottras cientto 
 de Sur, a nortte ; pero pocomas de veintte de Ponientte a orientte 
 mediando al Ceno Mexicano ottras sesentta lequas ocupadas tam- 
 bien de Yndios no reducidos. 
 
 Eertilizado de muchos Rios el Nuevo Reyno es tan pinque que 
 annualmentte enttran ainvernar en el des de Noviembre a Mayo 
 como veinte y seis haciendas de Obejas, llevando cada una quattro, 
 seis, o mas sirvienttes armados quellaman escoltteros (con salarios 
 de a cientto y cinquentta pesos) para resguardo conttra los Yndios 
 genttiles. Al mismo fin previenen la ordenanza cientto settentta y 
 seis y siguiente del nuevo reglamentto de precidios que el capittan, 
 y los doce soldados del de San Gregorio de Serralvo se manttengan 
 todo el referido tiempo en la fronttera. Traspassan estta algunas 
 de dichas haciendas, enttrandose alas no menos ferttiles tierras de 
 los Yndios genttiles, a quienes tambien suelen prohocar ottras in- 
 concideraciones de los pasttores ; y como los Yndios son nattural- 
 mentte propenzos a robos, facilmentte se despechan, a executtarlos 
 con muerttes, y todo genero de barbaras attrocidades, que no han 
 remediado en ttanttos anos, ni tlichos precidiales de Serralvo hi el 
 crecido numero de escoltteros dettanttas haciendas enttre si disper- 
 sas. Pudieran acaso remediarse, si con lo que se gastta en dichos 
 precidiales, y escolteros se formase una compania volantte de cin- 
 quentta o quarentta hombres escogidos, que al cargo de un capittan 
 y thenientte en dos ttrossos recorriessen aquilla fronttera orienttal 
 y escolttasen missioneros celosos que reduxessen los genttiles a los 
 
384 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 pueblos que se les formasen en sus mismas tierras attrahiendolos 
 aello cod los agasajos, y el buen ttrattamientto prebenido en las 
 Leyes. 
 
 A1 Nuevo Reyno de Leon sigue la provincia y goveraacion de 
 Coabuila o Nueva Estremadura, larga de Sur a nortte mas de cientto 
 veintte leguas hastta el Rio de Medina en que comienza la siguientte 
 ulttima nuesttra provincia, y governacion de Texas 6 Nueva Phi- 
 lipinas. Enttre la de Coabuila, y el Seno Mexicano median tambien 
 Yndios genttiles, y lo propio sucede en la de Texas. Yiben esttos 
 Yndios en rancherias de pocas familias quellaman naciones, sustten- 
 ttandose solo de fruttas silbestres sin liavittacion ni cultto de religion 
 alguna, y regularmentte esttan opuesttas enttre si dichas naciones 
 of rancherias. No solo no estta poblada la referida costta del Ceno 
 Mexicano des de Tampico a lo ultimo de Texas sino que quazi ttoda 
 ella es entteramentte desconocida. Lattierra es ttan'vaja que en 
 ella forma el mar frequenttes cienegas entteros, o lagunas que acasso 
 haran menos apreciables sus immediaciones, bien que hay confussas 
 verosimiles notticias dettener esttimables quanttiosas salinas como se 
 experimentta en la descubiertta costta de Tampico. 
 
 Son nottorias las provincias r cuidades, villas, y pueblos intterna- 
 dos en dichas seis cienttas leguas de Mexico para el nortte, compre- 
 hendidos en el disttricto deestta Real Audiencia, Arzovispado de 
 Mexico, y Obispado de Valladolid, en el -territorio de la Real Audi- 
 encia de Guadalaxara o Nueva Galicia obispado deestte nombre, y 
 el de Durango o Nueva Viscaya, queesttienden sus espirittuales ju- 
 risdicsiones auna, y ottra costta Toda la del nortte es deestta Real 
 Audiencia Mexicana, y nada de la de Guadalaxara ; pero sn obis- 
 pado tiene alii las provincias del Nuevo Reyno de Leon, Coahuila 
 y Texas. Enttre la governacion, y capittania-general de Guada- 
 laxara o Nueva Galicia, y la de la Nueva Viscaya se halla la es- 
 tteril provincia del Nayaritt pacificada de pocos anos £ estta partte. 
 
 Sigue despues intternada para el* nortte dicha capittania-general 
 y governacion de la Nueva Viscaya comprehensiva de varias pro- 
 vincias llamada tambien del Parral por el Real de Minas de este 
 nombre, que distta doscienttas noventta leguas de Mexico, y tresci- 
 enttas sesentta su recomendable villa y Mineria de San Phelipe el 
 Real de Chiguagua. Como cien leguas mas adelante deestta, al mis- 
 ma Rumbo del Nortte sehalla el Real Precidio del Passo, quees la en- 
 ttra da para la provincia y goveraacion del Nuevo Mexico cuya capi- 
 ttal es la villa de Santta Fee, que distta de Mexico seis cienttas leguas. 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 385 
 
 La Nueva Viscaya tiene al ponientte la referida governacion y 
 Capittania General de Sinaloa, y al orientte las del Nuevo Reyno y 
 Coahuila. Estta como superior attodas la de el Nuevo Mexico co- 
 municada solo por el Sur con la de la Nueva Viscaya, y por las 
 demas parttes rodeada de Yndios genttiles. Deestta provincial del 
 Nuevo Mexico vaja el Rio nombrado del Nortte, qui viniendo dere- 
 cho al Sur corre immediatto a dicha capittal de Santta fee, y al 
 expressado Real Precidio del Passo. Despues tuerse al orientte, y 
 cortta alguna partte de la Nueva Viscaya de donde recive el Rio de 
 Conchos. Attraviesa luego por medio de la Provincia de Coahuila 
 pasando tres leguas mas adelantte de su Precidio de San Juan 
 Baupttistta, llamado por ello del Rio Grande. Tiene alii de anclio 
 dicbo Rio como un ttiro de vala de fucil, y mas do una vara de pro- 
 fundidad, la que en tiempo de avenidas suele subir aesttado y me- 
 dio. Conttinua siempre a orientte, y cruzando veintte leguas mas 
 alia de la fronttera de dicho Nuevo Reyno, y de su Precidio de Ser- 
 ralvo, desaliua con nombre de Rio Bravo, par tierras de Yndios gen- 
 ttiles desconocidas de los nuestros. 
 
 A la provincia de Texas siguen como cientta quarentta leguas 
 partte de la luciana en que habra veintte y ocbo anos se nos mettie- 
 ron los Franceses vanda de Aca del famoso Rio Misisipi corre estte 
 de nortte a Sur ocbo sienttas leguas, y con dos de anclio desemboca 
 donde comienza a cerrar el Ceno Mexicano franqueando asu vueltta 
 tanttas o mas ttierras, que ttodas las ya indicadas. Coil dichas ocho 
 sienttas leguas de nortte a Sur divi de el Misisipi toda estta Septten- 
 trional America en dos mittades. La de aca se forma de ttodas 
 nuesttras provincias des de el sittado Ysthimo de Panama hastta los 
 ulttimos des cubrinicenttos de Sonora, Nuevo Mexico y Texas, y 
 aun hastta el no descubiertto esttreclio de Anian ; vajo ttodo del 
 nombre de Nueva Espana. La de alia incluye la ottra partte de 
 la Luciana, y su capittal la Nueva Orleans sobre el Missisipi, que 
 anttes era la ciudad de la Mobila quarentta leguas mas adelantte. 
 
 Doce leguas de la Mobila al Ceno Mexicano esta nuesttra Bahia 
 y plaza de Santta Maria de Galbe o Pansacola de donde corre nues- 
 ttra costta de la Florida hastta la plaza y ciudad de San Augusttin 
 siguen dominios Ynglezes y Suecos, y passada Terranova se ofrece 
 al oiientte de aquellas disttancias el Mar que rebuelbe por ttodo lo 
 descubiertto del nortte donde tienen sus colon ias los Dinamarqueses. 
 
 No solo se nos mettieron los Franceses con su Luciana de la partte 
 de aca del Misisipi cinendo nuesttra provincia de Texas sino que 
 Vol. I. — 25 
 
386 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 entire estta, y el Nuevo Mexico intternaron sesentte leguas mas aca 
 su Precidio y colonia de Candadachos sobre el Rio de estte nombre. 
 Por el vajan en canoas bastta su ottro Precidio de San Juan Baup- 
 ttistta de Nocliittoos donde se junta dicho Rio de Candadachos 
 con el que norabran Colorado o Rojo, yamas navegable hastta el 
 Misisipi. Desde estte conttinuan su navegacion por el de Ylinois a 
 los cinco Ynsignes Lagos tambien navegables y comunicados enttre 
 si por canalis. 
 
 Prosiguen despues dicha su navegacion por el Candaloso Rio de 
 San Lorenzo que naciendo de dichos Lagos desemboca al orientte 
 en el Mar con quarentta leguas de ancbo, baciendo Ysla a Terrano- 
 ba. Sobre este Rio tienen los Franceses a Quebec, cappital y me- 
 ttropoli de sus grandes colonias de Nueva Francia, y Canada. Po- 
 seben en ttodas mucbos precidios, crecidos pueblos, numerosas na- 
 ciones de Yndios con quienes facilmentte congenian rayandosse y 
 pinttandose como illos los rosttros hablando sus Idiomas, asisttiendo 
 a sus bayles casandose con las Yndias, y rescattando pieles por Bu- 
 jerias cuchillos y armas de fuego aque son mui propensas los Yndios. 
 En estte conttinuado trafico navegan los Franceses mas de mil y 
 ocbo sienttas leguas desde donde deshagua dicho Rio de San Lo- 
 renzo bastta el sitado Precidio de Candadachos que dandoles por el 
 Ceno Mexicano ottro mas vrebe viaje. 
 
 Don Gabrill de Cardenas en el ensayo para la Histtoria de la 
 Florida (anos de mil sette sienttos quattro y signientes) dice, que 
 por attencion a nuesttro cattholico monarca repelio el Christtianissi- 
 mo Luis Decimo quartto las repettidas insttancias del Mercader Fran- 
 ces Crozat, que queria enttonces poblar de Franceses loque oy essu 
 Lnciana, y que muertto el Christtianissimo en Scptiembre del ano 
 de settesienttos y quince logro Crozat sus ideas se formo una com- 
 pania de comersianttes obligada a conducir cada ano ciertto numero 
 de familias y gentte de guerra con que esttendieron sus poblaciones 
 por las riveras del Rio Misisipi o de la palizada corttando una provincia 
 de mas de mil leguas. Enttonces no se havian aun propasado de la 
 vanda de aca del Misisipi pues sus Precidios de Nacliittos, y de Can- 
 dadachos comenzaron el ano de settesienttos dus y seis como ya se 
 dira. Lo siertto es, que quantto poseen los Franceses de la partte 
 de aca del Misisipi lo cercenan y absttrahen de nuesttra Nueva Es- 
 pana, abreendo puertta franca para exttender se cada dia mas, Su 
 vecindad hace mas belicosos, y osados los Yndios genttiles que fre- 
 quentte mentte nos bosttilizan pues los Franceses les dan armas de 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 387 
 
 fuego, y cavallos en cuyo manejo se adiesttran summamentte los 
 Yndios por su nattural inclinacion, y agilidad, y por exercittarde 
 communmentte en la caza de Cibolos, vena dos, Osos y ottros ani- 
 males de que abundan sus ttierras. 
 
 Reduciendo asu debocion los Franceses poblados en Candadacbos 
 los Yndios Apaches, y de ottras Barbaras Naciones (que median en- 
 ttre nuesttras Provincias de Texas, y Coaliuila, y la del Nuevo 
 Mexico) pudieran inttroducirse siu ser senttidos liasta la de la 
 Nueva Yiscaya, y si hoy no es reselable estto, por la union y enlace 
 delas dos Coronas, puede serlo, siempre que ayga algun rompimi- 
 entto. Tienin los Franceses mas facil disposission en sus empressas 
 por el mayor numero de Gentte y de Yndios aliados concurriendo el 
 commodo transportte desus apressos por los Rios Navegables, y el 
 eettar conttinuadas sus Poblasones para sosttenerse y auxiliarse. 
 
 Hisose ya presentte asu Magesttad en consulttas de quince de 
 Septtiembre de settesientos y quince, y veintte y ocho de Julio de 
 settesienttos dies y siette, quan importtantte era a la seguridad de 
 esttos dominios que se esttablisiese por limitte enttre las dos Coronas 
 dicho famoso Rio Misisipi, y que se poblasen por nuesttra partte sus 
 marjenes de la Vanda de aca cerrando con su Candalosa corrientte 
 toda ocasion de diferiencias y distturbios. El asumptto parece re- 
 comendable y que noharia molesttos los recuerdos. 
 
 Para el esttado acttual de la Provincia y Governacion de Texas 
 se insinuara algo de la antterior contigua de Coaliuila. La capittal 
 deestta es la villa de Santtiago de la Monclova en que recide el gov- 
 ernador, quees ttambien capittan de su Precidio de San Francisco 
 con treintta y cinco plazas disttantte de Mexico doscienttas cin- 
 quentta leguas, veintte y cinco mas adelantte para el nortte attravi- 
 essa el Rio de Savinas que desciende de azia el Ponientte donde se 
 halla en dicha Provincia el Precidio del Sacramentto can un Capi- 
 ttan y cinquentta Soldados. 
 
 Aottras veintte y cinco leguas del mismo R o de Sabinas para el 
 Nortte estta el Precidio de San Juan Baupttistta del Rio grande con 
 un capitan, y treintta y dos Plazas : y tres leguas mas adelantte 
 cruza el ya mencionado Rio grande del Norte en cuyas marjenes ay 
 diferenttes parajes reconocidos por buenos para poblaciones y Haci- 
 endas. Desde dicho Precidio de San Juan Baupttistta de Rio 
 grande hasta el de San Anttonio de Vejar o Valero (que estta estte 
 seis leguas intternado en la Provincia de Texas) median ottras se- 
 ttentta leguas sui poblacion alguna el ttoda su sircumferencia. Tiene 
 
388 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 dicho Precidio de San Anttonio nn Capittan y quarentta y ttres 
 plazas, y en sus immediaciones se halla la villa de San Fernando 
 con pocos vezinos Yslenos de Canarias, y algnnas ottras familias de 
 aca del Reyno fundada en el ano de settesienttos treintta y uno. 
 Esttan alii ttambien conttiguas cinco Missiones de Yndios adminis- 
 ttradas por los Reverendos Padres Apostolicos de la observancia de 
 San Francisco de los Collegios de Querettaro y Zacattecas. 
 
 Annque es ferttil aquella Tierra abeneficio de los Rios de San 
 Pedro, y San Anttonio que la banan no es suficientte para los Pre- 
 cidiales, Pobladores, y Misiones que repettidas veces se han quejado 
 de hallarse estre cbados, y sin poder esttenderse por las frequienttes 
 hosttilidades que experimenttan de los Yndios Apacbes. La lomi- 
 ria grande que sttos ocupan comiensa a veintte leguas de dicho Pre- 
 cidio mas intternada al Nortte de donde salen a insulttar, no solo por 
 ttodos los quattro vienttos de dicho Precidio de San Anttonio de 
 Vejar ; sino que se intteman hasta la Provincia de Coaliuila ; ussan 
 de cavallos, Armas de fuego y flechas con mucha desttreza y agili- 
 dad sin haverseles escarmenttado con las companias conttra ellos 
 executtadas los anos de settesienttos treintta y dos, y settesienttos 
 y quarentta. Piden la paz quando se concideran amenzados ; pero 
 luego la quebranttan traidora y alebosamentte con muerttes, y todo 
 Genero de barbaras attrocidades, teniendo en menos sus hijos y mu- 
 geres que el logro de algunos Cavallos. 
 
 Sesentta leguas al orientte de dicho Precidio de Yejar sobre el 
 Ceno Mexicano estta la Bahia de San Bernardo (llamada mas co- 
 munmentte del Espirittu Santto) en que desaquan dos Rios y ttres 
 Arroyos, y sondeada en Octubre del ano de seiscientos y nobentta 
 tema la enttrada dies y ochopalmos en vaja Mar, y en plena veintte 
 y quattro, y dentro dela barra tres, quattro, y siette brazas enparttes. 
 En sus immediaciones sepuso ottro Precidio que hoy se halla treintta 
 leguas mas intternado azia el de San Anttonio de Bejar sobre las 
 marjenes del Rio de Guadalupe donde estta ottra Mission adminis- 
 ttrada tambien por dichos Reverendos Padres Aposttolicos. 
 
 Cientto settentta y dos leguas de dicho Precidio de San Anttonio 
 estta el paraje nombrado propriamentte Texas, Asinays, o Nechas, 
 y sesentta leguas mas adelantte se hallan ottras tres Missiones, y el 
 Precidio de Nuesttra Senora del Pilar de los Adays con sesentta 
 plazas dequees Capittan el Govemador. Es el Precidio de loi 
 Adays capittal dettoda aquella Provincia ; distta de Mexico seisci- 
 enttas leguas, y siette del ya referido Precidio Frances de San Juan 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 389 
 
 Baupttistta de Nocliitos. Desde diclio Rio de Medina en que comi- 
 enza dicha Provincia de Texas liastta el Precidio delos Adays en 
 que termina ; es su longittud de Sur a Norte como de doscienttas 
 quarenta leguas, y su lattittud de Ponientte al Seno Mexicano como 
 de ochentta La tierra es ttoda liana, y attravessada de veintte y 
 siete Rios y Arroyos ; pero tan profundos, que son innutiles sus 
 aguas para el regadio. Con sus cresienttes y avenidas forman mu- 
 chos estteros Cienegas y Lagunas, que hacen panttanoso y poco 
 trancittable el Terreno. Abundan los Rios de Pezca, y los mon- 
 ttes de Cibolos, venados, Osos, Conejos, Liebres, Perdices, Codor- 
 nises, y Pabos como ttambien de Silbesttres Casttanas, Nuezes, 
 Parraz, Nisperos, Enzinos, Moreras, Pinos y ottros Arboles que pa- 
 recio de gran commodidad para Poblaciones a los primeros descu- 
 bridores. 
 
 El primero deesttos fue Robertto Cavalier de la Sala nattural de 
 Roan en Francia que vibiendo en la Canada emprehendio por di- 
 cbos Lagos el descubrimuntto del Rio Misisipi por donde desemboca 
 en el Ceno Mexicano ; y conducido a Francia volbio conquattro Na- 
 vios encargado de poblar las Riveras del Misisipi pensanda pene- 
 ttrar despues basta nuesttros Minerales de la Nueva Yiscaya. Erro 
 la enttrada del Rio Misisipi, y dio con nuesttra Bahia del Espirittu 
 Santto que llamo de San Luiz y del mismo nombre erigio alii un 
 Precidio en principios del ano de seiscienttos ochentta y cinco. Dex- 
 ada Guarnicion busco por ttierra el Misisipi, attravesando el reforido 
 paraje nombrado de Texas le mattaron el ano de seiscienttos oclien- 
 ta y siette sus mismos companeros, que luego se vestittuyeron a la 
 Nueva Francia. Frusttadas varias diligencias deestte Govierno so- 
 bre los designios de Robertto los descubrio en el ano de seiscienttos 
 ochentta y ocho un Frances nombrado Jean Enrrique, apreliendido 
 en las immediaciones de la Provincia de Coahuila enttre los Yndios 
 Barbaros que yattenia asu debocion. 
 
 Sabida assi la enttrada delos Franceses a dicha Bahia passo aella 
 de orden deestte Govierno con cien hombres el Governador de Coa- 
 huila Alonzo de Leon, que hablo arruinado diclio Precidio, muerttos 
 los Franceses de su guarnicion, y arrojados los pelttreclios poraque- 
 llos Yndios Barbaros, Buscaronle dos de cinco Franceses quese man- 
 ttenian entre los Yndios Texas, y vueltto a Coahuila los embio a 
 Mexico imformando bien de aquellas tierras y de los Yndios Gen- 
 ttiles para su reducion. 
 
 Fue embiado segunda vez, ano de seiscienttos y noventa, el mis- 
 
390 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 mo Governador Alonzo de Leon con ciento y dies soldados, y algu- 
 nos Religiosos que esttablosieron en Texas la Mission de Francisco 
 donde se quedaron los Missioneros con pocos soldados para que las 
 liberttades deesttos no indispusiesion a los Indios. Notticiado su 
 Magesttad de la empressa mando en Reales Cedulas de veintte y 
 siete de Mayo, y veintte de Septtiembre de seiscienttos y noventta 
 a fomenttase la pacificacion y reducion de aquella Provincia como 
 ttan importtantte al resguardo delas demas deesttos Dominios. Passo 
 a este fin el ano de seiscienttos noventta y uno Don Domingo The- 
 ran de los Rios nombrado para ello Governador de Coaliuila y texas, 
 con dos mill y quinienttos pesos de sueldo. Llebo en su compania 
 cinquentta soldados a quattrosienttos pesos cada uno, cattorce Reli- 
 giosos Franciscanos saccrdottes, y siette Legos para poner tres Mis- 
 siones en Texas, quattro en los Candadachos y una en el Rio de 
 Guadalupe loquese aprobo despues en Real Cedula de treinta de 
 Diziembre de seiscienttos noventta y dos, mandando se conttinuasen 
 diclias converciones con ttoda Eficacia. 
 
 Reconocio Theran los Candadachos, y ser navegable su Rio, fun- 
 daronse las Missiones ; pero duraron poco, por haver sobrevenido 
 faltta de Coseechas, liaverse muertto los Ganados, y exasperadose los 
 Yndios vexados de los soldados ; y assi el ano de seiscienttos no- 
 ventta y ttres se salieron ttodos los Religiosos desamparandolo ttodo. 
 Dada quentta deello aestte Superior Govierno se resolbio en junta 
 de Once de Marzo de seiscienttos noventta y quatro, se sobre seyese 
 en las Providencias de aquella pacificacion hastta que el tiempo ofre- 
 siese mejor oporttunidad y se dio quentta asu Magesttad en dicho 
 mes de Marzo quedando assi frustradas ttodas las enttradas referidas 
 y sus crecidos gasttos. 
 
 Por Agosto de settesienttos cattorce llego al enunciado Precidio 
 del Rio grande en Coahuila Don Luis de San Denis y don Medar 
 Jalet con ottros dos Franceses ; y trahidos a Mexico de Orden del 
 Excelentissimo Senior Virrey Duque de Linares exivio aqui San 
 Denis Pattentte del Governador de la Mobila con fecha de Septtiem- 
 bre del ano de trece, para que viniese cen veintte y quattro hombres 
 a Texas, y comprase alii Bueyes, Cavallos y ottros Ganadas para 
 la Colonia de la Luciana suponiendo se manttenian en Texas nues- 
 ttras Missiones. Declaro Sn Denis, que liavian venido en una Pira- 
 gua desde la Mobila hastta Nachittos, donde liavian desembarcado, 
 y quellegados a Texas, y no en conttrado alii alos Espanoles, se 
 havian vueltto los soldados Franceses, que dandose solo quattro en 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 891 
 
 los Texas, y que con los ottros tres havia pasado liastta dicho Pre- 
 cidio del Rio Grande. Expresso tambien que los Yndios Texas de- 
 ceaban, volbiesen los Missioneros Espanoles. 
 
 Yistto todo por su excelencia en Juntta de veintte y dos de Agos- 
 tto del ano de setlosienttos y quince se despacho a Don Domingo 
 Ramon con veintte y cinco soldados algunos Missioneros, y demas 
 apresttos para que resttablesiese en Texas las Missiones ; y fue de 
 conducttor el mismo Frances San Denis. Restablesieronse con efectto 
 las Misiones en Texas y se fundaron ottras de nuevo en los Adays. 
 siete leguas mas aca de Nachitoos adonde passo Ramon y vio el 
 Fuertte que en una Ysletta de aquel Rio Colorado o Roxo tenian los 
 Franceses con treinta liombres, esperando ottros cinquentta para alii, 
 y para los Candadachos. En conttrose en Texas Pano azul, Esco- 
 pettas, Avalorios, y ottros Generos, que los Yndios liavian liavido 
 de los Franceses; y se supo que desde el ano de dies y seis estta- 
 van ya estos poblados en los Candadachos, y Nochittoos. 
 
 Haviase casado el Frances San Denis con una sobrina de dicho 
 commandantte Ramon ; y ofreciendo volbeerse a vibir con los Espa- 
 noles passa attralieer de la Mobila los bienes que alii tenia. Traxo- 
 los con efectto en cattorce fardillos ; pero fue denunciado que havia 
 trahido crecida por cion de comercio ilicitto en quattro Fragattas 
 por el Rio Nacliitoos. Denunciosele tambien queera mui familiar de 
 los Yndios Texas, entre quienes havia esttado por temporadas, y 
 algunas de quattro meses ; que savia su lengua, y les era mui gratto. 
 Aumentto conttra el los sospechas el aviso que por enttonces dio el 
 Governador de Panzacola de que los Franceses que el ano detrece 
 liavian salido de la Mobila volbieron aella con mucho ganado, pub- 
 licando liavian penetrado liastta Coahuila. En fuerza de esttas sos- 
 pechas el Excel enttissim’o Serior Virrey Marques de Valero (que se 
 hallava recien enttrado en el Govierno) hiso trailer preso a Sn Denis 
 encargando esttrecliamente la averiquacion desu ilicitto comercio ; 
 pero solo se en conttraron los cattorse fardillos. Malogro se assi la 
 quedada de un ttan gran practtico de ttodos aquellos Payzes, y sus 
 natturales, qual era dicho Frances San Denis, querido y estti- 
 mado de los Yndios que facilittaria mucho su reduccion y con- 
 ver sion como lo representtaban los Missioneros, pidiendo se les re- 
 mittiesse. 
 
 Clamaban el comandantte Ramon y los Missioneros por socorros 
 de gentte y apresttos para su subsisttencia en aquellas disttancias 
 por lo que el Excelenttisimo Senor Marques de Valero nombro Go- 
 
392 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 vemador de Coalmila y Texas al Sargentto mayor Don Marttin de 
 Alarcon Cavallero del Orden de Santtiago para que pasase con sin- 
 quentta soldados maesttros de Carpintteria, Albanileria y Herreria 
 Ganados, y demas Apresttos a poblar en diclia Provincia de Texas. 
 Enttro a principios del aiio de settesienttos dies y oclio ; pero luego 
 se quexaron los Missioneros de que no liavia llevado completto el 
 numero de soldados que la Gentte era innuttil, y las Providencias 
 poco arregladas. Al mismo tiempo pidio Alarcon dinero apresttos 
 y ottros cientto settentta y cinco soldados, y liaviendo sele negado 
 hizo renuncia del Govierno la que le fue admittida. 
 
 Rotta la Guerra enttre Espaiia *y Francia invadieron los France- 
 ses a Pansacola en dies inueve de Mayo de settesientos y dies inu- 
 eve y aottro tal dia del siguientte (dia digo) Junio por invacion, o 
 amenaza del expresado Don Luis de San denis commandantte que- 
 era, (yes oy) del dicho Precidio Frances de San Juan Baupttistta 
 de Nacbittoos se rettiraron nuesttras Miciones de Adays, y Texas 
 al Precidio de San Anttonio de Bejar. Para resttableserlas, paso de 
 Orden de dicbo Excelenttissimo Senor Virrey Marques de Valero 
 el Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo con nombramientto de Gover- 
 nador de aquella Provincia, y dela de Coahuila. Llevo los Mission- 
 eros que se liavian rettirado a San Anttonio, y quinienttos montta- 
 dos divididos en ocho companias. Camino hastta los Adayz sin 
 opcion alguna de Franceses mantteniendose esttos en dichos sus Pre- 
 cidios de Candadaclios y Nacbittoos. 
 
 Notticiado su Magesttad de la preparada expedicion mando en 
 Real Cedula de seis de Mayo de settesienttos veintte y uno no se 
 bisiese Guerra a los Franceses recobrada que fuese diclia Provincia 
 de Texas, la que se forttificase, y especialmentte la Baliia del Espi- 
 rittu Santto con los Precidios combenienttes. Resttablicio el Mar- 
 ques las ttres Missiones de los Adays, y erigio alii el ya nombrado 
 Precidio de nuesttra Senora del Pilar siette leguas mas aca del de 
 Nacbittoos, eu el mismo camino. Puso ottro Precidio, y restti- 
 ttuyo ottras tres Missiones en el paraje llamado propriamentte Texas, 
 queda el nombre attoda la Provincia, y estta como on su medio 
 cientto settentta y dos leguas adelantte del de San Anttonio sesentta 
 leguas anttes tambien del Frances de Nacbittoos y treintta del de 
 Candadaclios, quees assi mismo de Franceses. 
 
 Esttablecio ottro Precidio con nombre de Nuesttra Senora de Lo 
 retto en diclia Baliia del Espirittu Santto, o San Bernardo, y en el 
 sittio mismo que bavian tenido el suyo de San Luiz los Franceses 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 393 
 
 inttroducidos por diclio Robertto Cavalier de la Sala. Congrego el 
 Marques ottra Mision de Yndios al abrigo de diclio Precidio ; quees 
 el que va referido se intterno despues attreiutta leguas del de San 
 Anttonio de Vejar; y oy por miedo de los Apaches se vaja a el 
 para yr a los Adays. Mejoro el Precidio de San Anttonio de Sittio 
 colocandolo enttre los Rios de San Anttonio y San Pedro con sus 
 dos Misiones a quese agregaron despues ottras ttres venidas de dicbo 
 paraje de Texas. Dejo en diclios quattro Precidios Doscienttos se* 
 sentta y ocho soldados los cientto en los Adays ; veintte y cinco en 
 Texas ; noventta en la Bahia ; y cinquentta y ttres en San Anttonio 
 de Bejar. Ocupo en ttodo lo referido (siu los preparattivos) desde 
 Noviembre de settesienttos veintte liastta Mayo de settesienttos 
 veintte y dos. 
 
 Por Reales Cedulas de dies de Mayo de settesienttos veintte y 
 nueve mando su Magesttad viniessen quattro sienttas familias de 
 Canarias (de Dies en dies, o de doce en Doce) en Rexistros a la 
 Havana, de donde por Veracruz se transporttasen a Tejas y alii se 
 les manttubiese un ano de Real Hacienda. Noban venido liastta 
 abora sino Diez de a cinco Personas, quese condujeron a Texas en 
 Junio de Settesienttos y treintta con no pocos costtos y molesttias ; 
 y agregadas ottras familias depor aca sefundola referida Villa de 
 San Fernando, quees la unica Poblacion de Espanoles entan dila- 
 ttada Provincia, y recomendable Fronttera. Menos costtoso, y mo- 
 lesttamentte se transporttarian dicbas familias Viniendo de la Havana 
 a dicba Bahia del Espirittu Santto pero como se lialla despoblada, 
 seria presiso adelanttar alii apresttos para la conducion a los Pue- 
 blos destinados, y que en esttos los liubiese para las vibiendas La- 
 bores Ganados y demas conducentte. 
 
 Las Poblaciones convendrian fuesen consecuttivas, y poco dis- 
 tanttes unas de ottras para poder socorrerse en las invaciones de 
 Yndios enemigos, y ttraficar sus fructos arttefacttos, y demas neces- 
 sario, vendiendo las sembras, y comprando sus menestteres. Q.ueda 
 ya dicha la abundancia de Pesca, Casa, Arboles y Frutas de aquel 
 terreno, naturalmentte ferttil aun sui el rriego, que facilitaria la in- 
 dusttria, como ttambien el usso de aquellos Rios y Bahia del Espiri- 
 tu Santto, para el transportte de fnicttos ala Havana, Vera cruz, y 
 ottros Puerttos deestte Reyno. Hallanse alii inculttas tan pingues 
 tierras viendose en lo intternado sobre un cortto pedazo frequentes 
 lasttimosos pleyttos ; y muchas familias pobres por no ttener aque 
 dedicarse, ni lo presiso para conducirse a aquellas disttancias, quesi- 
 
394 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 endo Barrera de Franceses y resguardo delas demas provincias es 
 mui imperttantte su Pueble. 
 
 Tres Milliones de pesos llevara gasttados la Real Hacienda en 
 las referidas enttradas, Precidios, y Missiones de dicha Provincia de 
 Texas, y mas de ottros sesentta y tres mill pesos es el gravamen & 
 annual de su manuttencion teniendo hoy menos pueble, que el re- 
 ferido ano de settesienttos veintte y dos ; pues para los pocos vezi- 
 nos augmenttados de la Villa de San Fernando se reformaron de 
 aquellos Precidios (por su nuevo reglamentto de Abril de settesien- 
 ttos veintte y nueve) el capitan y los veintte y cinco soldados del de 
 dicho parage del nombrado Texas ; quarentta plazas del delos 
 Adayz ; cinquentta del de la Bahia y dies del de San Anttonio de 
 Bejar que son por ttodos cientto y ttreintta y seis hombres, Jamas 
 se exonerara la Real Hazienda de dicho corrientte annual gravamen 
 y mucho menos podra esperar algun frutto de dicha Provincia por 
 medio de los ttres Precidios, que hoy mantiene ; como en los mas 
 antiquos de ottras lo ensina assi la experiencia. Quasi todos se sittu- 
 aron en sus principios con poca o ninguna attencion a Poblaciones 
 en parajes poco commodos para ellas, debiendo ser estte su princi- 
 pal fin. 
 
 Una legua adelantte del Precidio de los Adayz por la partte su- 
 perior hay una laguna del mismo nombro que boguea dies leguas 
 destta quattro del Precidio Frances de Nachittoos, y la attraviesa 
 el Rio Candadachos, yendo ajunttarsse con el referido Colorado o 
 Rojo. Nottiene dicho Precidio de los Adays (siendo Capittal de 
 aquella Provincia) mas que un cortto ojo de Agua, escaso aun para 
 los Ganados, y Cavallada de la Guarnicion, y sintterreno a propo- 
 sitto para Semillas, las que compran aquellos Precidiales a los Fran- 
 ceses de Nachittoos. De orden de estta Capitania General, se 
 busco paraje en que mejorar dicho Precidio, y no se hallo enttoda 
 aquella circumferencia vexisttrada por quince dias ; pero en menos 
 tiempo lo hallatian a casso ottros mas intteresanttes Pobladores. 
 
 Apenas gozan aquellos y demas Precidiales cien pesos de los 
 quattro cientos asignados regularmentte acada uno de sueldo, pues 
 aun que por dicho Nuevo reglam ento estan Arancelados los precios 
 de los generos en que les pagan los Governadores y Capittanes sa- 
 can esttos, y sus corresponsales (que les remiten las factturas de 
 Mexico) crecidas ganancias que reporttan los soldados, y jugando lo 
 poco que les queda viben siempre adendados, y muchas veces sui 
 armas Cavallos, y demas apresttos para las funciones y heclios pur.os 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OP BEXAR. 395 
 
 oriados de los commandanttes. Trescienttos sesentta y ocho mill 
 quinienttos noventta pesos annuales paga su Magesttad por esttos 
 veintte y tres Precidios intternos ; de que liay dos en la Ysla de 
 California quattro en Sonora uno en el Nayarit, seis en. la Nueva 
 Yiscaya dos en el Nuevo Mexico, dos en el Nuevo Reyno de Leon 
 tres en Coahuila, y los ottros tres en la Provincia de Texas, impor- 
 ttan ottra gran summa los exttipendios de los Religiosos Missioneros 
 assi de diclias Provincias como ttambien delas de Tampico Sierra 
 gorda y Rio Verde. 
 
 Son mui anttiquos los mas de dichos Precidios, y Missiones sin 
 apariencia alguna de que pueda liberttarse desu gravamen en mu- 
 chos anos la Real Hacienda lo grarsase acassa si en lugar de Pre- 
 cidiales se reclutasen por algun detterminado ttiempo (de ocho o 
 dies anos) y con los mismos sueldos suficienttes Pobladores casados 
 y del mayor numero de liijos adelantta doseles lo correspondientte 
 de dichos sueldos para su reducion, Aperos y Armas que hubiesen 
 de manttener siempre y concediendose les lo prevenido en las Leyes 
 del Tittulo cinco libro quartto de Yndias. Passados assi los ocho o 
 dies anos de la combencion quedavan ya esttablecidas aquellas Pob- 
 laciones y cesava el gravamen de la Real Hacienda para poder com- 
 berttirlo en ottras con que ordenada y successivamentte se poblasen 
 las frontteras y biniese a discargarse entteramentte con el tiempo la 
 Real Hacienda resguardandose y haciendose uttiles las Provincias 
 cessarian tambien las Missiones pasando a Docttrinas y Curattos 
 pues ala vistta y con el exemplo de los Espanoles (y sin las veja- 
 ciones liberttades y excesses de los soldados) se docilittarian y apli- 
 carian mas prestto aquellos Yndios. 
 
 Muchos de los Precidiales no son Espanoles sino de ottras imferi- 
 ores calidades y regularmentte viciosos y mal enttrettenidos por lo 
 que pudieran danar mas que aprovechar, Poblaciones suyas en 
 aquellas distancias. Por el medio propuestto se recluttarian solo 
 pobladores Espanoles que no falttarian en esttas Provincias, y por 
 el conocimientto que tienen de los Yndios, y del Regional usso, y 
 culttivo de las Tierras serian mas apropositto, que los Yslenos de Ca- 
 narias, y menos costtoso, y molestto su transportte. Tampoco fal- 
 ttarian sugettos de comfianza que tomasen por assientto esttas pob- 
 laciones, y el solicittar los vezinos sacando de las cuidades y espe- 
 cialmentte deestta cortte algunas dettanttas familias pobres y mal 
 aplicadas que solo sirven de gravamen en la Republica. 
 
 Aunque la Ley dies y sietto tittulo uno libro quattro de Yndias 
 
396 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 manda que ningun descubrimientto, nueva navegacion ni poblacion 
 sehaga a costta de la Real Hacienda ni gastten de ella cosa alguna 
 en estto los que governaren aunque tingan Poderes e insttrucciones 
 para bacer descubrimienttos y Navegaciones sino lo tuvieren espe- 
 cial para que sea a costta de la Real Hacienda ; pero ya se vee que 
 en la forma predicba no resulttarian gravamenes sino aborros, y 
 sobre ttodo la recomendable publica importtaircia de las Poblacion es. 
 Si el assumptto mereciere el superior agrado de V. excelencia podra 
 tambien trattarlo con audiencia de los dos Senores Fistales en juntta 
 General de Senores Ministtros, y Personas practticas que puedan fa- 
 cilittar ottros medios mas congruentes y eficaceS para la Poblacion 
 y resguardo de diclias Provincias y Frontteras, y en especial la de 
 Texas mucho mas attendible por serlo de una Nacion tan numerosa, 
 Polittica dominantte y acttiba qual es la Francesa. 
 
 Recojiendo ya el bilo delas expediciones de Tejas para los pun- 
 ttos del Ymforme pedido por la Real Cedula de Quinse de Julio de 
 settesienttos quarentta, queestta por caveza de estte expedientte se 
 halla que al Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo succedio en el Go- 
 vierno de aquella Provincia su Thenientte General Don Fernando 
 Perez de Almazan. Siguiosele Don Melclior de Mediavilla, y aestte 
 Don Juan Anttonio Busttillos y Cevallos. Por su renuncia enttro 
 en dicho Govierno el Capittan Don Manuel de Sandoval, que aca- 
 vaba de servir el de Coahuila con que liavia pasado a estte Reyno 
 el ano de Settesienttos veintte o ocho despues de haver servido en 
 los Reales exercittos veinte anos y siete meses de cadette, oficial y 
 Thenientte de Capittan de Granaderos. Apocesionose a principios 
 del ano de settesienttos treinta y quattro, y recidio el mayor tiempo 
 en dicho Precidio de San Anttonio de Bejar para reparar mejor 
 aquellas frequences hosttilidades de los inttrepidos Barbaros Apa- 
 ches, prevenido assi por el excelenttissimo Senor Virrey Marques de 
 Cassafuertte. 
 
 Desde el sittado ano de settesienttos dies, y seis sittuaron los 
 Franceses dicho su precidio de Nachittoos de la partte de aca de 
 dicho Rio Colorado en una Ysletta formada solo en tiempo de abeni- 
 das de un brazo del mismo Rio. Ala partte de aca de estte Braso, 
 tenian los Franceses tambien desde el prinoipio, algunas cassas, 
 Ranchos, Huerttas y sembrados, y un corral para la cavallada de 
 su comandantte Don Luis de Sandenis esttendiendo su goce hastta 
 el Arroyo hondo y paraje llamado la gran monttana que media las 
 siette leguas de enttre los dos Precidios.de Adays y de Nachittoos 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 397 
 
 Por esttar bajar inundable y bumeda diclia Ysleta a por ottros des- 
 ttinos, 6 mottibos comensaron a mudar los Franceses en fines de 
 setesienttos treintta y cinco dicho su Precidio a lo que anttes era la 
 cassa de uno de dicbos Franceses disttantte de la Ysletta un ttiro de 
 fucil segun los testtigos, o un ttercio de Legua segun el mismo com- 
 mandantte Frances en sus carttas Respuesttas constanttes de auttos. 
 
 Prosiguieron los Franceses con eficacia dicba Translacion di cien- 
 do era de orden de la cortte de Pans dada el Govemador de la Lu- 
 ciana Don Juan Baupttistta Biembille. Hallavase Sandoval en 
 diclio Precidio de San Anttonio de Vejar docienttas y quarentta 
 leguas mas aca de diclia Fronttera de los Adays. Tenia de su The- 
 nientte General en ella al Alferez Don Joseph Gonzales, quien en 
 cartta de doce de Noviembre de dicho ano de treintta y cinco le 
 aviso ttodo lo expressado. Respondiole Sandoval en veintte *y 
 nueve del mismo que resisttiese diclia translacion requiriendo por 
 ttres veces al expressado commandante Frances Sandenis para quien 
 le embio carta sobrelo mismo, y duraron los requerimienttos y re- 
 combenciones hastta fines de Agostto de settecienttos treintta y seis. 
 
 Nottenia Sandoval documentto alguno de aquellos Limittes y re- 
 feridas anttescedenttes expediciones, y assi solo por verbales notti- 
 cias arquia : que dichos Alonzo de Leon, Don Domingo Theran, y 
 Domingo Ramon precedieron a los Franceses en la Ocupacion de 
 aguel terreno : que desde enttonces y siempre despues se havia teni- 
 do el Rio Colorado por linde enttrelas dos Coronas poseyendo la de 
 Espana todo lo de la partte de aca como se havia berificado en al- 
 gunos expressos acaesimienttos : que en caso de alguna duda devia 
 darse quentta a los Soberanos y esperar su resolucion suspendien- 
 dose en intterin los Franceses pues delo eonttrario se necessitaria a 
 resisttir los con las Armas. 
 
 El commandantte Frances Don Luis de Sandenis Cavallero del 
 orden de San Luis Oponia : que los Franceses fueron los primeros 
 descubridores en el referido ano de seiscienttos ochentta y cinco : 
 que en el de settesienttos veintte y uno erigio dicho Marques de San 
 Miguel de Aguayo nuesttro Precidio de los Adays, teniendo mucho 
 anttes el suyo los Franceses en dicha Ysletta y de la parte de aca 
 cassas Corrales, y ottras Poscesiones, que no resisttio el Marques, ni 
 sus successores : que en el ano de settesienttos dies y ocho esttubo, 
 y se socarrio dicho Ramon del Precidio de Nachittoos : que al mis- 
 mo Sandenis debieron los Espanoles la postterior ocupacion de los 
 Adays, y fundacion de sus Missiones : que los Franceses represen- 
 
398 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ttavan en aquel Dominio a los Yndios Nachittoos quienes no solo 
 poseyan tierras de la partte de alia del Rio Colorado sino tambien 
 de la partte de aca sin conttradicsion de los Yndios Adays aquienes 
 succedieron los Espanoles : que no esttavan dibididas las siette leguas 
 de enttre ambos Precidios ni havia razon para que los Espanoles se 
 las apropiasen todas : que el obrava en virttud de ordenes desus su- 
 periores, y nopodia suspenderse, y que si fuese invadido con Armas 
 se defenderia con ellas, y serian las consequencias de quentta del 
 culpado. 
 
 Hallavase Sandoval prevenido de estte Superior Govierno para 
 que celase, y embarasase a los Franceses por ttodos los medios posi- 
 bles el quese exediessen de sus limittes pero que no rompiesse con 
 ellos sin dar pumero quentta lo que executto con copia de las respu- 
 esttas del commandantte Frances Sandenis. Prohibiose tambien 
 por vando en los Adays toda comunicacion, y ttrato con franceses 
 paraque ni aun se les comprasen las semillas y basttimenttos acos- 
 ttumbrados. Sin embargo conttinuaron los Franceses la Transla- 
 cion de dicho su Precidio ; que es fabricado de esttacas haciendo 
 alii su Yglesia, y como catorce cassas para el Ministtro Eclesiastico, 
 y de algunos Precidiales y vezinos. 
 
 Havia por enttonces venido de Espana Don Carlos de Franquis 
 conttittulo de Coronel, y futtura del Govierno de Tlaxcala, que hallo 
 preocupado. Confiriole en Intterin el Excelenttissimo Senor Arzo- 
 vispo Virrey el de texas de quese aposcessiono en Septtiembre de 
 setesienttos treintta y seis. Manifestto luego su Genio borrascoso, 
 pettulantte, y precipittado a quese siguieron quejas de Escandalosos 
 temerarias injurias con que tratta va a aquellos Religiosos Missione- 
 ros, de que quittava y abria los pliegos y carttas que salian de 
 aquella Provincia de que sin faculttad alguna havia puestto en el 
 Cepo con dos pares de grillos en la capittal de los Adays asu anttes- 
 cesor Sandoval, quittadole sus papeles, y processadole despues cri- 
 minalmentte sobre aparattadas demandas de aquellos Precidiales y 
 sobre dicha translacion del Precidio Frances que abulttava sin lim- 
 itte. Passo a Texas el Governador del Nuevo Reyno de Leon con 
 Despacho deestta Capittania General de nueve de Julio de settesi- 
 enttos treintta y siette y pesquiso a Franquis rettirandole antes al 
 Precidio de San Juan Baupttistta del Rio grande en Coahuila que 
 descertto viniendose aestta Cortte. Remitio dicho Governador a 
 estta Capittania General la pezquisa en summaria y por nottener 
 Franquis bienes de que pagar los tres mill qaattrosienttos y mas 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 399 
 
 pesos de los Salarios y Costtos, sele sacaron a Sandoval y despues 
 se dettermino dicha pezquisa. 
 
 El ano de settesienttos treintta y oclia dio Sandoval su Residen- 
 cia convistta delo conttra el processado por Franquis la que remittio 
 el Juez sin detterminar a estta Capittania General, y con previa re- 
 spuestta del Senor Fiscal Yedoya se senttenciaron en veintte y oclio 
 de Marzo de settesienttos quarentta sus siette cargos. Absolviosele 
 del ttercero, y quartto quintto y septtimo y se le multto en quinien- 
 ttos pesos por el primero y segundo de no haver recidido en los 
 Adays ni senttado en el Libro Real de filiaciones las Alttas y Yajas 
 de aquellos Precidiales sin embargo de que alegava Sandoval que 
 havia recidido en Bejar por diclias frequenttes hosttilidades de los 
 Yndios Apaches, que desde alii no pudo senttar diclias Alttas, y 
 Yajas en el libro de los Adays disttantte doscienttas quarentta 
 leguas y las havia senttado en apunttes que demonstro por los que 
 alcanzav a la Real Hacienda en un mill trescienttos quarentta y 
 nueve pesos que no se le pagaron. 
 
 Por el sextto cargo de la translacion del Precidio Frances de 
 Nachittoos previno la senttencia, que se recibiesen imformaciones 
 en estta Corte, y en los Adays sobre siera o no de Franceses el 
 sittio aque esttos havian mudado diclio su Precidio, no reservando 
 para en vistta de las resulttas la detterminacion del Cargo exivio 
 Sandoval en Reales Caxas los quinienttos pesos de dicha multa, y 
 a los dies y oclio de Julio del mismo ano de settesienttos quarentta 
 se libro el Despacho para que el Governador de Texas reciviese en 
 los Adays dicha imformasion. 
 
 Nose hiso Cargo a Sandoval de que en tiempo de su Govierno de 
 Tejas estubiese incompletto el numero de los Religiosos Missioneros 
 que paga su Magestad para la administration E spiritual de aquellos 
 Yndios. Ymproperabalo assi Franquis en sus carttas y papeles; 
 pero sin consttancia alguna formal de los Religiosos que havia, y 
 devia haver por lo que se desesttimarian sus exprecsiones como apa- 
 cionadas conttra los Religiosos. 
 
 Examinaronse aque en virttud de dicha senttencia seis ttesttigos 
 de los que se hallaron con empleos en dicha expedission del Mar- 
 ques de San Miguel de Aguayo o esttubieron despues en los Adays, 
 y de ttodos resultto, que diclio Paraje nombrado la gran Monttana 
 (medio enttre los dos Precidios de Adays y Nachittoos) se havia 
 tenido siempre por termino dibisorio enttre las dos Coronas, y no 
 dicho Rio Colorado de cuya vanda de aca tenian los Franceses 
 
400 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 cassas, y ottras poscessiones exttendiendose hastta la gran Mon- 
 tana. 
 
 Aposessionado despues de estte Virreynatto en dies y siette de 
 Agosto de settesienttos quarentta el excelenttissimo Senor Duque 
 de la Conquestta presentto Franquis un difuso escritto con cino mo- 
 ttibo se volbio a acriminar dicho sextto Cargo de la Translacion del 
 Precidio se prendio a Sandoval embargandole todos sus papeles en 
 dies y siete del mes de Septtiembre mantteniendole en la Carcel 
 con Guardia y Centtinela de vistta liastta dies y nueve de Henero 
 de settesienttos quarentta yuno, que se le saltto vajo de Jura mentto 
 digo fianza de Juzgado, y senttenciado por hallarse gravementte 
 emferino sin que constte se hubiesse hecbo conttra el ottra diligencia 
 judicial alguna de Oficio ni de partte en todo el tiempo de dicha 
 prission ni despues de ella. 
 
 Enttregados a Sandoval de su pedimentto ttodos los Auttos re- 
 pitio sus defenzas en un largo escritto de veinte y seis de Octtubre 
 de settesienttos quarentta y uno, y dada vistta al Senor Fiscal ac- 
 ttual Don Pedro de Vedoya, y Ossorio respondio en veintte y oclio 
 de Noviembre del mismo ano, que se devia declarar a Sandoval ex- 
 emptto y libre del Cargo reservado sobre la muttacion de dicho Pre- 
 cidio Frances, pues ademas de que havia resulttado suficienttementte 
 debilittado por diferentes testtigos de la Residencia sobre la prega- 
 resta un decima del interrogattorio de la secretta, estava ya entter- 
 amente desttruido por la sittada imformacion recivida en estta Cortte, 
 y pidio se declarase no deverse proceder a otra diligencia absolvien- 
 dole a mayor abundamientto, declarandole havel, y Capaz para los 
 Empleos militares y Politticos. 
 
 No liallandose aqui la imformacion recivida en los Adays, que se 
 savia havia remitido aquel Governador se le libro Despacho para 
 que remittiesse Testtimonio de ella, que vino en veintte y nueve de 
 Mayo de settesienttos quarentta y dos. En el constta que no se 
 recivio dicha imformacion en virtud del Despacho librado por la 
 sittada senttencia sino en comformidad de cartta orden reservada de 
 Excelenttissimo Senor Yirrey Duque de la Conquestta su f'echa dos 
 de Septtiembre de settesienttos quarentta en que mando al G ovema- 
 dor de Tejas averiguase segura y juridicamentte, que disttancia ha- 
 via del Precidio de los Adays a los Franceses nuevamentte inttro- 
 ducidos y passados de la vanda de aca del Rio, que cassas o fuertte 
 tenian en que tiempo lo executtaron quien era Governador de Texas 
 que diligencias hizo para iinpcdir estte excesso o tolerancia en dimi- 
 
OLD RECORD IN THE ARCHIVES OF BEXAR. 
 
 401 
 
 nucion de los Dominios de su Magesttad si omittio las que devio 
 hacer por que mottibos, y si desde entonces hubo passo libre a los 
 Franceses 6 deesttos a nos ottros por que razon y si hubo alguna 
 negociasion de comercio ilicitto, y que concluyenttementte diesse 
 todas las notticias, y lucis mas fundamenttadas que desentranasen lo 
 referido despachandolo con Correo y con la posible brevedad. 
 
 Recivio dicha Cartta el Governador en los Adays, a ocho de No- 
 viembre del referido ano de settesienttos quarentta examino luego a 
 Don Juan Anttonio Amorin Thenientte reformado : Manuel Antto- 
 nio de Losoya Sargentto Don Phelipe Munos de Mora Alferez Re* 
 formado : Matbeo Anttonio de Ybarbu Cavo de Esquadra ; Phelipe 
 de Sierra soldado y Don Joseph Gonzales acttual Alferez todos 
 Precidiales anttiguos de los Adays. Contexttaron en que la Tlans- 
 lacion del Precidio de Nachitoos fue en paraje reputtado por de los 
 Franceses, y un ttiro de vala de dicha Yysletta en que antes estta* 
 va ; que desde los principios tubieron casas los Franceses de la Yanda 
 de aca desu Rio Colorado, esttimandose por linde de las dos Coronas 
 el Paraje nombrado la gran Monttaiia o el de Arroyo Hondo, que me- 
 dian la disttancia de entre los Precidios de Adays y Nachittoos que 
 resisttio dicha translacion en la forma ya expressada, y que no hubo 
 algun ilicitto Comercio. 
 
 Ocupado Sandoval en las Campanas de Yera cruz come Capittan 
 de nma de aquellas companias a donde vajo tambien Franquis pausso 
 entire tantto la expedicion de unos y ottros autos solicitto la Fran- 
 quis por algunos punttos reservados en la detterminacion de su pes- 
 quisa, y V excelencia por Decretto de nueve de Diziembre de sette- 
 sienttos quarenta y tres, comforme a dicttamen del Senor Oydor Don 
 Domingo Trespalacios de cinco del mismo le absolvio en dichos pun- 
 ttos, y a Sandoval en el reservado de la Translacion del Precidio 
 Frances comforme tambien a la cittada respuestta Fiscal de veintte 
 y ocho de Noviembre de settesienttos quarentta y uno. Resisttio 
 todavia Franquis por escrito de dies y seis de dicho Diziembre la 
 absolucion de Sandoval, y V excelencia en Decretto de veintte y 
 tres del mismo, con previo parecer del Senor Trespalacios impuso 
 perpettuo silenci© a Franquis. Pidio estte en ocho y trece do hene- 
 ro de estte ano se le diese ttestimonio de ttodo el processo, y se le 
 mando dar por Decretto de veintte y nueve del mismo despues de 
 sacado el que se havia de remittir a su Magesttad lo que se hiciese 
 vrebem entte como esttava prevenido repettidas veces. Quedan 
 expendidos no solo los treintta quadernos del assumpto sino mas de 
 
 Vol. I.— 26 
 
402 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ottros quarentta de las antteriores expediciones de Texas para mayor 
 claridad del imforme pedido por su Magestad en sus Reales Ordenes 
 sittadas. Todo se halla ya repettidamentte examinado, y Juzgado, 
 por lo que parace excusada y no necessaria la averiquacion del act- 
 tual Governador de Texas Thenientte Coronel Don Justto Boneo, 
 lo que siendo asi del superior agrado de V excelencia mandara se le 
 partticipe con copia de estte Dicttamen y del ulttimo Parrapho del 
 de seis de Marzo de estte ano, y que se le vaelba original el Dupli- 
 cado de la Real Cedula que remittio que dando testtimonio en estte 
 expediente sobre que, y demas encidenttementte expuestto providen- 
 ciara V excelencia lo que mejor esttimare. Mexico Junio veintte 
 de mil setesientos quarentta y quatro. 
 
 Otro si, respectto a estta quazi inteligibles los auttos del assump- 
 to, que lo seran mas en Testimonio sino esttubiere ya sacado este 
 para la remission mandada a su Magesttad, podra V. excelencia si- 
 endo de su Superior agrado, mandar se le remitta en intterin Testti- 
 monio deestte quaderno, y del dicttamen del Audittor de dos del 
 proximo pasado Mayo con los que se pue de venir en basttante 
 conocimientto de ttodo el negocio fecho ut supra. 
 
 El Marques de Altamira. 
 
 Mexico y Julio quattro de mill settesienttos quarenta y quattro. 
 Como pareco al Senor Audittor y saquen se luego los testtimonios. 
 Senalado con la Rubrica de su Excelencia. Concerda con sus origi- 
 nales que quedan en los Auttos de la Mattheria y Oficio de Govor y 
 Guerra de estte Reyno del Cargo de Don J’ph de Gorraez, que de- 
 spacbo con faculttad y permisso del Exmo Senor Virrey Govor y 
 Cappn GiAl de estta Nueva Spana ; y paraque constte al The de 
 Coronel, y acttual Govor de la Prova de Texas D» Justto Boneo, 
 en virttud de lo mandado doy el presentte. Mexico Veintte y quat- 
 tro de Julio mill settos quarentta y quattro. 
 
 Felix de Sandoval. 
 
APPENDIX NO. II. 
 
 MEMOIR OF COLONEL ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 (WRITTEN BY HIMSELF, ABOUT THE YEAR 1816.) 
 
 Note. — In publishing this memoir, it is proper to state that Colonel Bean 
 was but poorly educated, and his long residence in Mexico had caused him al- 
 most to forget his own language. Hence it has become necessary to correct his 
 manuscript, and to rewrite it. In doing this, great care has been taken to pre- 
 serve, as far as possible, his style and language. — Editob. 
 
 As fortune has now favored me, insomuch that I have returned 
 to my native country, where all men rejoice in freedom and union, 
 protected by the just laws of liberty, I shall let my countrymen 
 know what has been my life since the year 1800. 
 
 I was bom in the state of Tennessee, in the year 1783. I had a 
 common education given me, and such as a frontier country could 
 afford. At the age of seventeen years, I had a great desire to 
 travel, and see other parts of the world. To see some foreign coun- 
 try was all my desire. My father said I was too young, and would 
 not consent. But as the town of Natchez had fallen to the United 
 States, and was a good market for the produce of Tennessee, he 
 consented that I might bring to that country a boat-load of whiskey 
 and flour ; all of which being made ready in a few days, I started 
 in company with a young man from the same place, by the name 
 of John Word, who had some lading with me. About three hun- 
 dred miles below Knoxville, in a place called the Muscle-shoals, I 
 broke my boat in pieces on a rock, and lost all my cargo. I only 
 saved a small trunk of clothes. My companion concluded then that 
 he would return ; but I would not, for I wished to see that country. 
 
404 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I knew that I Had some relations in Natchez, and, although I had 
 lost my cargo, I could get some money from them to return to my 
 country again. So I resolved to continue my journey. Having at 
 that time but five dollars in my pocket, I bid adieu to my compan- 
 ion, and got into a family boat that was coming to Natchez. After 
 some days’ travel, I landed at N.atchez, where I at first saw no per- 
 son that I knew. I was walking on the sand-beach, when a small 
 boy came and asked me if that boat was from Tennessee. I told 
 him it was. He then asked me if there was any man on board by 
 the name of Bean. I told him that was my name. He said his 
 mistress had told him that if there was any one on the boat of that 
 name, he must come to the house with him. But I did not go with 
 him ; so in about half an hour came down an old lady, with her 
 daughter. When I began to converse with her, I found her to be 
 my aunt. She then told me she was very happy in seeing me, and 
 that I must go and live with her. I went that night to her house. 
 The next morning I wrote to an uncle of mine, that lived within 
 twelve miles, to send for me. He sent me a horse and saddle, and 
 I went to see him. I liked much better this place ; but in about 
 fifteen days I fell sick; and, after suffering very severely for a 
 month, I began to get better-. 
 
 In this time I got acquainted with a man by the name of Nolan, 
 that had been for some years before trading with the Spaniards in 
 San Antonio. He told me that he was going to make another 
 voyage to that country in October, and entreated me to go along 
 with him. I readily agreed to go, and stated it to my uncle. But 
 he would not hear, to it, and said that I should not go. A few days 
 afterward my uncle and aunt were absent from home, and Nolan 
 came by, with some young men, then on his voyage. I immediately 
 saddled my horse and started, to make a voyage for three months ; 
 and when my relation came home in the evening, I was gone. We 
 crossed the Mississippi at a place called the Walnut Hills, taking a 
 west course for the Washita* 
 
 Steering a west course, through the Mississippi swamp, for the 
 
 * Before we left Natchez, Governor Sargent and Judge Bruin had called a 
 court on the complaint of the Spanish consul Vidal ; but, finding our passport, 
 that we had from the commandant-general, Don Pedro de Nava, to be good, it 
 was agreed by the court that Nolan should go. This Vidal wrote to the Span- 
 iards at Washita to stop usj but it seems that cowardice prevented them from 
 fighting. 
 
Redfitld Fablishci 
 New York 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 405 
 
 Wasliita, we were about forty miles from the river, when we met 
 about fifty Spaniards, mounted on horseback, and well armed. 
 They had been sent by the commandant at Washita to stop us; 
 but, though our number was only twenty-one, they were afraid to 
 attack us. We asked them their business. They told us they 
 were in pursuit of some Choctaw Indians, that had stolen some 
 horses. This was false, for they were hunting for our party, though 
 they were afraid to own it. They then passed us, and in a short 
 time returned and passed us again, and went back to Washita, 
 where they put themselves on guard that night, thinking we would 
 go by that place. They had tlieir cannons mounted to receive us ; 
 but we left the town to the south of us, and continued our journey 
 still westwardly for the Red river, through a fine country. But 
 there were no roads or inhabitants. Crossing the Washita river the 
 next morning, and finding a large piece of rising ground, we en- 
 camped to kill some provisions, as deer were very plenty. 
 
 We then set out on our voyage, and prosecuted the same for Bed 
 river, but, before reaching it, Mordecai Richards, John Adams, and 
 Johh King, got lost from our party while out hunting. We stopped 
 and hunted for them several days, but could not find them. We 
 supposed they would return to Natchez, which was a fact. There 
 being now but eighteen of us, seven of whom were Spaniards, we 
 continued our journey, and, after five days, came to Red river at the 
 old Caddo town, where we built a raft and crossed, swimming our 
 horses. In about four miles we came to some large prairies, where 
 we found a large quantity of buffalo-meat and some Indians. These 
 were called Twowokanaes. They were very friendly to us, and 
 sold us some fresh horses, of which they had very fine ones. 
 
 In about six days’ journey we came to Trinity river, and, cros- 
 sing it, we found the big, open prairies of that country. W e passed 
 through the plains till we reached a spring, which we called the 
 Painted spring, because a rock at the head of it was painted by the 
 Camanche and Pawnee nations in a peace that was made there by 
 these two nations. In the vast prairie there was no wood, or any 
 other fuel than buffalo-dung, which lay dry in great quantities. But 
 we found that the buffalo had removed, and were getting so scarce, 
 that, in three days after passing the spring, we were forced, in order 
 to sustain life, to eat the flesh of wild horses, which we found in 
 great quantities. For about nine days- we were compelled to eat 
 horseflesh, when we arrived at a river called the Brasos. Here 
 
406 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 we found elk and deer plenty, some buffalo, and wild horses by 
 thousands. 
 
 We built a pen, and caught about three hundred of those wild 
 horses. After some days, the Camanche nation came to see us. 
 They were a party of about two hundred men, women, and chil- 
 dren. We went with them to the south fork of Red river, to see 
 their chief, by the name of Nicoroco, where we stayed with them a 
 month. A number of them had arrows pointed, some with stone, 
 and others with copper. This last they procure in its virgin state 
 in some mountains that run from the river Missouri across the con- 
 tinent to the gulf of Mexico. 
 
 During our stay with this chief, four or five nations that were at 
 peace with him came to see us, and we were great friends. We 
 then thought of returning to our old camp, where we had caught 
 our horses, and taking some more ; for a great many of those we 
 had taken had died, for want of being well taken care of.* .... In 
 about five days we arrived at our old camp. Those Indians stayed 
 with us but a few days, and then went on in search of buffalo. 
 
 These red men have no towns, but roam over these immense 
 plains, carrying with them their tents and clothing made of buffalo- 
 skins. They raise no corn, but depend alone on the chase. Once 
 a year they meet with their head chief on the Salt fork of the Colo- 
 rado river, where he causes all the fire to be extinguished, and then 
 makes new fire for the new year ; and the bands also severally 
 change their hunting-grounds. This meeting takes place in the 
 new moon in June. At the place where they meet are lakes of 
 salt water, so covered with salt, that they can break up any quan- 
 tity they want. 
 
 When they left, a party of them stole from us eleven head of 
 horses. They were our gentle horses, and all we had for running 
 wild horses ; so that we were left unable to do anything. We con- 
 cluded to pursue the robbers; but this was to be done on foot. 
 Philip Nolan, Robert Ashley, Joseph Reed, David Fero, a negro 
 man called Cmsar, and myself, were the volunteers of our small 
 party. We pursued them nine days, and came upon them, en- 
 camped on. a small creek. They did not sde us till we were in fifty 
 yards of them, when we went up in a friendly manner. There were 
 but four men, and some women and children : the rest had gone out 
 to kill buffal). They were twelve men in number. I saw four of 
 
 * A few words of the old manuscript eaten off. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 407 
 
 our horses close by, feeding. J pointed to them, and told them we 
 had come for them, and that they must bring the others they had 
 stolen, to us. An old man said the one who had stolen them had 
 taken the others out hunting ; that he would be in that evening ; 
 and that the rogue who stole them had but one eye, by which we 
 could know him when he came. They gave us meat, of which they 
 had a large quantity drying ; and then we were glad to lie down 
 and rest. 
 
 In the evening, as the old man said, One-Eye came up with our 
 horses. We took him and tied him, the others saying nothing, and 
 kept him tied till morning. His wife then gave us all our horses ; 
 and we took from the thief all the meat we could conveniently 
 carry. We then told them all that there were but few of us, but 
 we could whip twice their number, and they were of the same opin- 
 ion. We then returned safely to our camp, and found all in readi- 
 ness to run horses, and the pen in good repair. But we concluded 
 to let our horses rest a few days before we began to run them, as 
 we had travelled to our camp in four days. 
 
 In four days more it was our misfortune to be attached by a hun- 
 dred and fifty Spaniards sent by the commandant at Chihuahua. 
 He was general-commandant of the five northeastern internal prov- 
 inces, and called Don Nimesio de Salcedo. The troops that came 
 were piloted by Indians from Nacogdoches that came with them. 
 They surrounded our camp about one o’clock in the morning, on the 
 22d of March, 1801. They took the five Spaniards and one Ameri- 
 ca^ that were guarding our horses, leaving but twelve of us, inclu- 
 ding Caesar. We were all alarmed by the tramping of their horses ; 
 and, as day broke, without speaking a word, they commenced their 
 fire. After about ten minutes, our gallant leader Nolan was slain 
 by a musket-ball which hit him in the head. In a few minutes 
 after they began to fire grape-shot at us : they had brought a small 
 swivel on a mule. We had a pen that we had built of logs, to pre- 
 vent the Indians from stealing from us. From this pen we returned 
 their fire until about nine o’clock. We then had two men wounded 
 and one killed. I told my companions we ought to charge on the 
 cannon and take it. Two or three of them agreed to it, but the 
 rest appeared unwilling. I told them it was at most but death ; 
 and if we stood still, all would doubtless be killed ; that we must 
 take the cannon, or retreat. It was agreed that we should retreat. 
 Our number was eleven, of which two were wounded. The powder 
 
408 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 that we could not put in our horns was given to Caesar to carry, 
 while the rest were to make use of their arms. So we set out 
 through a prairie, and shortly crossed a small creek. While we 
 were defending ourselves, Caesar stopped at the creek and surren- 
 dered himself with the ammunition to the enemy. Of the two 
 wounded men, one stopped and gave himself up, the other came on 
 with us. There were then nine of us that stood the fire of the ene- 
 my, on both sides of us, for a march of half a mile. We were so 
 fortunate, that not a man of us got hurt, though the balls played 
 around us like hail. 
 
 In our march we came to a deep ravine. Here we took refuge, 
 and stopped some time. They then began to come too close to us, 
 when we commenced firing afresh. They then retreated ; and about 
 three o’clock in the afternoon they hoisted a white flag, and (through 
 an American that was with them) told us that the commander 
 wanted us to return to our own country, and not remain there with 
 the Indians. We quickly agreed to go as companions with them, 
 but not to give up our guns. It was granted, and we went back 
 and buried our gallant leader Nolan. 
 
 The next day we started in company with the Spanish soldiers 
 for Nacogdoches. In our journey we had to cross the Trinity 
 which we found running over its banks. My companions and I, in 
 a short time, made a small canoe out of a dry cottonwood, which 
 answered very well to carry the soldiers all over. Their arms and 
 their commander were still on the west side. I told my companions 
 that we had it in our power to throw all their guns in the river, take 
 what ammunition we wanted, and return. Some of them were wil- 
 ling ; others said it would be very wrong now we were to be sent 
 home. These last were unfortunate men who put confidence in 
 Spanish promises. These are a people in whom you should put no 
 trust or confidence whatever. 
 
 In some days after we arrived at Nacogdoches, the commandant 
 told us he was waiting for orders from Ghihuahua to set us at liberty 
 and send us home. We waited in this hope for about a month, 
 when, instead of our liberty, we were seized and put in irons, and 
 sent off under a strong guard to San Antonio. Here we lay in 
 prison three months. Then we were started to Mexico, but were 
 stopped at San Luis Potosi, where we were confined in prison one 
 year and four months. By this time we were getting bare of clothes. 
 I told them I was a shoemaker, and would be very thankful if they 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 409 
 
 would permit me, in the daytime, to sit at the door of my prison, 
 and work at my trade. This was granted to me, and also to young 
 Charles King. We made some money; but, in a short time after- 
 ward, orders came that we should be sent to Chihuahua. This 
 order was quickly obeyed ; and we started on horseback, with heavy 
 irons. Yet it was cheering to think that we were going to change 
 our prisons, hoping that in some change we might be able, some day 
 or other, to escape. 
 
 We came to a town called Saltillo, where we were delivered over 
 to another officer, whose duty it was to conduct us to Chihuahua. 
 This man treated us with more humanity than had been shown us 
 before. He took off our irons, and let us ride all the way foot-loose, 
 a distance of four hundred miles. And along the road, and at all 
 the towns, we could look at places, and walk about and see the in- 
 habitants. And we noticed that everywhere they were mixed with 
 Indian, but of a land and friendly disposition. They were all ex- 
 ceedingly kind to us, presenting us with fruits, clothes, and money ; 
 so that, by the time we reached Chihuahua, we began to think we 
 would soon regain our liberty. 
 
 On our arrival in town we were put in prison, and, in five or six 
 days, were tried. Then our irons were taken off, and we had the 
 limits of the town to walk in during the day, and at night we had 
 to come and sleep in the soldiers’ barracks. During this time we 
 received a quarter of a dollar a day for our provisions ; but, as for 
 clothing, there was no way provided to get any. Some of my com- 
 panions got leave of the general to go to other towns to live, but I 
 thought I would find out some way of making something. I gave 
 myself out as a hatter. There was a gentleman who trusted me for 
 whatever was necessary to carry on that business. I employed two 
 Spanish hatters to work with me, for, in fact, I was no hatter at all. 
 In about six months I had so raised my name, that no one would 
 purchase hats except of the American. By this means I got a 
 number of journeymen to work with me. I was clear of debt, and 
 making from fifty to sixty dollars per week. I began to lay up 
 money, with which to try to make my escape at a future day. I 
 had gained the good will of all the principal men in that town, as 
 well as the surrounding villages. I continued in this situation about 
 four years, when I thought it was time to try to reach my native 
 country. 
 
 I left my shop in the hands of a foreman, and obtained leave to 
 
410 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 visit another town forty miles distant, that I might better make my 
 arrangements. When I arrived there, I purchased, through others, 
 four horses, three guns, and as many braces of pistols. Here I was 
 advised by my friends to join the catholic- church, and to marry in 
 the country — as they did not expect the general would ever agree 
 to send us home, as we had come so far into the country. I put 
 them off by promises, but was still making my arrangements to 
 start for the United States : for it was not possible that I should 
 forget my country, or resign myself to live under a tyranny after 
 having enjoyed the liberty of my native land. My companions ap- 
 peared to me to be reconciled and happy ; excepting, however, one 
 of them, by the name of Thomas House. He, like myself, was de- 
 termined to see his native country, if possible. As I thought he 
 was the Only one I could get to go with me, I wrote to him. He 
 answered me, saying he would meet me when called on, at any 
 place appointed. A week after, having all things ready, and two 
 Spanish soldiers, who agreed to desert and go with me, I wrote to 
 ray friend a second letter, to meet me on a certain day at an old 
 church, from which we would set out on our journey for the United 
 States. But, to my misfortune, my letter fell into the hands of 
 another companion of mine, named Tony Waters, who was from 
 Winchester, Virginia. 
 
 As soon as he got it, he broke it open and read it, and immedi- 
 ately reported it to the commanding officer of Chihuahua ; thinking 
 thus to ingratiate himself by selling his countrymen and compan- 
 ions. This was no sooner known, than orders came to the town 
 where I was tc put me in close confinement, which was done with- 
 out any delay. After I was in the dungeon, I was put in the stocks 
 for that day. The next day I was ironed with two pairs of strong 
 irons. The third day I was taken out of my prison, and led to the 
 governor, who asked me if I knew why I was imprisoned. I told 
 him I did not. He then showed me my letter, and asked me if I 
 had written it. I told him I had. He asked me if any of my com- 
 panions were gping. I said, no. He asked if the one to whom I 
 had wrote had agreed to go. I said, no ; but I wrote to invite him, 
 and had received no answer, nor did I expect any, as the letter did 
 not reach him. He asked me if I had arms. I told him that I had 
 none — for my horses, arms, and other things, were kept at a differ- 
 ent place from where I lived, and search had been made, and noth- 
 ing found, as I had previously been informed. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 411 
 
 I was returned to prison, and next morning orders came that I 
 should not talk with any one. I then thought that my undertaking 
 was at an end, inasmuch as I was forbidden to see or talk to any 
 one. But, about twelve o’clock the next day, they brought into 
 my prison one of my companions, who was at the point of death. 
 As I before remarked, my companions had gone to different towns. 
 He was taken sick at a place some distance off, and requested that 
 he might see me before he died. As the catholic religion obliges 
 them to comply in such cases, he was brought to me. But my poor, 
 unfortunate countryman did not expect to find me ironed and in 
 close confinement. When the prison-door was opened, he saw me, 
 came in and sat down, and said to me : “ I never thought to see 
 you in this place ; but, though it is a prison, I shall not leave you 
 until I die, which I expect will be in a few days. Yet I shall die 
 in the company of a countryman.” He then laid himself down. 
 The distress of my friend afflicted me more than ever, hut I could 
 not help either him or myself. I had yet a little money ; with it I 
 sent and got some wine ; and, after a little while, a lady sent, me 
 some dinner, and I got him up, and he ate some. 
 
 This young man was .named Joel Pearce, from North Carolina. 
 Some time after, I asked him if he had not been told, before he 
 came, that I was in prison. He said he knew nothing about it until 
 he came to the town ; and that the commandant told him I was a 
 bad man, and was going to run away, for which reason I was put 
 in prison. He said also that it was better for my companion to go 
 to some house in the town, and not come to stay with me ; for, as 
 he had done nothing, he could stay where he pleased. My com- 
 panion said, “ No, I will go and stay with him.” I told him also it 
 would he better to go to a house of some of my friends, where he 
 would be well treated, and, I hoped, recover. He said, no, he 
 would die there, for he had no hope of recovering. He continued 
 with me for five or six days in this situation, and, I perceived, was 
 daily growing weaker. During this time, I forgot my prison, and 
 thought only of my sick friend. By this time he was able to con- 
 verse with me but little. In the height of our affliction, the justice 
 of the town sent into our jail a big Indian, charged with murder. 
 He brought with him a jew’s-harp, and played on it all the time. 
 This so distracted the head of my poor countryman, that I requested 
 him, in a friendly manner, not to make that noise. He answered 
 me that the harp was his own, and he would play when he pleased. 
 
412 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 There was no great difference between us, for be had on one pail 
 of irons, and I had two. I went up to him and snatched the jew’s 
 harp from him, and broke the tongue out. He rose immediately, 
 and we engaged ; but in a few blows I was conqueror, and he fell 
 down very quiet. My sick companion, when we began, tried to 
 rise, but was so weak, that he fell back on his mat. He was full 
 of joy, however, when he saw I had gained the victory. In three 
 days after, he died, and was carried away to be buried. Then I 
 was more distressed in mind than ever, thinking it would soon be 
 my time to suffer the same fate. 
 
 In this situation I continued for three months, without any com- 
 munication with the world. At the end of this time I was surprised 
 to see my prison-door thrown open, my irons taken off, and myself 
 turned loose to walk about the town as I before had done. I heard 
 that my friend Thomas House, to whom I wrote the letter, was very 
 ill. So I requested of the commandant permission to go to Chihua- 
 hua, where he was, to see him, which was granted. I saw that he 
 was not in a situation to travel ; and he told me to make my escape, 
 as it was impossible that he should ever go. 
 
 In this town was my good friend Waters, who had broken open 
 my letter. I had it in my power to have taken his life, and in a 
 manner that would not be discovered ; but, though he was a man 
 of such meanness, I thought it not right to take his life without giv- 
 ing him a chance. I challenged him to fight me with equal arms, 
 but he refused, and would not see me. I knew of a house to 
 which he frequently resorted. I went there one day, having pro- 
 vided myself with a good stick. I met him there, and told him I 
 must have some satisfaction. He began to beg off, but I gave him 
 no time to excuse himself. I fell on him with my stick, and beat 
 him severely, and left him with two women of the same liouse. # 
 The next day he was able to crawl to the authorities and lodge his 
 complaint ; but the justice was my friend, and he did not succeed 
 so well as he expected. The justice told him he might return 
 thanks to God that I had left life in him, and to go from his pres- 
 ence. He insisted that he was not doing him justice, as I would, 
 perhaps, at some other time, take his life. The justice sent him to 
 jail for a month, because he said he did not treat him with justice. 
 
 There was nothing said to me about it. I passed away my time 
 for about a week, and then asked leave of the general to let me go 
 
 * The women of Mexico are augela of mercy to those in distress. — Ed. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 413 
 
 to New Mexico. I thought if I could get there, 1 could make my 
 escape with the Camanche Indians by way of the Illinois. My 
 request was granted, and I started. 
 
 I must inform my reader that we had passed five years, in all, in 
 Mexico ; that our cases in this time had gone to Spain ; and had 
 also been sent to the United States, and laid before Mr. Jefferson, 
 at that time president — who said he knew nothing of us, and that 
 we should be tried according to the Spanish laws.* This showed 
 little humanity or feeling, thus to give us up to a nation more bar- 
 barous to her prisoners than the Algerines. But what can a poor 
 prisoner expect, when the leading men of his country fail to see 
 justice done him ? If I had been brought to my country, I could 
 have been happy under the severest punishment my crimes de- 
 served. But I suppose that Mr. Jefferson was a great friend to the 
 prince of Peace, who at that time commanded all Spain through the 
 favor of his beloved queen. She first raised him from a soldier to 
 a prince. But where there is love, favor may be expected by 
 queens and commanders. As Mr. Jefferson did not know us, and 
 had no expectation of being benefited by us, it was less trouble to 
 say, “ Hang them !” But as the Spaniards have no feeling for our 
 distress, it would be better to hang us — which is a momentary pain 
 — than to keep us in prison during our lives. 
 
 But I will return to my journey. I left my companion, and de- 
 parted. Pour days after I had set out, an express was sent after 
 me, and I was again brought back and put in irons. The day after 
 I arrived in Chihuahua, my companions began to come in, and were 
 put in the same room with me, and ironed. They said this had all 
 probably happened on account of my journey to New Mexico. I 
 told them that all would be known in a few days ; and, if it was on 
 my account, I wanted to suffer, and not them. 
 
 In seven or eight days, while we were thinking what could be 
 the cause of our being brought together, our door began to rattle, 
 and two priests came in and asked us, in a friendly manner, how we 
 all were. My companions answered very quickly, and asked them 
 what was going to be done with us. During this time I pretended 
 to be asleep. The parsons made answer that they did not know, 
 but they had come for us to confess, if we wished our sins to be 
 forgiven. Some of my companions were frightened, and said we 
 would all be put to death. I then pretended to wake up, and asked 
 
 * Bean was doubtless told this by the Spaniards. — Ed. 
 
414 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 them what was the news. They said that, from what those men 
 had told them, we would all he put to death, and they thought the 
 priests were sent to prepare us for it. I said they might prepare if 
 they wished ; but, as for myself, I wanted no priest to show me how 
 to die, as I would do that without them : and perhaps it would he 
 best for us, as we would then be at the end of our suffering. Some 
 of them replied that I spoke at random ; I said I only spoke for my- 
 self. So I lay down again : and some of them told the priests to 
 come the next day. All our conversation that night was in view of 
 our being put to death. I told them that we should trust to fate, 
 and not fret ourselves about what we could not remedy. One of 
 them said the bravest would be cast down to see his open grave be- 
 fore him. “ But,” said I, “ if you find no way to escape that grave, 
 is it not better to march up to it like a man, than to be dragged to 
 it like one dead ? It is enough for them to drag me to it when life 
 is gone. The most cowardly, when under sentence of death, have 
 marched up with great bravery. And, as for myself, if I must die, 
 I mean not to disgrace my country.” The reason I talked so was, 
 that I did not believe they would put us to death. 
 
 Soon the next morning the priests returned, and David Fero 
 asked them if we were to be put to death. They said they did not 
 know — perhaps some might be. I then began to conclude it would 
 be me, and all my companions thought the same thing. I, however, 
 said nothing ; for, as I had before talked of valor in such cases, it 
 became necessary for me to support that character. The priests 
 said we must confess all our sins to them, and we should be forgiven. 
 
 As for myself, I had been taught that God knew all my crimes, 
 and it was not worth while to relate them to the parsons. But some 
 of my companions began to confess, and had their sins forgiven. 
 When they asked me, I told them I must have four or five days to 
 recollect all my sins — that they were so many, it was doubtful 
 whether I could ever remember them all. The parsons advised me 
 to begin, and God would enlighten me, and help me to remember 
 them. I told them I could not that day, but perhaps by the next 
 day I could remember some things. They then left us. 
 
 All that day the talk among us was as to who it would be. I 
 told them I supposed, as I was the worst, it would be me ; and, as 
 my friend Tony Waters had been put in with us to share our fate, 
 I thought, as he had broken open my letter, that if the thing went 
 according to justice, and they hung the worst man, it must be him, 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 415 
 
 for he was, without doubt, the greatest villain, and ought to have 
 been dead some years ago. Waters sighed, but said nothing. The 
 next day the parsons came again, and brought with them a colonel, 
 who read to us the king’s order — which was, that every fifth man 
 was to be hung, for firing on the king’s troops. But, as some were 
 dead, there were but nine of us, and, out of the nine, but one had 
 to die. This was to be decided by throwing dice on the head of a 
 drum. Whoever threw lowest, was to be executed. 
 
 It was then agreed that the oldest must throw first. I was the 
 youngest, and had to throw last. The first was blindfolded, and 
 two dice put in a glass tumbler. He was led to the drum which 
 was put in the room, and there cast the dice on the head of the 
 drum. And so we went up, one by one, to cast the awful throw of 
 life or death. All of my companions, except one, threw high : he 
 threw four. As I was the last, all his hopes were that I should 
 throw lower than he. As for my part, I was indifferent about it, 
 for I had resigned myself to fortune. I took the glass in my hand, 
 and gained the prize of life, for I threw five. My poor companion, 
 who threw four, was led away from us, surrounded by the clergy, 
 to be executed the next day. This was done in the presence of 
 many sorrowful hearts that beheld it.* 
 
 The rest of us were returned back to prison, without any other 
 notice ; and we so remained three or four days, when orders came 
 that some of us were to be sent away, and I was one of them. The 
 next day the governor came and told us that I and four of my com- 
 panions were to be sent to the South sea, to a place called Acapulco, 
 and that we had first to go to Mexico. 
 
 The next morning horses were brought, and we started with a 
 guard of twenty -five men, to guard five poor Americans, with two 
 pairs of irons on each. The rest of our companions were set at lib- 
 erty. Our journey to Mexico was nine hundred miles from Chi- 
 huahua. The officer commanding our guard favored us in giving 
 us easy-going horses. The people, at every town through which 
 we passed, would flock to see us, for they had never before seen an 
 American so far in the interior. Of those that came to see us, some 
 gave us money, and others sent us provisions. They were all mixed 
 
 * Colouel Bean does not inform us who was executed — perhaps for a good 
 reason. The nine that cast lots were — E. P. Bean, David Fero, Tony Waters, 
 Thomas House, Charles King, Robert Ashley, Joseph Reed, Cffisar, and one 
 whose name is not given. — Ed. 
 
416 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 with Indian, and showed us real friendship, and seemed to have hu- 
 manity in their hearts. The Spaniards were hard-hearted and. bar- 
 barous, and seemed to have no other feeling than to make us as 
 miserable as possible. 
 
 About two hundred miles from Mexico we came to a small town 
 called Salamanca, where a number of people came flocking to see 
 us. The place in which we stopped was a large square enclosed 
 by houses and walls, so that we could either stay in our rooms, or 
 walk about as we pleased. The stone-walls were so high, that we 
 were considered safe. 
 
 Among those who came to see us was a lady, who directed her 
 conversation to me. She asked me slyly if I wished to make my 
 escape. I answered her that it was a thing impossible, and I had 
 resigned myself to my fate. She said she would free me from those 
 irons I wore, and immediately left me. By this time night had 
 come on us. I asked a man, who did not sit far from me, the name 
 of that young lady. He told me her name was Maria Baldonada ; 
 that she was the wife of a very rich man ; that he was very old, and 
 had not long been married to her. This brought me to study what 
 she meant by telling me that she would free me. But this soon left 
 my mind, and I moved to my mat and blanket, and lay down to 
 rest myself. But crowds of people kept coming and going. In a 
 short time after I had laid down, I saw this woman* returning, in 
 company with a man who had on a cloak. She went to where I 
 had sat down, and asked another lady where the American was 
 who had sat there. Hearing her make these inquiries, I raised up 
 and spoke to her. She came and sat by me on my mat, and told 
 me the man with the cloak on had brought files for cutting off my 
 irons ; that I must walk out in the square to a horse-stable, and he 
 would cut them off : and then there was a man on the wall who 
 would drop me a rope and pull me up to the top of the wall ; that 
 the same man would conduct me to where I should see her, and 
 then I would be safe. 
 
 I could speak the Spanish language very well. I answered her 
 that if I made my escape, my poor companions would perhaps suffer 
 worse on my account, and it would be ungenerous in me to leave 
 them. She said it would not be possible to get all out, but one she 
 could ; that she had a regard for me as soon as she saw me. “ And,” 
 said she, “ if I can be the cause of liberating you from your chains 
 and confinement, I hope it will be the means of making you happy ; 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 417 
 
 for I am snre it will make me happy to think that I have been the 
 means of setting you free.” — “Madam,” I answered, “it is very 
 true T should be happy in being thus freed, but unhappy in think- 
 ing that my companions would still suffer.” She said, “ You must 
 take care of yourself, and let God take care of all.” — “But, mad- 
 am,” said I, “ I reckon when I reach Mexico, I shall get ray liberty, 
 and be sent home by way of Vera Cruz.” — “You may think so,” 
 was her answer, “ and not find it so ; and when you think of this 
 chance, you will, perhaps, remember me.” 
 
 “ But, madam,” said I, “ if I were to be turned loose here in the 
 centre of your country, I could not escape without being taken 
 again, and then my sufferings would be increased.” She said, “ I 
 have horses and money, and you can have anything without expo- 
 sing yourself to be retaken. I have several haciendas, in any of 
 which you can stay without its being known.” 
 
 By this time supper was ready, and I was called to eat. She 
 said to me, “ Now it is too late to do anything ; but in the morning 
 you can get your horse saddled, and come with a soldier to my 
 house, which is three doors from this place.” 
 
 Then I parted with the lady ; but during all that night my mind 
 was so much occupied with what I would have done had I been by 
 myself, that I could not sleep. I thought of all that my compan- 
 ions might suffer if I were to take such a step. I also reflected that 
 the lady was married ; and if her husband should find out that she 
 was the means of getting me away, it might make them unhappy, 
 and be the cause of my being retaken. 
 
 In thoughts of this description I passed the night ; and, as soon 
 as day broke, I went and asked the officer to let a soldier saddle my 
 horse, and go with me to a store, that I might buy a handkerchief. 
 He ordered it to be done. Instead of going to the store, I went 
 where the lady had directed me the night before. I fonnd her sit- 
 ting by an open window. I alighted from my horse by placing my 
 foot on the window-sill ; and gave the soldier a dollar, and told him 
 to go and buy some bitters — that I would wait for him. 
 
 So soon as the soldier left me, she said : “ Now is the time for 
 your freedom. I will send my servant to the end of the town with 
 your horse ; and when the soldier comes, I will tell him yt>il mounted 
 your horse, and took such a street. So, if he follows, he will find 
 your horse, and not you, and be afraid to show himself again to his 
 officer, but will desert. And I have a safe place to hide you, and 
 VOL. I. — 27 
 
418 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 will give the soldier money to make him desert, and you must know 
 that I can do it, for they all love money, and have none.” 
 
 I answered her, and said : “ Madam, you are a married lady, and 
 I should be a most unhappy man to receive such favors from one 
 of your rank, and then be compelled to leave you without any hope 
 of seeing you again. But if, by the king’s order, I should get free, 
 I could then come and spend my days in this town, where I should 
 have the happiness of seeing you, and perhaps be sometimes in your 
 eompany, if admissible.” 
 
 “ Sir,” said she, “ you need not think, because I am married, I 
 am bound. I do not so consider it. About a year since, I was mar- 
 ried to a man fifty-five years old, in order not to displease my father 
 and mother. He is a man of great property ; but I can venture to 
 tell you I do not love him. He is not now in town, but is at some 
 silver-mines he is working, and will be absent two weeks. Before 
 he comes, I promise you to go with you to your country, and spend 
 my days with you. Although you are a stranger, I have formed 
 too good an opinion of you to suppose that, after leaving all to go 
 with you to your country, you would then abandon me for any 
 other lady, however fair. Though I am mixed with Indian blood, 
 I would trust to your honor not to cast me off.” 
 
 These words made a deep impression on my mind. Yet I was 
 uneasy, as I expected every moment to see the soldier return. I 
 told her I was sure of my freedom when I reached Mexico ; that 
 my friends had informed me they would write in my behalf, which 
 raised my hopes ; and that I could not leave my companions. For 
 the next three years I repented that I did not take this lady’s ad- 
 vice, as the reader will see further on in this book. 
 
 I waited some time for the soldier to come ; and would not agree- 
 that my horse should be taken away, as she had desired. When 
 she saw that I would not agree to it, she brought me a heavy pack- 
 age and a letter, and directed me to put them in my pocket, and 
 not look at them till the end of that day’s journey. While she was 
 saying this, the soldier came up, and asked if it were not time for 
 us to go. I told her if 1 was set at liberty, as I expected, in Mex- 
 ico, I would return to that town without delay. The soldier then 
 helped me on my horse, and I bid adieu to the lovely Maria Bal- 
 donada. 
 
 When I reached my company, all things were m readiness for 
 our march, and we set out on our journey. We stopped that night 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 419 
 
 at a place called Arcos ; and as soon as we halted, being impatient 
 to look into my package and letter, I sat down to examine them 
 before the people of the village should crowd on us. In the pack- 
 age I found three Joes, in small gold pieces. The letter was as 
 follows : — 
 
 “About three days since, the news reached this town that some 
 Americans were coming on as prisoners. I was very desirous to 
 see them ; but it has been an unhappy time for me since I first saw 
 you. I hope you will obtain your freedom in a short time, and not 
 forget one who is not ashamed to own that the love she has for you 
 is more than she can bear. Sir, perhaps you may ask how this can 
 be, when you are bound in irons : you may think a woman crazy 
 who could love one in that situation. Perhaps so ; but when I first 
 saw you, I was touched with compassion ; then I found my heart 
 distressed ; and, when I came to examine myself, I found it to be 
 in love. 
 
 “ I can write no more. If you leave Mexico, you will let me 
 know where you go, as it will give me some satisfaction. 
 
 “ In this letter is a ring from my finger. I hope you will keep 
 it in remembrance of your love. “ Maria Baldonada.” 
 
 After reading the letter, I went into the room where my compan- 
 ions were ; but I was unhappy, and could not pass off the time as 
 usual. The next morning we set out, and in a few days arrived in 
 Mexico. Here I was cast into a prison-yard, in which there were 
 about three hundred others, some of whom were negroes and In- 
 dians. 
 
 I remained here but a week, when I was taken to Acapulco. 
 This is a seaport town, where vessels come once a year from the 
 East Indies. It has a strong fortification. The castle is built of 
 stone, and has about a hundred guns of the largest calibre. The 
 walls of the fort are twelve feet thick. 
 
 When I arrived at this place, they called over our names ; and, 
 when I answered to mine, they told me to step to the front. I did 
 so. They then directed me to follow an officer, which I also did, 
 but slowly, as I had on two pairs of irons. The officer took me to 
 the side of the castle, and, opening a small door, told me to go in. 
 I did so ; and, when the door was shut, I found myself between two 
 stone walls, about three feet apart, and in a room seven feet long. 
 
420 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 At the far end of the room I could just discern light through a small 
 opening in the twelve-feet wall, which was grated with iron bars. 
 In the door was another opening of three inches square, also grated. 
 Looking through this last opening, I saw that there was a soldier at 
 the door. I asked him what he had done with my companions. He 
 said they were all put together in a large room. In the evening 
 the officer came and opened the door, and brought me some old 
 clothes I had left with my companions ; also a mat for my bed, and 
 some beef and bread, and a pot of water. I asked him why I was 
 separated from my companions. He said it was because something 
 was written from Chihuahua, to the effect that great care should be 
 taken of me ; but he could not tell why. 
 
 The next day, about nine o’clock, when the relief-guard came 
 round, my prison-door was opened, and my irons searched. I then 
 asked the officer if it was possible that I could be put with my com- 
 panions. He said I could not, as the governor of that place had 
 ordered that I should be kept by myself. I tried to content my- 
 self as well as I could, though there was but little happiness to be 
 found here. 
 
 I remembered that Baron Trenck, when he was moved from his 
 first prison to the second, thought how he should escape. So I be- 
 gan to think I should get free ; but seeing the strength of the walls, 
 and having nothing to work with, I concluded it was impossible for 
 me ever to escape : and, should I succeed, I would have to travel 
 three thousand miles through their country to get to the nearest 
 part of the United States. As for the distance, I cared nothing 
 about it, if I could only break through those walls. 
 
 In about ten days after I was put in there, a soldier on guard 
 spoke very friendly to me. I asked him if he would sell me a 
 small knife. He said he would give me one that night. Accord- 
 ingly, at night, he slipped through the hole in the door the blade 
 of a knife, for which I paid him a dollar. I began to work on the 
 wall, but found it of stones of such large size, that I could do noth- 
 ing. Still my spirits did not fail me, and I had a hope that I would 
 make my escape in some way or other, though I could form no idea 
 in what way it was to be done. 
 
 For about three months I was in this situation. Every day they 
 gave me a pot of water, and some beef and bread. But I was not 
 allowed to have any conversation with others. 
 
 This place lies in sixteen degrees of north latitude, and is very 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 421 
 
 warm. There is here a lizard — which the Spaniards call quija — 
 which is about nine or ten inches long and about three inches thick. 
 It is as white as snow, and, if you hold it between you and the light, 
 you may see the bones in its limbs and body. One day, as I was 
 lying on my mat, I saw one of them, for the first time, on the wall. 
 Watching him, I saw that he was trying to catch the flies that had 
 come into the prison when the door was opened, to get out of the 
 sun. I did not know whether he was poisonous or not, but I deter- 
 mined to feed him. So I caught some flies, hnd put them on the 
 end of a straw I had pulled out of my mat ; these I slipped up the 
 wall to him, and found he would take them off the straw. This 
 was my amusement for some days, when he became so gentle, that 
 he would take the flies off my hand. Every morning, as he came 
 down the wall, he would sing like a frog, by which means I had 
 notice that he was coming. In about a week he was so gentle, that 
 he did not leave me at night, but stayed with me all the time. Ev- 
 ery day, when they would open the door to come and examine my 
 irons, he would get frightened, and hide himself under my blanket. 
 When the door was again shut, he would come out and stay with 
 me. I found that he was sincerely my friend : in fact, he was my 
 only companion and amusement. 
 
 In about eleven months after I had been put in this place, I 
 found that some of my companions had been sick, and, as the sol- 
 dier informed me, had been sent to the hospital. I asked him where 
 the hospital was. He told me it was in the town, nearly a half- 
 mile from the castle. I thought I would pretend to be sick too, and 
 see if they would send me to the hospital — hoping I might thus 
 find means to escape . I told the officer of the guard I was sick ; 
 and the doctor was sent for. As I heard the door opening, I struck 
 my elbows against the bricks, which raised my pulse so high, the 
 doctor thought I had a fever, and directed that I should be sent to 
 the hospital. They sent an Indian, who carried me there on his 
 back. When I got there, although I had two pairs of irons on me, 
 they put my legs in the stocks. They consisted of two large, hard 
 logs, having each two half-circular holes in it, so that the top one 
 shut down on the other. I found that, with the irons and stocks, 
 there was no chance of extricating myself. In addition to this, 
 there were ten thousand chinces biting me day and night. So I re- 
 solved the next day to say that I was well, and return to my castle. 
 But, in the evening, I was taken with a violent fever. I suppose 
 
422 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 it was caused by my removal from a place where there was no air, 
 to one where there was too much. 
 
 It was about twenty days before I began to recover. In this 
 time it had become very sickly in the town ; and the hospital was 
 so crowded,, that my room was filled. There was a man laid on 
 each side of me. One of them died in about three hours after he 
 came, aud the other that night. The next morning two more died 
 close by me. I began to think that, in a few more days, it would 
 be my time ; but I still improved. 
 
 In all the time I had been in the hospital, my allowance was two 
 ounces of bread in the morning, with some gruel ; and the head of 
 a fowl and some soup for dinner. As I began to recover, I had a 
 great appetite, but my allowance was not increased. I had money, 
 but was not allowed to purchase. One day a parson brought me a 
 hen’s head, as usual. As I was almost starved, I was in a very ill 
 humor, and would have destroyed myself, but for the reflection that 
 I should let Him take my life who gave it to me. I took the plate 
 as he gave it to me, and asked him why it was that my share of 
 meat every day was the head and neck. He answered me, in a 
 very short manner, that I must eat that, or go to hell for more ! I 
 flew into such a passion, that I rose and threw my plate at him, and 
 hit him on the head, and, as the priests in that country have their 
 heads shaven, hurt him very much ; and as I happened to be out of 
 my stocks at that time, I sprang to my water-pot and threw that at 
 him also, but unfortunately missed him. Being very weak, the 
 effort to throw the pot with violence caused me to fall on my back ; 
 but I got up again as well as I could, and got back to the plank 
 where I lay. In the spring I made, I had skinned my ankles with 
 my irons. I had scarcely sat down, when the sergeant of the guard 
 came in, and put my head in the stocks, for throwing at the friar, 
 where I was kept for fifteen days. My only regret was, that I did 
 not kill him ; as they would then have taken my life, and put an 
 end to my sufferings. 
 
 While my head was in the stocks, the chinces ate all the skin off 
 my neck, for I could not help myself. When my head was taken 
 out of the stocks, I told them I was well, and they might send me 
 to the castle. The doctor had my irons taken off my legs, and in 
 their place a chain of about fifteen pounds’ weight was fastened to 
 each leg. By wrapping them around my waist, I could walk very 
 well, though I was weak. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 423 
 
 I thonght I would try to escape on the road to the castle, for 
 there were but two soldiers guarding me, and they were armed only 
 with sabres. I started off with them, and had got about three hun- 
 dred yards from the hospital, when we came by a house on the 
 outside of the town, having a large garden. In this house the wo- 
 man sold a kind of small-beer. As I had money with me, I asked 
 the soldiers if they would drink some. They quickly agreed to it. 
 We went in the house, and called for some. She brought it out, 
 and we drank it, and called for some more. I asked one of them 
 to go with me into the garden, which he did. I walked with him 
 to the back of the garden, and found a large bunch of pinks, which 
 grow in that country as large as roses. I asked him to come*and 
 see those fine pinks. He came, and, in handing him one, with the 
 same hand I caught him by the neck, presenting my knife-blade, 
 which I had held ready in my other hand, and told him if he did 
 not give up his sword, I would kill him. He quickly obeyed, and 
 asked me what I meant. I told him I was going off, and, if he 
 would go with me, there would be no danger of being retaken. He 
 said he must do so, or he would be put in prison in my place. I 
 saw, however, that he was unwilling. I then gave him a dollar, 
 and started, telling him to go and buy the worth of it in bread for 
 the journey, as we had no provisions ; and that I would wait for 
 him at the burying-ground outside of the town. So I left him, and 
 went out at the back of the garden, and, before he could let the 
 officer of the fort know it, I was safe in the woods. 
 
 By means of a steel I had to strike fire, I cut off my irons, and 
 ascended the side of a mountain, so that I could see all the town 
 and castle. I sat down in a shady grove, where the singing of 
 birds and the thought of being at liberty so charmed me, that I was 
 as happy as any monarch. The sweet-smelling blossoms, interwo- 
 ven with the shade, formed for me a palace ; and, though I had 
 been starved in the hospital, I did not feel hungry, nor was I weak. 
 I felt strong and happy, and sat in that pleasant shade till night. 
 
 I then made my way into the town, and went to a shop, where I 
 supplied myself with bread, bacon, cheese, and a large gourd of 
 brandy. As I was passing near the door of another shop, I heard 
 two men speaking English in the house. As they came out, I spoke 
 to them, and found that they were Irishmen, who belonged to a 
 privateer, which had that day come into port from the city of Lima. 
 I asked them what sort of a man their captain was, and if they 
 
424 
 
 APrENDIX. 
 
 thought I coulcl talk to him. They said they would conduct me to 
 the house, and ask him if he would he kind enough to have some 
 conversation with me. They did so. He sent me word to come to 
 his room ; and when I went in, he asked me of what country I was. 
 I told him I was an American. He could hardly believe me, as I 
 spoke Spanish as well as he could. I told him I wanted to go in 
 the brig with him, and that I had been a prisoner such a time. He 
 said he would clear me from that place, but then we had no time to 
 talk about it ; that I must go away and take care of myself till the 
 next night, and then go on board the brig and hide myself well : he 
 would then sail, and I would be safe. 
 
 I went to the woods that night, and spent all the next day in 
 listening to the songsters of the forest, being greatly pleased. When 
 night came, I went where the sailors were to meet me, and found 
 them waiting for me. They gave me sailors’ clothes, and I went 
 on board like a jolly tar, thinking I was safe. That night we broke 
 the head out of a water-pipe, and at daybreak I took up my abode 
 in it. There were about three hundred such pipes on board. 
 
 About ten o’clock next day a guard came and searched the ves- 
 sel, and, as I was not to be found on board, they returned to the 
 shore. The vessel was to sail in about two hours. There was on 
 board an old Portuguese cook, who knew I was concealed, though 
 he did not know where. The old wretch fell out with some of the 
 Irish sailors, and went ashore, and told the governor I was hid on 
 board the vessel ; that he saw me, and heard them knocking on the 
 hoops of a barrel. The poor Irishman was arrested, and told that 
 I was a king’s prisoner, and, if he did not show where I was, they 
 would send him to prison. They frightened the poor coward so, 
 that he told them I was on board, and he would tell where I was. 
 They came with him on board, and he showed them the water-cask 
 in which I was concealed. It was rolled out, and I was well tied, 
 so that I could not move. I was then thrown from the vessel down 
 into the boat, which bruised me badly, though no bones were broken. 
 I was then landed and carried to the castle again, where my two 
 pairs of irons were put on me, and I was placed again in my little 
 cell. I consoled myself with the thought that I had enjoyed a few 
 hours of liberty, and had heard the birds sing, and perhaps might 
 hear them again. 
 
 After some reflections upon my hard fortune, my mind became 
 easy, and I thought of my poor companion the lizard. As I had 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 425 
 
 just come out of the light, it was so dark I could not see anything. 
 The next day my lizard came down the wall, and, as soon as I saw 
 him, I reached out my hand for him to come on it, hut he was afraid 
 to come into my hand as he had done before my departure. I gave 
 him some boiled beef, and he ate it ; but when I wanted to take 
 him, he ran up the wall. It was four or five days before I could 
 get him to know me ; then he was as friendly as ever, and was the 
 only companion I had. 
 
 One day I began to twist me a small string out of the palmetto 
 of my mat. This was my work for four or five days, when I had 
 a small cord about ten yards long. I laid it aside ; and a short time 
 afterward, I went to look out through the small hole in the thick 
 wall. I saw a woman pass by — I called her. She stopped, and 
 sard “ Where are you V* I said : “ You can’t see me ; I am a pris- 
 oner, and I want you to do me one favor.” She asked me what it 
 was. .1 told her to bring me some spirits. She said if she could 
 get them to .me, she would do it. I told her I had a string, and, if 
 she would bring it, I would put out my string, so that she could tie 
 it to the end, and I could pull it into my cell. I had yet some 
 money, and threw some out at the hole, which she took and went 
 on. I got a small piece of mortar out of the wall, and tied it to the 
 end of the string, as a weight. I threw it out at the hole, and when 
 I felt that it struck bottom outside, I tied it to my arm, and sat like 
 a fisherman waiting for a bite. After some time, I felt my string 
 move : then I heard the woman say, “ Pull;” then she said, “ I am 
 going.” So she left me pulling up my line, which I did with great 
 caution. When it came in sight, I saw that it was a cow’s bladder. 
 As it was soft, I got it in with great ease, although the hole was 
 small. 
 
 When I got it in, I took a drink, and put the bladder under my 
 head. I lay for som& time, when my door began to open. I took 
 my bladder and put in my pot of water, and covered it with my 
 old hat. It was an old priest, who had come out of curiosity to see 
 if it was true that I had a gentle lizard. He asked to see it, and 
 said the officers of the guard had told him of it. I called him Bill ; 
 he was in my bed. I took him in my hand and played with him. 
 The old man observed that it was in the power of man to do any- 
 thing, if he would but turn ;iis attention to it. He then gave me 
 some money, and left me. 
 
 I then took another drink, and lay down ; and, though I found I 
 
426 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 was drunk, I took care to hide the bladder. I can truly say that, 
 during the year and five months I stayed in this cell the last time, 
 the hour I was drunk, and unconscious of everything, was the only 
 happy time I saw. 
 
 One day when the officer came to search my irons, to see if they 
 were good, I heard him tell the sergeant he must have some rocks 
 blasted. The sergeant told him he had hands to bore the holes, 
 but no one that understood charging them. I told them, quickly, 
 that was nothing — that I could do it to great perfection. They 
 went away, and I thought no more of it. In about three days, 
 however, the sergeant came and told me the governor had gttren 
 orders that I should go and blast those rocks, as I had said I knew 
 how. “ You see,” said he, “ that I have befriended you ; and if you 
 act well, perhaps you may gain more privileges. But I am sure 
 you won’t try to get away, as I have done this to get you out.” I 
 said, “ No but I was determined not to lose an opportunity to es- 
 cape, if possible : for I was constantly thinking of the chance I had 
 lost at Salamanca, when the lady offered to free me. As soon as 
 the sergeant told me this, 1 was sure I would escape, or be shot, for 
 I was resolved to risk my life on it the very first chance. 
 
 So my irons were taken off, and a ten-foot chain placed on each 
 foot. I wrapped them round my waist, and started with two sol- 
 diers to take care of me. At the point where I had to work, there 
 were about forty prisoners, and only about twenty soldiers to guard 
 them. On the second day I went out I got twenty-nine cartridges, 
 and sent to buy me a brace of pistols, which cost me twenty-eight 
 dollars. Of the money I brought from Chihuahua, I had yet left 
 about one hundred and fifty dollars. I made my matches to blast 
 the rock in the gallery of a house near by. I sent the woman that 
 lived here, to purchase me twelve knives ; which she did, and kept 
 them in her house till I called for them. 
 
 That night I began to talk to some of the prisoners, and told 
 them it was in our power to escape ; and, if they said the word, it 
 should be done. I was to wait till the next day for the answer of 
 the chief one among the prisoners. The next morning, as we were 
 going out, he came to me, and said some of them would go if I 
 would give them notice. I told him that afternoon was the time ; 
 that I was determined to make a start, and if any one wanted to 
 go, when they saw me take a basket of stones on my shoulder to 
 where the prisoners were throwing dirt, they must be ready ; that 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 427 
 
 I would give him twelve knives to distribute among them ; that I 
 should try to take a gun from a soldier, and all must do the same, 
 and not to run until we had the soldiers running, which would be 
 in less than ten minutes after we began. The pistols I was to get 
 were to come at that time, as the man who was to bring them was 
 to give them to .me on the way. 
 
 So we got to the place. I went to the house, where I got my 
 cartridges and the knives. The latter I gave to the man who was 
 to give them to the prisoners. He put them in his basket ; and, 
 after a short time, he gave me the sign that he had distributed 
 them* I arose and asked the corporal if I might carry some baskets 
 of dirt, to exercise myself. He granted it. I started and filled my 
 basket with broken stone, and went to a soldier. All the prisoners 
 were waiting for me to begin. I asked the soldier to strike me 
 some fire. As he was doing it, I took a stone out of my basket and 
 struck him on the temple. He fell ; I took his gun, dropped my 
 basket of stones, and began to fire. Most of the prisoners were 
 throwing stones; some were miming. The soldiers all fled — there 
 was not one that stood. 
 
 By this time most of the prisoners had started. There were but 
 two guns taken besides mine. Seeing a reinforcement coming from 
 the castle, and all the prisoners gone, except a few cowards that 
 were afraid to go, I started off with an old Spaniard, who had come 
 with us from Natchez. I saw that he ran very slow, and halted 
 and fired, telling him to go on. He ran about fifty yards, and came 
 hack with his hat full of stones, to help me fight. The other pris- 
 oners were gone, but the Spaniard and I made them retreat. I 
 then told him he must go, that I could escape ; but if I left him be- 
 hind, he would be taken. He then started, and I thought he was 
 gone ; for after I fired three rounds, and saw twenty-five soldiers 
 advancing, I started, but in fifty yards more I met him. Said I, 
 “Where are you going?” — “I have come to help my old friend,” 
 said he, “ and have brought more stones.” I told him there were 
 too many soldiers, and we must go. By this time they fired at us. 
 I exchanged shots with them, and the old Spaniard threw stones. 
 The next fire, a shot broke his thigh-bone. He then said : “ My 
 thigh is broke — make your escape; but, before you go, shoot me, 
 for I would rather be shot than taken.” But, as I could not do 
 this, I started, with the bullets singing around me, and finally es- 
 caped from them with my chains on. 
 
428 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 After I ascended a mountain, I sat down, greatly fatigued with 
 the race and battle. I felt so much distress for the loss of my old 
 friend the Spaniard, that I forgot I had my chains to remove. I 
 had come with him from Natchez, but had only been with him 
 three days at Acapulco. He was the only one of my four compan- 
 ions from Natchez that would agree to take part with me in this 
 enterprise. 
 
 After sitting awhile, I began to think of my chains. I had a 
 razor and my old knife-blade : these I struck together and made 
 saws, with which I removed my chains in a few moments. After 
 this was done, I walked along the mountain, to listen if I could 
 hear any of the prisoners taking off their irons ; but I could hear 
 nothing. I then sat down on a rock, regretting the death of my old 
 friend. And, as I was thinking what I should do, and which way 
 I should go — as I was alone — I saw a soldier coming up the 
 mountain. I caught up my gun, and started to charge on him. He 
 had only a sword. When he saw me, he said : “You must not 
 shoot me, my friend. My name is Corral, who always promised to 
 go with you ; and, as I saw you had made your escape, I came in 
 search of you to go with you.” As he said this, I knew him, and 
 told him I was happy of his company, for all were gone, and I was 
 left alone. 
 
 We then sat down on a rock, to consider what was best, and what 
 course we should take. It was impossible to travel through the 
 woods, for the thorns and vines formed such a thicket, that, except 
 it is in a path cut out, you can make no speed. By this time, night 
 was coming on ; and we went down the mountain, where I got wa- 
 ter, for I had nearly given out for want of it. We then took a road 
 for a small village called Cojucan, to the west of Acapulco. We 
 travelled that night till my feet blistered, and the skin came off of 
 them ; for, until that night, I had not travelled any for two years. 
 We stopped just at daybreak, in a thick wood, close by a cattle- 
 ranclie ; and soon in the morning we saw a man coming through 
 the woods, with a large gourd on his back. I called him, and he 
 came to me. I asked him how far it was to Cojucan. He said it 
 was nine miles. Thinking it best to make some arrangements with 
 him for provisions, I told him I was a sailor, and had left the king’s 
 ship in Acapulco ; that I wanted to go and live up on the coast, and 
 not return to that ship any more. I told him we had money to pay 
 him for all the favors he would do us ; and, if he would bring us 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 429 
 
 provisions to tliat or any other place he might select, I would pay 
 him his own price : but that lie must act like a man, and not tell 
 any one he knew of such men. He said he was a poor man, but 
 we might rely on him, and must go with him to a place where no 
 one would go. 
 
 We started with him, and, after going about half a mile through 
 thick brush and vines, he told us to stop there — that he was going 
 to bring us that gourd full of cocoanut-beer. In a short time he 
 returned, bringing the beer. I gave him some money, and he re- 
 turned to his cabin ; and, in about two hours, he came with provis- 
 ions, and we took breakfast. His wife also came with him, and 
 brought some oil and rags to put on my feet ; and, although they 
 were very painful, the thought of being free made me the happiest 
 man in the world. 
 
 We stayed here three days, during which time the rancliero and 
 his wife supplied us with fruits and provisions of all kinds. By this 
 time my feet got so I thought I could continue my journey. My 
 idea was, that, when we got some fifty or sixty miles farther along 
 the coast, I would buy a jackass, as they are plenty in that country, 
 and would answer to pack our provisions. Thus, in six months, I 
 could reach the United States. When the good man brought us 
 some fruit that evening, we told him we wished to start that night, 
 and he must bring us some provisions for the journey, and pilot us 
 to the town of Atoaca. He said he thought I had better wait till 
 my feet were cured, as the distance was about fifty miles. As I 
 told him I thought I could travel, he went home and returned just 
 at dark with provisions, and we set out. My friend the soldier had 
 a sword : I had only a stick ; for, having lost the cock off my gun, 
 I had given it to the Indian ranchero. 
 
 We then took the road to Acoacan, through which we had to 
 pass to go to Atoaca. When we came near enough to hear the 
 dogs barking in the town, I told the pilot it was best to stop there, 
 and for him to go on to the town, and, if he met any guard, he was 
 known by them, and they would not injure him ; and he could tell 
 them his wife was sick, and he was going after medicine. The sol- 
 dier said that was all right, but, as the barking showed the town to 
 be distant, we could all go together some nearer. The pilot agreed 
 with him ; so we went on some three hundred yards farther, when 
 we suddenly saw ourselves surrounded by about seventy men, who 
 rose up on both sides of us ! They demanded of us to surrender. 
 
430 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The poor pilot sat down, and was taken. I spoke to the soldier 
 and said, “ Stand you close by me, and don’t leave me, and we will 
 escape.” So we both charged — he with his sword, and I with my 
 stick. As they had only swords and pikes, and no guns, we broke 
 their ranks and went through together, and gained the thick woods. 
 
 After we had gone about half a mile, they being in pursuit of us, 
 we came to a lake, about three hundred yards wide ; and, notwith- 
 standing such places are full of alligators, I plunged in, and the 
 soldier followed. We waded a good distance, then swam a little, 
 and then waded out to the flags and rushes. After hard work in 
 getting through them, we got on dry ground, but in a great thicket 
 of vines and thorns. We began to work through them as well as 
 we could, without knowing what distance we were from any town 
 or settlement. 
 
 Being fatigued, we stopped, and began to dry our clothes. My 
 shoes were full of sand, and the skin not yet having grown on my 
 feet, they gave me great pain. But I could get nothing to cure 
 them in that place. It was just daybreak as \ye swam the lake, so 
 we spent that day in the thicket. We cut down a cabbage-tree, 
 and got the top out of it, which was all we had to eat. 
 
 The next morning we set out early, and worked through the for- 
 est till about sunset, when we heard a cock crowing at wo great 
 distance from us. We went in that direction, and came in sight of 
 a small village, as we thought, though it was only the houses of 
 some stock-keepers. I saw a pen that had some calves in it. I 
 told the soldier we would retire back into the woods, and at night 
 come back and kill a calf. He agreed to it, and we went back to 
 the woods. We had eaten nothing that day but some fruit. We 
 returned to the pen at night, but the calves were gone. So we 
 passed that place that night, and went on to see if we could find a 
 road leading in the direction we wished to go. We soon got into 
 a path that seemed to lead in the right direction, and we followed it 
 till daybreak. 
 
 By this time it was much larger and more frequently travelled. 
 Continuing on after daylight, we met a man, and asked him the 
 distance to the next house on the road. He said the next place 
 was the town of Cacalutla, which was close by. We then con- 
 cluded that our best way would be to conceal ourselves until night, 
 and then pass by that village. We did so. The man we met was 
 a constable, and returned back after we left the road, and raised 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 431 
 
 two or three small villages. He had been informed of our escape the 
 night before, and had orders to take us. We went into the bushes, 
 and lay down and rested till evening, without having eaten any- 
 thing ; and, before night, we set out on our journey. We went 
 through some old farms, and passed around the town of Cacalutla, 
 and fell into a road which led in the direction we wished to travel. 
 About ten o’clock at night, we came to a small creek. We crossed 
 it, and, just as we rose on the other bank, about thirty men sprang 
 up and ordered us to surrender. We both stuck together, as we 
 had done before — I with my stick, and the soldier with his sword. 
 But in the first charge, a person behind the soldier struck him with 
 a cutlass and disabled his arm, so that he could not fight. He then 
 ran. Some of them pursued him ; the others surrounded me. My 
 feet were so sore I could not run, so I was forced to fight. I broke 
 through them by knocking one of them down with my stick. But 
 I did not get more than forty yards, when I was surrounded again. 
 I was determined to be killed before I would be taken ; but one of 
 them behind me hit me on the temple with a large stick, which 
 knocked me senseless. When I came to myself, I was strongly 
 tied, and saw my companion by me in the same condition. 
 
 We we're carried back to the village, where a new guard took 
 charge of us and carried us back to Cojucan. Here we found our 
 poor friend the ranchero, who had brought us provisions in the 
 woods. Here I was ironed and put in the stocks, and two soldiers 
 left to guard us. I struck up a trade with the guard to turn us 
 loose, and agreed to pay them forty dollars, which was about half 
 the money I had. They agreed to it. I got one of them to buy 
 me two old knives, which I struck together till I made saws of 
 them. I then tried them on the lock of the stocks, and we saw 
 that in a few minutes we could get loose. 
 
 We then waited only for night, to cut ourselves loose, and felt 
 sure pf our escape. But, to our great misfortune, just at dark, we 
 saw twenty Indians coming up, armed with bows and arrows. One 
 of the guard asked them what they had come for. They said they 
 had been sent by the governor to guard the prisoners, and espe- 
 cially the American, who, if not well guarded, would make his 
 escape. The first-named guard told them to go home, as he and 
 his companion would take care of us. He said this, knowing, if we 
 did not escape, he would lose twenty dollars. The Indians said, 
 no, they must stay, or the governor would punish them. 
 
432 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 So they put out two sentinels, and sat down. I now saw that all 
 hope of escape was lost, and I resigned myself to my fate, knowing 
 that I would be sent back to the castle the next day. I spent that 
 night without closing my eyes. The next morning, early horses 
 were brought, and we were carried again to Acapulco. I \vas taken 
 to the governor, who, as soon as he saw me, said : “ Oh, Mr. Bean, 
 you have tried again to escape, but we deceived you ; and I will 
 put it out of your power to try it the third time.” 
 
 I replied : “ Sir, I am a prisoner, and alone ; but I do not fear 
 what you can do to me ; for if you take my life, you will at once 
 free me from tyranny.” 
 
 “ Tyranny, did you say 1 ” said he. “ Look at your companions : 
 they take the sun every day ; they make no attempt to escape, and 
 are something thought of.” 
 
 I answered : “ They are cowards, and do not love their freedom 
 as I do ; for every chance I get, I will use to regain my liberty.” 
 
 “ I will double your imprisonment,” said he. 
 
 “ I ask you no favors,” I answered, “ for, if I did, I would get 
 none ; so you can do just as you please.” 
 
 He ordered them to take me back to the castle, and he would 
 come there. I had not been long in the castle when the governor 
 came. He ordered them to bring a large mulatto, and had me 
 chained to him. We were put in a room where there were some 
 twenty prisoners. That night one of the prisoners whispered to me, 
 that the governor had told the mulatto, if he would take care of me, 
 he would deduct a year of his time ; and if I didn’t obey him, he 
 could whip me if he chose. I thanked him for the information. 
 
 This mulatto was very sulky, and said nothing to me. I was 
 dubious that, from his great size, he would flog me ; but I was de- 
 termined to try him the first word he said to me. Three days after 
 I had been chained to him, we were taken out into the j'ard of the 
 castle to eat breakfast. As I went to reach to get my bread, he 
 jerked the chain, and threw me down. Near by me was half a 
 bull’s skull, with one horn on it. I went back the length of my 
 chain, got the skull, and struck him with it on the head, which 
 knocked him down. I continued my blows; he bellowed, “ Mur- 
 der!” the guard came and took the skull from me. The mulatto 
 begged to be let loose from me. The news soon reached the gov- 
 ernor, who ordered him to be separated and me to be flogged. But 
 the officer did not flog me. I had a wheel put on my neck, so laige 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 433 
 
 that I could not reach the rim of it. Of all the modes of punish- 
 ment, this was new to me. 1 could not move with it. I was in this 
 situation four hours, when it was taken off, and I was taken back 
 to my little cell, with two pairs of irons on me. 
 
 Here I spent my time better. All was silent, and nothing to dis- 
 turb me. I looked for my poor lizard, but he did not make his ap- 
 pearance. Two days after, he came down the wall ; but he had 
 got wild, and would not come to me. At last I caught him, and he 
 became as gentle as usual. 
 
 The governor of the castle wrote to the viceroy that he could not 
 be responsible for me, and I must be sent to another fort. The 
 viceroy sent orders that I must be taken to the East Indies, to a 
 place called Manilla, where the king of Spain had possessions. I 
 was to be sent in the first ship that sailed for that place. When I 
 heard the news, I was well pleased ; for I thought that, in a new 
 place, I might stand a chance to get with some nation of Indians 
 on that island. I knew it was inhabited by savages, and hoped for 
 some chance to escape among them. As there was no ship ready, 
 I had to wait, and keep company with my lizard, which I had de- 
 termined to take with me if I went. 
 
 I will relate the fate of the soldier who was taken at the same 
 time with me. He was tried, and sentenced to ten years of slavery 
 at Vera Cruz. My old friend the Spaniard, who had his thigh bro- 
 ken when I made my escape, died of the wound. 
 
 While I was waiting for a ship, a revolution took place in Mexico, 
 who had declared her independence. It went on with great force. 
 They were turning all the prisoners into soldiers, and, among the 
 rest, my four companions. About a week after all the prisoners, 
 except myself, had been made soldiers, a man came and asked me 
 if I would help them fight, if he would take me out. I said I 
 would. He went to the governor, and told him that, as I had been 
 so venturesome in trying to escape, I would be a good soldier ; and 
 asked him to let me be taken out. This was granted ; and I was 
 brought out of my small room, my irons taken off, and a gun and 
 sword given me. 
 
 I was then in a good fix for war. But yet the republican party 
 was not less than three hundred miles distant. I did my duty well 
 for fifteen days, until I had conversed with the soldiers on the sub- 
 ject of the revolution. They asked me what it meant. I told six 
 or seven of them — such as I could trust — that it was a very great 
 
 Vol. I. — 28 
 
434 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 thing, and that all the natives of the country ought to join them ; 
 for the republicans intended to free their country from the king of 
 Spain, and be the owners of their country themselves ; that the 
 Spaniards had taken it from them about three hundred years ago ; 
 that they intended to run all the Europeans out of the country, and 
 then the natives would be generals and colonels, and all the riches 
 would fall into their hands. Those to whom I said this were well 
 pleased ; but I charged them to say nothing about it to any person 
 that would tell ; and, if they said anything to any one, not to men- 
 tion my name. 
 
 In about three days after, one of them came to me, and said that 
 he wished to go and join the patriots, if I would go. I told him to 
 go and see how many men he could get to join and take their guns ; 
 then to let me know, and I would tell him whether I would go. 
 But he said I knew more about it than they did, and, if I did not 
 go, they could not. I told him to get what men he could, and I 
 would go. 
 
 I then went to my four companions that had come from Natchez, 
 and tried them. They told me I was crazy to talk about it, for, if 
 it was found out, I would be hung. I told them it was all a joke, 
 
 and we said no more about it. The next day my soldier* 
 
 cartridge-box I told him I would let them know when. 
 
 So he left me. The next morning we had orders to embark, and 
 land at a place five miles from Acapulco, called Marques. After 
 we landed, Coseo, the commanding officer, called for volunteers to 
 ascend the river, and find out where the, rebel Morelos was. Six 
 European Spaniards, one of my companions, named William Dan- 
 lin, and myself, stepped to the front and offered our services. We 
 received our orders, and started. 
 
 We went up the river about three miles, when we came to a 
 house where there were a great many fowls. The Spaniards said 
 they must have some. I told them that, while they were catching 
 them, I would go on ahead, and look out for the enemy. They 
 agreed to it. I soon saw a company of the patriot militia. I stepped 
 to one side of the road, and they did not see me till they came up. 
 They had done duty at the fort, and knew me. I spoke to them. 
 They said they knew I would not fight against them, and were 
 overjoyed to see me. I told them there were, at the house below, 
 six Spaniards, and William Danlin, whom they knew ; that they 
 
 * The worms have taken a line or so here. — E d. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 435 
 
 could go and take them. They did so, and not one escaped. One 
 of them stayed back with me, and tied me fast, by agreement, so 
 that they should see that I was a prisoner. 
 
 We were immediately taken to the camp of Morelos, where he 
 had about one hundred and fifty men, and about twenty old broken 
 guns. They told him who we were, and he said he wanted us to 
 assist him in the struggle. I, for one, told him I was a republican, 
 and that was what I had come for. He then pointed to the twenty 
 old guns and a small swivel, and showed us about six pounds of 
 powder, which (being asked by us) he said was all he had. He 
 said he had about a pound of saltpetre and two pounds of sulphur, 
 but none of his people knew how to make it into powder. I told 
 him I could do it ; and got some women to grind it on the rocks 
 they ground corn on for bread, and by night it was all ready to dry. 
 
 We informed Morelos that there were with us, before our capture, 
 about two hundred well-armed men ; that they would perhaps go 
 up the river the next day to hunt for us ; and that if he would go 
 to a certain place where the road ran near to a lake, and lay an 
 ambuscade in the rocks, and fire on them, he might drive them back. 
 Next morning, at daylight, Morelos and his men marched to the 
 place designated, and fired on them before they knew he was there. 
 He killed two of them, and they broke back. 
 
 That day I was drying the little powder I had made ; and, seeing 
 that we were in a bad fix to make headway, I told Morelos that, 
 by going back, I could get seventy of the men on the king’s side to 
 desert and come with me. He said he would trust me, and directed 
 me to go as if I had made my escape. As all that had been taken 
 with me were confined except William Danlin and myself, I started 
 with him that night, though he knew nothing of my plan. About 
 ten o’clock the next day I got back to my old quarters (where I 
 had suffered so long), with a view to take revenge for former suffer- 
 ings. But if my plan had been discovered, I would not have lived 
 two hours. 
 
 I was well received by the king’s officer, and again supplied with 
 arms, and a new suit of clothes, which came in good time, as I was 
 almost naked. I was asked what force Morelos had. I told him 
 about a thousand men, well armed. The king’s officer concluded 
 then not to attack him without a more respectable force. I told 
 him this to stop him till I could arrange my plan. 
 
 In about ten days news came that a colonel, by the name of Par- 
 
436 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ras, was advancing with about four hundred men, and that we were 
 to meet him in the pass of the Sabano, — miles from where Mo- 
 relos was encamped with his small army. We went, three hundred 
 in number, and joined Colonel Parras. We were then seven hun- 
 dred strong. In about ten days more, three hundred more men 
 were to join us, and we were to attack Morelos with the whole force. 
 
 All this time I had sent no word to Morelos. Some of us were 
 sent out to kill white cranes, to get feathers to distinguish our men, 
 as they were militia, and had no uniforms. I strayed to a house, 
 where I found two women, whose husbands were with Morelos. I 
 sent word by them to him to send a confidential man to meet me at 
 that house the next day, and he would hear from me. That night 
 I spoke to the sergeant, who had before wished to go with me, to 
 be ready when I called on him. He said he would. The next day, 
 when I went out to kill more cranes, I went and met the man sent 
 by Morelos, and told him to tell Morelos to send, the third night 
 after that, all the men he had to an old house about half a mile from 
 our camp. I then returned, and the arrangement was all made. 
 
 The night came. The seventy men, who had agreed to go over 
 to the republicans, had managed to get on a picket-guard. About 
 seven o’clock at night, I left the king’s camp, took with me Mariano 
 Tobares and Juan De Leon, and went to where I was to meet Mo- 
 relos’s men. Morelos’s men, commanded by Julian de Abila, came 
 about eleven o’clock. They were five hundred and twenty-seven 
 in number, armed with thirty-six old guns, and the balance with 
 lances and bows and arrows, and some with nothing but sticks. I 
 made up my mind that night to die or be revenged. The sign and 
 countersign were to be, when one said, “Who lives'?” the other 
 should answer, “ Silence !” 
 
 The king’s camp was on the bank of the river. The artillery — 
 four pieces — was mounted on the bank, pointed across the liver, 
 which was about knee-deep. In the king’s camp were about two 
 hundred regulars, stationed next to the artillery. We crossed the 
 river below the camp, and came up under the bank till we got op- 
 posite the guns. We mounted the bank, killed the sentinel, took 
 possession of the cannons, and turned them on the camp. This took 
 them so suddenly, that the regulars surrendered without fighting. 
 The balance of the king’s army came running up, and asked what 
 was the matter. By this time our patriots had armed themselves 
 with the guns of the regulars, and we took the enemy nearly all 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 437 
 
 prisoners, killing only three of them. We took five hundred and 
 twenty-six prisoners, and all their arms and ammunition. Colonel 
 Parras, without hat or uniform, mounted a horse barebacked, and 
 escaped. 
 
 The next day, four hundred of the prisoners — in fact, all the na- 
 tives — joined our flag ; so that, in one night, we had become 
 respectable in men and arms. The three hundred men, who were 
 also to have joined the royalists, camped that night in six miles of 
 us ; but getting news of the affair from some who had escaped, they 
 struck their camp, and retreated for safety. They made no halt 
 till they reached Huacaca, a city on the Pacific ocean. The next 
 morning, General Morelos came up to the battle-ground about nine 
 o’clock. We were all in motion with our cannons and prisoners, 
 and you may well conceive that we had a joyful meeting. 
 
 We marched to the pass of the Sabana, which it was determined 
 we should fortify. The work was commenced, but we were scarce 
 of money for our men. I proposed to plunder Acapulco, for the 
 fort was built to defend the bay, and her guns could not reach the 
 town. The general agreed to it, and a large number of our men 
 volunteered to go with me. We went in the night, and, after car- 
 rying the small guard at the hospital, the town was ours. We got 
 about thirty thousand dollars in goods and about eight thousand 
 dollars in money, which placed our camp in a flourishing condition. 
 
 At this time the royalists had drawn off all the forces they could 
 gather to contend with Hidalgo, Rayon, and others, who were in 
 motion, about Valladolid, and could not bring any great numbers 
 against us. But they mustered a force of about three thousand roy- 
 alists, and attacked our works at the pass of Sabana, which we had 
 finished. This was in March, 1811. But we drove them back with 
 great loss. As we remained in our works, our loss was only one or 
 two. This affair lasted two days, when they retreated. Here Gen- 
 eral Morelos left me with the main body of the troops, which he 
 took to Tayupan. He returned again, and, with liis whole force, 
 set out for Chilpanzingo. Before reaching there, we received news 
 that the royalists were advancing to that place. General Morelos 
 gave me the command of two hundred horsemen, with orders to go 
 forward and occupy the town. I did so, but, at the end of three 
 days, was forced to retreat. We took with us, however, all the 
 effects of the king’s party there, which again supplied our troops 
 with cash. I informed Morelos that I was compelled to retreat by 
 
438 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the superior force of the enemy. He approved the retreat. Tho 
 next day we marched upon Cliualco, where we had news that the 
 royalists were marching rapidly to meet us. 
 
 The next morning, about eight o’clock, they came in sight. We 
 were in readiness, and advanced to meet them. There was, between 
 the two armies, a deep gulley, twenty feet wide, which, except in 
 some particular places, was impassable. While the main body were 
 fighting across the gulley, I marched with three hundred men through 
 a piece of timber, and, Avitliout being perceived by the enemy, fell 
 upon their rear. In an instant they were in confusion, and com- 
 menced their flight. Our army made their way, as they best could, 
 across the gulley. Their officers never tried to rally them, but they 
 all fled. We pursued and cut them down for six miles. All their 
 ammunition and three pieces of artillery fell into our hands. We 
 had with us a large number of Mexican Indians, who pursued and 
 butchered all they could overtake. I came up with them, and urged 
 them to make prisoners, and not to kill. At this time there were, 
 in twenty yards of me, two personal enemies. I advanced toward 
 them, and ordered them to surrender. One of them made a push 
 at me with his spear, and wounded me severely in the right thigh. 
 Our Mexican Indians cut them to pieces in an instant. My horse 
 was brought me, and I rode to camp ; but, when I got there, my 
 boot was filled with blood. I felt no great pain, but was weak 
 and faint. 
 
 The next morning we marched into Chilpanzingo without opposi- 
 tion. Here we had news that the enemy were marching from the 
 Mistaco, on the Pacific, to Acapulco. General Morelos sent me, 
 with fifty mounted men, to look after them. I reached a garrison 
 of two hundred and fifty of our party, on a mountain called Vali- 
 daro. Close by the shore there Avere a hundred more. After six 
 days’ ride, my wound had made me very stiff and sore. However, 
 in about six days after my arrival, I was informed, by a Avoman 
 from Acapulco, that the governor himself was coming to attack the 
 one hundred patriots that were on the coast. They were only nine 
 miles distant. So I immediately started with tAvo hundred men and 
 two small guns from Validaro to join these men on the coast. The 
 third day after our arrival, our pickets gave notice of their approach. 
 I removed my force, consisting of three hundred men, to a rocky 
 bluff on the road, and formed a complete ambuscade. I sent out 
 twenty -five men to give them battle, and then retreat in good order. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 439 
 
 All this was effected ; and we got them so far into the net, that 
 nearly their entire force, about equal to ours, was killed or taken ; 
 and, among the rest, the governor, my old friend, who had kept me 
 so long in chains, was badly wounded. I sent him back to the 
 castle, to die. 
 
 After this battle, all the coast was clear of the enemy, except the 
 strong fort at Acapulco, which I was not able to take. In about a 
 month, General Morelos visited my camp, and showed me a letter 
 from the castle, stating that they had entered into a conspiracy* in 
 the fort to deliver it to us ; that on such a night, as a signal, they 
 would hoist a lantern to the top of the flagstaff, when Morelos should 
 march his men and form them in sixty yards of the fort. He should 
 then send one to let it be known he was there, when all the doors 
 would be opened, the drawbridges let down, and the touchholes of 
 the cannons filled with tallow. 
 
 General Morelos was pleased with the plan, and the idea of pos- 
 sessing the fort. I told him I did not like the plan ; for, if the sol- 
 diers were formed at the place stated, and the cannons of the fort 
 brought to bear on it, it would be a conspiracy to kill all our men. 
 He said, “ Oh, no, it could not be so.” I said it might not be the 
 case, but it was dangerous to trust an enemy at any time. He said 
 he wished to carry out the enterprise. I told him that, if I went 
 into it, I preferred doing it in my way, and not according to their 
 plan. He then left it to me to carry it out as I thought proper. 
 
 The signal was given about an hour before day. I marched my 
 men to the gate on the opposite side of the fort, and sent to inform 
 them we were ready. They had previously placed fifty pieces of 
 cannon, loaded with grape, so as to sweep the place where our men 
 were to have been formed ! They opened their fire, which contin- 
 ued like an earthquake for thirty minutes. In this time we were 
 safely retreating on the other side of the fort, at our leisure, in the 
 dark. They thought, when daylight came, to find the ground cov- 
 ered with “ insurgents,” as they called us, but they found only the 
 grass and herbs tore up ! I asked General Morelos, next day, what 
 he thought of the plan. He said God had protected us. 
 
 As there was no possibility of taking the fort, and they would not 
 come out and fight us, we marched back to Chilpanzingo without 
 delay. After all these engagements, we were without ammunition. 
 
 * Bean says they “had made an entrequi in the fort” He meant an intriga. 
 —Ed. 
 
440 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 As there were large quantities of saltpetre in the country, and I was 
 the only one who understood the manufacture of powder, I set up a 
 powder-mill. We obtained sulphur from a mine near Chilpanzingo. 
 The Indian women ground the materials on their mctates , and I 
 made the powder. 
 
 At a place called Testla, about six miles from Chilpanzingo, Don 
 Miguel Bravo was attacked by the enemy, and defeated them — 
 though they encamped on their ground. That night he wrote us 
 of his situation, and that he was out of ammunition. We set up all 
 night at our powder-works, and the next morning Morelos sent him 
 one hundred and fifty pounds of powder, and took over to assist him 
 six hundred of us. We attacked the enemy on one side, and our 
 friends on the other, and defeated them entirely, taking four hun- 
 dred and sixty -five prisoners, three cannons, all their baggage, and 
 ammunition. Among the prisoners was the man who had written 
 that they would deliver up the castle. We put him to death four 
 days afterward. 
 
 For some months after this we were free from the enemy. Mo- 
 relos, during this time, marched to Tenansingo and Tasco, which he 
 took. I was engaged in providing ammunition. He then came to 
 Cuautla Amilpas, which he concluded to fortify. While this was 
 going on, I provided ammunition sufficient for a siege of six months. 
 
 The viceroy Calejas came with twelve thousand men, and laid 
 siege to the place. It was agreed by the leaders of the patriots 
 that Morelos should stand a siege, and thus draw all the royalists 
 from Mexico. Rayon, Cos, Vedisco, and Bravo, were to approach 
 the besiegers from without, while Morelos was to sally out from the 
 place ; and thus, by one complete victory, we were to be complete 
 masters of Mexico. The other patriot officers, seeing Morelos shut 
 up, did not advance as they w*ere to do, but left him to suffer hun- 
 ger and fatigue until he was forced to leave the place in the night, 
 which he did by forcing his way through the besiegers, with a small 
 loss of men, but of all his cannons and ammunition. 
 
 During the two months of this siege, I had gone out with seventy 
 men to support Chilpanzingo, and provide ammunition. As my 
 guard was too weak, I was forced to fly to Choltepec, forty miles 
 from that place. In this time I had made about two thjusand 
 pounds of powder, and had repaired a number of old guns, all of 
 which were of great service to Morelos when he retreated from 
 Cuautla. We marched to relieve a portion of the patriots who. 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 441 
 
 under tlm command of a lieutenant-colonel, were besieged in Hua- 
 huapan. We succeeded, and took two pieces of artillery and some 
 muskets. We then marched to Tehuacan, which received us with 
 the ringing of the church-bells. We remained here about two 
 months, when we marched to attack Orizaba. We reached it in a 
 march of' three days, and took it by assault, with little loss. 
 
 Hearing that the royalists, under the command of General Avia, 
 were advancing rapidly to give us battle, we left Orizaba in three 
 days, and marched out to gain a position on the road where he would 
 pass. He reached the place first. We made an effort to pass him, 
 but he was well prepared, and gave us such a complete flogging, 
 that he dispersed our forces. We saved our guns and ammunition 
 with difficulty, and made our way to Tehuacan. Thence we 
 marched to Huacaca, on the waters of the Pacific. In this march, 
 the want of horses and provisions, and the bad and mountainous 
 state of the roads, put us to great trouble. When we reached the 
 beautiful plains of Huacaca, we summoned them to surrender, which 
 they refused. At daylight, next morning, we attacked the city, and 
 in two hours obtained possession. We took here a large quantity 
 of property belonging to the king and the royalists, which we much 
 needed. We also acquired a rich province, which produces large 
 quantities of cochineal. We remained here about a year, in which 
 time I had erected a powder-mill, and carried on successfully the 
 manufacture of powder. 
 
 At the end of this time, we marched with twelve thousand well 
 armed men to Chilpanzingo, and then to Acapulco, to try and get 
 possession of the place. General Morelos, our commander-in-chief 
 sent in a flag, demanding the surrender of the place. The letter 
 was not signed by Morelos, but by me: The commandant of the 
 
 fort answered as follows : — 
 
 “ If you will come and join his majesty’s troops, you shall have a 
 colonel’s commission, and ten thousand dollars’ reward.” 
 
 I presented it to General Morelos. He laughed when he read it, 
 and said, “ Why don’t you go ?” I said, “ If you thought I would 
 go, you would not say that.” He then said, “You are right.” 
 With his leave, I then wrote as follow* : — 
 
 “ Sir : I have had the pleasure of receiving your letter, dated 
 December the 20th, 1812; and, in answer to the same, I have to 
 state that I am very poor, but, for all that, your king has not money 
 
442 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 enough to buy me, or make me a friend to a tyrant, when I have 
 been rocked in the cradle of liberty from infancy. 
 
 Your ob’t servant, ” Bean.” 
 
 We laid in about two miles of the fort for three or foui days, 
 when a deserter came to our camp, and told us that the enemy’s 
 women and childreu, with their sick, and an abundance of provis- 
 ions, were on a small island, about a mile from the shore. As there 
 were provisions on the island, it was deemed impracticable for us 
 to starve out the fort ; so we fell upon the plan of building a suffi- 
 cient number of 'piraguas to pass over and take the island. We 
 went to work to build the vessels ; and while at it, General Morelos, 
 being in bad health, went to Tehepan, leaving me in command of 
 the business. 
 
 I had a small party of men stationed just out of gunshot from the 
 fort. They were very careless of the defence of the post. So, one 
 morning, just at daybreak, when they were all lying down, the roy- 
 alists came out of the fort and charged on them They defeated 
 them completely, and took from them two pieces of artillery. I 
 heard the firing at my camp, got my troops in order, and marched 
 with all speed ; but, before I got there, they had returned to the 
 fort, so that I could do nothing. 
 
 I then stationed another guard at the same place, and attended 
 to the making of the vessels. I soon had twenty made : they were 
 rough and badly made, yet large, and would hold many men. I 
 wrote to General Morelos that I was ready to pass to the island. 
 He answered me, to go on ; that his health was yet bad ; that he 
 would send me fifty mule-loads of com, knowing that I had plenty 
 of beef. I launched all my vessels ; and one calm night, having 
 placed in them about five hundred men, I passed over to the island, 
 and landed just before day. At daylight I charged on the camp, 
 and took it without the loss of a man. I found a guard of forty 
 men, about two hundred women and children, and some old men 
 sick. They informed me that two schooners would be there the 
 next day. I then lashed my piraguas about three feet apart, four 
 together, laid poles across them, and thus formed four floating plat- 
 forms, or whatever you may call them, and took them to the point 
 of the island, to see if I could not prevent the schooners from com- 
 ing out. 
 
 They came out, and, seeing us, went back to the port, and got 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 443 
 
 some small guns on board ; and the next day came out again, to 
 destroy ray rafts. They came close to us, and opened a fire. We 
 soon made them wish to retire. One of them did ; but the other, 
 having her mast shot away by a shot from a six-pounder I had 
 found on the island, and having some of her men killed, they ran 
 below, and she drifted within twenty feet of us. We then boarded 
 her with our four loose piraguas, fastened her to our raft, and took 
 her men, nineteen in all, prisoners. 
 
 The prisoners informed me that they were out of provisions, and 
 would be forced to surrender within three days. Three of the wo- 
 men on the island asked leave to go to the fort. I told them they 
 were all starving there, and, if they went, they would suffer. They 
 begged me to let them go, and said that they would tell the troops 
 at the fort how kindly they would be treated if they surrendered, 
 and that I had said I would not leave the place till I had taken the 
 fort. I let them go. Sure enough, the next day a flag left the fort, 
 and made toward my camp on the shore. I sent from the island to 
 meet them. They were two clergymen and one lieutenant. They 
 said their commander had sent them to me, to state that he would 
 surrender the fort if I would let him and his troops march out with 
 their arms, and go and join the other troops of the king. 
 
 I said, no ; that if he would surrender it, and let all the arms and 
 ammunition, and king’s property, remain in the fort, then every man 
 might take his clothes, baggage, and money enough to bear his ex- 
 penses, and have a passport to join the king’s troops wherever he 
 pleased ; but, if I found anything more taken, I would retain the 
 commander as a prisoner * ..... 
 
 . . . “ that my house is yours, and that my daughter who now 
 
 sits in your presence esteems you, and, there is no doubt in my mind, 
 would forsake her home and parents to follow you in the army, al- 
 though she has been raised by kind parents, and never lacked any- 
 thing of enjoyment this place could afford. She has disclosed her 
 mind to me, and says you have promised, when the war is over, to 
 make her your companion. It is, then, the wish of us all, that you 
 stay with us. The whole of this city shall suffer death before you 
 
 * There are four leaves, or eight pages, of the original manuscripts, missing 
 here, viz., front page 197 to page 204 of the original It may Jbe prtper to state 
 that the place was at last surrendered, and the prisoners alterw«fld shot by 
 order of Morelos, to retaliate for the loss of General Matamoras. — -fin 
 
444 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 shall be hurt. We have now in the house for you a king’s pardon, 
 and the promise that you shall have the same command in the 
 king’s army that you now have. So, fulfil the promise to my daugh- 
 ter, marry her, make her happy, and yourself also. You well know 
 of the defeat of Morelos, and that all the troops you commanded are 
 lost ; that the king’s troops are daily increasing, and the patriots 
 falling off. So, for your own happiness and mine, I hope you will, 
 at your leisure, take all these things into consideration.” 
 
 I said to her : “ Dear madam, your offers are fair and friendly, 
 for which I give you a thousand thanks. But no man of honor 
 ought to change his coat to join a despotic monarch, and groan un- 
 der the weight of chains which I have made a feeble attempt to 
 break. True, I have not yet succeeded ; but I hope to see this 
 country flourish in the enjoyment of liberty, and the despot fly from 
 our coasts. I can never think of changing my mind : I shall ever 
 continue to raise my sword against the king while my life is spared, 
 and he attempts to occupy this land.” 
 
 Miss Wakina spoke : “ You have visited my father’s house, and I 
 have been simple enough to think you had a regard for me, and 
 would wish to make me happy. But now I see you are full of flat- 
 tery, and do not return my regard for you. I will leave father, 
 mother, and all, to go with you ; and, as it would be a happiness to 
 endure fatigue in your company, if you will not stay with us, I will 
 follow you till death shall separate us.” 
 
 I returned many thanks to this beautiful girl ; and, as an objec- 
 tion to her going with me, told her that, if I should lose my life in 
 any engagement, she would be left without parents or friend ; that 
 I had strong hopes I would shortly return, and then I would be 
 more than willing to make her my own. I told her I thought she 
 possessed more honor than to urge me to join the standard of a des- 
 pot, and thus, for her sake, to make myself for ever miserable. She 
 then said she wished me to preserve my honor, and do what was 
 right ; that she would go into a convent, and await my return. I 
 then gave this young angel a kiss, and left the room. 
 
 I then returned to where the priests and friars were, who supposed 
 that everything was ready. I told them I must ride, and that they 
 could command me at all times, as could all men of liberal minds, 
 although they might not join in the field of battle. There was 
 silence for a moment: some wine was brought in — I took some, 
 bid them adieu, and went out and mounted my horse. In this time 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 445 
 
 the ladies were telling what I had said. A friar came out and took 
 my horse by the reins, and said I must not go. I wished him to 
 let go my horse. Miss Wakina came to the door, and told him that 
 my principles were honorable, and not to incommode me ; then, with 
 tears in her eyes, she bid me farewell. The friar still held on to 
 my horse, and would not let go till I put my spurs to him. I rode 
 to the street ; my few men mounted their horses : then all came 
 up ; I bid them a general farewell, and we started on the road for 
 Quicaclan. 
 
 The next day, about eleven o’clock, I came up with my mules, 
 loaded with ammunition. I had two hundred followers, and only 
 two thousand dollars, and knew not where to get more. In three 
 days I reached Quicaclan. Here I was informed that General 
 Rayon was in Tentaclan del Camino, only nine miles distant. 1 
 was by this much relieved, as it was gratifying to know that my 
 small force were not all the republicans in the world. I mounted 
 and marched with all possible speed, though the most of my pack- 
 mules were very tired. But when I reached Tentaclan, to my 
 great surprise, Rayon had left that place the day before, and gone 
 up a mountain to a place called San Pablo Solaclan. I stopped 
 that night, and the next morning I received news that General 
 Avio, a royalist, was on his way to that place, expecting to find 
 General Rayon there. It was necessary for me, with my small 
 force, to stand or run. My mules had all given out ; and then, to 
 escape the enemy, I would have to take up the mountain at the 
 edge of the town, and leave my ammunition. 
 
 I wrote to Rayon that it was impossible for me to move ; and to 
 send me a reinforcement, and I could beat, the enemy with ease — 
 so that we could then march to Tehuacan without any danger. His 
 answer was, for me to leave the place, and save what I could ; that 
 he should not send me any relief. I then commenced to pack and 
 start my mules — all of which was owing to a want of valor in 
 Rayon, who had run away from the same enemy before I came. I 
 had started my packs with the pack-men, but not my soldiers, and 
 had sent out a small picket-guard in the direction of the enemy. 
 They returned, and reported that they would be there that evening. 
 
 I sent back to Teotla and got forty men to reinforce my two 
 hundred. I had with me Captain Simon Mendez, in whom I placed 
 great confidence. I thought I would see what force the enemy 
 had : and if I could give him battle, I would do so ; if not, I would 
 
446 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 retreat. It liad been reported that they were a thousand strong. 
 My mules were gone, and I had no artillery, except a small howit- 
 zer. The town was on a beautiful rise, so that I could see them 
 when they approached within half a mile. When they came in 
 sight, I saw they had about three hundred cavalry, two hundred 
 infantry, and one piece of artillery. 
 
 I marched to the outside of the town, to a small creek with high 
 banks. There I stationed fifty men behind a rise, which concealed 
 them from the enemy. As soon as their cavalry saw my advance, 
 they charged. They were some time in the creek, so that I got 
 two fires on them. My advance then fell back to my main line, on 
 top of the hill. There we gave the enemy’s cavalry such a beat- 
 ing, that they retreated, and reported to their infantry (who never 
 reached the battle-ground) that my force was two thousand men ! 
 The whole body then fell back, and that night retreated to Cosco- 
 clan, leaving me quietly at Tentaclan. 
 
 General Rayon, hearing of my success, came to my assistance 
 when I did not need him. I then went with him to San Pablo Cos- 
 coclan. He then wanted me to come under his command. This was 
 the first time I had ever seen him. I stated his wishes to my men ; 
 and they said I might do as I thought proper, but they would not 
 follow me if I did. I did not like myself to go with him, for I knew 
 I would always be left to fight if any danger offered. So I told 
 him I would meet him at the Lanas de Apan in six or seven days. 
 So he left me, and marched for that place. But it was not my in- 
 tention to meet him there. 
 
 The second day after his departure, I received a letter from 
 General Morelos, relating all his misfortunes, and requesting me, if 
 I could pass to the United States, to do so as soon as possible ; and 
 see if I could make any arrangements to bring on a campaign 
 against the province of Texas, and, if I could, to make some pro- 
 vision for a supply of arms. 
 
 My situation was then desperate. When I left Huahaca, I had 
 two thousand dollars. I had spent all this, in furnishing my men, 
 excepting five hundred dollars. Knowing that, with money, in the 
 United States, I could do much, and, without it, nothing, I was 
 troubled. 
 
 There were some rich patriots in Teliuacan ; so, having left my 
 men under command of Captain Simon Mendez, I went to see them, 
 and stated my situation. As I was known there, and General Mo- 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 447 
 
 relos was much esteemed, I found that the people would raise me 
 all the money they could in a few days ; and so my mind was re- 
 lieved. In about ten days I received news that the citizens had 
 made up ten thousand dollars for me to take with me. 
 
 As soon as I could, I went to Huatusco, where there were sta- 
 tioned fifty patriots. Thence I continued my journey to the king’s 
 biidge, or Puente del Rey, where I found General Victoria and a 
 man by the name of Ansures. I stayed with them one night, and 
 proceeded to the town of Nautla, on the coast. This place was, at 
 that time, commanded by a negro, named Philipia. I found here a 
 large open boat, and, thought, by putting a deck on it, I could pass 
 the gulf. After working at it five days, there came in sight a fine 
 schooner, belonging to a company of privateers commanded by La- 
 fitte, and well known by the citizens of the United States. They 
 lived on an island called Barrataria, below New Orleans. This 
 schooner, called “ The Tiger,” was commanded by Captain Domi- 
 nic, a Frenchman. I had under me in that place about seventy- 
 five men. We made every signal, but could not get them to send 
 their boat, although they lay to, and showed their colors. At that 
 time they had Carthagenian colors, with which I was not acquaint- 
 ed. Toward evening they sailed southwest, toward Vera Cruz. 
 
 The second day after, we saw two sails coming up the coast, very 
 close to the shore. With a good glass, I quickly found that the 
 foremost vessel was the one that had left two days before. When 
 she came opposite to us, she let fly the same colors as before. I 
 had no other craft than large piraguas, and could not think of ven- 
 turing out, not knowing but she was a royalist. 
 
 In this time the other vessel, which I found to be a large brig, 
 came close alongside the schooner, and, hoisting English colors, the 
 fight began between them. The schooner spread her sails, and 
 played around the brig, until she had shot away her mainmast. The 
 brig was then ungovernable. The schooner made off out of gun- 
 shot, and then lay to again. The brig sent out two large boats to 
 board the schooner. As they came near, she sunk one of them, and 
 the other was badly shattered. The brig having picked up her 
 men from the wreck, the schooner made off toward New Orleans, 
 and the brig returned a southwest course. 
 
 The next morning, the guard on shore reported that there was a 
 small schooner at the mouth of the river, a half-mile from the town. 
 Filling the three piraguas with men, I went down to the schooner. 
 
448 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and found lier drifting toward the shore, hut, as there was a calm, 
 making no headway. I went out with two of my boats, and hoarded 
 and brought her in. This is the first vessel the Mexican nation ever 
 owned. She had on board some flour and dried beef, which was of 
 great service to us. I had a thought of fitting up this vessel for my 
 voyage, but I found she was only a coaster, and had no compass or 
 quadrant ; and if she had, they would have been of no service to 
 me, for I knew nothing of navigation, and had never been twenty 
 miles from shore in my life. 
 
 The next morning, a woman came down the coast to sell us some 
 fowls and eggs, and informed me that, six miles up, there was a 
 schooner run close to shore ; that her deck was covered with men, 
 and she had no masts. Supposing it might be the enemy who had 
 come out from Tampico, and was aiming to land and give me battle, 
 I then set out with my small force to stop them from landing — 
 knowing that on that open coast they would land with difficulty. 
 When I approached near them, I concealed my men behind 
 the sandbanks, and sent five men unarmed to the shore, that 
 they might not be alarmed. The five men hailed them, and they 
 sent out tlieir boat for them. I then learned that this was “ The 
 Tiger that she had been so fortunate as to cripple the English 
 brig, and get away from her ; that afterward the crew of the schooner 
 had got to drinking, and ran her on the shoal which extends out a 
 great distance from shore. I learned that the Spaniards at Vera 
 Cruz had promised the English captain two thousand dollars if he 
 would capture the schooner ; but he got well shattered, and did not 
 take her as he expected. I was happy to find some of my country- 
 men on board, and learned from them, for the first time, that the 
 United States and England were at war. 
 
 I then sent for my small schooner I had found at the mouth of 
 the river, and transported the crew of the Tiger and all on board 
 of her to Nautla. We then prepared my little schooner, and took 
 on .as many of the crew of the Tiger as we could carry, and in ten 
 days set sail for New Orleans. In thirteen days more I landed 
 safely on Barrataria island. I left my small schooner in care of 
 Lafitte, and got an old Frenchman to pilot me through some lakes, 
 and land me on the Mississippi, about nine miles above New Orleans. 
 
 I got a skiff from a gentleman by the name of Hearn, and a negro 
 to row me down to the city. This was in 1814. 
 
 I found my old acquaintance, William C. C. Claiborne, of Ten- 
 
MEMOIR OF ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 449 
 
 nessoc, was governor of Orleans. But I did not remain long there. 
 
 I went to Natchez, and thence to Natchitoches, to see what chance 
 there was to renew the expedition of Bernardo Gutierres and Tole- 
 do. At Natchitoches I found a large number of poor fugitive Mexi- 
 cans ; but they had become dispirited, and had no desire to make a 
 second attempt. I had not mone} enough to cany on an expedi- 
 tion, so I returned back to New Orleans. 
 
 The day after my arrival, the American gunboats had been taken 
 by an English squadron off Mobile ; and, shortly after, great prepa- 
 rations were being made by General Andrew Jackson to defend 
 New Orleans. I had known Jackson from my earliest recollection. 
 I thought, although I had not been in the United States for fifteen 
 years, that I would volunteer my services. I joined the company 
 of Captain Maunsell White, of New Orleans, and was stationed at 
 Bayou St. Johns. 
 
 News arrived that the British had landed below New Orleans. 
 At three o’clock in the afternoon our company struck up the march, 
 and overtook the rest of the army before they reached the battle- 
 ground. (I shall not say much of this battle, as it is well known.) 
 Next day, General Jackson asked me if I understood artillery* I 
 told him I did. He then stationed me at a twenty -four pounder, a 
 short distance from the levee, where I stood till the British retreated, 
 except two days, in which I was showing Mr. William Brant, a 
 brick-mason of New Orleans, how to erect a couple of air-furnaces 
 for heating shot. 
 
 After the British had been defeated, and made their retreat, I 
 asked leave of General Jackson to return to Mexico, which was 
 granted. I obtained a small schooner in New Orleans, bought aims 
 and ammunition as far as my means would allow, and started down 
 the river. I could not go out at the Balize, because of some Eng- 
 lish vessels stationed there, b' if went out at what is called the South- 
 west pass. I again made my way to Nautla, taking, on the voyage, 
 a small Spanish schooner, loaded with com and flour, and bound 
 from Tampico to Vera Cruz. 
 
 I carried her safely in. I then armed all the men I could, placed 
 Villapinta in command of the const, and set out on a journey of six 
 hundred miles through the enemy's country to Purucan, where Gen- 
 eral Morelos was stationed. At this place, about three months pre- 
 
 * General Jackson knew the Beans well. The scene between him and Jessa 
 Bean, an uncle of Ellis F., forms part of our early history. —Ed. 
 
 Vol. I, — 29 
 
450 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 vious to my arrival, General Matamoras had been taken and shot 
 by the royalists. I performed this long journey (without any acci- 
 dent) with only six men. When I arrived, Morelos said I was 
 right — he ought not to have come on this expedition. He asked 
 me what good news I brought from the United States. I related 
 to him how I got there, and what I had done. I told him the Uni- 
 ted States were our friends and well-wishers ; hut they were then 
 at war with Great Britain, which might he a reason why they could 
 not do so much for us. 
 
 It was then concluded to send an embassador to the United States, 
 and that I should return there with him. Twenty-five thousand 
 dollars was all the money that could he raised for the purpose. 
 General Morelos wished to come with us as far as the coast ; but fie 
 had been appointed president of our small republic, yet in its strug- 
 gle for freedom, and could not leave. Don Manuel de Herrera was 
 appointed embassador. Morelos sent with us his son Almonte, as 
 far as New Orleans* When we reached the last-named place, we 
 found that the United States would not acknowledge our indepen- 
 dence. As we were not yet free from the Spanish yoke, this was 
 right. 
 
 I left Herrera and Almonte, and returned to Mexico ; hut, before 
 I reached there, Morelos had been taken by the royalists and shot. 
 I found the country was in a desperate situation ; that a great num- 
 ber of the former patriots had gone over to the royalists, and obtained 
 pardons. I went to Tehuacan, where General Teran was stationed. 
 There I learned that Colonel Muscos was taken at Palo Blanco, 
 near Huatusco. I returned to the latter place, where I had about 
 fourteen hundred dollars in money. I packed it up, and started to 
 meet General Victoria, who had gone down to the coast, a small 
 distance from Vera Cruz. 
 
 * Almont6 (present Mexican minister to the United States) was an illegitimate 
 son of Morelos, and was sent in care of Colonel Bean to the United States, to be 
 educated. He was placed at school, and for some time remained there ; but his 
 father being killed, and his means failing, he became a clerk in the store of 
 Puech and Bein, hardward-merchants in New Orleans. He then left their em- 
 ployment, and joined Bernardo Gutierres at Compte, on Red river. On receipt 
 of the news of the treaty of Cordova, made in 1821 by Iturbide and ODonoju, 
 he returned with Gutierres to Mexico by way of Matamoras. At the latter 
 place Gutierres remained, being appointed first governor of Tamaulipas under 
 the republic. Almonte made his way to the capital, to push his fortune ; and, 
 with the exception of his renowned master Santa Anna, no Mexican has met 
 with a greater Variety of adventures. — E d. 
 
MEMOIR OP ELLIS P. BEAN. 
 
 451 
 
 I took with me a young lady of fine family, who had lost all they 
 had in the revolution* I married her at a small town on my way, 
 intending to ship her with me to the United States. My mules 
 being fatigued, I stopped at a hacienda. The next day General 
 Victoria came on, having with him but four men. He had been 
 beaten by the royalists, and was then on his retreat. He was en- 
 tirely destitute of funds, not having a single dollar. I told him 
 what I had, and proposed that we should unite and make a new 
 effort. He said it was not worth while ; that the people had got 
 out of heart, and it would be better to go to some secret place and 
 there wait till there was a change. He wanted me to join him ; 
 but I could not think of hiding myself : besides, the very men who 
 would bring me provisions would betray me into the hands of the 
 enemy. I told him I would send my wife to her uncle at Jalapa, 
 and make my way to the United States by land, if it took me two 
 years; that I could do it by keeping in the mountains along the 
 coast. All this must be done on foot, relying upon the chase for 
 support. General Victoria said it was impossible for him to do it. 
 The next morning he left me, and went into the mountains, not far 
 from Cordova, where he remained, living the life of a hermit. 
 
 I remained at the hacienda, recruiting my mules. Some patriot 
 friends gave notice to some of the king’s troops, stationed not far 
 distant, where I was, and that I could be taken. Immediately 
 there were a hundred men sent to apprehend me. They aimed to 
 come upon me in the night, but the rocky cliffs they had to cross 
 prevented them from reaching me that night. Next morning, I was 
 walking in the yard, when I saw them coming. The four men I 
 had with me were hunting my mules, so I was by myself. I told 
 my wife to sit down and make herself easy, as they would not kill 
 her, and that I should make my escape. I caught up my gun and 
 sword, and started off, in my shirt-sleeves, and went along the side 
 of the mountain, covered with brush and vines, with occasional 
 rocky cliffs. I ascended one of them, and saw the king’s troops 
 catch my mules and horses, and take my beef, which I was drying 
 on ropes. They got all my property and money, except two hun- 
 dred doubloons, which my wife saved by going for water, and, bury- 
 ing it in the sand. 
 
 Finding myself thus alone, with only my arms, and in my shirt 
 
 * Senorita Anna Gorthas. She resided at her hacienda, at Branderrillas, and 
 was related to General Morelos. — E d. 
 
452 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and pantaloons, I started for help. I went to a place four miles 
 distant, where there had been somO men engaged in making liquor 
 from the wild-cabbage, which grows there in abundance ; but they 
 were ail gone, except an old man, who told me they had heard I 
 was killed, and all my people taken. He then went with me to 
 where they were hid down the creek. I found here twenty men. 
 I then went on to a small patriot garrison twenty-five miles distant, 
 and raised by night, in all, two hundred men. At daylight next 
 day I marched for my old camp at the hacienda, hoping to defeat 
 the royalists that had plundered me. But they had all left. I 
 gave them chase, and only got sight of them as they were rising 
 the hill to enter their fort. So they got in safe, and my hopes and 
 chance were lost. 
 
 Note. — The lady to whom Colonel Bean was married, as stated on the previ- 
 ous page, was a most tender and devoted wife. She had by him no children. 
 By the turn of affairs she became wealthy, and owned a fine hacienda three 
 miles from Jalapa, where Colonel Bean died, on the 3d of October, 1846. — Ed. 
 
 END OF THE MEMOIR. 
 
APPENDIX NO. III. 
 
 REGISTER OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT GALVESTON, 
 
 APRIL 15, 1817. 
 
 The undersigned persons having appeared for the purpose of ta- 
 king the necessary oath of fidelity to the Mexican republic, now in 
 the possession of those who represent that nation in this quarter — 
 which act was executed with all due solemnity — 
 
 1. Appeared Louis Derieux commandant, who took said oath in 
 the presence of the citizen Louis Itourribarria ; after which — 
 
 2. The other authorities were severally sworn before the said 
 commandant in regular form. 
 
 And, to establish its authenticity, it has been signed by all those 
 who were present. And the said document shall be kept in the office 
 of said port or place, with the signatures, as well as that of the rep- 
 resentative, so that its validity may, at all times, be established. 
 
 And not being able, from existing circumstances, to obtain a seal 
 of state, its place will be supplied by a common one until an official 
 seal can be procured. 
 
 Louis Itourribarria, Rousselin, 
 
 Louis Derieux, R. Espagnol, 
 
 A. Pironneau, jr., J. Ducoing. 
 
 Lafou, Sec’y ad interim . 
 
 Bat of Galveston, April 20, 1817. 
 
 The commanders of the independent Mexican vessels-of-war, as- 
 sembled on board the schooner “Jupiter,” for the purpose of nom- 
 inating, with the requisite formalities required by the authority, 
 which, in the name of the Mexican government, supports this nation, 
 particularly in the existing war carrying on against the royalists of 
 Spain; in consequence of which they have proceeded to pronounce 
 an opinion in the following articles : — 
 
454 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The undersigned captains and owners of vessels, now in this port, 
 having met according to public notice, have taken into consideration 
 the proeeedings of the 17th of this month, under which they named 
 the citizen Colonel Louis Derieux military commandant, the citizen 
 J. Ducoing as judge of the admiralty, the citizen Rousselin as ad- 
 ministrator of the revenue, and the citizen It. Espagnol as secretary 
 of the public treasury, all of whom have been recognised by the 
 provisional assembly ; and at the same time the citizen Jean Jannet 
 was appointed marine commandant of the place, with all the neces- 
 sary powers. 
 
 And, after due deliberation, all the members of this assembly 
 unanimously resolved that the duties which shall accrue from the 
 prizes already arrived or may hereafter arrive at the port of Gal- 
 veston, after condemnation being pronounced, shall be disposed of 
 as follows : — 
 
 1. The treasurer shall pay on demand, upon the order of the gov- 
 ernment of the place, every expense which may be necessary for 
 the port or harbor of Galveston, for the support of the officers em- 
 ployed, and for munitions of war and other expenses, fixed accord- 
 ing to the claims and obligations of the several officers. 
 
 2. That when the expenses of one month are ascertained, those 
 of the month following may be anticipated out of the funds in hand. 
 
 3. That the surplus will be applied toward the payment of the 
 debts of the government contracted prior to the 15th of April, 1817 ; 
 upon the express conditions, however, that no one who is not actu- 
 ally employed at said port shall enjoy the advantage of that arrange- 
 ment, and that the old debts tvill be paid only to those who are 
 actually employed at the port of Galveston. 
 
 4. That the salaries of the officers and others employed will be 
 regulated by a special council, and that the whole will be entered 
 on the register of deliberations. 
 
 The whole has been signed in the presence of the secretary pro 
 tempore, Lafou. 
 
 L. Derieux, 
 
 A. PlRONNEAU, JR., 
 
 John Ducoing, 
 Rousselin, 
 
 Jean Jannet, 
 Richard Espagnol, 
 
 Parisi, 
 
 John Quere, 
 Dutrieu, 
 
 Denis Thomas, 
 Faiquere, 
 Joseph Place. 
 
 Renaud, 
 
 B. La var d, 
 Savary, 
 Marcelin, 
 Gilop. 
 
REGISTER OP PROCEEDINGS AT GALVESTON. 
 
 455 
 
 Testimony taken in sundry causes depending in the United 
 States District Court for the Louisiana District , on behalf 
 of the United States, against sundry vessels and cargoes 
 from Galveston . 
 
 John Ducoing, being duly sworn, tlie deponent further says that 
 the establishment at Galveston was composed, as before stated, by 
 persons of various nations, and that the sole view and object of the 
 persons comprising the said establishment was to capture Spanish 
 vessels and property, without any idea of aiding the revolution in 
 Mexico, or that of any other of the Spanish revolted colonies, as far 
 as this deponent knows and believes. And the deponent says that, 
 during the time he exercised the functions of judge at Galveston, he 
 had no knowledge or belief in the existence of a Mexican republic 
 or other government independent of the Spanish government. The 
 deponent further says that the government established on the 15th 
 day of April had no connection whatever with any other govern- 
 ment, state, or people. That Galveston stands on a small island, 
 or, rather, a small sandbar, a few miles long and broad, and was a 
 desert when taken possession of by Aury, known by the name of 
 Snake island, without a port or harbor, and no buildings except a 
 few huts or cabins, prob.ably three or four, made of boards and sails 
 of vessels. And further this deponent saith not. 
 
 John Djjcoing. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me, this 7th of October, 1817. 
 
 R. Claiborne, Clerk 
 
 Mr. Richard Espagnol, being duly sworn, says that, on the 16tli 
 day of March last, this deponent went from this place to Galveston, 
 in the province of Texas, in the brig “ Devorador,” for the purpose 
 of disposing of merchandise. Aury was acting as governor. This 
 deponent accepted of no office or employment from Aury, nor had 
 he any acquaintance with him ; never took any oath of allegiance 
 to Aury ; that, on the 5th of April last, Aury and General Mina 
 abandoned Galveston, burned the huts and cabins there standing, 
 and left no person authorized by them, or otherwise, to form a gov- 
 ernment. After their departure, to wit, on the 15th of April, 1817, 
 the persons then at Galveston consisted of about thirty or forty in 
 number, including sailors, &c., six of whom assembled on board the 
 schooner “ Carmelita” (belonging to Bartholomew Lafou, late of New 
 
456 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Orleans, and engineer in tlie service of the United States), to wit, 
 Derieux, John Ducoing, Pironneau, said B. Lafou, Rousselin, and 
 this deponent, who formed the new government. The proceedings 
 were drawn up and signed by those present, by which certain per- 
 sons aforesaid took upon themselves offices, to wit : Derieux, gov- 
 ernor ; John Ducoing, judge of admiralty ; this deponent, notary 
 public and secretary ; Pironneau, major du place ; Rousselin, col- 
 lector. 
 
 At the meeting on the 15th of April, there was no paper or docu- 
 ment produced authorizing the same, or giving them power to form 
 a government 
 
 [The balance of the deposition is the same as that of Ducoing.] 
 
 Richard Espagnol. 
 
 Sworn and subscribed before me, this 7th day of October, 1817 
 
 R. Claiborne, Clerk. 
 
APPENDIX NO. IV. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ALAMO. 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTES COLLECTED FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE OLD 
 MISSION OF SAN ANTONIO \aLERO, NOW CALLED “ THE ALAMO.” 
 BY F. GIRAUD, ESQ., OF SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 From the heading of the register of baptisms, delivered over by 
 Fra. Jose Francisco Lopez (the last of the Franciscans remaining 
 at the Alamo, and entitled parroco , or parish-priest, of the pueblo , or 
 village de San Antonio de Valero) to Gavino Valdez, curate of the 
 Villa de San Fernando y presidio de San Antonio de Bexar — which 
 delivery was made by an order of the bishop of Monterey, dated 
 January 2, 1793 — we learn that the mission (located finally where 
 the Alamo now stands) was several times removed before it was 
 settled on the San Antonio river. 
 
 The following is the translation of the heading referred to : “ Book 
 in which are set down the Baptisms of the Indians of this Mission 
 of San Antonio de Valero, situated on the bank of the river of San 
 Antonio, in the Government of this Province of Texas and New 
 Philippines, belonging to the Apostolic College of Propaganda Fide , 
 of the most Holy Cross of the City of Santiago de Queretaro.” 
 
 The translation of the next extract is as follows : “ Baptisms of 
 the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, from its foundation. 
 
 “Note. — This mission was founded in the year 1703, in the 
 Cienega of the Bio Grande, inder the invocation of San Francisco 
 Solano. From this place it was removed to the neighborhood called 
 San Ildephonso, having that invocation. Thence it was moved 
 
458 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 once more to the Rio Grande, where it had the name of San Jose 
 Finally, it was transplanted to the river San Antonio, where it now 
 is, under the name of San Antonio de Valero 
 
 The mission seems to have remained at the Rio Grande up to 
 about 1708, the last burial performed at that place being dated 
 July 28, 1708. It can not have remained at San Ildephonso more 
 than a year or so, since the first interment made at the mission of 
 San Jose is dated November 18, 1710, signed Fr. Jose de Soto. 
 
 In e note inserted in the record of baptisms, above cited, we learn 
 that on the 1st of May, 1718, the mission was moved from the post 
 of San Jose, because of the scarcity of water, to that, of San Anto- 
 nio de Valero, by order of the marquis of Valero, viceroy of New 
 Spain, in honor of whom, it seems, the mission Avas partly named. 
 
 The first stone of the present church of the Alamo, which is still 
 unfinished, was laid and blessed May 8, 1744. 
 
 The baptismal records continue to call San Antonio de Valero a 
 mission until the year 1783. 
 
 The next book of records we find contains the baptisms of the 
 children of the soldiers of the company of San Carlos de Parras, 
 which at first had been stationed outside of and adjoining the Ala- 
 mo. but which, being much troubled, it is said, by the Indians, 
 erected barracks within the enclosure of the mission, on its south 
 side. The first record of baptisms in it is dated March 30, 1785, 
 and signed by Christoval Gabriel Cortinas, chaplain of the com- 
 pany. The baptisms and other rites in this book are said to have 
 been performed in the parish of the pueblo of San Jose del Alamo 
 — a name which, I am inclined to think, was never generally adopted 
 by the people. 
 
 The chaplain of the company of San Carlos de Parras, in 1788, 
 was named Don Manuel Saenz de Juangorena ; and his office was 
 distinct from that of the parish-priest, who at that time attended to 
 the citizens and the descendants of the Indians living in the pueblo, 
 and who was one of the old religious. For, on the last page of the 
 book of the record of baptism of Indians and others, extending down 
 to 1783, we find the following notes : — 
 
 “ On the 22d day of August, 1793, 1 passed this hook of the records 
 of the pueblo of San Antonio de Valero to the archives of the curacy 
 of the town of San Fernando, and presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, 
 by order of the most illustrious Senor Dr Don Andres de Llanos y 
 Valdez, most worthy bishop of this diocese, dated January 2d of the 
 
NOTES ON THE ALAMO. 
 
 459 
 
 same year, by reason of said pueblo having been aggregated to tbo 
 curacy of Bexar ; and, that it may be known, I sign it. 
 
 “Fr. Jose Francisco Lopez, Parroco” 
 
 “San Antonto de Bexar, June 14, 1794. 
 
 “ On tbe day of this date I received from the Rev. Father J. 
 Francisco Lopez, who was minister of the mission of San Antonio 
 de Valero until it was delivered into the hands of the ordinary , this 
 book, in which are set down the records of baptisms pertaining to 
 said mission, made up to the year ’83 — noting , that from the year 
 1788 onward, those which are sought may be found in a new book 
 bound in parchment, from leaf 2 to 100, in which are those that fol- 
 low that year ; and those which may take place will be set down. 
 I make this note that it may serve as an index, and I signed it with 
 the same Rev d . Father — date ut supra. 
 
 “Bachelor Gavino Valdez.” 
 
 “ I delivered this book, on the day of date, to the curate Don 
 Gavino Valdez ; and, that it may be known, I sign it. 
 
 “Fr. Jose Francisco Lopez.” 
 
 “San Antonio de Bexar, July 11, 1804. 
 
 “ On tliis day I received from the Senor Cura, the Bachelor Don 
 Gavino Valdez, my predecessor, this book, pertaining to the new 
 Pueblo of San Antonio de Valero ; and, in testimony, we sign it. 
 
 “Jose Clemente Delgado, 
 “Bachelor Valdez.” 
 
 It would seem that, by reason of the Indians of the mission of 
 San Antonio de Valero gradually becoming extinct, without being re- 
 placed by others (the captives taken during the military expeditions 
 of the Spaniards, for the repression of hostilities, being placed in the 
 missions on the San Antonio river below the town), and by reason 
 of their children becoming civilized and incorporated with the rest 
 of the population in habits and manners, although still continuing to 
 inhabit the mission, that this last changed its character, and became 
 an ordinary village, in or about 1785. 
 
 About the year 1790, the Presidio de los Adaes, in Texas, near 
 the boundary of Louisiana, was broken up and abandoned, and the 
 inhabitants thereof transferred to this place. The number of chil- 
 dren of the mission [hijos de la mision) of San Antonio de Valero 
 
460 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 was then so small, that, after giving them a portion of the mission- 
 lands in fee simple, and also the houses they had occupied around 
 the mission (to which they had previously received no title), the 
 balance of the irrigable lands of the mission were distributed among 
 the Adaesenos. The upper labor of the Alamo, or that lying to the 
 north of the old mission, between the Alamo ditch on the east side 
 and the San Antonio river on the west, is still commonly called by 
 the old inhabitants the labor de los Adaesenos , from this circum- 
 stance. 
 
 On the 10th of April, 1794, Don Pedro de Nava, commandant- 
 general of the northeastern internal provinces, of which Texas was 
 a part, published a decree by which all the missions within his juris- 
 diction were secularized — that is, the government of the temporali- 
 ties of the mission was taken from the hands of the friars, or parish- 
 priests, of those missions, in whose charge they had previously been, 
 and intrusted to civil officers of Spain, called sub-delegados. The 
 inhabitants of the missions received, according to that decree, each 
 one a certain amount of land in fee simple ; but, to guard against 
 want, and pay the necessary expenses of the community, they were 
 still obliged, under the direction of the sub-delegados , to cultivate a 
 certain amount of lands in common. 
 
 The spiritual direction or government of the people was taken 
 from the friars, as a body or community, and put under the care or 
 supervision of the ordinary chief of the diocese in which they were 
 situated, that is, the bishop (technically called the ordinary , because 
 the missionary government was called extra-ordinary , and adopted 
 only for the time the Indians were being reduced to a state of civili- 
 zation). After such civilization, they came under the spiritual juris- 
 diction of the ordinary ecclesiastical superior of all other catholics 
 in the place. 
 
 The Franciscans, in many instances — indeed, in most of them — 
 remained as pastors of their old flocks; but they received their 
 jurisdictions from the bishop, as all other parish-priests. This was 
 the case with Father Lopez, who, as may be seen in one of the pre- 
 vious extracts from the books, delivers certain registers to Don Ga- 
 vino Valdez, curate of San Fernando and of the presidio of San 
 Antonio de Bexar, both forming our present San Antonio, by reason 
 of the pueblo of San Antonio de Valero* having been made a de- 
 pendency of that parish on the 14th of June, 1794. 
 
 * Around the Alamo. 
 
NOTES ON THE ALAMO. 
 
 461 
 
 The company of San Carlos de Parras continued to occupy houses 
 around the plaza of the mission of the Alamo (the church serving as 
 a parish) until 1814. On the 2d February of that year, baptism is 
 noted as being administered in the church of Bexar by the chaplain 
 of the company ; but it does not appear that the church of the Ala- 
 mo ceased to be used for public worship until about the 22d of Au- 
 gust, 1825, when the curate of San Antonio received the records of 
 the baptisms, marriages, &c., of the company of Parras from the 
 hands of its chaplain. 
 
 The pueblo of San Antonio de Valero had a separate alcalde up 
 to the year 1809 at least, perhaps later; but, under Governor Mar- 
 tinez, in 1819, it was under the same rule as San Antonio de Bexar, 
 which probably took that name about the time of the first Mexican 
 insurrection. 
 
 San Antonio, January 1, 1854. 
 
APPENDIX NO. Y. 
 
 HAYDEN EDWARDS’S CONTRACT. 
 
 (translation.) 
 
 Conditions with which the project of Hayden Edwards, a 
 Citizen of the United States of North America , for the 
 Introduction of eight hundred Families into the Department 
 of Texas, is admitted: — 
 
 1. The government admits the project which the petitioner has 
 presented in the antecedent memorial, so far as it is conformable to 
 the law of colonization of this state, passed on the 24th of March 
 last; and immediately points out to him, in compliance with the 
 eighth article, and according to his petition, the land asked for, with 
 the following limits : Beginning at the angle formed by a line twenty 
 leagues from the Sabine and ten leagues from the coast of the gulf 
 of Mexico ; thence in a northerly direction, passing the post of Na- 
 cogdoches, and in the same direction fifteen leagues above ; thence 
 westwardly, at right angles with the first line, to the Navasoto 
 creek, thence down said creek till it strikes the upper road from 
 Bexar to Nacogdoches ; thence eastwardly along the said road to 
 the San Jacinto ; thence down said river to within ten miles of the 
 coast ; thence eastwardly along a line ten miles from the coast to 
 the beginning. 
 
 2. All those possessions which are found in Nacogdoches and its 
 vicinity, with corresponding titles, shall be respected by the colo- 
 nists ; and it shall be the duty of the empresario, should any of the 
 ancient possessors claim the preservation of their rights, to comply 
 
HAYDEN EDWARDS’S CONTRACT. 
 
 463 
 
 with this condition. The same condition is also understood as far 
 as are concerned the settlers in the colony of Stephen F. Austin 
 and any others who may have legal titles to the lands on which they 
 are settled. 
 
 3. In conformity with the said colonial law of the 24th of March, 
 the empresario Hayden Edwards is obliged to introduce the eight 
 hundred families, which he offers to introduce, within the term of 
 six years, which shall be counted from this date, under the penalty 
 of losing the rights and emoluments conceded to him by the said 
 law, conformably to article eight. 
 
 4. The families which must compose this colony, besides being 
 catholics, as he offers in his petition, must be moral and of good re- 
 port, which they must prove by certificates from the authorities of 
 the place whence they emigrated. 
 
 5. He shall oblige himself not to introduce, or permit in his col- 
 ony, criminals, vagabonds, or men of bad conduct. He shall cause 
 those he may find in his district to depart from the territory of the 
 republic. Should it be necessary, he will drive them out with an 
 armed force. 
 
 6. To this end, he shall raise the national militia, according to 
 law, of which he shall be chief until some other disposition shall be 
 made. 
 
 7. When he shall have introduced at least one hundred families, 
 he shall so advise the government, that they may send a commis- 
 sioner to put the colonists in possession of their lands according to 
 law, and establish towns (j poblations ), for which purpose he shall be 
 furnished with proper instructions. 
 
 8. All official communications with the government, or with the 
 authorities of the state, and all instruments and other public acts, 
 shall be written in Spanish. And, when the settlements ( pollutions ) 
 have been established, it shall likewise be the duty of the empresa- 
 rio to establish schools for the Spanish language. 
 
 9. He shall see to the erection of temples in the new -poblations , 
 and see that they be provided with ornaments, sacred vases, and 
 other decorations, destined for Divine service ; and solicit, at the 
 proper time, the priest necessary for its administration. 
 
 10. As to all other things not expressed in these conditions, he 
 shall subject himself to whatever the constitution and general laws 
 of the nation, and of the state, which he adopts for his country, may 
 provide. 
 
464 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 And his excellency the governor and the empresario having agreed 
 on these terms, they were signed by both parties before the govern- 
 ment secretary ; and (the original remaining in the archives) an au- 
 thorized copy was ordered to be given to the empresario, together 
 with his petition, in order that it may serve as a guaranty. 
 
 Rafael Gonzales, 
 Hayden Edwards. 
 
 Juan Antonio Padillo, Secretary pro tem. 
 
 Saltillo, April 15, 1825. 
 
 Eighth Article of the Colonization Law of the ‘LAth of March, 
 1825, above referred to. 
 
 “ Projects for new settlements, wherein one or more persons 
 shall offer to bring, at their own expense, one hundred families or 
 more, shall be presented to the executive ; who, on finding them in 
 conformity to this law, shall admit the same, and immediately des- 
 ignate to the contractors the land whereon they shall establish them- 
 selves, and the term of six years, within which they shall present 
 the number of families for which they contracted, under the penalty 
 of losing the rights and privileges offered in their favor, in propor- 
 tion to the number of families they shall introduce, and of the con- 
 tract becoming absolutely null, should they not present one hundred 
 families at the least.’ 
 
APPENDIX NO. VI. 
 
 LETTERS FROM GENERAL SAM HOUSTON. 
 
 To President Jackson. 
 
 Natchitoches, Louisiana, February 13, 1833. 
 
 Dear Sir : Having been as far as Bexar, in the province of 
 Texas, where I had an interview with the Camanche Indians, I am 
 in possession of some information that will doubtless be interesting 
 to you, and may be calculated to forward your- views, if you should 
 entertain any, touching the acquisition of Texas by the United 
 States. That such a measure is desirable by nineteen twentieths 
 of the population of the province, I can not doubt. They are now 
 without laws to govern or protect them. Mexico is involved in civil 
 war. The federal constitution has never been in operation. The 
 government is essentially despotic, and must be so for years to 
 come. The rulers have not honestv. and the people have not intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 The people of Texas are determined to form a state government, 
 and to separate from Coahuila ; and, unless Mexico is soon restored 
 to order, and the constitution revived and re-enacted, the province 
 of Texas will remain separate from the confederacy of Mexico. 
 She has already beaten and expelled all the troops of Mexico from 
 her soil, nor will she permit them to return. She can defend her- 
 self against the whole power of Mexico ; for really Mexico is power- 
 less and penniless to all intents and purposes. Her want of money, 
 taken in connection with the course which Texas must and will adopt , 
 will render a transfer of Texas inevitable to some power ; and if the 
 Vol. I. — 30 
 
466 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 United States .does not press for it, England will most assuredly ob- 
 tain it by some means. Now is a very important crisis for Texas, as 
 relates to her future prosperity and safety, as well as the relation it 
 is to bear toward the United States. If Texas is desirable to the 
 United States, it is now in the most favorable attitude, perhaps, that 
 it can be, to obtain it on fair terms. England is pressing her suit 
 for it, but its citizens will resist if any transfer should be made of 
 them to any other power but the United States. 
 
 I have travelled nearly five hundred miles across Texas, and am 
 now enabled to judge pretty correctly of the soil and the resources 
 of the country, ind I have no hesitation in pronouncing it the 
 finest country, to its extent, upon the globe ; for, the greater por- 
 tion of it is richer and more healthy, in my opinion, than West Ten- 
 nessee. There can be no doubt but the country east of the Rio 
 Grande would sustain a population of ten millions of souls. My 
 opinion is, that Texas will, by her members in convention on the 
 first of April, declare all that country as Texas proper, and form a 
 state constitution. I expect to be present at tbe convention, and 
 will apprise you of the course adopted so soon as its members have 
 taken a final action. It is probable I may make Texas my abiding- 
 place : in adopting this course, I will never forget the country of 
 my birth. 
 
 From this point I will notify the commissioners of the Indians, at 
 Fort Gibson, of my success, which will reach you through the war 
 department. 
 
 I have with much pride and inexpressible satisfaction seen your 
 messages and proclamation touching the nullifiers of the south 
 and their “ peaceable remedies.” God grant that you may save 
 the Union ! It does seem to me that it is reserved for you, and 
 you alone, to render millions so great a blessing. I hear all voices 
 commend your course, even in Texas — where is felt the liveliest 
 interest for the preservation of the republic. 
 
 Permit me to tender you my sincere felicitations, and most ear- 
 nest solicitude for your health and happiness — and your future 
 glory, connected with the prosperity of the Union. 
 
 Your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
LETTERS FROM GENERAL SAM HOUSTON. 
 
 46T 
 
 To Indian Commissioners at Fort Gibson. 
 
 Natchitoches, Louisiana, February 13, 1833. 
 
 Gentlemen : It was my intention to Lave visited Fort Gibson, 
 and to Lave reported to you my success, so far as it was connected 
 with the Camanche Indians ; but at this season, as I may expect a 
 great rise in the waters, and the range for horses on the direct 
 route is too scarce to afford subsistence, I will content myself with 
 reporting to you the prospects, as they are presented to me, of a 
 future peace. Since my report from Fort Towson, I proceeded 
 through Texas as far as Bexar, where I had the good fortune to 
 meet with some chiefs of that nation, who promised to visit the com- 
 missioners in three moons from that time. This will make it the 
 month of April before they will he enabled to set out for Fort Gib- 
 son, and perhaps defer their arrival at that point until the month of 
 May next. 
 
 I found them well disposed to make a treaty with the United 
 States, and, I doubt not, to regard it truly and preserve it faithfully 
 if made. It was necessary for them to return to their people, and 
 counsel before they could send a delegation. I requested that they 
 should endeavor to see both tribes of the Camanches, as well as the 
 Pawnees and their bands, that when a peace is made it may be 
 complete and lasting between all the tribes that meet in convention. 
 
 I presented a medal of General Jackson, to be conveyed to the 
 principal chief (who was not present), with the proper explanations. 
 I do not doubt but it will have an excellent effect in favor of the 
 wishes of the commissioners. 
 
 At this season it would be impossible for the Camanches to visit 
 Fort Gibson, as their horses are unaccustomed to the use of grain, 
 and the range is destroyed by the season and the burning of the 
 woods. I think it may be fairly calculated that, by the 15th or 
 20th of May, the chiefs will reach Fort Gibson, and be well dis- 
 posed to make a peace. I found them entertaining a high regard 
 for the Americans, while they cherish the most supreme contempt 
 for the Mexicans. 
 
 One fact, of which I was not apprized in my last report, is, that 
 intercourse between the Northwest Fur-Company and the Pawnees 
 is much more direct and general than I supposed ; and, no doubt, 
 o&rried on much to the prejudice of the Americans, and those tribes 
 
468 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Indians friendly to them. It has been reported to me that the 
 influence and intercourse of the company has extended as far as the 
 Brasos and Colorado, in Texas. 
 
 You may rest assured that all the information in my power shall 
 he collected and presented in such character as will be most useful 
 to your commission. I am at a loss for the means to enable the 
 delegation to reach Fort Gibson ; but, so far as my resources will 
 enable me, nothing shall be wanting on my part to realize the 
 Avishes of my government, and bring about a general peace. If 
 anything can defeat the present expectations, it will be the indirect 
 influence of the Spaniards, who are jealous of everybody and every- 
 thing ; but even this, I trust, will not prevail. 
 
 I will leave here shortly for the interior, where I have promised 
 to meet the Indians preparatory to their start for Fort Gibson. 
 They are a dilatory people, and very formal in all matters of a na- 
 tional character. Should anything occur, in the meantime, contrary 
 to my expectation’s, I will apprise you of it with pleasure. 
 
 You will be so kind as to forward a copy of this communication 
 to the secretary of war, that he may be apprized of the prospect of 
 peace with the Indians of Texas. 
 
 I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 To Hon. Mr. Ellsworth and others, Fort Gibson. 
 
APPENDIX NO. VII. 
 
 TEXAN MEMORIAL. 
 
 Memorial of the Texan Convention of April , 1833 , to the Gen- 
 eral Congress of the United Mexican States. 
 
 The inhabitants of Texas, by their representatives elect, in con- 
 vention assembled, would respectfully approach the national Con- 
 gress, and present this their memorial, praying that the union which 
 was established between Coahuila and Texas, whereby the two 
 ancient provinces were incorporated into one free and independent 
 state, under the name of “ Coahuila and Texas,” may be dis-‘ 
 solved, abrogated, and perpetually cease ; and that the inhabitants 
 of Texas may be authorized to institute and establish a separate 
 state government, which will be in accordance with the federal con- 
 stitution and the constitutive act ; and that the state so constituted 
 shall be received and incorporated into the great confederation of 
 Mexico, on terms of equality with the other states of the Union. 
 
 To explain the grounds of this application, your memorialists 
 would respectfully invite the attention of the general Congress to 
 the following considerations : — 
 
 The consolidation of the late provinces of Coahuila and Texas 
 was, in its nature, provisional, and, in its intention, temporary. The 
 decree of the sovereign constituent Congress, bearing date the 7th 
 of May, 1824, contemplates a separation, and guaranties to Texas 
 the right of having a state government whenever she may be in a 
 condition to ask for the same. That decree provides that, “ so soon 
 as Texas shall be in a condition to figure as a state of itself, it shall 
 
4T0 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 inform Congress thereof, for its resolution.” The implication con* 
 veyed by this clause is plain and imperative ; and vests in Texas 
 as perfect aright as language can convey, unless it can be presumed 
 that the sovereign constituent Congress, composed of the venerable 
 fathers of the republic, designed to amuse the good people of Texas 
 by an illusory and disingenuous promise, clothed in all the solem- 
 nity of a legislative enactment. Your memorialists have too high a 
 veneration for the memory of that illustrious body to entertain any 
 apprehensions that such a construction will be given to their acts by 
 their patriotic successors, the present Congress of Mexico. The 
 decree is dated anterior to the adoption of the federal constitution, 
 and therefore, by a clear and fundamental principle of law and jus- 
 tice, it obviates the necessity of recurring to the correspondent pro- 
 vision in the fiftieth article of that instrument, which requires “ the 
 ratification of three fourths of the other states” in order “ to form a 
 new state out of the limits of those that already exist.” And it 
 assures to Texas — by all the sanctity of a legislative promise, in 
 which the good faith of the Mexican nation is pledged — an exemp- 
 tion from the delays and uncertainties that must result from such 
 multiplied legislative discussion and resolution. To give to the fed- 
 eral constitution, which is the paramount law of the land, a retro- 
 spective operation, would establish a precedent that might prove 
 disastrous to the whole system of the nation’s jurisprudence, and 
 subversive of the very foundations of the government. 
 
 The authority of precedents is decidedly in favor of the position 
 which your memorialists would respectfully sustain before the gen- 
 eral Congress. By the Constitutive Act , adopted on the 31st of 
 January, 1824, Coahuila, New Leon, and Texas, were joined to- 
 gether, and denominated “ the internal eastern state.” By a law 
 passed by the constituent Congress on the 7th of May, 1824, that 
 union was dissolved, and the province of New Leon was admitted 
 into the confederacy as an independent state. It is on the second 
 article of this law that the people of Texas now predicate their right 
 to a similar admission. The constitutive act, above mentioned, con- 
 solidated the late provinces of Chihuahua, Durango, and New Mex- 
 ico, under the style of “ the internal northern state ;” and on the 
 22d of May, 1824, a summary law decreed that “ Durango should 
 form a state of the Mexican confederation,” and she was admitted 
 accordingly. The same privilege was extended to Chihuahua by a 
 decree of the Gth of July of the same year. These conjunct prov- 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 471 
 
 inces stood, at the period of their separation, in precisely the same 
 relation to the federal government that Texas and Coahuila now 
 occupy. They have been separated and erected into free and inde- 
 pendent states in a summary manner ; and the same right avus guar- 
 antied “ whenever she should be in a condition to accept it/’ The 
 other case, of Sonora and Sinaloa, is materially variant in matter 
 of fact. Those provinces were originally incorporated into the con- 
 federation as one state, without any antecedent condition or guar- 
 anty ; and, at the adoption of the present constitution, they justly 
 became liable to all the forms and restrictions prescribed in that 
 national pact. 
 
 We would further suggest to the honorable Congress that the 
 present juncture is peculiarly felicitous for dispensing with intermi- 
 nable and vexatious forms. The federal government is wisely em- 
 ployed in adopting important organic improvements, and aiming at 
 a salutary renovation of the political system. The disasters of an 
 eventful civil convulsion are yielding to the regenerating influences 
 of domestic concord and improved experience ; and every depart- 
 ment of the confederacy is open to such needful modifications as the 
 wisdom of the renewed Congress may designate. Texas solicits as 
 her portion in the general reformation, to be disenthralled from her 
 unhappy connection with Coahuila ; and she avails herself of this 
 opportunity, by means of her chosen delegates, who are the author- 
 ized organs of the people, to communicate “ to the general Con- 
 gress” that she is now “ in a situation to figure as a state by her- 
 self,” and is profoundly solicitous that she may be permitted to 
 do so. 
 
 The general Congress may possibly consider the mode of this 
 communication as informal. To this suggestion we would, with 
 great deference, reply, that the events of the past year have not 
 only violated the established forms and etiquette of the government, 
 but have suspended, at least, its vital functions ; and it would appear 
 exceedingly rigorous to exact from the inhabitants of Texas, living 
 on a remote frontier of the republic, a minute conformity to unim- 
 portant punctilios. The ardent desire of the people is made, known 
 to the Congress through their select representatives, the most direct 
 and unequivocal medium by which they can possibly bo conveyed ; 
 and surely the enlightened Congress will readily concur with us in 
 the sentiment that the wishes and wants of the people form the best 
 lule for legislative guidance. The people of Texas consider it not 
 
472 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 only an absolute right, but a most sacred and imperative duty to 
 themselves, and to the Mexican nation, to represent their wants in 
 a respectful manner to the general government, and to solicit the 
 best remedy of which the nature of their grievances will admit. 
 Should they utterly fail in this duty, and great and irremediable 
 evils ensue, the people would have reason to reproach themselves 
 alone ; and the general Congress, in whom the remedial power re- 
 sides, would also have reason to censure their supineness and want 
 of fidelity to the nation. Under this view, we trust the Congress 
 will not regard with excessive severity any slight departure Avhich 
 the good people of Texas may in this instance have made from the 
 ordinary formalities of the government. 
 
 And we would further suggest to the equitable consideration of 
 the federal Congress that, independent of and anterior to the ex- 
 press guaranty contained in the decree of the 7th of May, 1824, the 
 right of having a separate state government was vested in and be- 
 longed to Texas, by the fact that she participated as a distinct 
 province in the toils and sufferings by which the glorious emancipa- 
 tion of Mexico was achieved, and the present happy form of govern- 
 ment was established. The subsequent union with Coahuila was a 
 temporary compact, induced by a supposed expediency, arising from 
 an inadequate population on the part of Texas “ to figure as a state 
 of itself.” This inducement was transient in its nature ; and the 
 compact, like all similar agreements, is subject to abrogation, at the 
 ■will of either party, whenever the design of its creation is accom- 
 plished, or is ascertained to be impracticable. The obvious design 
 of the union between Coahuila and Texas was, on one part at least, 
 the more effectually to secure the peace, safety, and happiness, of 
 Texas. That design has not been accomplished, and facts piled 
 upon facts afford a melancholy evidence that it is utterly impracti- 
 cable. Texas never has and never can derive from the connection 
 benefits in any wise commensurate with the evils she has sustained, 
 and which are daily increasing in number and in magnitude. 
 
 But our reasons for the proposed separation are more explicitly 
 set forth in the subjoined remarks. 
 
 The history of Texas, from its earliest settlement to the present 
 time, exhibits a series of practical neglect and indifference to all her 
 peculiar interests on the part of each successive government which 
 has had the control of her political destinies. The recollection of 
 these things is calculated to excite the most pungent regrets for the 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 478 
 
 past, and the most painful forebodings for the future. Under the 
 several regal dominions, Texas presented the gloomy spectacle of a 
 province, profusely endowed by nature, abandoned and consigned 
 to desolation by the profligate avariciousness of a distant despot. 
 The tyrants of Spain regarded her only as a convenient barrier to 
 the mines of the adjacent provinces ; and the more waste and de- 
 populated she was, the more effectually she answered their selfish 
 and unprincipled purpose. Her agricultural resources were either 
 unknown, or esteemed of no value to a government anxious only to 
 sustain its wasting magnificence by the silver and gold wrung from 
 the prolific bosom of Mexico. To foster the agricultural interests 
 of any portion of her splendid viceroyalty, or her circumjacent con- 
 quests, was never the favorite policy of Spain. To have done so, 
 would have nurtured in her remote dominions a hardy and industri- 
 ous population of yeomanry, who have ever proved the peculiar 
 dread of tyrants, and the best assurance of a nation’s independence. 
 
 It was natural, then, that the royal miscreants of Spain should 
 regard Texas with indifference, if not with a decided’ and malignant 
 aversion to her improvement. But it would be both tmnatural and 
 erroneous to attribute similar motives to the paternal government of 
 independent, confederate, republican Mexico. She can have no in- 
 terest averse to the common weal ; can feel no desire to depress the 
 agricultural faculties of any portion of her common territory ; and 
 can entertain no disquieting jealousies, that should prompt her to 
 dread the increase or to mar the ’prosperity of any portion of her 
 agricultural population. These are the best, the broadest, and the 
 most durable bases of her free institutions. 
 
 We must look to other causes, therefore, for the lamentable neg- 
 ligence that has hitherto been manifested toward the prosperity of 
 Texas. The fact of such negligence is beyond controversy. The 
 melancholy effects of it are apparent in both her past and present 
 condition. The cause must exist somewhere. We believe it is 
 principally to be found in her political annexation to Coahuila. That 
 conjunction was, in its origin, unnatural and constrained ; and, the 
 longer it is continued, the more disastrous it will prove. The two 
 territories are disjunct in all their prominent respective relations. In 
 point of locality, they approximate only by a strip of sterile and 
 useless territory, which must long remain a comparative wilderness, 
 and present many serious embarrassments to that facility of inter- 
 course which should always exist between the seat of government 
 
474 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and its remote population. In respefct to commerce and its various 
 intricate relations, there is no community of interests between them. 
 The one is altogether interior ; is consequently abstracted from all 
 participation in maritime concerns ; and is naturally indifferent, if 
 not adverse, to any system of polity that is calculated to promote 
 the diversified and momentous interests of commerce. The other is 
 blest with many natural advantages for extensive commercial oper- 
 ations, which, if properly cultivated, would render many valuable 
 accessions to the national marine, and a large increase to the na- 
 tional revenues. The importance of an efficieiit national marine is 
 evinced, not only by the history of other and older governments, 
 but by the rich halo of glory which encircles the brief annals of the 
 Mexican navy. In point of climate and of natural productions, the 
 two territories are equally dissimilar. Coahuila is a pastoral and a 
 mining country • Texas is characteristically an agricultural district. 
 The occupations incident to these various intrinsic properties are 
 equally various and distinct; and a course of legislation that may 
 be adapted to the encouragement of the habitual industry of the one 
 district, might present only embarrassment and perplexity, and prove 
 fatally deleterious to the prosperity of the other. 
 
 It is not needful, therefore — neither do we desire — to attribute 
 any sinister or invidious design to the legislative enactments or to 
 the domestic economical policy of Coahuila (whose ascendency in 
 the joint councils of the state gives her an uncontrolled and exclu- 
 sive power of legislation), in order to ascertain the origin of the 
 evils that affect Texas, and which, if permitted to exist, must pro- 
 tract her feeble and dependent pupilage to a period coeval with 
 such existence. Neither is it important to Texas whether those 
 evils have proceeded from a sinister policy in the predominant influ- 
 ences of Coahuila, or whether they are the natural results of a union 
 that is naturally adverse to her interests. The effects are equally 
 repugnant and injurious, whether emanating from the one or the 
 other source. 
 
 Bexar, the ancient capital of Texas, presents a faithful but a 
 gloomy picture of her general want of protection and encourage- 
 ment. Situated in a fertile, picturesque, and healthful region, and 
 established a century and a half ago (within which period populous 
 and magnificent cities have sprung into existence), she exhibits only 
 the decrepitude of age — sad testimonials of the absence of that po- 
 litical guardianship which a wise government should always bestow 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 475 
 
 upon the feebleness of its exposed frontier settlements. A hundred 
 and seventeen years have elapsed since Goliad and Nacogdoches 
 assumed the distinctive name of towns, and they are still entitled 
 only to the diminutive appellation of villages. Other military and 
 missionary establishments have been attempted, but, from the same 
 defect of protection and encouragement, they have been swept away, 
 and scarcely a vestige remains to rescue their locations from ob- 
 livion. 
 
 We do not mean to attribute these specific disasters to the union 
 with Coahuila, for we know they transpired long anterior to the 
 consummation of that union. But we do maintain that the same 
 political causes, the same want of protection and encouragement, the 
 same mal-organization and impotency of the local and minor facul- 
 ties of the government, the same improvident indifference to the 
 peculiar and vital interests of Texas, exist now that operated then. 
 Bexar is still exposed to the depredations of her ancient enemies* 
 the insolent, vindictive, and faithless Camanches. Her citizens are 
 still massacred, their cattle destroyed or driven away, and their very 
 habitations threatened, by a tribe of erratic and undisciplined In- 
 dians, whose audacity has derived confidence from success, and 
 whose long-continued aggressions have invested them with a fictitious 
 and excessive terror. Her schools are neglected, her churches deso- 
 late, the sounds of human industry are almost hushed, and the voice 
 of gladness and festivity is converted into wailing and lamentation, 
 by the disheartening and multiplied evils which surround her de- 
 fenceless population. Goliad is still kept in constant trepidation ; 
 is paralyzed in all her efforts for improvement ; and is harassed on 
 all her borders by the predatory incursions of the Wacoes, and other 
 insignificant bands of savages, whom a well-organized local govern- 
 ment would soon subdue and exterminate. 
 
 These are facts, not of history merely, on which the imagination 
 must dwell with an unwilling melancholy, but they are events of 
 the present day, which the present generation feel in all their dread- 
 ful reality. And these facts, revolting as they are, are as a frac- 
 tion only in the stupendous aggregate of our calamities. Our mis- 
 fortunes do not proceed from Indian depredations alone ; neither are 
 they confined to a few isolated, impoverished, and almost-tenantless 
 towns. They pervade the whole territory — operate upon the whole 
 population— and are as diversified in character as our public inter- 
 ests and necessities are various. Texas at large feels and deplores 
 
476 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 an utter destitution of the common benefits which have usually ac- 
 crued from the worst system of internal government that the pa- 
 tience of mankind ever tolerated. She is virtually without a gov- 
 ernment ; and if she is not precipitated into all the unspeakable 
 horrors of anarch v it is only because there is a redeeming spirit 
 among the people which still infuses some moral energy into the 
 miserable fragments of authority that exist among us. We are per- 
 fectly sensible that a large portion of our population, usually de- 
 nominated “ the colonists,” and composed of Anglo-Americans, have 
 been greatly calumniated before the Mexican government. But 
 could the honorable Congress scrutinize strictly into our real condi- 
 tion — could they see and understand the wretched confusion, in all 
 the elements of government, which we daily feel and deplore — our 
 ears would no longer be insulted, nor our feelings mortified, by the 
 artful fictions of hireling emissaries from abroad, nor by the malig- 
 nant aspersions of disappointed military commandants at home. 
 
 Our grievances do not so much result from any positive misfea- 
 sance on the part of the present state authorities, as from the total 
 absence, or the very feeble and mutile dispensation, of those restric- 
 tive influences which it is the appropriate design of the social com- 
 pact to exercise upon the people, and which are necessary to fulfil 
 the ends of civil society. We complain more of the want of all the 
 important attributes of government, than of the abuses of any. We 
 are sensible that all human institutions are essentially imperfect. 
 But there are relative degrees of perfection in modes of government 
 as in other matters, and it is both natural and right to aspire to that 
 mode which is most likely to accomplish its legitimate purpose. 
 This is wisely declared, in our present state constitution, to be “ the 
 happiness of those who compose it.” It is equally obvious that the 
 happiness of the people is more likely to be secured by a local than 
 by a remote government. In the one case, the governors are par- 
 takers, in common with the governed, in all the political evils which 
 result to the community, and have therefore a personal interest in 
 ao discharging their respective functions as will best secure the com- 
 mon welfare. In the other supposition, those vested with authority 
 are measurably exempt from the calamities lhat ensue an abuse of 
 power, and may very conveniently subserve their own interests 
 and ambition, while they neglect or destroy “ the welfare of the 
 associated.” 
 
 But, independent of these general truths, there are some impres- 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 477 
 
 sive reasons why the peace and happiness of Texas demand a local 
 government. Constituting a remote frontier of the republic, and 
 bordering on a powerful nation, a portion of whose population, in 
 juxtaposition to hers, is notoriously profligate and lawless, she re- 
 quires, in a peculiar and emphatic sense, the vigorous application of 
 such laws as are necessary, not only to the preservation of good 
 order, the protection of property, and the redress of personal wrongs, 
 hut such also as are essential to the prevention of illicit commerce, 
 to the security of the public revenues, and to the avoidance of seri- 
 ous collision with the authorities of the neighboring republic. That 
 such a judicial administration is impracticable under the present 
 arrangement, is too forcibly illustrated by the past to admit of any 
 rational hope for the future. 
 
 It is an acknowledged principle in the science of jurisprudence, 
 that the prompt and certain infliction of mild and humane punish- 
 ment is more efficacious for the prevention of crime than a tardy 
 and precarious administration of the most sanguinary p^nal code. 
 Texas is virtually denied the benefit of this benevolent rule by the 
 locality and the character of her present government. Crimes of 
 the greatest atrocity may go unpunished, and hardened criminals 
 triumph in their iniquity, because of the difficulties and delays which 
 encumber her judicial system, and necessarily intervene a trial and 
 conviction, and the sentence and the execution of the law. Our 
 “supreme tribunal of justice” holds its sessions upward of seven 
 hundred miles distant from our central population ; and that distance 
 is greatly enlarged, and sometimes made impassable, by the casual- 
 ties incident to a “ mail ” conducted by a single horseman through a 
 wilderness, often infested by vagrant and murderous Indians. Be- 
 fore sentence can be pronounced by the local courts on persons 
 charged with the most atrocious crimes, a copy of the process must 
 be transmitted to an assessor, resident at Leona Vicario (Saltillo), 
 who is too far removed from the scene of guilt to appreciate the im- 
 portance of a speedy decision, and is too much estranged from our 
 civil and domestic concerns to feel the miseries that result from a 
 total want of legal protection in person and property. But our diffi- 
 culties do not terminate here. After the assessor shall have found 
 leisure to render his opinion, and final judgment is pronounced, it 
 again becomes necessary to resort to the capital to submit the tardy 
 sentence to the supreme tribunal for “ approbation, revocation, or 
 modification,” before the judgment of the law can be executed. 
 
478 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Here we have again to encounter the vexations and delays incident 
 to all governments where those who exercise its most interesting 
 functions arc removed by distance from the people on whom they 
 operate, and for whose benefit the social compact is created. 
 
 These repeated delays, resulting from the remoteness of our 
 courts of judicature, are pernicious in many respects. They involve 
 heavy expenses, which, in civil suits, are excessively onerous to liti- 
 gants, and give to the rich and influential such manifold advantages 
 over the poor as operate tc an absolute exclusion of the latter from 
 the remedial and protective benefits of the law. They offer seduc- 
 tive opportunities and incitements to bribery and corruption, and en- 
 danger the sacred purity of the judiciary, which, of all the branches 
 of the government, is most intimately associated with the domestic 
 and social happiness of man, and should therefore be, Dot only sound 
 and pure, but unsuspected of the venal infection. They present 
 insuperable difficulties to the exercise of the corrective right of recu- 
 sation, and virtually nullify the constitutional power of impeach- 
 ment. In criminal actions they are no less injurious. They are 
 equivalent to a license to iniquity, and exert a dangerotis influence 
 on the moral feelings at large. Before the tedious process of the 
 law can be complied with, and the criminal — whose hands are per- 
 haps imbrued in a brother’s blood — be made to feel its retributive 
 justice, the remembrance of his crime is partially effaced from the 
 public mind ; and the righteous arbitrament of the law, which, if 
 promptly executed, would have received universal approbation, and 
 been a salutary warning to evil-doers, is impugned as vindictive and 
 cruel. The popular feeling is changed from a just indignation of 
 crime, into an amiable but mistaken sympathy for the criminal; 
 and an easy and natural transition is converted into disgust and dis- 
 affection toward the government and its laws. 
 
 These are some of the evils that result from the annexation of 
 Texas to Coahuila, and the exercise of legislative and judicial pow- 
 ers by the citizens of Coahuila over the citizens of Texas. The 
 catalogue might be greatly enlarged, but we forbear to trespass on 
 the time of the honorable Congress (confiding to the worthy citizens, 
 who shall be charged with the high duty of presenting this memo- 
 rial, and the protocol of a constitution, which the people of Texas 
 have framed, as the basis of their future government, the more ex- 
 plicit enunciation of them). Those evils are not likely to be dimin- 
 ished, but they may be exceedingly aggravated by the fact that that 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 
 
 479 
 
 political connection was formed without the cordial approbation of 
 the people of' Texas, and is daily becoming more odious to them. 
 Although it may have received their reluctant acquiescence, in its 
 inception, before its evil consequences were developed or foreseen, 
 the arbitrary continuance of it now, after the experience of nine 
 years has demonstrated its ruinous tendencies, would invest it with 
 some of the most offensive features of usurpation. Your memorial- 
 ists entertain an assured confidence that the enlightened Congress 
 of Mexico will never give their high sanction to anything that wears 
 the semblance of usurpation, or of arbitrary coercion. 
 
 The idea may possibly occur, in the deliberations of the honorable 
 Congress, that a territorial organization would cure our political 
 maladies, and effectuate the great purposes which induce this appli- 
 cation ; and plausible reasons may be advanced in favor of it. But 
 the wisdom of Congress will readily detect the fallacy of these rea- 
 sons, and the mischief consequent to such vain sophistry. In this 
 remote section of the republic, a territorial government must, of ne- 
 cessity, be divested of one essential and radical principle in all pop- 
 ular institutions — the immediate responsibility of public agents to 
 the people whom they serve. The appointments to office would, in 
 such case, be vested in the general government ; and although such 
 appointments should be made with the utmost circumspection, the 
 persons appointed, when once arrayed in the habiliments of office, 
 would be too far removed from the appointing power to feel the 
 restraints of a vigilant supervision and a direct accountability. The 
 dearest lights of the people might be violated, the public treasures 
 squandered, and every variety of imposition and iniquity practised, 
 under the specious pretext of political necessity, which the far-distant 
 government could neither detect nor control. 
 
 And we would further present with great deference, that the in- 
 stitution of a territorial government would confer upon us neither 
 the form nor the substance of our high guaranty. It would, indeed, 
 diversify our miseries, by opening new avenues to peculation and 
 abuse of power ; but it would neither remove our difficulties nor 
 place us in the enjoyment of our equal and vested rights. The only 
 adequate remedy that your memorialists can devise, and which they 
 ardently hope the collective wisdom of the nation will approve, is to 
 be found in the establishment of a local state government. We be- 
 lieve that if Texas were endowed with the faculties of a state gov- 
 ernment, she would be competent to remedy the many evils that 
 
480 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 now depress her energies, and frustrate every effort to develop and 
 bring into usefulness the natural resources which a beneficent Provi- 
 dence has conferred upon her. We believe that a local legislature, 
 composed of citizens who feel and participate in all the calamities 
 which encompass us, would be enabled to enact such conservative, 
 remedial, and punitive laws, and so to organize and put into opera- 
 tion the municipal ana inferior authorities of the country, as would 
 inspire universal confidence ; would encourage the immigration of 
 virtuous foreigners — prevent the ingress of fugitives from the jus- 
 tice of other countries — check the alarming accumulations of fero- 
 cious Indians, whom the domestic policy of the United States of the 
 North is rapidly translating to our borders ; would give impulse and 
 vigor to the industry of the people — secure a cheerful subordination 
 and a faithful adhesion to the state and general governments ; and 
 would render Texas what she ought to be — a strong arm of the re- 
 public, a terror to foreign invaders, and an example of peace and 
 prosperity — of advancement in the arts and sciences, and of devo- 
 tion to the Union — to her sister-states. We believe that an execu- 
 tive chosen from among ourselves would feel a more intense interest 
 in our political welfare, would watch with more vigilance over our 
 social concerns, and would contribute more effectually to the purposes 
 of his appointment. We believe that a local judiciary. drawn from 
 the bosom of our own peculiar society, would be enabled to adminis- 
 ter the laws with more energy and promptitude — to punish the dis- 
 obedient and refractory — to restrain the viciousness of the wicked 
 — to impart confidence and security, of both person and property, 
 to peaceable citizens — to conserve and perpetuate the general tran- 
 quillity of the state — and to render a more efficient aid to the co- 
 ordinate powers of the government, in carrying into effect the great 
 objects of its institution. We believe that, if Texas were admitted 
 to the Union as a separate state, she would soon “ figure” as a bril- 
 liant star in the Mexican constellation, and would shed a new splen- 
 dor around the illustrious city of Montezuma. We believe she 
 would contribute largely to the national wealth and aggrandizement 
 — would furnish new staples for commerce, and new materials for 
 manufactures. The cotton of Texas would give employment to the 
 artisans of Mexico ; and the precious metals, which are now flowing 
 into the coffers of England, would be retained at home, to reward 
 the industry and remunerate the ingenuity of native citizens. 
 
 The honorable Congress need not be informed that a large por- 
 
TEXAN MEMORIAL TO THE MEXICAN CONGRESS. 481 
 
 tion of tbfi population of Texas is of foreign origin. They have 
 been invited here by the munificent liberality and plighted faith of 
 the Mexican government ; and they stand pledged by every moral 
 and religious principle, and by every sentiment of honor, to requite 
 that liberality, and to reciprocate the faithful performance of the 
 guaranty to “ protect their liberties, property, and civil rights,” by 
 a cheerful dedication of their moral and physical energies to the 
 advancement of their adopted country. But it is also apparent to 
 the intelligence of the honorable Congress that the best mode of 
 securing the permanent attachment of such a population is, to incor- 
 porate them into the federal system, on such equitable terms as will 
 redress every grievance, remove every cause of complaint, and in- 
 sure, not only an identity of inter'ests, but an eventual blending and 
 assimilation of all that is now foreign and incongruous. The infancy 
 of imperial Borne was carried to an early adolescence by the free 
 and unrestricted admission of foreigners to her social compact. Eng- 
 land never aspired to “ the dominion of the seas” until she had uni- 
 ted the hardiness of Scotland and the gallantry of Ireland to her 
 native prowess. France derives her greatness from the early com- 
 bination of the Saiii, the Frank, and the Burgundian. And Mexico 
 may 3 'et realize the period when the descendants of Montezuma will 
 rejoice that their coalition with the descendants of Fernando Cortez 
 has been strengthened and embellished by the adoption into their 
 national family of a people drawn by their own gratuitous hospitality 
 from the land of Washington and of freedom. 
 
 For these and other considerations, your memorialists would sol- 
 emnly invoke the magnanimous spirit of the Mexican nation, con- 
 centrated in the wisdom and patriotism of the federal Congress. 
 And they would respectfully and ardently pray that the honorable 
 Congress would extend their remedial power to this obscure section 
 of the republic ; would cast around it “ the sovereign mantle of the 
 nation,” and adopt it into a free and plenary participation of that 
 “ constitutional regime ” of equal sisterhood which alone can rescue 
 it from the miseries of an ill-organized, inefficient, internal govern- 
 ment, and can reclaim this fair and fertile region from the worthless- 
 ness of an untenanted waste, or the more fearful horrors of barbarian 
 inundation. 
 
 Your memorialists, on behalf of their constituents, would, in con- 
 clusion, avail themselves of this opportunity to tender to the honor- 
 able Congress their cordial adhesion to the plan of Zavaleta ; and 
 
 Vol. I. — 31 
 
482 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 to express their felicitations on the happy issue of the late unhappy 
 conflict. They would also declare their gratitude to the patriot- 
 chief and his. illustrious associates whose propitious conquests have 
 saved from profanation “ the august temple in which we have depos- 
 ited the holy ark of our federal constitution,” and have secured the 
 ultimate triumph of the liberal and enlightened principles of genu- 
 ine republicanism. And they would unite their fervent aspirations 
 with the prayers that must ascend from the hearts of all good Mexi- 
 cans that the Supreme Ruler of the universe, who “ doeth his will 
 in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,” 
 would vouchsafe to this glorious land the blessings of peace and 
 tranquillity ; would preserve it, in all future time, from the horrora 
 of civil discord ; and would shed down upon its extended population 
 the increased and increasing effulgence of light and liberty which is 
 fast irradiating the European continent, and extirpating the relics 
 of feudal despotism of the antiquated errors of a barbarous age from 
 the civilized world. 
 
 David G. Burnet, 
 
 Chairman of the Committee . 
 
 END OF VOLUME 1. 
 
A FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION IN ONE VOLUME OF 
 
 HISTOEY OF TEXAS 
 
 FROM 
 
 ITS FIRST SETTLEMENT IN 1685 
 
 TO 
 
 ITS ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1846 
 
 By H. YOAKUM, Esq. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 WITH AN EXTENDED APPENDIX 
 
 REDFIELD 
 
 34 BEEKMAN STREET NEW YORK 
 
 1855 
 
 Facsimile by Steck-Vaughn Company • Austin, Texas 
 
'Reiheld Tublisher 
 "New- York 
 
DEDICATION 
 
 To Peter W. Gray, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir : I have now completed the second volume of a 
 History of Texas, which, with the first, gives some account 
 of the principal events connected with the settlement and oc- 
 cupation of the country by the European race, from the first 
 landing of immigrants, on the 18th day of February, 1685, to 
 the annexation of Texas to the United States, on the 4th of 
 July, 1845. 
 
 In the compilation of this volume, the materials were so 
 abundant, that the great difficulty was, to select the most 
 prominent and connected facts, so as not to make the volume 
 too ponderous, nor to break the unity of the story. In all this 
 you will doubtless find errors, but — I have done the best I 
 could, and hope you may find it sufficiently interesting to pe- 
 ruse it. 
 
 Texas has a noble and romantic history. It is to be found 
 in her state papers, and in the letters, journals, and memo- 
 randa, of those who took part in her affairs. Having devoted 
 much time to the study of these valuable documents, I speak 
 
4 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 advisedly on this subject. When our public authorities shall 
 think proper to have them collected, arranged, and published, 
 as other states have done, they will form a work of which 
 Texas may well be proud. 
 
 With many thanks to kind friends for valuable historical 
 papers, and more especially to yourself for many facts and 
 suggestions, lam very truly your friend, 
 
 H. Yoakum. 
 
 Shepherd's Valley, Texas, February 26 , 1856 . 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Reassembling of the Consultation at San Felipe — Declaration of Adherence to 
 the Mexican Constitution of 1824 — Provisional Government established — 
 Election of Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Commander-in-Chief- — Com- 
 missioners to the United States — Adjournment — Council left to aid the Gov- 
 ernor — Regular Army created — Movements of the Army at Concepcion — De- 
 scription of San Antonio — The Siege — Efforts of the Enemy — The “ Grass- 
 Fight” — Fight of the 8th of November — Fight at Lipantitlan, November 3d — 
 Effect of these Battles in the United States — in Mexico — Austin’s Departure 
 from the Army — Dr. James Grant — Proposed Attack on Matamoras — New 
 Orleans Grays — Preparations for storming San Antonio on the 4th of Decem- 
 ber — Descent under Milam, on the 5th, at Daybreak — The Contest — Death of 
 Milam — Zambrano Row — Priest’s House — Enemy propose to capitulate on the 
 9th — Capitulation on the 10th — Occurrences of the Assault — Aid to Texas — 
 Governor Smith and his Council — Unfortunate Descent on Tampico — Mexican 
 Navy — The “William Robbins” page 11 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Aspiring Men in Texas — Seditious Effort of the 19th of December — Houston 
 aiding in organizing the Army — Rusk and Fannin — General Mexia — First Rup- 
 ture between the Governor and Council — Barrett and Gritton — Movement 
 upon Matamoras — Declaration of Independence at Goliad — Location of Staff- 
 Officers — Houston’s Headquarters removed to Washington, December 25th — 
 Order to Fannin — Matamoras — Fannin, Johnson, and Grant, set out — Troops 
 at Bexar — Their Destitute Condition — Quarrel between the Governor and 
 Council — Governor deposes the Council — The Council depose the Governor — 
 Houston’s Departure for the West, January 8th — The Question of Indepen- 
 dence discussed — Affairs at Refugio — Order to demolish the Alamo — Not 
 obeyed — Description of Western Prairie — Texan Loan — Houston’s Return to 
 
6 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 the Brasos — Indian Treaty — Mexico in January, 1836 — Santa Anna eet6 out 
 for Texas in Person — His Plan — Condition of Texas to meet him — Struggle 
 between the Governor and Council — First Texan Laws page 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 David Crockett — Viesca — Meeting of the Convention, March 1st — Independence 
 declared, March 2d — Houston re-elected Commander-in-Chief — Preparations 
 for the War — Constitution of the Republic adopted — Burnet President ad 
 interim — Zavala Vice-President — Cabinet — Houston sets out for the West, 
 March 6th — The Alamo invested by the Enemy, February 23d — The Siege — 
 Travis calls for Aid — Thirty-two Recruits from Gonzales — The Place stormed 
 on the 6th of March, and the Garrison butchered — Johnson defeated at San 
 Patricio — Grant at Agua Dulce — Tragic Death of Grant — Fannin’s Position — 
 Advance of Urrea from San Patricio — King sent out after some Families at 
 Refugio — Order to Fannin to fall back — Sends Ward after King — King and 
 Ward both cut off — King and his Force taken and killed — Fannin sets out on 
 his Retreat — Overtaken by Urrea — Battle of the Coleta — Surrender of Fannin 
 — Ward taken — Miller taken at Copano — Massacre of the Commands of Fan- 
 nin and Ward, March 27, 1836 page 70 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Santa Anna thinks the War ended— .Proposes to return to Mexico — Filisola ob- 
 jects — Movements ordered — The Texan Forces at Gonzales — On Receipt of 
 the News of the Fall of the Alamo, retreat — Arrive at the Colorado, March 
 17th — General Alarm and Flight in Texas — Army at Beason’s — Send for Mu- 
 nitions — Seat of Government removed from Washington to Harrisburg — Cap- 
 tain Karnes’s Skirmish — Attempt to draw out the Enemy — Receipt of the 
 News of Fannin’s Defeat — Retreat from the Colorado, March 26th — Forbes 
 arrives with a Reinforcement — Efforts to defend the Brasos — Movements of 
 the Enemy — Flight of the People — Distress — Santa Anna repulsed at San 
 Felipe — Crosses at Fort Bend — Houston crosses at Groce’s, and calls in Out- 
 posts — Santa Anna marches om Harrisburg, April loth — The “Twin-Sisters” 
 — Texan Navy — Eastern Texas — Alarm there page 102 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Houston marches on Harrisburg — Dispositions of Indians and Disaffected Whites 
 — Deaf Smith takes the Mexican Mail — Important Information — Address to the 
 Texans, April 19th — Crossing of Buffalo Bayou — Narrow Escape of President 
 Burnet — Texan Camp on the San Jacinto — Affair of the 20th — Enemy rein- 
 forced by Cos on the Morning of the 21st — Texan Council of War — Deaf 
 Smith sent to cut down Vince’s Bridge — Preparations for Battle — The Attack 
 — Defeat and Capture of the Enemy, including Santa Anna — Interview be- 
 tween Houston and Santa Anna — Santa Anna’s Order to Filisola — Conse- 
 quences of the Victory — Negotiations with Santa Anna — Treaty of Velasco — 
 The United States and Mexico page 131 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 7 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Retreat of Filisola — Followed by the Texans under Rusk — General Gaines — 
 Eastern Frontier — Indian Movements — Massacre at Fort Parker — Attempt to 
 send off Santa Anna under the Treaty — Resisted by the Texan Troops — Presi- 
 dent Burnet — Santa Anna’s Protest — Collingsworth and Grayson despatched 
 to the United States — Feeling in the United States — Value of Santa Anna as 
 a Prisoner — Feeling in Mexico — Feat of the “ Horse-Marines” in Texas — Re- 
 turn of General Austin — Appointment of Mirabeau B. Lamar to the Command- 
 in-Chief of the Army — Resisted by the Troops — He retires face 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Low Credit of Texas — Houston’s Movements — United States Congress favorable 
 to acknowledging Texan Independence — Morfit sent out to Texas — Texan 
 Army and Navy — Santa Anna removed to Columbia — Attempt to escape — 
 Candidates for President of Texas — Houston elected President and Lamar 
 Vice-President — Effort to remove and try Santa Anna by Court-Martial — Op- 
 posed by Burnet and Houston — View of Jackson and Gaines on that Subject 
 — Population of Texas — Houston’s Inauguration — Proceedings of First Texan 
 Congress — United States and Mexico on Bad Terms — Death of Austin and 
 Zavala — Santa Anna sent home by way of Washington City — Arrived at 
 Washington, January 17, 1837 — Cold Reception in Mexico — General Hamilton 
 offered the Command of the Texan Army — Declines — The Enemy threatens a 
 Second Invasion — The Messrs. Toby and Brothers — Texan Independence ac- 
 knowledged by the United States — Declined Annexation — Volunteers from 
 the United States — Deaf Smith at Laredo — Skirmish — Mexicans in Texas — 
 Seguin and Rodrigues — Funeral Honors to the Dead of the Alamo — Mexican 
 Blockade of Texas — Capture of the “ Independence” — William H. Wharton — 
 Texan Navy cruise to Yucatan — Depredations of the Indians — Second Session 
 of Congress at Houston, May, 1837 — Emeute in Mexico — Texan Army fur- 
 loughed— 4be Whartons — Sea-Fight before Galveston Bar, August 25, 1837 — 
 Eastern Boundary of Texas page 189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Religious Movement in Texas — Faith of the Immigrants — Toleration — The First 
 Protestant Missionaries — Henry Stephenson, 1818 — Joseph Bays, 1826 — Sum- 
 ner Bacon, 1828 — Thomas Hanks, 1829 — Milton Estill, 1833 — Presbyterians 
 and Episcopalians in 1838 — Ecclesiastical Committee of Vigilance, 1837 — 
 Charles Compt6 de Farnese — His Projet - — Indian Troubles — Benthuysen’s 
 Fight, November 10, 1837 — Land-Titles — Closing of the Land-Office — History 
 of Land-Titles — Titles to the Mission-Lands — Spanish, Colonial, and Texan 
 Titles — Immigration in 1838 — Trade increased — Quarrel between France and 
 Mexico — Contract with Dawson, of Baltimore, to build Vessels for a Navy — 
 Promissory-Notes — Going down — Second Presidential Election — Lamar cho- 
 sen President, and Burnet Vice-President — The Mexican Revolt at Nacog- 
 
8 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 doches — Cordova and others — Battle at Jose Maria Village, October 28, 1838 
 — At Kickapoo Town, November 16th — Third Congress — Texan Finances — 
 Death of Collingsworth — John A. Wharton page 219 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Inauguration of President Lamar — His Inaugural Address — Opposes Annexa- 
 tion to the United States — Capture of Vera Cruz by the French Squadron 
 under Admiral Baudin — Lamar’s Message to Congress — Favors the Establish- 
 ment of a National Bank — Further Fighting in Mexico — Santa Anna loses his 
 Leg in expelling the French from Vera Cruz — France makes Peace with Mex- 
 ico, March 9, 1839 — Federal Party in Mexico — Friendly to Texas — Battle of 
 Acajete — Cordova’s Treachery — Mexican Plan of stirring up the Indian Tribes 
 against the People of Texas — Capture of Flores — Moore’s Campaign against 
 the Indians — Battle with the Camanches, February 15, 1839 — Burleson’s 
 Fight, February 28th — Bird’s Fight, May 27th — History of the Cherokees — 
 Campaign against them — Battle of July 15th — Of the 16th — Bowles, their 
 principal Chief, killed — Destruction of Indian Farms — Relations of Texas with 
 European Powers — Appointment of Commissioners to select a Site for the 
 Seat of Government — Its Location at Austin — Federal Campaign of 1839 — 
 Battle of Aleantro, and Defeat of the Centralists, October 3, 1839 — Surrender 
 of General Parbon — Canales, the Federalist Chieftain, before Matamoras — 
 Before Monterey — Desultory Fighting — Treachery of Canales, and Retreat of 
 the Texan Auxiliaries — Meeting of the Fourth Texan Congress — Stern Indian 
 Policy of Lamar — Texan Finances — General Hamilton’s Mission to England 
 and France — Fraudulent Land-Certificates page 252 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Immigration from the United States increases — The Public Credit gets worse — 
 Common Law adopted — Civil War in Mexico — Federal Campaign of 1840 — 
 “ Republic of the Rio Grande” proclaimed by General Canales — Federalists 
 defeated at Morales, March 15, 1840 — Canales at Austin, seeking Recruits — 
 Colonels Jordan and Fisher, commanding the Texan Federalist Auxiliaries — 
 Interesting March of the Texans — Their Vicissitudes — Treachery of Colonels 
 Lopez and Molano — Battle of Saltillo, and Victory over the Centralists com- 
 manded by General Vasquez, October 23, 1840 — Safe Retreat of the Texans 
 to their own Country — Massacre of Camanches in the Council-Room at San 
 Antonio, March 19, 1840 — Descent of the Camanches on a Marauding Expe- 
 dition against Victoria and Linnville — Assembling of Volunteers and Pursuit 
 of the retreating Savages — Battle of Plum Creek, August 12, 1840 — Moore’s 
 Campaign against the Indians — Defeat of the Camanches on the Upper Colo- 
 rado, October 24, 1840 — The National Loan not taken — Attempt to run the 
 Eastern Boundary of the Republic — The Texan Navy — Newspapers — The 
 Fifth or “Reform Congress” — Treaties negotiated with Great Britain, Holland, 
 and Belgium — Monroe Edwards — His Schemes — Commerce of Texas — Roads 
 —Santa Fe page 285 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 9 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Gloomy Prospects — Hamilton’s Negotiations for the Loan — Affair of M. De Sa- 
 ligny — Bullock’s Pigs — Efforts of Texas for Peace — Treaty with Yucatan — 
 Freebooters on the Rio Grande — Deportation of Captain Dimit, — His Tragical 
 Death — Jack Hays’s Fight, April 7, 1841 — Santa Fe Expedition — Journey 
 through the Prairies — Treachery of Captain Lewis — Surrender of the Texans 
 to Governor Armijo, of New Mexico — Their Cruel Treatment — Houston re- 
 elected President — Burleson chosen Vice-President — Attempt to make a new 
 Treaty with the United States — Endeavor to open Intercourse with Spain — 
 The Treasury bankrupt — Exchequer Bills — Mr. Gouge’s Strictures — Houston’s 
 Second Term — Indian Policy — Finances — Exchequer Bills — Reform Congress 
 —Proposed Belgian Loan — Destruction of the Paper System — Steps taken to 
 release the Santa Fe Prisoners — New Extension Projet of the Texan Congress 
 — Annexation Question — Tyler’s Position paoe 314 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Movements of the “ Reform Congress” of 1842 — A Detachment of the Enemy, 
 under Vasquez, enters San Antonio, March 5, 1842 — Their Conduct and Re- 
 treat — Texan Troops at San Antonio — Generals Somervell and Burleson — 
 Volunteers from the United States — Removal of the National Archives from 
 Austin — General Davis in command of the Troops on the Nueces — Santa Anna 
 and General Hamilton — Special Session of Congress, June 27, 1842 — War- 
 Bill — Its Veto by Houston — Affair at Lipantitlan, July 7, 1842 — General Woll 
 enters San Antonio, September 11, 1842 — Texans under Captain Cold well — Bat- 
 tle of the Salado, and Defeat of Woll by Hays, September 17, 1842 — Massacre 
 of the Force under Dawson — Treachery of Colonel Seguin — Retreat of Gen- 
 eral Woll — Troops under Somervell — March to the Rio Grande — Plunder of 
 Laredo — Return of Troops uuder Colonel Bennett — Order to return home — 
 Command disobeyed by a Portion of the Texans — Captain William S. Fisher 
 elected to the Command — Entry into Mier — Battle of the 25th and 26th of 
 December, 1842 — Capture of Fisher’s Command — Revolt of the Mier Prison- 
 ers at the Hacienda Salado— Retaken and marched to Mexico — Decimation 
 of the Prisoners by Order of Santa Anna — Captain Cameron page 348 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Meeting of the Seventh Texan Congress at Washington, on the Brasos, November 
 14, 1842 — Texan Navy — Captain Moore — Secret Act to sell the Navy — Presi- 
 dent Houston’s Proclamation — Return of the Navy — Doings of the Con- 
 gress in January, 1843 — “Lawyer Robinson” and Santa Anna — Answer to 
 Santa Anna — Mediation of Great Britain, France, and the United States — Its 
 Failure — Divisions in Texas — Discussions concerning the Mier Expedition — 
 Sufferings of the Prisoners — Snively’s Expedition — Its Departure, April 25, 
 1843, for the Santa Fe Road — Arrival there — Battle of June 20, 1843, with 
 the Mexicans — Texans disarmed by Captain Cooke, of the United States Army 
 — Further Attempt to pursue the Caravan of Mexican Traders — The Expedi- 
 tion returns home — Captain Hays on the Rio Grande — Jackson’s Opinion of 
 
10 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 the Santa F6 Expedition — Suspension of Diplomatic Intercourse between Great 
 Britain and Mexico — Armistice between Texas and Mexico — Question of An- 
 nexation — Prosperity of Texas page 379 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Further of the Armistice — Diplomacy of Great Britain — Jealousy of the United 
 States — Revival of the Question of Annexation — France and Great Britain 
 protest — Popularity of the Measure — Nomination of Polk — Tyler’s Treaty re- 
 jected by the Senate — Jackson’s View of it — Its Effect in Texas — Her Pros- 
 perous Condition — Colony Contracts — Presidential Election in Texas — War 
 of the “ Regulators” and “ Moderators” — Election of Polk — Passage of the 
 Annexation Resolutions — Jackson’s Advice to Texas — Last Effort of Mexico, 
 and of the British and French Governments — Annexation approved by Texas 
 — Conclusion page 412 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 1. Official Correspondence of the Commander-in-Chief of the Texan Army 
 
 in 1835-36 page 446 
 
 2. Documents relating to the Commander-in-Chief 607 
 
 3. Names, Age, Place of Birth, and Former Residence, of the Signers of 
 
 the Texan Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836 512 
 
 4. Documents in Relation to the Massacre of Colonel Fannin and his Com- 
 
 mand, on Sunday Morning, March 27, 1836, at Goliad 514 
 
 6. Treaty of Velasco, May 14, 1836 526 
 
 6. Letter from General Santa Anna to General Sam Houston, November 
 
 6, 1836 530 
 
 7. Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Different Religious Protestant 
 
 Denominations of Christians in Texas 532 
 
 8. Letter from President Houston to President Santa Anna, March 21, 
 
 1842 544 
 
 9. List of the Governors of Texas 559 
 
HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The consultation reassembled at San Felipe de Austin, on 
 the first of November, 1835 ; but, for want of a quorum, they 
 did not organize until the third day of the month. There were 
 present fifty-five members, representing the thirteen municipali- 
 ties of Texas.* Their session continued till the 14th of that 
 
 * Municipality of Bevil : John Bevil, S. H. Everitt, Wyatt Hanks. 
 
 San Augustine : William N. Sigler, A. Huston, A. E. C. Johnson, Henry Au- 
 gustin, A. Horton, A. G. Kellogg. 
 
 Nacogdoches : Sam Houston, James W. Robinson, Daniel Parker, William 
 Whitaker. 
 
 Columbia: John A. Wharton, J. S. D. Byrom, Edwin Waller, Henry Smith. 
 
 Austin: Wylie Martin, Randal Jones, ThomasBarnett, Jesse Burnham, William 
 Menefee. 
 
 Liberty: Henry Millard, Claiborne West, George M. Patrick, J. B. Woods, 
 A. B. Hardin. 
 
 Harrisburg : Lorenzo D. Zavala, M. W. Smith, William P. Harris, John W. 
 Moore, C. C. Dyer, David B. Macomb. 
 
 Matagorda : R. R. Royal, Charles Wilson. 
 
 Mina: D. C. Barrett, R. M. Williamson, J. S. Lester. 
 
 Washington : Asa Mitchell, Elijah Collard, Jesse Grimes, Philip Coe, Asa Hoxey. 
 
 Gonzales: W. S. Fisher, J. D. Clemfents, George W. Davis, James Hodges, 
 William W. Arrington, Benjamin Fuqua. 
 
 Viesca: S. T. Allen, A. G. Perry, J. G. W. Pierson, Alexander Thompson, J. 
 W. Parker. 
 
 Tenehaw : Martin Parmer. — Journal of Consultation. 
 
12 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 month, during which period they were industriously engaged in 
 organizing a provisional government, and providing means for 
 its support. Branch T. Archer,* the president of the assembly, 
 opened its business in an appropriate address. The general 
 council, which had, up to that time, exercised the authority of 
 government, surrendered it to the consultation. A committee 
 of twelve, of which John A. Wharton was chairman, was ap- 
 pointed to prepare a declaration of the causes which impelled 
 the Texans to take up arms. A like committee, of which Henry 
 Millard was chairman, was appointed “ to dr^w up and submit 
 a plan or system of a provisional government .” 
 
 On the 7th, the consultation, after much discussion, adopted 
 the declaration.! It was not one of independence, but of ad- 
 herence to the constitution of 1824. It is likely that the entire 
 body saw that the end would be independence ; but they deemed 
 it prudent to move slowly, and first unite all parties in the rev- 
 olution. The great object of the leading men was, that their 
 actions should be approved by the world. They feared that a 
 precipitate declaration of independence would not meet that 
 approval. Texas needed sympathy and aid. By a defensive 
 course, she would obtain it. Such was the policy of her lead- 
 ers, and time has shown its wisdom. They expected also to 
 induce some of the other Mexican states to follow their exam- 
 ple in declaring their adherence to the federal constitution, but 
 in this they were not successful. There was, in some parts of 
 Mexico, a feeble response in favor of liberty, but the bayonets 
 of Santa Anna reduced it to silence. It may also be observed 
 
 * Dr. Archer emigrated to Texas in 1831. For a sketch of his history, see 
 Foote’s History of Texas, vol. ii., p. 12. 
 
 f Journal, p. 51. The committee first reported in favor of a declaration of 
 independence. It was adopted, and then reconsidered. “ How the convention 
 will decide is uncertain, but the probability is in favor of the constitution as a 
 matter of policy only, as all agree we must go, sooner or later, for indepen- 
 dence.” — J. W. Robinson to Frost Thorn, November 3, 1835. 
 
PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT ESTABLISHED. 
 
 IB 
 
 that, in November, 1885, public opinion in Texas was hardly 
 prepared for a change so sudden. 
 
 The ordinance “ establishing a provisional government” was 
 completed on the 13th day of November, 1835.* It is the ear- 
 liest specimen of Anglo-Saxon law ever enforced in Texas. 
 Its provisions were few, and such as the emergency required. 
 It created a governor, lieutenant-governor, a council, to be 
 elected from the consultation (one from each municipality), a 
 provisional judiciary, a commander-in-chief, &c. 
 
 The consultation adjourned, to meet at Washington, on the 
 1st day of March, 1836 ; providing, however, that the gov- 
 ernor and council should continue to exist as a provisional 
 government until its reassembling. The commander-in-chief 
 was declared to be such “ of all the forces called into public 
 service during the war and he was “ to be subject to the 
 governor and council.” These provisions are more especially 
 referred to here, because of the discord and misfortunes result- 
 ing therefrom. 
 
 Two days before the adjournment of the consultation, they 
 elected Henry Smith governorf and James W. Robinson lieu- 
 tenant-governor of Texas. Smith was chosen by a majority of 
 nine votes over Stephen F. Austin. It was at first intended 
 that Austin should be governor but his services being more 
 needed as a commissioner to the United States, he was spared 
 the misfortune of being the first governor of Texas. Robinson 
 had no opposition. Sam Houston was elected commander-in- 
 chief, with but one dissenting voice. Messrs. Branch T. Ar- 
 
 * Journal, p. 42. 
 
 f Henry Smith was a native of Kentucky. He emigrated to Missouri, and 
 thence to Texas. He was of moderate height, quite fleshy, of fine social quali- 
 ties, racy and interesting in conversation, not easily irritated, but extremely 
 obstinate in maintaining his opinions. 
 
 t J. W. Robinson to Frost Thorn, November 3, 1835: MS. 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 cher, William H. Wharton, and Stephen F. Austin, were duly 
 chosen commissioners to the United States. Messrs. A. Hus- 
 ton, Daniel Parker, Jesse Grimes, A. G. Perry, D. C. Barrett, 
 Henry Millard, Martin Parmer, J. D. Clements, R. R. Royal, 
 W. P. Harris, E. Waller, and W. Hanks, were the council 
 elected out of the consultation, to remain and co-operate with 
 Governor Smith in carrying out the organic law.* 
 
 In addition to other important matters, it was provided that 
 “ there should be a regular army created for the protection of 
 Texas during the present war.” To give aid and assistance 
 in organizing this army, in adopting rules for its government, 
 and in providing the personnel and materiel , General Houston 
 remained in attendance on the governor and council until the 
 16th of December, when he was ordered to remove his head- 
 quarters to Washington. 
 
 To return to the Texan army at Concepcion. The entire 
 Texan force at this point was at least a thousand men. After 
 remaining at Concepcion until the 2d of November, the army 
 marched, by way of the powder-house, on the slope of a gentle 
 ridge, east of the San Antonio river, near to its head, and 
 camped on the east bank. Here they remained for four or five 
 days, keeping up a constant patrol around the town. From 
 intelligence received, it was supposed that General Cos would 
 surrender upon demand. Although the information was not 
 very reliable, yet, as he had been greatly straitened by the 
 siege, and his supplies were cut off, it was deemed of sufficient 
 importance to make the attempt. Accordingly, the Texan 
 army was marched to the west side and down the San Antonio 
 river, and the entire force displayed on an eminence, some 
 
 * The members of the council were constantly changing. On the first day 
 of the meeting, we find the municipalities of Jefferson and Victoria, for the first 
 time, represented. 
 
CITY OF SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 15 
 
 fifteen hundred yards from the public square. The demand 
 for a surrender was then made, and promptly refused. The 
 Texans thereupon took position at the “ Old Mill,” a half-mile 
 or more north of the public square, on the west bank of the 
 San Antonio river. 
 
 The city of San Antonio is situated on the San Antonio river 
 and San Pedro creek. These streams at the city are about 
 six hundred and fifty yards apart ; but, on the east side of the 
 place, there is a remarkable bend in the river, enclosing about 
 twenty-five acres, into which the town also extends. Opposite 
 this bend, on the east bank of the river, is the ancient mission 
 of the Alamo. The country around San Antonio is generally 
 a level prairie, more undulating, however, on the west than on 
 the east side of the river. There is an eminence west of the 
 town, toward the Alazan ; and another above the old mill, but 
 not sufficiently near or elevated to command the town, except 
 with twelve or eighteen pounders. The river, about sixty feet 
 wide ; is in most places fordable. It seldom rises or falls, but 
 sends forth a constant stream of the purest water. The low- 
 ness of its banks and the levelness of the grounds offer great 
 facilities for irrigation ; hence the ditches, running down on 
 both sides of the river, and between the two streams, not only 
 answer the purpose of fertilizing the land, but also for defence. 
 As no advantage could be gained by either party in location, 
 the chief benefit must result to the besieged from the buildings 
 and ditches. The houses, of thick stone walls, were very strong. 
 The public square of San Antonio is divided by the church and 
 some other buildings into two ; or, rather, the original square, 
 or military plaza , was first laid off and improved in 1716, hav- 
 ing on its east side the church, and the offices of priests and 
 officers. In 1731, was laid off the main square, or Plaza of 
 the Constitution. Along the north side of these squares, runs 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 through the centre of the city the main street, which is pro- 
 longed east of the river to the Garita , or Look-out, used also 
 as a powder-house, about one and a quarter miles from the 
 town. At the crossing of the river by this street was a bridge, 
 the only one then on the river. 
 
 While the Texan army was hanging about the town, Cos 
 was not idle. Ugartachea was despatched to Matamoras for 
 reinforcements ; breastworks were thrown up at the entrance 
 of every street into the square ; and, on an open lot, on the 
 north side of the military plaza, was erected a redoubt. The 
 venerable church was also brought into the service, and artil- 
 lery mounted behind the parapet on its roof. The Mexican 
 force in the place was at this time about eight hundred men, 
 with sufficient artillery to defend the different points fortified. 
 The Texans had but five pieces, of small calibre. Previous to 
 the departure of the Texan army from Concepcion, a council 
 of war had been called by Austin, to consider the propriety of 
 an immediate assault upon the town. It was concluded that 
 it could be made, and the place taken, but at a greater sacri- 
 fice of men than the Texans could afford to bear ; hence a reg- 
 ular siege was ordered. 
 
 “ I am afraid,” says Austin, writing to Captain Dimit, on 
 the 2d of November, “ that our future operations will be tedi- 
 ous and prolonged, owing to the strength of the fortifications 
 at this place, of which we have certain information. Whether 
 the army can be kept together long enough to await the arrival 
 of reinforcements, and the necessary supply of heavy battering- 
 cannon and ammunition, I am sorry to say, is somewhat uncer- 
 tain.” 
 
 Various attempts were made to entice the enemy beyond his 
 walls. On one occasion, a detachment of one hundred and 
 ninety Texans marched up within the range of the Mexican 
 
SIEGE OF SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 17 
 
 six-pounders ; on another, Colonel Thomas J. Husk, at the 
 head of forty cavalry, took a position within three hundred 
 yards of their walls, and remained there twenty minutes : still 
 they could not be drawn from their works.* It was the opin- 
 ion of Austin, on the 14th of November, that the enemy could 
 not long hold out.f To lessen their consumption of provis- 
 ions, the Mexicans sent off three hundred of their horses to 
 Laredo ; but they were overtaken and captured, about forty 
 miles from San Antonio, by a detachment under Travis. J The 
 poor condition of these horses indicated the wants of the be- 
 sieged. But Cos, awaiting his reinforcements, still held out. 
 Occasional conflicts between the outposts and scouts of the two 
 armies constituted the only subjects of interest in camp for sev- 
 eral days. Volunteers, always impatient while inactive, had 
 manifested this feeling in the camp before Bexar. They found 
 amusement and interest in catching the exhausted cannon-balls 
 of the enemy, and throwing them back ; they also derived some 
 pleasure from scouting-excursions of two or three days’ contin- 
 uance. But, in spite of all this, the besieging force was con- 
 tinually decreasing ; so that, by the 14th of November, they 
 did not number six hundred men. 
 
 One of these scouting-parties, that had been down on the 
 Medina, returned about ten o’clock on the morning of the 26th 
 of November, leaving “ Deaf Smith” behind. It was known 
 that Ugartachea was expected in Bexar, and this scout had 
 been on the look-out for him. It happened that on that morn- 
 ing, General Cos had sent out a party of over a hundred men 
 on the old Presidio road, to cut grass for the horses. Having 
 supplied themselves with forage, they were on their way back, 
 and about five miles from town, when Deaf Smith discovered 
 
 * Rusk to Houston, November 14, 1835: MS. 
 
 f Austin to Houston, November 14, 1835: MS. $ Foote, vol. il, p. 126. 
 
 VOL. II.— 2 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 them. About two o’clock in the evening he reached the Texan 
 camp, and reported what he supposed to be Ugartachea, with 
 a guard, bringing funds to pay off the Mexican army — for it 
 was understood in the Texan camp that such was his mission. 
 Immediately the cry of “ Ugartachea !” resounded along the 
 lines ; and all who could, prepared to go in pursuit of him. It 
 may be proper to state here that on the 25th (the day before), 
 Austin, having received news of his appointment as commis- 
 sioner to the United States, resigned his command of the army, 
 and Colonel Edward Burleson had just been elected to succeed 
 him. Colonel James Bowie, with about a hundred mounted 
 men, set out in a gallop, m advance. Shortly after, the re- 
 mainder of the army, with the exception of a suitable guard, 
 followed. They met the enemy about a mile from the town, 
 on their return. Bowie, with the advance, charged upon them, 
 when they took a position in the bed of a dry branch. The 
 movement of the Texans had been seen from the town, and the 
 besieged marched out to defend the foraging-party, bringing 
 with them two pieces of artillery. Just as Bowie charged the 
 right of the foraging-party, the besieged came up on the left. 
 Bowie now turned his attention to the latter, and for a short 
 time the battle was well sustained. The enemy, however, re- 
 treated as they fought. The main body of the Texan force 
 coming up meanwhile, charged on the foraging-party, drove 
 them from the bed of the dry branch, and took position in it. 
 After the last charge, the enemy retreated yet more rapidly — 
 still, however, continuing the fight until they reached the town, 
 when the Texans formed in a ravine, but shortly afterward re- 
 turned to their camp. The Mexican loss in this confused, run- 
 ning fight, was about fifty killed and several wounded. The 
 Texans had none killed, two wounded, and one missing. The 
 enemy lost about seventy head of horses, taken by the victors. 
 
REINFORCEMENT OF GOLIAD. 
 
 19 
 
 The history of this affair, known as the “ Grass-Fight,” has 
 been greatly confused. The official account is hardly intelli- 
 gible. Kennedy has confounded it with another occurrence, 
 of the 8th of the same month, which happened on this wise : 
 A party of thirty-two men, under the command of Captain Wil- 
 liam Austin (a cousin of Stephen F.), went out, on the day in 
 question, in search of Ugartachea. When arrived at the place 
 where the “ Grass-Fight” afterward occurred, one of their 
 number, House, was accidentally killed. The party went on, 
 sending back Lynch for another party, to bring in House’s 
 body. Fifty men were accordingly despatched for that pur- 
 pose. As they were returning with the body, they were at- 
 tacked by about two hundred and fifty mounted Mexicans. 
 The Texans took post in a gulley, and continued the fight suc- 
 cessfully, till they were reinforced from their main camp, when 
 the enemy were driven in, with a loss of some fifteen or twenty 
 killed and wounded. The Texans lost none.* 
 
 After the capture of Goliad by Collingsworth, General Aus- 
 tin directed that it should be retained and defended. A de- 
 tachment from Bay Prairie, and also another from the Nueces, 
 were sent to reinforce the place, making the number of its de- 
 fenders, under the command of Captain Philip Dimit, upward 
 of eighty effective men. This reinforcement enabled Captain 
 Dimit to despatch thirty-six men, under Captain Westover, to 
 the attack of the Mexican force at Lipantitlan, a small place 
 above San Patricio, on the Nueces. The Mexican force, con- 
 sisting of twenty-one men, with two pieces of artillery, surren- 
 dered without a contest on the 3d of November ; and, upon 
 agreement that they would not bear arms against Texas during 
 
 * Kennedy, vol. ii., p. 133. Report of General Burleson to the Provisional 
 Government, November 27, 1835. The accounts given of the “Grass-Fight,” 
 and of the affair of the 8th, are derived from statements of those engaged in 
 them, and are considered reliable. 
 
20 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the war, the prisoners were set at liberty. The Texans re- 
 mained at Lipantitlan until the next evening, when they set 
 out on their return to Goliad. As they were crossing the 
 Nueces, and when about half of them had passed the river, 
 they were attacked by about seventy of the enemy. After a 
 severe contest of half an hour, in which some twenty of the 
 Mexicans were killed and wounded, they retreated, leaving 
 the Texans masters of the field, the latter having only one man 
 wounded.* 
 
 The news of these successes spread over the country through 
 the agency of the committees of safety, and cheered the Tex- 
 ans in their struggle. The same intelligence, reaching the 
 United States, kindled a flame of sympathy everywhere. At 
 New York, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville, Macon, Hunts- 
 ville, Natchitoches, Mobile, New Orleans, and other places, 
 funds were raised, and emigrants fitted out in squads, compa- 
 nies, and battalions. True, there were, in all these places, icy 
 spirits, who had no sympathy, and who condemned Texas for 
 not submitting to Santa Anna. Such men, if they really knew 
 the wrongs inflicted on Texas, and those greater wrongs with 
 which she was threatened — had they lived in the time of the 
 American Revolution, would have opposed it also. It ill be- 
 came a country like the United States, still red with the blood 
 of her rebellion against George III., to blame Texas for going 
 into the contest with Mexican despotism. The former revolt- 
 ed because of taxation without representation . The wrongs of 
 Texas were so much greater, that she did not even complain 
 of the absence of that right ! Mexico complained to the Uni- 
 ted States that the revolted Texans “ were daily obtaining from 
 New Orleans assistance of all kinds, in men, munitions, and 
 arms, in silver and soldiers, who publicly enlist in that city, 
 
 * Journal of the Council, pp. 8, 84; Kennedy, vol. ii, p. 132. 
 
PROJECTED ENTERPRISE AGAINST MATAMORAS. 
 
 21 
 
 and carry with them arms against a friendly nation.”* There 
 was no law in the United States to prevent public meetings, 
 or to prohibit the transmission of funds or arms to other coun- 
 tries ; nor was there any law to prevent persons from leaving 
 the United States, provided they did not organize and array 
 their forces within her limits. President Jackson was not the 
 man to shrink from any official duty, however painful ; but, as 
 an individual, he could not but feel an interest in a struggle 
 like that in which Texas was engaged : and what he thought, 
 he spoke. It can not be denied that in some instances the law 
 was violated, and that organized bodies of men did leave the 
 United States : but the sympathy for the cause of the Texans 
 was almost universal, and no one made it his business to ad- 
 vise prosecuting officers of these movements. They came — 
 they aided Texas ; she gave them a home, and many of them 
 remained within her limits. The Lafayettes, the Pulaskis, and 
 the Kosciuskos of Texas, will be kindly remembered, not only 
 throughout her borders, but wherever liberty has friends. 
 
 After the departure of General Austin, the besieging army 
 before San Antonio came very near being broken up. This 
 threatened dissolution originated from a projected enterprise 
 against Matamoras, with the hope of obtaining the co-operation 
 of a large force of Mexican liberals. Dr. James Grant, an 
 Englishman, some time before domiciliated about Monclova, 
 and one of the legislators dispersed by General Cos, was the 
 cause of this movement. He published an account of the sup- 
 posed condition of the interior of Mexico — representing that 
 Alvarez was active in the south, and had taken Acapulco ; that 
 Guzman and Montenegro had an army of twenty-one hundred 
 liberals in the state of Guadalaxara; that Puebla, with the 
 
 * Monasterio, Mexican Minister of Foreign Relations, to the Secretary of State 
 of the United States, November 19, 1836. 
 
22 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 governor at its head, had refused to publish the centralizing 
 decree of the 3d of October, and the people were rising en 
 masse to defend their liberties ; that Valladolid had protested 
 in the strongest terms, and was raising her civic militia ; that 
 Oajaca had made a like protest, and was also preparing for 
 defence ; that Zacatecas was ready to take the first opportu- 
 nity to avenge her wrongs ; so also was Durango ; and that 
 Tamaulipas and New Leon would rise the moment an attack 
 was made on Matamoras , and San Luis Potosi would instantly 
 follow. These, with the further representations — made, no 
 doubt, honestly by Grant — that Santa Anna was sadly dis- 
 tressed for want of funds to carry on his despotic plans, and 
 that his army was scattered and could not be safely united,* 
 served to turn the heads of many of the leading men of Texas. 
 It was supposed that they had only to show themselves on the 
 right bank of the Rio Grande, when the whole of Mexico would 
 rally around them ! They never reflected that, since 1832, 
 the Texans had become a by-word of reproach in Mexico, and 
 that all parties there denounced them as “ perfidious, ungrate- 
 ful disturbers.” As this first thought of a campaign against 
 Matamoras was the cause of great confusion, and some bloody 
 tragedies, its progress, maturity, and final catastrophe, will 
 deserve a more especial notice ; but such notice will appear 
 more properly in a subsequent page. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the New Orleans Grays , 
 two notable companies, afterward so distinguished for their 
 valor and sacrifices in the cause of Texas. The first news of 
 the Texan Revolution was received in New Orleans on the 13th 
 of October, 1835. The same evening a meeting was held at 
 Bank’s Arcade. William Christy, a noble and valuable friend 
 to Texas, presided. Ample funds were raised. Just as the 
 
 * Letter of James Grant, November 13, 1835. 
 
NEW ORLEANS VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 23 
 
 meeting adjourned, Adolphus Sterne, of Nacogdoches, stepped 
 on the platform, and made known that Texas wanted men as 
 well as money ; and that, as a Texan agent, he had that day 
 purchased fifty muskets, which would be distributed to those 
 who would go with him to Texas. On the suggestion, names 
 were called for, and two companies immediately raised, the one 
 commanded by Captain Robert C. Morris, and the other by 
 Captain Breese. The Texan committee dressed them in gray 
 uniforms, and they departed for the theatre of war — the first- 
 named by way of the gulf, the other by way of Natchitoches. 
 The appearance of Breese’s company at Nacogdoches had a 
 fine effect on the Cherokee Indians, a large number of whom 
 were then in town. Their fine uniform caps and coats attract- 
 ed the notice of the chief Bolles. He inquired if they were 
 Jackson’s men. “ Certainly they are,” said Sterne. “Are 
 there more coming?” — “Yes,” was the reply. “How many 
 more ?” asked Bolles. Sterne told him to count the hairs on 
 his head, and he would know. In twenty minutes the Indians 
 had all left the town !* The “ Grays” reached San Antonio 
 in time to participate in its capture. Morris, of the first Grays, 
 was promoted to the rank of major, and William G. Cooke ap- 
 pointed to his place as captain. 
 
 On the 29th of November, Major Morris informed General 
 Houston that two hundred and twenty-five men, nearly all from 
 the United States, had determined to set out the next morning 
 from Bexar, for Matamoras, and thence into the interior ; that 
 their accounts from Mexico were of the most encouraging char- 
 acter ; that they expected to be joined by a hundred or a hun- 
 dred and fifty more* then on their way from the United States ; 
 and that they expected in the end to be joined by from five to 
 eight thousand men, who were awaiting them. He further 
 
 * Statement of the late Adolphus Sterne. 
 
24 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 stated that those who would leave Bexar with him, if disap* 
 pointed in marching on Matamoras, would immediately return 
 to the United States. Such was the hopeless state of things, 
 on the last days of November, before Bexar. But, about that 
 time, the idea of storming the place had got a hold in camp. 
 The Texan force was then not more than eight hundred, inclu- 
 ding the Grays, Captain Peacock’s company from Mississippi, 
 and Captain English’s company from eastern Texas — so much 
 had the forces of the besiegers diminished by the impatience 
 of the volunteers. The hope of active operations, however, 
 detained the troops for some days. 
 
 On the morning of the 3d of December, 1835, Messrs. Smith, 
 Holmes, and Maverick, who had been detained under surveil- 
 lance in Bexar since the affair at Gonzales, made their escape, 
 and reached the Texan camp. From information given by 
 them as to the strength of the place, a call was made for vol- 
 unteers to attack it at four o’clock the next morning. The 
 plan of assault proposed that three hundred volunteers should 
 be led into the town in three divisions : the first, under Colonel 
 Jack, to take and occupy the house of Jose Angel Navarro ; 
 the second, under Lieutenant Sommervell, to take and occupy 
 the house of Antonio de la Garza ; and the third, under Major 
 Morris, to take and occupy the house of Veramendi. Deaf 
 Smith, John W. Smith, and Hendrick Arnold, were to act as 
 guides to the respective divisions. 
 
 During that day and night, all was preparation and impa- 
 tience for the hour to march. A serious conference was in 
 session in General Burleson’s quarters, which closed by a proc- 
 lamation that the descent on the town was postponed ! The 
 burst of disappointment and indignation which followed this 
 announcement can be better imagined than described. A gen- 
 eral parade was ordered for ten o’clock on the morning of the 
 
PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 25 
 
 4th. Many of the companies refused to turn out. The causes 
 assigned for postponing the attack were, the absence of Arnold, 
 one of the guides, together with an opinion that the besieged 
 had received notice of the intended assault. 
 
 About two o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th of December, 
 an order was issued to raise the siege, and to set out for La 
 Bahia at seven o’clock that evening. “ It was then,” says an 
 eye-witness, “ that the scene was wholly indescribable, and se- 
 rious apprehensions were entertained that our camp would 
 become the theatre of blood.” But, in the meantime, Arnold, 
 the absent guide, had returned ; and Lieutenant Yuavis, of the 
 Mexican army, who had deserted the night before, came up. 
 The latter was conducted forthwith to headquarters, and un- 
 derwent a strict examination. He stated that the garrison 
 was in a tumult, and much dissatisfied ; and, further, that the 
 enemy had no suspicion of the intended descent that morning. 
 He also stated that the strength of the place had been exag- 
 gerated. On receipt of this information late in the evening of 
 the 4th, Colonel Benjamin R. Milam, at the suggestion of some 
 persons, cried aloud, “ Who will go with old Ben Milam into 
 San Antonio ?” The reply was a shout from the officers and 
 men then assembled around the quarters of General Burleson. 
 They were ordered to fall into line, and, after a partial organi- 
 zation, Milam was promptly elected to the command, and noti- 
 fied the men to meet him, early after dark, at the old mill — 
 there to complete their arrangements. All this transpired in 
 the presence of General Burleson, and with his approbation. 
 They met at the old mill, and formed the attacking party in 
 two divisions : the first under the immediate command of Colo- 
 nel Milam, assisted by Colonel Nidland Franks of the artillery 
 and Major R. C. Morris of the Grays, with Messrs. Maverick, 
 Cooke, and Arnold, as guides ; the second under the command 
 
26 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 of Colonel Frank W. Johnson, assisted by Colonels James 
 Grant and William T. Austin, with Deaf Smith and John W. 
 Smith as guides. General Burleson was waited on, and re- 
 quested to hold his position till the result of the attack on the 
 town was known, which he cheerfully agreed to do. Colonel 
 J. C. Neill was directed to make a feint on the Alamo, to di- 
 vert the enemy’s attention while Milam was marching into the 
 place. There were three hundred and one men that made the 
 descent, composed mostly of parts of the companies of Captains 
 York, Patton, Dickinson, English, and Ward, in the first divis- 
 ion, under Milam, and of the companies of Cook, Breese, Pea- 
 cock, Swisher, and Edwards, in the second division, under 
 Johnson. 
 
 On the morning of the 5th of December, about twenty min- 
 utes before daylight, the assault was made on the town. Colo- 
 nel Neill, making an earlier start, had crossed the river, de- 
 scended toward the Alamo, and opened a fire upon it, com- 
 pletely diverting the enemy’s attention. This he continued till 
 he heard the report of the guns in the town, when he withdrew 
 to the camp. The division of Milam marched in a direction a 
 little south of west to the entrance of Acequia street (so named 
 from the ditch running on its west side) ; while, at the same 
 time, that of Johnson advanced to the entrance of Soledad 
 street. These two streets from their entrance run south for a 
 thousand varas to the main plaza — the first entering the square 
 on the northwest and the other on the northeast corner. At 
 these points of entrance into the square the enemy had erected 
 breastworks and batteries, so as to command them. Milam’s 
 division took possession of the house of De la Garza, and John- 
 son that of Veramendi. These houses were nearly opposite, 
 on the east side of each of the two streets, and about a hundred 
 yards from the main square. In approaching the Yeramendi 
 
I AM AMTiMil® * ITS ENVIRONS 
 
 Taken from actual Survev. lllustrat i 
 
 og the storming of the Town hy the Texans under 
 
 Col. M i Lam . 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ATTACK ON SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 27 
 
 house, a sentinel fired upon the column, which was returned 
 with effect by Deaf Smith. This aroused the Mexicans in the 
 town. The fire from the town and the Alamo soon became tre- 
 mendous. The Texans had taken with them two pieces of 
 artillery, a twelve and a six pounder. The former was dis- 
 mounted, and, for want of a cover for the other piece, it was 
 but little used. So well directed was the enemy’s fire, that, 
 for a time, the Texans could not cover their lines, or keep up 
 a safe communication between the two divisions. They relied, 
 however, upon their rifles, with which they slackened the ene- 
 my’s fire, and silenced the artillery within range of their pieces. 
 During the 5th, the Texans had one killed, and two colonels, 
 one lieutenant-colonel, and twelve privates, wounded.* These 
 were sent back to the camp. 
 
 The night of the 5th was occupied by the Texans in strength- 
 ening their works, and opening a communication between the 
 two divisions. The enemy kept up a constant fire during the 
 night, which slackened somewhat toward daylight. They were 
 also engaged in placing armed men on the tops of the surround- 
 ing houses, and in strengthening their defences. The Texans 
 at length succeeded in opening a safe communication between 
 their two divisions. This they did under a raking fire from 
 the enemy’s battery at the entrance of Soledad street. 
 
 At daylight, on the morning of the 6th of December, the 
 enemy were discovered to have occupied the tops of the houses 
 between the Texans and the plaza , and to have cut loopholes 
 in the parapet-walls crowning the buildings. From these points 
 
 * Among the wounded were Lieutenant John L. Hall, of the first Grays, and 
 Deaf Smith. These wounds were received on top of the Yeramendi house, 
 whither some ten or fifteen had ascended to get a view of the enemy. Finding 
 their position untenable, they descended through the roof. A writer in the 
 ‘Texas Gazette’ of September 8, 1849, says Lieutenant Hall was not of the 
 party. That officer himself states that he was. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 they opened and kept up during the day a brisk fire of small- 
 arms ; at the same time a steady fire of artillery was maintained 
 from the town and the Alamo. The greatest danger to the 
 Texans was in passing from one building to another. A de- 
 tachment of Captain Crane’s company, under Lieutenant Wil- 
 liam M‘Donald, with others, advanced under a severe fire and 
 took possession of the house to the right and somewhat in ad- 
 vance of the Garza house. This extended the Texan line west- 
 ward, and toward the military plaza. At the same time, the 
 assailants were strengthening their works, and returning the 
 fire of the enemy. They also succeeded in mounting their can- 
 non, with which they did some execution. The communication 
 between the two divisions of the assailants was strengthened. 
 During this, the second day of the attack, the Texans had five 
 wounded. The night of the 6th was occupied by the enemy in 
 keeping up a languishing fire, in opening a trench on the Alar 
 mo side of the river, and in strengthening their batteries on 
 Main street, leading from the plaza to the Alamo. The Tex- 
 ans were engaged in strengthening their lines. 
 
 On the morning of the 7th, the enemy opened a brisk fire 
 from the trench constructed the night before ; also of artillery 
 and small-arms from other positions. By eleven o’clock that 
 day, the deadly fire of the Texan rifles had silenced that from 
 the trench, and also from some of the Mexican artillery. The 
 only house between the Garza house and the buildings on the 
 plaza was about midway, but back from the street. About 
 noon, the gallant Karnes advanced with a crowbar, under a 
 heavy fire from the enemy, and forced an entrance. Captain 
 York’s company followed, and held the position. In the even- 
 ing the fire of the Mexicans became active from all their works. 
 Colonel Milam, in passing from his position to that of Johnson 
 at the Yeramendi house, was instantly killed by a rifle-shot in 
 
DEATH OF COLONEL MILAM. 
 
 29 
 
 the head. He fell just as he entered the yard. In his death, 
 Texas lost a commander and a soldier whose place could not 
 be easily supplied.* The Texans, however, felt a new incen- 
 tive to avenge his death. They immediately set on foot a 
 party to take possession of the house of Antonio Navarro, situ- 
 ated on the north side of Main street, one block west of the 
 main plaza, but commanding a portion of the military plaza, 
 and the Mexican redoubt on the second block west of the main 
 square. The party consisted of portions of the companies of 
 Captains Llewyllen, English, Crane, and York. They ad- 
 vanced from the house taken by Karnes, and forced an en- 
 trance. The enemy endeavored to retake it by firing through 
 loopholes made in the roof ; but the Texans returned the fire 
 through the same loopholes, and drove them off. 
 
 Immediately north of and adjoining the Navarro house, front- 
 ing on Flores street, stood a row of buildings known as the 
 “ Zambrano Row.” The taking of these buildings was part 
 of the work of the 8th of December. The morning was cold 
 and wet, and but little was done. About nine o’clock, how- 
 ever, the same party who had taken the Navarro house, being 
 reinforced by the Grays, commenced the attack. The row con- 
 sisted of a series of rooms, separated by thick partition-walls. 
 These walls were pierced, and thus the Texans advanced from 
 room to room. The enemy disputed every inch of the ground, 
 and kept up a tremendous fire of artillery during the day. At 
 last, however, they were forced to abandon the row. During 
 this time, a small reinforcement, under Lieutenant Gill, came 
 in from the camp of General Burleson. The Mexicans, in or- 
 der to produce a diversion, sent out a party of about fifty men 
 from the Alamo toward the Texan camp, but they were quickly 
 driven back by the fire of a six-pounder. After dark, on the 
 
 * Milam was buried where he fell. 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 8th, the occupants of the Zambrano row were reinforced by 
 the companies of Captains Swisher, Alley, Edwards, and Dun- 
 can. Thus the Texans had, in fact, the command of the north- 
 west portion of the enemy’s main defences. 
 
 On the night of the 8th, a further advance was made. On 
 the north side, and opposite the centre of the main plaza, stood 
 a strong building known as the “ Priest’s House.” It com- 
 manded the plaza, and its capture was considered the crown- 
 ing work of the assault. Just before midnight, a party of 
 about a hundred men, destined to attack this place, set out 
 from the Garza house. In passing an out-building connected 
 with the wall around the yard of the priest’s house, they were 
 exposed to a heavy fire from the Mexicans occupying that out- 
 building ; but by a rapid movement the assailants reached the 
 wall, broke it down, drove the enemy from his position, entered 
 the priest’s house, secured and strengthened the doors and 
 windows, and commenced cutting loopholes. The fire of the 
 enemy had by this time become general, and was kept up with 
 artillery and small-arms until nearly daylight. Finding the 
 Texans unpleasantly near them, they did not wait for daybreak 
 to see the effect of their rifles from the loopholes in the priest’s 
 house upon the main plaza, but retreated to the Alamo. At 
 half-past six o’clock, on the morning of the 9th, General Cos 
 sent in a flag of truce, expressing a wish to capitulate. 
 
 General Burleson, having received notice of the flag, pro- 
 ceeded to the town ; and by two o’clock, on the morning of the 
 10th, the articles of capitulation were concluded. Cos and 
 his officers were permitted to retire with their arms and pri- 
 vate property, upon their word of honor that they would not 
 in any way oppose the re-establishment of the constitution of 
 1824 ; the Mexican convict-soldiers were to be taken beyond 
 the Rio Grande ; all public property belonged to the victors ; 
 
CAPITULATION OF SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 31 
 
 such of the troops as wished to remain, or leave the Mexican 
 army, had the liberty of doing so. Commissioners were ap- 
 pointed to carry the articles into effect. 
 
 It is proper here to state that during the attack, notwith- 
 standing General Burleson had out a constant patrol, Ugarta- 
 chea made his way into San Antonio with five hundred con- 
 victs, guarded by a hundred regular infantry. This force, 
 added to the eight hundred previously there, made an aggre- 
 gate of fourteen hundred. The number of the enemy killed 
 has been variously estimated : it probably did not exceed a 
 hundred and fifty. The Texan loss was trifling, though they 
 had several wounded. 
 
 Among the occurrences of the assault, it may be stated that 
 on the same evening of the death of Milam, the officers assem- 
 bled and conferred the command on Colonel Frank W. John- 
 son, who had the high honor of raising the flag of victory over 
 the walls of Bexar. The reinforcement of convicts brought in 
 by Ugartachea were conducted in chains, and their fetters were 
 only taken off when they were introduced within the lines. 
 Such men added nothing to the Mexican strength, but served 
 only to hasten the consumption of the scanty provisions of the 
 besieged. After the occupation of the priest’s house by the 
 Texans, the town was fairly in their possession. The} were 
 in a position, as soon as daylight appeared, to clear every bat- 
 tery on the plaza. The terms of the capitulation were, then, 
 humane. It is true the enemy could have held out for some 
 time in the Alamo, but they had no provisions. The Texans 
 agreed to furnish them with a supply at a fair price, and their 
 sick and wounded were permitted to remain behind, and were 
 duly cared for. Thus the humanity loliowing the victory was 
 more glorious than the victory itself, and was a noble lesson 
 of moderation in the hour of triumph, which the enemy failed 
 
32 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 to learn.* Twenty-one pieces of artillery, five hundred mus- 
 kets, together with ammunition, clothing, &c., fell into the 
 hands of the victors. 
 
 On the 14th, General Cos left the town with eleven hundred 
 and five troops, the remainder having abandoned his flag. He 
 encamped that night at the mission of San Jose. The next 
 day he set out for the Rio Grande, to report to Santa Anna, 
 his distinguished relative and superior, the rebellious charac- 
 ter of the Texans, and their obstinacy in battle. General 
 Burleson, who, although opposed to the attack, when it was 
 begun did all he could to contribute to its success, on the 15th 
 retired to his home, leaving Colonel Johnson in command at 
 the Alamo, with a sufficient force to maintain it. The remain- 
 der of the army dispersed. Thus was Texas again free from 
 the footsteps of the enemy. 
 
 We will now return to the stirring events in the civil depart- 
 ment of government, following the adjournment of the consul- 
 tation. Governor Smith, with the council, his advisers, had 
 much to do, and with but slender means. Texas was poor ; 
 and the truth of history is only vindicated in saying that, but 
 for the means supplied by the generosity of individuals in the 
 United States, she could hardly have sustained herself against 
 the power of Mexico. True, her own people were heroes, and 
 able and willing to do all that men ever did or could do ; yet 
 they must have food and raiment, arms and munitions-. The 
 ravages of war had called them from their fields and shops, 
 and they were producing nothing. What her wealthier citi- 
 zens could give, was given freely. The people of San Augus- 
 
 * The account of the storming of San Antonio is taken from the official reports 
 of General Burleson, of the 14th of December, 1835 ; of Colonel Francis W. John- 
 son, of the same date; from the “Emigrant’s Guide” of January 16, 1836; the 
 “State Gazette” of September 1, 8, and 15, 1849; and from the statements of 
 several of those engaged in the contest 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS — GOVERNOR’S MESSAGE. 
 
 33 
 
 tine and Nacogdoches subscribed several thousand dollars in 
 money, besides provisions, horses, clothing, and whatever else 
 they had. D. H. Vail, treasurer of the people of Natchitoches, 
 sent on in wagons the large subscriptions of that place. Such 
 was the enthusiasm there, that the Mexican consul tore down 
 his sign, placed his foot upon it, and declared for Texas. Mo- 
 bile sent at one time two thousand dollars. The committee at 
 New Orleans were also sending forward repeated supplies. 
 The receivers of public moneys in Texas promptly delivered 
 over the funds to the provisional government.* 
 
 On the 15th of November, Governor Smith sent in to the 
 council his message. He talked very plainly to the members 
 of that body. He told them to commence by summoning to 
 their assistance moral courage, and to throw around them the 
 shield of honesty. He advised them to adopt the most prompt 
 and energetic measures in behalf of the army ; to furnish the 
 necessary provisions ; to provide for fortifying the unprotected 
 seaport and frontier towns, to which end he recommended the 
 formation of a corps of engineers. He also advised the grant- 
 ing of letters of marque and reprisal, to blockade the ports of 
 the enemy : this he believed could be done with foreign capital 
 and enterprise. He recommended the raising of a company 
 of rangers, to overawe the Indians, and prevent them from be- 
 coming the allies of the Mexicans ; also the protection of the 
 civilized Indians in the “just and equitable title” which they 
 were generally understood to have in their lands ; he recom- 
 mended the appointment of foreign agents, to be clothed with 
 special powers to procure aid for Texas ; also the establish- 
 ment of a tariff, and the appointment of revenue-officers ; also 
 the regulation of the postoffice, and approving the appointment 
 of John Rice Jones as postmaster-general, made by the council 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 9, et aeq. 
 
 VOL. H. — 3 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 previous to the meeting of the consultation ; also the organiza- 
 tion of the militia ; the appointment of a treasurer ; and. finally, 
 the location of the seat of government.* 
 
 The council proceeded to distribute their labors by the ap- 
 pointment of committees on the army, navy, finances, Indian 
 and state affairs. They appointed Charles B. Stewart secre- 
 tary to the governor, John W. Moore army-contractor, and 
 Thomas F. M‘Kinney special agent to borrow one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars on account of Texas. In this last act of the coun- 
 cil, of the 24th of November, appeared the first germ of dis- 
 cord between Governor Smith and that body. It will be re- 
 membered that the consultation, previous to its adjournment, 
 had appointed Messrs. S. F. Austin, W. H. Wharton, and B. 
 T. Archer, agents of Texas to proceed to the United States, 
 and transact such business in her behalf as might be deemed 
 necessary. These agents were shortly to set out on their mis- 
 sion. Governor Smith deemed it improper in the council to 
 anticipate the action of these agents by the appointment of a 
 special agent to do in part what they could better effect. Nev- 
 ertheless, the council unanimously passed the act over his ex- 
 cellency’s veto.f 
 
 For the further organization of the government, the council 
 elected two judges for each municipality, and also commission- 
 ers to organize the militia. J It likewise elected Joshua Fletcher 
 treasurer. On the 26th of November, P. B. Dexter, the secre- 
 tary of the council, resigned, and that body chose E. M. Pease 
 his successor.il 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 13. f lb., p. 50. \ lb., p. 67. 
 
 | Elisha M. Pease, the present worthy governor of Texas, wa9 from Con- 
 necticut He had some time previously settled at Bastrop, and took an active 
 part in the first revolutionary meetings there. He was quite young, but such 
 wa6 his conduct and solid worth, that he soon attracted the attention of the 
 public. 
 
SOURCES OF REVENUE. 
 
 35 
 
 On the 27th of November, the financial committee made an 
 able report, exhibiting the resources of Texas. They saw 
 plainly enough that money, as well as patriotism, was neces- 
 sary to sustain the war. They estimated the territory of the 
 province at a quarter of a million of square miles, and the pop- 
 ulation at fifty thousand souls. They stated that only ten mil- 
 lions of acres of this vast domain was appropriated. They 
 recommended a tax on this land ; also a tax of one dollar per 
 head on slaves. As a more speedy and available source of 
 revenue, they recommended a duty on foreign tonnage. The 
 export of cotton was estimated at sixty thousand bales : the 
 tonnage, they supposed, would amount to the same. They 
 proposed a duty of two and one eighth dollars per ton ; also 
 an export duty on cotton of one quarter of a cent per pound. 
 They also recommended a duty of fifteen to thirty per centum 
 on imports. These sources of revenue would, in due time, have 
 answered every legitimate want. But, at that moment, the 
 wants of Texas were pressing, and could not be postponed : 
 hence a loan presented the most obvious, nay, the only plan 
 of relief.* 
 
 Stephen F. Austin reached San Felipe on the 29th of No- 
 vember. On the following day he presented his respects to 
 the governor and council, and awaited only his instructions to 
 depart for the United States. The subject of his instructions 
 had some time before been brought to the notice of the council 
 by Governor Smith, but still they were not prepared. On the 
 4th of December, he again reminded them that everything de- 
 pended on the despatch of these agents, and urged them to 
 suspend other business till the instructions were made out. At 
 length, on the 6th of December, the council, by an ordinance, 
 authorized the governor to give the necessary instructions. In 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 63. 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the meantime, William H. Wharton declined the appointment 
 of commissioner, preferring a position in the army ; but his 
 services as an agent were deemed too important, and he was 
 finally induced to go.* The commissioners shortly afterward 
 set out for the United States. Before leaving, however, they 
 made an application to General Houston to appoint two agents 
 to proceed to New Orleans, to procure provisions, ammunition, 
 &c . ; they being subject to the direction of the commissioners. 
 They recommended the names of A. Huston and John A. 
 Wharton for this trust. Accordingly, on the 8th of December, 
 General Houston appointed the agents named. f 
 
 About this time the Texans received the news of the unfor- 
 tunate result of an expedition fitted out at New Orleans against 
 Tampico. It was gotten up under the auspices of General 
 Mexia, one of the republican officers in Mexico, who abandoned 
 Santa Anna when the latter declared for the centralists. Mexia 
 advised the expedition, and declared the capture of Tampico 
 the most fatal blow that could be given to the operations of 
 Santa Anna against Texas. Some liberal contributions had 
 been given to the cause by persons in New Orleans ; the schooner 
 “Mary Jane” was chartered, and on the 6th of November, 
 1835, she sailed for Tampico, having on board some one hun- 
 dred and thirty men. Two thirds of these were Americans, 
 the others mostly French and Germans. There is little doubt 
 that most of the men were deceived as to their destination, but 
 supposed they were sailing to Texas as emigrants. The ves- 
 sel proceeded on her voyage until the 12th, when it was made 
 known to those not in the secret that there was on board the 
 craft a general with his staff, whose design was to act in con- 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 108. 
 
 f Austin and Archer to Houston, December 7, 1885. Orders to A. Huston 
 and John A. Wharton, December 8, 1885: MSS. 
 
MEXIA’S TAMPICO EXPEDITION. 
 
 37 
 
 cert with the Texans, and he desired them to join him. The 
 land being then in sight, and the vessel standing in, it was an- 
 nounced that they were before Tampico. Through the instru- 
 mentality of Captain Hawkins,* an aid to Mexia, some were 
 induced to join him. The schooner was taken in tow by a 
 steamboat, but they soon ran aground, when, night coming on, 
 they found the water breaking over the vessel. They succeed- 
 ed, however, in getting to the shore, on which they all safely 
 landed that night and the following morning. The fort at the 
 bar, after a slight conflict, surrendered to Mexia, and his com- 
 mand were then occupied in drying their clothing. On Sun- 
 day evening, the 15th, arms were placed in the hands of the 
 passengers. It was expected that the Mexicans would rally 
 in large numbers around the standard of Mexia, but in this 
 they were greatly deceived. The cry of “ Viva Santa Anna , 
 y mueron los e stranger os !” was alone heard in the streets. 
 Their main dependence was upon this expected native force ; 
 but only fifty Mexicans joined them. So, being thus disap- 
 pointed, they failed in their enterprise. General Mexia and a 
 portion of his small force escaped in a vessel to the Brasos. 
 Thirty-one were captured, of whom three died in the hospital ; 
 the remaining twenty-eight were condemned by a court-martial, 
 and shot at Tampico, on the 14th of December following.! 
 
 * Charles Hawkins, at an early age, went into the United States navy, where 
 he was appointed midshipman, and then lieutenant Resigning his commission 
 during the Mexican Revolution, he entered the naval service of that country, 
 and became a terror to the Spanish shipping in the West Indies. After the 
 treaty of Cordova, in 1821, he resigned his commission in the Mexican service, 
 and became captain of a steamboat on the Chattahooohie river. When the 
 Texan war broke out, he came to New Orleans and joined General Mexia. Af- 
 ter the disastrous Tampico expedition, he came with Mexia to Texas, bringing 
 the torn Tampico flag, and joined the army before San Antonio just after the 
 surrender of Cos. This same torn flag was afterward displayed while the Texan 
 army was at Groce’s, but was soon removed, as ominous — Telegraph , September 
 8, 1838. 
 
 f Edward, p. 262, et seq. ; Kennedy, vol. il, p. 164. 
 
38 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Among the Mexican population of Texas there was a want 
 of union. The most of them were in favor of the constitution 
 of 1824, but a difference of race and treatment induced many 
 of them to side with the enemy. John N. Seguin, of an an- 
 cient Mexican family residing on the river, a few miles below 
 San Antonio, at the head of a company of rancheros , joined 
 the Texan standard in October, 1835 ; and was of much ser- 
 vice, especially in giving notice of the designs of the enemy. 
 Colonel Jose Maria Gonzales, a Mexican of distinction and 
 influence, and formerly of the army of Mexico, applied for leave 
 to enter the Texan service, with a number of his countrymen. 
 The permission was granted, and an outfit of five hundred dol- 
 lars was voted him from the humble treasury of the republic. 
 He issued a stirring address to his people, which had the good 
 effect of drawing out some, and neutralizing others.* Colonel 
 Sandoval, who had been so handsomely captured at Goliad by 
 Collingsworth, also applied for permission to join the Texan 
 army ; but the council, deeming him too recent a convert to be 
 intrusted with arms in their ranks, ordered that he and those 
 captured with him should be sent to San Augustine for safe 
 keeping : for want of means, however, they were not sent. 
 
 As early as the month of November, the enemy had upon the 
 Texan coast the “ Bravo” and “ Montezuma,” two small vessels- 
 of-war, charged with the importation of recruits and stores for 
 Texas. These vessels were quite annoying to the revolution- 
 ists, and efforts were made to fit out like armed vessels to repel 
 them. On one occasion, the schooner “ Hannah Elizabeth,” 
 
 * Address of Gonzales, December 10, 1835: “ Mejicanos” says he, “la voz de 
 Libertad salio de entre las ruinas en que la perfidia mas maudita sepultara la 
 constitution de nuestra patria. En Tejas se ha tremolado el estandarte de la fed- 
 eration, y los hijos de Mejico no pueden ser indeferentes d tan augusto reclamo” 
 It would have been well had Gonzales sustained this sentiment. We shall hear 
 of him again in the federal campaign of 1839. 
 
ADVENTURE OF THE HANNAH ELIZABETH. 
 
 39 
 
 freighted with cannon, arms, and ammunition, intended for the 
 Texan service, and an adventure of goods and provisions be- 
 longing in part to Peter Kerr, sailed from New Orleans for 
 Matagorda. Kerr w r as himself on board, as were likewise Jose 
 M. J. Carbajal and Fernando de Leon, the latter two having 
 charge of the other freight. She was discovered, pursued, and 
 run aground, at Pass Cavallo, by the Bravo. In the chase she 
 had thrown overboard her cannon and ammunition. She was 
 boarded by a prize-crew, consisting of Lieutenant Mateo and 
 eleven men, from the Bravo ; and Carbajal, De Leon, and some 
 others, were transferred as prisoners to that vessel. Shortly 
 after, the Bravo was driven off by a norther. In a day or two 
 afterward, the citizens of Matagorda, having received notice of 
 the wreck, purchased and armed the schooner “ William Rob- 
 bins,” placed her under the command of Captain Hurd, and, 
 with a small force on board, commanded by Captain S. Rhoads 
 Fisher, retook the stranded vessel, and made the prize-crew 
 prisoners. This was all very well ; but they went further, and 
 appropriated to themselves the goods and provisions, allowing 
 Kerr to retain his part on payment of half their value ! But 
 Kerr, being unable to do this, got none.* Governor Smith, 
 being duly advised of these proceedings, took occasion, in a 
 special message, to reprehend them severely. 
 
 * Fisher’s statement, December 17, 1835. Poor Kerr! this was but the be- 
 ginning of his troubles. He was shortly afterward, greatly against his will, 
 made to play a conspicuous part in the Texan Revolution, as we shall see. It 
 is only a short time since he received from the United States treasury, under 
 the award of the “mixed commission,” some remuneration for his adventure on 
 the “ Hannah Elizabeth.” 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 At the beginning of the Texan Revolution, the country was 
 unusually well represented by men of talents. In proportion 
 to the population, few countries ever equalled it. The stirring 
 events in prospect, offering a fine field for ambition and adven- 
 ture, had drawn many hither. Soon after the organization of 
 the provisional government, and even during the sitting of the 
 consultation at San Felipe, some discontent was manifested by 
 those who did not obtain what they claimed as their share in 
 the distribution of offices. To such a height did this feeling 
 rise, that an open rupture was threatened. On one occasion, 
 a desperado entered the council-hall, while the council was in 
 session, and ordered the members to dissolve and go home. 
 But, on the 19th of December, a more serious movement was 
 made. A meeting was called at San Felipe, at which Wylie 
 Martin presided. Mosely Baker introduced a series of resolu- 
 tions, declaring the existing authorities not equal to the crisis ; 
 that the officers and the members of the council were worthless 
 and imbecile ; and that it was necessary forthwith to reorgan- 
 ize the government and give it a more energetic administration, 
 in order to save the country from ruin. This was the substance 
 of the resolutions, which were supported by the mover in an 
 eloquent speech of an hour — for he was one of the most able 
 as well as restless and ambitious men in Texas. The effect of 
 
ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY. 
 
 41 
 
 the speech was manifest : the concourse wavered, and the con- 
 tinuance of the government seemed doubtful. 
 
 Sam Houston replied to Baker, and answered his objections 
 to the existing government. He said he was astonished to 
 hear such a manifestation of discontent at a time when the 
 least division in their ranks would be fatal to their cause and 
 the cause of liberty ; that it was true their temporary system 
 of government was not perfect in all its parts, yet it would an- 
 swer the present emergency ; and he could not but denounce 
 as a fratricide and miscreant any one who, at a period so criti- 
 cal, would interpose an obstacle to the authorities then in 
 power. This was followed by strong personal allusions. At 
 the close of the discussion, the mover of the resolutions tore 
 them up, declaring that he washed his hands of the whole 
 matter.* 
 
 General Houston had remained at San Felipe, to give aid 
 and advice in organizing the army, and in framing such meas- 
 ures as were intimately connected therewith. Among these 
 were — an ordinance to establish a corps of rangers; an ordi- 
 nance to raise a regular army ;f an ordinance to regulate the 
 militia ; an ordinance appointing a commissary and ordi- 
 nances to purchase munitions, provisions, clothing, &c., for the 
 army and the defence of the coast. || The regular army was to 
 consist of eleven hundred and twenty men, to be enlisted for 
 two years, or during the war. After the passage of this law, 
 and the appointment of the necessary officers, the commander- 
 in-chief despatched the latter on recruiting-service to the differ- 
 ent points ; notifying them that each enlisted soldier should be 
 entitled, in addition to the pay and rations allowed by the Uni- 
 ted States, to a bounty of six hundred and forty acres of land. 
 
 * Statement of Dr. B. B. Goodrich : MS. “Emigrant’s Guide,” Jan. 2, 1836. 
 
 f Order and Decree, p. 20, et seq. % lb., p. 32. || lb., p. 34, et seq. 
 
42 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The recruiting-officers were to report at headquarters by the 
 25th of February following.* General Houston then issued a 
 proclamation, calling for aid, and reciting the past events and 
 the then present condition of Texas and her wants. f Gov- 
 ernor Smith, on the 16th of December, ordered him, as soon 
 as circumstances would permit, to establish his headquarters 
 at Washington, on the Brasos, until further orders, and to ex- 
 ert his efforts to organize the army ; but circumstances pre- 
 vented his departure until the 25th of December. 
 
 The news of the first successes at San Antonio, and a call 
 for immediate supplies of men and munitions, was met by the 
 governor and council with a corresponding spirit. Thomas J. 
 Rusk and J. W. Fannin were appointed — the first to proceed 
 east, the other west of the Trinity — to collect reinforcements, 
 to purchase and procure ammunition, provisions, and other 
 necessaries, with power to press such articles as were needed 
 by the besiegers. These agents immediately set out in the 
 discharge of their duties, but victory anticipated them ; though 
 the fruit of their labors was still necessary for the army. 
 
 On the return of General Mexia from his unfortunate expe- 
 dition to Tampico, he applied to the provisional government to 
 assist him in an expedition to the interior of Mexico, with the 
 view of carrying the war into the enemy’s country. The coun- 
 cil passed an ordinance, directing William Pettus, contractor 
 for the volunteer army, with the advice of Thomas F. McKin- 
 ney, to make the necessary provisions for General Mexia, and 
 that the latter report his plan to the provisional government. || 
 The governor vetoed the resolution informing the council that 
 he had no confidence whatever in the co-operation of General 
 
 * S. Houston to Captain A. Turner, December 5, 1835 : MS. 
 
 \ Appendix No. I. — Document 5. 
 
 \ Resolution of December 10, 1835. 
 
 !| Ordinances of Council, December 6, 1835, p. 67. 
 
THE LAST OF GENERAL MEXIA. 
 
 43 
 
 Mexia : that lie had no doubt of his intention to make a de- 
 scent on the seaports west of Texas, for the purpose of robbing, 
 in order to recruit his own desperate fortunes, but he could 
 see no possible good that would -result therefrom to Texas ; 
 that it would be unwise to incur the expense of fitting him out, 
 without any guaranty, or control over his conduct, or even 
 knowing his plans : in short, the governor thought it bad pol- 
 icy to fit out or trust Mexicans in any matter connected with 
 the interests of Texas ; for, in the end, he was satisfied they 
 would prove inimical and treacherous.* The council, however, 
 passed the ordinance, notwithstanding the veto, and a copy 
 was despatched to General Mexia. But in a short time after- 
 ward they passed a resolution requesting his co-operation with 
 the army before Bexar, and sent him notice thereof. He was 
 then at Columbia, and declined joining the Texans before Bex- 
 ar — stating that he could not risk his military character by 
 taking a command under the provisional government of Texas, 
 as Yiesca was not governor. He stated that his plan was to 
 go to Copano, and join to his force two hundred Mexicans then 
 at Palo Blanco ; and thence take Matamoras, if possible. This 
 response served much to moderate the ardor of the council, 
 and they gently withdrew their aid from General Mexia. f 
 Thus Texas was finally rid of a man of more pretension than 
 worth, and whose indecision might have endangered her high 
 purposes. 
 
 A difference between the governor and council has already 
 been intimated. The origin and progress of this difference, so 
 painful and destructive in its consequences, require a special 
 notice. Dr. James Grant, it will be remembered, originated 
 the project of an expedition to Matamoras. His domicil was 
 in Coahuila, where he had a splendid estate. He had never 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 132. f lb., pp. 174, 195. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 resided in Texas ; it was not his home. His feelings, his in- 
 terests, and his efforts, were all in favor of the old union of 
 Coahuila and Texas. True, he was at the siege of San Anto- 
 nio, and fought gallantly there, and was severely wounded on 
 the first day ; but he fought against Cos, who had driven him 
 from the legislative hall of Monclova, and not for the cause 
 and right of Texas. He therefore had a motive in carrying 
 the war to Matamoras, and thence into the interior of Mexico, 
 that he might return to his princely domains at Parras. Among 
 the volunteers and adventurers at San Antonio he was inces- 
 santly painting in lively colors the rich spoils of Tamaulipas, 
 New Leon, Coahuila, and San Luis Potosi, the facility of the 
 descent, the cowardly nature of the inhabitants, and the charm- 
 ing beauties of the valleys of the San Juan, the Sabinas, and 
 the Santander. 
 
 This was enough : the bold and fiery spirits who had just 
 driven twice their number from the strong walls of Bexar and 
 the Alamo, were ready to go. They wanted but a leader and 
 a cause. The authority of Texas was invoked.* The gov- 
 ernor was prudent, and preferred to follow the landmarks laid 
 down by the consultation. The council was otherwise. This 
 body, changing almost daily, contained but few of the original 
 members, and the change had not been for the better, in either 
 wisdom or integrity. They had ceased to feel any responsi- 
 bility for their official conduct. 
 
 The council had created the office of judge-advocate-general, 
 and had elected D. C. Barrett, one of their own body, to fill it. 
 They had also chosen Edward Gritton to the office of collector 
 of revenue for the important port of Copan o. Governor Smith 
 refused to ratify these appointments, and, in his message of 
 the 17th of December, gave his reasons. In regard to Gritton, 
 
 * Appendix No. I. — Document No. 16. 
 
DIFFERENCES OF GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 
 
 45 
 
 he said it was well known that he first made his appearance in 
 Texas as the secretary and travelling-companion of Colonel 
 Almonte, who was an avowed spy, sent to Texas by Santa 
 Anna ; that Gritton was an Englishman, and by adoption and 
 long residence a Mexican, allied to the enemy by affinity and 
 commerce ; that he had never joined the Texan army, and the 
 governor had ever considered him a spy, and hoped the coun- 
 cil would make a better selection. As to D. C. Barrett, he 
 was infinitely more severe. He alleged that he had forged an 
 attorney’s license, in North Carolina ; that he had taken fees 
 on both sides of a cause as an attorney ; that he had passed 
 counterfeit money knowingly ; that he had embezzled the funds 
 furnished himself and Gritton as an outfit, when sent on an 
 embassy to Cos, the previous summer, without going to their 
 intended destination, or reporting their proceedings. These 
 were some of the caustic charges preferred by his excellency 
 against one of the leading members of the council. They were 
 scandalous if true, and more so if false. He not only gave 
 them as reasons for refusing to commission the nominee, but 
 asked the council to fix a day for the proof of the charges, and 
 it should be made, in order to expel the obnoxious member.* 
 The council sustained their member : they declared that the 
 governor had no right to object to their appointments ; that 
 the charges against Barrett were partly beyond their jurisdic- 
 tion — the others they denounced as untrue ; and required the 
 governor forthwith to issue commissions to the two nominees. 
 
 Thus the contest became personal ; and the council, already 
 enthusiastic on the subject of the Matamoras expedition, began 
 to devise ways and means to carry it on without the concur- 
 
 * I have before me the original message, endorsed by the secretary, “read in 
 secret session, December 20, 1836, and ordered to be placed on file, and not en- 
 tered on the journals of the house. December 26, 1836.” See Journal of the 
 Council, pp. 206, 206. 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 rence or aid of the governor. Two members of the military 
 committee engaged in a correspondence with the most adven- 
 turous spirits at Bexar, to start the enterprise there.* This, 
 added to the influence and eloquence of Dr. Grant, soon re- 
 sulted in an organized plan. 
 
 After the capture of Bexar, the troops, having nothing to 
 do, became restless ; and it -was deemed necessary, in order to 
 retain the volunteers, that they should be engaged in some en- 
 terprise. On the 20th of December, there were about four hun- 
 dred men at Bexar, seventy at Washington, eighty at Goliad, 
 and two hundred at Velasco, making a total of seven hundred 
 and fifty men — besides several companies who were on their 
 march to the different places of rendezvous.! 
 
 Before detailing further the movements in Texas, we will 
 refer to those of the enemy. General Cos retreated to Laredo, 
 where he was shortly afterward joined by General Sesma with 
 a thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. Another army 
 was concentrating at San Luis Potosi, to be commanded by 
 Santa Anna in person. The news of the fall of Bexar had as- 
 tonished and united Mexico. All parties became eager to wipe 
 from the Mexican eagle the stain inflicted by the surrender of 
 Cos. The letter of Grant, of the 13th of November, had al- 
 ready reached the country of the enemy, and preparations were 
 making at Matamoras, under the command of General Urrea, 
 not only to defend that place, but to advance upon Goliad. The 
 Texans were, however, unadvised of these preparations. 
 
 On the 17th of December, Governor Smith directed the com- 
 mander-in-chief to make a demonstration upon Matamoras ; or 
 at least to secure Copano, and harass the enemy in that direc- 
 tion. Houston, on the same day, issued an order to Colonel 
 James Bowie, then at Goliad, to proceed to raise, if possible, 
 
 * Appendix No. L — Document No. 16. f Journal of the Council, p. 203. 
 
PROJECTED EXPEDITION AGAINST MATAMORAS. 
 
 47 
 
 a sufficient force, and march upon Matamoras ; but, if he could 
 not succeed in that enterprise, at least to secure and hold the 
 most eligible point on the frontier, and use all the means in his 
 power to annoy the enemy. Bowie was selected for this expe- 
 dition because of his distinguished valor and prudence, his ac- 
 curate knowledge of the country, and also of the people among 
 whom he was to march ; but, as it happened, the order did not 
 reach Colonel Bowie, as he left Goliad for Bexar a short time 
 before it arrived at the former place.* 
 
 The intended expedition against Matamoras was based en- 
 tirely upon the expected co-operation of the Mexicans ; and 
 their support at least depended upon Texas remaining true to 
 the constitution of 1824. This was impossible : the scenes of 
 Concepcion and San Antonio had entirely destroyed the last 
 feeling of regard for that celebrated document. The cry of 
 “ Independence !” had already made itself heard in the settle- 
 ments, and every day its voice grew stronger. It was idle to 
 suppose for a moment that the Mexicans in the interior of the 
 confederacy would assist Texas in breaking the shackles that 
 bound her to them. 
 
 Captain Philip Dimit, in command at Goliad, on the 2d of 
 December wrote a strong letter in favor of the expedition to 
 Matamoras, promising the co-operation of the republicans of 
 Tamaulipas : yet, so sudden was the change of feeling, that on 
 the 20th of that month the troops and people of Goliad, with 
 Captain Dimit at their head, affirmed their independence, and 
 published a solemn declaration to that effect ! In that racy 
 and spirited document they disclaim all hope of co-operation 
 from any portion of the Mexicans, and fully exhibit the tone 
 of the Texans at that time. “We have indulged sympathy,” 
 say they, “ for the condition of many whom we vainly flattered 
 
 * Appendix No. I. — Documents Nos. 8 and 16. See also Appendix No. II. 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ourselves were opposed, in common with their adopted breth- 
 ren, to the extension of military domination to the domain of 
 Texas. But the siege of Bexar has dissolved the illusion. 
 Nearly all their physical force was in the line of the enemy, 
 and armed with rifles. Seventy days’ occupation of Goliad 
 has also abundantly demonstrated the general diffusion among 
 the creole population of a like attachment to the institutions 
 of their ancient tyrants. Intellectually enthralled, and stran- 
 gers to the blessings of regulated liberty, the only philanthropic 
 service which we can ever force on their acceptance is that of 
 example. In doing this, we need not expect or even hope for 
 their co-operation .” 
 
 They despatched their declaration to every municipality in 
 Texas, and also to the council at San Felipe. In the latter 
 body it was referred to the committee on the judiciary and 
 affairs of state, who reported (and the report was adopted by 
 the council) that the declaration was premature ; that it jeop- 
 arded the community, and tended to destroy the government.* 
 The council succeeded in having its further circulation sup- 
 pressed. Thus they endeavored to restrain the feeling of in- 
 dependence that had already occupied the public mind. 
 
 During the stay of the commander-in-chief at San Felipe, and 
 while waiting for certain documents relative to the organization 
 of the army, he was engaged in placing troops and provisions, 
 at proper points. Colonel A. Huston, the quartermaster-gen- 
 eral, having been despatched to New Orleans, he appointed 
 Lieutenant William Eaton assistant quartermaster-general, and 
 directed him to take post at Yelasco, and notify all troops ar- 
 riving at the mouth of the Brasos, if they came in armed ves- 
 sels, to proceed to Copano, and take position at Refugio ; if 
 the vessels should not be armed, then to land at Matagorda, 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 259. 
 
ORDERS OF THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 
 
 49 
 
 and proceed by land to Goliad.* He addressed like instruc- 
 tions to the Texan military agents at New Orleans in regard 
 to the shipment of provisions.! Thus he was concentrating 
 his forces on the frontier at Refugio and Goliad, and storing 
 provisions and munitions at Copano and Matagorda. At the 
 same time, A. G. Kellogg, assistant quartermaster-general, was 
 stationed at Gaines’s ferry, on the Sabine, with directions to 
 furnish supplies' to volunteers coming by land. if Lieutenant- 
 Colonel James C. Neill was ordered to take command of the 
 town and district of Bexar, and to superintend the recruiting- 
 service at that station. || Colonel William B. Travis, of the 
 first regiment of infantry, was ordered to San Felipe, to re- 
 cruit; and Colonel J. W. Fannin was ordered to Velasco for a 
 like purpose, and also to take the command there. 
 
 On the 25th of December, the commander-in-chief removed 
 his headquarters to Washington. Here he met Colonel Wyatt 
 with two companies of volunteers, numbering eighty men, from 
 the state of Alabama. About the same time arrived at San 
 Felipe Major William Ward, of the state of Georgia, with three 
 companies, comprising a hundred and twelve men. They were 
 ordered to the west.§ Captain Ira Westover was ordered to 
 Goliad, to relieve Captain Dimit. 
 
 On the 80th of December, General Houston wrote to Colo- 
 nel Fannin, imforming him that all volunteers were ordered to 
 Copano, there to remain until they had orders to advance ; and 
 directing that no campaign be undertaken without orders ; that 
 he would be there by the earliest moment at which the cam- 
 
 * Houston to Eaton, December 21, 1835 : MS. 
 
 f Same to D. B. M‘Comb, A. Houston, and John A. Wharton, December 18, 
 1835: MS. 
 
 ^ Same to Kellogg, December 21, 1835: MS. 
 
 H Same to Neill, December 21, 1835: MS. 
 
 § Governor Smith to Houston, December 31, 1836: MS. Captain Irwine to 
 same, December 23, 1835: MS. 
 
 Vol. II.— 4 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 paign should open ; and at the same time he requested Colonel 
 Fannin, if possible, to report in person at headquarters as soon 
 as practicable. These despatches were sent by Captain G. W. 
 Foe, of the general’s staff, who was directed, while at Velasco, 
 to ascertain the exact number and description of the forces and 
 of the munitions and provisions there, and report the same to 
 headquarters.* 
 
 These were the dispositions made, with a view to meet the 
 enemy early in the spring. In fact, the news of the contem- 
 plated attack upon Matamoras having reached Mexico, that 
 point was already well guarded by the enemy, and reports were 
 constantly received in Texas of their advance east of the Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 We will now return to the council. On the 25th of Decem- 
 ber, Mr. Hanks, from the military committee, made a report, 
 recommending that Colonel Fannin be ordered to proceed forth- 
 with to the west and take command of the regular and auxiliary 
 troops ; and that Colonel Travis be ordered to the same desti- 
 nation, with all the troops he could bring into the field ;f also 
 that the commander-in-chief be requested to concentrate the 
 forces at Goliad or Copano. This report was laid upon the 
 table. It, however, showed the disposition of the military 
 committee to substitute themselves as commanders-in-chief of 
 the army. On the next day the council appointed Sam Hous- 
 ton, John Forbes, and John Cameron, commissioners to treat 
 
 * The writer has before him the original orders to Colonel Fannin. They are 
 each endorsed by some one — “Left in my hands by Fannin.” Extract from 
 these orders: “ It is ordered that the volunteers remain in possession of the sta- 
 tion [Copano] until such time as they will receive orders to advance, which will 
 be at the earliest possible day — at the same time consulting the comfort of the 
 troops, and the successful issue of a campaign. Let no campaign be undertaken 
 without orders.” — Houston to Fannin , December 30, 1835. 
 
 “ If possible, I wish you to report in person at headquarters, as soon as prac- 
 ticable after the receipt of this order.” — Same to same, December 30, 1835. 
 
 f Journal of the Council, p. 202. 
 
ACTION OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 51 
 
 with the Cherokee Indians and their associate bands, and au- 
 thorized the governor to give the commissioners detailed in- 
 structions. 
 
 On the 3d day of January, 1836, the council received and 
 referred a communication from Colonel Francis W. Johnson, 
 for himself and others, for authority to proceed to Matamoras.* 
 This application was based on a movement begun at San An- 
 tonio ; for, on the evening of the 30th of December, Dr. Grant, 
 with some two hundred volunteers, without any authority or 
 command, after pressing the property of the citizens of Bexar, 
 and helping themselves to such munitions, &c., at that town, as 
 they desired, set out on the march to Matamoras. The com- 
 mittee on military affairs reported in favor of the expedition, 
 and, among other reasons for its adoption, they said the taking 
 of Matamoras would deprive the enemy of the revenue of that 
 place, estimated pretty highly ; that it would give employment 
 to the volunteers until a regular army, sufficient for the protec- 
 tion of the country, could be raised and organized ; and that it 
 was necessary to sustain the volunteers, who had already set 
 out under Grant, for, if they were defeated, the result might 
 be fatal to Texas. f As these contemplated movements re- 
 quired some supply of provisions, the council appointed com- 
 missioners to examine two small schooners, the “ William Rob- 
 bins” and the “ Invincible,” belonging to Messrs. M‘Kinney 
 and Williams, with a view to purchase them, and use them as 
 vessels-of-war, to protect the transfer of provisions by water 
 along the western coast of Texas. 
 
 On the 5th of January, a select committee of two — Messrs. 
 Barrett and Clements — were appointed to wait on Colonels 
 Fannin and Johnson with the resolutions respecting the expe- 
 dition to Matamoras, and learn their views on the subject. 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 247. f lb., p. 250. 
 
52 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The latter having concurred in the resolutions,* they were 
 taken up for consideration ; but, for want of a quorum, they 
 were not immediately acted on. In the meantime, Colonel 
 James Bowie exhibited to the council his orders of the 17th 
 of December, 1835, and took leave of them. This body imme- 
 diately appointed a committee to wait on him, and obtain a 
 copy of his orders, which copy was obtained and filed. f 
 At length, on the 7th of January, 1836, Colonel F. W. John- 
 son having declined to participate in the Matamoras expedi- 
 tion, the council unanimously adopted resolutions appointing 
 J. W. Fannin agent to raise, collect, and concentrate, at or as 
 near the port of Copano as convenience and safety would ad- 
 mit, all volunteer troops willing to enter into an expedition 
 against Matamoras, wherever they might be found, at the mouth 
 of the Brasos, city of Bexar, or elsewhere — whether in Texas, 
 or arriving in Texas ; and, when thus collected and concen- 
 trated, to report either to the commanding general, or to the 
 governor, or council , as he might prefer ! He was further em- 
 powered to call upon any public agent for provisions, stores, 
 Ac. ; also to borrow not exceeding three thousand dollars, at 
 a rate of interest not above ten per cent. ; and also, on the con- 
 centration of said forces, to hold an election for a commander 
 and other officers ; that, when all this should be done, the said 
 agent, if he deemed it practicable to take said place, should 
 make a descent upon Matamoras or such other place as he 
 might deem proper. To carry these powers into execution, 
 J. W. Fannin was authorized at pleasure to appoint special 
 agents under him, and give them such power as he might think 
 proper, not exceeding his own4 
 
 * Journal of the Council, pp. 262, 263. 
 
 f lb., p. 266. Appendix No. I. — Document No. 8. 
 
 \ Journal of the Council, p. 273. 
 
USURPATION — GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL. 
 
 53 
 
 The second article of the organic law of the 13th of Novem- 
 ber, under the military head, declared that the major-general 
 should be commander-in-chief of all the forces called into pub- 
 lic service during the war ; he to be subject to the orders of 
 the governor and council. The ordinance thus appointing 
 Colonel Fannin to this agency was therefore a clear violation 
 of the organic law. It excluded the commander-in-chief and 
 also the governor from the command or control of this expedi- 
 tion. Calling him an agent , did not alter his functions ; and 
 authorizing him to report alone to the council, was a virtual 
 usurpation of the authority given to the governor and the com- 
 mander-in-chief. And the further authority given to Colonel 
 Fannin, to delegate his powers to other agents, was a consum- 
 mation of folly. The fruits of such an expedition, raised under 
 such auspices, might be foreseen. The council was aware of 
 the governor’s opposition to its views, and endeavored to carry 
 them out without his consent. To obtain the “ Invincible,” 
 and get his sanction to the ordinance for that purpose, the 
 council represented that the Mexican- vessel, the “ Montezuma,” 
 was in Galveston bay, and required the immediate use of that 
 ship to drive it out or take it. 
 
 At length, the governor received a communication from Colo- 
 nel Neill, commandant at Bexar, informing him of the defence- 
 less and destitute condition of that place, caused by the action 
 of Dr. Grant and his followers before their departure for Mat- 
 amoras. He despatched a message to the council, on the 9th 
 of January, full of bitterness and reproaches. He charged 
 that body with acting in bad faith, and some of the members 
 with positive corruption and dishonesty. “ Look around upon 
 your flock,” said his excellency, with more feeling than good 
 taste ; “ your discernment will easily detect the scoundrels. . . 
 
 . . . . Let the honest and indignant part of your council drive 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the wolves out of the fold.” With such epithets as these did 
 lie regale them, and concluded his message by assuring them 
 that, unless they publicly retracted their error,’ all intercourse 
 between them would cease at twelve o’clock the next day.* 
 
 The governor was very deliberate in sending this message. 
 He notified the council beforehand, and requested that it might 
 be read in secret session. As soon as the message was read, 
 a committee of five was appointed to take that document into 
 consideration ; and Lieutenant-Governor Robinson was deputed 
 to confer with the governor, and endeavor to produce a recon- 
 ciliation. No agreement having taken place, the committee 
 reported strongly on the 11th, and their report and resolutions 
 were unanimously adopted. They resolved that the governor 
 be forthwith ordered to cease the functions of his office, and be 
 held to answer to the general council upon certain charges, a 
 copy of which was to be furnished him in twenty-four hours ; 
 that all public functionaries be notified of his deposition ; and, 
 in short, that his message be returned to him, with a copy of 
 their proceedings thereon. Thus was brought to a crisis the 
 quarrel between the governor and his council. The council 
 was guilty of usurpation, and the governor of great imprudence. 
 The disagreement was not only ruinous to Texas in her then 
 critical condition, but was well calculated to bring her into 
 public scandal and reproach among civilized nations. 
 
 On the 6th of January, Governor Smith ordered the com- 
 mander-in-chief “ to repair to Bexar, or such other point on 
 the frontier as he might deem most eligible, and establish his 
 headquarters ; also to establish such subordination, and place 
 the army in such situation, as to commence active operations 
 by the earliest day possible ; and, in the meantime, to annoy 
 and injure the enemy as much as circumstances would permit.” 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 291. 
 
GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL — TWO PARTIES. 
 
 55 
 
 In pursuance of this command, Houston on the same day issued 
 an order, directing all the troops on the frontier to hold them- 
 selves in readiness to march against the enemy at the earliest 
 notice ; at the same time the requisite supplies were ordered 
 to Copano. After appointing Colonel Travis superintendent 
 of the recruiting-service, and requesting the attendance of Colo- 
 nels Thomas J. Rusk, J. K. Allen, and A. Horton, at head- 
 quarters, the commander-in-chief set out for the west on the 
 8th of January. 
 
 The quarrel between the governor and his council gave rise 
 to two parties, and other questions that came up in the affairs 
 of the country were seized upon and made instrumental to party 
 views. The council had called a meeting of the convention, to 
 assemble at Washington, on the 1st day of March ;* and had 
 fixed the 1st of February as the time for the election of dele- 
 gates thereto. The anticipated action of the convention was 
 a subject of warm discussion between the citizens and the can- 
 didates. Those who favored the Matamoras campaign, natu- 
 rally fell into the opposition to a declaration of independence, 
 as that step would cut off all hope of co-operation on the part 
 of the Mexicans west of the Rio Grande. General Houston, 
 previous to his departure for the western frontier, expressed 
 himself fully on that point. “ I now feel confident,” says he, 
 “ that no further experiment need be made, to convince us that 
 there is but one course left for Texas to pursue, and that is, an 
 unequivocal declaration of independence, and the formation of 
 a constitution, to be submitted to the people for their rejection 
 or ratification.”! 
 
 It is, however, proper to state that other gentlemen of high 
 respectability and influence in Texas took a different view of 
 
 * Orders and Decrees, p. 76. 
 
 f Sam Houston to John Forbes, January 7, 1836. 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the subject. The idea of a great republic, composed of the 
 eastern Mexican provinces, had got a hold on the minds of a 
 large number. This scheme had taken deep root among many 
 at Nacogdoches, and throughout eastern Texas. “When I 
 arrived here,” says Colonel Henry Millard, in a letter dated 
 Nacogdoches, January 14, 1836, “ they were in a fine state of 
 successful experiment, as they imagined, and, by the arrival 
 of Dr. Cameron and some others from the west, new prospects 
 and new views seemed to be opened to them, or at least were 
 publicly expressed. Some of those persons represented that 
 Colonel F. W. Johnson had marched to Matamoras at the head 
 of three hundred men, who had declared for the constitution 
 of 1824, and were determined not to unite with or be under 
 the command of any officer appointed by the provisional gov- 
 ernment, unless they chose to do so ; and that they had an 
 understanding with officers and influential men in three or four 
 of the adjoining Mexican states, who were to meet them with 
 men and money to prosecute the war : and that those states 
 were to form a single grand state separate from the Mexican 
 government. This plan suited well the great land-speculators.” 
 These were the sentiments of many leading men in Texas, 
 and thus did they connect their views with the Matamoras ex- 
 pedition. General Houston met on the route a letter from 
 Colonel Bowie, dated the 10th of January, informing him that 
 Dr. Grant had arrived some days before at Goliad, and would 
 leave the next morning (the 11th) for Matamoras. The delay 
 of Dr. Grant appears to have been caused by the absence of 
 Colonel F. W. Johnson, who had come by way of San Felipe, 
 to have the expedition legalized. He declined going in with 
 Fannin, probably because he desired a more independent com- 
 mand. At all events, his forces and those of Grant wanted 
 more privileges than the law allowed them. After some hesi- 
 
DISSATISFACTION AMONG THE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 57 
 
 tation, the council gave him a sort of carte blanche ,* and he 
 proceeded to join Dr. Grant. 
 
 At this time much dissatisfaction existed among the volun- 
 teers. Major Wyatt refused to have anything to do with the 
 expedition without orders from headquarters. Captain Dimit, 
 the commandant at Goliad, was on bad terms with the volun- 
 teers from Bexar, and for a good reason : Dr. Grant, without 
 law or order, had seized his caballada of horses. The vol- 
 unteers left at Bexar held a mass meeting on the day after Dr. 
 Grant’s departure, somewhat denunciatory of his course in 
 jeoparding the safety of the place by taking from it two thirds 
 of its defenders, and also the clothing, ammunition, and provis- 
 ions, intended for the winter supply of the garrison. f Colonel 
 Gonzales, a former Mexican officer, but now fighting under 
 Texan colors, had left Bexar about the 25th of December, with 
 some one hundred men, and had not since been heard from.$ 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 315; also Appendix No. I. — Document No. 16. 
 Extract of a letter from Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, dated January 8, 1836 : 
 “This moment a letter has been received from General S. F. Austin, from Ve- 
 lasco, from which point he has at last sailed. This is a long letter. He advises, 
 among other things, that we form a state government upon the basis of the dec- 
 laration of the 7th November last, as one of the Mexican states; and also that 
 the headquarters of our army ought to be at Goliad ; and that we form an aux- 
 iliary corps to the Mexican army under General Mexia.” General Austin doubt- 
 less had not then been informed of the position of Texan affairs and the charac- 
 ter of Mexia. On the 17 th of January, he wrote to D. C. Barrett: “The last 
 news from Vera Cruz and Tampico is, that ‘the federal party have united with 
 Santa Anna against Texas.’ This leaves us but one course, which is, an abso- 
 lute declaration of independence. Such a measure is expected and called for 
 by the people of the United States, from one end of the Union to the other.” — 
 Written from New Orleans. And, ten days before that, in a postscript to a let- 
 ter to General Houston, after stating that, from the last accounts from Vera 
 Cruz, he had learned that the federal party had united with Santa Anna to in- 
 vade Texas, he says, “This, of course, leaves us no remedy but one, winch is an 
 immediate declaration of independence." — Austin to Houston , January 7, 1836. 
 
 \ Telegraph and Texas Register, January 23, 1836. 
 
 \ James Bowie to Sam Houston, January 10, 1836 : “Some dark scheme has 
 been set on foot to disgrace our noble cause. I shall leave with Captain Blount 
 
58 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 In addition to this desertion of Bexar, the sick and wounded 
 there were left naked and hungry. 
 
 General Houston, having reached Goliad on the 16th of Jan* 
 uary, ordered the command of Major R. C. Morris to take up 
 the line of march for the mission of Refugio on the next day 
 at ten o’clock. On the 17th, he despatched Colonel Bowie, 
 with thirty men, to Bexar, with a letter to Colonel Neill, desi- 
 ring him to demolish the fortifications at that place and bring 
 off the artillery, as it would be impossible to hold the town 
 with the force there.* “ In an hour,” says Houston, in a let- 
 ter to Governor Smith of the 17th of January, “ I will take up 
 the line of march for Refugio mission, with a force of about 
 two hundred effective men, where I will await orders from your 
 excellency. I do not believe that an army of such small force 
 should advance upon Matamoras, with a hope or belief that the 
 Mexicans will co-operate with us. I have no confidence in 
 them. The disaster of Tampico should teach us a lesson to be 
 
 noted in our future operations I would myself have 
 
 marched to Bexar, but the 4 Matamoras fever’ rages so high, 
 that I must see Colonel Ward’s men. You can have no idea 
 of the difficulties I have encountered. Patton has told you of 
 the men that make the trouble. Better materials never were 
 in ranks. The government and all its officers had been mis- 
 represented to the army.” 
 
 It may be proper to state that the order to Colonel Neill to 
 demolish the Alamo, and retire with the artillery, was induced 
 by the information received from that officer on the 17th, ad- 
 vising of the approach of one thousand of the enemy to reduce 
 the place. The commander-in-chief not only despatched Bowie 
 
 in an hour, and shall reach Goliad by daylight, and put a stop to Grant’s move- 
 ments.” So wrote Bowie. 
 
 * Older to Bowie, January 17, 1836. 
 
WANT OP FUNDS. 
 
 59 
 
 to that point, but relieved Captain Dimit from the command at 
 Goliad, and ordered him to raise a hundred men, if practica- 
 ble, and repair to San Antonio. Captain Wyatt was left in 
 command at Goliad until he could be relieved by the regulars, 
 when he was ordered to proceed to headquarters with the force 
 under him. 
 
 The letter to Colonel Neill was duly received by that officer ; 
 and, in reply, he stated that he could not remove the artillery 
 for want of teams, and therefore did not demolish the fortifica- 
 tions of the place. The volunteers at Bexar had been prom- 
 ised their pay monthly, which not receiving, they gradually 
 abandoned the service, until there were but eighty troops left. 
 Governor Smith, on being informed of this fact, removed Colo- 
 nel Travis from his position as superintendent of the recruiting- 
 service, and despatched him, with a small force, to Bexar. 
 Shortly after his arrival, Colonel Neill retired to his home. 
 Colonel Travis called for five hundred more troops, “ mostly 
 regulars.” — “Militia and volunteers,” said he, “are but ill 
 suited to garrison a town.” He also asked for money, provis- 
 ions, and clothing. “ Enthusiasm,” he justly remarked, “ may 
 keep up an army for a few days, but money , and money alone, 
 will support an army for regular warfare.”* None of these 
 things had the commander-in-chief to give. The council had 
 authorized Colonel Fannin to borrow money for his expedition : 
 they had not applied the first dollar to the recruiting-service. 
 The letters from the recruiting-officers all complain that they 
 can not succeed without funds. Colonel Travis had been im- 
 providently removed from its superintendence, thus destroying 
 all hope of filling the ranks of the regular army. The council 
 had also, by its conduct, commended Dr. Grant in stripping 
 the sick and wounded at Bexar of the blankets needed to cover 
 
 * Travis to Houston, January 17, 1836: MS. 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 them, and, according to the account of Surgeon Pollard, of the 
 medicines requisite for their recovery ! 
 
 On the 8th of January — the day on which the commander- 
 in-chief set out for the west — Colonel Fannin issued a procla- 
 mation, calling upon the volunteers from “ Bexar, Goliad, Ve- 
 lasco, and elsewhere,” and ordering them to rendezvous at San 
 Patricio between the 24th and 27th of that month, and report 
 to the officer in command. He himself proposed to sail with 
 the fleet from Velasco on the 18th, and invited all to go on 
 board who desired to keep the war out of Texas. On the 10th, 
 Colonel Johnson issued a like proclamation, calling his the 
 federal volunteer army, marching for the country west of the 
 Rio Grande, under the flag of 1824.* 
 
 The country between the Texan settlements and the Rio 
 Grande is about one hundred and fifty miles wide, extending in 
 length from the coast to the great mountains in the direction 
 of Santa Fe. It is an undulating prairie, almost entirely des- 
 titute of timber. The Nueces and Rio Frio furnish the only 
 permanent supply of water throughout this wide waste. This 
 “ Zahara ” formed a sort of natural barrier between the Texan 
 settlements and those of Mexico on the Rio Grande. The 
 town of Matamoras, situated on the right bank of that river, 
 a few miles above its mouth, was the fruit of a commerce that 
 had sprung up between the United States and the northeastern 
 provinces of Mexico subsequent to the Mexican Revolution. 
 The only Mexican town on the left bank of the river was La- 
 redo, situated about one hundred and twenty miles above Mata- 
 moras. It sprang into existence in 1805, as being the crossing 
 and resting place of Governor Herrera, when he brought on 
 his contingent from New Leon to aid in driving General Wil- 
 kinson from the left bank of the Sabine. 
 
 * See both proclamations in Foote, vol. ii., p. 185. 
 
MOVEMENTS OF GENERAL HOUSTON. 
 
 61 
 
 The Irish colony at San Patricio had pushed the Texan set- 
 tlements along the coast to the banks of the Nueces. This 
 was. the nearest point to Matamoras. But San Patricio was 
 poor, and unable to furnish anything for the subsistence of an 
 army. To carry on offensive operations against Mexico from 
 Texas, would require a considerable capital invested in provis- 
 ions, clothing, munitions, and means of transportation. To 
 transport these articles by sea would have been quite uncer- 
 tain, as the navigation was dangerous, and the intercourse be- 
 tween the two arms of attack would be rare. Looking at all 
 these difficulties — added to the fact, then fully ascertained, 
 that Texas had no friends in Mexico — it was madness to per- 
 severe in the expedition. 
 
 General Houston, having reached Refugio, ascertained that 
 there were no breadstuffs either there or at Copano, as he had 
 directed in his orders of December 30th and January 6th. He 
 remained at Refugio to await the arrival of Major Ward and 
 Captain Wyatt — the latter being relieved at Goliad by Lieu- 
 tenant Thornton and twenty-nine regulars. On the evening 
 of the 20th of January, Colonel F. W. Johnson arrived at Re- 
 fugio. On the 21st, and previous to receiving notice of his 
 arrival, the general-in-chief issued an order to organize the 
 forces as they reached Refugio, agreeably to the “ ordinance 
 for raising an auxiliary corps’’ to the army. Colonel Johnson 
 then called upon him, and made known to him the resolution 
 of the council of the 14th of January. So soon as he was 
 made acquainted with the mission of Colonel Johnson, and also 
 with the powers granted to Colonel Fannin, he could not be 
 mistaken as to the object of the council, which was, to super- 
 sede him. He also received an intimation that that body had 
 deposed Governor Smith. Under these circumstances, General 
 Houston had but one course to pursue : the management of the 
 
62 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 expedition being thus taken out of his hands by the council, he 
 returned to Goliad, and thence to Washington, where he made 
 a full report of what had occurred to Governor Smith.* As 
 the consultation had created an executive and a council, to act 
 until the new convention assembled, he did not see that either 
 had the power to destroy the other. His reports were accord- 
 ingly made to Governor Smith. 
 
 The Texan commissioners to the United States concluded a 
 loan on the 11th day of January, 1836, of two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, payable ten per cent, in cash, and the balance in 
 instalments. On the 18th of January, they negotiated another 
 loan of fifty thousand dollars, entirely in cash. For these suc- 
 cesses they were indebted to Colonel William Christy, of New 
 Orleans, to whom, above all other men out, of Texas, is she 
 indebted for the favorable prosecution of the war of indepen- 
 dence. These funds enabled the Texan agents to throw into 
 the country, at a critical moment, such supplies as kept the 
 army together.! 
 
 The consultation, on the 13th day of November, 1835, en- 
 tered into a solemn declaration, to which each member signed 
 his name, setting forth that the Cherokee Indians and their 
 twelve associate bands had derived their just claims from the 
 government of Mexico to the lands lying north of the San An- 
 tonio road and the Neches, and west of the Angelina and Sa- 
 bine rivers ; that the governor and council, immediately on its 
 organization, should appoint commissioners to treat with said 
 Indians, and establish the definite boundary of their territory, 
 and secure their confidence and friendship ; that they would 
 guaranty to the Indians the peaceable enjoyment of their rights 
 
 * Appendix No. I. — Document 16. Report of January 30, 1836. 
 f Copy of contract of loan, Januuary 11, 1836. Letter of Colonel Christy, 
 January 18, 1836. 
 
INDIAN TREATY — MEXICAN POPULATION. 
 
 63 
 
 to their lands ; that all surveys, grants, and locations, made 
 within those limits after the settlement of the Indians, are and 
 of right ought to be utterly null and void.* These were among 
 the solemn pledges made by the delegates of all Texas to tha 
 Indians ; and in pursuance of which, as we have seen, the gov- 
 ernor and council appointed Messrs. Houston, Forbes, and Cam- 
 eron, to treat with them. Moreover, this became the more 
 necessary, as the emissaries of Mexico were already among 
 these Indians, striving to obtain their aid in the contest with 
 her revolted province. 
 
 On the return of Houston from Refugio, he received from the 
 governor a furlough till the 1st of March. In the paper (dated 
 January 28) granting this, the latter says: “ Your absence is 
 permitted in part by the illegal acts of the council, in superes- 
 ding you, by the unauthorized appointment of agents to organ- 
 ize and control the army, contrary to the organic law, and the 
 ordinances of their own body. In the meantime, you will con- 
 form to your instructions, and treat with the Indians.” In 
 pursuance of the commission and instructions of the governor, 
 Messrs. Houston and Forbes proceeded to Bowles’s village, and 
 on the 23d day of February, 1836, entered into a treaty with 
 the Indians, in accordance with the solemn declaration of the 
 consultation of the 13th of November, 1835. f 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1836, Mexico contained eight 
 millions of inhabitants. Of these, four millions were Indians ; 
 two millions were mestizos , or a mixture of Indians and Span- 
 iards ; one million two hundred thousand were creoles of pure 
 Spanish blood ; six hundred thousand were mulattoes, and a 
 mixture of Indians and negroes ; one hundred thousand were 
 
 * Journal of Consultation, p. 61. 
 
 f See the treaty, and other valuable documents connected therewith, in “Doc- 
 uments on Indian Affairs, submitted to the Texan Congress by the President," 
 November 15, 1838. 
 
04 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 negroes ; ten thousand were natives of Spain ; and the remain- 
 der were foreigners of different countries. From this it will 
 be seen that Indians and mestizos form the bulk of the popula- 
 tion. The Indians, however, have not increased in number for 
 three centuries. Were it not for her bad government, Mexico 
 would be one of the most productive countries in the world. 
 Sugar, coffee, cotton, wheat, maize, and, in fact, all the pro- 
 ductions of the temperate and equatorial zones, would grow 
 there in luxuriance. Horses, cattle, sheep, Ac., of excellent 
 quality, can be raised there at a trifling expense. Common 
 laborers could be procured at twenty-five cents per day ; me- 
 chanics, however, received much higher wages. The pay of 
 the infantry soldier was one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
 day ; of the cavalry, two dollars : but out of this they purchased 
 their own food and clothing, the government furnishing only 
 arms and ammunition. As the government sold to them their 
 rations and clothes, the soldiers were generally in debt ; and, 
 as their supply of provisions was often deficient, they were as 
 frequently compelled to make it up by robbery. Hence the 
 march of Mexican troops, even in their own country, was an- 
 ticipated with horror by the people along the route. Such 
 were the people, who, guided and stimulated by Santa Anna, 
 were about to bring forth all their power against the fifty thou- 
 sand colonists who, since 1821, had been filling the extensive 
 territory of Texas. 
 
 General Santa Anna, the Mexican president, having deter- 
 mined to lead the invading army in person, reached Saltillo in 
 January, where for a time he made his headquarters. On the 
 first of February, he set out for the Rio Grande, by way of 
 Monclova, with a force of six thousand men. He reached the 
 river on the 12th, where he halted till the 16th, waiting for 
 the troops to come up, and to make suitable preparations for 
 
SANTA ANNA’S TEXAN POLICY. 
 
 65 
 
 crossing the uninhabited prairies which lay between him and 
 Bexar. While tarrying at Guerrero, he was engaged in dic- 
 tating to the central government his views as to the policy to 
 be pursued toward Texas when it should be reduced. His 
 plan was as follows : to drive from the province all who had 
 taken part in the revolution, together with all foreigners who 
 lived near the seacoast or the borders of the United States ; 
 to remove far into the interior those who had not taken part 
 in the war ; to vacate all sales and grants of land owned by 
 non-residents ; to remove from Texas all who had come to the 
 province, and were not entered as colonists under Mexican 
 rules ; to divide among the officers and soldiers of the Mexican 
 army the best lands, provided they would occupy them ; to 
 permit no Anglo-American to settle in Texas ; to sell the re- 
 maining vacant lands at one dollar per acre — allowing the 
 French to buy only five millions of acres, the English the same, 
 the Germans somewhat more, and to those speaking the Span- 
 ish language without limit ; to satisfy the claims of the civilized 
 Indians ; to make the Texans pay the expenses of the war ; and 
 to liberate and declare free the negroes introduced into the 
 province.* 
 
 General Jose Urrea, late governor of the state of Durango, 
 who had joined Santa Anna at Saltillo, was ordered to advance 
 from that point to Matamoras, where he united his forces with 
 others there awaiting him. He reached the latter place on 
 the 1st of February, and remained there till the 18th. Learn- 
 ing that Grant and Johnson were at San Patricio, with a force 
 of two or three hundred men, Urrea set out with three hun- 
 dred and twenty infantry, three hundred and thirty cavalry, 
 and one four-pounder, in pursuit of them. After a severe 
 
 * Santa Anna to Tornel, Minister of War and Marine; headquarters, Guer- 
 rero, February 16, 1836. 
 
 Yol. II.— 5 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 march, during which he lost six of his men, who perished with 
 the cold and rain, he arrived at San Patricio on the 27th of 
 February, at three o’clock in the morning.* 
 
 The army raised by Santa Anna was not brought together 
 without difficulty. The number of mules and horses for pur- 
 poses of transport, and the great amount of baggage, were ex- 
 traordinary. In addition to this, a great number of women 
 followed the camp ; but for what purpose they were permit- 
 ted, unless to take care of the plunder, we are not informed. 
 Every means was resorted to in order to supply the army. 
 According to a letter of Major Morris, an inventory of each 
 person’s property was taken, upon which one per cent, was de- 
 manded every twenty days !f 
 
 The next in command to Santa Anna was General Vicente 
 Filisola, by birth an Italian, but for many years a citizen of 
 Mexico ; and, in addition, were Generals Sesma, Gaona, Tolsa, 
 Andrade, Woll, and Cos, all of whom were ordered to concen- 
 trate with their commands before San Antonio. At noon, on 
 the 23d of February, the invading army reached the height 
 north of the Alazan — the place where, twenty-three years be- 
 fore, the republicans under Gutierres had gained a signal vic- 
 tory over the adherents of Spain. 
 
 To return to the Texans, and the steps they were taking to 
 resist this well-appointed army. At the beginning of the war 
 in 1835, they had shown remarkable zeal and activity in pro- 
 viding for their defence ; but, having driven the enemy utterly 
 out of Texas, they returned to their homes and private affairs. 
 The news of the fresh invasion had spread over the country ; 
 the officers of the army, the governor, and the council, had re- 
 
 * Diario Militar del General Jose Urrea, durante la Primera Campana de 
 Tejas. Durango: 1838. 
 f Kennedy, yol. ii., p. 179. 
 
GOVERNOR AND COUNCIL — QUARREL. 
 
 67 
 
 spectively issued their proclamations, and sent forth their hand- 
 bills ; but a lethargy had come over the people. They seemed 
 to disregard all the warnings and invitations to fly to the field. 
 Among the causes to which their apathy may be attributed, 
 were — an exaggerated report of the number of volunteers that 
 had already come and were on the way from the United States ; 
 incredulity as to the fact of the invading army ; exhaustion 
 from the toils and privations of the previous year ; and, finally, 
 the paralyzing effect of the quarrel between Governor Smith 
 and his council. 
 
 After the governor’s suspension by that refractory body, an 
 effort was made to force from him the executive records ; but 
 he stoutly resisted, and retained possession of them. He did 
 what he could in the discharge of his duties ; the council did 
 likewise ; but there was no official intercourse between them. 
 They proceeded against his secretary for contempt. The lat- 
 ter appeared before them, and alleged in his justification that 
 the office of governor was created by the consultation, as was 
 likewise the council, and that therefore he could not recognise 
 any other government.* The defence, however, was of no 
 avail : they fined him twenty-five hundred dollars ! In answer 
 to their mandate for the papers, Governor Smith declared that 
 he would defend them with force ; and, in retaliation, sent a 
 writ to the lieutenant-governor, Robinson, for certain papers 
 which he held.f 
 
 The two parties almost daily inflicted upon the public some 
 explanation or handbill ; but the people, soon apprehending the 
 true state of the case, began to conclude, with Secretary Stew- 
 art, that both being creatures of the consultation, neither had 
 the right to dismiss the other. The council, seeing this, began 
 to leave, one by one ; and, from the 18th of January, they never 
 
 
 * Journal of the Council, p. 338. 
 
 f lb., p. 351. 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 had a quorum, until, by the meeting of the convention in March, 
 they were removed from a natural death. 
 
 But the fruit of this quarrel was fast ripening, and gallant 
 men, who had come hundreds of miles to hold up the arms of 
 Texas against a powerful enemy, were compelled first to par- 
 take of it. As one among many instances of confusion pro- 
 duced by this discord, John A. Wharton, one of the military 
 agents, despatched to New Orleans for provisions, having ar- 
 rived at Yelasco on the last of January with a supply, was 
 ordered by Colonel Fannin to proceed with them to Copano, 
 while the commander-in-chief had directed them elsewhere ! 
 “ I shall await with them,” writes Wharton, “ at Matagorda. 
 I do this because I believe that, to execute your previous or- 
 ders, and proceed to Copano, would not meet your present 
 
 wishes I enclose an original copy of Colonel Fannin’s 
 
 orders for them. I perceive that there are more commanders- 
 in-chief than one.” Thus matters stood, and for which there 
 could be no relief until the meeting of the convention on the 
 first of March. 
 
 The consultation had provided that the council should pass 
 no laws, except such, as in their opinion, the emergency of the 
 country required.* Besides the decree to raise a regular 
 army, they passed another to organize a corps of rangers, which 
 was much needed, especially on the northwestern frontier, to 
 protect the country from the Camanche and other Indian tribes ; 
 also another, authorizing the commander-in-chief to accept the 
 services of five thousand auxiliary volunteers ; and yet another 
 important act, authorizing and commissioning Thomas J. Cham- 
 bers to raise an army of reserve. This law, accompanied by 
 an advance, on the part of General Chambers, of ten thousand 
 dollars in behalf of Texas, was very essential. Besides these 
 
 * Journal of Consultation, p. 43. 
 
DECREES OF COUNCIL. 
 
 69 
 
 provisions, they made others organizing the courts, the treas- 
 ury, and the navy ; and still others in regard to the municipal 
 affairs of the state — thus laying the foundation upon which 
 subsequent legislative bodies have built up what is called the 
 “ Texas System.” Taking these measures as a whole, and 
 looking to the circumstances under which they were framed, the 
 rule of civil polity was good. The most important duties of 
 the governor and council were, to provide ways and means for 
 the support of the army. Had they attended more to these, 
 instead of interfering with the command and movement of the 
 troops, of which they were ignorant, the country would perhaps 
 have suffered less, and not been witness to fields of slaughter. 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 We have seen the preparations of the contending forces, and 
 have followed Santa Anna, with a well-appointed army, to the 
 walls of Bexar, and Urrea to San Patricio. We have seen 
 Travis, with some thirty men, sent by Governor Smith to the 
 former place, and Bowie despatched by Houston with a like 
 number from Goliad. One other worthy is yet lacking to take 
 part in the death-struggle at the Alamo. David Crockett was 
 a Tennesseean. His education, which consisted mostly in the 
 fearless use of the rifle, he had himself acquired in the then 
 unsettled forests of West Tennessee. Having strong natural 
 powers of mind, he was elected to the state legislature, and 
 subsequently as representative to Congress. But he did not 
 comprehend the machinery of the federal government. The 
 rules of Jefferson’s manual were to him as mysterious as the 
 Delphian oracle. Hence his efforts in the house of represen- 
 tatives were abortive, and so notoriously so, that he was not 
 returned. The struggle then pending in Texas was more to 
 his taste, and he came to take part in it. 
 
 Don Augustine Yiesca and his secretary, Don Irala, having 
 made their escape from Mexico, sought an asylum in Nacog- 
 doches. They were received by the citizens with open arms, 
 not only because of their adherence to republican principles, 
 but because of the high offices they held in the late government 
 
DAVID CROCKETT — DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 71 
 
 of Coahuila and Texas. A sumptuous table was spread for 
 them in the large hall of Major Nixon, and they had sat down, 
 with the citizens, on the 5th of January, 1836, to partake of 
 it. It was then announced that David Crockett had arrived 
 in town, on his way to the Texan army. A committee was 
 forthwith despatched to wait on him and bring him to the 
 feast. His appearance in the hall was greeted with three 
 hearty cheers. He added greatly to the pleasure of the com- 
 pany by his numerous and quaint stories.* Having declared 
 his intention to become a citizen of Texas, he proceeded to the 
 office of Judge Forbes, to take the oath of allegiance. He re- 
 fused, however, to subscribe to it, until that clause requiring 
 him to “ bear true allegiance to the provisional government of 
 Texas, or any future government that might be thereafter de- 
 clared,” was so interlined as to make it read “ any future 
 republican government. ”f Having settled these points, he set 
 out with a few companions for the seat of war, and reached 
 the Alamo in time to reap a rich harvest of its glory and blood. 
 
 Before proceeding to narrate the stirring military events in 
 the west, it is proper that we should witness the birth of the 
 new republic : for, up to the 2d day of March, 1836, every offi- 
 cer was bound by his oath, and both officers and citizens by 
 allegiance, to the Mexican federal constitution of 1824. 
 
 The Texan convention met on Tuesday, the 1st day of March, 
 at Washington, on the Brasos, and organized by electing Rich- 
 ard Ellis president, and H. S. Kimball secretary. On the fol- 
 lowing day the delegates solemnly declared the political con- 
 nection of Texas with Mexico for ever at an end, and, as the 
 representatives of the people of Texas, constituted her a free, 
 sovereign, and Independent Republic, fully invested with all 
 the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent 
 * “Emigrant’s Guide,” January 16, 1836. f Kennedy, vol. il, p. 192. 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 nations. The causes set forth in that document, as producing 
 the separation, were truthful enough, and such as would justify 
 any nation, under like circumstances, in taking a similar step.* 
 The convention wisely took no time to look into the merits of 
 the controversy between Governor Smith and his council, but 
 passed it by, and proceeded to divide out the work of framing a 
 constitution for the new republic. Other matters, however, 
 claimed immediate attention. The threatening attitude of 
 Santa Anna required that Texas should not only have an army 
 to oppose him, but that such army should have a commander- 
 in-chief. Accordingly, on the 4th of March, on motion of James 
 Collingsworth, Sam Houston was unanimously chosen to that 
 responsible office, his authority extending over the regulars, 
 volunteers, and militia, in the field. On the 6th, he received 
 his instructions, submitting the point of his headquarters to his 
 own judgment.! The more energetic organization of the mili- 
 tia also required attention. The convention made all able- 
 bodied males, between seventeen and fifty years of age, subject 
 to military duty. One individual was appointed for each mu- 
 nicipality, to form a list of all such within his boundary. The 
 names were to be drawn until the number, at any time called 
 for, was obtained ; and those so drawn were bound to serve, 
 
 * For a list of the delegates, see Appendix No. III. “Notwithstanding the 
 cold weather, the members of the convention met to-day [Tuesday, March 1], in 
 an unfinished building, without doors or windows. In lieu of glass, cotton cloth 
 was stretched across the wiudows, which partially excluded the cold wind. . . . 
 On motion of George C. Childress, a committee, consisting of Messrs. George C. 
 Childress, Colin M ‘Kinney, Edward Conrad, James Gaines, and Bailey Hardiman, 
 were appointed to prepare and report a Declaration of Independence, with di- 
 rections to report as speedily as possible.” — Note* of Colonel William F. Gray. 
 
 “Wednesday, March 2, 1836. — The convention met pursuant to adjournment. 
 Mr. Childress, from the committee, reported a Declaration of Independence, 
 which he read in his place. It was received by the house, committed to a com- 
 mittee of the whole, reported without amendment, and unanimously adopted, in 
 less than one hour from its first and only reading.” — lb. 
 
 f Collingsworth and Ellis to Houston, March 6, 1836. 
 
FORMATION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 73 
 
 under the severest penalties — for a term, however, not exceed- 
 ing six months.* * * § To increase the number of volunteers, and 
 encourage those already in the service, lands were promised. 
 To all such then in the service, and who should so continue 
 during the war, were granted twelve hundred and eighty acres ; 
 for six months’ service, six hundred and forty acres ; for three 
 months’ service, three hundred and twenty acres ; and for all 
 who should thereafter enter the service, and continue in it six 
 months, and during the war, nine hundred and sixty acres.f 
 Such were the inducements offered. 
 
 The convention, through its president, sent forth to the peo- 
 ple of the United States a stirring address, appealing for sym- 
 pathy and aid.f 
 
 The constitution was adopted by the convention on the 16th, 
 but was not signed till the following day. It was thoroughly 
 republican. Its provisions were a combination of the princi- 
 ples in the federal and state constitutions of the Union. It 
 provided for a president, vice-president, and a Congress of two 
 houses ; and, for immediate purposes, it established a govern- 
 ment ad interim . This was the more necessary, as the consti- 
 tution was to be submitted to the popular vote. The form of 
 the temporary government was in accordance with the constitu- 
 tion. This labor being concluded, the convention proceeded, 
 on the 16th of March, to elect the several officers provided for 
 in the temporary arrangement. || David G. Burnet§ was chosen 
 
 * Ordinance of the Convention of March 12, 1836. 
 
 f lb., March 17, 1836. % lb., March 16, 1836. 
 
 || Journal of the Convention, March 16, 1836: MS. 
 
 § “David G. Burnet, the provisional president,” says Kennedy, an impartial 
 writer, “was the son of a physician in Newark, New Jersey, who, in 1775, aban- 
 doned his profession, and devoted himself to the cause of the American Revolu- 
 tion. . . . Mr. Burnet was educated for the legal profession ; and a writer in a 
 respectable American periodical states that he was long a resident of Ohio, 
 where he is remembered as a man of unblemished reputation, oourteous man- 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 president, Lorenzo de Zavala vice-president, Samuel P. Carson 
 secretary of state, Bailey Hardiman secretary of the treasury, 
 Thomas J. Rusk secretary of war, Robert Potter secretary of 
 the navy, and David Thomas attorney-general. The oath of 
 office was immediately administered to these persons, and they 
 entered upon their several duties. On the following day the 
 convention adjourned. 
 
 Among the provisions of the constitution of the republic was 
 one introducing the common law as the rule of decision in crimi- 
 nal cases ; and requiring its introduction, with modifications, in 
 civil proceedings. Another provision introduced the political 
 division of the state into convenient counties.* These, with 
 the establishment of well-known common-law offices, removed 
 almost every vestige of former dynasties ; so that one afterward 
 immigrating into Texas, with the exception of occasional jar- 
 ring from the limited partnership between husband and wife, 
 and forced heirship, would feel as free and familiar with the 
 institutions of his new home as he did in the state of his origin, 
 in the American Union. 
 
 General Houston was present at the convention, having been 
 returned as a delegate from Refugio ; and, deeming his author- 
 ity in fact superseded by the action of the council, he had 
 ceased to act as commander-in-chief of the army. The Decla- 
 ration of Independence required a new appointment, for his 
 
 ners, and intellectual attainments. My own short acquaintance with Mr. Bur- 
 net gave me a very favorable impression of his character. In the affairs of 
 Texas he has always been distinguished by calmness and moderation, and has 
 not unfrequently been exposed to censure for declining to keep pace with popu- 
 lar impatience. This prudence and forbearance, united with firmness and per- 
 severance, well qualified, him to fill the difficult post to which he had been called 
 by the convention.” — Yol. ii., p. 195. President Burnet, in entering upon the 
 duties of his office, delivered, in his usual happy style, an inaugural address, re- 
 plete with good advice and cheering hopes. He was elected over Samuel P. 
 Carson by a majority of seven votes. Zavala had no opposition. 
 
 * Constitution of the Republic of Texas, Article IV., Sections 11, 13. 
 
THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 75 
 
 former oatli of office was under the constitution of 1824, and 
 in obedience thereto. 
 
 During the sitting of the convention, the country was greatly 
 excited and filled with gloomy apprehensions. Every effort 
 was made to hasten troops to the west, to relieve Travis and 
 Fannin from their supposed perilous position, but with little 
 avail. Some one or two hundred effective men hung about the 
 hall of the convention, and no inducement could start them 
 toward the west till the adjournment of that body. On the 
 day before General Houston received his final instructions, a 
 member introduced a resolution requesting that he would im- 
 mediately set out for the army, or resign. Houston, in reply, 
 stated that if the gentleman would withdraw the resolution, he 
 would say that “ he purposed to set out for the army on the 
 next morning, and would gladly have his company. ” The 
 resolution was withdrawn, but the mover did not go to the 
 army.*' Accordingly, on the 6th of March, the commander-in- 
 chief, after placing Colonel Collingsworth in command of the 
 forces at Washington, set out for the west, accompanied only 
 by Colonel George W. Hockly, of his staff, and one or two 
 others. 
 
 It is proper that we now return to the operations of the 
 enemy. It will be remembered that Santa Anna reached the 
 Alazan at noon, on the 23d day of February ; and Urrea ar- 
 rived at San Patricio before dawn on the morning of the 27th. 
 At two o’clock in the afternoon, Santa Anna marched into San 
 Antonio. f The Texan guard in the town retired in good or- 
 der to the Alamo. Colonel Travis, in anticipation of an attack, 
 had done what he could to strengthen the walls, and provide 
 means for defence. The Alamo, though strong, was built for 
 a mission, and not for a fortress. The walls are thick, but of 
 
 * Statement of Dr. B. B. Goodrich: MS. 
 
 f Almontes Journal. 
 
76 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 plain stone-work, and without a redoubt or bastion to command 
 the lines of the fort. The main wall is a rectangle, one hun- 
 dred and ninety feet long, and one hundred and twenty-two 
 feet wide. On the southeast corner was attached the old 
 church, a large building, and containing the magazine and sol- 
 diers’ quarters. Adjoining this on the east side was the stone 
 cuartel for horses. About midway of the east side of the main 
 wall, but within it, was a two-story stone building ; the upper 
 story being used for a hospital, and the lower one for an ar- 
 mory, soldiers’ quarters, &c. There were four pieces of artil- 
 lery mounted on the side toward the town, and a like number 
 facing the north ; two on the side of the church, and four to 
 defend the gate which looked toward the bridge across the 
 San Antonio river. The place was supplied with water from 
 two aqueducts running on either side of the walls.* But Tra- 
 vis was greatly deficient in men, provisions, and ammunition. 
 
 Santa Anna immediately demanded a surrender of the Ala- 
 mo and its defenders, without terms. The demand was an- 
 swered by a shot from the fort. The enemy then hoisted a 
 blood-red flag in the town, and commenced an attack. It was 
 intended to be by slow approaches, for at first the bombard- 
 ment was harmless. Travis sent off an express with a strong 
 appeal for aid, declaring that he would never retreat .f Early 
 
 * Letter of G. B. Jameson, with plot and description of the Alamo, January- 
 18 , 1836 . 
 
 t “ Commandancy of thk Alamo, Bexar, February 24, 1836. 
 
 “ Fellow-Citizen9 and Compatriots : I am besieged by a thousand or more 
 of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continued bombardment 
 for twenty-four hours, and have not lost a man. The enemy have demanded a 
 surrender at discretion ; otherwise the garrison is to be put to the sword, if the 
 place is taken. I have answered the summons with a cannon-shot, and our flag 
 still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then I 
 call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, and of everything dear to the 
 American character, to come to our aid with all despatch. The enemy are re- 
 ceiving reinforcements daily, and will no doubt increase to three or four thou- 
 sand in four or five days. Though this call may be neglected, I am determined 
 

 
BOMBARDMENT OF THE ALAMO. 
 
 77 
 
 on the 25th, Santa Anna in person crossed the river with the 
 battalion de Cazadores of Matamoras, with a view of erecting 
 a battery in front of the gate of the Alamo. Travis made a 
 strong resistance, and the Mexicans were reinforced by the 
 battalion of Ximines. The enemy, according to their own ac- 
 count, lost in this action, which continued until the afternoon, 
 eight in killed and wounded.* They, however, succeeded that 
 night in erecting their battery, being protected by some old 
 houses between the gate of the Alamo and the bridge. It was 
 three hundred yards south of the place. They also erected 
 another, the same night, near the powder-house, or Garita , a 
 thousand yards to the southeast ; and posted their cavalry at 
 the old Casa Mata on the Gonzales road, toward the east. At 
 night, Travis burnt the straw and wooden houses in the vicinity 
 of the fort. 
 
 Early in the morning of the 26th, there was a slight skir- 
 mish between a portion of the Texans and the enemy’s cavalry 
 stationed east of the fort. A norther having sprung up on the 
 previous night, the thermometer fell to thirty-nine degrees above 
 zero. Meanwhile, Santa Anna had received reinforcements, and 
 now enlarged his guard, the sentinels being placed nearer the 
 fort. The Texans sallied out for wood and water without loss ; 
 and at night they succeeded in burning some old houses north- 
 east from the fort, and near a battery erected by the enemy on 
 the Alamo ditch, about eight hundred yards distant. f 
 
 to sustain myself as long as possible, and die like a soldier who never forgets 
 what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death! 
 
 “W. Barret Travis, Lieutenant- Colonel commanding. 
 
 “P. S. — The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight, we 
 had not three bushels of corn. We have since found, in deserted houses, eighty 
 or ninety bushels, and got into the walls twenty or thirty head of beeves. 
 
 II 'p U 
 
 * Almonte’s Journal. Travis’s account of this action, directed to General 
 Houston, seems to have been lost, or cut off by the enemy. 
 
 •j- Almonte’s Journal. Travis to President of the Convention, March 3, 1836. 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS* 
 
 During all this time the Mexicans kept up a constant firing, 
 but with little effect. On the 28th, they erected another bat- 
 tery at the old mill, eight hundred yards north, and attempted 
 to cut off the water from the fort. The Texans were engaged 
 in strengthening their works, by throwing up earth on the in- 
 side of the walls. 
 
 It is proper here to state that Travis wrote on the 23d to 
 Colonel Fannin, then at Goliad, making known his position, 
 and requesting him to march to his relief. The letter reached 
 Goliad on the 25th. Fannin set out on his march for Bexar 
 on the 28th, with three hundred men and four pieces of artil- 
 lery, leaving Captain Westover in command at Goliad, with 
 about a hundred men. But he had only proceeded two hun- 
 dred yards, when one of his wagons broke down, and, having, 
 but one yoke of oxen to each piece of artillery, he was com- 
 pelled to double his teams in order to get them, one at a time, 
 across the river. Besides, his only provisions consisted of a 
 tierce of rice and a little dried beef. A council of war was 
 therefore held, when it was determined to return to Goliad,* 
 which was accordingly done. 
 
 The intelligence of Fannin’s departure for Bexar was re- 
 ceived by the enemy at the latter place the same day on which 
 he started ; and, before the council of war, above alluded to, 
 was closed, on the 29th, General Sesma, with detachments of 
 cavalry and infantry, was on his march to meet him. 
 
 On the morning of the 1st of March, thirty-two gallant men 
 from Gonzales were safely conducted by Captain John W. 
 Smith into the Alamo, making the effective force under Travis 
 one hundred and eighty-eiglit men. The bombardment of the 
 fort still continued. The Texans, being short of ammunition, 
 fired but seldom. In the evening, however, they struck the 
 
 * Fannin to Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, February 29, 1836. 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF THE ALAMO — COUNCIL OF WAR. T9 
 
 house occupied by Santa Anna in Bexar with a twelve-pound 
 shot. On the 2d, the attack was still maintained. The Tex- 
 ans continued the fight as their means and strength would 
 allow. On the 3d, the enemy erected a battery on the north 
 of the fort, and within musket-shot. Travis addressed a last 
 appeal to the president of the convention, setting forth fully 
 his position and determination. He stated that the “ blood- 
 red banners which waved on the church at Bexar, and in the 
 camp above him, were tokens that the war was one of ven- 
 geance against rebels.” Perhaps by the same courier he sent 
 the aftecting note to his friend in Washington county : “ Take 
 care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may 
 make him a splendid fortune; but if the country should be 
 lost, and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud 
 recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his coun- 
 try.”* On that day, J. B. Bonham, who had gone as express 
 to Fannin for aid, returned and made his way safely into the 
 fort at eleven o’clock in the morning. At night the Texans 
 made a sally, and had a skirmish with the Mexican advance. 
 
 The enemy continued the fire on the 4th ; but few shots were 
 returned from the fort. In the afternoon, Santa Anna called 
 a council of war, to advise on the question of assaulting the 
 place. After much discussion, “ Cos, Castrillon, and others, 
 were of opinion that the Alamo should be assaulted after the 
 arrival of the two twelve-pounders expected on the 7th. The 
 president, General Ramirez, Sesma, and Almonte, were of 
 
 * In a letter of Travis, dated the 3d of March, and furnished me by Jesse 
 Grimes, Esq., he says: “I am still here, in fine spirits, and well to do. With 
 one hundred and forty-five men, I have held this place ten days against a force 
 variously estimated from fifteen hundred to six thousand ; and I shall continue 
 to hold it till I get relief from my countrymen, or I will perish in its defence. 
 We have had a shower of bombs and cannon-balls continually falling among us 
 the whole time, yet none of us have fallen. We have been miraculously pre- 
 served.” 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 opinion that the twelve-pounders should not be waited for, but 
 the assault made.”* Santa Anna, without making a public 
 decision, determined upon an assault, and made his prepara- 
 tions accordingly. His troops then in Bexar exceeded four 
 thousand in number, the most of whom had been refreshed 
 during the time they had spent there. The Texans, on the 
 contrary, were worn down by incessant watching and labor 
 within their walls. 
 
 On Sunday morning, the 6th of March, a little after mid- 
 night, the Alamo was surrounded by the entire Mexican army. 
 The cavalry were placed without the infantry, to cut them 
 down if they offered to give way. The latter were provided 
 with scaling-ladders. The enemy, thus forming a circle facing 
 the fort, advanced rapidly under a tremendous fire from the 
 Texan rifles and artillery. Just at daylight the ladders were 
 placed against the walls, and an attempt made by the enemy 
 to enter the fort, but they were driven back by the stern de- 
 fenders within. Again the charge was sounded, and a second 
 effort made to reach the top of the walls, but again the assail- 
 ants were repulsed. For a few minutes there was a pause. 
 By the presence, threats, and promises, of Santa Anna, a third 
 assault was made, and with more fatal success. The enemy, 
 reaching the tops of the ladders, wavered and fell ; but their 
 places were supplied by the hundreds pressing onward and 
 behind them on each ladder. At length, killed, cut down, and 
 exhausted, the Texan defenders did not retreat, but ceased to 
 keep back the Mexicans. Instantly the fort was filled by the 
 latter. The survivors within the walls still continued to do 
 battle. They clubbed their guns, and used them till they were 
 nearly all cut down. It is said that a few called for quarter, 
 but the cry was unheeded. One would suppose that admira- 
 
 * Almonte’s Journal. 
 
STORMING AND FALL OF THE ALAMO. 
 
 81 
 
 tion for such unequalled heroism would have saved these few. 
 Travis and Crockett fell — the former near the western wall, 
 the latter in the corner near the church — with piles of slain 
 around them. It had been previously agreed on by the be- 
 sieged that the survivor should fire a large quantity of dam- 
 aged powder in the magazine. Major Evans, the master of 
 ordnance, was shot as he attempted to perform that last high 
 duty to his country. Colonel Bowie, who had been for some 
 days sick in his bed, was there butchered and mutilated ! 
 
 Thus fell the Alamo and its heroic defenders ; but before 
 them lay the bodies of five hundred and twenty-one of the ene- 
 my, with a like number wounded. At an hour by sun, on that 
 sabbath morning, all was still ; yet the crimson waters of the 
 aqueduct around the fort resembled the red flag on the church 
 at Bexar ! The defenders of Texas did not retreat, but lay 
 there in obedience to the command of their country ; and in 
 that»obedience the world has witnessed among men no greater 
 moral sublimity. 
 
 Those in the fort that survived were, Mrs. Dickinson (wife 
 of Lieutenant Dickinson, who fell in the defence), her child, a 
 negro-servant of Colonel Travis, and two Mexican women of 
 Bexar.* The bodies of the Texans, after being stripped and 
 subjected to brutal indignities, were thrown into heaps and 
 burnt ! The most of them were Americans, many of them col- 
 onists, who emigrated to Texas under the assurance of the 
 colonization laws that their rights and liberties should be pro- 
 tected. The Mexicans in Bexar were mostly hostile : only 
 three of them were among the defenders of the Alamo. 
 
 * Account furnished by Mrs. Dickinson. Telegraph, March 24, 1836. State- 
 ment of Antonio Perez, on the evening after the battle. Perez gives the num- 
 ber of the Mexican killed and wounded as stated : it seems to be most reliable, 
 as he remained several hours after the storming. He says Travis killed himselC 
 This is hardly credible. 
 
 VOL. II. — 6 
 
82 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The enemy’s victory was complete, yet his force was as six- 
 teen to one, and his loss in slain nearly three times the entire 
 number of the defenders. From the known character of Santa 
 Anna, he doubtless rejoiced. Believing the war at an end, 
 and Texas at his feet, he so announced it in his despatches to 
 his subordinates at home. And the authorities and people 
 there believed it, and so congratulated him. “ With pleasure 
 do I sincerely congratulate your excellency,” observes Jose M. 
 Ortis Monasterio, secretary of state, in a letter from Mexico, 
 dated the 22d of March, “ for the brilliant triumph achieved 
 over the perfidious colonists by the national arms under your 
 command. This terrible lesson will be to us fruitful in pros- 
 perous results ; besides, it will teach the sympathizers among 
 our evil-disposed neighbors not to contend against your mili- 
 tary talents, and the valor and decision of the brave soldiers 
 who have covered themselves with honor in an assault so he- 
 roic. Providence is propitious to us, and has destined your 
 excellency to be the savior and preserver of the republic. Glo- 
 rious with these titles, and ever patriotic, your excellency has 
 garnished your temples with laurels of un withering fame.”* 
 Almonte, only three days before the storming of the Alamo, 
 viewed the Mexican success there as effectually ending the 
 war ; for, in his journal of the 3d of March, he says he wrote 
 to Mexico, directing his letters to be sent to Bexar, and that 
 before three months the campaign would be terminated.”! 
 
 Having refreshed his troops, and provided as he could for 
 his numerous wounded, Santa Anna laid down the programme 
 for future operations, to be conducted by General Filisola, his 
 second in command ; after completing which, he proposed to 
 
 * This was one of the letters afterward taken from the courier by Deaf Smith, 
 and thi “savior and preserver of the republic ” never had the pleasure of read- 
 ing it. 
 
 f See also Filisola’s Defen ce* p. 8. 
 
MOVEMENTS OF THE MEXICAN TROOPS. 
 
 83 
 
 return to Mexico. Accordingly, on the 11th of March, he or- 
 dered Generals Sesma and Woll, with six hundred and seventy- 
 five infantry, fifty dragoons, two six-pounders, and eight days’ 
 rations, to march to San Felipe, on the Brasos, and thence to 
 Anahuac by way of Harrisburg. At the same time he directed 
 Colonel Juan Morales, with two battalions of about four hun- 
 dred men, one mortar, one eight and one twelve pounder, and 
 a month’s rations, to proceed to Goliad. Before he decided 
 as to the further disposition of his forces, he received informa- 
 tion from General Urrea, at San Patricio, that he was on his 
 march to Goliad, and that Fannin was there fortified, with 
 about five hundred infantry and fourteen pieces of artillery, 
 and would defend the place. He also received intelligence 
 from General Sesma that the Texans were twelve hundred 
 strong on the Colorado, and disposed to defend the passage of 
 that river. To meet this unexpected resistance, Santa Anna 
 directed General Tolsa, with two battalions and forty dragoons, 
 with a month’s rations, to aid Sesma ; and Colonel Montoya, 
 with the regular militia of Tres Villas and Queretaro, a twelve- 
 pounder, and like rations, to assist Urrea. The orders given 
 to these officers were to shoot all the prisoners taken !* An- 
 other detachment of Mexicans, under General Gaona, was to 
 march to Nacogdoches, with like orders ; but its departure was 
 postponed, to await the issue at Goliad. 
 
 Colonel F. W. Johnson, having received his authority from 
 the council, repaired with Dr. Grant to San Patricio, where 
 they established their headquarters. With a force varying 
 from seventy-five to one hundred and fifty men, they sent out 
 parties to scour the country west to the Rio Grande. On one 
 occasion they captured a small party of Mexicans under Cap- 
 tain Rodriguez. These they afterward released. At the time 
 
 * Filisola’s Defence, pp. 8, 9. 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 General Urrea marched upon San Patricio, Grant was absent 
 on a scout, with about fifty men, leaving some forty in San 
 Patricio. Urrea took the latter completely by surprise, and, 
 though they fought long and vigorously, they were overpowered 
 by numbers, and put to the sword. 
 
 After this victory, Urrea sent out scouts in search of Grant. 
 At length, on the 1st of March, getting news that he was on 
 his return, the Mexican commander set out at dark to meet 
 and surprise him. At a creek called Agua Dulce , about 
 twenty-six miles below San Patricio, the enemy formed an am- 
 bush. They were divided into two parties for the purpose of 
 surrounding Grant — the one commanded by Colonel Garay, 
 and the other by Urrea himself. Between eight and nine 
 o’clock, on the morning of the 2d of March, Grant came up, 
 and was completely surprised and defeated. He was wounded 
 and taken prisoner. While his followers were slaughtered, he 
 was detained a captive, that the enemy might have the benefit 
 of his services in attending to their numerous wounded.* Of 
 the entire command under Johnson and Grant at San Patricio, 
 five only — Johnson, Tone, Beck, Toler, and Miller — were so 
 fortunate as to escape,! and these were engaged in the affair 
 at the town. 
 
 While Dr. Grant was in San Patricio, curing his own wound, 
 and carefully ministering to the wants of the wounded of the 
 enemy, he was promised that, so soon as he recovered, and 
 those under his care were convalescent, he should have a pass- 
 port to leave the country without molestation. The captain 
 left in command of the town, after the departure of Urrea, 
 secretly despatched eight men in search of a wild horse. The 
 animal was captured about three weeks after the battle of the 
 
 * Diario Militar del General Jose Urrea r 
 
 f Fannin to Lieutenant-Governor Robinson, March 1, 1836. 
 
BRUTAL MURDER OF DR. GRANT. 
 
 85 
 
 2d of March. Grant was now brought forth, and, by order of 
 the captain, his feet were strongly bound to those of the horse, 
 and his hands to the tail. “ Now,” said the captain, “ you 
 have your passport — go !” At the same moment the cords by 
 which the mustang was tied were severed. The fierce animal, 
 finding his limbs unfettered, sprang away with great violence, 
 leaving behind him, in a short distance, the mangled remains 
 of poor Grant! Nothing can be added to this simple state- 
 ment of facts.* 
 
 To return to Colonel Fannin. On reaching Refugio, thirty 
 miles below Goliad, he learned through Major Morris, who had 
 gone on to San Patricio with Johnson and Grant, of the ad- 
 vance, in force, of the Mexicans. This suspended the contem- 
 plated march on Matamoras. Fannin now took steps to con- 
 centrate his troops at Goliad, and endeavored to have the ad- 
 vance at San Patricio withdrawn ;f but the latter, holding an 
 independent authority from the council, refused to retreat. 
 Having taken post at Goliad, and obtained a supply of provis- 
 ions, he went to work to repair that place. He complained 
 much, and with justice, of the apathy of the Texans in not 
 turning out more willingly to meet the enemy at the frontier, 
 and stated the fact that he could not find a half-dozen Texans 
 in his ranks. It is proper also to state that, although Fannin 
 was a colonel in the regular army of Texas, he was, on the 7th 
 of February, elected to that rank, and Major Ward lieutenant- 
 colonel, of their united volunteers. $ 
 
 * Statement of the death of Dr. James Grant: MS. General Urrea, whose 
 diary is said, by a writer in the “Democratic Review” (1838, p. 305) to be “a 
 publication marked by all the blunt honesty of the soldier,” is worthy of very 
 little credit. He says Grant was killed in the action of the 2d of March. It 
 is to be regretted that there is so little light on this portion of Texan history. 
 Urrea’s character is that of an intriguing, cruel, and false man. His conduct 
 toward his own comrades, as well as toward the Texans, proves him so. 
 
 f Fannin to Lieutentant-Governor Robinson, Feb. 7, 1836. % lb., Feb. 8, 1836 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The improvements on the fort, which Fannin named Defi- 
 ance , consisted in blockhouses, picketing, ditching, filling in 
 with earth and stone, &c., and mounting necessary artillery for 
 its defence ; all of which was done under the immediate direc- 
 tion of Lieutenant Chadwick of the engineers. Between the 
 middle and last of February the troops at Goliad suffered for 
 both provisions and clothing. In some instances they were 
 compelled to mount guard barefooted. We have already seen 
 the fruitless effort made by Fannin on the 28th of February to 
 march to the relief of Travis at San Antonio — an effort which 
 failed for want of provisions and means of transportation. He 
 therefore returned to the fort, and was again occupied in im- 
 proving his defences. 
 
 Colonel Fannin’s position had for some time been peculiarly 
 unpleasant. He was aware of the fact that for him to remain 
 in his exposed situation, so far from aid in men and materiel , 
 and in the face of so strong an enemy, was not the policy of 
 the commander-in-chief ; yet his orders from Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Robinson were, “ to not make a retrograde movement, 
 but await orders and reinforcements.”* Thus, between these 
 conflicting authorities, this noble man and the gallant troops 
 under his command were about to become victims. 
 
 Hearing of the advance of the Mexicans upon Refugio, Colo- 
 nel Fannin sent Captain King with twenty-eight men to remove 
 some families yet at the mission. King reached there on the 
 12th of March, but seemed to have delayed his departure until 
 the advance of Urrea’s cavalry came up. He then took posi- 
 tion with his small force in the mission, and kept the enemy at 
 bay until he could send a messenger to Fannin at Goliad. The 
 messenger reached the latter place about midnight on the 12th, 
 and Fannin immediately despatched Colonel Ward with a hun- 
 
 * Fannin to Robinson, February 21, 1836. 
 
COLONEL FANNIN AT GOLIAD. 
 
 87 
 
 dred men to his relief. Ward arrived at the mission on the 
 evening of the 18th.* In the meantime, Urrea, then on his 
 march to Goliad, received news of the resistance made by King, 
 and on the 13th despatched Captain Pretalia, with a company 
 of cavalry, to keep the Texans engaged till he could come up 
 with the main body.f The latter reached the mission at day- 
 break on the 14th, but Ward had got into the mission. 
 
 Meanwhile, General Houston, on his arrival at Gonzales, 
 despatched Captain Desauque with an order to Colonel Fannin, 
 dated the 11th of March, commanding him, as soon as practi- 
 cable after the receipt of the order, to fall back upon Victoria, 
 on the Guadalupe, taking with him such artillery as could be 
 brought off with expedition, previously adopting measures to 
 blow up the fort before leaving its vicinity. J This order was 
 received by Colonel Fannin on the morning of the 14th, || who 
 immediately despatched an express to Ward, stating the na- 
 ture of Houston’s order, and requiring him to return with all 
 haste to Goliad. Fannin also sent out parties for teams and 
 carts, and commenced dismounting and burying several of his 
 guns. On the same day, he sent a note to Colonel A. C. Hor- 
 ton, at Matagorda, requesting him to join him as early as pos- 
 sible with the two hundred men under his command. This 
 note fell into the hands of General Urrea ; but Horton joined 
 Fannin on the 16th with twenty-seven mounted men. 
 
 To return to the mission of Refugio. Colonel Ward gave 
 orders to set out on the march to rejoin Fannin on the follow- 
 ing morning (the 14th) at daybreak. When the morning 
 
 * Statement of Captain John Shackleford ; Foote, vol. ii., p. 228. Letter of 
 Samuel G. Hardaway, dated “Macon, June 6, 1836.” 
 
 f Urrea’s Diary. 
 
 \ Appendix No. I. — Document No. 19. 
 
 |I Statement of Captain Shackleford. The letter of Colonel Fannin intercept- 
 ed by Urrea, and published in his diary, shows that Houston’s order was re- 
 ceived on the morning of the 14th. 
 
88 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 dawned, however, it was believed, from the report of one of 
 the sentinels, that the Mexicans were in large force in the 
 neighborhood. To satisfy themselves on this point, Captain 
 King was sent out with thirteen men to ascertain the fact. 
 Shortly afterward a firing was heard in the direction King had 
 taken. Ward with his command advanced rapidly till they 
 found themselves in front of six or eight hundred of the enemy. 
 Ward again retreated to the mission. The church was an old 
 stone building, in ruins, but strong. Three sides of it were, 
 however, exposed to an assault. The fourth side was formed 
 by a stone wall, one hundred and fifty feet in length, used as 
 a place of burial, and containing many tombs : from the end of 
 this wall the ground descended. Captain Bulloch’s company 
 of thirty-five men were placed in the churchyard to protect the 
 mission from an assault in that direction. The remainder of 
 Ward’s command barricaded the church, made loopholes, and 
 otherwise prepared for defence. General Urrea now ordered 
 a charge, at the same time bringing up a four-pounder to bat- 
 ter down the door. The Texans waited till their rifles could 
 take effect, when they opened such a fire, that the enemy, after 
 repeated charges, broke and fled.* During this affair, which 
 lasted nearly all of the 14th of March, the Mexicans lost about 
 
 * Urrea smoothes over this retreat quite handsomely: “The enemy, though 
 at first confounded by the movement, opened a lively fire upon our infantry, the 
 greater part of whom, being recruits from Yucatan, could not sustain it, and fell 
 back, nor could my exertions avail to bring them forward again ; and their na- 
 tive officers, who, a few moments before, had been all boasting and arrogance, 
 disappeared in the most critical moment! These soldiers, with few exceptions, 
 do not understand Spanish ; and the officers, unacquainted with their patois, 
 found it difficult to make them understand the word of command. The infantry 
 having fallen back upon a house and courtyard situated at fifteen or twenty 
 paces from the church, I ordered a part of the cavalry to alight, in order to 
 inspirit them by their example ; but all would not do. The cavalry alone was 
 unequal to carry the place. The moment was urgent; and I ordered a retreat, 
 which, however, could not be effected with the order that disciplined troops 
 would have maintained.” 
 
COLONEL WARD’S RETREAT FROM REFUGIO. 89 
 
 two hundred in killed and wounded : the Texan loss was only 
 three severely wounded ! 
 
 The enemy having retreated to their camp, some five or six 
 hundred yards distant, had posted sentinels around the mission. 
 At night the Texans, finding their ammunition nearly exhaust- 
 ed, determined to retreat ; but, as they could not remove their 
 wounded, they resolved first to leave them a supply of water. 
 Accordingly, after dark, the whole Texan command marched 
 to the spring, about four hundred yards distant, dispersed the 
 enemy’s guard stationed there — killing four of them — supplied 
 themselves with water, filled the gourds of their wounded com- 
 rades, and bade them a last farewell. 
 
 Colonel Ward with his forces then set out on their retreat, 
 and, marching through the woods and swamps, where the ene- 
 my’s cavalry could not follow, they reached the San Antonio 
 river on the third day. On the second day, however, a few of 
 the men left the command in search of water, but did not again 
 join it. The next morning, the 19th, Ward crossed the river, 
 and resumed the march in the direction of Victoria. That 
 evening they heard the firing between Fannin and Urrea, ap- 
 parently about ten miles distant. They endeavored to reach 
 the combatants, but, darkness coming on, they found themselves 
 in the Guadalupe swamp, where they spent the night. On the 
 following morning, in emerging from the river-bottom into the 
 prairie, they were attacked by some five hundred of the ene- 
 my’s cavalry. The Texans fired about three rounds, when, 
 their powder being entirely exhausted, they retreated into the 
 swamp, where they passed the night. The next day, the 21st, 
 Ward set out again toward Victoria, where he and his com- 
 mand surrendered to the enemy as prisoners-of-war. 
 
 To return to Captain King. He had been sent out, on the 
 
 * Letter of Samuel G. Hardaway, June 6, 1836. 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 morning of the 14tli, to reconnoitre ; but his return to the mis- 
 sion being cut off, he attempted to reach Goliad. He lost his 
 way, however, and found himself, after two days’ march (on 
 the morning of the 16th), only three miles from the mission, 
 in an open prairie, and his ammunition wet. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, he was surrounded, and obliged to surrender, pre- 
 vious to which one of his men was mortally wounded. In six 
 hours afterward, Captain King and his command were shot, on 
 the road to Goliad, about a mile from the mission, and, being 
 stripped of their clothing, were left a prey to wild beasts !* 
 General Urrea took possession of the “ Old Mission” on the 
 morning of the 15th. He found there only the three wounded 
 Texans, who were soon despatched, and thrown out, to give 
 place to his own wounded. Leaving these under the care of 
 Colonel Yara and a small command, he sent the whole of his 
 disposable cavalry in pursuit of Ward, and set out himself with 
 the advance, consisting of two hundred horse and foot, on the 
 morning of the 16th, toward Goliad, sending a reconnoitring 
 party still ahead of his advance. f 
 
 Colonel Fannin, receiving no news from his first express to 
 Ward, sent a second, and then a third, who were perhaps all 
 taken by the enemy. It was only on the 18th that he first re- 
 ceived any account of Ward. On the 17th, Colonel A. C. 
 Horton, who had come in the day before from Matagorda, was 
 ordered to reconnoitre the enemy. On his return, he reported 
 a large force of them a few miles from the fort, marching slowly 
 and in good order. Colonel Fannin immediately had the can- 
 non dug up and remounted, expecting an engagement that 
 night or the next morning. During the night of the 17th, the 
 guard was doubled. The enemy were seen hovering about the 
 place on the 18th, and in some force on the left bank of the 
 
 * Kennedy, yoL ii., p. 201. f Urrea’s Diary. 
 
pannin’s retbeat from goliad. 91 
 
 San Antonio river, near the old mission. Colonel Horton was 
 sent over with such mounted force as he could collect, and 
 made a furious charge upon the party at the mission. The 
 latter retreated to the timber, and, being there supported by 
 their infantry, Colonel Horton fell back in good order. Cap- 
 
 9 
 
 tain Shackleford volunteered to go over with his company to 
 the aid of Horton ; but just as they were about to commence 
 the attack, the guns from Fort Defiance caused the enemy to 
 make a precipitate retreat. 
 
 Having determined on his retrograde movement the next 
 morning, Fannin made his arrangements accordingly. Before 
 day, Colonel Horton and his twenty-eight horsemen were in 
 the saddle, and proceeded on the Victoria road. The way 
 being reported clear of the foe, the fort was dismantled, the 
 buildings burnt, and the Texan force, about three hundred 
 strong, set out early. It was ten o’clock, however, before the 
 rear-guard had crossed the San Antonio river. Much time 
 was consumed in getting the artillery up the banks ; besides, 
 a cart broke down, and its load had to be distributed among 
 the other wagons. Still they advanced in good order, and as 
 briskly as the ox-teams and the freight would permit. At 
 length, after a march of six or eight miles toward the waters 
 of the Coleta, Colonel Fannin ordered a halt, to graze and rest 
 the oxen, and refresh the troops. Fannin had all along com- 
 mitted the error of entertaining a too great cod tempt for the 
 enemy. Captain Shackleford remonstrated against the halt 
 until they should reach the Coleta, then five miles distant, but 
 he was overruled. “ Colonel Fannin and many others,” says 
 the gallant captain, “ could not be made to believe that the 
 Mexicans would dare follow us.”* 
 
 * The account of the battle of the Coleta is taken mostly from the notes of 
 Captain Shackleford, and from a narrative published by Kennedy, vol. ii, p. 208. 
 
92 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 After a halt of an hour, the march was resumed. Colonel 
 Horton with his cavalry was sent in advance, to examine the 
 Coleta crossing. Shortly after resuming the march, two of 
 the enemy appeared, as if coming out of the timber bordering 
 on the Coleta, about a mile distant, and rather to the rear and 
 right of the Texan army ; then four more appeared, and finally 
 three hundred and fifty cavalry emerged from the same quar- 
 ter, and advanced rapidly with the view of cutting off the Tex- 
 ans from the skirt of timber about a mile or more in front. 
 “ Our artillery,” says Captain Shackleford, “ was ordered to 
 open on them, and cover our rear. About this time we dis- 
 covered a large force of infantry emerging from the same skirt 
 of woodland at which their cavalry had first been seen.” 
 Fannin attempted to reach the timber in front, but the rapid 
 approach of the enemy determined him to prepare immediately 
 for battle. They were in an open prairie, the nearest timber 
 being that in front. The breaking down of an ammunition- 
 wagon also hindered them from advancing to an eminence near 
 by ; they were therefore compelled to form in a depression in 
 the plain, six or seven feet below the surrounding surface. The 
 Texans were compelled to form in an oblong square, the artil- 
 lery being judiciously posted. The enemy’s cavalry coming 
 up within a quarter of a mile, dismounted, and fired a harm- 
 less volley with their scopettes. Thus they continued to ad- 
 vance and fire. Colonel Fannin, with great coolness, repeated 
 to his men the order “ not to fire.” By this time all the Texan 
 infantry sat down, leaving the artillerists and Colonel Fannin 
 alone standing. The Mexican cavalry having now come within 
 one hundred yards, the command was given, and the Texans 
 opened a fire with rifles, muskets, and artillery. About this 
 time Colonel Fannin received a wound in the fleshy part of the 
 thigh. While engaged with the enemy’s cavalry on their right 
 
BATTLE OF THE COLETA. 
 
 93 
 
 flank, the Texans found the Mexican infantry, one thousand or 
 twelve hundred strong, advancing on their rear and left flank. 
 Coming within range, they fired a volley, and charged bayo- 
 nets. They were received by a piece of artillery, Duval’s rifle- 
 men, and some other troops, whose fire cut them down with 
 great slaughter. This Mexican infantry was the celebrated 
 Tampico regiment. They fell down in the grass, and occa- 
 sionally raised up to shoot ; but whenever they showed their 
 heads, the Texan rifles generally took them down. A body 
 of the enemy’s cavalry then made an attempt upon the Texan 
 rear ; but, at a distance of sixty yards, they were so well re- 
 ceived with double canister charged with musket-balls, and by 
 the riflemen, that they fell by scores, and made a sudden re- 
 treat, choosing to return afterward on foot. 
 
 The conflict had by this time become general. The Texans 
 having no water to sponge their cannon, they became so hot 
 they could not use them, but were forced to rely wholly on 
 their small-arms. With these they continued the fight most 
 manfully from one o’clock until sundown. At dusk, the Cam- 
 peachy Indians (who could not well understand the word of 
 command at the mission of Refugio) were placed in the high 
 grass, about thirty yards from the Texan lines, from which 
 they poured a destructive fire ; but so soon as it was sufficient- 
 ly dark for the Texans to see the flash of their guns, they sel- 
 dom flashed twice from the same point. Among those wounded 
 was Harry Ripley, a son of General Ripley, of Louisiana, a 
 youth of eighteen years. He had his thigh broken. Mrs. 
 Cash (who was with the Texan army), at his request, helped 
 him into a cart, and fixed a prop for him to lean on, and a rest 
 for his rifle. Thus he continued the fight until another shot 
 broke his right arm. Such was the spirit of the Texans at the 
 battle of the Coleta. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 A little after dark, General Urrea drew off his troops. The 
 Texans lost during the day seven killed, several mortally and 
 sixty badly wounded. The enemy’s loss must have been five 
 times as great. Urrea’s force in the action was estimated at 
 twelve hundred infantry and seven hundred cavalry. The 
 Texans, exclusive of Colonel Horton’s mounted force, were 
 about two hundred and seventy-five in all. Horton, having 
 gone on in advance to examine the pass of the Coleta, had dis- 
 mounted with his men. So soon as they heard the firing be- 
 tween the contending parties in their rear, the word “ To 
 horse !” was given, when the party galloped back to the 
 prairie. Here they had a full view of the engagement ; and, 
 seeing the Texans very nearly surrounded by so large a force 
 of the enemy, Horton’s lieutenant, Moore , objected to any at- 
 tempt to reach their comrades by penetrating the Mexican 
 lines, alleging that they would all be cut to pieces. Immedi- 
 ately he dashed off in another direction, taking with him nearly 
 all the party. Colonel Horton, being thus left with so few 
 men, had no other alternative than to retire also. He there- 
 fore retreated to Victoria.* 
 
 The description of the battle of the Coleta, as it appeared 
 just after one of those attempts to charge in the evening, is 
 thus given by an eye-witness : “ The scene was now dreadful 
 to behold. Killed and maimed men and horses were strewn 
 over the plain ; the wounded were rending the air with their 
 distressing moans ; while a great number of horses without 
 riders were rushing to and fro back upon the enemy’s lines, 
 increasing the confusion among them : they thus became so 
 
 * Such were the statements made to Captain Shackleford by his lieutenant, 
 Francis, and Joseph Fenner, a private of his company, who were with Horton. 
 “I candidly believe,” says the captain, “even with the whole of his force, he 
 never could have cut his way through such an immense number of Mexican 
 cavalry.” 
 
THE NIGHT AFTER THE BATTLE. 
 
 95 
 
 entangled, the one with the other, that their retreat resembled 
 the headlong flight of a herd of buffaloes, rather than the re- 
 treat of a well-drilled, regular army, as they were.” 
 
 The enemy took position for the night in the skirt of woods 
 in front. The Texans were occupied in forming a breastwork 
 of earth, carts, wagons, and packs. “ It has been often asked,” 
 says Captain Shackleford, “ as a matter of surprise, why we 
 did not retreat in the night. A few reasons, I think, ought to 
 satisfy every candid man on this point. During the engage- 
 ment, our teams had all been killed, wounded, or had strayed 
 off ; so that we had no possible way of taking off our wounded 
 companions. Those who could have deserted them under such 
 circumstances, possess feelings which I shall never envy. I 
 will mention another reason, which may have more weight with 
 some persons than the one already given. We had been con- 
 tending for five hours, without intermission, with a force more 
 than seven times larger than our own ;* had driven the enemy 
 from the field with great slaughter ; and calculated on a rein- 
 forcement from Victoria in the morning, when we expected to 
 consummate our victory.” 
 
 Captain Shackleford does not inform us why they expected 
 aid from Victoria ; at all events, none came. On the other 
 hand, the reinforcement sent to the enemy from Bexar, consist- 
 ing of five hundred men under Colonel Morales, with three 
 
 * It is probable that the enemy’s strength was over-estimated in the battle of 
 Coleta. This was the last action in which Urrea was engaged in Texas. On 
 the 24th of April his force, including the troops sent to him under the command 
 of Colonel Juan Morales, was only eleven hundred and sixty-five. If to these 
 we add the detachments by him left at Copano, sixty; mission of Refugio, five; 
 Goliad, one hundred and seventy-four; Matagorda, one hundred and eighty- 
 nine; and Victoria, forty — the total is sixteen hundred and thirty-three. Ma- 
 king allowance for the slain of the enemy at the Coleta, and the wounded in 
 that and previous engagements who had recovered, it is probable that his force 
 did not exceed seventeen hundred, or at farthest eighteen hundred, at the battle 
 of Coleta. — Filisola'a Defence , p. 80. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 pieces of artillery, and of which Urrea had received notice on 
 the 18th, arrived in the Mexican camp at half-past six on the 
 morning of the 20th. Early on that morning, Urrea displayed 
 his whole force in the most imposing manner, together with his 
 pack-mules and artillery. The fire of the latter commenced, 
 but without effect. They kept out of the range of the Texan 
 riflemen, who reserved their fire for close quarters. After the 
 Mexicans had discharged a few rounds, they raised a white 
 flag, but it was soon taken down. The Texan wounded had 
 “ suffered agonies for want of water.” Their officers held a 
 consultation, and it was the opinion of a majority that they 
 could not save the wounded without a capitulation. The un- 
 expected appearance of artillery in the ranks of the enemy 
 likewise conduced to this conclusion, for the Texan breastwork 
 was only intended to resist small-arms. 
 
 The Texans now raised a white flag, which was promptly 
 answered by the enemy. Major Wallace and Captain Chad- 
 wick went out, and in a short time returned and reported that 
 General Urrea would treat only with the commanding officer. 
 Colonel Fannin, though lame, went out, assuring his men that 
 he would make no other than an honorable capitulation. He 
 returned in a short time, and communicated the terms of the 
 agreement which he had made with Urrea. They were in sub- 
 stance as follows : — 
 
 1. That the Texans should be received and treated as 
 prisoners-of-war, according to the usages of the most civilized 
 nations. 2. That private property should be respected and 
 restored ; but that the side-arms of the officers should be given 
 up. 8. That the men should be sent to Copano, and thence, 
 in eight days, to the United States, or so soon thereafter as 
 vessels could be procured to take them. 4. That the officers 
 should be paroled, and returned to the United States in like 
 
SURRENDER OF THE TEXANS AS PRISONERS-OF-WAR. 97 
 
 manner.* General Urrea immediately sent Colonel Holzinger 
 and other officers to consummate the agreement. It was re- 
 duced to writing in both the English and Spanish languages, 
 read over two or three times, signed, and the writings ex- 
 changed in “ the most formal and solemn manner.”! 
 
 The Texans immediately piled their arms, and such of them 
 as were able to march were hurried off to Goliad, where they 
 arrived at sunset on the same day (the 20th). The wounded, 
 among whom was Colonel Fannin, did not reach the place till 
 the 22d. At Goliad the prisoners were crowded into the old 
 church, with no other food than a scanty pittance of beef, with- 
 out bread or salt. Colonel Fannin was placed under the care 
 of Colonel Holzinger, a German engineer in the Mexican ser- 
 vice. So soon as Fannin learned how badly his men were 
 treated, he wrote to General Urrea, stating the facts, and re- 
 minding him of the terms of the capitulation. 
 
 On the 23d, Colonel Fannin and Colonel Holzinger proceeded 
 to Copano, to ascertain if a vessel could be procured to convey 
 the Texans to the United States ; but the vessel they expected 
 to obtain had already left that port. They did not return 
 till the 26th. On the 23d, Major Miller, with eighty Texan 
 volunteers, who had just landed at Copano, were taken prison- 
 ers and brought into Goliad by Colonel Vara. Again, on the 
 25th, Colonel Ward and his men, captured by Urrea, as has 
 already been stated, were brought in. 
 
 The evening of the 26th passed off pleasantly enough. Colo- 
 nel Fannin was entertaining his friends with the prospect of 
 returning to the United States ; and some of the young men, 
 who could perform well on the flute, were playing “Home, 
 
 # It is stated somewhat differently by others ; but the position, intelligence, 
 and high character, of Dr. Shackleford, induce me to follow his “Notes.” See 
 Kennedy, vol. ii,, p. 209 . 
 f See Appendix No. IV. 
 
 Vol. II. — 7 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sweet home.” How happy we are that the veil of the future 
 is suspended before us ! At seven o’clock that night, an order, 
 brought by an extraordinary courier from Santa Anna, required 
 the prisoners to be shot ! Detailed regulations were sent as to 
 the mode of executing this cold-blooded and atrocious order. 
 Colonel Portilla, the commandant of the place, did not long 
 hesitate in its execution. He had four hundred and forty-five 
 prisoners under his charge. Eighty of these, brought from 
 Copano, having just landed, and who as yet had done no fight- 
 ing, were considered as not within the scope of the order, and 
 for the time were excused. The services of four of the Texan 
 physicians — that is, Drs. Joseph H. Bernard, Field, Hall, and 
 Shackleford — being needed to take care of the Mexican wound- 
 ed, their lives were spared. So likewise were four others, who 
 were assistants in the hospital.* 
 
 At dawn of day, on Palm Sunday, March 27th, the Texans 
 were awakened by a Mexican officer, who said he wished them 
 to form a line, that they might be counted. The men were 
 marched out in separate divisions, under different pretexts. 
 Some were told that they were to be taken to Copano, in order 
 to be sent home ; others that they were going out to slaughter 
 beeves ; and others, again, that they were being removed to 
 make room in the fort for Santa Anna. Dr. Shackleford, who 
 had been invited by Colonel Guerrier to his tent, about a hun- 
 dred yards southeastwardly from the fort, says: “In about 
 half an hour, we heard the report of a volley of small- arms, 
 toward the river, and to the east of the fort. I immediately 
 inquired the cause of the firing, and was assured by the officer 
 that 4 he did not know, but supposed it was the guard firing 
 off their guns.’ In about fifteen or twenty minutes thereafter, 
 another such volley was fired, directly south of us, and in front. 
 
 * Messrs. Bills, Griffin, Smith, and Skerlock. 
 
MASSACRE OP THE TEXAN PRISONERS AT GOLIAD. 99 
 
 At the same time I could distinguish the heads of some of the 
 men through the boughs of some peach-trees, and could hear 
 their screams. It was then, for the first time, the awful con- 
 viction seized upon our minds that treachery and mrnrder had 
 begun their work ! Shortly afterward, Colonel Guerrier ap- 
 peared at the mouth of the tent. I asked him if it could be 
 possible they were murdering our men. He replied that 6 it 
 was so ; but he had not given the order, neither had he exe- 
 cuted it.’ ” 
 
 In about an hour more, the wounded were dragged out and 
 butchered. Colonel Fannin was the last to suffer. When in- 
 formed of his fate, he met it like a soldier. He handed his 
 watch to the officer whose business it was to murder him, and 
 requested him to have him shot in the breast and not in the 
 head , and likewise to see that his remains should be decently 
 buried. These natural and proper requirements the officer 
 promised should be fulfilled, but, with that perfidy which is 
 so prominent a characteristic of the Mexican race, he failed to 
 do either ! Fannin seated himself in a chair, tied the hand- 
 kerchief over his eyes, and bared his bosom to receive the fire 
 of the soldiers. 
 
 As the different divisions were brought to the place of exe- 
 cution, they were ordered to sit down with their backs to the 
 guard. In one instance, “ young Fenner rose on his feet, and 
 exclaimed, ‘Boys, they are going to kill us — die with your 
 faces to them, like men !’ At same moment, two other young 
 men, flourishing their caps over their heads, shouted at the top 
 of their voices, ‘ Hurrah for Texas !’ ” 
 
 Many attempted to escape ; but the most of those who sur- 
 vived the first fire were cut down by the pursuing cavalry, or 
 afterward shot. It is believed that, in all, twenty-seven of 
 those who were marched out to be slaughtered made their 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 escape ; leaving three hundred and thirty who suffered death 
 on that Sunday morning.* 
 
 The dead were then stripped, and their naked bodies thrown 
 into piles. A few brush were placed over them, and an at- 
 tempt made to burn them up, but with such poor success, that 
 their hands and feet, and much of their flesh, were left a prey 
 to dogs and vultures ! Texas has erected no monument to per- 
 petuate the memory of these heroic victims of a cruel barbar- 
 ism ; yet they have a memorial in the hearts of their country- 
 men more durable than brass or marble. 
 
 Colonel Fannin doubtless erred in postponing for four days 
 the obedience to the order of the commander-in-chief to retreat 
 with all possible despatch to Victoria, on the Guadalupe ; and 
 also in sending out Lieutenant-Colonel Ward in search of Cap- 
 tain King. But these errors sprang from the noblest feelings 
 of humanity : first, in an attempt to save from the approaching 
 enemy some Texan settlers at the mission of Refugio ; again, 
 in an endeavor to rescue King and his men at the same place ; 
 and, finally, to save Ward and his command — until all was 
 lost, but honor. 
 
 * Number of prisoners at Goliad, on the 27th of March, according to 
 
 Portilla 445 
 
 Major Miller’s command 80 
 
 Physicians and attendants 8 
 
 Escaped from the slaughter 27=115 
 
 Number who suffered death 830 
 
 Names of those who escaped, according to Dr. Shackleford: — 
 
 New Orleans Grays : William L. Hunter, William Brannon, John Reese, David 
 Jones, B. H. Holland. 
 
 Huntsville Volunteers : Bennett Butler, Milton Irish. 
 
 Mustangs : William Morer, John C. Duval, William Mason, John Holliday, 
 
 John Van Bibber, Charles Spain, Sharpe. 
 
 Burke's Company: Herman Fremby, Thomas Kemp, N. J. Devany. 
 
 Horton's Company : Daniel Martindale, William Hadden, Charles Smith. 
 
 Red Rovers : Isaac D. Hamilton, D. Cooper, L. M. Brooks, William Simpson. 
 Company not recollected: N. Hosen, William Murphy, John Williams. 
 
 Foote, vol. il, p. 244. 
 
A DAY OF RETRIBUTION. 
 
 101 
 
 The “ public vengeance” of the Mexican tyrant, however, 
 was satisfied. Deliberately and in cold blood he had caused 
 three hundred and thirty of the sternest friends of Texas — her 
 friends while living and dying — to tread the winepress for her 
 redemption. He chose the Lord’s day for this sacrifice. It 
 was accepted ; and God waited his own good time for retribu- 
 tion — a retribution which brought Santa Anna a trembling 
 coward to the feet of the Texan victors, whose magnanimity 
 prolonged his miserable life to waste the land of his birth with 
 anarchy and civil war ! 
 
102 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 Santa Anna, having received intelligence of the capture of 
 Fannin and his command, was still more confirmed in the idea 
 that the war in Texas was ended, and in his determination to 
 depart for the capital. With this view, he ordered General 
 Urrea to scour all the country between Victoria and Galveston, 
 his left wing to be sustained by the command under General 
 Sesma. On the 24th of March, General Gaona set out for 
 Nacogdoches with the two battalions, two four-pounders, twen- 
 ty frontier dragoons, and fifty convicts, set apart for his com- 
 mand, the whole amounting to seven hundred and twenty-five 
 men. These several commanders had strict orders to shoot 
 all the prisoners taken !* 
 
 As the dictator considered his army unnecessarily large to 
 complete what remained to be done in Texas, he ordered that 
 the brigade of cavalry commanded by Colonel Juan Jose An- 
 drade — the property belonging to the battalions of Guerrero, 
 Matamoras, and Ximines, to the regular militia of Queretaro, 
 and to the first battalion of Mexico — also the artillery which 
 existed in the general quarters and that had been brought from 
 Mexico, and likewise the thirty-two hired wagons — should be 
 got ready to leave on the first of April for San Luis Potosi. 
 As for himself, he proposed to set out immediately — going by 
 
 * Filisola's Defence, p. 9. 
 
MOVEMENTS OF SANTA ANNA. 
 
 103 
 
 sea from Copano or Matagorda to Tampico, and thence by land 
 to San Luis Potosi. 
 
 General Filisola, on whom the chief command would now 
 devolve, looking around at his approaching responsibility, dis- 
 covered that no impression had as yet been made upon the 
 colonists ; and that those already conquered, at so great a cost, 
 were mostly volunteers only, but lately arrived in the country, 
 while the main body of Texans was still intact. As the meas- 
 ures of Santa Anna did not accord with the views of Filisola, 
 the latter took frequent occasion to intimate his opinions as to 
 future operations. His suggestions, however, had no effect ; 
 but knowing that Santa Anna paid great respect to any repre- 
 sentation of Colonel Almonte, he went in search of that officer ; 
 and, with the map of Texas before them, he observed to Al- 
 monte that, after leaving garrisons at Bexar, Goliad, and Co- 
 pano, the remaining forces should keep together until they had 
 beaten the main body of the Texans. This advice, accompa- 
 nied by a timely letter from General Sesma, dated from the 
 right bank of the Colorado, on the 15th of March, induced 
 Santa Anna to suspend the return of the cavalry to Mexico, 
 and to direct General Sesma, by an order, dated the 25th of 
 March, to change his course, after crossing the Colorado at 
 Bastrop, to San Felipe. He also commanded General Urrea 
 to pass the Colorado at Matagorda, and march to Brasoria — 
 thus concluding to concentrate his forces, and to finish in per- 
 son the few remaining military operations necessary to the re- 
 duction of Texas. On the 29th of March, two battalions, with 
 five pieces of artillery, and a month’s rations, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Amat, set out from Bexar for Gonzales ; and, 
 on the 31st, Santa Anna and his staff, with General Filisola, 
 departed on the same road.* 
 
 * Filisola’a Defence, pp. 10, II. 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 To return to the Texans. General Houston arrived at Gon- 
 zales, at four o’clock in the afternoon, on the 11th of March.* 
 Previous thereto, Colonels Burleson and Neill had been using 
 the most earnest and patriotic efforts to raise a force for the 
 relief of Travis. f It was Houston’s intention to combine the 
 forces of Fannin and Neill, and march to the aid of Travis ; 
 and he so ordered on the 9th, in advance of his arrival at Gon- 
 zales. J The news received there of the fall of the Alamo, 
 changed his purpose, and he therefore despatched the order to 
 Colonel Fannin to retreat to Victoria, sending one third of his 
 troops to Gonzales. 
 
 On the 12th of March, in pursuance of orders, Colonel Neill 
 made a report of the number of troops at Gonzales, and they 
 were found to amount in all to three hundred and seventy-four 
 
 * Appendix No. I. — Document No. 21. 
 
 f It is proper to state that Captain John W. Smith, after conducting the 
 thirty-two Texans from Gonzales to the Alamo, returned on the 4th of March, 
 and started again on the 7th with fifty more from the same point; but it was 
 too late . — Smith to the President of the Convention , March 7, 1836. 
 
 \ I find, iu the handwriting of Colonel G. W. Hockley, a memorandum dated 
 “Burnham’s, Colorado, March 9, 1836,” as follows: “This day a letter was for- 
 warded by return express from this place to Colonel J. C. Neill, commanding at 
 Gonzales, ordering the original to be forwarded to Colonel Fannin, commanding 
 at Goliad, and a copy to be kept, as follows: 1 Colonel Fannin to march immedi- 
 ately with all his effective force (except one hundred and twenty men, to be 
 left for the protection of his post), to co-operate with the command of Colonel 
 Neill, at some point to be designated by him, to the relief of Colonel Travis, 
 now in the Alamo. Colonel N. to recommend a route to Colonel F. from Goliad 
 to the point of co-operation. Colonel F. to bring two light pieces of artillery, 
 and no more; fifty muskets, with thirty to forty rounds ball-cartridge for each. 
 Both to use immediate despatch — Colonel F. with ten days’ provisions.’ 
 
 “A letter to General Burleson, requesting him to unite with Colonel Neill in 
 recommending the route — forming battalion, or regiment, according to the 
 number of troops at Gonzales.” 
 
 Colonel Neill, in a letter to Houston, dated Gonzales, March 10, 1836, says: 
 
 “ I have received with great satisfaction your communication of the 9th inst. 
 
 . . . . I shall forward your communication to Colonel Fannin by express, agree- 
 ably to your instructions, giving him due time to concentrate his forces with 
 mine at the time and place I shall designate.” Of course, this movement would 
 have been too late. 
 
RECEPTION OF THE ALAMO MASSACRE AT GONZALES. 105 
 
 effective men.* They had not two days’ provisions ; many 
 were without arms, and others destitute of ammunition.! To 
 remedy these defects as far as possible, and place the troops 
 in a state of organization, orders were issued for an election 
 of field-officers of the volunteers on the 13th, and requiring all 
 volunteers who should come into camp to attach themselves to 
 some company. A camp was formed on the east bank of the 
 Guadalupe, and the organization extended to the lowest divis- 
 ion of the company. At the same time, Captain Larrison was 
 despatched to Victoria for fifty kegs of lead and one thousand 
 pounds of powder, for the use of the army.f 
 
 It was on the night General Houston reached Gonzales, 
 that two Mexicans brought the first news of the fall of the 
 Alamo, and the death of all its defenders. The scene pro- 
 duced in the town by these sad tidings can not be described. 
 At least a dozen women with their children, in that place 
 alone, had thus been left widows and orphans. In fact, there 
 was scarcely a family in the town but had to mourn the loss 
 of one or more of its members. “ For four-and-twenty hours,” 
 says Captain Handy, “ after the news reached us, not a sound 
 was heard, save the wild shrieks of women, and the heart- 
 rending screams of their fatherless children. Little groups of 
 men might be seen in various corners of the town, brooding 
 over the past, and speculating of the future ; but they scarcely 
 
 * “ A consolidated report of the troops now under the command of Lieutenant* 
 
 Colonel J. C. Neill, as received at headquarters, Gonzales, March 12, 1836: — 
 
 “Captains, 8; first lieutenants, 8; second lieutenants, 5 21 
 
 “ Quartermaster’s sergeant, 1 ; sergeants, 25 ; corporals, 13 ; mu- 
 sicians, 1; privates, 313 353 
 
 “Aggregate 374 
 
 “Twenty-five of the above as yet unorganized. 
 
 “ Lieutenant H. S. Stouffer, Acting Adjutant. 
 “J. C. NEILL, Lieutenant- Colonel of the Regular Army of Texas." 
 f Appendix No. I. — Document No. 22. 
 
 X Order to R. R. Roy all, March 13, 1836. 
 
106 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 spoke above a whisper. The public and private grief were 
 alike heavy. It sank deep into the heart of the rudest sol- 
 dier.”* To soften as much as possible the unhappy effect of 
 the intelligence, Houston caused the two Mexicans to be ar- 
 rested and kept under guard, as spies. f The fact that Travis 
 had agreed to fire signal-guns, and that none had been heard 
 since the Sunday previous, confirmed the statement made by 
 the Mexicans ; yet, in order to ascertain the truth of the mat- 
 ter, Deaf Smith, Henry Karnes, and R. E. Handy, were de- 
 spatched to Bexar, or as near to that place as they could safely 
 go, to learn the facts, and return in three days.J After pro- 
 ceeding about twenty miles, they met Mrs. Dickinson, with her 
 child, accompanied by Sam, the servant of Travis, and Ben, a 
 free negro, the servant of Almonte. Mrs. Dickinson brought 
 with her a boasting proclamation of Santa Anna, which she 
 had received from the hands of General Sesma, then at the 
 Cibola , on his route, with the advance of the enemy, to Gon- 
 zales. Mrs. Dickinson having fully confirmed the intelligence 
 brought by the two Mexicans, Karnes, who was mounted on 
 the best horse, returned in haste to Gonzales with the informa- 
 tion and the proclamation of Santa Anna, while Smith and 
 Handy remained to escort her to .the Texan army. 
 
 Captain Karnes reached Gonzales between eight and nine 
 o’clock on the night of the 13th. The intelligence brought by 
 him produced a general panic. Since Santa Anna first ap- 
 proached San Antonio, the American settlers had been remov- 
 ing eastward ; and, as he advanced into the country, and de- 
 veloped his bloodthirsty disposition, the emigration became more 
 hasty and universal. At length, with the departure of Sesma 
 
 * R. K Handy to J. J. R. Pease, 1836. f Appendix I. — No. 21. 
 
 t Handy to Pease. Houston to Collingsworth, March 13, 1836. Captain 
 Handy is mistaken aB to the date. 
 
HOUSTON’S RETREAT FROM GONZALES. 
 
 107 
 
 from Bexar with his advance of seven hundred and twenty- 
 five men, the emigration became a flight, not of a part, but all 
 — men, women, children, and servants — some carrying with 
 them their goods and stock, others leaving everything. The 
 volunteers in the Texan army, seeing their wives and relatives 
 e posed to the vandalism of the Mexican soldiery, were con- 
 stantly leaving — some with and some without permission — to 
 look after and conduct to a place of safety those who were so 
 near and dear to them. This was a natural result of their ex- 
 posed situation. The Texan commander, not having a suffi- 
 cient force to repel the enemy before he reached the settle- 
 ments, and being without artillery and munitions, was com- 
 pelled to fall back. The information brought by Mrs. Dickin- 
 son had, moreover, magnified the force under Sesma. 
 
 Having determined on a retreat, General Houston and his 
 forces set out before midnight on the 13th, leaving behind his 
 spies, who were reinforced by some volunteers from Peach 
 creek. It may be stated, as a proof of the poverty of the ma- 
 teriel in the Texan army, that, when they set out on their re- 
 treat, they had in camp two public wagons, two yoke of oxen, 
 and a few poor horses !* The flying citizens had carried with 
 them every species of conveyance. The Texan army reached 
 the Navidad on the 14th, where they rested one day, while a 
 guard was sent back for a widow woman and her children, 
 whose residence, being off the road, was passed without knowl- 
 edge of her. Some of the party who had remained behind at 
 Gonzales conducted the family on to the army, while the three 
 spies before named, and Reese, remained to burn the town. 
 It was set on fire in many places at once, so that the flying 
 inhabitants, looking back, saw the light of their burning dwel- 
 lings. By early dawn the place was reduced to ashes, and its 
 
 * Appendix I. — No. 22. 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 only inhabitants were the four faithful Texan spies previously 
 mentioned.* 
 
 Houston, having decided to make the Colorado the line of 
 defence, despatched his aide-de-camp, Colonel William T. Aus- 
 tin, to the Brasos for artillery,! and marched to Burnham’s, 
 on the right bank of the Colorado. He reached this point on 
 the evening of the 17th. His force had by this time increased 
 to six hundred men, including a rear-guard, who were bring- 
 ing with them some families.^ 
 
 There had, up to this time, been some twenty who had left 
 the Texan army without permission, and, as they travelled east- 
 ward, spread over the country such exaggerated accounts of 
 the large force of the enemy, their unheard-of cruelties, and 
 the small numbers of the Texans, that the panic became uni- 
 versal and overwhelming. The voice of sorrow and despon- 
 dency that came from the flying inhabitants touched the hearts 
 of the small band who had ventured everything in this last 
 effort for life and liberty. It did more — it prevented volun- 
 teers from coming from the east. The panic, as it travelled 
 in that direction, had greatly increased. Citizens east of the 
 Neches believed their danger more imminent than those west 
 of the Trinity. Hence, able-bodied men were retained to de- 
 fend families and neighborhoods. To add to the terror and 
 distress, particularly in eastern Texas, there were some bad 
 
 * Handy to Pease. 
 
 f “Army Orders. — Major William T. Austin is hereby appointed volunteer 
 aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief of the army of Texas; and will proceed 
 immediately to the mouth of the Rio Brasos (or such point as the stores of the 
 army may be), and make a requisition upon Colonel John A. Wharton for seven 
 pieces of artillery, say six and nine pounders — six of the former and one of the 
 latter calibre — and an abundant supply of grape and canister shot; and for- 
 ward the same to headquarters on the Colorado river, near Burnham’s. .... 
 Major Austin will obey this order with all possible despatch, and report to the 
 comm an d er-i n-ch i ef. 
 
 “Camp on Lavaca, March 15, 1836.” 
 
 $ Appendix I. — No 28. 
 
a panic — Houston’s efforts to allay it. 109 
 
 men who spread false alarms for the sake of plunder. It was 
 understood, and perhaps with some truth, that all Americans, 
 whether combatants or not, were to be driven from the country, 
 and that the women brought by Santa Anna with his army were 
 to join his soldiers in forming the advance of a Mexican popu- 
 lation that was to occupy the province. 
 
 “ It pains my heart,” says the commander-in-chief, writing 
 to the chairman of the military committee — “ it pains my heart 
 that such consternation should have been spread by the few 
 deserters from camp. . . . Our own people, if they would act, 
 are enough to expel every Mexican from Texas. Do let it be 
 known that, on close examination, and upon reflection, the 
 force of Santa Anna has been greatly overrated. ... If you 
 can, by any means, soothe the people, and get them to remain, 
 they shall have notice, if I deem it necessary. Let them enter- 
 tain no fears for the present. We can raise three thousand 
 men in Texas, and fifteen hundred can defeat all that Santa 
 Anna can send to the Colorado.”* 
 
 The Texan army remained two days at Burnham’s, waiting 
 for the families to pass safely over, when it also crossed to the 
 left bank, and, marching down the river, took position opposite 
 Beason’s. Here they remained until the 26th, awaiting the 
 arrival of artillery and reinforcements. It is true that most 
 of the reports made of the advancing force of the enemy over- 
 rated their numbers. The first body, under Sesma and Woll, 
 was seven hundred and twenty-five ; the second, under General 
 Tolsa, which probably reached the Colorado about the time 
 the Texans took position opposite Beason’s, numbered some 
 six hundred — making an aggregate of thirteen hundred and 
 twenty -five, of which ninety were cavalry, with two six-pound- 
 ers. Yet it was understood in the Texan camp that they had 
 
 * Appendix I. — No. 23. 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 at least twice that number on the right bank of the river, with 
 heavy reinforcements coming up. At all events, without artil- 
 lery and ammunition, it would not have been prudent to hazard 
 a battle when there was so much at stake. Such was the view 
 taken of the matter by the commander-in-chief, and he was 
 fully supported by the convention. “ It is deemed useless,” 
 says the president of that body, in his letter of the 16th of 
 March, “ to suggest to you the importance of giving all possi- 
 ble information, in various directious around you through the 
 country, of the movements of the enemy, and to retard his 
 progress as far as practicable without hazarding a battle, with- 
 out a tolerable certainty of victory. But annoy him in situar 
 tions which will admit of it, so as to save your men until a 
 force can collect to enable you to make a successful attack 
 upon him.” 
 
 The troops that were expected from eastern Texas did not 
 come. As early as the 5th of March, General Houston had 
 despatched Major John Forbes, of his staff, to Velasco, to act 
 with Colonel John A. Wharton, the adjutant-general, in for- 
 warding troops and munitions-of-war to the army, directing 
 that supplies and munitions should be sent no farther south 
 than Dimitt’s landing.* 
 
 Colonel William T. Austin, in pursuance of orders, proceed- 
 ed directly to Brasoria, and applied to Colonel Wharton for 
 the required artillery and grape and canister. That officer 
 was then on his way to the army with one hundred and fifty 
 troops from Velasco, and informed Colonel Austin that he had 
 already sent all the guns suitable for field-service, consisting 
 of two six-pounders and one mortar, with shot and shells, to 
 Bell’s landing, and would take them to the army. At the 
 same time the adjutant-general sent Colonel Austin to Velasco, 
 
 * Order to Forbes, March 5 , 1836. 
 
MEASURES OF THE TEXAN GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 to forward munitions and stores to Bell’s landing.* Previous 
 to leaving Burnham’s, orders were despatched to all points 
 west of the Colorado, directing that families should be in readi- 
 ness to move east of that stream, and that stock of all kinds 
 should be driven over it. 
 
 The government ad interivi, on entering upon the discharge 
 of its functions on the 17th of March, exerted itself to increase 
 the force under the Texan flag. President Burnett issued a 
 strong appeal to the people east of the Brasos, expressing grief 
 and surprise that, under the influence of idle rumors, they were 
 leaving their homes, and, by .the circulation of false news, pre- 
 venting others from repairing to the standard of their country, 
 where alone their homes and families were to be defended. f 
 At the same time a resolution was taken to remove the seat of 
 government to Harrisburg. Agents were likewise sent east- 
 ward to quiet the public mind, and two thirds of the militia 
 were called into service. $ Colonel Rusk, the secretary of war, 
 was untiring in his efforts to forward supplies of all kinds. At 
 the ferry at Washington he stationed an officer, with orders to 
 let no man pass eastward who had a rifle, and to take by im- 
 pressment and forward to the army all the powder, lead, and 
 horses, he could. || These were strong measures, but such as 
 the times required. 
 
 On the 20th of March, Captain Karnes, with five men, met 
 with and defeated a party of twelve Mexicans at Rocky creek, 
 
 * Letter of William T. Austin, April 15, 1842; order of John A. Wharton to 
 William T. Austin, March 18, 1836. 
 
 f Proclamation of the 18th of March, 1836. Extract of a letter from Captain 
 John W. Smith, dated San Felipe, March 18, 1836: “I find many wagons and 
 carts with lone families, and three or four men with them, and many of them 
 single men. If possible, an arrangement should be made, and the committees 
 of safety or some other authority should stop and compel to return to the army 
 all persons not having a passport.” 
 
 \ Rusk to Houston, March 19, 1836. 
 
 Ib., March 20, 1886. 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 twelve miles west of Beason’s, killing one, taking another pris- 
 oner, and capturing three horses.* In addition to the protec- 
 tion of the crossing at Beason’s, forces were stationed above 
 at Mosely’s, and at the Atasco sito crossing below. The force 
 at Mosely’s captured and sent to headquarters, on the 23 d, 
 three more of the enemy. From a separate examination of 
 these prisoners, it was ascertained that the main body of the 
 troops under Sesma were near the west bank of the river. The 
 Texan force was at this time over seven hundred strong, in 
 high spirits, under strict discipline, and anxious to meet the 
 foe. The enemy had taken his position on the west bank of 
 the river, on an elevation near the Robertson crossing, about 
 two miles above Beason’s. At that crossing the river was ford- 
 able ; and the Texan commander placed there a detachment 
 of about one hundred and fifty men under Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Sherman and Captain Patton, aide-de-camp. This force was 
 intended as a guard to the ford, and also as an ambuscade, 
 should the Mexicans endeavor to pass the river. They did 
 make an attempt to send over fifty of their cavalry, but one of 
 the guard having indiscreetly fired at them as they were going 
 into the water, they retreated, and made no further attempt at 
 that point. 
 
 With a view to meet the enemy, Captain Karnes was sent 
 over the river with one hundred and fifty troops, fifty of whom 
 were mounted, with orders to station the foot in a ravine par- 
 allel to the route to the Mexican camp ; then to proceed with 
 the mounted force, to draw out the enemy, and retreat. The 
 orders were obeyed : the Mexicans fired a discharge of grape 
 at the Texan cavalry, but did not advance. Karnes, not deem- 
 ing it prudent to march nearer against so large a force, re- 
 crossed the river without effecting anything. 
 
 Appendix I. — No. 25. 
 
Houston’s retreat — his reasons. 
 
 113 
 
 It was the intention of the Texan commander to cross over 
 at Beason’s on the night of the 27th of March with all his force 
 except a camp-guard, and attack the enemy on the south and 
 east of his camp. But, on the evening of the 25th, Peter Kerr 
 brought the disastrous though not altogether unexpected nows 
 of the defeat and surrender of Fannin and his command at the 
 Coleta, and the capitulation of Ward and his forces near Dim- 
 itt’s landing. This intelligence was most unfortunate, and 
 produced a chilling effect upon the army. To allay in some 
 degree its effects, Kerr was arrested and placed under guard, 
 as a publisher of false news, and a spy. This, together with 
 the fact that the artillery expected had not arrived ; that the 
 check already given to Sesma had doubtless induced him to 
 send for reinforcements ; that the defeat of Fannin would leave 
 Urrea at liberty to come to the relief of Sesma ; that the de- 
 feat of the advance under the latter would serve only to con- 
 centrate the Mexican army, which, with its various corps thus 
 united, could overrun Texas in spite of the force then in the 
 field to resist it — these considerations induced the Texan com- 
 mander to retreat, hoping for a more favorable occasion to de- 
 cide the fortunes of the infant republic in a battle. It was his 
 policy to keep the enemy divided, and, when the blow was 
 given, to strike at a vital part. The small army under his 
 command was the last hope of Texas, and the prize too impor- 
 tant to be hazarded without a certainty of success. 
 
 In announcing this retreat to the government, General Hous- 
 ton says : “ I held no councils of war. If I err, the blame is 
 mine.”* That reinforcements would arrive, he had every rea- 
 son to expect. The government, having reached Harrisburg 
 on the 22d, informed him the next day that “ orders were in 
 execution for the mustering into service of two thirds of the 
 
 * Appendix L — No. 30. 
 
 VOL. II.— 8 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 militia of the country. “ These,” said the secretary of war, 
 “ with the aid from the United States, will, if you can hold the 
 enemy in check long enough for their concentration, present 
 an insurmountable barrier to the progress of the enemy into 
 the country.” — “One great object should be,” observes the 
 secretary of war, in a letter of the same date, “ to hold him in 
 check until reinforcements and supplies can reach you. Every 
 means has been put into requisition for the purpose of forward- 
 ing on both.” 
 
 On the evening of the 26th, the army commenced the retreat 
 in good order. It was, however, a subject of regret that the 
 houses of Messrs. Burnham and Dewees, on the left bank of 
 the Colorado, were burnt by the Texan picket-guard, on the 
 approach of the enemy. The Texan forces, after a march of 
 five miles, halted for the night at a lake in the prairie. As 
 they left the woods skirting the Colorado, they were reinforced 
 by the three companies of Captains Amasa Turner, William S. 
 Fisher, and Richard Roman, under the command of Major John 
 Forbes of the staff, who, after untiring exertions, and the cheer- 
 ful aid of the people on the route, had succeeded in conducting 
 them safely from the mouth of the Brasos. Never was a rein- 
 forcement more welcome. The companies, however, were small, 
 the aggregate being only one hundred and thirty men. On the 
 27th, the army resumed its march, and reached the timbers of 
 the Brasos ; and, on the 28th, it arrived at San Felipe, on the 
 west bank of that river. 
 
 To provide for the protection of the new line of defence, 
 Colonel Edward Harcourt was ordered to proceed to Yelasco, 
 or some eligible position on the coast or below Columbia, and 
 fortify it, having placed at his disposal such resources as he 
 could find there. Captain Mosely Baker was directed to take 
 post with his command on the east bank of the Brasos, oppo- 
 
MOVEMENTS OF THE TEXAN ARMY. 
 
 115 
 
 site San Felipe, and obstruct the passage of the enemy. All 
 troops coming from below were ordered to fall back to the 
 Brasos ;* at the same time, Colonel A. Huston was directed 
 to remove the public stores from Coxe’s point to Galveston 
 bay, and Colonel J. Morgan to defend the island. f 
 
 At San Felipe some discontent arose as to the future move- 
 ments of the army, some wishing to march below and others 
 up the river. The commander-in-chief proceeded up the Bra- 
 sos, and, crossing Mill creek, encamped. The rains had set 
 in, and the roads became exceedingly bad, and marching toil- 
 some to the troops. It rained all night. The soldiers, having 
 but few tents or coverings, suffered severely. The commander- 
 in-chief spent the night sitting on his saddle, with a blanket 
 over him, and his feet on a piece of wood.J 
 
 On the evening of the 31st of March, after a most fatiguing 
 march, the Texans reached the Brasos timber opposite Groce’s. 
 Here they encamped in a secure position, having excellent wa- 
 ter in a lake immediately in advance of them, and within three 
 fourths of a mile of the timber. The steamboat 44 Yellowstone,” 
 Captain Ross, then at Groce's ferry, and nearly loaded with 
 
 * Orders to Harcourt and Baker, March 28, 1836. Letter of Captain M. W. 
 Smith, March 28, 1836. In pursuance of the last-named order, Captain Smith 
 took post at Thompson’s ferry, at Fort Bend. 
 
 f Rusk to Houston, March 28, 1836. 
 
 \ With few exceptions, neither officers nor men had any tents during that 
 severe campaign. Houston’s baggage consisted of a pair of saddle-wallets, car- 
 ried by his servant, and containing his official papers and a change of linen. As 
 to a military chest, ihe army had none at all. The only moneys used by the 
 general during the campaign were two hundred dollars of his own private funds. 
 As an incident of those times, while the army was crossing the Colorado, a wo- 
 man was found sitting with another female on a log near the river. Her hus- 
 band had fallen in the Alamo ; she had no resources, no protector, or means of 
 conveyance. Houston, learning her condition, furnished her out of his slender 
 means fifty dollars. He saw no more of her. In after-years, when Texas had 
 become a state of the American Union, she wrote to him, stating that she had 
 laid out his donation in the purchase of cattle, the increase of which had made 
 her family independent 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 cotton, was pressed into the public service, and was afterward 
 found to be 'almost indispensable. On the 31st, the soldiers 
 buried the only one of their comrades who died a natural death 
 during the campaign. After remaining a day at this point, the 
 army marched into the Brasos “ bottom,” nearer the river, 
 where it remained until the 13th of April. The river having 
 overflowed its banks, the water surrounded them, and left them 
 on an island. 
 
 On the 2d of April, Colonel Zavala joined the camp, bring- 
 ing information that a visit might soon be expected from Colo- 
 nel Busk, the secretary of war. About the same time, eighty 
 volunteers from the Red-river lands arrived. Houston was oc- 
 cupied for some days in reorganizing his army, and restoring 
 it to that discipline and round of camp-duty which had been 
 somewhat neglected during the retreat from the Colorado. At 
 San Felipe, on the 29th of March, on the supposed approach of 
 the Mexicans, the citizens fired the town, and burnt it to ashes. 
 This, though without orders, was only anticipating the enemy.* 
 
 While the Texan army was lying in the Brasos bottom, 
 Houston, through the spies, learned the movements of the ene- 
 my. A more efficient corps of spies was never attached to 
 any army. They hung about the enemy’s camp, and watched 
 all his movements.! Yet it is somewhat remarkable that the 
 
 * Appendix I. — *-No. 36. 
 
 f Deaf Smith went out one day, early in April, in search of the enemy. His 
 sight had become dim, and, for better observation, he took with him young 
 Chenowith. The Mexicans had collected a large number of cattle, and sent 
 them on in advance of their army, in the direction of San Felipe. The spies 
 came in sight of them, and Smith, relying upon Chenowith’s eyes, returned and 
 reported a large number of the enemy as an advanced guard. This produced 
 quite an excitement in the Texan camp, until the arrival of “Jim Wells,” who, 
 having better eyes and less fancy, reported them truly. Deaf Smith was much 
 hurt, and declared that Chenowith should go with him no more. As a 6py, 
 Smith was inimitable. He rode a good horse, and had the faith to believe that 
 no other steed could keep up with him. But, if overtaken, he would turn and 
 fight, and with a coolness, courage, and judgment, that were irresistible. 
 
MOVEMENTS OF SANTA ANNA. 
 
 m 
 
 Texans did not certainly ascertain, until the night of the 19th 
 of April, that Santa Anna was with the invading army. 
 
 Colonel Rusk, the secretary of war, left Harrisburg on the 
 1st of April, to join the army. Previous to his departure, he 
 issued a last strong appeal to the people of Texas to march to 
 the defence of the country.* His arrival in camp was most 
 welcome, for he was a safe adviser, and a firm and able friend 
 of Texas in her struggle. 
 
 We now return to the operations of the enemy. It will be 
 remembered that Santa Anna had directed a general movement 
 of his forces in the direction of San Felipe. Had he persevered 
 in this combination, it would have been well for him ; but past 
 victories, a flying enemy, and an impatience to hear any opin- 
 ion contrary to his own,f inspired him with a false confidence, 
 which ended only in his ruin. General Sesma succeeded, four 
 days after the retreat of Houston from the Colorado, in trans- 
 porting a portion of his army across that river. Of this fact 
 he adyised Santa Anna, at the same time giving him notice that 
 the river was greatly swollen, and the means of crossing it very 
 scarce. On the 2d of April, Santa Anna arrived at the Gua- 
 dalupe, which he found likewise very high. He immediately 
 crossed, with his staff and a picket of cavalry, on a raft ; and, 
 leaving General Filisola to attend to the passage of the remain- 
 der of the army, he hurried on to join General Sesma, at the 
 Colorado. On the 5th of April, he reached the Atasco sito 
 crossing of that river. Here he directed General Woll to re- 
 main and construct rafts for transporting across the stream the 
 artillery, wagons, and forces, under Filisola, and, with the di- 
 vision under Sesma and Tolsa, proceeded to San Felipe, where 
 he arrived on the 7th of April.:): 
 
 * Address of the Secretary of War, March 31, 1836. 
 
 f Filisola’s Defence, p. 11. \ lb. 
 
118 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 On the 2d of April, Houston sent out Major Patton with a 
 detachment to reconnoitre the enemy. On the 3d, he rein- 
 forced Captain Mosely Baker with Captain Kimbrough’s com- 
 mand, and directed Captain Baker to require all persons at his 
 camp to enroll themselves as volunteers, and none to leave it 
 without express permission.* These were strong measures, 
 but the emergency was pressing. 
 
 About this time, the idea began to prevail, not only in the 
 Texan camp, but with the government at Harrisburg, that the 
 enemy would not cross the Brasos, but would attempt to fall 
 down and get possession of the coast and seaports. To meet 
 this state of things, orders were given through Colonel A. 
 Huston, quartermaster-general, and Colonel W. D. C. Hall, 
 to remove all the stores and munitions from Coxe’s point, Mat- 
 agorda, Velasco, Bell’s landing, and Columbia, to the east end 
 of Galveston island. The means of doing this were quite lim- 
 ited, for all the vessels had been engaged by merchants and 
 emigrants who were retiring with their effects. f 
 
 The extent of alarm and confusion arising from the flight of 
 the citizens was at this time most distressing. Samuel P. Car- 
 son, the secretary of the navy, writing to President Burnett 
 from Liberty, says : “ I have issued orders to two different 
 persons — one for Trinity and one for the Neches — to press 
 boats, Ac., to aid the people in crossing. The panic has 
 reached this place, and the people are all leaving Trinity from 
 the opposite (west) side, and preparations making by many on 
 this. The river is rising rapidly, and I fear by to-night it will 
 be impassable for any kind of carriage. The ‘ slues’ on this 
 side are belly-deep. There must be three hundred families — 
 
 * Order to William H. Patton, April 2, 1836. — Army Orders, April 8 , 1836. 
 f Letter of A. Huston, April 1 , 1836. Letter of Captain J. M. Allen, March 
 31, 1886. 
 
THE PANIC — FLIGHT OF CITIZENS. 
 
 119 
 
 I know not the number of wagons, carts, carriages, &c. De- 
 struction pervades the whole country. I must speak plainly — 
 the relations existing between us, and the responsibility which 
 rests on us, make it my duty. Never till I reached Trinity 
 have I desponded — I will not say, despaired. If Houston has 
 retreated, or been whipped, nothing can save the people from 
 themselves : their own conduct has brought this calamity on 
 them ! If Houston retreats, the flying people may be covered 
 in their escape. He must be advised of the state of the waters, 
 and the impossibility of the people crossing.”* 
 
 At the same time, Captain Morehouse, with a detachment of 
 volunteers and regulars, was conducting a number of families 
 from Matagorda to Columbia. In fact, on every road leading 
 eastward in Texas, were found men, women, and children, 
 moving through the country over swollen streams and muddy 
 roads, strewing the way with their property, crying for aid, 
 and exposed to the fierce northers and rains of spring. The 
 scene was distressing indeed; and, being witnessed by the 
 small but faithful army of Texans, whose wives and families 
 they were, thus exposed and suffering, nerved their arms and 
 hearts for the contest then not distant. 
 
 It was on the 7th of April that Major Wylie Martin re- 
 ceived, through his spies, indirect information that Santa Anna 
 was with the advancing army of the enemy. This intelligence 
 was immediately sent from Martin’s camp (on the east bank 
 of the Brasos, opposite Fort Bend) to Houston. f From all the 
 discoveries that could be made through the spies, Houston be- 
 lieved that the enemy had crossed the Brasos below his posi- 
 tion, and so expressed himself to Secretary Rusk, suggesting 
 
 * Letter of April 4th. Transmitted to Houston by the acting secretary of 
 •war, by order of the president 
 
 f The information was given by a free negro, by the name of "Wilson. Mar- 
 tin’s letter, April 7 1836; Almont6’s Journal, April 9. 
 
120 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the propriety of crossing likewise.* Colonel Rusk concurred 
 in this view ; and the passage accordingly commenced at ten 
 o’clock on the morning of the 12th. The river being very 
 high, the steamboat “ Yellowstone” and the yawl were the only 
 means of transporting the army, cattle, and baggage. By one 
 o’clock in the afternoon of the 13th, all was safely landed on 
 the eastern bank, and the troops took position at Groce’s. 
 
 The conclusion that the enemy had crossed the Brasos was 
 correct. Santa Anna, arriving at San Felipe on the 7th, en- 
 deavored to pass the river at that point ; but he was received 
 with such determined resistance by Captain Mosely Baker and 
 his command, that, after contending for two days, he aban- 
 doned the attempt, and set out with four companies of infantry 
 and fifty cavalry in search of another crossing. It was on the 
 evening of the 9th that they left San Felipe. After a march 
 of sixteen miles, they reached the San Bernard a little after 
 midnight, and sent out a scout to reconnoitre the ferry at Fort 
 Bend. The scout having returned, Santa Anna again proceed- 
 ed on his march, and arrived at nine o’clock, on the night of 
 the 10th, in the neighborhood of Fort Bend. At two o’clock 
 on the following morning, the Mexicans set out again, all on 
 foot — leaving their cavalry and baggage behind — to surprise 
 the guard at the river before daylight ; but, mistaking the dis- 
 
 * The following order shows that the enemy’s arrival at San Felipe was im- 
 mediately known in the Texan camp: — 
 
 “ IIeadquakteks of the Army, Camp west of Brasos, April 7, 1836. 
 
 “Army Orders. — The advance of the enemy is at San Felipe. The moment, 
 for which we have waited with anxiety .and interest, is fast approaching. The 
 victims of the Alamo, and the manes of those who were murdered at Goliad, 
 call for cool , deliberate vengeance. Strict discipline, order, and subordination, 
 will insure us the victory. 
 
 “ The army will be in readiness for action at a moment’s warning. The field- 
 officers have the immediate execution of this order in charge for their respective 
 commands. 
 
 “SAM HOUSTON, Commander-in- Chief. 
 
 “ George W. Hockley, Inspector- General.” 
 
GROSSING OF THE BRASOS. 
 
 121 
 
 tance, the early dawn found them a mile from the river. Thus 
 frustrated, Santa Anna placed his men in ambush. 
 
 On the 12th, shortly after sunrise, the enemy appeared in 
 force opposite the camp of Major Wylie Martin, at Thompson’s 
 ferry. They opened a heavy fire on the small force of forty- 
 six men on the east bank, which continued until the afternoon. 
 Very early on the 12th, Martin had sent three men to Morton’s 
 crossing, to sink a small boat which had been left for the use 
 of five families there. Before they arrived, a negro had taken 
 the boat and crossed over to the western bank. The negro, 
 was captured by the enemy, and conducted them to the boat. 
 A sufficient number of Mexicans having passed over to disperse 
 the families there, did so after a short contest. Major Martin, 
 hearing the firing, despatched Lieutenant Jones with ten men 
 to learn the cause. By the time they reached there, one hun- 
 dred and fifty of the enemy had effected a crossing. Thus 
 Major Martin, being overpowered, retreated toward the main 
 army.* Having possession of the ferry, Santa Anna sent an 
 express to Sesma to advance to that point. 
 
 Houston had given orders that all the means of crossing 
 along the river should be secured or sunk, and that all the 
 cattle should be driven to the east side ; believing that, by thus 
 delaying the Mexicans, they would fall short of provisions. 
 Such, in fact, was the case, as the advance had only half ra- 
 
 * Report of Major Martin, April 13, 1836. The Mexican account of this affair 
 is somewhat different. In fact, as the small boat was concealed above Morton’s 
 ferry, there is little doubt but, as Almonte states, some of the enemy crossed in 
 it, and slept on the left bank of the river on the 11th, without being discovered. 
 When the enemy reached San Felipe, Almonte rode up in advance, and called 
 out to the Texans on the east side, “Bring over that boat — the Mexicans are 
 coming!” This was said in good English; and the enemy cannonaded Baker’s 
 breastworks for some time, but still did not get the boat. — Memoranda of Rev. 
 A. J. M'Gown, It was a successful ruse on the part of the Mexicans to keep up 
 a firing at Thompson’s ferry, while they were crossing at Morton’s, three miles 
 distant 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 tions of bread. On the 11th of April, the effective force of 
 the Texan army was five hundred and twenty- three men, ex- 
 clusive of detachments at the different crossings. When it was 
 ascertained that the enemy had passed the river, orders were 
 immediately sent to all these detachments to concentrate at 
 Donoho’s, three miles from Groce’s, on the 16th. It was at 
 Donoho’s that the road from Groce’s to Harrisburg crossed 
 that from San Felipe to eastern Texas. 
 
 Affairs had now reached a crisis, as was obvious to all. 
 That a conflict would soon occur was devoutly desired, per- 
 haps by the enemy as well as the Texans. Santa Anna, hav- 
 ing crossed the Brasos at Fort Bend, proceeded, on the 14th 
 of April, with a force amounting to a little over seven hundred 
 men, and one twelve-pounder, on the road to Harrisburg,* 
 where he arrived on the 15th. f 
 
 On the day that Santa Anna reached Harrisburg, his army 
 was sufficiently scattered for its destruction in detail. Urrea 
 was at Matagorda, with some twelve hundred men ; Gaona 
 lost in the country between Bastrop and San Felipe, with seven 
 hundred and twenty-five ; Sesma at Fort Bend, with about one 
 thousand ; and Filisola between San Felipe and Fort Bend, 
 with nearly eighteen hundred more. These, with the excep- 
 tion of the troops stationed in Bexar, Goliad, Copano, Mata- 
 gorda, Ac., constituted the force of the enemy in Texas — 
 numbering originally about seven thousand five hundred men, 
 but reduced by killed and disabled to some five thousand five 
 hundred. 
 
 When information was received of the enemy having crossed 
 the Brasos, it was not known but they would advance on the 
 
 * Filisola’s Defence, p. 1 1. 
 
 t Almonte’s Journal. Filisola Bays on the 16th; but as Almont6 was with 
 Santa Anna, and kept a diary, he ought to know. 
 
THE “TWIN-SISTERS” — THEIR HISTORY. 123 
 
 road from San Felipe to eastern Texas ;* hence the concentra- 
 tion of the Texan force at Donoho’s. 
 
 As the Texans were crossing the Brasos, they were rein- 
 forced by two six-pounders, known as the “ Twin- Sisters.” 
 These notable pieces of artillery, for the good they did in the 
 cause of Texan independence, deserve some further notice. 
 A meeting was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1835, for the pur- 
 pose of aiding Texas in her struggle. On the suggestion of 
 Robert F. Lyttle, it was concluded to furnish these two pieces 
 of “ hollow ware.” A committee was chosen to carry out the 
 resolution ; and through the instrumentality of William M. 
 Corry, Willis Tatan, Pulaski Smith, David Bolles, and others, 
 the cannon were manufactured, mounted, supplied with shot at 
 the foundry of Messrs. Greenwood and Webb, and despatched 
 to New Orleans ; thence, by the Texan agents, to Brasoria. 
 To this point General Houston sent twice for them ; but the 
 want of means for transportation, the wretched condition of 
 the roads, and ultimately the proximity of the enemy, made it 
 hazardous to forward them by that route. They were then 
 shipped by Colonel A. Huston, the quartermaster-general, on 
 board the schooner “ Pennsylvania” to Galveston island, and 
 thence to Harrisburg. At this place, horses were pressed to 
 haul them, and they were started on the 9th of April, under 
 care of Captain Smith, to the army.f They were placed in 
 
 * “ Fobt Bend, April 8 , 1836 . 
 
 “ This very moment two men arrived from toward San Felipe, who say the 
 enemy must be, by this time, in that town, in full force. They state that one 
 division of the enemy has passed above, pointing the head of their column for 
 Nacogdoches; the other column below, aiming for Matagorda.” — Major Wylie 
 Martin to General Houston. 
 
 \ Letter of A. Huston, April 1, 1836. Letter of David Thomas, acting sec- 
 retary of war, April 10, 1836. Letter of Elijah Slack, March 23, 1854. Captain 
 Smith was a brother-in-law of Colonel Rusk. It is said the Twin-Sisters are 
 now at Baton Rouge, in the service of the United States. Texas ought to have 
 them, and could doubtless obtain them by asking. 
 
124 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 charge of Colonel Hockley, who kept them in efficient order. 
 Texas will never cease to be grateful to Cincinnati for that 
 valuable present. 
 
 It is proper here to state, in order to bring up the current 
 of events in this busy period of Texan history, that the authori- 
 ties had managed, through the kindness of good friends, to 
 pick up a small navy of three vessels, viz. : the Invincible, Cap- 
 tain L. Brown ; the Brutus , Captain Hurd ; and the Indepen- 
 dence, Captain Hawkins. These vessels were not idle, but 
 were of infinite service to Texas in preventing the enemy from 
 receiving supplies. In the first days of April the Invincible 
 sailed on a cruise off Brasos Santiago, and fell in with the 
 Montezuma , Captain Thompson. After a fight of two hours, 
 the Mexican vessel was driven on shore, and left in a sinking 
 condition. After repairing his rigging (the only injury he re- 
 ceived), Captain Brown stood out from the harbor, and fell in 
 with the brig Pocket, from New Orleans to Matamoras, freighted 
 with flour, lard, rice, and biscuit, for the Mexican army, under 
 contract with a house in the former city. The Pocket was 
 brought into Galveston. From letters found on board, it was 
 ascertained that Santa Anna’s object was to secure the sea- 
 ports, and place a thousand men on Galveston island.* All 
 this information was communicated to Houston about the time 
 he crossed the Brasos river. This intelligence, and the near 
 approach of the enemy, determined the government to fortify 
 Galveston island. For this purpose, several pieces of artillery 
 were brought from the seaports south ; and the Independence 
 was detained in the bay to aid in commencing the work. The 
 citizens there volunteered their assistance, and placed them- 
 selves under the command of Colonel Morgan. 
 
 The acting secretary of war, in his letter to the commander- 
 
 * Letters of David Thomas, acting Secretary of War, April 7 and 8, 1836. 
 
THE MEXICAN AND TEXAN ARMIES — A CONTRAST. 125 
 
 in-chief of the 12th of April, after referring to the fact that the 
 enemy had crossed the Brasos at Fort Bend, says : “ There is 
 nothing to stop his march to this place [Harrisburg], or Gal- 
 veston, in twenty-four hours. There are a number of families 
 here and in the neighborhood, who came here under the belief 
 that they would be safe, who are now exposed to the attack of 
 the enemy. You have assured the government that the enemy 
 should never cross the Brasos : they have relied on your assu- 
 rance, but they find your pledges not verified, and numberless 
 families exposed to the ravages of the enemy. The country 
 expects something from you ; the government looks to you for 
 action. The time has now arrived to determine whether we 
 are to give up the country, and make the best of our way out 
 of it, or to meet the enemy, and make at least one struggle for 
 our boasted independence. The government does not intend 
 to control your movements ; but it is expected that, without 
 delay, you will take measures to check those of the enemy. ,, 
 
 This letter was received by the commander-in-chief on the 
 13th, at a moment when he was pressed by business, and ma- 
 king his arrangements for offensive operations. He, however, 
 considered the taunts and suggestions in the secretary’s letter 
 as gratuitous, because he was harassed with difficulties which 
 the government could not appreciate. His answer, under the 
 circumstances, was mild,* and went into a summary of past 
 events. There was hardly a time during the campaign when 
 the enemy’s force was not ten times as great as his own — a 
 well-appointed army, composed mostly of veteran troops, sup- 
 plied with artillery, arms, and munitions, and commanded by 
 a general who, up to that period, had never known defeat. 
 The Texan army, on the contrary, was a hasty collection of 
 farmers, paid and fed upon promises, poorly armed, and with 
 
 * Appendix I. — No. 42. 
 
126 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 every variety of weapon, and up to that time without a single 
 piece of artillery. Add to this that their wives and children, 
 objects dear to them, were homeless wanderers — flying, with- 
 out food or shelter, unprotected by the stalwart arm of their 
 natural defenders from the ravages of a barbarous foe — and 
 we must admire the sagacity and address that kept so many 
 of them together so long. Half a generation has passed away 
 since that campaign, and a thinking world, which in the end 
 always comes to a just conclusion, has stamped its progress 
 and termination as heroic. 
 
 Complaints have been made of the apathy of eastern Texas, 
 as though the people of that section did not love their country 
 as well as those of the west. We should first look at their 
 condition, and have the same understanding of affairs that they 
 did, before we condemn. It was known to them that General 
 Gaona, with a well-appointed division of the Mexican army, 
 was on his way to Nacogdoches, with orders from Santa Anna 
 to shoot all who were taken with arms in their hands, and to 
 drive the others out of the country. His route lay along the 
 frontiers, passing the Trinity at the upper or Camanche cros- 
 sing.* The order directing him to change his course to San 
 Felipe was unknown to the Texans. The country through 
 which he marched was thronged with Indians, already stirred 
 up by the emissaries of the Mexicans, and naturally disposed 
 to join them ; for it is to the credit of the latter that they had 
 ever excelled the Americans in kindness toward the aboriginal 
 tribes. Of their motive for this we need not stop to inquire. 
 The people of eastern Texas, then, felt that their danger was 
 imminent. This apparent danger was increased by the threats 
 
 * In old times, there were three well-known crossings on the Trinity: first, 
 the upper crossing, at the present town of Magnolia — the oldest road in Texas; 
 second, the middle crosoing, at Robbins’s ferry, established in 1689, by De Leon; 
 and, third, the lower crossing, at Liberty, established in 1806. 
 
INDIAN HOSTILITIES APPREHENDED. 
 
 127 
 
 and movements of the Indians. To ascertain the facts, the 
 committee of vigilance at Nacogdoches despatched agents to 
 the Indians. C. H. Sims and William Sims, who were sent to 
 the Cherokees, reported them to be hostile, and making prepa- 
 rations for war; that they were drying beef and preparing 
 meal, and said they were about sending off their women and 
 children ; that they had murdered Brooks Williams, an Ameri- 
 can trader among them ; that they said a large body of Indians, 
 composed of Caddoes, Keechies, Ionies, Twowokanies, Wa- 
 coes, and Camanches, were expected to attack the American 
 settlements ; that the Cherokees gave every indication of join- 
 ing them ; that the number of warriors embodied on the Trinity 
 was estimated at seventeen hundred ; and that Bolles, the prin- 
 cipal Cherokee chief, advised the agents to leave the country, 
 as there was danger. M. B. Menard, who was sent to the 
 Shawanee, Delaware, and Kickapoo tribes, reported that, while 
 these tribes were friendly, they had been visited by Bolles, who 
 urged them to take up arms against the Americans.* 
 
 With these facts before them, the committee of vigilance and 
 the people of Nacogdoches were ready to credit the rumor that 
 the combined Mexicans and Indians were already within a few 
 miles of the town. On the 9th of April, the alcalde , Hoffman, 
 ordered every able-bodied Mexican, within the municipality of 
 Nacogdoches, to take up the line of march to the army within 
 ten days, or to cross the Sabine. The companies of Captains 
 Ratliff, Smith, and Chesher, on their way to the army, were 
 detained, to aid in protecting the place. f Such was the sup- 
 posed emergency, that horses were pressed into the public 
 service for the use of the civic forces. Judge Quitman, with 
 
 * Depositions of William Sims, C. II. SimB, and M. B. Menard, taken before 
 Henry Raguet, chairman of the committee of vigilance, April 11, 1836. 
 t Order of R. A. Irion, commandant of the municipality, April 14, 1836. 
 
128 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 a few companions, coming into the town, was called upon to 
 give his aid in protecting the families on their way to the Sa- 
 bine, which he cheerfully agreed to do.* 
 
 In answer to Houston’s strong appeal to the people of east- 
 ern Texas to turn out and hasten to his assistance, three com- 
 panies, commanded by Captains Ratliff, Smith, and Chesher, 
 with an aggregate of two hundred and twenty men, were ready 
 to set out on the march for headquarters as early as the 9th 
 of April ; but on account of the supposed pressing danger at 
 Nacogdoches, as previously mentioned, they were detained till 
 the 16th before they marched. In a few days more, a like 
 number were ready to leave. But all this aid was too late. 
 “ The citizens of Nacogdoches,” says Henry Raguet, chairman 
 of the committee of vigilance, under ddte of the 17th of April, 
 “ were induced to believe, only a few days since, that the ene- 
 my in large force was within a few miles of this place. Under 
 this belief, the volunteer companies, commanded by Captains 
 Chesher, Ratliff, and Smith, were detained until yesterday. In 
 addition to the cause above stated, Rumor, with her thousand 
 tongues, had created the belief that the Mexicans of this muni- 
 cipality were embodying themselves for the purpose of attack- 
 ing the Americans. This committee have taken every means 
 in their power to allay the panic, and, if possible, to bring men 
 to their sober senses. When the committee found themselves 
 
 * Judge Quitman’s letter is as follows : — 
 
 “Half-Mile fbom Town. 
 
 “ To the Officers in command at Nacogdoches : 
 
 “Gentlemen: I am here, with sixteen tolerably well-armed men. We are 
 on a tour of observation only, but ready to assist in the retreat of your women 
 and children. It would be, in tny opinion, without any good result to stand 
 against vastly superior numbers in defence of the town. If you will join us with 
 all your armed force, we will aid you in covering the retreat of your families to 
 the Sabine. Let us hear of your determination as soon as possible. 
 
 "Respectfully, John A. Quitman.” 
 This letter was written about the 12th of April. 
 
NON-FULFILMENT OF PLEDGES. 
 
 129 
 
 in possession of the facts in relation to the disaffection of the 
 Mexicans, they took prompt measures to prevent a rupture, 
 which threatened serious consequences to the welfare and 
 safety of our citizens ; and they are happy to state that the 
 difficulty has been most happily terminated.” 
 
 Thus the affairs in eastern Texas had disappointed the gov- 
 ernment as well as the commander-in-chief : for, if the latter 
 had made pledges that were not verified, the government had 
 done the same. The levy of two thirds of the militia never 
 came. The supply of arms, provisions, Ac., only reached the 
 Texan army after it had crossed the Brasos. While neither 
 possessed the power of ubiquity and omnipotence, neither could 
 be responsible for matters beyond their control. It is perhaps 
 enough to say — and truth will justify so much — that, under 
 all the circumstances, both parties did what they could for 
 their adopted country. She was poor : her people were poor 
 — and not only so, but deeply distressed. Their affairs were 
 such, and so dark was the cloud hanging over them, that they 
 could not afford merely to check the enemy : it was essential 
 that he should be whipped. Texas could not survive two bat- 
 tles : the work had to be done in one, and well done.* 
 
 Among other difficulties with which Texas had to contend 
 was the presence of a considerable number of persons of no 
 country or sympathy — treacherous to all — who were busily 
 engaged in spreading alarm, and increasing the public confu- 
 
 * “ After the army had crossed the Brasos, the companies below, in pursuance 
 of orders, joined the main body at Donoho’s. Houston rode along their linep, 
 and, in a short address, said that ‘ he had been blamed by some because the 
 Texans were not permitted to meet the enemy ; but that, so soon as circum- 
 stances would permit it to be done to advantage, we should have it to our sat- 
 isfaction.’ I remember it well, from the fact that there was in the ranks a large 
 man, by the name of Harman, celebrated for his good nature and good humor, 
 who, in answer to this speech, said, ‘General, let it be an easy-going fight 1’” — 
 Memoranda of Rev. A. J. M'Goicn. 
 
 Vol. II. — 9 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sion. To this list should be added a class of a still worse char- 
 acter, who fattened upon the stolen plunder of the flying inhab- 
 itants. Then there were others, in the Mexican interest, who 
 were spies in the Texan ranks. Of these several classes, many 
 arrests were made, and their persons secured until the danger 
 was over. It is not unlikely that some were thus confined who 
 ought not to have been. Among those arrested was Colonel 
 Ellis P. Bean. He had been appointed a member of the com- 
 mittee of vigilance of Nacogdoches, but, as it appears, took no 
 part in their affairs. At the beginning of the war, in the fall 
 of 1835, he had applied to Colonel John Forbes to place him 
 in arrest, the better to enable him to draw his pay as colonel 
 in the Mexican army ; but Colonel Forbes declined to do so, 
 unless for some offence. It appears that in April, 1836, some 
 report had come into circulation relative to an alleged corre- 
 spondence of Bean with the enemy, which induced the secre- 
 tary of war to order his arrest. As the truth of the report 
 was very questionable, he was ordered into custody, and de- 
 tained only as a Mexican officer and alien of the republic.* 
 But when the enemy retreated, nothing further was heard on 
 the subject. 
 
 * Houston’s order to D. A. Hoffman, for the arrest of Colonel E. P. Bean, 
 April 13, 1836. There is little doubt but Bean’s real feelings were in favor of 
 the Texans. In 1833, while he was commandant at Nacogdoches, he addressed 
 the following letter to Houston : — 
 
 “ February 4 , 1833 . 
 
 “ From the Commander of Nacogdoches : 
 
 “As it appears that it is the wish of the citizens of this country that you 
 should be a member of the committee [the convention of 1833 he refers to], to 
 form this eastern part into a state — formerly governed by Coahuila — I feel 
 myself willing to support you so far as my military orders will permit me to do. 
 
 “Your obedient servant, F. P. BEAN. 
 
 General Houston.’ 
 
THE TEXANS ADVANCE TO MEET SANTA ANNA. 131 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 As has been stated, Santa Anna, at the head of more than 
 seven hundred men, with a twelve-pounder, reached Harris- 
 burg on the 15th of April. The last communication from the 
 war department at that town was dated on the 14th. The 
 president and vice-president had gone to look after their fami- 
 lies on the 13th ; Colonel Potter had been for some time at 
 Galveston, attending to the affairs of the navy ; Colonel Rusk 
 was in the army ; the secretary of state had been some time 
 sick, east of the Trinity : so that the attorney-general and sec- 
 retary of the treasury were the only cabinet officers left at the 
 seat of government.* 
 
 As to his future course, the commander-in-chief had kept his 
 own counsel. He had already notified the army to be in readi- 
 ness for action ; and Colonel Rusk, with whom he advised and 
 consulted in all matters, gave notice, in his proclamation of 
 the 13th of April, that the Texans had taken up the line of 
 march to meet the enemy : yet the determination of the com- 
 mander-in-chief was only known to the secretary of war. On 
 the morning of the 15th, Major Martin and his command, being 
 worn out and exhausted with fatigue, were directed to conduct 
 the families, that were flying from the seat of war, to Robbins’s 
 ferry ; while the main army, augmented by the detachments 
 
 * David Thomas to Sam Houston, April 14, 1886. 
 
132 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that had come in, set out rapidly for Harrisburg. The prairies 
 were wet, filled with quicksands, and almost impassable. The 
 prospect was gloomy indeed, and the troops were much dispir- 
 ited ; yet they were encouraged in seeing the commander-in- 
 chief put his shoulder to the wheels to assist the wagons 
 through the mud. On that day they marched entirely through 
 the prairie, and encamped at Mrs. M‘Carely’s, at the first tim- 
 ber. As the army left Donoho’s, a negro, who had been cap- 
 tured and then released by the enemy, brought General Hous- 
 ton a message from Santa Anna, to the effect that “ he knew 
 Mr. Houston was up there in the bushes ; and, so soon as he 
 had whipped the land-thieves, down there, out of the country, 
 he would come up and smoke him out !” 
 
 There was at that time a considerable number of disaffected 
 persons on the coast, east of the San Jacinto; and it was an 
 important object with Houston not to allow the Mexicans to 
 have communication with them, as they would thereby obtain 
 supplies of provisions and gain information. They would also, 
 by such means, be enabled to control the Indians on the lower 
 Trinity. With a view to anticipate any intercourse between 
 the enemy and these Indians, Houston had engaged Messrs. 
 Hubert and Rankin, Indian agents, to sound the Cooshattics 
 on the question of giving the Texans aid. They promised to 
 furnish ninety warriors. Just before the army set out for Har- 
 risburg, the commander-in-chief sent Captain Jacob H. Shep- 
 pard with a “ talk” to the Indians, and an order to the agents 
 to bring on the warriors.* It is sufficient to say here, that the 
 Indians wished to see which side was successful before they 
 
 * Notes of J. H. Sheppard. Captain Sheppard says: “Just as I was leaving 
 the general’s quarters, I said, ‘Where will I find you, general?’ He said: ‘Tell 
 all the people you may see, captain, that I am determined to fight, the first 
 chanco ; and, if I should meet with a reverse, I will be sure to make noise enough 
 for you and the Indians to follow me.”* 
 
CAPTURE OF A MEXICAN COURIER. 133 
 
 turned out. But if the enemy had succeeded in opening an 
 intercourse with the Indians, they might have rallied every 
 tribe in eastern Texas, and thus surrounded and cut off the 
 small army under Houston ; and not only so, but closed the 
 Texas campaign with a tragedy more bloody than the one with 
 which it opened. 
 
 To prevent this disastrous result, a forced march was made 
 by the Texans from Donoho’s to Harrisburg. They reached 
 the bayou, opposite the town, on the 18th, a little before noon. 
 Here they remained that day, partly to rest — for they were 
 greatly fatigued — and partly to procure information. Deaf 
 Smith, Karnes, and others, were sent over to reconnoitre. The 
 former, about dark, brought into the camp two captives whom 
 he had taken on the road leading west from Harrisburg — the 
 one a Mexican courier bearing despatches to Santa Anna, the 
 other a guard. From the spies it was ascertained that the 
 Mexican advance had marched down Buffalo bayou, crossing 
 Vince’s bridge ; and, having burnt Harrisburg, had passed 
 down in the direction of the bay. From the Mexican courier* 
 they obtained the mail directed to Santa Anna, from which 
 they learned the important fact, before suspected, that the dic- 
 tator himself was with the advance, and that they had him cut 
 off from the main body of his troops. By reference to the to- 
 pography of that locality, it was seen that he must necessarily 
 return by Vince’s bridge, or cross Buffalo bayou, just below 
 the Texan camp, at Lynch’s, at the mouth of the San Jacinto. 
 In either way he was cut off from the main body of his army. 
 The Texans derived the further information that Santa Anna 
 was requested, by the government at home, to give protection 
 with his troops to the surveyor and commissioner, appointed 
 
 * This was a Mexican officer, an extraordinary coxirier, who had come on from 
 the city of Mexico. — Juan J. Andrade to Santa Anna , April 9, 1836. 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 on the part of Mexico, to run the boundary-line between Texas 
 and the United States, according to the treaty between the two 
 nations, and for which purpose Colonel Pedro Garcia Conde 
 was appointed surveyor, and Colonel Almonte commissioner.* 
 A letter from General Filisola to Santa Anna gave the infor- 
 mation that the chief’s order as to the disposition of certain 
 forces was received, and would be obeyed. This was supposed, 
 as afterward proved to be the fact, to refer to reinforcements 
 ordered by Santa Anna. 
 
 These despatches being read,f General Houston determined 
 to cross the bayou early on the morning of the 19th, and go 
 in pursuit of the enemy. Orders were consequently given to 
 Colonels Burleson and Sherman to have three days’ rations 
 prepared, and like orders for repairing a boat two miles below, 
 on the bayou. The troops were formed on the morning of the 
 19th, and addressed by the commander-in-chief and the secre- 
 tary of war. The presence of Santa Anna with the enemy’s 
 advance was also made known to them. The baggage and 
 wagons, and two or three hundred sick and non-effectives were 
 left in charge of Major M‘Nutt, on the left bank of the bayou. 
 Houston then despatched a letter to Henry Raguet, advising 
 him that they were about to meet Santa Anna ; that they had 
 looked in vain for help from eastern Texas ; that it was then 
 
 * Monasterio to Santa Anna, March 23, 1836. 
 
 f Some explanation of the manner in which Deaf Smith captured and brought 
 in two prisoners, is necessary. It is given as related by the general himselfl 
 Smith came in, greatly fatigued, and somewhat exasperated. He repaired to 
 the general’s quarters, and said he wished to have a little talk with him. Said 
 he: “General, you are very kind to these Mexicans; I like kindness, but you 
 are too kind — you won’t allow me to kill any of them! If a man meets two 
 of the enemy, and is not allowed to kill either, by the time he takes one and 
 ties him, the other gets off so far, that it is very fatiguing on a horse to catch 
 him ; and I wish you would let me manage things in my own way.” Houston 
 told him not to be cruel, but that he must be his own judge of the necessity of 
 securing such of the enemy as might be taken by him. Smith nodded his head 
 — for he was a man of few words — and retired. 
 
ADDRESSES ON THE EVE OF BATTLE. 
 
 135 
 
 the part of wisdom, growing out of necessity, to encounter the 
 enemy ; that no previous occasion justified it ; that they were 
 going to conquer ; that the troops were in fine spirits, and, 
 though the odds were against them, they would use their best 
 efforts to fight the enemy to such advantage as to gain the 
 victory.* 
 
 * Appendix I. — No. 43. Colonel Rusk also sent out the following address, 
 to which the commander-in-chief added a postscript: — 
 
 “ War Department, Headquarters of the Army, Harrisburg, April 19, 1836. 
 
 “To the People of Texas — Fellow- Citizens : Let me make one more appeal 
 to you to turn out, and rally to the standard of your country. The army reached 
 here yesterday late in the day. Our scouts arrested three of the Mexicans — 
 one captain, one a correo [express-rider], direct from Mexico, and another a ser- 
 vant. From the prisoners we learn many interesting facts. Santa Anna him- 
 self is just below us, and within the sound of the drum — has, we understand, 
 only five hundred men. We are parading our forces for the purpose of march- 
 ing upon him. He has a reinforcement of about one thousand men upon the 
 Brasos, about forty miles from here. A few hours more will decide the fate of 
 our army : and what an astonishing fact it is, that, at the very moment when 
 the fate of your wives, your children, your honors, your country, and all that is 
 dear to a freeman, are suspended upon the issue of one battle, not one fourth of 
 the people [men] of Texas are in the army 1 Are you Americans? are you free- 
 men ? If you are, prove your blood and birth by rallying at once to your coun- 
 try’s standard ! Your general is at the head of a brave and chivalrous band, 
 and throws himself, sword in hand, into the breach, to save his country, and vin- 
 dicate her rights. Enthusiasm prevails in the army; but I look around and see 
 that many, very many, whom I had anticipated would be first in the field, are 
 not here. 
 
 “Rise up at once, concentrate, and march to the field 1 — a vigorous effort, 
 and the country is safe ! A different course disgraces and ruins you; and what 
 is life worth with the loss of liberty? May I never survive itl 
 
 “ Your fellow-citizen, Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War." 
 
 “ April 19, 1836. 
 
 “We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, 
 and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid : none is at hand. 
 We must now act, or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no 
 longer the scoff of mercenary tongues ! Be men, be freemen, that your children 
 may bless their fathers’ names ! 
 
 “ Colonel Rusk is with me, and I am rejoiced at it The country will be the 
 gainer, and myself the beneficiary. Liberty and our country I 
 
 “Sam Houston, Commander -in- Chief." 
 
 The above are the last papers written by these gentlemen previous to the 
 battle of the 2 1st, so far as the writer knows. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The army proceeded on its march, taking only the cavalry- 
 horses, and those needed for the “ Twin- Sisters” and an am- 
 munition-wagon. The measles having broken out in the camp, 
 caused the large number of sick that were left behind. Ad- 
 vancing to the ferry, they found the boat not repaired, not- 
 withstanding which they proceeded to cross. Thirty pioneers, 
 under Captain Wood, first passed over. The commander-in- 
 chief went with the second boat. Colonel Rusk remained to 
 assist in the crossing, and none labored more ardently to effect 
 that object. A raft of plank was used to facilitate the pas- 
 sage. The horses were caused to swim across the bayou below 
 the ferry. Before sundown the whole force had passed over 
 without accident, and took up the line of march down the right 
 bank of the bayou, and on the enemy’s trail. 
 
 After advancing twelve miles, the Texans halted at one 
 o’clock on the morning of the 20th, at a beautiful spot in the 
 prairie. At this time they were aware that the Mexicans had 
 not crossed the San Jacinto, but it was not known exactly 
 where they were. In fact, they had passed near the ferry at 
 Lynch’s on the 16th. The Texans, being greatly exhausted by 
 incessant labor and marching, threw themselves on the ground 
 without refreshment, and slept. 
 
 We must here notice the narrow escape of President Bur- 
 net. On the 13th, as has been stated, he left Harrisburg, to 
 provide for the safety of his family. On the same day he 
 brought them to New Washington, below Lynch’s, on the bay, 
 with a view to facilitate their passage, if necessary, to Galves- 
 ton. On the next day the president set out on horseback for 
 Harrisburg ; but learning on the way that the Mexicans were 
 there, he returned on the morning of the 16th, in the steamer 
 “ Cayuga,” to New Washington. It was understood that the 
 boat, which was crowded with families, and bound for Ana- 
 
MEXICAN BOAT WITH PROVISIONS TAKEN. 
 
 137 
 
 huac, was to return the next morning to take off those at New 
 Washington. On the morning of the 17th, after breakfast, and 
 while they were preparing for the steamboat, the Mexican cav- 
 alry came suddenly on them. They hastily got into a small 
 boat, and had not rowed more than forty yards from the shore, 
 when the enemy dismounted ; but they fortunately made their 
 escape.* 
 
 At dawn of day, on the 20th, the Texans were aroused by a 
 tap of the drum — for the reveille was forbidden — and resumed 
 their march down the bayou. After proceeding about seven 
 miles, they halted for breakfast. While it was in preparation, 
 the scouts came in, and announced that they had given chase 
 to those of the enemy, until they discovered his advance com- 
 ing up the bay. The Texans, without taking breakfast, made 
 a forced march down the bayou, in order to arrive at Lynch’s 
 ferry before their opponents. An advance of thirty or forty 
 of the Texans proceeded rapidly to the ferry, where they ar- 
 rived by ten o’clock in the forenoon, and found a like number 
 of the enemy there, with a substantial new flat-boat, f loaded 
 with provisions for the Mexican army. It was doubtless some 
 of the plunder of Harrisburg or New Washington. The ene- 
 my’s guard fled at the approach of the Texan advance ; the 
 boat and provisions were taken, and sent up the bayou, three 
 fourths of a mile to the rear of the Texan camp, which was 
 established there, along the right bank of the bayou, in a skirt 
 of timber. This supply of provisions was most fortunate, as 
 the Texans had no other during that and the following day. 
 
 The Texan camp was protected by the timber, and a rising 
 ground running parallel with the bayou. The camp extended 
 
 * Letter of Dr. George M. Patrick, March 2G, 1838. 
 
 f It was said that this boat had been constructed by some recreant Americans 
 for the enemy. 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 some five hundred yards, and about its centre the skirt of tim- 
 ber reached nearly to the top of the rise in front. On either 
 side of this centre the summit of the elevation was composed 
 of prairie. The infantry, about two hundred, under command 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel Millard, were stationed in this neck of 
 timber, extending toward the top of the rise ; and the “ Twin- 
 Sisters” under Colonel Neill, were placed on the elevation, 
 immediately in front of Millard. The first regiment of rifle- 
 men, under Colonel Burleson, formed the right wing ; and the 
 second, under Colonel Sherman, composed the left. The cav- 
 alry was stationed in the centre, and in rear of the infantry. 
 In front of the centre of the Texan camp, some three or four 
 hundred yards distant, was a cluster of timber ; also in front 
 and to the left of the centre, about one hundred yards distant, 
 was another cluster of timber. Elsewhere in front the field 
 was prairie. 
 
 The Texans, having established their camp, formed for bat- 
 tle. While they were doing this, the Mexican artillery (one 
 twelve-pounder), having advanced to the first-named cluster 
 of timber, opened upon them. After firing about an hour, 
 without doing any other damage than wounding Colonel Neill, 
 the enemy sent forward a detachment of infantry, armed with 
 escopetas , into the nearest wood. Being discovered there, 
 Colonel Sherman applied for leave to charge on them with the 
 Texan cavalry, in all eighty-five men. Permission was given, 
 and the charge made ; but, as the Mexicans were in the wood, 
 nothing was effected, and the cavalry returned without damage. 
 
 Shortly after this, a large portion of the enemy’s forces ad- 
 vanced rapidly, in column, from the point occupied by their 
 artillery to within a hundred and fifty yards of the Texan can- 
 non : the latter opened on them, when they wheeled and fell 
 back precipitately. This retreat was answered by a shout 
 
PRELIMINARY SKIRMISHING. 
 
 139 
 
 from the Texan ranks that would have alarmed less timid 
 spirits. The Texans did not pursue them, but the “ Twin-Sis- 
 ters” kept up a fire on them till they got out of danger, doing 
 them some damage. The enemy withdrew to a position near 
 the bank of the San Jacinto river (or bayou, for it was below 
 their junction), about three fourths of a mile from the Texan 
 encampment, where they commenced to fortify. 
 
 In the evening, about an hour before sunset, Colonel Sherman 
 asked permission of the commander-in-chief to take the cavalry 
 and reconnoitre. The general at first objected, but on reflec- 
 tion consented, ordering him strictly not to go within musket- 
 shot of the enemy, or provoke a conflict, but to advance as 
 near as he otherwise could to ascertain their position : and for 
 this reason — that the precipitate retreat of the enemy after 
 their charge that day had infused the finest feeling into the 
 Texan army, and he was unwilling that any disaster in a par- 
 tial engagement should disturb that feeling. 
 
 The cavalry set out, and continued to advance, receiving a 
 volley from the left of the enemy’s infantry, and, after a sharp 
 rencontre with their cavalry, retired. In the meantime, the 
 infantry under Colonel Millard, Colonel Burleson’s regiment, 
 and the artillery, had advanced to aid the cavalry, if necessary. 
 In this affair, the Texan cavalry acquitted themselves hand- 
 somely ; and among the most distinguished of their number 
 was Mirabeau B. Lamar, who, joining the army at Groce’s, fell 
 into the ranks, and soon earned an enviable reputation as a 
 soldier.* The Texans had two wounded, one mortally and the 
 other severely ; they also lost several horses. The loss of the 
 enemy was doubtless more considerable.! 
 
 * Foote, in his “Texas and the Texans,” has given a lively sketch of General 
 Lamar, vol. ii., p. 284. 
 
 f Foote, in his account of this affair, has placed Colonel Sherman in the atti- 
 tude of attempting a ruse , by which to bring on a general battle, contrary to 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Both armies having retired to their quarters, the evening 
 passed off, and with it the excitement of the day. The Texans, 
 being hungry and fatigued, after eating, obtained a refreshing 
 sleep. The enemy in the meantime completed his breastwork 
 of trunks and baggage. Thursday, the 21st of April, was a 
 clear, fine day. Early in the morning, the Texan commander- 
 in-chief directed Colonel Forbes, the commissary-general, to 
 furnish Deaf Smith with one or more axes, and to have them 
 at a certain place. At the same time, he sent for Smith, and 
 directed him not to go out of the line of sentinels that day 
 without special permission, as he had particular business for 
 him of a secret character.* 
 
 About nine o’clock that morning it was discovered that a 
 considerable force, under General Cos, was advancing from the 
 direction of Vince’s bridge toward the enemy’s camp. As it 
 was seen by the Texans, it was believed to be a reinforcement 
 to Santa Anna. The commander-in-chief, although his spies 
 had brought information of the arrival of the reinforcement, 
 not caring that it should be at that time known, suggested that 
 it was a ruse of the Mexicans ; that they had marched round 
 from their left wing, and were returning, with a view to make 
 the impression that they were reinforced. f 
 
 About noon, or a little before, the commander-in-chief was 
 waited on by several of the officers, suggesting a council of 
 war. He assented to the proposition, and it was informally 
 
 the wishes and orders of the commander-in-chief ; and has represented him as 
 getting Colonel Millard to march his command to a ravine, and Captain Poe to 
 keep up his fire on the enemy’s cannon, <fcc., as if he had assumed the command 
 of the army, and the commander-in-chief had become a subordinate ! This 
 charge of insubordination and deceit is unworthy of Colonel Sherman. — Yol. ii., 
 p. 298, et seq. It was a chief object with Houston to conceal from the enemy 
 the number of his forces, and not to attack him while on the alert 
 
 * Statement of Colonel John Forbes. 
 
 | Statement of Colonel George W. Hockley. 
 
COUNCIL OF WAR. 
 
 141 
 
 held immediately,* consisting of Colonels Burleson and Sher- 
 man, Lieutenant-Colonels Millard, Somerville, and Bennett, and 
 Major Wells. The question was laid before them, “Whether 
 they should attack the enemy in his position, or await an at- 
 tack from him in theirs.” The two last-named officers were 
 in favor of an attack on the enemy in his position : the others 
 were in favor of awaiting an attack from him. The reasons 
 given for the latter opinion were — that the Texan camp was 
 admirably situated for defence ; that the Mexicans were forti- 
 fied in their encampment ; that it was defended by veterans, 
 well disciplined ; and that an attack upon them through an 
 open prairie, with undisciplined militia, armed mostly with 
 rifles, was unprecedented. The council was then dismissed. 
 
 Deaf Smith and a companion! whom he had been directed, 
 in the morning, to select, were now sent for, and secretly de- 
 spatched, with the axes, to cut down Vince’s bridge, and burn 
 it — the commander-in-chief saying to Smith, as he departed, 
 that the grass, which he then beheld before him so beautiful 
 in the prairie, would be crimsoned before his return, unless he 
 was speedy. 
 
 Bray’s bayou runs into Buffalo bayou at Harrisburg, on the 
 right bank. Five miles farther down toward the bay, over 
 Vince’s bayou, is Vince’s bridge. It was crossed by both ar- 
 mies on their downward march, and was the only passway by 
 land, especially at that season of the year, to the Brasos. Af- 
 ter the main body of the Mexican reinforcement under General 
 Cos had passed Bray’s bayou, and while the rear-guard was 
 crossing over, the wagoners and some others of the Texan 
 
 * In a sketch of Houston, published at Washington city, by John T. Tower^ 
 it is stated that this council of war assembled on the grass, under a post-oak 
 tree. The present account of it is mostly taken from a statement made by Colo- 
 nel Joseph L. Bennett (one of the members of the council), September 17, 1841. 
 
 f Understood to be Mr. Reeves. 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 camp-guard near Harrisburg, hearing the noise, paraded under 
 the command of Wagon-master Rhorer, made a forced march 
 to the bayou, and gave them a volley, which so alarmed them, 
 that they turned and fled toward the Brasos, scattering and 
 leaving their baggage on the road. The wagoners thereupon 
 crossed over, and gathered quite a supply. 
 
 It is proper to state here, that, so soon as the reinforcement 
 under Cos was seen to come in, Karnes and Smith had been 
 sent to their last place of encampment, to ascertain, from the 
 number of camp-fires and other signs, the probable strength of 
 this auxiliary force. They returned and reported privately, as 
 they had been directed, about five hundred and forty men. 
 
 Shortly after the departure of Smith and Reeves to destroy 
 the bridge, Lieutenant-Colonel Bennett was sent through the 
 camp to ascertain the state of feeling among the troops. He 
 reported them all enthusiastic, and in fine spirits. It was now 
 nearly three o’clock in the afternoon. The Mexicans were 
 dull and heavy, the higher class of them enjoying their siesta . 
 Santa Anna admits that he himself was asleep.* Houston, 
 having formed his plan of battle, submitted it to the secretary 
 of war, who approved of it. He then ordered the troops to 
 parade, which they did with alacrity and spirit. The locality 
 
 * See his “ Manifesto.” He handles the point most delicately : “ All I can be 
 responsible for is physical debility, for after having marched the whole of the 
 previous day, and spending the night in watching, and the morning on horse- 
 back, I yielded to repose, which I was unfortunately induced to prolong in con- 
 sequence of the delay of General Cos’s troops. As general-in-chief, I had fulfilled 
 my duty, by disposing everything on the field, and issuing the necessary orders; 
 as a man, I yielded to the insurmountable necessity of nature, which can not, I 
 think, be charged as a crime against any general, or me — much less when it 
 took place at mid day, underneath a tree, aod in the camp itself ; a proof that I 
 did not abandon myself immoderately to that which, after all, is but a comfort, 
 a balm, or gentle tribute to human nature, with which the greatest men have 
 been unable to dispense, not excepting him , the great military exemplar of our 
 age: and yet for this they were not accused of rashness, and want of foresight, 
 and due caution.” 
 
BATTLE OF THE SAN JACINTO. 
 
 143 
 
 of the Texan camp afforded ample opportunity to form in order 
 of battle without being seen by the enemy. Burleson’s regi- 
 ment was placed in the centre ; Sherman’s on the left wing ; 
 the artillery, under Hockley, on the right of Burleson ; the in- 
 fantry, under Millard, on the right of the artillery; and the 
 cavalry, under Lamar (whose gallant conduct the day before 
 had won him this command), on the extreme right. The ene- 
 my’s cavalry was on his left wing ; his centre, which was forti- 
 fied, was composed of his infantry, with his artillery in an 
 opening in the centre of the breastwork. He had extended 
 his extreme right to the river, so as to occupy a skirt of timber 
 projecting out from it. 
 
 The Texan cavalry was first despatched to the front of the 
 enemy’s horse, to draw their attention ; while the remainder 
 of the army, which had advanced in column to the cluster of 
 timber three or four hundred yards in front, was deploying into 
 line. The evolution was quickly performed, and the whole 
 force advanced rapidly and in good order. The secretary of 
 war, at the request of the general-in-chief, took command of 
 the left wing. While the Texans were thus advancing, Deaf 
 Smith rode at the top of his horse’s speed to the front, and 
 informed Houston that Vince’s bridge was destroyed. The 
 general announced it to the line. The “ Twin- Sisters” now 
 advanced to within two hundred yards of the Mexican breast- 
 work, and opened a destructive fire with grape and canister. 
 Sherman’s regiment commenced the action upon the Texan left. 
 The whole line, advancing in double quick time, cried, “ Re- 
 member the Alamo /’ ’ — u Remember Goliad /” — and, while 
 approaching the enemy’s works, received his fire, but withheld 
 their own until within pistol-shot. The effect of this fire on 
 the enemy was terrible. But the Texans made no halt — on- 
 ward they went. On the left, they penetrated the woodland : 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the Mexicans fled. On the right, the Texan cavalry charged 
 that of the enemy : the latter fled. In the centre, the Texan 
 artillery advanced to within seventy yards of that of the Mexi- 
 cans, but ceased to fire, for Burleson’s regiment and Millard’s 
 infantry had stormed the breastwork, took the enemy’s artil- 
 lery, and were driving them back. 
 
 In fifteen minutes after the charge, the Mexicans gave way 
 at all points, and the pursuit was general. Some of them fled 
 to the river, some to the swamp in their rear, others toward 
 Vince’s bridge, but the largest portion perhaps to a clump of 
 trees not far to the rear, where they surrendered. Such was 
 their consternation, and so sudden their defeat, that their can- 
 non was left loaded, and their precious moveables untouched ; 
 those that were asleep, awoke only in time to be overwhelmed ; 
 those that were cooking their dinner, left it uneaten; those 
 that were playing monte , left the game unfinished. The morass 
 in the rear and right of the enemy’s camp, and into which so 
 many of the fugitives fled, presented an awful scene. Men and 
 horses, dead and dying, formed a bridge for the furious pursu- 
 ers. The Texans, having no time to load their guns, used 
 them as clubs. So with their pistols ; they then had recourse 
 to their bowie-knives, and finally to the weapons of the fallen 
 enemy. It is said that Deaf Smith, after announcing to Hous- 
 ton the news of the destruction of the bridge, threw himself 
 into the midst of the enemy, and, after breaking his own sword 
 in combat, coolly took another from one he had slain, and con- 
 tinued the work of death. “The commander-in-chief,” says 
 the secretary of war in his report, “ acted with great gallantry, 
 encouraging the men to the attack, and heroically charged, in 
 front of the infantry, within a few yards of the enemy.” It 
 was here that he received a severe wound in his ankle, and 
 had his horse shot two or three times. 
 
DEFEAT OF THE MEXICANS. 
 
 145 
 
 The pursuit of the enemy’s cavalry continued to the site of 
 Yince’s bridge. Karnes led in this pursuit. He discovered 
 in advance of him a Mexican officer in a splendid uniform, and 
 mounted on a beautiful black charger. Being well mounted 
 himself, he had a desire to capture him, and went in pursuit. 
 Perhaps such a race was never before seen in Texas. Karnes, 
 unable to gain on the fugitive, supposed he would take him at 
 the destroyed bridge. The officer, reaching the bayou, saw 
 that the bridge was gone, but, making no halt, plunged down 
 the steep descent into the water ; and, as Karnes rode up on 
 the right bank, to his utter astonishment he saw his foe climb- 
 ing the almost perpendicular wall on the other ! 
 
 At dark the pursuit of the flying enemy ceased. The pris- 
 oners taken were conducted to the Texan camp, placed under 
 guard, and supplied with provisions. A suitable guard was 
 also left at the Mexican camp. The wounded of both armies 
 were as well provided for as the circumstances would permit. 
 After the excitement of the battle had somewhat subsided, 
 Houston found that his wounded limb had swollen ; his boot 
 was cut off, and such attention paid to the wound as could be 
 procured to alleviate the pain.* 
 
 The main body of the prisoners were taken that night. At 
 their head was the cheerful and philosophical Almonte. With 
 him it appeared only a scene in life’s drama. Conversing flu- 
 ently in both English and Spanish, he threw a charm over all 
 with whom he came in contact. At a time so trying to his 
 comrades, he proved himself a true descendant of the brave 
 
 * See reports of General Houston and Colonel Rusk, Appendix!, Nos. 44 and 
 46. The writer has before him perhaps twenty accounts of this battle and its 
 incidents, half of which have been published. The foregoing seems to be a fair 
 deduction of the facts from them all. The accounts vary considerably, from the 
 fact that no one of the eye-witnesses, however impartial, could himself see the 
 tenth part of what occurred during the 20th and 21st 
 
 VOL. II.— 10 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Morelos, and worthy of a better fate than that accorded to his 
 noble sire. 
 
 The aggregate force of the Texan army in the battle was 
 seven hundred and eighty-three ; that of the enemy was per- 
 haps twice the number. The Mexicans lost six hundred and 
 thirty killed, two hundred and eight wounded, and seven hun- 
 dred and thirty prisoners ; besides a large quantity of arms 
 and great numbers of mules and horses taken, together with 
 their camp-equipage, and the military chest, containing twelve 
 thousand dollars. The Texan loss was only eight killed* and 
 twenty-five wounded ! 
 
 On the morning of the 22d, detachments were sent out to 
 scour the country toward Harrisburg, for the purpose of taking 
 prisoners. A party of five, having reached Vince’s, continued 
 the search down Buffalo bayou. One of them, James A. Syl- 
 vester, while in the act of shooting a deer, discovered a Mexi- 
 can pursuing his course toward the bridge. He called his 
 companions, and they rode up to the fugitive, who had fallen 
 down in the grass, and thrown a blanket over his head. They 
 called to him to rise, but he only uncovered his face. They 
 repeated the request for him to rise two or three times, when 
 he did so. He advanced to Sylvester, and shook hands with 
 him, at the same time kissing his hand. He inquired for Gen- 
 eral Houston : they said he was in camp. They then asked 
 
 * Texans killed: Dr. William Motley, aide to the secretary of war; First- 
 Lieutenant J. C. Hale, 2d regiment ; Second-Lieutenant George A. Lamb, 2d regi- 
 ment; First-Sergeant Thomas P. Fowl, 2d regiment. Privates : Lemuel Blakely, 
 
 1st regiment; Cooper, 1st regiment; A. R. Stevens, 1st regiment; 
 
 Trask, 2d regiment (on the 20th). — Official return. 
 
 Among the Mexican killed were, General Castrillon, Colonel Batres, Colonel 
 Mora, Colonel Trevino, Colonel Jos6 M. Romero, Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel 
 Aguirre, and Lieutenant-Colonel Castillon. 
 
 Among the prisoners taken were, General Santa Anna, General Cos, Colonel 
 Almonte, Colonel Bringas, Colonel Ocepedes, Colonel Portilla, Ac. 
 
ejercito 
 
 DE 
 
— ' 
 
 
 ■ {% 6 C &£-<*-&?' 6 
 
 #U<z?aSt 
 
 
CAPTURE OF SANTA ANNA. 
 
 147 
 
 him who he was. He said he was a private soldier. Seeing 
 the fine studs on the bosom of his shirt, they pointed toward 
 them. He then said he was an aide to Santa Anna, and burst 
 into a flood of tears. They reassured him. He was dressed 
 as a common soldier, and had no arms. He exhibited to them 
 a letter from Colonel Almonte. As he complained of not being 
 able to walk, he was placed on one of their horses, and con- 
 ducted to the camp* by some of the party, Sylvester going in 
 another direction. 
 
 The distinguished prisoner — for it was Santa Anna — was 
 handed over to Colonel Forbes, at the guard-lines ; and, exhib- 
 iting to him a letter addressed to “ Don Antonio Lopez de 
 Santa Anna,” desired to be conducted to General Houston. 
 Colonel Hockley at that time passing by, the matter was re- 
 ferred to him ; and they both concluding that it was Santa 
 Anna, conducted him to headquarters. On the way, the Mexi- 
 can prisoners exclaimed, “ El presidente /” 
 
 Houston was lying on a mattress, under an oak which he 
 had made his headquarters, with his wounded limb in an easy 
 position,! and had fallen into a gentle slumber. Being awa- 
 kened, the captive chieftain said to him, “ I am General Anto- 
 nio Lopez de Santa Anna, and a prisoner-of-war at your dispo- 
 sition.” Houston looked at him, and by a motion of his hand 
 directed him to a tool-chest, where he could sit down. He 
 did so, leaning forward, and pressing his sides with his hands. 
 Colonel Forbes was then despatched for Santa Anna’s private 
 secretary, in order to identify his chief. He was brought; 
 and, in the meantime, Colonel Rusk and others came up. San- 
 ta Anna asked for opium. A piece of about five grains was 
 
 * Letter of James A. Sylvester, sergeant in Captain Wood’s company. — Tele- 
 graph of August 2, 1836. 
 
 \ Statement of Colonel Forbes. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 handed him, which he swallowed. He immediately proposed 
 to enter into negotiations for his liberation ; but General Hous- 
 ton answered him that it was a subject of which he could not 
 take cognizance, inasmuch as Texas had a government, to 
 which such matters appropriately belonged. Santa Anna ob- 
 served that he disliked to have anything to do with civilians ; 
 that he abhorred them, and would much rather treat with the 
 general of the army. “ And,” continued he, “ general, you 
 can afford to be generous ; you are born to no common destiny 
 — you have conquered the Napoleon of the West.” General 
 Houston and Colonel Rusk both assured him that no negotia- 
 tions could be opened until the cabinet assembled. General 
 Houston then asked him how he expected to negotiate under 
 the circumstances that had occurred at the Alamo. About this 
 time, Colonel Almonte, who had been sent for, arrived ; and, 
 after salutations between him and his chief, the latter replied 
 that “ General Houston knew that, by the rules of war, when 
 a fortress, insufficient to defend itself, was summoned to sur- 
 render, and refused, and caused the effusion of human blood, 
 the vanquished, when it was taken, were devoted to execu- 
 tion.” General Houston replied that “ he knew such to have 
 been the rule at one period, but he thought it now obsolete, 
 and a disgrace to the nineteenth century. But,” continued 
 Houston, “ General Santa Anna, you can not urge the same 
 excuse for the massacre at Goliad : they capitulated, were be- 
 trayed, and massacred in cold blood !” Santa Anna replied : 
 
 “ If they ever had capitulated, he was not aware of it. Urrea 
 had deceived him, and informed him that they were vanquished ; 
 and he had orders from his government to execute all that were 
 taken with arms in their hands.” Houston rejoined : 66 Gen- 
 eral Santa Anna, you are the government — a dictator has no 
 superior.” — “ But,” answered Santa Anna, “I have the order 
 
SANTA ANNA’S INTERVIEW WITH HOUSTON. 149 
 
 of our Congress to treat all that were found with arms in their 
 hands, resisting the authority of the government, as pirates.* 
 And Urrea has deceived me. He had no authority to enter 
 into any agreement ; and, if I ever live to regain power, he 
 shall be punished for it.” 
 
 After a pause, Houston asked him if he did not desire some 
 refreshment, as he supposed he was exhausted. He said he 
 did. He was then asked if he desired to have his tents, bag- 
 gage, staff, servants, Ac. He replied that he would gladly 
 have them. Colonel Almonte was thereupon directed to select 
 them ; and the prisoner’s quarters were established near Hous- 
 ton’s favorite tree, where he had his headquarters. 
 
 General Houston, previous to Santa Anna’s retirement from 
 the audience, stated to him that he must forthwith write an 
 order to his second in command to evacuate Texas, and fall 
 back to Monterey. His despatch, though not to the extent 
 asked, is as follows : — 
 
 “Army of Operations. 
 
 “ Excellent Sir : Having yesterday evening, with the small 
 division under my immediate command, had an encounter with 
 the enemy, which, notwithstanding I had previously taken all 
 possible precautions, proved unfortunate, I am, in consequence, 
 a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. Under these circum- 
 stances, your excellency will order General Gaona with his 
 
 * Here are the decrees referred to by Santa Anna: — 
 
 “ 1. Foreigners landing on the coast of the republic, or invading its territory 
 by land, armed, and with the intention of attacking our country, will be deemed 
 pirates, and dealt with as such, being citizens of no nation presently at war 
 with the republic, and fighting under no recognised flag. 
 
 “2. All foreigners who shall import, by either sea or land, in the places occu- 
 pied by the rebels, either arms or ammunition of any kind for their use, will be 
 deemed pirates, and punished as such. 
 
 “ I send you these decrees, that you may cause them to be fully executed. 
 
 “ Tornkl. 
 
 Mexico, December 30, 1835.’ 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 division to countermarch to Bexar, and wait for orders. Your 
 excellency will also, with the division under your immediate 
 command, march to the same place. The division under com- 
 mand of General Urrea will retire to Guadalupe Victoria. I 
 have agreed with General Houston for an armistice, until 
 matters can be so regulated that the war shall cease for 
 ever. 
 
 “ Your excellency will take the proper steps for the support 
 of the army, which from this time remains under your command, 
 using the moneys lately arrived from Matamoras, the provis- 
 ions on hand there, as well as those at Victoria, and also the 
 twenty thousand dollars withdrawn from Bexar, and are now 
 in that treasury. 
 
 “ I hope your excellency will, without failure, comply with 
 these dispositions — advising me, by return of the courier, that 
 you have already commenced their execution. God and lib- 
 erty ! 
 
 “ Camp at San Jacinto, April 22, 1836. 
 
 “ Ant°. Lopez de Santa Anna. 
 
 “To his Excellency Don Vicente Filisola, General of Division 
 
 Santa Anna, at the same time, addressed another despatch 
 to General Filisola, charging him to instruct the commandants 
 of the several Mexican divisions not to permit any injury to be 
 done to the inhabitants of the country : also, at the same time, 
 a third note, directing Filisola to order the military command- 
 ant at Goliad to set all the prisoners, taken at Copano (as be- 
 fore related), at liberty, and send them forthwith to San Felipe 
 de Austin. 
 
 These orders were despatched by Deaf Smith. The troops 
 under Filisola had been encamped on the eastern bank of the 
 Brasos. They could not be made to believe the report of the 
 first fugitive from the battle-field of the San Jacinto ; but when, 
 
TEXAS FREE BY WORD AND DEED. 
 
 151 
 
 an hour afterward, a second one come in, orders to retreat 
 were given, and they recrossed the river.* 
 
 The 22d day of April was the first free day in Texas. Be- 
 fore then, her people had declared their independence, but now 
 they had won it in a noble contest. The victory was physi- 
 cally and morally cbmplete. The blow was given at the proper 
 time, and in a vital part. In looking back at the events of the 
 campaign, we can see no time when it could have succeeded so 
 well. Providence seemed in every way to favor the result. 
 It was a full retribution for past outrages. Santa Anna had 
 presided over a feast of blood at the Alamo ; he had ordered 
 a second at Goliad ; and he was made to behold another at 
 San Jacinto. The Texans had their revenge. At that time, 
 a thousand troops were on the way to reinforce their army ; 
 but it was so ordered that they should do the work themselves. 
 At the period of the battle, the feeling in the United States 
 was most intense. An agent of Texas, writing from New Or- 
 leans after the action, but before the receipt of the intelligence, 
 says : “ News received here, from every part of the United 
 States, is very cheering. The cruelty of the Mexicans, and 
 
 * Of this large invading force brought by Santa Anna into Texas, but few 
 ever reached their homes. We have learned something of those that came from 
 Yucatan. It was in the winter of 1835 that Santa Anna ordered a levy of eight 
 hundred men from that state for the invasion of Texas. These men were torn 
 away, by military force, from their families and occupations, to go on the cam- 
 paign. The sudden use of harsh means, and the indignities offered them, filled 
 them with despair (for the Yucatecos are greatly attached to their homes). They 
 entered into a conspiracy against their officers; but it was discovered, and Gen- 
 eral “Toro (a brother-in-law of Santa Anna) sent to Merida for a troop of Mexican 
 cavalry, who disarmed them, and forced them in small companies to embark for 
 Vera Cruz, where they were again supplied with arms, and incorporated with 
 the invading army. It was a portion of this body of poor Indians that performed 
 the bloody work at Goliad. From starvation, and the incidents of war, there 
 were not so many as fifty of them that ever returned to see their wives and 
 children! It was this cruelty in carrying away her citizens that exasperated 
 Yucatan against Mexico, and caused her afterward to declare her independence. 
 — Letter of George Fisher , May 3, 1842. 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 their disgraceful treachery, have caused a general burst of in- 
 dignation from North to South. Fifty men leave here to-day 
 by way of Galveston. General Felix Huston leaves Natchez, 
 on the 5th of May next, with from five to seven hundred men. 
 He will be accompanied by Rezin P. Bowie, brother of Colonel 
 Bowie, who fell in the Alamo. They will march through lower 
 Louisiana, directly to Harrisburg, or wherever your headquar- 
 ters may be established. Fifty men have left Philadelphia ; 
 and, by the latest papers, I see that a county and town meet- 
 ing has been called for the relief of Texas. A-meeting has 
 also been called in Baltimore. Men are gathering in Tennes- 
 see and Kentucky ; and, in short, in every part of the United 
 States, the barbarity of the enemy has harrowed up the hearts 
 of all Americans, and a storm is gathering, the thunders of 
 which will reach the centre of Mexico. The whole American 
 press is in our favor. ... In case our arms are successful, I 
 hope our soldiers will not allow their passions to urge them to 
 acts of barbarity, and thus deprive us of the immense moral 
 strength we now possess in the sympathy and respect of all 
 civilized men. Such acts, on the part of the Mexicans, have 
 injured them more than our arms could have done ; and retali- 
 ation on our part, I fear, would be equally fatal to Texas. L 
 am happy in assuring you that you possess many warm friends 
 in the United States, and that the prudent course you have 
 pursued has inspired universal confidence as to the eventual 
 result of the war. It is sincerely wished that a doubtful en- 
 gagement will not be risked by you, as a very short time must 
 give you force enough to place the contest beyond hazard.”* 
 The Texan cabinet, after having dispersed at Harrisburg, 
 reassembled at Galveston island. f The news of the arrival of 
 
 * Edward Conrnd to Sam Houston, April 30, 1836. 
 
 f President Burnet to the People of Texas, No. 1. Five successive papers, 
 
PRESIDENT BURNETT AT SAN JACINTO. 
 
 153 
 
 the Texan army at the former place reached the officers of the 
 government at Galveston about the 19th of April, yet they re- 
 ceived no further intelligence from the army until the 26th. 
 On that day, and previous to the reception of the news, an 
 order was sent to Houston, if he considered it inexpedient to 
 risk an engagement, and a retreat was inevitable , to march the 
 army to Galveston.* But the intelligence of the victory, which 
 shortly afterward reached the government, assured it that a 
 retreat was not necessary : and, with the news of this splendid 
 achievement, came a special request from Colonel Rusk to 
 President Burnet to repair to the camp at San Jacinto. Ar- 
 riving there about the first of May, he was informed of the 
 armisticef agreed to by Houston and Santa Anna, the object 
 of it, and the consequent orders issued by the latter to Filisola 
 on the 22d. 
 
 The effects taken in the battle of the 21st were first disposed 
 of. The property was ordered to be sold, and the distribution 
 of the proceeds and of the enemy’s military chest were decreed 
 by the government to be divided between the officers and men. 
 Of the entire amount — eighteen thousand one hundred and 
 eighty-four dollars and eighty-seven cents — three thousand dol- 
 
 addressed by President Burnet to the people of Texas, appeared in so many 
 successive numbers of the “Telegraph and Texas Register,” commencing Sep- 
 tember 6, 1836, and throw much light upon the events of that period. They 
 will be referred to by numbers. 
 
 * “ Department of War, Galveston, April 26 , 1836 . 
 
 “To General Sam Houston: If you consider it inexpedient to risk an en- 
 gagement with the enemy, and consider a retreat inevitable from the position 
 you now occupy, you are hereby ordered to march with the army under your 
 command to the nearest and most convenient point to this island, giving infor- 
 mation of the same to this department, when transports will be sent forthwith 
 to cross the troops to this island. 
 
 “Warren D. C. Hall, Acting Secretary of War.” 
 
 f President Burnet calls it a treaty. Santa Anna was distinctly informed by 
 both Houston and Rusk that the Texan government alone could negotiate; and 
 the former so understood it. The treaty-making power had been, by the con- 
 vention, specially delegated to the civil government. 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 lars were by the troops unanimously voted to the navy, and 
 the balance distributed according to the decree.* A poor pit- 
 tance to those gallant men ! — but it was all they received for 
 many a day. 
 
 The government now proceeded to negotiate with Santa 
 Anna. “Among the first incidents to that discussion,’’ says 
 President Burnet, “ and before any regular cabinet meeting 
 was had, was the presentation to me of the protocol of a treaty, 
 in pencil, comprising seven or eight articles, by Mr. Rusk, the 
 secretary of war.”f These, being drawn out in form, were 
 
 * Decree of the President and Cabinet, May 3, 1836. Official Report of John 
 Forbes, Commissary-General. 
 
 f Address No. II. As this was the first treaty made by the new republic, a 
 reference to its origin may not be improper. It is found in the following extract 
 of a letter from Houston to Rusk, dated 
 
 “ Headquarters of the Army, Camp San Jacinto, May 3 , 1836 . 
 
 “I have not the pleasure to know on what basis the executive government 
 contemplate the arrangements with General Santa Anna, but I would respect- 
 fully suggest that, so far as I have been enabled to give my attention to the 
 subject, the following points should have some weight: — 
 
 “The recognition of the independence of Texas should be a sine qua non. 
 
 “The limits of Texas should extend to the Rio Grande, from the mouth, pur- 
 suing the stream to its most northwestern source, and thence northeast to the 
 line of the United States. 
 
 “ Indemnity for all losses sustained by Texas during the war ; commissioners to 
 be appointed to ascertain the fact — one Mexican, one Texan, and one American. 
 
 “ The guaranty to be obtained from the United States for the fulfilment of the 
 stipulation on the part of the contracting parties. 
 
 “ General Santa Anna to be retained as a hostage, with such other officers as 
 the government may think proper, until they are recognised or ratified by the 
 Mexican government. 
 
 “Immediate restoration of Texan or Mexican citizens, or those friendly to the 
 cause of Texas, who may have been retained, with their property. 
 
 “Instantaneous withdrawal of all the Mexican troops from the limits of Texas. 
 
 “All property in Texas to be restored, and not molested by the troops, or 
 marauders, in falling back. 
 
 “ Cessation of all hostilities by sea and land. 
 
 “A guaranty for the safety and restoration of Mexican prisoners, so soon as 
 the conditions shall be complied with. 
 
 “Agents to be sent to the United States, to obtain the mediation of that gov- 
 ernment in the affairs of Mexico and Texas.” — New Orleans Bulletin , July 12, 
 1836. 
 
TREATIES OF PEACE WITH SANTA ANNA. 
 
 155 
 
 presented as the basis of a treaty. After considerable discus- 
 sion in the cabinet, it was found that a minority of that body 
 were opposed to making any treaty with the Mexican presi- 
 dent. As he was a prisoner, they urged, with reason, that 
 such a treaty would not be binding. Again, they said, though 
 with less reason, that such had been his barbarity at Goliad 
 and elsewhere, that he ought to be tried and put to death. 
 But, happily, better and nobler counsels prevailed ; and it was 
 concluded by the majority that the best interests of Texas 
 would be promoted by entering into a fair and honorable treaty 
 with the distinguished captive, stipulating always for the abso- 
 lute independence of Texas. 
 
 During this discussion, it became necessary to remove to 
 other quarters. Accordingly, in a few days, the president and 
 cabinet, with Santa Anna and most of the Mexican officers who 
 were captives, took passage on the steamer “ Yellowstone” for 
 Galveston. But the entire want of accommodation at this 
 point induced a second removal, to Velasco. Here the nego- 
 tiations were continued. As Santa Anna desired that the pro- 
 jet of the treaty which had been submitted to him should be 
 divided into a public and a secret treaty, his wishes were 
 granted; and the two treaties were made and signed at Ve- 
 lasco, on the 14th of May, 1836. 
 
 The public treaty provided for the cessation of hostilities 
 between the two armies ; for the speedy retirement of the ene- 
 my’s forces beyond the Rio Grande ; for the protection of pri- 
 vate property on their march ; for the restoration of property 
 taken by the Mexicans ; and that the Texan army do not ad- 
 vance nearer the retreating army than five leagues. The secret 
 treaty provided that Santa Anna would give his orders that, 
 in the shortest possible time, the Mexican troops should leave 
 Texas ; that he would prepare matters in the cabinet of Mexico 
 
156 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 for the reception of Texan commissioners, and that by negotia- 
 tions all differences might be adjusted, and the independence 
 of Texas acknowledged ; that a treaty of commerce, amity, and 
 limits, should be established, the boundary of Texas not ex- 
 tending beyond the Rio Grande ; and that Texas should pro- 
 vide for the prompt return of Santa Anna to Yera Cruz, to 
 enable him to perform his engagements.* 
 
 Such were the provisions of the two treaties, written in Eng- 
 lish and Spanish, and signed in duplicate by Santa Anna on 
 the one part, and by the president ad interim and three of the 
 cabinet on the other. It is proper to state here, that General 
 Houston’s wound having disabled him from active service, 
 Thomas J. Rusk was placed in command of the army, under 
 the rank of a brigadier-general ; that, in consequence, Mirabeau 
 B. Lamar succeeded Rusk in the war office ; and owing to the 
 sickness of Samuel P. Carson, the secretary of state, James 
 Collingsworth succeeded him ; and by the accidental death of 
 David Thomas, the attorney-general, Peter W. Grayson was 
 appointed to fill that vacancy. Messrs. Lamar and Potter were 
 the only opponents of the arrangement with Santa Anna. 
 
 These treaties, for reasons that will appear hereafter, were 
 not popular in Texas ; but time has shown that President Bur- 
 net and his cabinet acted wisely. The rash and imprudent 
 course suggested by the opposition would have rendered Texas 
 obnoxious to the charge of inhumanity, aroused and united the 
 dormant spirit of Mexico, and — what was of priceless value 
 to Texas — deprived the latter of the active sympathies of the 
 
 * See Appendix No. Y. The first proposition for establishing the limits of 
 Texas was made by Jesse Grimes, in the convention at Washington: it proposed 
 the boundary afterward allowed. Houston, after leaving Washington to take 
 command of the army, had written back to James Collingsworth, chairman of 
 the military committee, to offer a resolution declaring Texas a portion of Louisi- 
 ana. The convention, however, took no action on the question of limits 
 
RedLEeld Pu^lisKei 
 Tslew York 
 
THE TREATIES — ARARM SUBSIDING. 
 
 157 
 
 civilized world. No nation lias ever suffered for being humane 
 and generous. In the nineteenth century, public opinion is 
 worth everything ; it is more than an armed host ; nor can any 
 nation long resist it. At that moment, when the eyes of the 
 world were upon the deliberations of the Texan government, 
 on Buffalo bayou, the slightest acts of cruelty or inhumanity 
 on her part would have withered her hopes for ever. But, 
 thanks to her good fortune and rising prospects, her better 
 counsels prevailed ; and, by those treaties, she won a brighter 
 and more glorious victory than that of San Jacinto — a victory 
 over herself and her own passions. From the remotest times, 
 the world has groaned under the tread of conquerors ; but how 
 few have learned the nobler lessons of humanity ! 
 
 In point of time, we will now return to other events. As 
 has already been stated, the alarm in eastern Texas, conse- 
 quent upon the approach of the invading army, subsided about 
 the 16th of April. General Gaona, at the head of a motley 
 host of Mexicans and Indians, did not debouche from the for- 
 ests of the upper Trinity, but was making his way from Bastrop 
 to San Felipe. Bolles, the Cherokee chief, indignant at the 
 supposed suspicion of his good faith and pacific intentions, sent 
 in his denial. Accordingly, the forces destined for the Texan 
 army set out on the march. On the 22d of April, three com- 
 panies left Robbins’s ferry on the Trinity, and on the 23d two 
 others followed for the same destination.* These, in addition 
 to those coming from the United States, would soon have pre- 
 sented a formidable army. But the news of the victory antici- 
 pated and turned many of them back. Despatches were sent 
 to eastern Texas, notifying them that the enemy were retreat- 
 ing for the purpose of concentrating, directing the troops to 
 
 * Letter of George P. Diggs, Acting Assistant Quartermaster-General, April 
 23 , 1836 . 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 turn out, and also desiring the people to plant corn.* Those 
 who had fled returned rapidly with their families to their de- 
 serted homes — very many, however, only to behold their dwel- 
 lings in ashes, and their stock and other property destroyed. 
 Such are the ravages of war — such the price a nation pays for 
 its liberty. 
 
 The intelligence of the victory of San Jacinto spread over 
 the United States with unexampled rapidity, and was received 
 with rejoicings, bonfires, public meetings, and congratulations, 
 not surpassed by the demonstrations attending the triumph at 
 New Orleans. It was their own offspring contending for the 
 rights, and showing the spirit of the mother, that gave them so 
 much joy. It must not be supposed, however, that Mexico 
 beheld this kindred feeling and sympathy with any kind of 
 patience. But the government of the United States took early 
 steps to preserve its neutrality. On the receipt of the news 
 of the battle at Gonzales, in 1835, letters were sent to the 
 district attorney of the United States at ^ew Orleans, and to 
 the governor of Louisiana, requesting the vigilant suppression 
 of any movements in violation of the neutral obligations of the 
 United States. Two days after these instructions were de- 
 spatched, Serior Castillo, the Mexican charge d’affaires at 
 Washington, gave information of some contemplated military 
 movements at New York and New Orleans in favor of Texas. f 
 The secretary of state, in reply to this,$ had an interview with 
 Senor Castillo, and explained to him the nature of the laws 
 and institutions of the United States on this subject, and stated 
 to him the views of President Jackson in the matter. On the 
 same day the secretary of state addressed letters to the district 
 
 * Secretary of War to the Troops and People of the East. Houston to the 
 6ame: April 26, 1836. 
 
 t Castillo to the Secretary of State of the United States, October 29, 1835. 
 
 \ November 4, 1835. 
 
NEUTRAL POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 159 
 
 attorneys of the United States at different points on the fron- 
 tier and seacoast, and instructed them particularly to prevent, 
 as far as they legally could do, any interference in the pending 
 contest between Mexico and her rebellious colonies. 
 
 On the 19th of November, of the same year, the secretary 
 of external relations in Mexico addressed a letter directly to 
 the secretary of state of the United States, complaining of such 
 interference on the part of the people of Louisiana in behalf 
 of the Texan cause. This letter was written in consequence 
 of the capture of the Mexican armed schooner Correo , Captain 
 Thompson, by the Texan vessel the San Felipe , Captain Hurd, 
 as previously related, in September, 1835. The secretary, in 
 his reply,* after explaining the character of the laws of the 
 United States, and stating the measures which had been taken 
 by that government to prevent a violation of the neutrality 
 laws, informed Senor Monasterio that the United States could 
 not be held responsible for the conduct of individuals, who left 
 her territory as such ; and that she could only proceed against 
 them when they went organized and in armed array. 
 
 It was in consequence of this exposition of the laws and 
 policy of the United States, that the Mexican government 
 adopted the decree (given on a previous page) declaring all 
 such intrusive foreigners to be pirates, to whom no quarter 
 should be given ; and in execution of which the bloody scenes 
 at Goliad and the Alamo were enacted. 
 
 In the meantime, Senor Gorostiza, having been accredited 
 as Mexican embassador to the government at Washington city, 
 complained of the movements of General Felix Huston, of 
 Natchez, and of the ladies of Nashville, in raising troops for 
 Texas. The American secretary of the state referred him to 
 instructions previously given to nearly all the United States 
 
 * Secretary of State of United States to Sefior Monasterio, January 29, 1836. 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 attorneys. The minister, in reply, rather doubted whether the 
 United States attorneys had performed their duty. He was 
 requested to point out an instance, and the delinquent should 
 be dismissed ; but he failed to do it.* Thus the government 
 of the United States did what it could to preserve its faith 
 with Mexico, and the people did what they could to aid Texas. 
 
 * Gorostiza to the Secretary of State, April 4, 1836; Secretary of State to 
 Gorostiza, April 9, 1836. Gorostiza to the Secretary of State, July 21, 1836 ; 
 Secretary of State to Gorostiza, July 26, 1836. 
 
FILISOLA AND THE MEXICAN RESERVE. 
 
 161 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 To return to the movements of General Filisola, now in com- 
 mand of the invading army. It seems that the destruction of 
 Vince’s bridge not only facilitated the capture of the enemy 
 who had crossed it, but prevented the main body from receiv- 
 ing information of the battle of the 21st of April until the 23d. 
 “ On the afternoon of the 23d,” says Filisola, “ I was conclu- 
 ding the operation of sending across the river the section with 
 which General Gaona was to march to Nacogdoches, when a 
 soldier of the frontier dragoons presented to me a small piece 
 of paper, written with a pencil, by Colonel Mariano Garcia, 
 first aide of Guerrero, in which he informed me of the unfortu- 
 nate occurrence of the afternoon of the 21st. A short time 
 after, some fugitives arrived, and among them Captain Miguel 
 Aguirre, of the Tampico regiment, wounded in the action in 
 the thigh, by a rifle-ball, who said that the defeat had been 
 perfect, and the existence of the president quite doubtful. 
 Such news made me immediately suspend the passage of the 
 river by the force that was to have gone with Gaona, and to 
 send a picket of cavalry in the direction of the battle-ground, 
 as much to acquire correct information of the actual fate of the 
 president, as to protect the fugitives who might have escaped. 
 But the enemy had burnt the bridge, which was the only road 
 for retreating ; and consequently the picket accomplished little 
 Vol. II. — 11 
 
162 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 or nothing in either respect, for all had been killed or made 
 prisoners. Alarm and discouragement was general among all 
 classes, for it was believed that all the prisoners, the president 
 included, would have been shot, as a reprisal for the conduct 
 observed with theirs at Bexar and Goliad.”* 
 
 Before day, on the 24th, the Mexicans had all reached the 
 right bank of the Brasos. Orders were immediately given to 
 retreat, and to concentrate at Mrs. Powell’s, on the road to 
 Victoria, and fifteen miles distant from Fort Bend. On the 
 25th, the divisions under Filisola, Gaona, Urrea, and Sesma, 
 all concentrated there. A council of war was holden, and it 
 was unanimously agreed that they should repass the Colorado, 
 establish communications with the capital, and await assistance 
 and advice. f Filisola had under his command four thousand 
 and seventy-eight men, if and stood more in need of provisions 
 than of additional troops. As had been predicted by the Texan 
 commander, the retreat and pursuit across the Brasos had ex- 
 hausted the enemy’s provisions. For many days they had not 
 eaten bread. The officers were in want of everything. Corn 
 was sold in the camp at twenty-two dollars per bushel, a loaf 
 of bread at three dollars, a pint of brandy at eight dollars ! 
 Moreover, the greater part of the soldiers were barefooted, 
 and wanting in clothing. Add to all this the alarm produced 
 by the report of the overwhelming defeat of Santa Anna, and 
 we have the reasons that operated upon the Mexican council 
 of war in favor of a retreat. Accordingly, on the 27th, they 
 marched from Mrs. Powell’s, intending to cross the Colorado 
 at Cayce’s ferry. They passed the first prong of the San Ber- 
 nard, and encamped that night “ without having a place to 
 stand on that was not covered with water.” Arriving at the 
 
 \ Filisola’s Defence, p. 39. f Filisola to Tornel, May 14, 1836. 
 
 \ Filisola’s Defence, p. 80 . 
 
RETREAT OF THE MEXICAN ARMY. 
 
 163 
 
 second prong, they found it not fordable. On the afternoon 
 of the 28th, Deaf Smith overtook them, and delivered to Gen- 
 eral Filisola the orders of Santa Anna of the 22d of April.* 
 But the Mexican general needed no command to retreat. He 
 was already hastening that operation. The rains were nearly 
 constant. The streams were all overflowing their banks, and 
 the foundations of the roads were broken up. Deaf Smith 
 represents the retreat as a flight — the way being strewn with 
 wagons, artillery, horses, and baggage, abandoned by the ene- 
 my. Finding they could not reach Cayce’s ferry, they turned 
 up to the Atasco sito crossing, and, after innumerable hard- 
 ships and privations, so feelingly described by Filisola in his 
 letter to Tornel, they passed the Colorada on the 9th of May, 
 and on the 14th arrived at Victoria. They there hastened to 
 find provisions, but in this they were partly disappointed. A 
 quart of corn was sold in camp for a dollar, and a pound-and- 
 a-half loaf for three dollars ! Filisola eomplains of the immense 
 amount of baggage with which he was encumbered, and like- 
 wise of the great number of mules and women in the train of 
 the army. 
 
 Colonel Alcerrica, who commanded a battalion of Mexicans 
 at Matagorda, as soon as he heard of Santa Anna’s defeat, with- 
 out waiting for orders, retreated by sea to Matamoras. Thus, 
 on the day the treaty was signed with Santa Anna at Velasco, 
 the whole of the Mexican army, who were not prisoners, were 
 on the Guadalupe, or west of it. It is proper also to state 
 that, as Filisola feared the news of his chief’s capture might 
 produce disturbances at Matamoras, or in its neighborhood, he 
 despatched General. Urrea with eight hundred troops directly 
 to that point. 
 
 * Filisolu’s Defence, p. 42. We follow Filisola here, who, in his account of 
 the retreat, can certainly be relied on. No enemy could make it worse. 
 
164 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 On the receipt of the order of Santa Anna of the 22d of 
 April, General Filisola, in reply, stated that he would repass 
 the Colorado, and cease hostilities, unless the Texans should 
 give occasion for their continuance. He likewise promised to 
 respect the property of the Texans on the route. But, inas- 
 much as Santa Anna did not state in his communications the 
 basis of the armistice therein named, Filisola despatched Gen- 
 eral Adrian Woll to the headquarters of the Texan army to 
 learn the particulars.* General Woll, bearing a flag of truce, 
 entered the Texan lines before he was known, or the nature 
 of his mission explained. He was conducted to the general-in- 
 chief, courteously received and treated, but detained as a pris- 
 oner, and consigned to the care of Major Teal. He appealed 
 to the flag he bore, and remonstrated with some indiscreetness 
 against such treatment. But, at that time, negotiations with 
 Santa Anna were pending ; it was known that the enemy’s 
 force had concentrated ; and it was important that General 
 Woll should be detained until these negotiations were con- 
 cluded, and the Mexican army safely across the Colorado. 
 This step appeared to be necessary, inasmuch as the immedi- 
 ate return of Woll, after observing the Texan camp, and con- 
 versing freely with Santa Anna, might have endangered the 
 consummation of the business on hand. It was desirable that 
 Texas should secure her rights, if possible, without a further 
 effusion of blood, and that the invading army should quietly 
 repass the Rio Grande ; for it was believed that if this object 
 could be effected, and time given for reflection, no army of like 
 force would ever again be sent from Mexico to Texas. Be- 
 sides, Texas desired repose ; she wanted time to plant corn, 
 and to recruit her impoverished garners. f 
 
 An advance was sent forward, under Colonel Burleson and 
 
 * Filisola to Santa Anna, April 28, 1836. \ Colonel Forbes’s Notes. 
 
SEPARATION OF HOUSTON AND THE ARMY. 
 
 165 
 
 Captain Karnes, to watch the motions of the enemy. Captain 
 Seguin also did good service in reporting the progress of the 
 retreat. These officers were instructed not to molest the 
 Mexicans, so long as they continued to retreat, and did not 
 encroach upon the citizens or their property.* On the 5th of 
 May, General Houston surrendered the command of the army 
 to Brigadier-General Busk, and the latter shortly afterward 
 moved up to Harrisburg. f From this point the Texans con- 
 tinued near the enemy, but strictly observing the articles of 
 the armistice. 
 
 The Mexican army having moved from Victoria to Goliad, 
 after being reinforced by the detachment of Andrade from San 
 Antonio, continued the retreat until the 26th of May, when, at 
 the Mugerero, it was overtaken by Colonel Benjamin F. Smith 
 and Captain Henry Teal, commissioners, sent with the public 
 treaty of the 14th of May, with full authority to ratify it on 
 the part of General Rusk, and to ask its ratification on the part 
 of General Filisola. General Tolsa and Colonel Amat having 
 been appointed commissioners on the part of the latter com- 
 mander, the papers were duly examined, and the agreement 
 
 * Order to Karnes, May 3, 1836. 
 
 f Extract from General Houston’s order of May 5, 1836 : — 
 
 “Comrades: Circumstances connected with the battle of the 21st render our 
 separation for the present unavoidable. I need not express to you the many 
 painful sensations which that necessity inflicts upon me. I am solaced, however, 
 by the hope that we will soon be reunited in the great cause of liberty. Briga- 
 dier-General Rusk is appointed to the command of the army for the present. I 
 confide in his valor, his patriotism, and his wisdom. His conduct in the battle 
 of San Jacinto was sufficient to insure your confidence and regard. The enemy, 
 though retreating, are still within the limits of Texas. Their situation being 
 
 known to you, you can not be taken by surprise In taking leave of my 
 
 brave comrades-in-arms, I can not suppress the expression of that pride which I 
 so justly feel in having had the honor to command them in person ; nor will I 
 withhold the tribute of my warmest admiration and gratitude for the prompt- 
 ness with which my orders were executed, and union maintained through the 
 army.” 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ratified by the respective commissioners, and approved by Gen- 
 eral Filisola. These matters being adjusted, the latter con- 
 tinued his retreat toward the Rio Grande. 
 
 It is not our purpose to enter into the controversy between 
 the generals of the retreating army. The position of Filisola 
 was most unenviable. He foresaw that the storm of disap- 
 pointment would fall upon his head, whatever he might do ; 
 nor would his situation, and the absolute want of provisions, 
 enable him to do much. His official letter, conveying the sad 
 news of the great battle, and the capture of the president, 
 reached the Mexican capital on the 15th of May. It was im- 
 mediately answered by Tornel, secretary of war and marine. 
 Filisola was directed to address the Texan general, “ exacting 
 from him, by decorous means, the liberty of the president gen- 
 eral-in-chief, or at least, during the time this point should be 
 arranged, the consideration due to his high dignity.” He was 
 further directed to use all his efforts to save the remainder of- 
 the army, by concentrating it in some place convenient for pro- 
 visions. He was further instructed that the preservation of 
 Bexar was of “ absolute necessity.” And, in spite of the de- 
 cree declaring the Texans taken with arms in their hands to 
 be pirates , he was authorized to “ propose exchanges, and to 
 preserve for that purpose, because humanity required it, the 
 lives of the prisoners made, and that might be made, from the 
 enemy.”* When Filisola received that letter, the treaty with 
 Santa Anna had already been ratified by him, Bexar had been 
 already evacuated, and the Mexican army was marching on 
 half-rations or less beyond the Neuces. As to provisions, the 
 little navy of Texas had picked up the supply forwarded from 
 New Orleans, and the merchants there would risk no more.f 
 The Mexican government having received, through General 
 * Tornel to Filisola, May 15, 1836. f Filisola to Tornel, May 31, 1836. 
 
ACTION OF THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT. 
 
 167 
 
 Filisola, the armistice agreed to between Houston and Santa 
 Anna, approved the conduct of Filisola in its observance ; but 
 at the same time stated that they desired the latter to “ act 
 with extreme caution, and, while he endeavored not to com- 
 promit, in any manner, the life of the illustrious general Santa 
 Anna, he should also avoid pledging the honor of the nation.” 
 It was a knotty point — the government could not resolve it; 
 but, while they forbade anything like an acknowledgment of 
 Texan independence, which they declared the nation never 
 would agree to, they left all to the discretion of Filisola, and 
 again reminded him how deeply they were interested in the 
 salvation of Santa Anna.* 
 
 Subsequently recovering, however, from the consternation 
 produced by the blow given, the central authorities urged Fili- 
 sola to retreat no farther, but await reinforcements, as they 
 would soon despatch four thousand additional troops by water 
 from Vera Cruz to Matamoras. But it was too late: Filisola 
 did not like Texas ; he pronounced it a country of “ mud and 
 sand,” and left it. Nor did the reinforcement arrive. 
 
 The government of the United States was not satisfied with 
 mere diplomatic letters, but was to some extent affected by 
 the proximity of these contending forces. General Edmund 
 P. Gaines was intrusted with the command of the southwestern 
 military division of the United States. He felt a deep and 
 earnest sympathy for Texas, and was only prevented by his 
 position from taking part in her behalf. His instructions for- 
 bade his advancing beyond the territory then in the possession 
 of the American Union, unless the Indians were employed im- 
 mediately upon the border, or unless armed parties of the bel- 
 ligerents should approach the frontier so near as manifestly to 
 show that they meant to violate the territory of the United 
 
 * Tornel to Filisola, May 15, 1836 (second of that date). 
 
168 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 States. But if the Indians should engage in the war, or cir- 
 cumstances should distinctly show the necessity of crossing the 
 possessory boundary 'for the protection of the country adjoining 
 the scene of operations in Texas, then he should cross that 
 boundary, which was the Sabine, making known to any armed 
 parties the object of such step. At the same time he was in- 
 structed in no event to co-operate with either party, or suffer 
 them to join him. And, should he pass that boundary, he was 
 ordered to return as soon as circumstances would permit.* 
 Under these instructions, General Gaines, after ordering the 
 sixth regiment of infantry from Jefferson Barracks to Fort 
 Jesup, came in person to the frontier. There he received in- 
 telligence from General John T. Mason, of Nacogdoches, of 
 the warlike attitude of the Indians, and their reported com- 
 bined movement. He therefore immediately despatched Lieu- 
 tenant Bonnell to the Caddo villages, to persuade them to 
 peace. Bonnell found that Manuel Flores, a Mexican agent, 
 had been among them, exerting every effort to induce them to 
 declare war against Texas. Gaines, in the meantime, had 
 advanced with fourteen companies to the borders of the Sa- 
 bine. f Further to strengthen himself, he made a requisition 
 upon the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, 
 for a brigade each of volunteers, and upon the governor of 
 Alabama for a battalion. To appreciate the apparent neces- 
 sity for these forces, we must recur to the information (then 
 believed to be true) in General Gaines’s possession. General 
 Mason, then commandant of the militia of Nacogdoches, sent 
 him an express, which reached him at Natchitoches, on the 
 night of the 13th of April, informing him “ of the concentra- 
 tion of a large number of Indians about sixty miles from Nac- 
 
 * Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, to Edmund P. Gaines, May 12, 1836. 
 
 f Letter of J. Bonnell, May 5, 1836. 
 
MOVEMENT OF AMERICAN TROOPS. 
 
 169 
 
 ogdoches, and thirty miles north of the San Antonio road ; 
 that one thousand mounted Mexicans were with them, and that 
 their combined force was at least twenty-five hundred men.” 
 He was further informed by Mr. Dart, the bearer of the ex- 
 press, that there were at least three hundred families between 
 the Trinity and the Neelies, who would fall into the hands of 
 the enemy ; and that Nacogdoches and its vicinity had already 
 been abandoned by the families there resident.* Under these 
 circumstances, he made the requisition for troops, as before 
 related, and took his position on the western verge of the neu- 
 tral ground. After the news of the signal victory of the 21st 
 of April, there seemed to be no further necessity for the stay 
 of General Gaines on the banks of the Sabine, for the Indians 
 were then ready to take sides with the whites; and the Mexi- 
 cans under Gaona were retreating rapidly upon Matamoras. 
 
 This movement of American troops was made known to the 
 Mexican government by President Jackson himself. Goros- 
 tiza, the Mexican minister, having called on him, the subject 
 of Santa Anna’s cruelty came up in conversation. Gorostiza 
 alleged that it was necessary to the consolidation of the dicta- 
 tor’s liberal policy that rebel blood should be sacrificed. Jack- 
 son replied that it was a sacrifice of American blood. “ True, 
 your excellency,” said the minister, “ but among the candi- 
 dates for land, we could not discriminate.” — “ Well, well,” 
 answered the president, “ but Santa Anna, and all others, will 
 find such immolations very unsavory and indigestible. The 
 
 * Samuel P. Carson, Texan Secretary of State, to Sam Houston, April 14, 1836. 
 Carson also says to the Texan commander: “My view is, that you should fall 
 hack, if necessary , to the Sabine. I am warranted in saying that volunteer 
 
 troops will come on in numbers from the United States You must fall 
 
 back, and hold out, and let nothing goad or provoke you to a battle, unless you 
 can, without doubt , whip them, or unless you are compelled to fight.” Had 
 Houston taken all the advice that w r as given him, he would have been, in his 
 own language, “in the situation of the ass between the two stacks of hay!” 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Americans will never submit to that system. It is my duty to 
 preserve neutrality ; and, with that view, I have ordered Gen- 
 eral Gaines to a position favorable to a speedy execution of 
 the boundary treaty, and to prevent interference with the In- 
 dian s. ,, As Mexico had at that time her agents among the 
 Indians, and her minister knew that Jackson was aware of it, 
 the last reply was significant. 
 
 Though there was much that was not true in regard to the 
 reports of the Indian movements in eastern Texas, there is no 
 doubt but that the savages were collected in large numbers on 
 the frontier, were greatly excited, and that nothing but the 
 defeat of the Mexicans prevented them from making an attack 
 upon the settlements. As it was, they did not disperse with- 
 out committing an act of barbarism. On the 19th of May, 
 1836, about nine o’clock in the morning, several hundred of 
 them arrived at Fort Parker, on the head-waters of the Nava- 
 soto, about sixty miles above the settlements. The fort was 
 at that time occupied by six men and several women and chil- 
 dren. Four other men, belonging to the fort, had gone out to 
 the field to work. The Indians presented a white flag, and 
 sent two of their number to the fort, to say that they were 
 friendly, and desired to treat. One of the inmates, Benjamin 
 Parker, went out to see the main body of the Indians, but soon 
 returned and reported unfavorably. However, he went out a 
 second time, hoping to make peace, but was surrounded and 
 killed. Those in the fort attempted to fly, but the most of 
 them were cruelly massacred, and their bodies mutilated. The 
 fort was then plundered, and the savages retreated, with some 
 of the women and children as prisoners.* 
 
 * Narrative of Rachel Plummer, p. 5. Letter of G. W. Browning, May 23, 1836. 
 Many have read the touching narrative of Mrs. Plummes, and the many wan- 
 derings of her father,. James W. Parker, in search of his daughter and her son. 
 
OPPOSITION TO SANTA ANNA’S RELEASE. 
 
 171 
 
 We will now return to the Texan cabinet at Velasco. In 
 pursuance of the provisions of the treaty with Santa Anna, the 
 Texan authorities were making arrangements to send their 
 captive to Vera Cruz. Accordingly, on the 1st of June, the 
 dictator and his suite, consisting of Colonel Almonte, Colonel 
 Nunes, and his private secretary Caro, went on board the armed 
 schooner Invincible , commanded by Captain J. Brown. Lo- 
 renzo de Zavala, the vice-president, and Bailey Hardiman, the 
 secretary of the treasury, being selected as commissioners, un- 
 der the treaty, to accompany Santa Anna to Mexico, were pre- 
 paring to embark ; but on that day (the 1st of June), General 
 Thomas J. Green, with two hundred and thirty volunteers, ar- 
 rived on board the steamer “ Ocean” from New Orleans. The 
 opposition to the release of Santa Anna, which had been for 
 some time gaining strength, was greatly increased by the arri- 
 val of these volunteers. Public meetings were held, and vio- 
 lent speeches made against the measure.* “ In this state of 
 things,” says General Green, “ President Burnet addressed 
 me a note, requesting an interview, and asking my opinion in 
 this emergency. I told him that, as to any violence being 
 offered to him or his cabinet, I pledged my honor to shield 
 him and them with my life ; but that I was of opinion that, in 
 accordance with the overwhelming public will of the citizens 
 of the country, he should remand the prisoner ashore, and 
 await the public will to determine his fate. The president 
 promptly replied that he would do so.”f Accordingly, he 
 issued an order to Captain Brown to bring the prisoners on 
 shore. Santa Anna, who had gone on board the vessel by 
 
 * President Barnet’s Address, No. 3. 
 
 f Green’s Mier Expedition (Appendix No. IX.), p. 484. President Burnet 
 and General Green differ somewhat as to this matter. The former does not 
 state that he called upon the latter for his advice, though this may have been 
 done, without being noticed in the address. 
 
172 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 order of the government, and on the faith of the treaty which 
 had been solemnly signed by both parties, and who, with the 
 knowledge of the government, had published a short farewell 
 to the Texan army,* positively refused to debark. The presi- 
 dent then appointed Messrs. Smith, Hardiman, Hunt, and Hen- 
 derson, to wait upon the prisoners, make known the will of the 
 government, and bring them ashore. This was accordingly 
 done, and they were landed at the village of Quintana, oppo- 
 site to Velasco. 
 
 On the same day, but probably after the prisoners had been 
 brought on shore, President Burnet received from certain offi- 
 cers of the army, purporting to act for themselves and the sol- 
 diers under them, a strange document. It is proper to state 
 that, on the 11th of May, General Houston had sailed on board 
 the “ Flora” for New Orleans, to procure better medical aid and 
 comfort for his wounded limb than could be had in the camp ; 
 and that previous to his departure he left an address to the 
 troops on Galveston island and those that should afterward 
 arrive, urging “ obedience to the constituted authorities and 
 laws of the country as the first duty of a soldier ; that it would 
 adorn his martial virtues, and qualify him for the highest rights 
 of citizenship.”! But those who signed and assented to this 
 address to President Burnet, forgetting or disregarding this 
 salutary advice, and while they declared that they abhorred 
 the idea of interfering in the management of the government, 
 assumed to dictate to it, and to claim its control ! “ We shall 
 
 * Farewell of Santa Anna to the Texan army: — 
 
 “ My Friends : I have been a witness of your courage in the field of battle, 
 and know you to be generous. Rely with confidence on my sincerity, and you 
 shall never have cause to regret the kindness shown me. In returning to my 
 native land, I beg you to receive the thanks of your grateful friend. Farewell! 
 
 “Ant®. Lopez de Santa Anna. 
 
 “ Velasco, June 1, 1836.” 
 
 f Houston’s Address, May 11, 1836. 
 
ADDRESS TO PRESIDENT BURNETT. 
 
 173 
 
 not, however, address you,” say they, “ in that spirit of irrita- 
 tion and indignation which pervades every one in this army, 
 but in the tone which should ever characterize the intercourse 
 between the ruling parties in a country.”* After setting forth 
 their privations and want of provisions, they continue: “And 
 to whom are we to charge these injuries ? Surely to you, as 
 the president of this republic ! It was your duty to have paid 
 particular attention to the army ; to have inquired out their 
 wants, and relieved them. It was surely your duty to have 
 caused provisions, at least, to have been furnished, and to have 
 dropped all other matters until this was done ; and you will 
 not be surprised to learn that the indignation and exasperation 
 of the army is now very great at the total failure to pay atten- 
 tion to them, and the consequences may be serious if redress 
 is not had. And we now require that this army be immedi- 
 ately furnished with a sufficiency of such provisions and clothes 
 as the public may possess or can be procured In con- 
 
 clusion,” say they, “ we repeat to you, General Santa Anna 
 must be safely secured , and placed at the disposition of the 
 coming Congress.” 
 
 The poor president ! what could he do ? The government 
 was as destitute as the army. He doubtless felt grateful to 
 the troops for their heroic services, but the new republic had 
 no treasury, and his private means were limited. “At the 
 time of my visit to Velasco,” says Colonel Forbes, “in May, 
 1836, the president’s style and manner of living were most 
 simple. His residence was but little more than a mere shanty. 
 His amiable and accomplished lady, without any servants or 
 hired help, superintended and managed in person her domestic 
 arrangements ; and their household and table comforts were 
 
 * Address to President Burnet from “Encampment at Victoria,” May 26, 
 1836. 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 sufficiently sparse and limited to have called forth the admira- 
 tion of the Spartan lawgiver.” 
 
 Yet the address in question had been presented to the presi- 
 dent — the military had usurped the civil authority. The good 
 faith of Texas, in the first treaty she ever made, was broken 
 and trampled under foot — not by the government, but by the 
 army — a matter of painful foreboding to President Burnet. 
 
 “ Landing at Quintana, upon the western bank,” says General 
 Green, “ we met President Burnet, and surrendered the pris- 
 oner to him. The president turned to me and said, ‘ General 
 Green, I deliver the prisoner over to your charge, and shall 
 hold you responsible for his safe keeping.’ ”* This is the 
 statement of General Green ; but it appears, from a letter writ- 
 ten by the president to him on the 1st of July, 1836, that he 
 only requested him to point out a suitable officer to take charge 
 of Santa Anna ; and General Green named Captain Hubbell, 
 in whose custody the prisoner was placed by the president-! 
 
 * Mier Expedition, Appendix IX., p. 486. 
 
 \ Extract from “ El Curreo Atlantico ” of New Orleans: — 
 
 “ Velasco, June 4 , 1836 . 
 
 “ We arrived at Galveston on the 30th of May, and on the 2d of June were 
 ordered to repair to this place, where we arrived on the same evening, on board 
 the ‘Ocean.’ We found the place in great confusion in consequence of the cabi- 
 net having sent Santa Anna on board of a vessel to seud him home, for the pur- 
 pose of having a treaty ratified which was made by them. The people were 
 opposed to his going, but had not an individual commissioned to be their leader. 
 On the morning of the 3d instant, I came forward as their leader, and formed 
 my company equipped for service, and sent to the cabinet to have him [Santa 
 Anna] and his suite brought on shore. There was at first some objection, but 
 they at last complied, and I now have him and suite in my charge. He was 
 delivered over to me to-night, and I am at this time on duty with a strong guard 
 under my command. General Cos, and four or five hundred Mexicans, are still 
 on Galveston island as prisoners. “H. A. Hubbell.” 
 
 “ Executive Department, Velasco, July 1 , 1836 . 
 
 “ To Brigadier - General Thomas J. Green : — 
 
 “Sir: I enclose you a copy of a letter found in ‘ El Correo Atlantico' and 
 published originally in the ‘New Orleans Bulletin.’ 
 
 “This redoubtable * leader’ is, I presume, the same you introduced to me as a 
 
SANTA ANNA NOT RELEASED — GENERAL AUSTIN. 175 
 
 On the 9th of June, Santa Anna sent in his protest against 
 the conduct of Texas in breaking the treaty, particularly in 
 respect to his debarkation and reconfinement. On the follow- 
 ing day the protest was answered by President Burnet, who, 
 in reference to the last particular, was bound in truth to make 
 the humiliating confession that Texas had not complied with 
 that portion of the treaty, but was prevented by “ the influence 
 of a highly-excited popular indignation.” The facts were all 
 known to Santa Anna : the Texan government was powerless, 
 and he saw it.* 
 
 The interest felt for Texas by the people of the United 
 States, and the material aid by them furnished, were greatly 
 increased through the influence of the distinguished agents sent 
 there. General Austin was particularly successful ; his long 
 services in Texas, and his known truthfulness and simplicity 
 of character, gave great weight to what he said. Though not 
 an orator, he spoke with clearness and judgment, and enforced 
 his positions with facts that were irresistible. His address at 
 Louisville, which was widely published, presented the claims 
 of Texas upon the civilized world for sympathy and aid in such 
 manner as to bring her both.f “ Austin is doing wonders 
 among us for his country ,” says a sensible writer of Virginia ; 
 “ he is a Franklin in patience and prudence.’ 5 f 
 
 The changed condition of affairs, however, required other 
 
 confidential officer, to whom the custody of the prisoners might be committed 
 with perfect safety. If he had then been known as the author of the letter en* 
 closed (in which it is difficult to determine whether impudence or falsehood 
 predominates), he certainly would never have borne a commission in the service 
 of Texas, with the approbation of this government. You will please to signify 
 this to Captain Hubbell, whose speedy resignation would be very cheerfully 
 accepted, and would save me the trouble of a more peremptory suggestion. 
 
 “Your obedient servant, David G. Burnet.” 
 
 * President Burnet’s Address, No. 5. 
 
 \ Austin’s Address, March 7, 1836. Holly’s Texas, p. 268. 
 
 X Letter of A. M'Call, May 24, 1836. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 agents, with power to act upon different matters. The excite- 
 ment of the 21st of April had scarcely abated on the battle- 
 field, before the desire for annexation to the United States 
 arose in every bosom ; and as the victory gave rise to hope, so 
 was the desire strengthened. In accordance with this univer- 
 sal wish, James Collingsworth and Peter W. Grayson were, 
 on the 30th of May, appointed by President Burnet commis- 
 sioners to proceed to the city of Washington, and obtain access 
 to the executive of the American government, presenting them- 
 selves as duly empowered to ask the friendly mediation of that 
 power in procuring the recognition by Mexico of the indepen- 
 dence of Texas, and to use their best efforts in obtaining a like 
 recognition on the part of the United States. They were also 
 instructed to state that, in the opinion of the Texan govern- 
 ment, the annexation of their republic to the American Union, 
 as a member of that confederacy, would be highly acceptable 
 to the people of the former. And, should the authorities at 
 Washington city appear to listen kindly to those matters, in- 
 quiries might be made as to the terms on which they would 
 accept Texas. At the same time the commissioners were to 
 point out what the latter would consider indispensable condi- 
 tions : 1. Her laws then in force should be respected and held 
 valid. 2. All bona-fide land-titles to be held sacred, and all 
 entitled to lands to receive them. 3. Slave-property to be re- 
 spected. 4. Texans owing debts contracted previous to their 
 immigration, to have a specified time for the payment thereof. 
 5. Liberal appropriations of land to be made for educational 
 purposes. 6. All forfeitures and confiscations to remain as 
 found by annexation. 
 
 It appears that, immediately after the treaty of Velasco was 
 known at Washington city, there was in the American Con- 
 gress a general feeling in favor of the acknowledgment of Texan 
 
ANNEXATION FEELING IN 1836. 
 
 177 
 
 independence, and also to have the republic annexed to the 
 Union. General Austin, writing from New Orleans, on the 
 16th of June, 1836, says : “ I shall do all I can to procure the 
 annexation of Texas to the United States, on just and fair 
 principles The first step is, a recognition of our inde- 
 
 pendence ; that done, the way is clear and open. If official 
 reports in manuscript of all the principal facts in regard to the 
 political and military state of things in Texas had been sent 
 by the executive government of Texas to their agents at Wash- 
 ington, I could now have had the recognition of our indepen- 
 dence to take home. Nothing but the want of such official 
 documents was wanted when I left Washington.* I believe 
 that a report from you, signed by yourself, would have been 
 fully sufficient. There were no accounts of the battle of San 
 Jacinto, except those in the newspapers.” 
 
 The new commissioners set out on their journey to the Uni- 
 ted States. The Texan army, having followed the retreating 
 enemy as far as Goliad, collected the bones of those who had 
 been massacred, and buried them with military honors. They 
 then returned to Victoria. General Houston arrived at New 
 Orleans on the 22d of May, and remained until his wound was 
 sufficiently recovered,! when he returned to Texas by way of 
 San Augustine, which point he reached on the 5th of July. 
 
 Various speculations were had in Texas as to the value of 
 Santa Anna, and the effect of his detention on the Mexican 
 nation. One thing, however, was beginning to be tolerably 
 
 * General Austin left Washington city on the 24th of May. — Austin to Hous- 
 ton , June 16, 1836. General Austin concludes his letter thus : “lam of opinion 
 that our independence will be acknowledged, and that Texas will be admitted 
 into these United States, if they are regularly asked for.” 
 
 f Houston to Lamar, dated New Orleans, June 4, 1836: “My wound has im- 
 proved. Some twenty or more pieces of bone have been taken out of it My 
 general health seems to improve slowly. It is only within the last four or five 
 days that I have been enabled to sit up any portion of the day.” 
 
 Vol. II. — 12 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 clear — that the longer he was kept, the less would be his 
 value to Texas ; so that even those who were willing to violate 
 a solemn treaty, began to wish him disposed of. At home, he 
 was but the head of the central party. The federalists, his 
 opponents, the most enlightened portion of the Mexicans, de- 
 sired anything rather than his return. In his absence, they 
 were every day gaining power. The president pro tempore , 
 Jose J. Corro, made known the captivity of Santa Anna by a 
 proclamation to the nation. He declared that the national 
 grief was immense, but it would not be useless ; that, for the 
 liberty of the president, and for the honor of the nation, the 
 government would raise all possible resources. Unabated 
 efforts were made to raise another army. The pro-tempore 
 government was in favor of continuing Filisola in the chief 
 command, but the officers clamored for his removal, and the 
 appointment of Urrea. At length, the latter received the com- 
 mand, and made his headquarters at Matamoras. It was un- 
 derstood that troops were to be sent by water to land some- 
 where on the coast of Texas, and that others were to come by 
 land to concentrate at Matamoras. Accordingly, about the 
 middle of July, four thousand troops under General Urrea, 
 with General Andrade as second in command, had assembled 
 at that town. But they were in a condition so wretched as in 
 every way to render them unfit to march. Most of them were 
 without discipline, and destitute of clothing or provisions. In 
 addition to this, serious domestic troubles were about to begin 
 in the nation. The centralists were trembling on the seat of 
 power ; some of the states had already proclaimed in favor of 
 federalism, and others were on the point of doing so ; and thus 
 the invasion of Texas was postponed. 
 
 To add to the confusion in Mexico, there appeared, about 
 this time, in the capital, a pamphlet, entitled “ The Trial of 
 
179 
 
 “THE TRIAL OP SANTA ANNA.” 
 
 Santa Anna.” It was written with spirit, and arraigned him 
 before the bar of public opinion, setting forth with truthful 
 detail his political career. The following may be given as a 
 specimen : “ Don Antonio, like Icarus, in attempting to soar 
 too high, was precipitated into the abyss below. We would 
 ask, who is this protector of religion ? A man loaded with 
 vice in all its forms. The particular attribute of religion is 
 charity ; it knows not how to cause evil or pain to any one. 
 Nevertheless, Don Antonio has shown himself vicious by in- 
 stinct ! He rose successively against Iturbide, Victoria, Bus- 
 tamente, and Gomez Farias : no commotion occurred in which 
 he did not take an active part. His aim was always disorder, 
 and for no other purpose than the satisfaction of disturbing the 
 public tranquillity. We have seen him at one time for the 
 Yorkists, and at another for the Scotch. . . . The pretensions 
 of this monster have caused the death of many citizens at Vera 
 Cruz, Tolome, Oajaca, El Palmar, Puebla, Posados, Casa Blanca, 
 Otumba, Queretaro, Guanajuato, San Luis, Los Carmelos, Za- 
 catecas, &c. At the time of the presumptuous campaign of 
 Tampico, he put to death, without any cause, a number of 
 Mexicans ; and now, in Texas, he has given cause to horrible 
 reprisals by his inhuman conduct. If it were possible to pile 
 one upon the other the bodies of the dead, whose untimely 
 end has been promoted by General Santa Anna, they would 
 doubtless form a mountain higher than that of Popocatepetl ! 
 — and we would say to his flatterers, ‘ Behold a monument 
 erected to humanity and the protector of religion /’ ” 
 
 The very fact that such a pamphlet had a wide circulation 
 in Mexico, or that it was permitted to circulate at all, was evi- 
 idence of the dictator’s declining power. The Texans, how- 
 ever, were preparing to meet the invading force under Urrea. 
 That the enemy were in earnest about a second invasion, there 
 
180 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 can be no doubt. And, to this end, they endeavored to keep 
 the Texans from obtaining any information of their doings at 
 Matamoras. The commissioners who proceeded there under 
 the treaty were arrested and detained until it was too late for 
 the Texans to prepare for defence. General Rusk, however, 
 was advised of the threatened danger, and issued an order, 
 announcing the advance of the enemy, calling in those absent 
 on furlough, and ordering drafts to headquarters.* Again, on 
 the 27th of June, he issued a stirring address to the people of 
 Texas, summoning them to the field. 
 
 It was on the 29th of May that General Rusk ordered Major 
 Isaac W. Burton, commanding a company of mounted rangers, 
 to scour the coast from the Guadalupe to Refugio. The com- 
 pany consisted of but twenty men, though well mounted and 
 armed. On the 2d of June, they received news of a suspicious 
 vessel in the bay of Copano. By the break of day the next 
 morning they were in ambush on the beach, and at eight 
 o’clock a signal was made for the vessel to send its boat 
 ashore, which was promptly answered, and five of the enemy 
 landed from the boat. These were made prisoners, and the 
 boat manned by sixteen of Burton’s rangers, who took the 
 vessel — the “Watchman” — loaded with provisions expressly 
 for the Mexican army. The vessel was ordered round to Ve- 
 lasco, but, being detained by contrary winds till the 17th of 
 June, the “ Camanchc” and the “ Fanny Butler,” also freighted 
 with provisions for the enemy, anchored off the bar. The cap- 
 tain of the “ Watchman” was made to decoy the commanders 
 of the other vessels on board his own, when they also were 
 captured, and all three, with their valuable freights, sent into 
 the port of Velasco and condemned. From these bold achieve- 
 ments, Major Burton and his rangers were known as the horse - 
 
 * Order from Victoria, June 17, 1836. 
 
SANTA ANNA’S APPEAL TO GENERAL JACKSON. 181 
 
 marines. The freight, worth some twenty-five thousand dol- 
 lars, was of great service in supporting the Texan army.* 
 Thus passed away the month of June, with little else of a 
 public character to be noted. The Texans, fully persuaded 
 that there would be a renewal of the war, were prepared for 
 it. The enemy essayed, indeed, to recommence it ; but, for 
 want of union, means, and, above all, a head, they failed to 
 advance. 
 
 General Austin returned to Texas in the first days of July, 
 and visited Santa Anna in Columbia (whither the latter had 
 been taken). The prisoner now made another effort toward 
 an adjustment of the difficulties between the two countries. 
 He proposed to Austin the friendly mediation of the govern- 
 ment of the United States,! and, with that view, addressed a 
 letter to President Jackson. J In this communication, after 
 giving a pretty correct sketch of recent events, he stated that 
 the home government of Mexico, not understanding matters, 
 had displaced Filisola, and appointed Urrea to the command 
 of the army, who had advanced, as was understood, as far as 
 the Nueces, which had increased the excitement of the public 
 mind in Texas, and the chance of further bloodshed, unless 
 some powerful hand would interpose and cause the voice of 
 reason to be heard ; that in his opinion Jackson was the only 
 man who could do good to humanity by acting as mediator in 
 having the treaties carried out. He accordingly called upon 
 him to act as such. At the same time he wrote a letter to 
 Urrea, and gave it as his opinion that the war should at once 
 cease, and that the existing differences should be settled by 
 diplomacy ; that Urrea should halt at some convenient place, 
 
 * “Telegraph,” August 2, 1836. 
 
 f Burnet to Collingsworth and Grayson, July 8, 1886. 
 
 t Santa Anna to Jackson, July 4, 1886. 
 
182 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and proceed no farther; “and then,” continued Santa Anna, 
 “ I have not the least doubt that so soon as you officially say 
 to the Texan commander that, 4 so soon as my person will be 
 in absolute liberty to join you, then you will retreat, beyond the 
 Rio Grande, and cease hostilities/ I shall effect my departure 
 to join you, and proceed on my way to the capital.” He fur- 
 ther stated to Urrea that he need not regard the orders sent 
 from Mexico ; for that, as soon as he received his liberty and 
 reached the capital, he would hold him harmless. This was 
 an ingenious thought, and seemed to carry with it some idea 
 of sincerity. 
 
 At the same time, General Austin wrote to General Houston, 
 stating that it was very desirable that General Gaines should 
 establish his headquarters at Nacogdoches, and recommended 
 Houston to use his influence for effecting that object. “ And,” 
 continued he, 44 if he would visit this place, and give the people 
 assurances of the good faith of Santa Anna” — that is, if he 
 was satisfied of the fact after seeing him — he (General Austin) 
 thought it would have a decided influence in paving the way 
 to end the war.* 
 
 General Houston received this letter at Sublett’s, on the 
 25th of July, and referred it to General Gaines, merely adding 
 that such a step would save Texas. The letter from Santa 
 Anna to President Jackson was transmitted through General 
 Gaines ; and, in order that the Texan agents at Washington 
 city might be properly advised, copies of the public and secret 
 treaty were sent to them. They were also put in possession 
 of the movements of the Indians ; and General Gaines was like- 
 wise fully advised of their employment by the Mexicans as 
 auxiliaries in the war.f General Houston again addressed 
 
 * Austin to Houston, July 4, 1836. 
 
 \ Burnet to Collingsworth and Grayson, July 8, 1836. 
 
DISAFFECTION IN THE TEXAN ARMY. 
 
 183 
 
 General Gaines on the 13tli of July, enclosing the statements 
 of P. J. Menard and Miguel Cortimas, in relation to the hos- 
 tile movements of the Indians. 
 
 In the meantime, General Gaines, induced by these threat- 
 ened hostilities, made a second requisition upon the southwest- 
 ern states for volunteers. The enemy at Matamoras had made 
 three attempts to advance upon Texas, but, for some cause, 
 had as often failed. The failure was said to have been occa- 
 sioned by desertions. It is probable that the letter of Santa 
 Anna to Urrea had some effect upon these operations. Urrea 
 dared not obey any order coming from him ; yet he did not 
 know how soon Santa Anna might regain power, and he was 
 afraid to disoblige him. 
 
 The Texan army, now grown to twenty-three hundred strong, 
 was likely to get into great confusion. Having at that time 
 but little to do, each one was engaged in his own projects. 
 General Houston, yet at Nacogdoches, could only give his 
 advice by letter. General Rusk doubtless did what he could 
 to preserve order ; but there were too many who wished the 
 command. An eye-witness says, “ There were very few above 
 the rank of captain who did not aspire to be commander-in- 
 chief !” To add to the confusion, the executive and cabinet, 
 about the first of July, appointed Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar 
 major-general of the army. He reached headquarters on the 
 14th of that month. The account of his reception we give 
 from General Felix Huston, who had shortly before arrived 
 with a considerable force : — 
 
 “ I arrived at the army on the 4th of July. I had no ac- 
 quaintance with General Rusk, or any of the officers, except 
 Adjutant-General Smith, Colonel Millard, and Captains Mill- 
 roy and Wiggington, all of whom I had known but a day or 
 two. I mention this to show that I was detached from the 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 intrigues of the army, even were I capable of entering into the 
 disgraceful contests for office, which are so often the bane of 
 order and discipline. 
 
 “ A few hours after my arrival I was waited on by an officer, 
 who requested me to act as chairman of a meeting of officers, 
 convened for the purpose of determining on the reception of 
 General Lamar. I accepted the appointment. At the meet- 
 ing many suggestions were made, and I obtained much infor- 
 mation that was new to me. All present appeared to estimate 
 General Lamar highly, but were disposed to reject him as com- 
 mander-in-chief, upon the grounds that the cabinet had no right 
 to supersede General Sam Houston, and because they would 
 not consent to the destruction of General Rusk, which they 
 deemed to be the object of the cabinet in making the appoint- 
 ment. Seeing the disposition of the officers, and having a high 
 opinion of General Lamar from character, I suggested the pro- 
 priety of appointing a committee to draft resolutions, as re- 
 spectful as possible to him. The suggestion was adopted, and 
 I was added to the committee. When the committee met, I 
 exerted my influence to have the resolutions so drawn, that 
 General Lamar’s feelings should not be wounded ; that he 
 should see that the objections to his appointment were not per- 
 sonal to him, but that, on the contrary, all the officers esteemed 
 him highly. The committee adopted my plan. . . . General 
 Rusk had no connection whatever with the meeting or resolu- 
 tions.* 
 
 * “Resolved, That this meeting highly appreciate the gallantry and worth of 
 General Lamar, and will be at all times ready to receive him with the cordiality 
 and respect due to his personal and military acquirements. 
 
 “ Resolved, That Colonel B. F. Smith and Colonel H. Millard be appointed a 
 committee to wait on General Lamar, and tender him the respects of this meet- 
 ing, and inform him that, there being some question of the propriety of his ap- 
 pointment by the president as major-general of the Texan army, by which he is 
 directed to assume the chief command of the army, he is requested by the offi- 
 
APPOINTMENT OF LAMAR AS COMMANDER-IN-CIIIEF. 185 
 
 “ When I ascertained that General Lamar was approaching 
 the camp, I sent two officers to wait on him with the resolu- 
 tions. Previous to their starting, General Rusk had ordered 
 the usual salutes to be fired for his reception. On their return- 
 ing and informing me that General Lamar acceded to the prop- 
 osition, I countermanded the order for firing the salutes, with- 
 out consulting General Rusk. When General Lamar arrived 
 in camp, he was cordially received ; and I hoped he would 
 consult with the officers, and that the matter might be amica- 
 bly settled : but I soon understood that he determined to lay 
 the subject of his reception before the whole army, and take 
 their vote. Accordingly, at his request, the army were paraded 
 in the evening by General Rusk. After the square was formed, 
 General Rusk presented him to the army in almost these words : 
 1 Fellow-soldiers, I have the honor to present to you Major- 
 General Lamar, appointed by the cabinet.’ General Lamar 
 then addressed the army, and recounted his deeds in a glow- 
 ing form. He stated that he had fought in the ranks, Ac. ; 
 that lie was about returning to the United States, when the 
 late news of the returning enemy — the Mexicans — reached 
 him ; that he immediately determined to return to the army, 
 when the cabinet, unsolicited by him, had conferred on him the 
 office of commander-in-chief; that, on his arrival in camp, he 
 had learned that there were some objections, by some of the 
 army, to his appointment ; that he was not ambitious of the 
 office — he did not desire to wear tinsel on his shoulders ; that 
 the voice of man made generals, but God made heroes, Ac. 
 And he repeatedly stated that if his appointment was not ac- 
 ceptable to the army, he would cheerfully go into the ranks 
 
 cers present not to act in his official capacity of rnajor-general until the sub- 
 ject nmy be more maturely considered by the meeting of the officers of the 
 
 army.” 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and fight by their sides, and lead the van to victory, guided 
 by the flash of his sword. 
 
 “ From some remarks made by General Lamar, General 
 Green appeared to think that some allusion was made to him ! 
 and he addressed the army in a short manner, stating that he 
 thought that General Sam Houston was the proper commander- 
 in-chief ; and he said something about the impropriety of the 
 cabinet making the appointment over the head of General Rusk, 
 who had the confidence of the army and the people. General 
 Lamar replied, in an excited manner, that he did not disclaim 
 the desire of being commander-in-chief ; and made some re- 
 marks about some letters of General Rusk to the cabinet, re- 
 questing a major-general to be appointed. 
 
 “ After General Lamar concluded, General Rusk addressed 
 the meeting, and complained that, when the army was reduced 
 to three or four hundred men, when it was dispirited by the 
 loathsome office of gallanting a defeated enemy from the coun- 
 try, Ac., he had written to the president, advising the appoint- 
 ment of a major-general, that the army should be increased, as 
 the Mexicans were retiring, induced by their pay, and that the 
 war was not at an end, Ac. He said that his expectation then 
 was, to visit his family, and attend to his private affairs ; but 
 that, when the enemy were expected to return in force, when 
 the army was increasing rapidly, and when it would be dis- 
 graceful for him to abandon his post, his letters, written under 
 different circumstances, were used as the pretext for making 
 the appointment, Ac. 
 
 “ After these speeches, there were a great many calls by the 
 troops — a few ‘ Lamar /’ a number ‘ Rusk /’ and a great num- 
 ber ‘ Houston !’ Some few called out particularly for me. I 
 advanced, and stated that I was aware that the great mass of 
 the calls for ‘ Houston ’ were intended for Sam Houston, the 
 
lamar’s appointment — taking a vote. 18 T 
 
 true 4 commander-in-chief that I had no pretensions to the 
 command, and, in a jocund manner, observed that the only 
 gauntlet thrown which I would take up was the remark of one 
 of the generals, that he would lead the van — that, so long as 
 my name was Felix Huston, I would lead the van. 
 
 “ Thus ended the speeches. After a little delay and some 
 confusion, I applied to General Lamar, and asked him how he 
 would have the question put ; and told him I would put it to 
 the army as he desired. He then stated the question, 4 Were 
 the army willing to receive him as commander-in-chief?’ I 
 ordered silence, and stationed two officers for the voters to 
 form on, and put the question in these words : 4 Those who 
 are in favor of receiving General Lamar as commander-in-chief 
 of the army, will form on Major Ward, stationed on my right; 
 and those opposed to receiving General Lamar as commander- 
 in-chief of the army, will form on Colonel Morehouse, stationed 
 on my left.’ When I stated the question, Major Handy, acting 
 as aide to General Lamar, observed that he did not think the 
 question was stated as General Lamar desired. I requested 
 him to see General Lamar. He did so, and said that I was 
 right. At that time another gentleman rode up, and said to 
 me that General Lamar did not know whether it was under- 
 stood in his speech that he would only hold the appointment 
 temporarily, until the arrival of General Sam Houston, and 
 wished I would so state, which I did, turning to the different 
 parts of the army, repeating his request, and the question, and 
 asking if they all understood me. I then gave the word — 
 4 March /’ The tellers whom I had appointed reported one 
 hundred and seventy-nine votes for General Lamar ; and, as 
 there appeared about fifteen hundred votes against him, I stated 
 it was not worth while to count them. 
 
 44 On the next day I was informed Lamar intended to insist 
 
188 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 on the command. I waited on him, in company with General 
 Green. In the course of the conversation, General Lamar 
 stated that General Sam Houston, by leaving Texas, had for- 
 feited his station as commander-in-chief. General Green stated 
 that he understood that he was absent on a furlough for three 
 months. General Lamar said he was not aware of such being 
 the case ; and if so, he would have known it, as he was secre- 
 tary of war when General Sam Houston left. During the next 
 day I understood that General Lamar had commenced acting 
 as commander-in-chief, and had signed a furlough under that 
 title. The camp was in great agitation : many persons com- 
 menced leaving it. I felt great uneasiness, and expressed a 
 fear that serious difficulties might take place. This state of 
 affairs lasted till General Lamar had a meeting of the officers 
 called. He addressed them, and I understood him to refer it 
 to them whether he should resign or not. After a pause, and 
 some remarks of General Green and Major Miller, he signified 
 his intention to retire. On the next day left the army *' 
 
TEXAN CREDIT — AN EMPTY TREASURY. 
 
 189 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 At this period, the credit of Texas was in low repute. By 
 some, her bad credit was attributed to her agents ; by others, 
 to different causes. It is probable that the chief cause of her 
 want of credit, next to her poverty, was the appointment of 
 the Messrs. Toby and brothers as principal agents, in lieu of 
 others who perhaps had been more faithful. This appointment, 
 too, was made after they had failed in New Orleans for a con* 
 siderable amount. It is due to the government to say that 
 it was not apprized of the failure.* Texas had a large army 
 to support, a growing navy, and also a civil list, and an empty 
 treasury. The practice of impressment had grown so burden- 
 some, that it had exhausted itself. The people had raised 
 scarcely any crops, and they had but little property : hence it 
 became necessary, either to stop the impressments, or ruin the 
 citizens. The former course was taken by President Burnet, 
 in his proclamation of the 14th of July, 1836, and also by an 
 order of General Houston. 
 
 As the enemy did not advance, and the Texans had a con- 
 siderable force — able to defeat five times their number at 
 home — it was proposed to attack Matamoras. Detachments 
 were accordingly sent out to Bexar and the Nueces, and efforts 
 were made to procure vessels to transport troops, munitions, 
 
 * Letter of Samuel Ellis, July 6, 1836. 
 
190 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and provisions, by water, to Brasos Santiago, to co-operate 
 with the force proceeding by land. The better to commence 
 this enterprise, the army advanced to the Coleta. 
 
 General Houston, being advised of this contemplated expe- 
 dition, opposed it for the reasons that, without an efficient 
 navy and more ample means, an invading army could not sus- 
 tain itself in Mexico ; and, what was more important to the 
 good faith of Texas, General Santa Anna had invoked the me- 
 diation of the United States, and the Texan authorities had 
 concurred in laying the matter before President Jackson.* 
 
 After the unpleasant affair in relation to the commandancy- 
 in-chief, many of the troops retired from the service ; so that, 
 by the 2d of August, the number was reduced from twenty- 
 three to thirteen hundred men.f In this state of affairs, for 
 want of means, the co-operation of the cabinet, as also of the 
 navy, the descent on Matamoras was abandoned. It is proba- 
 ble that the army was not in possession of the fact of the pro- 
 posed mediation of the United States, or it would have con- 
 curred more fully with the cabinet. General Houston, who 
 was still at Nacogdoches, and as yet unable to perform active 
 service, was loudly called for by the army. Numerous letters 
 and petitions were sent to him by officers and men, desiring 
 his presence. It is not improbable, however that his services 
 where he was were very useful to Texas. Being in full pos- 
 session of the knowledge of passing events, he transmitted it, 
 with his views, not only to the army, but to General Gaines. 
 
 * Edmund P. Gaines to Sam Houston, August 12, 1836. General Gaines says: 
 “Your views, urging the propriety of concentration within supporting distance 
 of the settled parts of Texas, and pointing out the inevitable and worse than 
 useless risk of operations upon Matamoras, or upon any other part of your west- 
 ern frontier, without a superiority of naval force, evince an extent and a justness 
 of reflect ion, comprehension, forecast, and military mind, which, if sustained, can 
 not but insure triumph — complete triumph — to the cause of Texas.” 
 
 f Letter of General Felix Huston, August 2, 1836. 
 
ACTION OF THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 191 
 
 To carry out more effectually the provision contained in the 
 thirty-third article of the treaty between the United States and 
 Mexico, General Gaines sent a detachment of American regu- 
 lar troops, under the command of Colonel Whistler, to take 
 post near the town of Nacogdoches. This had the effect to 
 overawe the surrounding tribes of Indians (the most of whom 
 were immigrants from the United States), and left the people 
 of eastern Texas free to meet the threatened invasion by the 
 Mexicans. 
 
 In the meantime, and upon receipt of official news of what 
 had occurred in Texas, the Congress of the United States had 
 taken up the question of the acknowledgment of the indepen- 
 dence of the new republic. President Jackson had despatched 
 Henry M. Morfit to Texas, to ascertain and report upon her 
 military, civil, and political condition.* After some discus- 
 sion in the house of representatives, it was resolved by a large 
 majority that the independence of Texas ought to be acknowl- 
 edged by the United States, whenever satisfactory information 
 should be received that it had in successful operation a civil 
 government capable of performing the duties and fulfilling the 
 obligations of an independent power.! That body likewise 
 approved the step taken by the president to acquire that infor- 
 mation. 
 
 By the middle of August, the Texan army had again in- 
 creased to its former strength. Brigadier-General Felix Hus- 
 ton occupied San Patricio, on the Nueces, with five hundred 
 mounted men. Two companies, also mounted, were at Bexar, 
 rather to protect that place from the incursions of the Indians 
 than against the Mexicans. The remainder of the army, under 
 
 * Message of President Jackson, December 21, 1886. See Morfit’s Reports, 
 Executive Document No. 36, Twenty-fourth Congress, second session. 
 
 f Passed on the 4th of July, 1886, by a vote of one hundred and twenty-eight 
 to twenty. 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 General Rusk, was on the Coleta, about fifteen miles east of 
 Goliad. The Texan navy consisted of the Invincible, carrying 
 eight port-guns and one pivot nine-pounder ; the Brutus, of 
 like force ; the Independence, of eight guns ; and the Liberty , 
 of three guns, undergoing repairs. 
 
 Santa Anna was removed to Columbia, and thence, about 
 the first of August, to Orazimba, on the Brasos, about forty- 
 five miles from Velasco. * This removal was made to prevent 
 his rescue, as, but a short time before, an attempt of that kind 
 had been made by the Mexican consul at New Orleans, through 
 the instrumentality of Bartholomew Pages. The Texans still 
 retained about fifty officers and five hundred privates of the 
 enemy as prisoners in and about Galveston island, the support 
 of whom was a heavy burden upon the young republic. With 
 the small naval force on hand, the ports of Matamoras and 
 Brasos Santiago were blockaded, and the enemy annoyed and 
 overawed. Thus, upon the whole, the affairs of Texas were 
 prospering ; and, further to brighten her hopes, the season was 
 most propitious to the planter, so that, under all the circum- 
 stances, good crops were produced in those parts of the coun- 
 try not previously overrun. 
 
 On the 28d of July, President Burnet issued his proclama- 
 tion for the election of president and vice-president, and for 
 representatives to the first Congress of Texas, under the new 
 constitution ; also to decide upon the adoption or rejection of 
 that constitution ; and likewise upon the question of annexa- 
 tion to the United States. The election was ordered to tran- 
 spire on the first Monday of the following September, and the 
 new government to meet for installation at the town of Colum- 
 bia, on the first Monday in October. For the high office of 
 president, two distinguished names had been announced : Ste- 
 * Morfit to Forsyth, August 13, 1836. 
 
HOUSTON NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. 
 
 193 
 
 phen F. Austin, a man endeared to the country by years of toil, 
 privation, and faithful service ; and Henry Smith, the former 
 governor of revolutionary Texas. On the 20th of August, Sam 
 Houston was nominated by more than six hundred persons at 
 Columbia ;* also by a large meeting at San Augustine, on the 
 15th of August : and by other assemblages in various parts of 
 the republic.! The public wish on that point was so manifest, 
 that he had no alternative but to accept. Ilis reasons for so 
 doing are given by himself : “ After the capture of Santa Anna,” 
 says he,| “ I was compelled to go to New Orleans, in the month 
 of May, for surgical as well as medical aid. On my arrival, I 
 met a number of Texans there, and they requested me to be- 
 come a candidate for the presidency. This I positively refused 
 to do. From that time up to within fourteen days of the elec- 
 tion, I refused to let my name be used, nor would I, if elected, 
 consent to serve in the office. General Austin and Governor 
 Smith were the candidates, and with these gentlemen my rela- 
 tions were most kind. It was not a desire to obtain the office 
 of president which ultimately caused me to let my name be 
 used ; but, there w r ere two parties in Texas, which were known 
 as the ‘ Austin" and ‘ Wharton parties. I intend no disparage- 
 ment to either of the distinguished gentlemen or either of their 
 friends, but it is necessary thus to describe the condition of the 
 political elements then in Texas. Governor Smith was the 
 ostensible head of the ‘ Wharton’ party. So far as I could 
 judge, the parties were pretty equally balanced. In this pos- 
 ture of affairs, I was firmly impressed with a belief that, if 
 either of the gentlemen should be eleeted, it would be next to 
 impossible to organize and sustain a government ; as, whoever 
 he might be, he would be compelled to fill all the offices with 
 
 * “Telegraph,” August 23, 1836. f lb., August 30, 1836. 
 
 \ Letter to Guy M. Bryan, November 15, 1852. 
 
 VOL. II. — 13 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 his own friends, and those of opposite feelings would, of course, 
 oppose the administration, which, in the then condition of the 
 country, could only be sustained by the united efforts of the 
 community. Not being identified with either of the parties, 
 I believed I would be enabled so to consolidate the influence 
 of both, by harmonizing them, as to form an administration 
 which would triumph over all the difficulties attendant upon 
 the outset of the constitutional government of Texas.” 
 
 It will be remembered that, at that time, the majority of the 
 people of Texas was composed of immigrants from different 
 portions of the civilized world ; and that she had in her midst 
 very many enterprising adventurers, whose ambitious preten- 
 sions were not checked by that local patriotism which restrains 
 such persons in countries long settled. The army was propor 
 tionably large, and the most of its members had come to reap 
 fame and distinction. The elements, though calm, were not 
 cohesive. A single spark would inflame the entire body. 
 Hence the organization of the new government would require 
 a palinurus , who was ever watchful, at the helm. The elec- 
 tion resulted in the choice of Sam Houston as president by a 
 large majority, and Mirabeau B. Lamar was elected vice- 
 president. The constitution was also adopted, and the vote 
 for annexation was nearly unanimous. 
 
 It is proper to state here a movement in the army, conse- 
 quent upon the attempt of Pages to rescue Santa Anna. It 
 was the wish of many, and was generally reported, that, by a 
 vote of that body, it was resolved to conduct the captive to 
 headquarters, and place him before a courLmartial. General 
 Houston, then at Aies Bayou, being informed of these alleged 
 proceedings, despatched his protest against them.* He pro- 
 
 * Protest of July 26, 1836. In regard to this protest, General Gaines says: 
 “No inconsiderable portion of your fame, resulting from your late campaign, 
 
SANTA ANNA — HOUSTON’S PROTEST. 
 
 195 
 
 tested against it, because all the advantages accruing to Texas 
 by his capture would thus be destroyed ; because Texas was 
 bound by every rule of morality and humanity to abstain from 
 every act of passion or inconsiderateness, so unproductive of 
 positive good ; because it would endanger the lives of the Texan 
 prisoners then in Mexico, and it would compromit the safety 
 of the North Americans resident in that republic; because 
 Texas, to be respected, should be considerate, politic, and just, 
 in her actions, and Santa Anna would be of incalculable ser- 
 vice to her in her then present crisis ; because, in cool blood, 
 to offer up the living to the manes of the departed, only found 
 examples in the religion and warfare of savages ; and because, 
 as the attention of the United States was then called to the 
 pending differences between Texas and Mexico, to proceed at 
 that time to extreme measures would be treating the American 
 government with great disrespect. The protest, reaching the 
 
 the great victory of San Jacinto, will be found in the magnanimity and moral 
 courage displayed by you in preserving the lives of your prisoners, and more 
 especially the life of President Santa Anna, when taken in connection with the 
 great provocation given in his previous conduct at the Alamo and at Goliad. 
 The government and infant republic of Texas will derive imperishable fame 
 from their and your forbearance and humanity in this case. All civilized and 
 enlightened men, in all time and geographical space, will unite ki filling the 
 measure of glory and honor due for such magnanimity, forbearance, and hu- 
 manity.” — Gaines to Houston , August 3, 1836. 
 
 On the same subject General Jackson says: “I take the liberty of offering a 
 remark or two upon a report which is current here, that Santa Anna is to be 
 brought before a military court, to be tried and shot. Nothing now could tar- 
 nish the character of Texas more than such an act as this. Sound policy as well 
 as humanity approved of the counsels which spared him his life. It gave pos- 
 session of Goliad and the Alamo without blood, or the loss of any portion of 
 your army. His person is still of much consequence to you. He is the pride 
 of the Mexican soldiers, and the favorite of the priesthood. While he is in your 
 power, the difficulties of your enemy, in raising another army, will continue to 
 be great. The soldiers of Mexico will not willingly march into Texas, when 
 they know that their advance may cost their favorite general his life. Let not 
 his blood be shed, unless imperious necessity demands it as a retaliation for 
 future Mexican massacres. Both wisdom and humanity enjoin this course in 
 relation to Santa Anna.” — Jackson to Houston , September 4, 1836. 
 
196 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 army, was sent to Columbia. A captain with his command 
 had, just before its arrival, gone, as was said, after the pris- 
 oner, to bring him to the army ; and the protest only reached 
 Captain Patton, who had the captive in charge, in time to pre- 
 vent his removal. Captain J. H. Sheppard, the bearer of the 
 document, says the pleasant change of affairs filled Santa Anna 
 with joy, and he embraced him as one who had saved his life.* 
 
 The Mexicans still slumbering in their quarters at Matamo- 
 ras, and endeavoring by a forced loan to raise means to carry 
 on the war, the Texans began to turn their attention to more 
 peaceful concerns. Immigrants and land-buyers began to come 
 in. New settlements and new towns also began to spring up 
 and gladden the wilderness. Among the latter was the town 
 of Houston. The Messrs. A. C. Allen and J. K. Allen, pro- 
 prietors, having laid off the place into lots, presented them for 
 sale on the last of August, and, with an enterprise worthy of 
 the future mart of a large portion of Texas, went to work in 
 building a saw-mill, hotel, Ac., and in encouraging steamboats 
 to make it a place of business. Exclusive of her natural ad- 
 vantages, Houston owes much to these early pioneers. 
 
 Nor should we omit, in speaking of the progress of Texas, 
 to refer to her first permanent newspaper, “ The Telegraph.” 
 It was commenced at San Felipe, about the 10th of October, 
 1835 ; and remained there, issuing a number weekly, until the 
 advance of the Mexicans forced it to retreat to Harrisburg. 
 There it set up again, and issued a number on the 14th of 
 April, 1836, when it was borne down and its materials de- 
 stroyed by the enemy. On the 2d of August following, it 
 reappeared at Columbia. Since that time it has been regularly 
 published. Texas had no better or more useful friend during 
 the dark period of her Revolution. On the great points of 
 
 * Captain Sheppard’s Notes. 
 
MEETING OF THE FIRST TEXAN CONGRESS. 
 
 19T 
 
 difference between the two countries, and the movements of 
 armed parties, it sprehd light and information over the whole 
 country. By means of this potent lever, the government was 
 greatly aided, and Texas made free. 
 
 General Houston, after taking proper measures to conciliate 
 the Indians, and sending a request to the chiefs to meet him 
 at Robbins’s ferry, on the Trinity, on the 26th of September, 
 left Nacogdoches for Columbia. He arrived at the latter place 
 on the 9th of October, and found the first Texan Congress in 
 session. The message of President Burnet, which was deliv- 
 ered on the 4th, is an important state paper, and presented to 
 the people’s representatives an animated account of his admin- 
 istration, with suggestions for their future action. The report 
 of the auditor exhibited an audited indebtedness of upward of 
 a quarter of a million of dollars. If to this be added nearly a 
 half-million due for supplies, over a half-million pay due the 
 army and navy, and a hundred thousand dollars for the civil 
 list, the total indebtedness of Texas at the meeting of the first 
 Congress was not far from a million and a quarter of dollars.* 
 
 The population of the young republic, at that time, did not 
 perhaps exceed thirty thousand Americans, and twenty-two 
 thousand Mexicans, Indians, and negroes. f Thus we behold 
 
 * Morfit to Forsyth, September 4, 1836. 
 f Estimated population of Texas in September, 1836: — 
 
 Anglo-Americans 30,000 
 
 Mexicans — at San Antonio, 2,000; Nacogdoches, 800; La 
 
 Bahia, 600; Victoria, 120; and San Patricio, 60 8,470 
 
 Indians — Wacoes, 400; Twowokanies, 200; Tonkawas, 800; 
 Cooshatties, 350; Alabamas, 250; Camanchea, 2,000; Cad- 
 does, 600; Lipans, 900; small bands, 800: to which add 
 the civilized tribes — Cherokees, Kickapoos, Choctaws, 
 Chickasaws, Potawatamies, Delawares, and Shawnees — 
 
 8,000 14,200 
 
 Negroes 5,000 
 
 Aggregate 62,670 
 
 Morjit to Forsyth, August 27, 1886. 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 a country, larger than most of the leading states in Europe, 
 more fertile than any of them, and with a most congenial cli- 
 mate, so tom by the ravages of war, and trampled down by 
 the iron heel of tyranny, that, for a century and a half after its 
 first settlement by Europeans, it has made little or no progress. 
 But a better fate awaits Texas. As yet, however, all was con- 
 fusion ; the people had not become located, and the channels 
 of travel and trade were not determined. Galveston island, 
 since the departure of Lafitte, had been a sunny solitude. At 
 the time of which we write, and for some months previous, the 
 eastern end of the island was occupied by a hundred Texan 
 troops, under the command of Colonel Margan, where they had 
 hastily thrown up a mud fort, and mounted a few pieces of 
 artillery. They had charge of the Mexican prisoners, and the 
 whole occupied some hundred tents and huts around the fort.* 
 How changed the scene in eighteen years, when the freebooters 
 of Christendom had gathered there under the great Lafitte, 
 and were waging war by land upon the Carankawaes, and by 
 sea against everybody! But Galveston was ambitious, and 
 sent Mr. Millin to represent her interests in the first Congress. 
 That body, however, could not find Galveston among the dis- 
 tricts entitled to representation, nor could they find that it 
 formed a portion of any particular county, and so Mr. Millin 
 was dismissed. f 
 
 On Saturday, the 22d of October, President Houston was 
 duly installed into office, and delivered to the two houses in 
 convention an inaugural address admirable alike in manner 
 and matter. At the close of his address, he delivered to the 
 speaker his sword, the emblem of the military authority with 
 which he had been clothed, and said : “ It now becomes my 
 
 * Morfit to Forsyth, August 28, 1886. 
 
 f House Journal, First Congress, p. 92. 
 
INAUGURATION OP HOUSTON AS PRESIDENT. 
 
 199 
 
 duty to make a presentation of this sword, the emblem of my 
 past office. I have worn it with some humble pretensions in 
 defence of my country ; and should the danger of my country 
 again call for my services, I expect to resume it, and respond 
 to that call, if needful, with my blood and my life.” At the 
 same time, Vice-President Lamar was sworn into office, and 
 addressed the convention of the two houses in his usuall happy 
 manner.* 
 
 It is not intended here to enter into a detail of the pro- 
 ceedings of the first Congress of Texas. Its duties in organi- 
 zing the government were sufficiently arduous, and it is be- 
 lieved the members performed them with a singleness of pur- 
 pose rarely found in legislative bodies. The president was 
 authorized to appoint his cabinet, and, in so doing, the office 
 of secretary of state was given to Stephen F. Austin, and that 
 of the treasury to Henry Smith. The volunteers and forces in 
 the army, and who had been in the service, were amply pro- 
 vided for in lands and the promise of pay. To raise funds for 
 meeting the public wants, the president was authorized to con- 
 tract a loan of five millions of dollars. The judiciary, a much- 
 neglected branch of government, was fully organized, and judges 
 were elected for the supreme and subordinate courts. Previ- 
 ous to this period there had been but one nisi prius common- 
 law judge in Texas. This office had been created and filled 
 by the government ad interim , by the appointment of Benjamin 
 C. Franklin, who had the honor of being the first judge in Texas 
 with common-law and maritime jurisdiction.! Provisions were 
 also made for an increase of the navy ; for the protection of 
 the frontier, by calling out rangers, erecting blockhouses, &c. ; 
 also for defining and paying the civil list ; also the establish- 
 
 * House Journal, First Congress, p. 84. 
 
 f President Burnet’s Message, October 4, 1836. 
 
200 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 ment of regulations for the government of the army and navy ; 
 also for the reorganization of the army, and fixing the military 
 establishment of the republic. These, with an organization of 
 the postoffice department, and the enactment of various special 
 and police laws, constituted the labors of the first session of 
 the first Congress ; after which the two houses adjourned, to 
 meet again on the first Monday in May, 1837, at the new town 
 of Houston, to which place the seat of government had been 
 removed by a law of the session. 
 
 The Mexican government, after receiving intelligence of the 
 capture of Santa Anna and his treaty with Texas, notified the 
 United States that his functions as president were suspended. 
 President Jackson, therefore, on receipt of Santa Anna’s letter, 
 and in answer thereto,* after expressing a great desire for the 
 restoration of peace between Mexico and Texas, informed the 
 dictator that the government of the United States had been 
 notified of his suspension, and that good faith to Mexico for- 
 bade him from taking any step in the matter ; but if the latter 
 power would signify its willingness to avail itself of the good 
 offices of the United States, it would afford them great pleasure 
 to devote their best services to it. 
 
 But differences had arisen between the United States and 
 Mexico, which prevented the latter from asking any such favor. 
 The former had large and long-standing unadjusted claims 
 against the Mexican government, which ought to have been 
 paid. On the 20th of July, 1836, the American minister at 
 Mexico was directed to lay these claims anew before that gov- 
 ernment, and, if no satisfactory answer was received within 
 the space of three weeks, then to declare to the government 
 that, unless those claims were adjusted without unnecessary 
 delay, his further residence there would be useless. If the 
 
 * Jackson to Santa Anna, September 4, 1836. 
 
UNITED STATES AND MEXICO — DIFFERENCES. 
 
 201 
 
 matter was still delayed, the minister was directed to give the 
 government two weeks’ further time to make a satisfactory an- 
 swer, before he asked for his passports. Mr. Ellis, in obedi- 
 ence to his instructions, after presenting the claims, finally, on 
 the 4th of November, gave the two weeks’ notice ; when, no 
 satisfactory answer having been returned, he demanded and 
 received his passports. 
 
 On the part of Mexico, she had taken great offence at the 
 occupation of Nacogdoches by the American troops. Goros- 
 tiza, the Mexican minister at Washington, had been favored 
 with frequent conferences on the subject. He was referred to 
 the thirty-third article of the treaty between the two powers, 
 whereby each of them was bound, by all the means at its com- 
 mand, to preserve peace and harmony among the border tribes 
 of Indians ; and, the better to attain that object, both parties 
 bound themselves expressly to restrain by force all hostilities 
 and incursions on the part of the Indian nations living in their 
 respective boundaries, so that the Indians on either side of the 
 border should not be permitted to attack the Indians or citi- 
 zens on the other side. Gorostiza was also informed that the 
 Indians west of the supposed boundary, and on the “ neutral 
 ground ,” were assuming a warlike and dangerous attitude; 
 that Mexico was not there with her forces to keep them quiet, 
 nor had she the ability to do so, as her troops were driven by 
 the Texans west of the Rio Grande ; and it became necessary 
 that the United States should assume an advanced position, 
 temporarily, and for her own defence. And the president fur- 
 ther stated that he seriously doubted the sufficiency of the 
 causes assigned by General Gaines to justify the removal of 
 troops to Nacogdoches.* Nevertheless, this did not suit the 
 policy of Mexico, as she desired to employ the Indians against 
 
 * President Jackson’s Message, December 6, 1836. 
 
202 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texas, and, while the American troops remained at Nacogdo- 
 ches, she could not do so. On the other hand, the presence 
 of those troops at Nacogdoches secured the eastern Texans 
 against the savages, enabling them to leave their homes and 
 go to the defence of their country. Gorostiza, therefore, ab- 
 ruptly left his post on the 15th of October, 1836, and all 
 diplomatic intercourse between the two countries was conse- 
 quently broken off. 
 
 The Mexican authorities had used all their efforts to effect 
 a second invasion of Texas, but domestic troubles and want of 
 means prevented. At length, Urrea, on account of his lean- 
 ings toward federalism , was removed from the command of the 
 army, and General Nicholas Bravo appointed in his stead. 
 Great efforts were made by the authorities to convict Filisola ; 
 but his conduct in retreating, and thus saving the lives of so 
 many prisoners, as was believed by the masses in Mexico, 
 made him popular with them. Since the capture of Santa 
 Anna, a gradual change had been going on in the confederacy ; 
 and, in December, General Bustamente returned from his exile 
 in France, and his friends proclaimed him a candidate for the 
 presidency, at the election to be held on the first of the follow- 
 ing March. 
 
 The year 1836 did not close in Texas without serious be- 
 reavements. On the 15th of November, Lorenzo de Zavala, 
 the late vice-president, died at his residence on the San Ja- 
 cinto. His life had been eventful and useful. Providence 
 had cast his lot in a land of revolutions and of blood, but at 
 all times and under all circumstances he had been a constant 
 and ardent lover of liberty and humanity. His remains lie in 
 a free country, and his name will be remembered while that 
 freedom endures. As misfortunes seldom come alone, on the 
 27th of December, Stephen F. Austin also died. His remains, 
 
DEATH OF AUSTIN — RELEASE OF SANTA ANNA. 203 
 
 followed by the officers of the government and a large con- 
 course of citizens, were placed on the steamer “ Yellowstone,” 
 at Columbia, and conveyed to Peach Point. On arriving at 
 the Point, the procession was met by a portion of the first 
 regiment of infantry, when suitable funeral honors were paid 
 to the distinguished dead. By order of the government, the 
 army and navy were put in mourning, and minute-guns were 
 fired, in token of the nation’s grief. That nation has erected 
 no monument to the memory of Austin ; but this he did him- 
 self, while he lived, in laying the foundation of a great state, 
 and building it up on principles of moderation and freedom. 
 Austin lived to see his work completed — his country free, 
 prosperous, and happy. His history is a noble lesson to those 
 who, by patience, toil, and enterprise, would do a great and 
 good work.* 
 
 President Houston, after his induction into office, visited 
 Santa Anna in his prison. He treated him with great kind- 
 ness, while in confinement and made his condition more 
 comfortable. They had a long and free conversation on the 
 subject of the differences between their respective countries,! 
 and many plans were suggested for their adjustment. Houston 
 at length, being satisfied that any further detention of Santa 
 Anna would add nothing to the interests of Texas, by consent 
 of the prisoner, placed him and Colonel Almonte in the custody 
 of George W. Hockley, inspector-general of the army, with 
 
 * General M. B. Lamar long since promised the public a life of Austin. Such 
 a work has been greatly needed in Texas. It is believed that a writer of Gen- 
 eral Lamar’s fine abilities, with the aid of the private papers of the deceased, 
 would do ample justice to his memory. 
 
 f After Santa Anna visited Washington city, it was currently reported, and 
 by many believed, that he had made a treaty with President Jackson, by which 
 Texas was ceded to the United States. As it is probable there was not a word 
 said by either of them on that subject, the rumor must have had its foundation 
 in Santa Anna’s letter, of the 6th of November, to President Houston. See Ap- 
 pendix No. VI. 
 
204 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Colonel Barnard E. Bee and Major William H. Patton as an 
 escort, and gave instructions to conduct them to Washington 
 city.* Santa Anna desired to take that route on his return to 
 Mexico, as it would be most safe to his person. The party 
 immediately set out, and arrived at Washington city on the 
 17th of January, 1837. f Santa Anna was received with great 
 kindness by President Jackson, had several friendly interviews 
 with him, and while there spoke as freely in favor of Texan in- 
 dependence as he had done in Texas. He remained in Wash- 
 ington till the 26th of January, during which time he dined 
 with the president and his cabinet, and had his portrait taken 
 by the painter Earl. Leaving the capital, he “ embarked at 
 Norfolk in the ‘ Pioneer ,’ a public vessel provided for him by 
 the president,” and sailed to Yera Cruz. On arriving there, 
 he was coldly received : “ None but a few curious loungers 
 met him on the mole ; no array of troops met the commander- 
 in-chief.” He retired to his country-seat of Mango de Clavo , 
 about twelve miles distant from Yera Cruz, where he waited 
 patiently (as he had often done before) the troubling of the 
 
 waters 4 
 
 The Texans had detained Santa Anna too long ; the power 
 of their captive was gone in his own country. At the presi- 
 dential election in Mexico on the first of March, 1837, of sixty- 
 nine electoral votes, Santa Anna received but two ! Busta- 
 mente, the late exile; was chosen by an overwhelming majori- 
 ty. Santa Anna, however, did not despair, but returned to his 
 country-seat, and prepared his famous manifesto , in which he 
 unsaid much that he had declared while a prisoner ; but one 
 
 * Houston’s order to Hockley, November 20, 1836. 
 
 f Hockley to Houston, January 20, 1837. The Texan Congress had declared 
 in favor of a still further detention of Santa Anna, but it did not meet with the 
 executive approval. — Journal of the House, 1836, p. 144. 
 
 t “Democratic Review,” 1838, p. 314. 
 
GENERAL HAMILTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 205 
 
 thing he had resolved — and in that he was most sincere — 
 never again to set his foot on the soil of Texas. 
 
 It is proper here to state that President Houston appointed 
 General Rusk to a seat in the cabinet,* which left the command 
 of the army in the hands of General Felix Huston. On the 
 22d of December, the Texan Congress, by a joint resolution, 
 requested the president to open a correspondence with Gen- 
 eral James Hamilton, of South Carolina, to ascertain if he 
 would accept the command of the Texan army. In the discus- 
 sions in that state, touching the independence of Texas (which 
 Governor M‘Duffie strangely opposed), General Hamilton had 
 shown himself a warm friend of the infant republic. In the 
 reorganization of the army, provision was made for one major- 
 general ; and the government of Texas desired to manifest its 
 gratitude to her distinguished advocate in that chivalrous old 
 commonwealth for his noble services. The president lost no 
 time in making known to him the wish of the new republic, 
 with the expression of a hope that he would accept the high 
 position, and be in Texas by the first of March, as a formida- 
 ble invasion was anticipated.! 
 
 At the close of 1836, the Texan army consisted of about 
 seven hundred men enlisted for the period of the war, and 
 eighty who had six months longer to serve. The troops had 
 neither flour nor bread ; beef-cattle there were in abundance 
 on the prairies, but no horses in camp to drive them up. They 
 had likewise a good supply of ammunition, but were without 
 
 flints.^ 
 
 * General Rusk shortly afterward resigned, in order to attend to his private 
 affairs, whioh had been much neglected during his long absence in the public 
 service. 
 
 f Houston to Hamilton, December 31, 1836. Duplicate, February 11, 1837. 
 Circumstances of a private nature prevented General Hamilton from accepting 
 the appointment. — Hamilton to Houston , February 16, 1837. 
 
 t General Felix Huston’s official despatch, December 16, 1836. 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The Mexicans had again increased their forces in and about 
 Matamoras. At the latter point there were thirteen hundred 
 and thirty-five infantry, six hundred and seventy cavalry, and 
 four hundred chained convicts, ready to be distributed among 
 the several companies. They had twenty-eight pieces of can- 
 non and two mortars. There were also en route , from San 
 Luis Potosi, one hundred and fifty cavalry, three hundred in- 
 fantry, and four pieces of artillery. Besides these forces, there 
 were at Saltillo twenty-five hundred men of all arms, and at 
 Laredo one hundred and fifty cavalry — making in all an ag- 
 gregate of over five thousand troops, ready to invade Texas.* 
 Yet it was believed by many that the object of the Mexican 
 government was rather to present a hostile appearance, and 
 thus prevent the United States from recognising Texas as an 
 independent state, than to invade the Texan settlements. The 
 troubles in the interior of Mexico between the federal and cen- 
 tral factions guarantied the peace of Texas. In fact, she was 
 in a poor condition to meet the enemy. The situation of her 
 army has already been stated. This condition was not owing 
 to the fault of the government, but to the want of credit. She 
 had relied upon the sale of her land-scrip to meet her pressing 
 wants, until some portion or all of the five millions loan could 
 be realized, or until her revenues should replenish her empty 
 coffers. This scrip, passing through the hands of the Messrs. 
 Toby and brothers, of New Orleans, had failed to answer the 
 intended purpose. This was partly charged to the agents. 
 Drafts drawn on them were accepted, payable “when in funds” 
 These payments were procrastinated ; the drafts were hawked 
 and peddled through the city, until the credit of the republic 
 was sunk to its lowest ebb. The Texan vessels-of-war were 
 lying idle for want of funds ; the recruiting-service was inac- 
 
 * Statement furnished by John Ricord. January 26, 1837. 
 
DESTITUTE CONDITION OF THE ARMY. 
 
 207 
 
 tive ; and the president was compelled to bind himself person- 
 ally for the payment of beef to feed the army !* The post at 
 Galveston island — important, as having in charge so many 
 prisoners — was in a starving condition ; so likewise were those 
 prisoners transferred to Anahuac. To provide for themselves, 
 they made forays upon the cattle along the coast, in Liberty 
 county. Many of the owners of these cattle had never been 
 on the best terms with the Texan authorities, but had rather 
 opposed the Revolution. Consequently, these arbitrary drafts 
 upon their stock soon exhausted their patriotism, and some 
 disturbances arose in that quarter. f To remedy the destitute 
 condition of the army, the president made a visit to headquar- 
 ters in January, and, having fully ascertained its wants, and 
 the resources of the surrounding country, took such steps as 
 he could to provide for them. 
 
 The question of the recognition of Texan independence had 
 been long the subject of discussion in the United States. There 
 was considerable opposition to the measure, arising from the 
 antislavery feeling in the northern portion of the Union. How- 
 ever, a resolution to that effect was introduced into the senate 
 by Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi. On the 1st of March it was 
 called up, and, after a warm discussion, was passed, by a vote 
 of twenty-three to twenty-two. On the following day a motion 
 
 * Houston to George Robinson, January 13, 1837. The army had other 
 troubles. Under the recent law directing its reorganization, the president had 
 appointed Colonel A. S. Johnson to the command as general-in-chief. He ar- 
 rived in camp on the 4th of February. Some difference arising between him 
 and General Felix Huston, induced the latter to call him out. They met on the 
 morning of the 5th, and, after an exchange of four or five shots, in which Gen- 
 eral Johnson was severely wounded, the matter was settled. The affair pro- 
 duced considerable confusion in the army. — Letter of Captain J. B. Irvine , 
 February 5, 1837. 
 
 f Letter of William Hardin, February 13, 1837. Colonel Hardin had charge 
 of the Mexican officers taken prisoners at San Jacinto, and who had been sent 
 to Anahuac. 
 
208 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 was made to reconsider, but it was lost by a vote of twenty- 
 four to twenty-four. The house of representatives made an 
 appropriation for a diplomatic agent from the United States to 
 the government of Texas ; and the last official act of President 
 Jackson, previous to his retirement from the executive chair, 
 was the nomination of Alcee Labranche as charge d'affaires to 
 that republic. In a few days afterward, an official audience 
 was given to the Texan ministers in Washington, and they 
 were duly recognised as such to the government of the United 
 States.* Thus one of the first powers had formally admitted 
 that Texas was able to take care of herself. It was an era in 
 her history worthy of remembrance. It was not a boon, but a 
 just admission of her good conduct and firm purposes. 
 
 Having acknowledged her independence, the question of her 
 annexation legitimately came up for discussion. The Texan 
 ministers lost no time in laying the matter before the cabinet at 
 Washington. The recognition of the independence of Texas, 
 and her annexation to the Union, were very different questions. 
 In determining with respect to the first, the United States did 
 not take the question of right between Mexico and her rebel- 
 lious province into consideration. Their duty to the two coun- 
 tries permitted them to look at the fact merely : for if Texas 
 was in fact independent, it was their duty and interest to ad- 
 mit it. 
 
 But in regal’d to annexation — so long as Texas should re- 
 main at war with Mexico, and the United States at peace with 
 the latter, the annexation of Texas to the American Union 
 
 * Letters of Memucan Hunt, March 7, 1837, and J. H Houghton, March 2, 
 1837. General Hunt says : “I can not permit this opportunity to pass without 
 expressing my gratitude and admiration of the zealous efforts of Messrs. Walker, 
 Preston, Calhoun, and Parker, in behalf of Texas. Their names are most promi- 
 nently identified with the success of the first recognition of the independence 
 of our republic.” 
 
ANNEXATION — TEXAN LAND-SCRIP. 
 
 209 
 
 would involve the government of the United States in a breach 
 of treaty with Mexico, and necessarily induce a war.* Such 
 was the reasoning of the American secretary of state. And, 
 lest the United States might be suspected of a disregard of her 
 treaty of friendship with Mexico, she did not even reserve the 
 subject for further consideration, but dismissed it at once. 
 This disposition of the matter was, no doubt, at that time, cor- 
 rect. The question then came before the people of the United 
 States, as one of time. That these kindred peoples would be 
 united, there could be no doubt : how long, then, did good 
 faith on the part of the United States require her to wait upon 
 the fruitless efforts of Mexico to reclaim her revolted and vic- 
 torious colony? We will notice the gradual solution of this 
 question. 
 
 The increasing number of volunteers, and the consequent 
 expenditure of land-scrip to keep them in supplies, bore so 
 heavily upon the credit of Texas, that some step became ne- 
 cessary to check the movement. Accordingly, an order was 
 issued on the 10th of March, 1837, refusing all volunteers ex- 
 cept such as received the passport of Colonel A. S. Thruston, 
 Texan agent at New Orleans ; and he was instructed to pass 
 only those who should furnish themselves with good arms, six 
 months’ clothing, and two months’ rations. This order had 
 the desired effect ; and, though it would have been unsafe be- 
 fore that time, it had now become practicable.! 
 
 Meanwhile, the threatening attitude of Mexico was daily de- 
 creasing. A revolt, growing out of the depreciation of the 
 copper currency, broke out in the capital. The soldiers were 
 called out, and, firing on the mob, killed several. Again, 
 there was a rebellion in the southern part of the confederacy, 
 
 * Forsyth to Hunt, August 25, 1837. 
 
 f Order, March 10. 1837. Instructions to Thruston, March 16, 1837. 
 
 VOL. II. — 14 
 
210 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and troops were ordered to that quarter. Indeed, such were 
 the troubles in the capital, and so strong the demand for the 
 federation, that General Bravo left the army at Matamoras, 
 and hastened to the scene of confusion. The Mexican govern- 
 ment, however, having procured and equipped several small 
 vessels-of-war, declared the coast of Texas in a state of block- 
 ade. The news of the recognition of Texan independence by 
 the United States was received in Mexico about the close of 
 March. It had a wonderful effect in abating the ardor of the 
 nation. The secretary of war declared, in a speech to the 
 Mexican Congress, that the event had been dexterously ar- 
 ranged by the United States many years before ; that they 
 had all witnessed the management and intrigue by which that 
 nation had endeavored to acquire a portion of the territory of 
 the Mexican republic ; and that, with the same Punic faith, it 
 had acquired possession of the Floridas from Spain ! He fur- 
 ther charged the United States with preparing armed expedi- 
 tions to aid the rebel colonists of Texas ; with insulting Mexi- 
 can vessels, and conducting them into American ports, and 
 there treating them as pirates, while the true pirates displayed 
 an unknown flag in the same American ports, and received 
 every kind of assistance and protection. 4 And,” said he, 44 our 
 men are now ready to enter on that ungrateful soil, and the 
 God of battles will be with them, for it is a war of justice.”* 
 Deaf Smith, who, with a mounted force of twenty-one men, 
 had been ranging west of San Antonio, set out on the 6th of 
 March with a view to plant the Texan flag at Laredo. On the 
 evening of the 16th he reached the Chanson, a small stream 
 five miles east of Laredo, where he was discovered by the 
 scouts of the enemy. On the following day, having moved 
 back a mile or two, to obtain better grass for his horses, the 
 
 * “ Diario del Gobierno,” April 2, 1837. 
 
FUNERAL HONORS TO THE ALAMO VICTIMS. 
 
 211 
 
 Mexican cavalry, to the number of forty, were seen about a 
 mile distant, advancing in fine order. Smith and his party 
 took a position in a thicket of mosquites , when the enemy be- 
 gan the attack at a distance of one hundred and fifty yards. 
 Smith gave orders to his men not to fire until they were sure 
 of their aim. After an engagement of forty-five minutes, the 
 Mexicans retreated, having ten killed, and as many wounded. 
 Smith had but two of his men wounded. Learning from the 
 enemy’s wounded that there was a considerable force at La- 
 redo, he returned to San Antonio.* 
 
 Of the Mexicans who were natives of Texas, it has been 
 said that there were two parties. From these, two hostile 
 companies were raised : the one under the command of Colo- 
 nel J. N. Seguin, and the other under Captain Rodriguez. 
 The former kept his headquarters about San Antonio, and the 
 latter at Matamoras. They both ranged over the territory 
 between the two places, and gave to their respective superiors 
 such news as they could gather — the most of which was to- 
 tally unreliable, yet still calculated to produce uneasiness and 
 uncertainty on the frontiers. 
 
 We must not omit to mention here the solemn ceremony of 
 collecting and devoting to funeral honors the ashes of the he- 
 roes of the Alamo. It was performed on the 25th of February 
 by Colonel Seguin and his command, under orders from the 
 general-in-chief of the army. The dead had been burnt in 
 three piles. The ashes were collected and placed in a neat 
 black coffin, on the inside of the lid of which were engraved 
 the names of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett ; a solemn procession 
 was formed, and the remains borne to the place of interment, 
 where, after suitable orations, they were buried with military 
 honors. 
 
 * Deaf Smith’s report to the Secretary of War, March 27, 1837. 
 
212 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The appearance of the Mexican fleet in the gulf was followed 
 by some damage to Texas. The “ Champion,” freighted with 
 provisions, <fcc., for the army, was taken by the enemy; and 
 also, on the 12th of April, the “ Julius Caesar,” whose cargo 
 was valued at thirty thousand dollars. President Houston had 
 previously issued an order for the release of the Mexican pris- 
 oners ; but, learning that those on board the captured vessels 
 had been taken into Matamoras and confined, he revoked the 
 order of release. 
 
 This blockading navy of the enemy necessarily came in con- 
 tact with the commerce of the United States ; and the Mexican 
 brig-of-war Urrea , having captured some American vessels and 
 property, was taken by the United States sloop-of-war Natchez , 
 and sent into Pensacola as a pirate. On the 17th of April, the 
 Texan schooner Independence , having a crew of thirty-one men, 
 besides several passengers — among whom was William H. 
 Wharton, on his return from his mission to the United States 
 — was met, about thirty miles from Velasco, by two Mexican 
 brigs-of-war, the Libertador , having sixteen eighteen-pounders 
 and one hundred and forty men, and the Vincedor del Alamo , 
 carrying six twelves and one long eighteen-pounder, and one 
 hundred men. After a severe fight, in which the Texans be- 
 haved most gallantly, the Independence was overpowered and 
 taken into Brasos Santiago, whence the crew and passengers 
 were transferred to Matamoras and confined. In this engage- 
 ment, Captain Wheelwright, of the Independence , was severely 
 wounded.* 
 
 The Texan navy, on leaving Galveston in May, proceeded 
 to the mouth of the Mississippi, but, failing to find any of the 
 enemy there after a cruise of seven or eight days, turned to 
 
 * Official report of Lieutenant J. W. Taylor, April 21, 1837. Letter of Sur- 
 geon Levy, May 5, 1837. 
 
THE TEXAN NAVY — INDIAN OUTRAGES. 
 
 213 
 
 the coast of Mexico. The Texans made some small prizes 
 about the island of Mugere, and thence proceeded to Yucatan, 
 where they cannonaded the town of Sisal for some three hours, 
 but with little effect. The Texan schooner Invincible took and 
 sent into port as a prize the Mexican schooner Alispa , of eighty 
 tons ; and the Brutus captured and sent in the schooner Tele- 
 graph. The Texans also made repeated landings along the 
 coast, and burnt eight or nine towns. This, though sufficiently 
 annoying to the enemy, and in accordance with their mode of 
 warfare, has not been considered, in modern times, the most 
 humane way of conducting a war. Another vessel, the Eliza 
 Russell , of one hundred and eighty tons, belonging to English 
 subjects, which was taken by the Invincible off the Alicranes, 
 and brought into Galveston, not being freighted with a contra- 
 band cargo, was afterward properly restored, with damages, 
 by the republic.* 
 
 The frontiers of Texas during the winter and spring of 183T 
 had been unsettled. The Indians, actuated by the persuasions 
 of Mexican agents, and the imprudence of many white people 
 living near them, kept up a very annoying predatory warfare. 
 They began their depredations by the murder of three men on 
 the Trinity at Fort Houston ; then by the murder of two more 
 on the Neches ; and these were followed by numbers of others 
 along the frontier. Besides these outrages, many horses were 
 stolen. The government did what it could to make treaties 
 with the savages, and to keep up a vigilant ranging-service ; 
 but still, while the Mexican emissaries were among them, they 
 could not be quieted. 
 
 On the first of May, the first Congress met for its second 
 session, agreeably to its adjournment, at the town of Houston. 
 The president had some time before preceded the members. 
 
 * “ Matagorda Bulletin.” 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 As the town was not yet a year old, it will not be supposed 
 that the accommodations were extensive. The president’s 
 house was a log-cabin, consisting of two rooms or pens — the 
 one having a puncheon-floor, and the other a floor of earth. 
 Yet in that humble dwelling the representatives of the repub- 
 lic and a large number of visiters — among whom were the 
 British agent Crawford, sent to look at the country, and the 
 distinguished Audubon — attended the levees. 
 
 The message of the president advised the Congress that the 
 cloud of invasion, which a short time before had threatened to 
 break upon them, had passed away. In recurring to the great 
 subject of the finances, he informed them that the agents in- 
 trusted with the sale of land-scrip had proved so unfaithful, 
 that further sales were suspended ; and, owing to the depressed 
 state of the money-market, none of the five millions loan had 
 been taken.* 
 
 The Congress continued in session until the 13th of June. 
 Among its enactments were, a law to raise public revenue by 
 imposts ; modifying the land-law of the previous session, and 
 repealing all laws allowing further bounties to volunteers ; im- 
 posing direct taxes ; authorizing the issuing of the promissory 
 notes of the government ; and a law consolidating and funding 
 the public debt. These were the principal laws of a general 
 nature passed at this session. A joint resolution (suggested 
 by the visit of Mr. Crawford to Texas) was also adopted, rec- 
 ommending the appointment of an agent to proceed to England, 
 to procure the recognition of the independence of the republic 
 by that nation. 
 
 It has already been stated that there was a revolt in the 
 Mexican capital, growing out of a decree scaling the copper 
 coin fifty per cent. This emeute , as before remarked, induced 
 
 * Message, May 5, 1837. 
 
REVOLT IN MEXICO — WANT OF MONEY. 
 
 215 
 
 Bravo to leave the army at Matamoras, and repair to the city. 
 Filisola was sent to take again the command. The troops in 
 that town received no pay, nor had they, to any extent, since 
 the evacuation of Texas. The officers were leaving whenever 
 they could, and the soldiers deserted daily. In the meantime, 
 General Moctezuma had declared for the constitution of 1824, 
 and took his position at the Rio Verde, fifty leagues from San 
 Luis Potosi, where the federalists, to the number of over three 
 thousand, rallied around him. About the first of May, Gen- 
 eral Valencia left Matamoras with eleven hundred troops, un- 
 der orders to assist in the overthrow of Moctezuma. This 
 reduced the force at the latter place, under Filisola, to about 
 two thousand men. On the 26th of June, Moctezuma was sur- 
 prised by the centralists, himself killed, and his army cut to 
 pieces. 
 
 Such were some of the scenes enacted in Mexico. Her gov- 
 ernment had become faithless and penniless, and her paper 
 was not worth twenty cents in the dollar. It was manifest 
 that a crisis was approaching, for she must have money ; and 
 the priesthood, having the control of it, would make no volun- 
 tary surrender. Forcible proceedings would at once produce 
 a revolution, for the priests controlled the masses in that coun- 
 try ; and they knew very well that they had in Santa Anna a 
 potent friend, who was ready to act at their request. 
 
 Texas was as poor as Mexico ; and President Houston, see- 
 ing the burden the young republic had to bear, was anxious to 
 discharge the most of the troops. Yet, having nothing with 
 which to pay them, he followed the precedent of the United 
 States at the close of the Revolutionary war — he gave them 
 furloughs.* Thus two thirds of the Texan soldiers quietly 
 
 * Order to the Secretary of War, May 18, 1837 ; also order of the 19th of 
 May, 1837. 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 dispersed to their homes, leaving the service in confident reli- 
 ance upon the good faith of the government. 
 
 Colonel John H. Wharton, desirous of making an effort to 
 release his brother from the prison of Matamoras, obtained 
 permission and a flag, and proceeded with thirty Mexican pris- 
 oners to that town, to make an exchange. But, on landing, 
 he was made a prisoner and confined in a dungeon. After an 
 imprisonment of six days, he made his escape, and returned 
 to Texas. In the meantime, his brother, William H. Whar- 
 ton, through the aid of the well-known Captain Thompson, of 
 the Mexican navy, also escaped and reached home. It was 
 intended that Thompson should desert the enemy’s service, 
 and leave with him ; but Thompson’s departure was precipi- 
 tated by some information given to the Mexican authorities, 
 and he arrived in Texas before either of the Whartons.* This 
 barbarous conduct on the part of the enemy induced the presi- 
 dent of Texas to readmit the granting of letters of marque and 
 reprisal against them, which he had suspended on his entrance 
 into office. f 
 
 On the 25th of August, the Brutus and the Invincible ar- 
 rived off the bar at Galveston, having in tow a Mexican armed 
 schooner which they had captured near the banks of Campea- 
 chy. On the same evening, the Brutus and the prize entered 
 the harbor, but the Invincible could not get in. On the follow- 
 ing morning the latter was attacked by two of the enemy’s 
 armed brigs. The Brutus , in attempting to go out to her aid, 
 ran aground ; so the Invincible was obliged to continue the 
 unequal contest alone during the day. Toward evening she 
 attempted a retreat, but struck on the breakers near the south- 
 east channel. The crew landed in safety, but during the night 
 
 * “Telegraph,” June, 1837. 
 
 f President’s Proclamation, September 15, 1837/ 
 
MEETING OP THE TEXAN CONGRESS. 
 
 217 
 
 the vessel went to pieces. The Invincible was a favorite craft 
 in the Texan navy, and her loss much regretted.* 
 
 Difficulties having arisen in the meanwhile between the au- 
 thorities of the United States and those of Texas in relation 
 to the yet undefined boundary-line between the two countries, 
 and conflicts having occurred between their respective citizens 
 along the border in regard to land-claims, President Houston 
 convoked the Texan Congress in extra session on the 25th of 
 September, and laid the matter before that body for its action. 
 As the extra session extended into the annual session, the ex- 
 ecutive, on the 21st of November, addressed to the two houses 
 his annual message. The important and complicated subject 
 of the finances and currency of the republic occupied a promi- 
 nent place in this document. The president stated the ex- 
 traordinary fact that, since the commencement of his adminis- 
 tration, only the small sum of five hundred dollars in specie 
 had been paid into the national treasury. He declared the 
 sale of land-scrip, as a means of supplying the wants of the 
 treasury, to be “ an imaginary and unfortunate expedient.” 
 The act of the previous Congress, authorizing the issuance of 
 a half-million of treasury-notes, had already gone into opera- 
 tion. These notes were received in payment of public dues, 
 and were deemed a better currency than the notes of the non- 
 specie-paying banks of the United States (for the year 1837, 
 it will be remembered, was a period of unexampled commer- 
 cial prostration and financial embarrassment, which caused a 
 general suspension of the banking institutions of the Union). 
 The president believed that, so long as an excessive issue of 
 these notes was avoided, they would have a sound currency, 
 the credit of which would extend to those countries with which 
 the republic had commercial intercourse ; but that, if an excess 
 
 * “ Telegraph,” September 2, 1837. 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 were issued, the depreciation would be in proportion to such 
 excess. 
 
 The report of the secretary of the treasury exhibited an au- 
 dited indebtedness of a little over a million of dollars ; but to 
 this should be added the outstanding debt yet to be audited, 
 which perhaps amounted to a million more.* 
 
 * The author of the “Fiscal History of Texas” has not considered this unau- 
 dited portion of the debt of Texas (page 73). Mr. Gouge, so distinguished for 
 his works on banking and the currency, has not done himself justice in his 
 “ Fiscal History of Texas.” Without looking at the heroic efforts of Texas to 
 relieve herself from the shackles of a tyrant, and the blood of her gallant sons 
 so freely shed in that struggle, his eye has been fixed only on her poverty and 
 her empty treasury. True, he has been industrious in collecting financial facta, 
 and has arrayed them in a masterly manner ; but it is always with a sneer, a 
 reproach of her poverty and humble beginnings. We see in his work, not the 
 soul of the lover of his race, but of the Wall-street broker! Surely, Mr. Gougo 
 has lived long enough to know that something else than money constitutes tho 
 man and the nation . In regard to good faith, he will turn his fine abilities to a 
 comparison between Texas and the United States at the close of their respective 
 Revolutions. If Texas suffers in the comparison, the point will be surrendered. 
 
THE EARLY MISSIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 219 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 No people can live and do well without faith. That which 
 is — of which we have no demonstrative proof — we must re- 
 ceive by faith. Our views are limited, and the more so, if we 
 are wanting therein. To all such no voice is heard, no vision 
 is seen, beyond the dark veil of the future ; to them the stars 
 speak not, the graves are silent ; they read no lessons in the 
 sky nor in the teeming world around them. As individuals 
 or as a nation they do not live, but simply vegetate. It may 
 be said that the greatness of a nation is co-ordinate with its 
 aggregate faith. The future glows in the bosom of the man 
 of faith ; this begets hope, which cheers to labor and to enter- 
 prise. What else was it that brought the Franciscan friars to 
 the wilds of Texas, and caused them to devote days and years 
 of peril and of want to the instruction and culture of the sav- 
 age mind ? and what but faith drew around the sanctuary of 
 God these wild children of America ? Thus a great work was 
 begun, and a faint glimpse obtained of man’s high destiny. 
 But there was to be an end of this missionary movement in 
 Texas. Perhaps it had completed its work when, in 1794, the 
 missions were secularized by order of Don Pedro de Nava, 
 commandant-general of the northeastern internal provinces. 
 After that time, and up to the period of the Texan Revolution, 
 the religious movements in the province were under the direc- 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion and jurisdiction of the ordinary , or bishop of Monterey. 
 They can not be said to have had much vitality. So far as 
 Texas was concerned, they were stationary. In fact, the re- 
 peated wars and conflicts of which she was the theatre caused 
 religion to decline. 
 
 The emigrants to Texas under the colonization system did 
 not fall into the Roman catholic mode of worship. That they 
 had faith, their works abundantly attest ; but theirs was the 
 protestant form of worship, and they saw nothing among their 
 new neighbors to induce them to abandon the religion of their 
 fathers. It is true that the law of their immigration required 
 them to profess the catholic faith ; but they winked at this law, 
 and tacitly disclaimed the papal jurisdiction. Nor did the 
 Mexican rulers attempt to enforce it upon their consciences. 
 It is due to truth to say that, among all their grievances, they 
 had little complaint to make on the score of religious intoler- 
 ance. Some practical difficulties occasionally arose : for in- 
 stance, marriage, being regarded by the catholics as a sacra- 
 ment, required the action of the priest; whereas, the immi- 
 grants, looking at it only as a civil contract, were content to 
 be married by a civil officer, by the captain of a military com- 
 pany, or even by a bond executed by the parties in the pres- 
 ence of witnesses.* But the protestants were not persecuted 
 in Texas. 
 
 This tolerant spirit brought many protestant missionaries 
 into the province before the Revolution. As early as the year 
 1818, the Rev. Henry Stephenson, of the methodist church, 
 preached on the Texan side of Red river. In 1822, he ex- 
 
 * By the ordinance of the council, January 16, 1836 (Orders and Decrees, p. 
 135), all judges, alcaldes, commisarios, and ministers of the gospel, could cele- 
 brate the rites of matrimony. By the act of June 5, 1837 (Laws of Texas, p. 233), 
 the former marriages by bond were legalized. This law was further extended 
 in 1841 (Laws, vol. v., p. 176). 
 
LABORS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 221 
 
 tended his visits farther west ; and, in 1824, he preached the 
 first protestant sermon west of the Brasos, at the camp of John 
 Rabb, near San Felipe. In 1826, Rev. Joseph Bays, of the 
 baptist church, preached at the house of Moses Shipman, west 
 of the Brasos. In the latter part of 1827, he removed to San 
 Augustine, where he continued his labors till he was compelled 
 to desist, it has been said, by the Mexican authorities, but more 
 probably by desperate men of the American stock : for in the 
 history of those times, the great hindrance to the exertions of 
 the American missionaries was found in the opposition of the 
 heroes of the neutral ground. In 1828, Rev. Sumner Bacon, 
 of the Cumberland presbyterian church, penetrated as far west 
 as San Felipe,* and preached wherever he could. In 1829, 
 Rev. Thomas Hanks, of the baptist church, also preached west 
 of the Brasos. It was during this year that the baptists had 
 the honor of establishing the first Sunday-school in Texas. It 
 was organized at San Felipe, under the guidance of T. J. 
 Pilgrim. 
 
 The baptists and the methodists have not yet settled the 
 question as to which denomination reared the first church in 
 the Texas wilderness. The former was organized in 1833 
 west of the Brasos ; the latter was organized at a camp-meet- 
 ing, ten miles east of San Augustine, the same year. About 
 the same time a church was organized by Rev. Milton Estill, 
 of the Cumberland presbyterian faith, in what is now Red 
 River county. Thus, under the Mexican government, the prot- 
 estants commenced their labors in Texas. In 1832, Sumner 
 Bacon, through the instrumentality of Rev. Benjamin Chase, 
 of Natchez, was. appointed agent for the distribution of the 
 Bible in the province. Bacon was a fearless man, and scat- 
 
 * For an account of the first labors of the several protestant denominations in 
 Texas, see Appendix No. VIL 
 
222 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tered the word of God from San Antonio to the Sabine. He 
 met with serious opposition, but it was from his own people, 
 and not the Mexicans. In this work he laid a broad founda- 
 tion for the protestant missionaries. 
 
 The Revolution in Texas necessarily retarded the religious 
 movement, but only to enable it to advance with renewed en- 
 ergy. It may be said that the protestant immigrants brought 
 their preachers, as well as their religion, with them. This 
 remark, however, does not apply to those desperate, homeless 
 wanderers, who, having fled their country, spread disorder and 
 crime wherever they went ; and who, after a short career, were 
 destroyed or driven off. On the return of peace, after the 
 army was disbanded, a feeling of gratitude seemed to animate 
 the citizens : they had seen how signally and manifestly God 
 had favored them in their struggle, and flew to the altar of 
 their faith to give utterance to the noblest feelings of their 
 hearts. There is always hope for such a people. When there 
 is a will, there is a way ; and those who witnessed the great 
 moral reform that succeeded the clash of arms, beheld the 
 germ, the outcroppings of a spirit, that promised much. Their 
 faith gave truth, dignity, moral firmness, and energy, to their 
 character. They heeded not the timid croakers in the old 
 states, who were willing to denounce what they wanted the 
 courage to enjoy, but wrought valiantly, for they were laying 
 the foundations of an empire. Lasting honor to the old pio- 
 neers of Texas, and to the faithful heralds of the cross who 
 came to minister to their flocks ! They went forth sowing in 
 tears, but many of them have already gone their way rejoicing, 
 taking their sheaves with them. 
 
 As early as 1838, the presbyterian and the episcopalian min- 
 isters commenced their operations in Texas ; and, though not 
 claiming to be pioneers in this work, the preachers of these 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL COMMITTEE OF VIGILANCE. 223 
 
 denominations have wrought with zeal, and by example and 
 precept given an impulse to learning that has added much to 
 the character of the state. Nor have the Roman catholics 
 been backward in advancing the moral and intellectual condi- 
 tion of their people. In this country of mild laws and free 
 opinions, they enjoy, sis they ought to do, the same religious 
 and civil rights with all others. As they are a people of 
 strong faith, they are left to its enjoyment, and to the full de- 
 velopment of whatsoever their hands find to do. As an evi- 
 dence of the moral growth of Texas, there are now not less 
 than thirty-five thousand of her people attached to the several 
 protestant churches. The numbers belonging to the catholic 
 faith are unknown. It has been recently stated, by a Texan 
 bible-agent, that Texas is more abundantly supplied with the 
 word of God than a majority of the states of the Union. 
 
 On the 8th of May, 1837, at the office of Rev. Dr. R. Marsh, 
 in Houston, a meeting of ministers of the gospel was held.* 
 Its object was the promotion of the cause of religion in Texas. 
 Rumors had been circulated in the United States that the peo- 
 ple of Texas had no regard for religion or morality. These 
 were credited by many Christians in the former country, and 
 their effect was keenly felt and deprecated by the latter. This 
 meeting, composed of representatives from several denomina- 
 tions, after the Texas fashion, formed itself into an “ Ecclesias- 
 tical Committee of Vigilance for Texas” and declared that, 
 under the great Head of the church and the benign influence 
 
 * The meeting was composed of the following clergymen, viz. : — 
 
 Rev. W. W. Hall, of Houston, presbyterian, from Kentucky; 
 
 “ William P. Smith, of Washington, protestant methodist, from Tennessee; 
 
 “ L. L. Allen, of Washington, episcopal methodist, from New York; 
 
 “ H. Mathews, of Houston, episcopal methodist, from Louisiana; 
 
 “ R. Marsh, of Houston, baptist, from Alabama ; and 
 
 “ Z. Morrell, of Milam, baptist, from Tennessee. 
 
 Telegraph , May 16, 1837. 
 
224 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of charity, it would endeavor to maintain the purity of the 
 Christian name, and the honor and dignity of the ministerial 
 office ; for which purpose, the members would give their sanc- 
 tion to no individual professing the sacred principles of reli- 
 gion, who was not of regular standing in the branch of the 
 church to which he might have belonged, and who did not ex- 
 hibit a godly walk, and produce satisfactory evidence of full 
 membership. They urged a union of the exertions of each 
 branch of the church in advancing the interests of the Redeem- 
 er’s kingdom. They also appointed the Rev. Drs. Hall, Smith? 
 and Mathews, a committee of correspondence. There is noth- 
 ing like a committee of vigilance — for we are taught to watch 
 as well as pray ; and this small meeting, whose proceedings 
 were extensively published, did much to prevent the ingress 
 of rogues, under sleeves of lawn, into Texas. 
 
 In July, 1837, Charles Compte de Farnese presented him- 
 self before the Texan government with certain propositions, 
 combining at once the more extensive influence of the catholic 
 religion, and the recognition by Mexico of the independence 
 of Texas. He came with recommendations,* and represented 
 
 * “ Velasco, July 11 , 1537 . 
 
 “ To His Excellency Sam Houston : — 
 
 “Dear Sir: This will be presented to you by the count Farnese. His object 
 in visiting this republic is, to offer his fortune and personal influence to the glo- 
 rious Texaq cause. His views are extensive, and, if fully consummated, will, no 
 doubt, be of infinite service to this republic. They have been fully explained 
 to Dr. Archer, General Green, and other influential gentlemen here, all of whom 
 think highly of them. The count is, no doubt, a gentleman of high literary 
 attainments, and seems to have his heart much set on the establishment of insti- 
 tutions of learning in this country. The proposition he makes, of opening at 
 once (after seeing and consulting with you) a correspondence with the court of 
 Rome, for the purpose of having established in this republic an independent 
 bishopric, if successful, can not fail to be productive of the most beneficial effects. 
 It will not only place the catholic citizens of this republic in a very different 
 attitude, but will induce tens of thousands of other catholics to emigrate to the 
 
 country 
 
 “ Very sincerely yours, John C. Williams.” 
 
CHURCH AND STATE — PLAN OF COUNT FARNESE. 225 
 
 to the president that, “ having heard in Europe of the conquest 
 of Texas, he had abandoned his country (where he enjoyed a 
 fine fortune, was allied to several European courts, and had 
 the prospect of a brilliant career), to offer his services and 
 fortune to Texas.” After some preliminary remarks in rela- 
 tion to the protection given by European monarchs to religion, 
 and the human heart and mind “ which require to be cultivated 
 like a young plant,” he submitted to the president his “ plan,” 
 which was, to treat, through his means, should the president 
 think him worthy, with the court of Rome : — 
 
 “ 1. To raise all Texas to an archbishopric. This step is 
 the sure means of making peace with Mexico through the influ- 
 ence of the Roman court ; it will break all communication with 
 the bishop of Monterey, under whose jurisdiction are the cath- 
 olics of Texas, and will remove all difficulty with other courts 
 in acknowledging the independence of Texas.” 
 
 After some further details as to the election and residence 
 of the archbishop, the count proceeds with his plan : — 
 
 “ 6. To accord gratuitously, in all the cities and villages of 
 Texas, a convenient place to build a church, house for curate, 
 and school. 
 
 “7. In order that the archbishop, clergy, masters and mis- 
 tresses of schools, may not become chargeable to government, 
 to accord to them, without distinction, in their respective par- 
 ishes, or the nearest district, twelve hundred and eighty acres 
 of land.” 
 
 “ 9. The churches, houses of clergy, and schools, will be 
 built by the means of the* church: consequently, the govern- 
 ment will not have the power to employ them for any other 
 purpose, without consent of the holy see. 
 
 “ 10. The religion catholic apostolic and Roman will be al- 
 lowed to exercise freely her functions in all parts of Texas. 
 Vol. II. — 15 
 
226 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 “ 11. She will enjoy the protection of government. 
 
 “ 12. She will observe strictly the rites and canons Ro- 
 man.”* 
 
 How little did the count Farnese know of the American sys- 
 tem of government ! To the first article of his plan no man in 
 Texas could object. The catholic church had, and still has, 
 the liberty of creating such ecclesiastical functionaries in the 
 state as she deems necessary to her welfare. The ninth, tenth, 
 eleventh, and twelfth articles, were all granted by the consti- 
 tution : with this understanding, that the church could make 
 any alterations she chose in her rites and canons, or she could 
 abolish them all, and the government could not and would not 
 interfere. The sixth and seventh articles, which contemplated 
 a donation to the church, were wholly inadmissible, inasmuch 
 as the government makes no grants or donations to any church 
 or sect, but extends to all the liberty of worshipping God as 
 they may think proper. The great error of Count Farnese 
 was, in supposing that there could be a connection between 
 church and state in Texas. As men have different ways of 
 looking at spiritual matters, the government wisely permits 
 them to think as they please, and to form as many associations 
 and churches as they may wish — not choosing to take part 
 with any, further than to secure to all perfect liberty in their 
 worship. As governments are of this world, and the kingdom 
 of Christ is not of this world, to preserve the peace and purity 
 of each, our institutions keep them separate. This article in 
 the Texan creed would have been the last one surrendered bv 
 the people. True, the churches in Texas are poor, and their 
 temporalities would be greatly improved by donations from the 
 state or from individuals ; but, in the history of the church, 
 from its first organization, it is clearly shown that her spiritu- 
 * Letter and plan of Count Farnesd, July 28, 1837. 
 
INDIAN HOSTILITIES — MEXICAN EMISSARIES. 
 
 227 
 
 ality has been in direct proportion to her poverty. Nearly all 
 the departures from a holy life have been found among those 
 of the clergy and laity who abounded in the comforts and lux- 
 uries of the world. In all those governments where religion 
 has become the creature of the state, while she has abounded 
 in temporal good, her spirituality has fled. So little does the 
 arm of God require an arm of flesh to feed his church ! These 
 reflections may be unpleasant, but they are true. 
 
 In justification of the profound wisdom and happy conse- 
 quences of this policy in Texas, her history shows as little of 
 religious persecution as any part of the world. May this her 
 favored condition be perpetual ! 
 
 The conduct of the Indians on the frontiers of Texas was 
 such as to require energetic action on the part of the govern- 
 ment. During the spring of 1837, a party of Mexicans visited 
 all the Indian nations on the frontier, making to them the most 
 seductive offers to induce them to make war on the Texans. 
 They promised them arms, ammunition, and the plunder and 
 prisoners — women and children included — taken during the 
 war ; also the peaceable possession of the country then held 
 by them. At the same time, these emissaries succeeded in 
 persuading them that, if the Texans were successful in the war 
 then pending between the latter and Mexico, they would seize 
 the country then occupied by the different tribes, and drive 
 them from the land of their fathers. Thus many tribes of the 
 prairie Indians were induced to join the Mexicans.* 
 
 The savages soon commenced their incursions into the set- 
 tlements, and the Texan Congress found it necessary to declare 
 war against them. Lieutenant-Colonel A. Horton, of San Au- 
 gustine, was ordered to raise a force of a hundred and twenty 
 
 * B. L. Chouteau, Agent for the Oeages, to William Armstrong, Superintendent 
 of Indian Affairs West, March 1, 1837. 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 men, and as many more volunteers as might be deemed neces- 
 sary, to proceed against the prairie Indians.* Yet no success- 
 ful effort was made to chastise them. Every day or two, du- 
 ring the year 1837, some murdered citizen or stolen property 
 attested their hostile feeling. In the autumn, Lieutenants 
 Benthuysen and Miles, with eighteen mounted rangers, pro- 
 ceeded from Fort Smith to the head-waters of the Trinity, 
 where, on the 10th of November, they fell in with a hundred 
 and fifty hostile Indians. A fierce battle was fought, which 
 lasted two hours. The Indians, having lost their chief, retired 
 for about twenty minutes, elected another leader, and returned 
 to the charge. The Texans had in the meantime taken a good 
 position among some timber on a knoll. The savages, unable 
 to drive them out, and suffering severely from their rifles, set 
 fire to the grass all around them. The Texans then made a 
 charge upon their foes, who, after considerable resistance, fled, 
 leaving about fifty warriors killed ! The rangers lost Lieu- 
 tenant Miles and eight privates killed, and three wounded.f 
 
 The great question before the second Congress was, the dis- 
 position of the public lands. It will be remembered that the 
 general consultation, on the 13th of November, 1835, closed 
 all the land-offices, and ordered all empresarios, commission- 
 ers, and surveyors, thenceforth to cease their operations. This 
 decree necessarily rendered all certificates granted, or loca- 
 
 * President Houston to J. W. Parker, June 1, 1837. The most powerful ene- 
 my to the Texans, among the Indians, was Chicony, the principal chief of the 
 Camanches. Major A. Le Grand, of the Texan army, was sent to treat with 
 him. He found the chief near the confluence of the Big and Little Washita. 
 Le Grand having stated the object of his visit, Chicony replied that, “so long 
 as he continued to see the gradual approach of the whites and their habitations 
 to the hunting-grounds of the Camanches, so long would he believe to be true 
 what the Mexicans had told him, viz., that the ultimate intention of the white 
 man was, to deprive them of their country; and so long would he continue to 
 be the enemy of the white race.” — Report of A. Le Grand, April 26, 1837. 
 
 f “Telegraph,” December 23, 1837. 
 
SQUANDERING THE PUBLIC LANDS. 
 
 229 
 
 tions or surveys made, after that date, invalid. The objects 
 of this decree were manifest, but a reference to a few facts 
 will render them more so. The legislature of Coahuila and 
 Texas, in its last days, finding that the latter province was 
 about to be lost to Mexico, or at least to Coahuila, undertook 
 a shameless and corrupt squandering of the public domain in 
 Texas. These quasi land-titles were to be resisted. Under 
 the colonization laws of Mexico, tracts not exceeding eleven 
 leagues to one person, could be sold to natives. Under color 
 of these laws, and using. the names of natives, land-speculators, 
 claiming to act as their attorneys in fact, had already begun 
 and were preparing to possess themselves of the best lands in 
 Texas. This wholesale operation, as a fraud upon the colo- 
 nist and the soldier in the field, was also to cease. Numbers of 
 persons, having purchased up head-rights of individuals (who 
 never made Texas their home, but visited the country, and re- 
 mained only long enough to obtain their title-papers), wished 
 to locate and perfect the titles to these head-rights ; and, hav- 
 ing exhausted this list of transient persons, names were manu- 
 factured, and head-rights granted upon them. It was neces- 
 sary to check this operation likewise. Yet the endeavor was 
 resisted in some parts of the republic ; and, to avoid all diffi- 
 culties arising from the extension of titles after the decree of 
 November 13, 1835, it was found convenient to ante-date them.* 
 
 * “February 5, 1836. — Had a long conversation with Major Don Jorge An- 
 tonio Nixon, the commissioner for granting land-titles. The operations 
 
 of this office are now suspended, and some hundreds of deeds are now lying 
 here incomplete, waiting for some formalities, and the payment of fees. Nixon 
 expected to be removed, or to have his duties superceded, and he has had the 
 shrewdness to certify all the incomplete deeds , prior to a certain date ; so that, 
 when the purchaser comes for his deed, he will find it ready, as far as the com- 
 missioner can make it so.” — Notes of Colonel William F. Gray : MS. The hun- 
 dreds of Spanish titles, thus ante-dated, were soon put into circulation. When 
 Colonel Gray saw them, they were waiting for a purchaser. 
 
230 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Many old settlers who were entitled to head-rights, and many 
 soldiers who were entitled to bounties, were, at the passage 
 of the decree, and for a considerable time afterward, engaged 
 in the army, and their claims certainly were of superior merit. 
 Hence it was but a matter of justice to them that they should 
 have an equal chance with others in the selection of their 
 lands. If “ the spoils belonged to the victors,” surely they 
 had the best right to them. 
 
 Many efforts were made by the majority in the first Congress 
 to recommence the distribution of the public lands, but the 
 president did what he could to resist them. The sectionizing 
 of the public lands had been provided for by the constitution.* 
 The president was desirous of complying with this provision. 
 Its meaning, when we refer to the mode of surveying lands in 
 the United States, in sections of a mile square, is plain enough. 
 But the Congress of Texas chose to understand it otherwise, 
 and passed the general land-law without any regard to the 
 sectionizing system. The president vetoed the law on the 
 13th of December, and the two houses passed it by a majority 
 of two thirds on the following day.f 
 
 Some remarks here upon the history of land-titles in Texas 
 may not be uninteresting. Neither Spain nor Mexico ever con- 
 sidered the public lands within the limits of the latter as of 
 any value. So far as Texas was concerned, it was the policy 
 of Spain to keep them unsettled, as a barrier to encroachments 
 upon her mines. In the first days of success after the Mexican 
 Revolution, a feeling of enterprise was manifested, and the 
 idea of colonizing the vacant lands entertained. Even then the 
 sale of lands was only suggested by the successful operation of 
 
 * Constitution of the Republic, General Provisions, Section 10 : “ The whole 
 territory of the republic shall be sectionized, in a manner to be hereafter pre- 
 scribed by law.” 
 
 | Acts of 1837, p. 62. 
 
LAND-TITLES — EARLY SPANISH GRANTS. 
 
 231 
 
 the system in the United States of the Norths A good deal 
 more attention was paid to water-privileges, and lands inca- 
 pable of irrigation were deemed of no value, except for pas- 
 turage. 
 
 The first grants of the Spanish government in Texas, of 
 which we have any record, are those of the three missions of 
 Concepcion, San Juan, and La Espada. The grants for the 
 missions of Valero .and San Jose were doubtless made earlier, 
 and probably some individual grants, but we know of none 
 now in existence.! The three first-named missions were lo- 
 cated in the first instance on the St. Mark ; but such was the 
 difficulty of procuring water for irrigation, “ so necessary to 
 the support of the people who were to be indoctrinated,” that 
 on the 29th of October, 1729, the viceroy of Mexico, Casa 
 Fuerte, commissioned the governor of Texas, the ex-guardian 
 of the apostolic college of Queretaro, and the president of the 
 Texan missions, to make a new settlement or location. After 
 some search, they made their selections of three places — two 
 on the San Antonio river, and one on the “ Medina,” below the 
 junction of the two streams. They next proceeded to the 
 neighboring tribes of Indians, to whom “ they spoke, and ex- 
 plained the holy and benevolent purpose of their institution ; 
 and three tribes, among others in the vicinity, viz., the Pacaos , 
 the Pajalats , and the Pitalacs , agreed to settle the three places 
 selected, and to submit to doctrine.” The commissioners, hav- 
 ing completed their labors, made a report to the viceroy, and 
 petitioned him to make the necessary decrees. The viceroy 
 laid the matter before Ribera, former inspector of the presidios 
 
 * Report of Lucas Alaman, Secretary of State to the Sovereign Constituent 
 Congress, November 1, 1823. 
 
 \ The writer is greatly indebted to Colonel J. W. Hampton, Colonel Crosby, 
 and to Mr. Buchanan, the commissioner and translator of the land-office, for 
 transcripts of the old grants to be named in this connection. 
 
232 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 of New Spain, for his opinion. The ex-inspector reported on 
 the 22d of September, 1730, concurring with the report of the 
 commissioners, except in regard to the location for the lower 
 mission “ on the Medina river, at thirty leagues’ distance from 
 the presidios (San Antonio and La Bahia), where it may 'be 
 liable to attacks from the Apaches, who on many occasions 
 appear in a hostile manner in that territory. . . . This danger 
 would not exist if the said mission were located in the same 
 vicinity with the other two.” 
 
 The viceroy, in conformity With this opinion, on the 2d of 
 October, 1730, decreed that the captain of the royal presidio 
 of San Antonio, should issue a decree that the three missions 
 should be located as recommended, using his judgment as to 
 the plan of locating the lower mission. He further ordered 
 that each mission so to be located “ be furnished with three 
 soldiers for the term of two years, this time being considered 
 necessary for the instruction of the Indians in tillage, and at 
 the expiration of this time one soldier shall remain in each 
 mission, the other two returning to their corps.” 
 
 On the 15th of December, 1730, the captain of the presidio 
 of San Antonio de Bexar, in pursuance of this order of the 
 viceroy, remitted the same to Don Gabriel Costales, captain 
 of the presidio of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo , with orders to 
 execute it, he being delegated as judge for that purpose, in the 
 absence of any public or royal notary. In making a return of 
 his proceedings, Captain Costales says : “ A despatch was pre- 
 sented to me from the most excellent viceroy, through the cap- 
 tain of the royal presidio of San Antonio, which I kissed and 
 placed on my head, as a message from my king and natural 
 lord, which with blind obedience I obey, and am ready to exe- 
 cute whatever it commands.” Upon this return, the captain 
 of the presidio of San Antonio, on the 12th of January, 1731, 
 
LOCATION OF THE EARLY MISSIONS. 
 
 233 
 
 decreed the establishment of the missions named. All these 
 formalities being attended to, and the acts of each party writ- 
 ten down, and attested by assisting witnesses, the captain of 
 San Antonio proceeded on the 5th of March, 1731, to the first 
 mission-ground, called Our Lady of the Concepcion de Acuna* 
 accompanied by several of the officers of the presidio, and Fa- 
 ther Bergara, and seized the hand of the captain of the tribe, 
 in the name of all the other Indians who had attached them- 
 selves to said mission, and led him about over the locality, and 
 caused him to pull up weeds, throw stones, and perform all the 
 other acts of real possession, that by virtue thereof they might 
 not be dispossessed without being first heard and defended by 
 Father Bergara, president of the Texas missions, or such other 
 of the clergy as might have administration over them. After 
 declaring the bounds of the mission, there was. attached to it 
 pasture-lands, watering-places, irrigating privileges, uses, and 
 services, and the further right, in planting-time, to drive their 
 stock out west for pasture, so as not to prejudice the crops. 
 The act of possession concluded by notifying the Indians, 
 through an interpreter, what they should do in advancement 
 of Christian doctrine, and in avoidance of crime. 
 
 At the same time, Captain Perez proceeded to put other 
 tribes in possession of the mission-grounds of San Francisco 
 de la Espada , and San Juan , situated below, on the San An- 
 tonio river ;f the same formality being observed in each case. 
 The record of the titles (which, as will be seen, is a simple 
 narrative of the action of each party) was then filed in the 
 archives of San Fernando de Bexar, and a certified copy fur- 
 nished to each mission. It will be observed, in the foregoing 
 
 * The baptismal name of the viceroy was Juan de Acuiia. 
 
 f At this period (1731), the river below the junction of the Medina and San 
 Antonio was called the C fuadalupe , and the present river of that name was called 
 San Marcos. At times, however, it retained the name of “Medina" to the gulf. 
 
234 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 abstract of the transfer, that the title was assumed to be in the 
 king of Spain, and that the transfer was to the Indians, and 
 not to the priests, who, by their vows, could own no worldly 
 estate. 
 
 In regard to the mission-lands of San Jose de Aguayo , they 
 were claimed by Don Domingo Castelo, one of the king’s en- 
 signs, for his services at the presidio of San Saba ; but, after 
 a protracted lawsuit between him and the mission, the title 
 was vested in the Indians of the mission, on the 18th of No- 
 vember, 1766, by purchase, for one hundred and fifty dollars. 
 
 For a further illustration of ancient Spanish titles, we will 
 refer to the grant to Luis de la Bega, in 1792. The lieuten- 
 ant-governor of Texas, Captain Juan Cortes, had issued an 
 order that he would donate lands to all who had not received 
 them. In pursuance of this order, La Bega presented his pe- 
 tition, asking a title to a place called Las Castanas , where he 
 had a herd of mules, requesting that it be given him for the 
 pasturage of his animals, “ with all its inlets and outlets, uses 
 and customs, for himself, his heirs and successors, at all times 
 to use it as a lawful right, since from it benefit would result to 
 him.” The petition closes in the usual form : “ I petition you 
 to please order to be done as already prayed, that thereby I 
 may receive favor ; and also to receive this on common paper, 
 there being none of the proper kind [stamped] . I swear this 
 is not in malice, but necessary,” <fcc. On this petition, the 
 lieutenant-governor says : “ Let it pass to the solicitor” ( pro- 
 cur ador'), in order that, without prejudice to a third party, he 
 give the corresponding possession. The solicitor then declares 
 that, in pursuance of the lieutenant-governor’s order, “ he pro- 
 ceeded to the place called Las Castanas , and, having notified 
 the settlers who joined and lived at the place of my intention, 
 
 I gave him from the place he petitions for as far as the bank 
 
ANCIENT SPANISH LAND-TITLES — HOW GIVEN. 
 
 235 
 
 of the river Angelina, to the east a leagne and a half, bound- 
 ing with the barrens, without being able to extend the other 
 two courses on account of its being occupied : and taking the 
 said Don Jose Luis de la Bega by the hand, and between one of 
 said leagues he placed the corresponding signs, and I granted 
 him the corresponding possession in the name of his majesty 
 (whom God preserve !) in the presence of my assisting wit- 
 nesses, with whom I act, for want of a notary public.” 
 
 These three papers — the petition, the order, and the pos- 
 sessory act — constituted La Bega’s title. While they were 
 filed in the archives of Nacogdoches, the owner could have a 
 certified copy. A title to a lot in Nacogdoches, granted the 
 same year to Pedro Gengle, is in the same form — the procurer 
 dor stating in the possessory act that he led the said Pedro 
 Gengle by the hand to the premises, and at each corner of the 
 land, “ as a sign of possession, he drove stakes, pulled up 
 weeds, and threw stones.” 
 
 Some years afterward, the large grants about the villages 
 having covered most of the lands, it became necessary to be a 
 little more particular in extending titles. The grant ceased 
 to follow as a matter of course upon filing the petition ; but 
 the representative of the king first had an examination made, 
 and a report of the result returned, upon which he acted in 
 his discretion; and sometimes a slight consideration was paid. 
 In 1810, San Miguel presented his petition to Governor Sal- 
 cedo for a grant of a parcel of land lying three leagues from 
 Nacogdoches, situated on “ Palisada creek, which joins with 
 the Nana,” adjoining the lands of his neighbors Pedro Espaga 
 and Vicente Michelli. The reason he assigns for asking the 
 grant is, that he is absolutely without any land on which to 
 labor and keep his stock. The governor directed the petition 
 to pass to Pedro Procela, a neighbor, whom he commissioned 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 to go upon the premises, and examine, and report as to the 
 quality and circumstances of the land, its waters, whether it 
 was vacant, its value (in reference to the tariff for grazing- 
 leagues), and whether a grant of it would be prejudicial to a 
 third party. Manuel Delgado, clerk of the council, having cer- 
 tified to the genuineness of the governor’s decree, the papers 
 were handed over to a notary, who notified Miguel and Procela 
 of what was done, and caused them to sign an acknowledgment 
 of the notice. 
 
 Procela, thus commissioned, went upon the premises with 
 two assisting witnesses, and made the required examination. 
 It is proper to state that Procela was a friend of the applicant ; 
 and accordingly, in his report to the governor, he represented 
 the land as broken, bad winter pasturage, with no permanent 
 water, and unfit for farming ; and, having noticed particularly 
 the circumstances of the land, he declared it afflicted with “ an 
 almost general epidemic of ticks, hornets, &c ., which was com- 
 mon to the jurisdiction” of Nacogdoches. He further declared 
 the land vacant, that it could be granted without prejudice, 
 and, in conclusion, estimated the value of the whole tract (of 
 twenty-five hundred acres) at five dollars ! As to the govern- 
 or’s action upon this interesting report, we are not advised ; 
 but the entire proceeding shows that it had become much more 
 difficult to obtain titles to lands than formerly. 
 
 As the majority of the inhabitants of Texas, at the time of 
 the establishment of the colonial system, were civilized Indians 
 and their descendants, the fruits of missionary labor, and known 
 generally as “ Mexicans,” we will refer to the mode by which 
 they acquired titles to their lands. It has already been seen 
 that, in the establishment of the missions of Concepcion, San 
 Juan, and Espada, the title and possession of the missions were 
 formally vested in the Indians. By a royal cedula of the king 
 
INDIAN LAND-TITLES — HOW ACQUIRED. 
 
 237 
 
 of Spain, of the 10th of September, 1772, the four missions 
 around the presidio of Adaes — viz., Our Lady del Pilar de 
 los Adaes , Our Lady de los Dolores de Ids Aes , Our Lady de 
 Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches , and Our Lady de la Luz del 
 Orquizaco — were abolished, and, as we have seen, the con- 
 vents removed to San Antonio, where lands were distributed 
 to them on the east bank of the river. 
 
 The order of the commandant-general De Nava, of April 10, 
 1794, in directing the discontinuance of the Texan missions, 
 also required the abolition of the community system by which 
 the Indians held their property ; and they were placed upon 
 the same footing as other Spanish subjects. While the order 
 provided carefully for the morals of these new subjects of his 
 majesty, by requiring the magistrates to see that professional 
 gamblers and liquor-dealers did not enter into their towns, it 
 also provided that, of the best lands belonging to each settle- 
 ment ( pueblo ), there should be set apart eight lots of about 
 fourteen acres each for their use, additional lots to be added 
 as the number increased. The remainder of the league around 
 the mission was to be divided among the Indians in right of 
 inheritance, and titles extended to them in the name of the 
 king — the titles, however, being limited to them and their de- 
 scendants. Thus the missionaries ceased to have the adminis- 
 tration of the Indians or their temporalities, and they became 
 as other Spanish subjects, responsible alone to the civil author- 
 ity.* In spiritual matters, however, the Indians as well as the 
 
 * The returns made of the number of Indians in the mission of San Jos6, in 
 pursuance of this order of De Nava, are as follows : — 
 
 Christian Indians — Men, 27; women, 26; boys, 11; girls, 14; wid- 
 ows, 6 84 
 
 Pagan Indians (gentiles ) — Men, 6; women, 6; boy, 1; girls, 3.... 15 
 
 99 
 
 Return of July 30, 1794. 
 
 Total 
 
238 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 missionaries came under the jurisdiction of the bishop of the 
 diocese. 
 
 This decree of De Nava seems either not to have been fully 
 carried out in Texas, or else it was confined to those missions 
 under the influence of the expelled Jesuits (though we do not 
 find that they obtained a footing in Texas) ; for, by a decree 
 of the Spanish cortes, of the 13th of September, 1813, all the 
 missions in Texas were ordered to be secularized. This was 
 probably induced by the democratic leanings of the priests. 
 It was not until the 15th of September, 1823, that the supreme 
 government of Mexico ordered the execution of the decree of 
 the cortes. Finally, in 1827, the legislature of Coahuila and 
 Texas divided out the mission-lands.* Thus, during the sev- 
 eral changes of government, the same policy was pursued, and 
 the “ Mexicans” of Texas ( Indios reducidos ) received titles to 
 their lands. But the various wars that occurred in Texas, be- 
 tween 1810 and 1835, destroyed and drove off large numbers 
 of the old inhabitants ; their landmarks were obliterated, their 
 titles destroyed and forgotten, and under the new order of 
 things the same lands were relocated and granted once more 
 to new settlers. 
 
 Under the colonial system, the ancient mode of extending 
 titles was generally observed. Foreigners being permitted and 
 invited to settle in the country, either came at their own ex- 
 pense, and on their own account, or they were introduced by 
 empresarios , who contracted with the government to bring in 
 so many families, in consideration of the lands which were 
 given to such contractors for this service.! The general colo- 
 nization law declared that the state desired to augment the 
 settlement of its territory, to advance the raising and increase 
 
 * Decrees No. 37, November 26, 1827, and No. 37, June 16, 1827. 
 
 f Decree No. 16, Article 3, et seq. 
 
COLONIAL HEAD-RIGHT GRANTS. 
 
 239 
 
 of stock, and the progress of commerce and the arts. For ag- 
 ricultural purposes, a labor of land was allowed ; for grazing, 
 a fourth of a league ; to a single man, a third ; and to each 
 head of a family, a league. The first step in procuring the 
 grant, aftei the domiciliation of the applicant, was a petition 
 to the executive, representing the sovereignty of the state for, 
 the title to the vacant lands is in the state. But as it was not 
 convenient for the governor to give his personal attention to 
 this matter, commissioners were appointed to represent him, 
 and the petitions were addressed to them. These petitions 
 merely set forth the facts of the applicant’s immigration, from 
 what country, and the extent of his family, if he had one. 
 The commissioner, by a written order, remitted the application 
 to the empresario , for his examination and report. The latter 
 having reported that the applicant was a colonist, the papers 
 were returned to the commissioner, who issued an order to the 
 surveyor to survey and mark the lands designated, and make 
 return with duplicate plots of the premises. The commissioner 
 then decreed a title, and put the party in possession. He did 
 not actually go with him upon the premises, as had been done 
 in former times, but the decree set forth that he put him in 
 real, actual possession of the lands. In this decree the condi- 
 tions provided for by the law were inserted, viz., the setting 
 up of permanent landmarks at the corners within one year, the 
 cultivation of the lands, and the payment of the government 
 dues within six years. The latter amounted to thirty dollars 
 for a league of grazing-land, and two and a half or three and 
 a half dollars per labor , according as it was irrigable or not 
 irrigable. There was a further condition in the decree that 
 the land should not pass into mortmain. All these parts of the 
 title being entered in a book, according to their date, consti- 
 tuted what is known as a Spanish title. They were then care- 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 fully copied off, and certified by the commissioner to be a faith- 
 ful copy. This copy, with one of the maps, was delivered to 
 the colonist as his title. They are sometimes called “ second 
 originals,” and sometimes “ testimonios .” The originals were 
 retained by the commissioners, and finally deposited in the 
 general land-office, where they can be referred to, as proof of 
 the genuineness of the testimonio. This w^as the general form 
 of the colonial head-right grants. In cases of purchase from 
 the state, or of grants to the military, the form was varied to 
 suit the consideration and conditions of the law. 
 
 Under the Texan land-law of the 14th of December, 1837, 
 the Ameriean system is Introduced. A commissioner of the 
 general land-office is created ; also a board of commissioners 
 for each county, to take proof and issue head-right certificates ; 
 and likewise a surveyor for each county, to survey, and make 
 out and record field-notes of the land designated. These field- 
 notes, with the certificate, are returned to the general land- 
 office, examined, located on the map of lands, and, if found 
 correct, and on vacant lands, a grant or patent, signed by the 
 governor and countersigned by the commissioner, passing un- 
 der both their seals, issues to the party in the name of the 
 state. Should the party’s claim be for military services, he 
 obtains his warrant from the war-office, and proceeds to locate 
 it as a head-right certificate. So, likewise, in regard to land- 
 scrip, the same course is pursued. 
 
 Under this important law, hundreds of claims were presented 
 and acted on early in 1838. Many locations, however, were 
 made on these old Spanish grants, the parties being either ig- 
 norant of their existence, or supposing them forfeited by non- 
 performance of conditions. But, under the general principle 
 that none but the state could set aside a grant for non-perform- 
 ance of subsequent conditions, and a conflict of interests hav- 
 
IMMIGRATION — BRIGHTER PROSPECTS. 
 
 241 
 
 ing prevented any action in the Texan Congress or legislature 
 on that point, the old grants have generally been sustained, 
 and often to the prejudice of a more rapid immigration. The 
 Congress, however, remitted all the conditions annexed to head- 
 right grants, except the government dues. 
 
 The year 1838 opened well for Texas. During the latter 
 months of 1837 a heavy immigration had come into the coun- 
 try, the parties composing which brought with them substan- 
 tial means and industrious habits. The Mexicans, to the num- 
 ber of five or six hundred, had advanced as far as San Patri- 
 cio, but soon retired, driving before them some two thousand 
 head of cattle ranging west of the Nueces. The prudent use 
 of the promissory-notes of the republic, being received for du- 
 ties and other public dues, had given a temporary relief to the 
 treasury. The increase in the number of immigrants had also 
 added to the imports and tariff dues. Lands had likewise 
 risen in value ; so that Texas was in a prosperous condition. 
 During the year 1837 her farmers had made good crops, that 
 of cotton alone being estimated at fifty thousand bales, and 
 worth at the selling prices two millions of dollars. The new 
 town of Galveston was beginning to rise in the public estima- 
 tion. Commerce had sought out the harbor as the best in the 
 republic, and responsble merchants were beginning to settle 
 there. As in 1836 a vessel scarcely anchored in the harbor 
 once a month, now, in the beginning of 1838, vessels were ar- 
 riving daily, and the harbor presented the appearance of an 
 Atlantic port. The merchants who had previously confined 
 their trade to New Orleans, were now extending their business 
 to the eastern cities.* With the demand from the interior, 
 
 * “Telegraph,” February 1*7, 1838. A writer in that paper of June 16, 1838, 
 says that, twelve months previous to that time, there was but one building there, 
 but at the time he wrote there were fifty or sixty elegant buildings, and fifteen 
 or twenty vessels in the harbor. 
 
 VOL. II.— 16 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 grew up the traffic between Galveston and Houston. This 
 trade was carried on by four steamboats ; and the growth of 
 the last-named town was equally rapid. For the first quarter 
 of 1838, the imports at Galveston were over a quarter of a 
 million, and the duties about fifty-one thousand dollars. 
 
 The want of means had caused a reduction of the naval as 
 well as military force of the republic ; but at length the au- 
 thorities succeeded in procuring the brig Potomac. This ves- 
 sel was the only one afloat in the Texan navy in the summer 
 of 1838. But, at that time, Texas had no need of a navy to 
 defend her against her enemy ; for the French government, 
 having certain claims against Mexico, which she failed to meet, 
 sent her, from on board the national frigate L'Herminie , off 
 Sacrifices, an ultimatum , the substance of which was, that the 
 republic, by the 15th of May, 1838, should pay six hundred 
 thousand dollars claimed as indemnity.* The Mexican gov- 
 ernment having rejected this ultimatum , her ports were block- 
 aded on the 15th of April, and a considerable French naval 
 force was assembling at Yera Cruz.f This blockade, which 
 lasted for some time, gave peace to the western frontier of 
 Texas. 
 
 The diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United 
 States, which, as we have seen, were so suddenly broken off, 
 were again resumed. On the 20th of May, 1837, the Mexican. 
 Congress passed a law authorizing President Bustamente to 
 propose a reference of their differences to a third party. With 
 this view, Senor Martinez was accredited as embassador to 
 Washington, and submitted the proposition to the secretary of 
 state. $ It was accepted on the part of the United States, and 
 
 * M. Deffaudi8 to the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, March 21, 1838. 
 
 f Proclamation of blockade, April 16, 1838. 
 
 $ Martinez to Forsyth, April *7, 1838. 
 
AUGMENTING THE NAVY — GOVERNMENT CREDIT. 243 
 
 a convention proposed for making out the details of the refer- 
 ence. 
 
 The differences between Mexico and other nations freed 
 Texas from present anxiety, relieved her from some expenses 
 which she was ill able to bear, and gave her time to consoli- 
 date her strength, thus increasing the improbability of another 
 invasion. Yet she was preparing to protect her coasts and 
 commerce. In pursuance of an act for augmenting the navy, 
 approved November 4, 1837, Samuel M. Williams was appoint- 
 ed by the president to contract for the vessels required by the 
 law. Accordingly, on the 13th of November, 1838, he con- 
 tracted with Frederick Dawson, of Baltimore, for one ship, 
 two brigs, and three schooners, to be fully armed, furnished 
 with provisions and munitions, and delivered in the port of 
 Galveston, for which the contractor received two bonds of the 
 republic of two hundred and eighty thousand dollars each, 
 which might be redeemed by sterling bonds for five hundred 
 and twenty thousand dollars, or by payment of the face of the 
 bonds with ten per cent, interest. If the bonds were not so 
 satisfied by the 1st of December, 1839, then the bonds, depos- 
 ited in the Girard bank, were to be delivered over to the con- 
 tractors.* This was a portion of the loan. 
 
 In 1838, and for some time previous, the banks in the United 
 States had ceased to redeem their paper ; consequently, it was 
 considerably under par. The promissory-notes of the govern- 
 ment of Texas had suffered a like fate, and for a still stronger 
 reason, that they were never redeemed with specie, but only 
 in receipt of public dues. In New Orleans, they were received 
 
 * Samuel M. Williams to President of the Girard Bank, November 29, 1838. 
 Contract with Dawson, Appendix to Journals of Fifth Congress, p. 202. Report 
 of M. M. Potter, Chairman of Special Committee of the Texas Senate, January 
 22, 1854. It is not very creditable to Texas, that, after a lapse of more than 
 fifteen years, these bonds are still unpaid. 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tolerably well on their first issuance, in November, 1837 ; but 
 by the spring of 1838, after the issuance of half a million, they 
 fell to fifty cents in the dollar. 
 
 It was undoubtedly the true policy of Texas to sustain the 
 credit of this paper, at least while it was used at all. To do 
 this, it was necessary to limit the amount circulated. But the 
 Texan Congress, forgetful of the sage maxims of experience, 
 passed a bill in May, 1838, requiring the secretary of the treas- 
 ury to issue as much more. The president vetoed the measure, 
 and, among his reasons for so doing, he stated, as the cause 
 for the original adoption of the plan, that Texas had just come 
 out of a war in which she had achieved freedom and glory : 
 “ but the struggle had left us destitute and naked. There 
 were no banks ; there was no money ; our lands could not be 
 sold, and the public credit was of doubtful character. To 
 avoid the absolute dissolution of the government, it became 
 necessary to resort to some expedient that might furnish tem- 
 porary relief.” As the relief intended was only temporary, it 
 was desirable, to make it efficient, that the issue of promissory- 
 notes should be limited to the local demand, as it was impos- 
 sible that such a currency could have credit abroad. The lim- 
 ited issues already made had raised the price of merchandise 
 in Texas one or two hundred per cent, higher than in the Uni- 
 ted States, or in Mexico, or perhaps in any other country. The 
 executive veto had the effect to prevent the enactment of the 
 law, and to sustain the credit of the paper then out.* 
 
 The constitution of the republic provided that the first presi- 
 dent elected by the people should hold his office for two years, 
 and be ineligible to a re-election during the next term ; while 
 succeeding presidents should hold their office for three years, 
 and be alike ineligible. As, under this provision, Houston’s 
 * House Journal, Texan Congress, May, 1888, p. 119. 
 
MIRABEAU B. LAMAR ELECTED PRESIDENT. 
 
 245 
 
 term would expire on the second Monday in December, 1838, 
 the public had become interested in the election of his succes- 
 sor. M. B. Lamar and Peter W. Grayson were the candidates 
 brought forward by their respective friends, and supported with 
 considerable zeal. The Texan newspapers of that year abound 
 in the same charges and denials, the same freedom and abuse 
 of political discussion, exhibited in the press of the United 
 States. Before the election, however, which was held on the 
 3d of September, Colonel Grayson put an end to his life, at 
 Bean’s station, in Tennessee. Mirabeau B. Lamar, his com- 
 petitor, was elected president, with only a nominal opposition, 
 and David G. Burnett was chosen vice-president. 
 
 The latter part of the year did not pass away without Indian 
 disturbances. On the 10th of August, Colonel Karnes, with a 
 company of twenty-one men, was attacked by two hundred Ca- 
 manches, near the Arroyo Seco. The savages were defeated 
 and routed with the loss of several warriors, while the Texans 
 suffered no loss, except in the wounding of Colonel Karnes. 
 
 About the same time, there was a strange rebellion — if such 
 it might be called — at Nacogdoches. On the 4th of August, a 
 party of citizens went in pursuit of some stolen horses. They 
 found them secreted in a Mexican settlement. On their re- 
 turn, they were fired on, and one of their number killed. Sev- 
 eral persons then followed the trail of the murderers. It was 
 soon found, from the size of the trail, that the number of Mexi- 
 cans, as they were believed to be, was large, and the pursuers 
 returned. On the 7th, Colonel John Durst reported to Gen- 
 eral Rusk that there wore a hundred or more Mexicans en- 
 camped about the Angelina, under the command of Nathaniel 
 Norris, Cordova, and Cruz. General Rusk made an immedi- 
 ate requisition for men. A company of sixty volunteers from 
 the town of Douglass was posted at the lower crossing of the 
 
246 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Angelina. On the 9th, they reported that they had been fired 
 on, and asked for assistance. This report proved to be incor- 
 rect, but the enemy was found to be posted on the right bank 
 of the river. On the 10th, it was reported that the Mexicans 
 had been joined by about three hundred Indians ; and on the 
 evening of that day their force amounted to six hundred men. 
 On the same day, President Houston, then at Nacogdoches, re- 
 ceived a letter from the Mexican leaders, disclaiming allegi- 
 ance to Texas. Having done this, the malcontents set out on 
 their march for the Cherokee nation. Houston, being advised 
 of this movement, directed General Rusk not to cross the An- 
 gelina. Major Augustin was detached with one hundred and 
 fifty men to follow the Mexican trail ; while the main body of 
 the Texans, under General Rusk, marched toward the head- 
 quarters of Bowles, the Cherokee chief, whither he understood 
 the enemy had gone. On reaching the Saline, he discovered 
 that the insurgent leaders had fled to the upper Trinity, and 
 that their followers had dispersed. This emeute was in every 
 way remarkable, nor did any subsequent discovery explain its 
 object. The leaders must have known that a successful revo- 
 lution was impossible ; and, after the rebels were embodied, 
 they shed no blood, nor did they offer to do so. The move- 
 ment probably arose, in the first instance, from that mutual 
 want of confidence existing between the two races since 1835.* 
 
 * “ Redlander,” September, 1838. The Mexicans haying assembled at the 
 Angelina, President Houston issued his proclamation on the 8th of August, re- 
 quiring them to return to their homes, under the penalty of being declared ene- 
 mies to the republic. To this proclamation their leaders sent the following 
 reply : — 
 
 “The citizens of Nacogdoches, being tired of unjust treatment, and of the 
 usurpation of their rights, can not do less than state that they are embodied, 
 •with arms in their hands, to sustain those rights, and those of the nation to 
 which they belong. They are ready to shed the last drop of their blood ; and 
 declare, as they have heretofore done, that they do not acknowledge the exist- 
 ing laws, through which they are offered guaranties (by the proclamation) for 
 
FRONTIER CONFLICTS WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 247 
 
 Again, on the 25th of October, 1838, at Jose Maria village 
 (since occupied as Fort Graham), a bloody battle was fought 
 by a number of Texans, under Colonel Neil, and a portion of 
 the Camanches located there. After a fierce conflict, the In- 
 dians fled, leaving many of their warriors slain.* On the 20th 
 of the same month a party of surveyors was attacked by the 
 Camanches within five miles of Bexar, and two of them killed. 
 A party of thirteen citizens went out to discover the enemy’s 
 intentions, when, three miles from the place, they were attacked 
 by more than a hundred Indians. On being charged, the sav- 
 ages gave way, and then closed upon the Texans’ rear, killing 
 eight and wounding four of them.f 
 
 And again, on the 14th of October, General Rusk, at the 
 head of two hundred men hastily levied, arrived at Fort Hous- 
 ton, on the Trinity, in pursuit of a motley collection of Indians 
 and Mexicans, who had been committing depredations on the 
 frontier. Learning there that the marauders were at the Kick- 
 apoo town, he marched to that place, and encamped at sunset, 
 on the 15th. At daybreak, on the 16th, the engagement com- 
 menced, and continued for about fifteen minutes, when Rusk 
 ordered a charge. It was instantly made, upon which the 
 enemy fled, and were pursued for nearly a mile, leaving eleven 
 
 their lives and properties. They only ask that you will not molest their fami- 
 lies, promising in good faith to do the same in regard to yours. 
 
 “ Vicente Cokdova, “A. Gorda, 
 
 “ Nat. Norris, “ C. Morales, 
 
 “J. Arriola, “Joshua Robertson, 
 
 “J. Vicente Micheli, “Juan Jose Rodriques,” 
 
 “ J. Santos Coy, and others. 
 
 “ August 10, 1838.” 
 
 Antonio Manchaca, who visited their camp, reported about one hundred and 
 twenty Mexicans and twenty-five Biloxi and Ionaes Indians present, which num- 
 ber was no doubt correct — Manchaca' s Report , August 17, 1838. 
 
 * “Southwest American,” August 18, 1838. 
 f “Telegraph,” November 3, 1852. 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 dead on the field. The Texans had a like number wounded, 
 but none killed.* 
 
 Thus the whole frontier was lighted up with the flames of a 
 savage war. The immediate cause of these hostilities is to be 
 found in the opening of the land-offices in the beginning of the 
 year. Surveyors and locators, desiring to select the best lands, 
 had gone out beyond the settlements, and began their opera- 
 tions. The Indians, seeing them at work, were not slow to 
 believe what the Mexicans had told them — that the white 
 people would take all their hunting-grounds, and drive them 
 off. Their attacks upon the frontiers were in resistance of this 
 movement. 
 
 The third Congress convened on the 5th of November, and 
 appointed a joint committee to wait on President Houston and 
 inform him that the two houses were organized, and ready to 
 receive any written communications he might wish to make, 
 which duty was performed. As the constitution declared that 
 the president “ should, from time to time, give Congress infor- 
 mation of the state of the republic, and recommend for their 
 consideration such measures as he might deem necessary,’’ 
 without specifying in what mode he should do it, he did not 
 concur with them in this interpolation upon that instrument. 
 He replied to them very briefly, transmitting the reports of the 
 several departments, and thus concluded : “ Had no restriction 
 been placed by the resolution on the right of the president to 
 select the mode in which he would convey proper intelligence 
 to Congress, and 4 recommend such measures as he might deem 
 necessary,’ he had important information to lay before the hon- 
 orable body, and would have rendered it with pleasure, under 
 the constitutional right secured to him, and in discharge of his 
 duties ; but, for reasons which to his mind are satisfactory, he 
 
 * Rusk to Parker, October 23, 1838. 
 
FINANCIAL REPORT TO CONGRESS. 
 
 249 
 
 declines for the present any further communication.” This 
 brought the two departments of the government to a stand. 
 The house of representatives, in which the interpolation origi- 
 nated, had got into an awkward position. A motion was made 
 to retrace their steps, but consistency prevented. A committee 
 was appointed, which reported favorably to the written mes- 
 sage. Still it did no good : the constitution spoke for itself ; 
 and it was well known that, under a like clause in the consti- 
 tution of the United States, the first two presidents had deliv- 
 ered their messages in person. To supply the want of such 
 information, various calls were made and answered on specific 
 points. 
 
 The report of the secretary of the treasury, for the year 
 ending September, 1838, exhibited a net revenue from imports 
 of over two hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars ; a 
 circulation of promissory-notes to the amount of six hundred 
 and eighty-four thousand dollars ; a funded debt of more than 
 four hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars ; and unpaid 
 audited claims amounting to over seven hundred and seventy- 
 five thousand dollars. The exact aggregate of the last three 
 items shows the indebtedness of the republic at that time to 
 have been one million, eight hundred and eighty-six thousand, 
 four hundred and twenty-five dollars.* 
 
 The financial condition of Texas was greatly improved, not- 
 withstanding the revolutionary debt was pressing upon her. 
 Her people had been engaged in agriculture, and immigration 
 had enhanced the value of lands and provisions. Those who 
 had to sell, found a ready market. Measures were taken to 
 collect a direct tax, though as yet nothing had been thus real- 
 
 * Mr. Gouge is particularly severe upon the financial operations of Texas at 
 this period. He ought to have remembered that “ poor people must do as they 
 can;” and that speculators, seeing at that time the necessities of the young re- 
 public, plundered her without mercy . — Fiscal History of Texas , p. 82, et seq. 
 
250 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ized. As the new-comers now constituted a majority of the 
 inhabitants, the control of affairs fell pretty much into their 
 own hands. They were ardently desirous to be annexed to 
 the mother-country, and, the better to attain this object, it was 
 deemed by some to be good policy to withdraw the proposition 
 of annexation from the cabinet at Washington. This course was 
 recommended by President Houston to the second Congress, 
 but failed by a close vote. In the Congress of the United 
 States, the question of annexation had been warmly discussed, 
 the subject of slavery forming an extensive element in the op- 
 position. While the American government could not, in good 
 faith to Mexico, accede to the proposition, as long as there 
 was the least prospect of the latter power carrying on the war 
 against her revolted province, the former was most friendlily 
 disposed toward the government and people of Texas. The 
 convention for running the boundary-line was settled, and kind 
 offices in every way extended. The Texan policy of withdraw- 
 ing the proposition for annexation, reducing her duties on im- 
 ports, and thus inviting a profitable commerce with Great Brit- 
 ain and France, was admirably calculated to excite the jealousy 
 of the disaffected portion of the United States, and to hasten 
 that union which the young republic seemingly repelled. We 
 shall see the effect of this policy. 
 
 Among the distinguished dead of Texas this year may be 
 mentioned James Collingsworth and John A. Wharton. Col- 
 lingsworth was the first chief-justice of the supreme court of 
 the republic. He was a man of fine talents, great urbanity, 
 and a devoted and valuable friend to Texas in her struggle. 
 He had a pleasant wit, was a most admirable companion, and 
 of scrupulous integrity. He had emigrated to Texas to rid 
 himself of a false habit, which unfortunately pursued him, and 
 brought him to a premature grave. John A. Wharton had 
 
JOHN A. WHARTON — HIS DEATH. 
 
 251 
 
 come to Texas in 1829. Throughout her long contest with 
 Mexico, she found no truer or more gallant defender. He 
 died just as President Houston’s first term was expiring. A 
 reference to the letter written by him to Houston in 1829, invi- 
 ting him to Texas, and to the distinguished part subsequently 
 taken by each in the affairs of their adopted country, will afford 
 materials for solemn reflection. Collingsworth and Wharton 
 were both from Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
252 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 On the 9th of December, 1838, the ceremony of the inaugu- 
 ration of President Lamar occurred in front of the capitol, and 
 in the presence of an immense concourse of people. After the 
 valedictory of President Houston, General Lamar delivered 
 his inaugural address.* In that well-written paper, he says: 
 “ The character of my administration may be anticipated in the 
 domestic nature of our government and the peaceful habits of 
 the people. Looking upon agriculture, commerce, and the use- 
 ful arts, as the true basis of all national strength and glory, it 
 will be my leading policy to awaken into vigorous activity the 
 wealth, talent, and enterprise, of the country ; and, at the same 
 time, to lay the foundation of those higher institutions for moral 
 and mental culture without which no government on demo- 
 cratic principles can prosper, nor the people long preserve 
 their liberties.” On the subject of annexation, he remarked : 
 
 “ I have never been able myself to perceive the policy of the 
 desired connection, or discover in it any advantage, either 
 civil, political, or commercial, which could possibly result to 
 Texas. But, on the contrary, a long train of consequences, 
 
 * “ It was received,” says the Telegraph, “ with general approbation. It was 
 pleasing to notice the remarkable degree of confidence and esteem that was ev- 
 erywhere manifested toward President Lamar. He is almost unanimously re- 
 garded as the pride and ornament of his country; and from his administration 
 the most fortunate results are expected.” — Telegraph , December 12, 1888. 
 
CAPTURE OF VERA CRUZ BY THE FRENCH. 
 
 253 
 
 of the most appalling character and magnitude, have never 
 failed to present themselves whenever I have entertained the 
 subject, and forced upon my mind the unwelcome conviction 
 that the step, once taken, would produce a lasting regret, and 
 ultimately prove as disastrous to our liberty and hopes as the 
 triumphant sword of the enemy.” 
 
 Shortly after the inauguration of the new president, the peo- 
 ple of Texas were gratified with the intelligence of the capture 
 of Vera Cruz. The blockade by the French not availing to 
 bring the government to terms, Admiral Baudin despatched a 
 messenger to General Rincon, the Mexican commandant, in- 
 forming him that he was about to attack the castle of San Juan 
 d’Ulloa. This fortress, situated on an island in the harbor, 
 was defended by one hundred and sixty pieces of artillery and 
 about five thousand men. The bombardment commenced about 
 two o’clock in the afternoon of the 27th of November, and was 
 so well directed, that in four hours, after a loss of six hundred 
 men .in killed and wounded, the Mexicans capitulated, marched 
 out of the castle, and the French took possession. By permis- 
 sion of the victors, a small Mexican force was allowed to re- 
 main in the city to preserve order. 
 
 President Lamar sent in his message to Congress on the 21st 
 of December. It was lengthy, and, with the exception of some 
 historical inaccuracies, well written. He laid down his course 
 of policy with great frankness. Among the measures recom- 
 mended was a national bank, to “ be the exclusive property 
 and under the exclusive control of the republic.” — “ Such a 
 bank,” says he, “incorporated for a suitable term of years, 
 founded on a specific hypothecation of a competent portion of 
 the public domain, which should be immediately appropriated 
 to that purpose, with the additional guaranty of the plighted 
 faith of the nation, and an adequate deposite of specie in its 
 
254 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 vaults, would, it is confidently believed, confer many eminent 
 and continued blessings upon the country.”* Happily for 
 Texas, there was too much of the democratic element in her 
 councils to adopt this exploded policy. Her statesmen had 
 learned in the older states many valuable lessons on this sub- 
 ject : among them, that a paper currency was not money, and 
 that it could not represent money, unless there was, at a con- 
 venient point, money to be represented by it ; that Texas had 
 no money, and could only obtain it honestly by paying a con- 
 sideration ; that her credit was already exhausted, and could 
 not be further extended except at ruinous rates of interest, in 
 which the lender was paid as well for the risk he run as for 
 the money he loaned. In addition to these facts, they had just 
 witnessed a terrible conflict in the United States between a 
 national bank and one of the most popular of her presidents, 
 in which the victory was long suspended. Such an institution 
 in Texas, even had it been possible to procure a specie basis, 
 would have proved a source of boundless political corruption. 
 
 President Lamar further stated that, “ when the bank shall 
 have fully gone into operation, and developed its satisfactory 
 influences on the pecuniary transactions of the country. . . it 
 is hardly conceivable that any fortuitous combination of events 
 could occasion an extensive demand for the metals. The ordi- 
 nary current wants of the country would be regularly supplied ; 
 and it is not probable that any respectable merchant or other 
 capitalist would risk his character, either to gratify his spleen 
 or his avarice, by getting up a captious run on a sound and 
 solvent bank, which involves the reciprocal relations of citizens 
 and country, and is an object of universal patriotic pride and 
 endearment.” During the war of the American Revolution, 
 
 * Mr. Gouge’s comments on this portion of the message are quite appropriate. 
 — Fiscal History of Texas , p. 89 . 
 
MEXICO AMD FRANCE — TREATY OF PEACE. 255 
 
 when the continental paper, for the redemption of which the 
 public faith was pledged, had become so depreciated, that pur- 
 chases could scarcely be made with it, the Congress resolved 
 that any one who should refuse to receive it at par in business 
 transactions should suffer a certain penalty. Yet neither the 
 character nor patriotic pride of the merchant or capitalist, nor 
 the penalties of the law, induced them to take it at par. As a 
 marketable commodity, it passed at the market price ; and, to 
 demand and enforce more, was robbery. 
 
 — However, the message went to the Texan Congress for its 
 consideration. 
 
 To bring up properly the events of 1839, we must recur to 
 what was done in Mexico. The agreement between Admiral 
 Baudin and General Rincon, the commandant at Yera Cruz, 
 was not ratified by the Mexican government : on the contrary, 
 Santa Anna was despatched with five thousand troops to drive 
 the French out of the place. In attempting this, he lost his 
 leg, together with many of his troops. On the 9th of March, 
 1839, a treaty was made between Mexico and France, which, 
 being shortly afterward ratified, the French forces left the ter- 
 ritory of the republic, and the gallant admiral paid Texas a 
 visit on his way home.* 
 
 The federal party in Mexico, taking advantage of Busta- 
 mente’s engagements in repelling the French, declared for the 
 constitution of 1824. The civil war thus ensuing raged over 
 a great portion of the confederacy, with more or less success 
 on the part of the insurgents. In Tampico, they routed the 
 centralists under the command of General Piedras (formerly 
 well known at Nacogdoches), and disposed of that officer after 
 the Mexican fashion. About this time, General Mexia arrived 
 at Tampico, and found Urrea in command of the federalists. 
 
 * Baud in’s order of the day, March 29, 1839. 
 
256 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 These two chiefs, having raised a considerable force, set out 
 for the capital. In the meantime, Bustamente assumed the 
 command of the army in person, leaving Santa Anna to act as 
 president in his absence. He marched to encounter the feder- 
 alists, and met them about the first of May, at Acajete, near 
 Puebla, where a terrible battle ensued, in which the federal 
 army was totally defeated. General Mexia was captured, and, 
 of course, immediately shot, while Urrea fled for his life. The 
 civil war was, in fact, by this contest, virtually ended, though 
 much strife and bloodshed continued on the frontiers. 
 
 The Mexican federalists were well disposed toward Texas, 
 and their leaders did not fail to keep up a correspondence with 
 the republic. A trade of some importance sprang up between 
 Bexar and the Rio Grande. Indeed, Texas was so much de- 
 ceived by these evidences of friendship, that she thought nego- 
 tiations might be started for a peace. With this view, Barnard 
 E. Bee was despatched as a minister to Mexico, and the Texan 
 minister at Washington was instructed to engage the mediation 
 of the United States, and the good offices of Mr. Fox, the Brit- 
 ish minister there, to bring about the same end. Mr. Forsyth, 
 the secretary of state, did write to Mr. Ellis, to inquire of the 
 Mexican government whether the mediation of the American 
 cabinet was desired ; and Mr. Fox promised to write to Mr. 
 Pakenham, the British minister in Mexico, favorably to the 
 claims of Texas.* Mr. Dunlap, the Texan minister at Wash- 
 ington, also had some confidential conversations with Senor 
 Martinez, embassador to that government from Mexico, on the 
 same subject. The latter conversed quite frankly ; but Mr. 
 Dunlap was somewhat too strong in his demands when he 
 spoke of extending the western boundary of Texas to the Pa- 
 
 * James Webb to Richard G. Dunlap, March 14, 1889. Richard G. Dunlap 
 to J. P Henderson, May 24, 1839. 
 
DIPLOMATIC MOVEMENTS CHECKMATED. 
 
 257 
 
 cific, so as to include the fine harbor of San Francisco ! He 
 also wrote Senor Martinez a letter, recapitulating the topics 
 of their conversation. Martinez answered him very politely, 
 but not as a minister, and promised to send his letter to the 
 Mexican government.* 
 
 As these diplomatic movements seemed to be predicated 
 upon the success of the federal party in Mexico, they were 
 completely checkmated by the battle of Acajete, referred to 
 on the previous page. It was the centralist party that first 
 made war on Texas ; it was the centralist party which she had 
 so signally overwhelmed; and it was still with that party — 
 proud, bigoted, and impotent, as it was — that she had to deal. 
 The Texan minister was not received, nor did he even present 
 his papers.f 
 
 Previous to the French attack on Vera Cruz, and the civil 
 war in Mexico, that government had commenced a system, 
 which, if it had been carried out as was intended, would have 
 been most disastrous to Texas. Its object was to turn loose 
 upon her all the Indian tribes upon her borders, from the Rio 
 Grande to Red river. Of this fact the Texan government ob- 
 tained undoubted evidence. Before the revolt of the Mexicans 
 at Nacogdoches, Vicente Cordova had been in correspondence 
 with the enemy at Matamoras. In July, 1838, he addressed 
 
 * R. G. Dunlap to P. P. Martinez, October 8, 1839. F. P. Martinez to R. G. 
 Dunlap, October 9, 1839. 
 
 f The Vera Cruz “ Censor •” spoke thus of the Texan minister when off Sacrifi- 
 cios: “We do not know which most to admire, the audacity of those brigands 
 in sending us their pedler to ask us to allow the peaceable possession of their 
 robbery, or the answer the commandant-general gave to the individual who 
 apprized him of the arrival of this quixotic embassador. From the tenor of the 
 reply, it appears that, if he lands, he will be accommodated with lodgings at the 
 prison. Nevertheless, the supreme government will designate what ought defi- 
 nitely to be done. The commandant says he is not aware of the existence of a 
 nation called the ‘republic of Texas;’ but only of a horde of adventurers, in re- 
 bellion against the laws of- the government of the republic.” 
 
 VOL. II.— 17 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 a letter to Manuel Flores, the Indo-Mexican agent at Matamo- 
 ras, stating that he held a commission from Filisola, to raise 
 the Indians as auxiliaries to the Mexican army, and had al- 
 ready entered on his duties. He wished to co-operate with 
 Flores, and have an understanding with him as to the mode of 
 procedure ; and for that purpose he desired, if possible, to have 
 a meeting and personal consultation.* Cordova wrote to Fili- 
 sola on the 29th of August and the 16th of September, 1838, 
 from the head-waters of the Trinity, giving him an account of 
 his progress. The departure of Flores from Matamoras was, 
 from some cause, delayed till the spring of the following year. 
 In the meantime, on the 27th of February, 1839, f Brigadier- 
 General Canalizo, who had succeeded Filisola at Matamoras, 
 sent his instructions to Cordova — the same that had been 
 given to Flores — to excite the frontier Indians to make war 
 on Texas. He said it was in the power of the Indians, and 
 also for their interest, to prevent the Texans from taking ad- 
 vantage of the troubles in Mexico ; that they must not trust to 
 flying invasions, but to operations having a more permanent 
 effect — causing, if not daily injury, at least perpetual alarm 
 and inquietude to the enemy, and depriving them of their com- 
 merce, the spoils of which were to go to the Indians. While 
 the savages were to be cautioned not to go near the boundary 
 of the United States, they were to occupy the line of Bexar, 
 about the Guadalupe, and from the source to the mouth of the 
 San Mark. “ This position,’’ continues Canalizo, “ is the most 
 
 * This letter, among other papers, was found on the person of Flores when he 
 was killed. 
 
 f Senate Document No. 14, Thirty-second Congress, second session, p. 38. This 
 letter from Canalizo to Cordova is dated “1838’’ in the printed document, and 
 also in the' copy sent from Texas to Mr. Dunlap, her minister at Washington. It 
 should be 1839. It refers to the hostilities with France, which did not ‘occur 
 till after its date. And another fact should be borne in mind : Canalizo was not 
 in command at Matamoras at that time. 
 
INDIAN HOSTILITIES — A MEXICAN PLOT. 259 
 
 favorable for the friendly Indians (as well as for the friendly 
 Mexicans), in order that they shall have the enemy in front 
 only, keeping a friendly and generous nation as Mexico in the 
 rear” They were not to cease to harass the Texans for a 
 single day — “to burn their habitations, to lay waste their 
 fields, ” and, by rapid and well-concerted movements, to draw 
 their attention in every direction ; and if the Texans should 
 assemble in considerable bodies, the Indians were directed to 
 hang about them in small parties, and to harass them day and 
 night, endeavoring at every cost to cut off (steal) their horses. 
 The instructions to Cordova were to be sent to him, and he 
 and Flores were to have an interview as soon as possible. 
 They were required, however, to extend humane treatment to 
 defenceless persons of both sexes and of all ages. They were 
 to pursue and punish all Indians friendly to the Texans, and 
 all Mexicans who traded with them. Canalizo, in his letter to 
 Cordova, informed him that, as soon as the hostilities with 
 France should terminate, the Mexican army, greatly increased, 
 would proceed to recover Texas. Flores had messages from 
 Canalizo to the chiefs of the Caddoes, Seminoles, Biloxas, Cher- 
 okees, Kickapoos, Brasos, Twowokanaes, and perhaps others, 
 promising them the lands on which they had settled, and assu- 
 ring them that they need “ expect nothing from those greedy 
 adventurers for land, who wish even to deprive the Indians of 
 the sun that warms and vivifies them, and who would not cease 
 to injure them while the grass grows and water runs. ,, 
 
 Such were the instructions under which Commissioner Flores 
 set out on his mission. Cordova had been hanging about the 
 Indian camps high up on the Trinity and Brasos rivers, his 
 followers greatly reduced. On the 14th of May, Flores and 
 his party of twenty-five marauders, about half of whom were 
 Indians, passed between Seguin and Bexar, where they commit- 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ted some murders. They were pursued by Lieutenant James 
 0. Rice and seventeen men, who overtook them on the San 
 Gabriel fork of Little river, about fifteen miles from Austin. 
 Rice and his party attacked and killed Flores and two others, 
 and put the balance to flight, who left behind them their plun- 
 der, consisting of three hundred pounds of powder, a like quan- 
 tity of shot, balls, and bar-lead, and more than a hundred mules 
 and horses.* But, what was of most importance to Texas, the 
 correspondence before referred to fell into the hands of the 
 victors. How many Indian tribes had been supplied previous 
 to this capture, we can not tell. The discovery of this corre- 
 spondence was a most fortunate thing for the republic ; for, 
 had the insidious plots of the enemy been carried out, and the 
 flames of a savage war spread along the entire frontier, fol- 
 lowed by an invasion from Mexico, it would have done her a 
 serious injury. Such was doubtless the intention of Mexico ; 
 and it was a courageous resolve in the authorities of that 
 nation to place the Indians in front. They reasoned, no doubt, 
 that, by the time their savage allies had stolen the horses of 
 the Texans, ravaged their fields, and burnt their habitations, 
 the main body of the invading army could succeed better in 
 the reconquest of the revolted province. 
 
 It will be observed that Canalizo, in his instructions, directed 
 that no approach should be made toward the frontier of the 
 United States. There was but one dangerous tribe of Indians 
 in that direction — the Caddoes. A portion of this tribe had 
 been taken by General Rusk in November, 1838, disarmed, 
 and handed over to their agent in Shreveport, where they en- 
 tered into a treaty to remain until the war between Texas and 
 the balance of the tribe should cease. f These Indians, and in 
 
 * Senate Document No. 14, Thirty-second Congress, second session, p. 26. 
 
 f E. Burleson to the Secretary of War, May 22, 1889. 
 
WAR WITH THE CAMANCHES. 
 
 261 
 
 fact some of the tribes in Arkansas, had been under the influ- 
 ence of Cordova. 
 
 That chieftain, making his way westward with between sixty 
 and seventy Mexicans, Indians, and negroes, encamped on the 
 26th of March at the foot of the Colorado mountains. Colonel 
 Burleson, getting news of him, collected eighty men, started on 
 his trail, and overtook him on the Guadalupe. After the first 
 fire, the enemy fled, and were followed for four miles, when 
 night prevented further pursuit. Twenty-five or thirty of them 
 them were killed, but their leader made his escape to the Rio 
 Grande. Thus terminated the mission of Flores and Cordova. 
 But the spirit of war thus awakened in the Indians was not so 
 easily allayed. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1839, three companies of volunteers 
 were organized in the upper settlements on the Colorado, and 
 placed under the command of Captain John H. Moore, with 
 orders to march against the Camanches. They proceeded up 
 the Colorado until the 14th of February, when they arrived 
 within ten miles of the Indian village. After nightfall, they 
 marched cautiously to within about a mile of the village, where 
 they dismounted, tied their horses, and sent eight mounted 
 Lipan Indians to stampede the Camanches’ caballada. The 
 main body of the rangers, having advanced to within three 
 hundred yards of the enemy, were discovered. This was just 
 at daybreak. Captain Moore now ordered a charge. It was 
 promptly made, the troops throwing open the doors of the wig- 
 wams, or pulling them down, and slaughtering the enemy in 
 their beds. The Camanches retreated to a bend in the bayou, 
 and formed for defence. The smoke had so increased the 
 darkness, that the Texans retired for a few moments to reload 
 their pieces. They had scarcely formed, however, when the 
 Camanches charged them in front and flank. These onsets 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 continued, at short intervals, until ten o’clock, when the fire 
 of the Indians came from a greater distance. Captain Moore 
 sent ten men to reconnoitre, who reported the enemy to be very 
 numerous. About half-past eleven o’clock, the Indians ceased 
 firing : and the Texans, believing their force was insufficient to 
 drive them from their secure position, retired to their horses, 
 a mile below. In fifteen minutes after their arrival, however, 
 they were surrounded by from three to five hundred of the Ca- 
 manches, who opened a fire on them. This the Texans soon 
 silenced, when the Indians sent in a flag, stating that they had 
 five white prisoners — a woman and four children — probably 
 hoping for a sale or an exchange. The fight was not renewed. 
 Captain Moore had in his command sixty-three white men and 
 sixteen Lipan Indians, and had one killed and six wounded. 
 The Camanches lost about thirty killed, and a like number 
 wounded.* 
 
 About the last of February, a party of Indians, having com- 
 mitted several murdersf some twelve miles above Bastrop, 
 were pursued and attacked by about fifty Texans. The sav- 
 ages having the advantage of position, the whites fell back ; 
 but being reinforced by thirty more, under Colonel Burleson, 
 they again advanced. The Indians took a good position, and 
 the fight commenced at one o’clock in the afternoon. The In- 
 dians were greatly superior in numbers, and continued the con- 
 flict until dark, when they retreated, having twenty or thirty 
 killed. The Texan loss was three killed. 
 
 On Sunday, the 27th of May, Captain John Bird, having 
 marched from Fort Milam to Fort Smith, on Little river, dis- 
 covered Indians near the latter place. At one o’clock in the 
 
 * Report of the Secretary of War, November, 1839, p. 42. 
 
 \ Among these murders were the killing of Mrs. Coleman and her child.— 
 General Burleson to the Secretary of War, March 2, 1839. 
 
SKIRMISHES WITH THE INDIANS. 
 
 263 
 
 afternoon, Captain Bird, with thirty-five in rank and file, pro- 
 ceeded against them. After a march of five miles, they came 
 in sight of twenty-seven Indians. Pursuing them three miles 
 farther, they found themselves within a hundred and seventy- 
 five yards of the enemy, arrayed in order of battle. The Tex- 
 ans charged upon them, both parties being mounted, and kept 
 up the pursuit for three miles, but to no purpose, for the sav- 
 ages could not be overtaken. The Texans then returned ; but 
 after retracing their steps for half a mile, they were suddenly 
 surrounded by about forty Indians, who shot their arrows from 
 every direction. The Texans made for a ravine six hundred 
 yards in front, which they succeeded in reaching, in spite of 
 the desperate attempts to prevent them by the savages, who 
 now retired to the top of a hill three hundred yards distant. 
 In about half an hour, the Indians advanced in full view, hav- 
 ing their number increased to some two hundred and forty. 
 They raised the war-whoop along their whole line, and charged 
 upon the ravine with fearful yells. The Texans gave them a 
 deadly reception, and they retired again to the hill, carrying 
 off their dead and wounded. A second desperate charge was 
 made, and was again repulsed with a like list of killed and 
 wounded. After a fight of more than an hour, the Indians 
 retreated to the hill, with a heavy loss of men and horses. 
 Darkness coming on, both parties retired. The Texans lost 
 five killed, among whom was their gallant captain, and had 
 two wounded. The loss of the savages was supposed to be 
 thirty killed.* 
 
 In the hostile movements of this year, our attention is called 
 to the war with the Cherokees. Agreeing with President La- 
 mar as to the destiny of this people, we will refer to some of 
 the facts and discussions on the subject. 
 
 * Report of Nathan Brookshire, commanding, May 31, 1839. 
 
264 
 
 HISTOItY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The treachery of Cordova, and the warlike demonstrations 
 of the Indians in eastern Texas in 1838, are already before 
 the reader, and their causes known. The president, in his 
 message of the 21st of December, 1838, assumed the position 
 that the immigrant Indian tribes had no legal or equitable 
 claim to any portion of the territory included within the limits 
 of Texas ; that the federal government of Mexico neither con- 
 ceded nor promised them lands, nor civil rights ; that it was 
 not necessary to inquire into the nature and extent of the 
 pledge given to the Cherokees by the consultation of 1835 and 
 the treaty of February, 1836, consequent upon it, for the treaty 
 was never ratified by any competent authority. 
 
 Now the facts are, that in 1822, long before any colonist 
 had settled in eastern Texas, or any colony contract had been 
 made for that section, the Cherokees emigrated to Texas. They 
 established a village north of Nacogdoches — the town, at that 
 time, being a waste, lately swept by the forces of Long and 
 Perez. On the 8th of November of that year, the Cherokees, 
 by Captain Richard and others of their head men, entered into 
 an agreement with the government of Texas, by which it was 
 stipulated that certain Cherokee chiefs should proceed with 
 their interpreters to Mexico, to treat with Iturbide for the set- 
 tlement of their tribe where it was then located. In the mean- 
 time, the agreement guarantied to the Cherokees the free and 
 peaceful right to cultivate their crops, and the prvileges of na- 
 tives. The chiefs proceeded to Mexico, and the imperial govern- 
 ment having satisfied them — whether verbally or in writing is 
 immaterial — they returned. An order from the supreme govern- 
 ment was despatched to the commandant-general of the eastern 
 provinces, and by him to the governor of Coahuila and Texas, 
 dated August 15, 1831, and by the latter to the political chief 
 of Bexar, dated September 1, 1831, directing a compliance 
 
THE CHEROKEE LAND-TITLES. 
 
 265 
 
 with the promises made by the supreme government to the 
 Cherokees. The governor states in his communication that, 
 “for the preservation of peace with the agricultural tribes, he 
 had offered them their establishment on a fixed tract of land, 
 and they had selected it.” He requested the political chief 
 to put them in possession, with corresponding titles. The po- 
 litical chief, on the 25th of September, replied that the matter 
 should be attended to in accordance with the prescribed forms. 
 Again, on the 22d of March, 1832, Colonel Piedras was com 
 missioned by the political chief to put the Cherokee families 
 into individual possession of the lands they possessed.* Wheth- 
 er there was any actual, written title, is unknown and immate- 
 rial. In the empresario concession afterward made to David 
 G. Burnet, and including part or all of their settlement, the 
 lands already appropriated were excepted from those to be 
 occupied by the colonists under Burnet. 
 
 For fourteen years the Cherokees had occupied this land, 
 holding it in quiet and undisputed possession. They were 
 not intruders on the whites, for they were there first. The 
 Mexican authorities recognised them, as an agricultural tribe, 
 with Mexican privileges, and Colonel Bean was official agent 
 for them, in common with other tribes. No voice had been 
 raised against their title. It was deemed by all both legal and 
 equitable. To give weight and dignity to this title, the con- 
 sultation of November, 1835, at a time when Texas was weak, 
 when a heavy cloud hung over her hopes, and her liberties 
 were suspended upon a most unequal and unjust war, made a 
 very solemn pledge to those Indians, acknowledging their just 
 claim to their lands, setting forth the boundaries thereof, and 
 saying further: “We solemnly declare that we will guaranty 
 to them the peaceable enjoyment of their rights to their lands 
 
 * Report of the Committee on Indian Affairs, Texas Senate, January 22, 1840. 
 
266 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 as we do our own. We solemnly declare that all grants, sur- 
 veys, or locations of lands, within the bounds hereinbefore 
 mentioned, made after the settlement of the said Indians, are, 
 and of right ought to be, utterly null and void.” To make it, 
 if possible, still stronger, the consultation resolved that each 
 member sign it as a “ pledge of the public faith, on the part of 
 the people of Texas.” And they did sign it : the names of 
 Wharton, Waller, Martin, Houston, Zavala, Patrick, Henry 
 Smith, Grimes, J. W. Robinson, Mitchell, and Millard, among 
 others of the distinguished worthies of the Revolution, were 
 placed by themselves to that pledge. Surely they did not in- 
 tend to deceive the Indians by thus purchasing their neutrality 
 until the war was over, when they, having no further need of 
 them, would declare that the Indians had no title either legal 
 or equitable. The suggestion that the consultation had no 
 power to make such pledge is preposterous. The members of 
 it had power to adhere to the constitution of 1824, or to sever 
 from it ; the assembly was organic, primitive, revolutionary. 
 Twenty or thirty thousand people were defending themselves 
 against eight millions. They met, by their representatives, for 
 general consultation. They found a nation of Indians in their 
 midst, advanced in civilization, and having an influence over 
 other tribes. These Indians had occupied the country first, 
 and it was important to conciliate them. This was done by 
 the pledge given. It is a rule in ethics that the promiser is 
 bound by what he believed the promisee understood by the 
 promise. No mental reservation or technical objection can 
 avoid this moral conclusion. From all which the result is, 
 that President Lamar’s message, in this respect, is unsupport- 
 ed by history, as by the good faith of Texas toward those 
 Indians. 
 
 On the other hand, it was impossible that the Indians should 
 
TROUBLES WITH THE CHEROKEES. 
 
 267 
 
 have an independent government within that of Texas. They 
 must necessarily come under the laws of the latter, or emi- 
 grate. It was not proposed to them that they should come 
 under the Texan laws as citizens. The great object of many 
 was to get their lands, for they were located in a fine and de- 
 sirable country. The Texans were the first violators of the 
 pledge of 1835. The ink was scarcely dry on the paper, when 
 locators and surveyors were seen in their forests ; and this, 
 too, notwithstanding the consultation, by the decree of Novem- 
 ber 13, 1835, had ordered such locations and surveys to cease 
 all over Texas. 
 
 But it is useless to dwell further upon the subject. The 
 Cherokees were charged with the plunder and murder of many 
 of the inhabitants residing among them and in their vicinity. 
 The Ki Hough family were cruelly massacred; only three or 
 four escaped, and they were brought into the settlements by 
 the Cherokees, who, by their “ cunning representations,” says 
 the secretary of war, charged these acts upon the prairie In- 
 dians and the treacherous Mexicans. To prevent such occur- 
 rences, Major Walters had been ordered with two companies 
 to occupy the Neches Saline, not only to watch the Cherokees, 
 but to cut off their intercourse with the Indians of the prairies. 
 Bowles, the Cherokee chief, notified Major Walters that he 
 would repel by force such occupation of the Saline. As the 
 major’s force was too small to carry out his orders, he estab- 
 lished his post on the west bank of the Neches, out of the Cher- 
 okee territory.* 
 
 Colonel Burleson, who was then collecting a force on the 
 Colorado, to operate against other Indians, was directed to 
 march his troops lower down, so as to be ready, on the short- 
 est notice, to enter the Cherokee territory. In the meantime, 
 
 * Report of the Secretary of War, November, 1839, p. 6. 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the government came in possession of the papers of Manuel 
 Flores, including letters addressed to Big Mush and Bowles, 
 the chiefs of the Cherokees.* On their reception, Burleson 
 was ordered to increase his force to four hundred men, and 
 march into the Cherokee nation. He reached the east bank 
 of the Neches on the 14th of July ; and, about the same time, 
 Colonel Landrum’s regiment from eastern Texas arrived there. 
 The Nacogdoches regiment, under General Busk, had arrived 
 some days before, and taken position near the Cherokee vil- 
 lage. The entire force was placed under the command of 
 Brigadier-General Douglass. Commissioners had, for some 
 days, been in conference with the Cherokees, to effect, if pos- 
 sible, their peaceable removal. The commissioners offered to 
 pay them fairly for their improvements, but we have no infor- 
 mation that any offer was made for their lands. The Indians 
 were required to surrender their gun-locks, and remove to 
 their brethren in Arkansas. At noon, on the 15th of July, all 
 further attempts to make a treaty were abandoned, and Gen- 
 eral Douglass was directed to put his troops in motion. The 
 council-ground was about five miles below the Indian camp. 
 When the Texans arrived there, the Cherokees had retreated 
 about seven miles farther up the river. They were pursued, 
 and a company of spies, which first came in sight of them, was 
 fired on. The Indians displayed their forces on the point of a 
 hill, having a ravine and thicket on the left. General Rusk 
 motioned to them to come on ; they advanced and fired four 
 
 # It is inferred from these documents, found on Flores, and addressed to the 
 Cherokee chiefs, that the latter were in correspondence with the Mexican au- 
 thorities. I have before me the original papers sent them by Canalizo : they 
 are directed to >l Senor Vixg Mas, Gefede los Charaquies ” — “ S' or Teniente Coro- 
 nel Vul It is remarkable, if the alleged correspondence had existed, that their 
 names were not better known. The fact that Big Mush was addressed as chief 
 and Bowles as lieutenant-colonel , shows how slight was their acquaintance with 
 these chiefa 
 
CONFLICTS WITH THE CHEROKEES. 
 
 269 
 
 or five times, and immediately occupied the ravine and thicket 
 on the left. The main body of the Texans coming up in the 
 open prairie, now formed, and the action became general. 
 The Texans charged the ravine, and advanced up from the 
 left. A portion of the Indians, who were attempting to ap- 
 proach the troops on their right flank, were repulsed. The 
 Cherokees fled when the charge was made, leaving eighteen 
 dead on the ground. The Texans had three killed and five 
 wounded. The engagement commenced a little before sunset, 
 and the pursuit ended at night. 
 
 On the morning of the 16th, the troops proceeded on the 
 trail made by the Indians the night previous. In the afternoon 
 they were found strongly posted in a ravine, half a mile from 
 the Neches, and seemed eager for a fight. While the Texan 
 advance was dismounting, the Indians commenced the action, 
 killing several horses and one man, before their opponents 
 could form, but they were soon driven by the advance into the 
 ravine. The Indians were protected by a ravine and a thicket 
 in their rear, while the Texans had to advance upon them 
 through an open wood and down a hill. The main body com- 
 ing up, was formed, and the firing commenced at the distance 
 of one hundred and fifty yards. The Texans kept advancing 
 and firing until within fifty yards of the ravine, when, upon a 
 signal, they charged. When they reached the ravine, the In- 
 dians fled, and retreated into the dense thicket and swamp of 
 the Neches bottom. The charge was gallantly continued into 
 the swamp, but the enemy made no stand. Thus ended the 
 conflict of the 16th. It lasted an hour and a half, and was 
 well contested by the Indians. The Texans lost five killed 
 and twenty-seven wounded. The loss of the Cherokees was 
 probably a hundred killed and wounded, and among the for- 
 mer was their distinguished chief Bowles. In the official report 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 of the action, he was styled “the long-dreaded Mexican ally 
 Colonel Bowles.” In these two contests there were engaged 
 about five hundred Texans and eight hundred Indians.* 
 
 The trail of the retreating Cherokees was followed for some 
 days. Several Indian villages were passed, their “ extensive 
 cornfields cut down and their houses burnt.” On the evening 
 of the 25th, further pursuit being useless, the secretary of war, 
 who accompanied the expedition, directed the troops to be 
 marched to their homes, and mustered out of service. “ For 
 eighteen months afterward,” says a worthy officerf in those en- 
 gagements, “ the Indians came back in small parties, and com- 
 mitted fearful depredations upon the lives and property of the 
 people on the frontiers.” 
 
 In the march of General Douglass, he passed the villages of 
 nearly all the civilized Indians. He says : “ The Cherokees, 
 Delawares, Shawnees, Caddoes, Kickapoos, Biloxies, Creeks, 
 Ouchies, Muskogees, and some Seminoles, had established du- 
 ring the past spring and summer many villages, and cleared 
 and planted extensive fields of corn, beans, peas, <fcc., prepar- 
 ing evidently for an efficient co-operation with the Mexicans in 
 a war with this country.” It was very natural to infer, from 
 these agricultural labors, that the Indians were preparing for 
 a war against Texas ; but neither their plans nor crops were 
 permitted to mature. He speaks also of the Indian territory 
 through which he marched, and says that, “ in point of richness 
 of soil, and the beauty of situation, water, and productions, it 
 would vie with the best portions of Texas.” 
 
 Thus the vexed question with regard to the civilized Indians 
 was settled, and there could be no hindrance to surveyors or 
 
 * Reports Nos. 8 and 16 of General K H. Douglass, referred to in the Secre- 
 tary of War’s Report, November, 1889. Statements of Major Wortham and Dr. 
 Jowers. 
 
 + Major John Wortham. 
 
FRONTIER DEFENDERS — TEXAN NAVY. 
 
 271 
 
 settlements on their fine lands. The previous administration 
 had endeavored, by treaties and presents, to conciliate all the 
 frontier Indians : this had pursued a sterner policy. It had, 
 in all the conflicts, killed about three hundred warriors, leav- 
 ing five thousand more, all exasperated against Texas, and 
 ready to unite with her great enemy against her. However, 
 the main point was to secure the rights, property, and lives, 
 of the Texans ; and if that was more thoroughly effected by 
 war, so much the better for the republic. As to the rights of 
 the Indians, much has been said and written in regard to them. 
 Perhaps the excuse offered by Cicero, for the extension policy 
 of Rome, is the best for us — that “ no people have a right to 
 the soil , who do not know the use of it.” 
 
 In the conduct of the war, the Texan troops behaved with 
 their accustomed gallantry ; and among their leaders should 
 be particularly noticed General Rusk and Colonel Burleson — 
 the one in the east and the other in the west — and both ready 
 at a moment’s warning to fly to an exposed point. They will 
 be long remembered in Texas as the defenders of her frontiers. 
 
 In accordance with the contract with Frederick Dawson, the 
 Texan government received, on the 27th of June, 1889, the 
 schooner San Jacinto ; on the 7th of August, the schooner 
 San Antonio ; on the 31st of August, the schooner San Ber- 
 nard; and, on the 18th of October, the brig Colorado . A cor- 
 vette and a brig were yet wanting to complete the contract, 
 but were confidently expected by the end of the year.* On 
 the 23d of March, was also delivered the steamship-of-war Za- 
 vala, purchased by General Hamilton, agent, of James Holford. 
 These vessels, with the Charleston , undergoing repairs, and 
 the receiving brig Potomac , constituted the navy of Texas, and 
 with which the secretary of the navy said, “ it was confidently 
 
 * Report of the Secretary of the Navy, November 8, 1889. 
 
272 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 believed that, in a very short time after the navy should have 
 received orders for capture and reprisal, it would be enabled 
 to afford a source of revenue to the government, equal to the 
 amount which had been expended for its creation.” It would 
 have been well for Texas if these anticipations had been real- 
 ized ; for the cost of this navy was nearly eight hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, paid with the bonds of the government, as she 
 had but little money. The expenditure for naval purposes 
 during the first nine months of 1839 was nearly sixty thousand 
 dollars ; and the estimate of appropriations for one year from 
 the 30th of September, 1839, was upward of half a million of 
 dollars.* 
 
 The European relations of Texas were doing well. J. P. 
 Henderson, the commissioner sent out to England and France, 
 to obtain from those powers an acknowledgment of her inde- 
 pendence, had succeeded, in 1838, in making a commercial 
 arrangement with Great Britain — with the reservation, how- 
 ever, that “ until they formally recognise Texas, they will con- 
 sider her as a part of Mexico.” In November of that year, he 
 concluded a like arrangement with France, but without any 
 reservation whatever, Texas being spoken of by her as a na- 
 tion, and her authorities as a government.! The new republic 
 did not at that time create any very great sensation in Europe, 
 and the statesmen of those old governments made little inquiry 
 into her condition. Mexico was largely indebted to British 
 capitalists, and the latter wished Texas to pay a share of those 
 debts before she was cut loose from the parent-country. Be- 
 sides, the slave-question presented an obstacle on the part of 
 some, particularly O’Connell, of Ireland, who was eloquent and 
 boisterous in his opposition. The government of France gave 
 
 * Report of the Secretary of the Navy, November 8, 1839, Document C. 
 
 f J. P. Henderson to President Houston, November 10, 1838. 
 
LOCATION OF THE NEW CAPITAL. 
 
 273 
 
 little heed to the subject of Texan independence, but did not 
 care to offend that of Great Britain by precipitate action. 
 Count Mole, the French premier, saw at once that Texas would 
 become a part of the United States, and said it was only a 
 question of time. The French embassador at Washington was, 
 however, directed to send an agent to Texas, and ascertain 
 what sort of a country and government it was. Accordingly, 
 the minister despatched M. Saligny, one of his attaches , on this 
 mission, upon whose report the government of Louis Philippe 
 finally, on the 25th of September, 1839, entered into a treaty 
 with Texas, acknowledging her in every respect an indepen- 
 dent nation. 
 
 The Texan Congress, by an act approved January 14, 1839, 
 appointed five commissioners to select a site for the capital of 
 the republic. The commissioners — Albert C. Horton, Lewis 
 P. Cook, Isaac W. Burton, William Menifee, and J. Campbell 
 — made choice of the present location, on the east bank of the 
 Colorado. The town was immediately laid off, extending a 
 mile north from the river, and between Waller and Shoal 
 creeks. Its situation, at the foot of the Colorado mountains, 
 is lovely and romantic. It was at that time on the extreme 
 frontier, the nearest settlement being at Bastrop, thirty-five 
 miles below. On the west, the nearest settlement was San 
 Antonio, distant about eighty miles. To Lavaca bay, one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles distant, the only settlements were Gonzales 
 and Victoria ; to Houston, a distance of nearly two hundred 
 miles, the only settlements were about Washington ; while to 
 those on Red river, nearly four hundred miles distant, the in- 
 tervening country was alike unoccupied. The location was 
 there made with a view of drawing to the west a population 
 that would protect that frontier from the common enemy, and 
 such was its happy effect. The town-lots of the new capital 
 Vol. II.— 18 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 (Austin) were sold out in August ; and, with the enterprise 
 common to the people of Texas, buildings were soon erected. 
 By the first of October, the offices of the government were 
 transferred there ; and in the following month the Texan Con- 
 gress found itself deliberating in a comfortable hall, in that 
 beautiful wilderness, almost within hearing of the Indian war- 
 whoop !* 
 
 The revolutionary movements set on foot in Mexico by the 
 federalists, early in 1839, extended to the states bordering on 
 the Rio Grande. General Anaya, the chief of the revolution- 
 ists on this river, haring been put to death at Tampico, almost 
 at the commencement of the outbreak,! General Lie. Antonio 
 Canales and Colonel Jose Maria Gonzales, with their attend- 
 ants and a detachment of armed rancheros , fled from the Rio 
 Grande, and established their headquarters at Lipantitlan, on 
 the Nueces. Canales, as commander of the federal forces, 
 issued a proclamation, inviting the Texans to join him, prom- 
 ising them an equal division of the spoils, twenty-five dollars 
 per month, and, to such as should serve during the war a half- 
 league of land. At this point he was joined by a number of 
 Mexicans from the Rio Grande, and about one hundred and 
 eighty Texans, the latter under the’ command of Colonel Reu- 
 ben Ross, late aide to General Felix Huston, and Colonel Jor- 
 dan, late a captain in the Texan service. Both these Texan 
 officers were brave and efficient. On the 20th of September, 
 1839, Canales, with a force of six hundred effective men, in- 
 cluding the Texans, took up the line of mRrch, and crossed 
 
 * President Lamar’s Message, November, 1839. “Southwest American,” 1852. 
 f General Anaya visited Texas in the spring of 1839, and declared his object 
 was the establishment of the constitution of 1824. He was a man of talents and 
 influence. I am principally indebted to the excellent Notes of the Federal Cam- 
 paign of 1839, by Captain Thomas Pratt, an eye-witness and participant, for the 
 present account 
 
BATTLE OF ALCANTRO. 
 
 275 
 
 the Rio Grande oil the 30th in two divisions — the northern 
 under the command of Colonels Jordan and Zapata, and the 
 southern under the chief himself and Colonel Ross. The order 
 was given to surprise and attack the town of Guerrero, about 
 three miles from the west bank of the river, and then occupied 
 by General Parbon, with five hundred centralist regulars and 
 four pieces of artillery. Some delay, caused by the difficulty 
 in crossing the horses of the northern division, enabled the 
 enemy to discover the intention of the federalists in sufficient 
 time to make good their retreat from the town. Canales en- 
 tered it on the 1st of October, and captured twenty prisoners ; 
 but without delay he proceeded after Parbon, who had marched 
 down the river toward Mier. The federalists overtook him 
 within six miles of the latter place, where he had entrenched 
 himself; but during the night of the 2d he abandoned his en- 
 trenchments, and retreated toward Monterey. Canales sent 
 out his spies, who reported that Parbon had taken his position 
 for battle twelve miles southwest from Mier. The federal 
 troops were immediately put in motion, and by eleven o’clock 
 on the morning of the 3d they came up with the enemy. The 
 report of a nine-pounder announced his readiness to fight. The 
 impetuosity of the Texans broke through all restraint, and com- 
 pletely deranged and destroyed the plan of battle. Colonels 
 Ross and Jordan exerted themselves in vain to enforce order 
 among them : every man was an officer, and a host within him- 
 self, and fought on his own account ! Besides the Texans, 
 there were at that time, in the federal army under Canales, 
 two hundred and fifty mounted rancheros , one hundred and 
 ten infantry, and sixty Indians, the latter badly armed. But 
 the eagerness of the Texans separated them from these forces, 
 who were only spectators of the conflict. The Texans, within 
 point-blank shot of the enemy, and partly protected by a gul- 
 
276 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 ley and a few mosquite-bushes, for some time kept up a brisk 
 fire against his front. At length, seeing that their mongrel 
 allies were doing nothing, Ross and Jordan gave the order to 
 charge. The movement was executed and sustained with des- 
 perate bravery. The centralists stood their ground for some 
 twenty minutes, when they gave way before the impetuosity of 
 the Texans. The confusion and want of capacity in Canales, 
 however, prevented him from taking advantage of the enemy’s 
 condition ; and the latter was enabled to make good his retreat 
 from the field of battle with his artillery and camp-equipage. 
 Parbon sent a flag, requesting a cessation of hostilities for 
 twelve hours, which being imprudently granted by Canales, he 
 set out in the night and marched five miles to a stone ranche , 
 a strong place where he could have defended himself against a 
 greatly superior force. The Texans lost in the action of the 
 3d — known as the battle of Alcantro — fourteen killed and 
 wounded. The enemy’s loss was a hundred and fifty in killed, 
 wounded, and missing. 
 
 Early on the morning of the 4th, the federalists set out in 
 pursuit of Parbon. The Texans, in front, appeared before his 
 position, and demanded a surrender. Their appearance in his 
 front was so sudden and unexpected, that, not having procured 
 water or provisions for his troops, he surrendered, delivering 
 his sword to Major Joseph Doland, of the Texan forces. The 
 major requested him to deliver it to General Canales. “ No, 
 sir!” replied Parbon; “to the brave Texans I surrender — 
 they are my conquerors !” By this capitulation, the federal- 
 ists made three hundred and fifty prisoners, who joined their 
 ranks, and were reinforced by the captured artillery. 
 
 The victory of Alcantro, and the accession of the enemy’s 
 forces to the federal army, gave influence and stability to the 
 cause of the latter, while it spread alarm and dismay among 
 
CIVIL WAR IN MEXICO — SIEGE OF MATAMORAS. 277 
 
 the centralists. Had Canales taken advantage of this happy 
 juncture, he might have gained fresh laurels, and firmly built 
 up his cause ; but he remained inactive at Mier for forty days, 
 during which time the enemy recovered from his panic, rallied 
 his forces, and prepared to renew the conflict. Having enjoyed 
 the carnival at Mier, Canales set out for Matamoras, distant 
 about one hundred and sixty-five miles ; and, after a tedious 
 march of twenty-eight days, the federal army presented itself 
 before that place on the 12th of December, being one thousand 
 and sixty strong (including a hundred and fifty Texans), with 
 four pieces of artillery. The centralists entrenched at Mata- 
 moras consisted of fifteen hundred regulars, having eighteen 
 pieces of artillery, under the command of General Valentine 
 Canalizo. On the 15th, a detachment of sixteen Texans and 
 a like number of Mexicans, under Colonel Zapata, made an 
 attack on one of the enemy’s outposts, killed thirteen, and 
 made good their retreat. This induced Canalizo to call in all 
 his outposts. On the 16th, Canales called a council of war, 
 and made known to it his intention to raise the siege, for the 
 reasons that the centralists would not come out to meet him, 
 and it was improper, under the circumstances, to attack them 
 in their stronghold. He further alleged a scarcity of provis- 
 ions, and a want of the necessary implements to carry on the 
 siege. This decision of the commander offended the federal 
 army, and especially the Texans, who offered to act as the for- 
 lorn hope in storming the town ; but the proposal being rejected, 
 Colonel Ross, with fifty of the Texans, withdrew and retired 
 to their homes. 
 
 On the same day, Canales raised the siege, and set out for 
 Monterey, where he expected to obtain a supply of ammunition, 
 as the town was weakly defended by the centralists. On the 
 22d of December, the federal army reached Caderita, within 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 twenty-five miles of Monterey, where they received an abun- 
 dance of provisions, and a contribution of five dollars to each 
 soldier. On the 23d, they continued their march ; but learning 
 that the centralists in Monterey had received a reinforcement 
 of sixteen hundred men, they halted and entrenched within six 
 miles of the city. 
 
 General Arista, who commanded the centralists in Monterey, 
 marched out with his whole force, and took a position within 
 eight hundred yards of his adversary. Such was the nature 
 of the ground between the two armies, that neither party had 
 a clear view of the other. The action, however, commenced 
 on both sides, by a spirited fire of artillery, “ which,” says 
 Captain Pratt, “ was kept up during the day, with true Mexi- 
 can valor, without doing any damage to either party.” During 
 the night, General Arista fell back a mile nearer the city, and 
 entrenched and fortified his position. Expecting to be pursued 
 the next morning (the 24th), he formed an ambuscade of four 
 hundred men in a narrow defile in the direction of the federal 
 army, but it was discovered by the Indian scouts. 
 
 Canales, by an admirable military movement, threw forward 
 three hundred cavalry, as if to bring on an engagement, while 
 with the main body he marched by a secret route, unseen by 
 the enemy, to the rear 'of the latter, and presented himself be- 
 fore the city. Had he marched in, he could have taken the 
 place without any difficulty, for it was defended by only two 
 hundred and fifty troops just arrived ; but, to the astonishment 
 of his army, he marched it into the yard of a convent, and 
 commenced to fortify. Arista reached the city at five o’clock 
 the same evening. A mutual cannonading then ensued, which 
 continued for two days, without resulting in any damage. On 
 the afternoon of the 27th, the enemy’s cavalry, amounting to 
 three hundred men, advanced to the lines of the federal army, 
 
REVERSES OF THE FEDERALISTS. 
 
 279 
 
 and challenged the cavalry of the latter — a like number — to 
 a combat. The challenge was accepted, and the federal horse 
 sallied out, commanded by Colonels Zapata and Gonzales ; 
 but, when within fifty yards of the enemy, the latter officer fled, 
 and left Zapata to sustain the entire burden of the command. 
 After a sharp skirmish, Zapata retreated, leaving six of his 
 men dead on the field of conflict. 
 
 The federal army at this time numbered twelve hundred and 
 fifty men, of whom one hundred and forty were Texans, some 
 recruits having supplied the place of those that had retired at 
 Matamoras. While these Texans adhered to Canales, Arista 
 did not choose to come to a decisive engagement. But he now 
 adopted a plan more congenial to the feelings of the Mexican 
 portion of the allies. Treachery and bribery did the work. 
 This commenced on the night of the 27th, and by the following 
 night the numbers of the federal army were reduced to five 
 hundred and fifty men ! They, of course, retreated ; and, at 
 nine o’clock on the morning of the 29th, being pursued by the 
 enemy’s cavalry, they halted to give them battle. But the lat- 
 ter did not attack them. Arista, however, received a hundred 
 and sixty more deserters from the federal ranks, leaving only 
 about two hundred and fifty, exclusive of the Texans. These 
 were almost entirely composed of the prisoners, who had sur- 
 rendered under Parbon, and joined their conquerors. They 
 probably had good reasons for not going back to the centralist 
 ranks, as they would doubtless have suffered as deserters. The 
 retreating forces were continually pursued and harassed, but 
 never could bring their pursuers to battle. At length, on the 
 31st of December, the retiring federalists reached the narrow 
 pass of Sabinas, where their enemies left them. On the 7th 
 of January, 1840, they recrossed the Rio Grande. Here, for 
 the present, we will leave them, intending to return to their 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 operations. True, these occurrences did not happen in Texas, 
 but Texans were engaged in them ; and as they were the life 
 of the party with which they took sides, and afraid of nothing 
 but treachery, they did their country a vast service in amusing 
 her enemy at the expense of that enemy, while she was gath- 
 ering her resources, increasing her numbers, and growing in 
 importance and respectability among the independent nations 
 of the world. 
 
 The fourth Congress assembled at Austin on the 11th of No- 
 vember, 1839. President Lamar’s message, delivered on the 
 following day, is lengthy. He speaks fully on the subject of 
 the Indians, and represents that the war prosecuted against 
 them had proved a national blessing. “ The cries of captivity 
 and murder,” he says, “ have, of late, been seldom heard upon 
 our borders. With the exception of a few recent massacres, 
 resulting entirely from the temerity of our own people, the 
 frontier has, for some time, enjoyed an almost equal security 
 with the interior sections of the country ; and is at the present 
 moment in a state of tranquillity heretofore unknown, and 
 which we hope, by proper vigilance and activity, to render as 
 permanent as beneficial.” The president declares it as his 
 opinion, that the “ proper policy to be pursued toward the bar- 
 barous race is absolute expulsion from the country.” He dep- 
 recated the humane policy which the United States had pur- 
 sued so long toward the Indians within her territory, as never 
 having been productive of the good that was anticipated, but 
 on the contrary it had generally resulted in injury to the whites, 
 without any adequate benefit to the savages. His conclusion 
 was, “ to push a vigorous war against them ; pursuing them to 
 their hiding-places, without mitigation or compassion, until they 
 shall be made to feel that flight from our borders, without the 
 hope of return, is preferable to the scourges of war.” The 
 
THE INDIANS IN TEXAS — THE FINANCES. 
 
 281 
 
 sound Christian morality of this stern policy toward the Indians 
 is extremely problematical. A large majority of them were 
 strictly natives, as were their ancestors for untold generations. 
 The great body of them lived on the head-waters of the Texan 
 rivers, and many of them had as yet never seen the face of the 
 white man.* But, admitting the humanity of this procedure, 
 whither could the aborigines fly ? To drive them into the ter- 
 ritories of the United States, would be a violation of treaty 
 obligations : and, to force them into Mexico, would have sup- 
 plied her with many thousand exasperated warriors, infinitely 
 more brave and daring than her own people ; and, to massa- 
 cre them, even if practicable, would have savored of unmixed 
 barbarity. 
 
 In regard to the finances, reference is made by the president 
 to the report of the secretary of the treasury. It is an able 
 document, but represents with too much truth the growing 
 indebtedness of the republic. The revenue collected and paid 
 into the treasury for the year ending September 30, 1839, did 
 not amount to one hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars, 
 while the current expenses for the same period were over nine 
 hundred thousand dollars. The promissory-notes of the gov- 
 ernment in circulation had increased to the enormous sum of 
 more than one million eight hundred thousand dollars. f This 
 
 * We are told by Froissart that, on one occasion, the duke de Bourbon went 
 to make war on a town in Africa. Approaching the place, he sent a herald, as 
 was the custom in those days, to announce his intention. The people of the 
 town sent another herald, to know why he thus invaded and wished to make 
 war upon them. After consulting some time as to an answer — for these people 
 had never heard of him before — he sent back, for reply, that “they had killed 
 the Lord Jesus Christ 1” 
 
 f Report of James H. Starr, Secretary of the Treasury, November 3, 1839. In 
 a speech of Senator Rusk, delivered in the United States senate on the 19th of 
 July, 1854, there is exhibited a statement, from under the hand of James B. Shaw, 
 controller of Texas, dated March 20th of that year, showing the expenses incurred 
 by the republic of Texas in maintaining peace with, and protecting her frontier 
 
282 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 excessive issue of the paper of the government was followed 
 by the necessary consequence, its depreciation ; and it was 
 manifest to all that, without some change, it would soon be- 
 come so entirely worthless, that the government would have 
 to refuse taking it for public dues, for governments as well as 
 individuals must have something substantial for their support. 
 To remedy this evil, the executive was doing what he could to 
 procure the five-million loan. General Hamilton had been 
 sent to Europe to effect the object. In the meantime, the 
 Texan commissioners had obtained of the United States bank 
 two hundred and eighty thousand dollars, predicated upon the 
 eventful success of the loan. Of this amount, a little upward 
 of sixty-two thousand dollars went into the treasury, which 
 was about all the money it had received for some time. The 
 balance was employed in the purchase of arms and supplies 
 for the public defence. 
 
 Notwithstanding the efforts made during the summer of 
 1889 to reduce the Indians, aud drive them away, they still 
 continued to commit their depredations upon the frontiers. 
 On the 24th of October, Captain Howard had a skirmish with 
 a number of them between the San Gabriel and Little rivers, 
 in which he succeeded in killing three or four ;* and, on the 
 
 from the incursions of, Indians removed thither and belonging to the United 
 States. As this probably includes the greater part of the appropriations made 
 by Texas on account of the Indians, we compile from it the following table of 
 Indian appropriations for each year: — 
 
 1837 ) 
 
 1838 S 
 
 Houston’s first terra 
 
 j $20,000 
 ( 170,000 
 
 1839 ) 
 
 
 ( 1,430,000 
 
 1840 } 
 
 ■ Lamar’s term 
 
 \ 1,027,319 
 
 1841 ) 
 
 
 ( 95,000 
 
 1842 ) 
 
 
 ( 20,000 
 
 1843 } 
 
 • Houston’s second term 
 
 I 66,950 
 
 1844 ) 
 
 
 ( 17,142 
 
 1845. 
 
 . .Jones’s term 
 
 
 * Captain Howard’s report, October 29, 1839. 
 
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS — SPURIOUS LAND-CERTIFICATES. 283 
 
 25th of December, General Burleson encountered a party of 
 Cherokees on the western bank of the Colorado. They sent 
 out one of their number to have a talk with him ; but, believ- 
 ing their only object to be to gain time, he took their messen- 
 ger into custody. On seeing this, they commenced firing on 
 him, when he attacked them and put them to flight, taking (in 
 addition to the messenger) five women and nineteen children 
 prisoners. Six warriors were found dead on the field. The 
 Texans unfortunately lost the gallant Captain Lynch, who fell 
 at the first fire. Among the captives w'as the helpless family 
 of the chief Bowles.* These conflicts were some of the fruits 
 of the Indian policy of those days. The one hundred and 
 forty savages seen by Captain Howard, in the affair of the 
 24th of October, were all well mounted, he tells us, on good 
 American horses — the proceeds of their robberies along the 
 frontiers. 
 
 Another subject, of a very different character, but equally 
 unpleasant, must close our sketch of the year 1839. The 
 land-certificates issued by the boards of county commissioners 
 being found valuable as an article of traffic and location, the 
 commissioners in some of the counties had undertaken their 
 manufacture. This dishonest and unlawful proceeding was 
 carried to a fearful extent ; and so great was the circulation 
 of these spurious certificates, that it was impossible to distin- 
 guish the fraudulent from the genuine. The president called 
 the attention of Congress to the subject ; and that body passed 
 a law, appointing a special board of commissioners to proceed 
 from county to county, and, at each place of issue, in conjunc- 
 tion with the respective county boards, to take testimony, and 
 decide as to the genuineness of every certificate which, from 
 the register kept in each county, appeared to have been issued 
 
 * Geueral Burleson’s report, December 26, 1839. 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 since the opening of the land-office. The commissioner of the 
 general land-office was, by the law, prohibited from recogni- 
 sing any survey made upon a certificate not reported by the 
 commissioners as genuine.* This enactment, and the action 
 of the commissioners under it, did much good in checking the 
 system of land-frauds, and saved the republic from enormous 
 losses. 
 
 * Act, January 3, 1840, vol. iv., p. 139. 
 
CONDITION OF TEXAS IN 1840. 
 
 285 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Nearly four years had now passed since the battle of San 
 Jacinto, and Texas was still free. No considerable number of 
 the enemy had subsequently invaded her soil. Indeed, with 
 the exception of the war she was conducting against the fron- 
 tier Indians, Texas was at peace. Immigration had greatly 
 increased her numbers and industry, her wealth, and means of 
 living comfortably. But the miserable state of her currency, 
 and the heavy budget of her expenses, bore hard upon all. 
 These expenditures were induced, in part, by the many cam- 
 paigns against the Indians, the fitting out and maintaining the 
 navy, and by an attempt to frame and support the skeleton of a 
 government which neither her population nor resources would 
 justify. With nations, as with individuals, it is impossible 
 long to present a show of power and magnificence without ade- 
 quate means. Such an exhibition is followed by bankruptcy. 
 The true greatness and power of Texas consisted in her rich 
 and abundant lands, and the noble institutions which her peo- 
 ple had founded in spite of her enemies. These, and not a 
 long list of officials with sounding titles, constituted the skele- 
 ton which was to be filled up, with people, wealth, and com- 
 merce. 
 
 The credit of Texas was rapidly waning. Her five-million 
 bonds had travelled over America and Europe in search of a 
 
286 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 purchaser, but none could be found. Not that lenders were 
 not able, but because Texas had not the credit. To cripple 
 the latter still further, a great increase of the paper issues fol- 
 lowed the necessities of the government, and, as the circulation 
 increased, their market value went down. By the montl^ of 
 June, 1840, this paper had fallen to seventeen cents on the 
 dollar, and by the close of the year it was worth but fourteen 
 cents ! These promissory-notes had driven all money out of 
 the country, and had broken to pieces the standard of value. 
 They operated as a forced loan, and impoverished both govern- 
 ment and people. The warrants drawn upon the treasury for 
 the fiscal year ending with September, 1840, were over two 
 millions of dollars, which had been paid in these notes, and in 
 eight per cent, bonds created by the act of February 5, 1840. 
 But these bonds were little better than the notes. Many inge- 
 nious efforts were made to avoid the crisis which every one 
 saw was approaching. These eight per cent, bonds, it was 
 thought, would answer a good purpose. On the same day, an- 
 other act was passed, authorizing the issuance of change-notes 
 to the amount of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. But, 
 as the large notes had expelled the large coin, so likewise the 
 small notes expelled the small coin. Then other acts were 
 passed to convert these floating promises of the republic into 
 eight and ten per cent, bonds ; but this only increased the debt 
 to the extent of the interest. In fact, every method was em- 
 ployed to preserve the public credit but the right one — a re- 
 duction of the public expenditures. These financial blunders 
 necessarily embarrassed commerce and the business relations 
 of the community. The officers of the government and the 
 troops were equally sufferers, for their pay would not support 
 them. Yet these sufferings were a wholesome lesson. The 
 public intentions were good ; and it was believed that the 
 
ADOPTION OF COMMON LAW — MEXICAN QUARRELS. 287 
 
 Congress which was to meet in the fall of 1840 would discover 
 the evil and apply the remedy. 
 
 On the 20th of January, 1840, Congress adopted the com- 
 mon law, so far as it was not modified by statutes. So far as 
 crimes and their punishment were concerned, it had been the 
 rule of proceeding since the Revolution. It was now intro- 
 duced as a system, and was most agreeable to the ideas of lib- 
 erty entertained by the citizens, who were mostly from com- 
 mon-law states. Some exceptions were created by the statutes, 
 and civil-law rules retained in regard to marital partnerships, 
 successions, <fcc., which they did not understand, and do not 
 yet understand ; still, as a system, the people felt that their 
 rights were more secure uuder the common law. In a general 
 view of the two systems, the one treated the governed as chil- 
 dren, the other as freemen : the one was most suitable to a 
 strong government, the other to one that was free. 
 
 The intestine commotions in Mexico did not abate during 
 the year 1840. The quarrels of the opposing factions at home 
 served to divert their attention from Texas. The centralists, 
 under the guidance of Bustamente and Santa Anna, and the 
 federalists, directed by Urrea and Gomez Farias, had many 
 battles and treaties. Their example was followed by their 
 respective adherents in the different states. Between the 15th 
 and 26th of July, there was considerable fighting in the capi- 
 tal ; many hundreds were killed, and much property destroyed. 
 The great body of the people of Mexico, ignorant of the prin- 
 ciples at stake, and of the designs of their leaders, were drawn 
 into these conflicts, and either killed in battle or reduced to 
 penury. It was well for Texas that her enemy was thus occu- 
 pied. As to so much of this civil war as occurred along the 
 right bank of the Rio Grande, her citizens could scarcely be 
 indifferent spectators. They naturally took sides with the fed- 
 
288 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 eralists. The disbanding of the large number of troops which 
 Texas had employed against the Indians in 1839 had deprived 
 many of them of any permanent means of subsistence. Their 
 military pay amounted to nothing ; and the stagnation in busi- 
 ness, consequent upon the worthless condition of the currency, 
 prepared many of them for the first enterprise that should 
 occur, with the promise of food and raiment. President La- 
 mar, believing it incompatible with the true interest and honor 
 of Texas that her citizens should intermeddle with that contest, 
 issued his proclamation, warning them not to invade Mexico, 
 and also from all marauding and other acts of hostility against 
 her territory, until by public notice it should be announced 
 that active hostilities were to be renewed between the two na- 
 tions ; declaring that any citizen who should invade the Mexi- 
 can republic, or by any hostile act molest its inhabitants within 
 their own territory, should be considered without the protec- 
 tion of the Texan government, which disclaimed all participa- 
 tion in their conduct, and could afford no countenance to their 
 unauthorized acts.* 
 
 With these facts before us, we will return to the movements 
 of Canales on the Rio Grande. On the 8th of January, 1840 
 — the day after the heroes of Alcantro had crossed to the east 
 side of that river — forty-five of the Texans took their leave, 
 and returned to their homes. With his remaining force, Gen- 
 eral Canales proceeded about six miles up the stream, where 
 he issued a proclamation, calling a convention of delegates to 
 organize the “ Republic of the Rio Grande .” The delegates 
 
 * By all the principles of sound policy, President Lamar was right in this 
 proclamation. Texas could have but one object in view — her independence. 
 It was her interest to cultivate the arts of peace, and strengthen and consolidate 
 her institutions; and experience had proven, and has since proven, that in all 
 these contests, whether in Mexico or in Cuba, when the time of trial came, the 
 Anglo-Saxon forces were deserted, and left to tread the winepress alone. 
 
“REPUBLIC OP THE RIO GRANDE.” 289 
 
 met on the 18 th of January, and organized their new govern- 
 ment, after the model of the constitution of 1824. Jesus Car- 
 denas was made president, and the Licentiate Antonio Canales 
 commander-in-chief. After regaling the troops with extra ra- 
 tions and muscal , the government and army recrossed the Rio 
 Grande, and proceeded to Guerrero, where, on the 28th, the 
 new republic was joyfully inaugurated amid great pomp and 
 ceremony. Here they remained until the 18th of February, 
 when they marched to the old presidio of the Rio Grande, one 
 hundred and sixty miles above Guerrero, and entered it with- 
 out opposition on the 3d of March, the centralist forces having 
 evacuated the place. There were seventy-four Texans in tho 
 federal army ; and they proposed that Canales should march 
 to the Nueces, in order to recruit and obtain reinforcements. 
 As he did not agree to this, sixty of them, under the command 
 of Colonel Jordan, left him and returned to Texas. After the 
 departure of Jordan, Canales proceeded with his remaining 
 troops to Morales, a small place, three days’ march from the 
 presidio , where, on the 15th of March, he was met by an over- 
 whelming force of the centralists under Arista, and had his 
 adherents so cut up and defeated, that he was barely able to 
 escape into Texas.* 
 
 After the battle of Morales, Canales visited Austin, and Car- 
 denas proceeded to Victoria on the Guadalupe, for the purpose 
 of obtaining a reinforcement of Texans, for without them they 
 could not win a battle. Arista, to prevent as far as possible 
 another campaign, issued a proclamation, promising pardon to 
 all who should, within a month, come in and submit to the cen- 
 tralist government.! To what extent these submissions were 
 made we are not informed, but it is very certain that they did 
 
 * Notes of the Federal Campaign of 1839-40, by Captain Thomoa Pratt. 
 
 \ Dated at Saltillo, April 30, 1840. 
 
 Vol. II. — 19 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 not prevent the parties making them from joining Canales on 
 the first favorable opportunity. The latter having, by procla- 
 mation, fixed his headquarters at San Patricio, the Texans, 
 notwithstanding the warning of President Lamar, rallied to 
 his standard ; and, by the first of June, he found himself at 
 the head of two hundred volunteers under the command of 
 Colonel William S. Fisher, one hundred and ten under Colonel 
 Jordan, one hundred under Colonel Seguin, and three hundred 
 Mexican rancheros under his own immediate command, making 
 an aggregate of seven hundred and ten men. With this force 
 he set out on his march. Colonel Jordan, with his command 
 of Texans, and one hundred and fifty mounted rancheros under 
 Colonels Lopez and Molano, were ordered to proceed in front, 
 as the advance of the federal army. For the present, we will 
 follow this advance. 
 
 After a slight skirmish with the centralists at Laredo, they 
 proceeded, through Guerrero and Mier, to Comargo. Here, 
 Lopez and Molano, pretending that such were their orders from 
 General Canales, pushed rapidly into the interior, for the pur- 
 pose, as was said, of raising troops, contributions, arms, and 
 ammunition. Their real object, however, was to betray the 
 Texans under Jordan, and break up the federal army. Leav- 
 ing Comargo on the 26th of June, they occupied the town of 
 Tula ; thence pursuing a southern route, and passing many vil- 
 lages, they reached Morallo, a handsome town of about twelve 
 thousand inhabitants, situated in a beautiful valley of the Sierra 
 Madre. After spending some days here to recruit, they pro- 
 ceeded to Linares, a large town, where they were received with 
 the ringing of bells and the firing of artillery. The Texans 
 did not think their force justified the joy that was manifested: 
 however, they did not make themselves unhappy, for they had 
 come to fight, and were used to it ; and, if they really were 
 
MOVEMENTS OF THE MEXICAN FEDERAL ARMY. 
 
 291 
 
 “ sold,” they had intended to make the “ delivery” somewhat 
 expensive. Having feasted a week at Linares, they marched 
 to Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, which place they en- 
 tered on the 17th of August. The centralist forces, four hun- 
 dred in number, under the command of the governor, at their 
 approach had retreated from the city, and fled to the mount- 
 ains. The federal army was received in the state capital with 
 the usual pomp and display, and the new republic recognised 
 by the ringing of bells and the huzzas of the Mexican rabble, 
 who, in the presence of a military force, would have rendered 
 like homage to any system whatever. 
 
 Some time was spent in Victoria in organizing the new state 
 government, and in recruiting the federal forces. Lopez and 
 Molano seemed to be in no haste to quit the city, until, as was 
 reported, Arista was on his march with a strong force to attack 
 them. They then ordered a retreat to the mountains. The 
 Texans opposed this retrograde movement, and so far succeed- 
 ed as to stop the army in a position three miles from Victoria. 
 Remaining a week in this position, and hearing nothing of the 
 enemy, the two Mexican colonels were suddenly seized with 
 the idea of pursuing the former governor of Tamaulipas. So, 
 breaking up their camp, they set out on the 12th of September, 
 by a forced march, for Jaumare, a small mining-town in the 
 Sierra Madre, where it was said they would find the old gov- 
 ernor. They reached the place on the 16th, and, on entering 
 it, discovered the enemy on the opposite side, in full retreat. 
 The town, beautifully situated in a valley, and surrounded by 
 lofty mountains, was almost depopulated. The people had fled 
 with the old centralist governor, leaving all their property, and 
 a few peons and decrepit citizens to take care of themselves. 
 The federalists, on reaching the plaza, found that the town au- 
 thorities had also fled. As they could do no better, they took 
 
292 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 one of the peons, and invested him with the dignity and power 
 of an alcalde. At first, the thing sat awkwardly upon him, 
 and he entered timidly upon, the discharge of his high func- 
 tions. As his principal duties, however, consisted in respond- 
 ing to the requisitions of the federal army, he soon learned 
 how to discharge them : nay, more, he fell into the usages of 
 his distinguished predecessors ; and when a requisition was 
 made for a beef, or a mutton, or a fowl, he took care to order 
 a like supply for himself, being fully persuaded that the entire 
 blame could be laid upon “ los diablos Tejanos !” Thus the 
 federal army, with the new alcalde and his brother-peons, lived 
 sumptuously in the town of Jaumare.* 
 
 After remaining here several days, a council of war was 
 held, when it was determined to march upon Saltillo, raise 
 contributions to pay off the troops, and then retire to the Rio 
 Grande, and form a junction with the main body of the federal 
 army under Canales. After several days’ march through the 
 mountains, and by a route unknown to the Texans, they were 
 informed by Captain Pena, of the mounted rancheros , that 
 Lopez and Molano were conducting them to San Luis Potosi ! 
 A halt was immediately demanded, and, notwithstanding the 
 remonstrances of the two Mexican colonels, the course of the 
 army was changed. Pursuing their way for twelve days, over 
 rugged and almost impassable mountains, they arrived within 
 a day’s march of Saltillo, where they halted at the hacienda 
 
 * Captain Pratt relates a singular story of these people. Some years before, 
 they were visited by the cholera, and great numbers died. It was believed to 
 be a Divine visitation, and recourse was had to the supplications of the padre , 
 but without avail. A public meeting was then held, and it was concluded that 
 their water had been poisoned. Now the town was supplied with water from 
 immense reservoirs, which were under the control of the priest and the alcalde m 
 So it was decided that they had brought this dreadful calamity upon the Jauma- 
 renos. They were therefore condemned, brought upon the plaza, and publicly 
 shot! 
 
TEXANS IN THE FEDERAL ARMY — TREACHERY. 
 
 293 
 
 del Potosi; and here Colonel Jordan received an express from 
 a reliable friend at Victoria de Tamaulipas, informing him 
 that he and the Texans under him were betrayed ; that Lopez 
 and Molano were in secret correspondence with the centralists, 
 and for a specified sum of money were to place the Texans in 
 such a position before the enemy, that they could be easily 
 overwhelmed. Jordan was a frank and noble-hearted man, 
 and, having no treachery in his own nature, could not conceive 
 it in others. He immediately laid the letter before Lopez and 
 Molano, who, having read it, declared in terms so emphatic 
 that the charge was false, and that the writer was a personal 
 enemy who wished to ruin them, that Jordan was persuaded 
 of their sincerity, and was willing to co-operate with them. 
 But the news of this express soon spread among the Texans, 
 who were not all as credulous as their commander, and they 
 watched the subsequent movements of the Mexican colonels 
 with considerable distrust. 
 
 The following day (October 22d) was spent by the federal- 
 ists in cleaning their firearms and moulding an extra quantity 
 of rifle-balls. On the morning of the 23d, they mounted and 
 set out for Saltillo. At ten o’clock they discovered the enemy, 
 entrenched on the brow of a hill, three miles south of the city. 
 The federalists halted on another eminence, about six hundred 
 yards from their opponents, having a ravine between the two 
 armies. They formed in order of battle, when a flag appeared 
 from the enemy, desiring a conference. Colonel Molano was 
 despatched in answer to the flag, and held a consultation of 
 about three hours. During this time, many messages were 
 sent, which were well understood by Lopez. He told Jordan 
 that Vasquez, the centralist general, offered two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars to the federal military chest, and five days’ rations 
 to each man, on condition that they would retire from before 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Saltillo ; but that Molano insisted upon two hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars, and on this point negotiations were then 
 pending with the authorities of the city, which would speedily 
 be consummated. Thus was Jordan cajoled, while Molano 
 was in fact conferring with Yasquez as to the safest mode of 
 delivering over the federal army into the hands of the central- 
 ists ; for it was known to be a delicate operation, and, so far 
 as the Texans were concerned, quite dangerous. Yasquez was 
 also waiting for reinforcements. At one o’clock in the after- 
 noon, the enemy’s auxiliary troops having arrived, under the 
 command of General Montoya, preparations were immediately 
 made for an attack upon the federal lines. 
 
 The force of the centralists consisted of one thousand men, 
 of whom six hundred were infantry, having two nine-pounders, 
 and four hundred were cavalry, together with a large number 
 of citizens from Saltillo, variously armed and equipped. They 
 were so certain of victory, that they had invited the populace 
 of the town to come out and see them triumph. The federal 
 army consisted of one hundred and ten Texans, under Jordan, 
 and one hundred and fifty mounted rancher os and seventy-five 
 Mexican infantry, under Lopez, making an aggregate of three 
 hundred and thirty-five men. So soon as the centralists were 
 seen to move, Colonel Lopez, assuming the command of the fed- 
 eral forces, ordered a march to the right flank toward a gap in 
 the mountains so situated as to give the enemy every advan- 
 tage over them. The Texans at once discovered the treachery 
 of the villain Lopez ; and Captain Allen rode rapidly to Colonel 
 Jordan, and exclaimed : “ Where, in the name of God, sir, are 
 you leading us ? If you take us to yonder gorge, the enemy 
 will not leave a man to tell our fate !” Jordan took a hasty 
 glance at the position, and ordered a countermarch, passing 
 rapidly along the ravine, within a hundred and fifty yards of 
 
CRITICAL SITUATION OF THE TEXANS. 
 
 295 
 
 the centralists’ entrenchment, to an old hacienda situated at 
 point-blank distance from their cannon. The Texans now dis- 
 mounted, placed their horses in an enclosure in the rear of the 
 hacienda , and every man stripped for the fight. Lopez, in 
 command of the ranclieros , would not suffer the latter to dis- 
 mount, but took his position three hundred yards to the left of 
 the Texans, in order, as he said, to prevent them from being 
 surrounded ! The Mexican infantry, under the command of a 
 brother of Molano, were ordered to occupy a stone house on 
 the Texan left ; but, instead of so doing, they went over to the 
 enemy, and turned their arms against the Texans. The cen- 
 tralists immediately commenced the action witli their nine- 
 pounders, which they fired without intermission for an hour. 
 At the first discharge, Colonel Lopez, waving his sword, cried, 
 “ Long live the supreme government !” and fled to the enemy, 
 with two others of his command, taking with them the baggage 
 and ammunition of the federal army. 
 
 The Texans were thus left in a situation the most critical — 
 deserted by their friends, far from their country, surrounded 
 by ten times their own number, and left with only the ammuni- 
 tion which they carried about their persons. Yet, under all 
 these gloomy circumstances, “ there was only one determined 
 resolve among that brave band gathered around the decayed 
 walls of the hacienda on that glorious day — it was, to fight to 
 the death : no thought of retreat or surrender was, for a mo- 
 ment, entertained.”* As for the rancheros , deserted by Lopez 
 their commander, the most of them stood firm, and sofne of 
 them fired at their colonel as he fled. The centralists now 
 moved with their whole force from their entrenchment, and 
 
 * I have before me the official report of Colonel S. W. Jordan, dated Laredo, 
 November 2, 1840, but prefer to follow Captain Pratt’s “Notes,” as they were 
 taken on the spot, and are more reliable. 
 
296 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 occupied three sides of the Texan position. In this manner 
 they slowly advanced, under cover of their cannon, and firing 
 repeated volleys of musketry. Colonel Jordan had ordered 
 his men to reserve their fire until the enemy approached within 
 “ saving distance.” Accordingly, they lay snugly ensconced 
 behind the old walls and an adobe fence, forming a half moon, 
 and did not fire a shot until about four o’clock in the after- 
 noon. General Montoya, supposing from the extent of his own 
 fighting , that most of the Texans had fallen, ordered a general 
 assault upon the hacienda. When the assailants had come 
 within thirty yards of the walls, the Texans gave them a shout 
 of defiance, followed by a fearful volley from their deadly rifles. 
 The latter were in earnest ; and the enemy also fought well, 
 being cheered from the hill in their rear by the thousands of 
 men, women, and children, who had come out to see los Tejanos 
 taken. At that distance, the rifle-bullets went on no foolish 
 errand, but nearly all took effect. Column after column of the 
 centralists advanced, faltered, and fell under the murderous 
 fire. At length, their ranks became disordered ; a panic fol- 
 lowed, and they fled. Soldiers, citizens, women, and children, 
 all took the road to Saltillo, and in such confusion as though 
 the Texans were in close pursuit at their heels ! They left 
 four hundred and eight killed upon the field of battle, and but 
 few wounded. The Texans had only three killed and nine 
 wounded, two of the latter mortally. A party of the enemy 
 attempted to carry off their artillery, but a lucky shot at a long 
 distance brought one of them down, and they also fled, leaving 
 the heroic Texans masters of the field and of the enemy’s guns, 
 together with a great quantity of small-arms and ammunition. 
 
 As the Texans were deserted by their allies, they determined 
 to abandon the cause. Having provided for conveying their 
 wounded, they mounted their horses, and set out for Texas 
 
BATTLE OF SALTILLO — TEXANS VICTORIOUS. 
 
 297 
 
 They met the enemy’s cavalry, who had been stationed on their 
 route to cut off their retreat. As the Texans emerged into a 
 plain, the hostile squadron, four hundred in number, charged 
 upon them in gallant style. Two volleys from the rifles, how- 
 ever, brought them to a pause, and then a precipitate retreat. 
 The Texans soon fell into the Monclova road, and continued 
 their way to the Rio Grande, being followed by squadrons of 
 the centralist cavalry, which kept at a very respectful distance. 
 
 To return to General Canales. That chieftain set out, with 
 a force of about two hundred Mexicans and one hundred Tex- 
 ans, upon an expedition against San Marino, a small town in 
 the eastern portion of Tamaulipas. Meeting with a body of 
 centralists near the place, he retreated, without firing a gun, 
 to Comargo, his headquarters. This retreat, probably brought 
 about by treachery to the federalists, was the death-knell of 
 that parly on the Rio Grande. The battle of Saltillo occurred 
 on the 23d of October. There was shortly afterward published 
 the treaty between Colonel Juan Molano and General Arista, 
 dated Victoria de Tamaulipas, October 14th, by an article of 
 which it was provided that “ all Mexicans, under the command 
 of Don Juan Molano, will separate from, and abandon to their 
 fate, the adventurous strangers [Texans] at present among 
 them.” That Molano should have entered into such a scheme 
 of treachery, was very natural ; but that Arista, the elegant 
 and accomplished gentleman of Mexico, should have become a 
 party to it, proves but too truly that the thing is common in that 
 country. The fearful retribution which fell upon the traitors 
 at Saltillo also proves that God never ratifies such compacts. 
 About the same time, Canales entered into a similar treaty 
 with Arista, but it stipulated for the safety of his auxiliaries. 
 We have now closed the account of the federal war, which we 
 introduced because of the part taken therein by the Texans, 
 
298 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and the effect it had in diverting the Mexicans from stealing 
 and murder on the western frontier. 
 
 The [ndians continued hostile and troublesome. The Ca- 
 manches had made frequent forays into the Texan settlements, 
 and, among other outrages, had carried off several captives. 
 In February, 1840, a few of these Indians came to San Anto- 
 nio, for the purpose of making a treaty of peace with Texas. 
 They were told by the commissioners to bring in the thirteen 
 white captives they had, and peace would be granted. They 
 promised that, at the next full moon, they would do so. The 
 commissioners repaired to Bexar to meet them ; and on the 
 19th of March, a little after the appointed time, the Indians, 
 sixty-five in all, including men, women, and children, came in, 
 bringing, however, but one of the captives. Twelve chiefs 
 met the commissioners in the treaty-house, and the question 
 was put to them, “ Where are the prisoners you promised to 
 bring in to this talk?” They answered: “We brought the 
 only one we had ; the others are with other tribes.” The little 
 girl who had been brought in said this was utterly false, as she 
 had seen the others at the Indian camp a few days before, and 
 that they intended to bring in only one or two at a time, in 
 order to extort for them the greater ransom. A pause ensued 
 for some time in the council, when the same chief who had 
 given the answer inquired how they liked it. No reply was 
 made, but an order was despatched to Captain Howard to 
 bring his company into the council-room. When the men had 
 taken their position, the terms upon which peace would have 
 been made, had they brought in the captives as they promised, 
 were explained to the chiefs. They were also informed that 
 they were prisoners, and would be detained until they sent the 
 rest of their company for the captives, and brought them in. 
 
 As the commissioners were retiring from the room, one of 
 
INDIAN TREACHERY — A DESPERATE FIGHT. 
 
 299 
 
 the chiefs sprang to the door ; and the sentinel there stationed, 
 in attempting to prevent his escape, was stabbed by him with 
 a knife. Captain Howard received a like wound. The re- 
 maining chiefs now rose, drew their knives, and prepared their 
 bows and arrows, and the fight became general. The soldiers 
 killed the whole of the chiefs engaged in the council. The 
 warriors, not of the council, fought desperately in the yard ; 
 but the company under Captain Redd advancing, forced them 
 to take shelter in a stone house, whither they were pursued 
 and cut down. A party of the savages at last made their way 
 to the opposite side of the river, but were pursued, and all killed, 
 except a renegade Mexican, who was permitted to escape. All 
 the warriors, thirty-two in number, together with three women 
 and two children, were killed. Twenty-seven women and chil- 
 dren were made prisoners. In this remarkable fight, none 
 escaped except the Mexican. The Texans had seven killed 
 and eight wounded. They despatched one of the squaws to 
 inform the Camanches that they were willing to exchange pris- 
 oners.* After the lapse of some days, the squaw returned, 
 bringing two white captives and four or five Mexicans, and 
 proposed to exchange them for her own people, and pay the 
 difference in horses. Colonel Pisher, the officer in command, 
 informed her that all the white captives must be brought in, 
 and then her kindred should be released.! 
 
 The Camanches hung about San Antonio in small parties, 
 brooding over their loss. The killing of so many of their 
 chiefs was a severe stroke, and they were divided on the ques- 
 tion of war. At length they retired to their homes, on the 
 upper branches of the Texan rivers, to make serious prepara- 
 tions for a terrible visitation on the white settlements. 
 
 * Report of Colonel H. M‘Leod to President Lamar, March 20, 1840. 
 
 f “Telegraph,” April 16, 1840. 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 On the night of the 4th of August, a large body of Indians 
 passed down south, their trail crossing the road at M‘Clure's 
 hill. It was immediately afterward discovered, and the news 
 sent to Gonzales by the 6th.* Couriers were despatched with 
 all haste to the settlements on the Lavaca and the Guadalupe, 
 to give notice of the approach of the Camanches. A company 
 of twenty-four men was likewise immediately raised by Captain 
 Ben M‘Culloch,f which on the same evening set out in pursuit. 
 The Indians had passed down rapidly, and appeared before 
 Victoria on Thursday evening, the 6th of August. The citi- 
 zens had no knowledge of their being in the neighborhood till 
 they had surrounded the town. Under these circumstances, 
 they hastily gathered such arms as they could find, and de- 
 fended the place so well as to prevent the enemy from pene- 
 
 * Letter of W. D. Miller, August 17, 1840. 
 
 \ Ben M'Culloch is a native of Tennessee. He arrived in Texas in January, 
 1836, and joined the army at Groce’s, just as it set out on that memorable march 
 which won the liberties of the republic. Having an offer of the command of 
 one of the “ Twin- Sisters'' he joined the artillery, and served in that capacity at 
 the battle of San Jacinto. For his gallant conduct he was made lieutenant a few 
 days after the action, and w r as discharged in July following. In Colonel M'Cul- 
 loch’s statement of the battle of the 21st, he says: “We commenced firing [the 
 artillery] at twe hundred and ten paces from the enemy’s breastwork, and kept 
 in advance of our line until we were less than one hundred paces from the ene- 
 my, when they gave way and were pursued by us two hundred and fifty paces 
 beyond the breastwork ; but we were prevented from firing by our own men, 
 who had outstripped us in the race. During the action, General Houston rode 
 from Millard’s command across in front of No. 1 [the piece commanded by M'Cul- 
 locli], which delayed the firing of the gun for a moment I afterward observed 
 him between Burleson’s regiment and the enemy, not more than sixty paces from 
 and advancing upon the enemy, being about thirty paces in advance of our line.” 
 In 1839-40, Captain M'Culloch was a member of the Texan Congress; and, in 
 1845-’46, of the first state legislature. Besides the Camanche war of 1840, he 
 was engaged in innumerable battles and skirmishes with Indians and Mexicans. 
 After the commencement of the Mexican war, he went into it as a captain of 
 rangers. His fame won in that war is world-wide. General Taylor preferred 
 him to all others as a spy, and in that capacity he rendered signal service to the 
 American cause, without the loss of his men. He is now (1866) the efficient 
 marshal of Texas. 
 
INDIAN DEPREDATIONS — M‘CULLOCH’s RANGERS. 301 
 
 trating into the more settled portions of the town. After some 
 fighting, the Indians retreated, having collected all the horses 
 on the prairie, and a large portion of the cattle, which they 
 drove off. On the morning of the 7 th, they made another at- 
 tack on the town, and burnt one house. As they met with 
 more resistance in this last attack, they marched across the 
 Guadalupe, and, after committing several murders and robbe- 
 ries on the way, attacked Linnville, a small place of only five 
 houses, on the morning of the 8th.* The people of Linnville 
 supposed them to be a caravan of Mexican traders, until they 
 had come up to the town, which they did at full speed, in the 
 shape of a half-moon. The citizens fled to the bay, and most 
 of them found safety on board a lighter. The Camanches re- 
 mained in the town until dark, burning the houses one by one, 
 and destroying such property as they did not wish to carry 
 away ; also all the cattle they could find. The number of the 
 savages making this foray was estimated at four hundred. f 
 They killed at and near Victoria fifteen persons, and six more 
 in and about Linneville. They carried off Mrs. Watts as a 
 prisoner, and drove off an immense number of horses. In 
 their retreat they were further burdened with a heavy amount 
 of goods. 
 
 The company that left Gonzales on the 6th of August, under 
 M‘Culloch, was reinforced on the following day by thirty-six 
 men from the upper Lavaca, and sixty-five more from Victoria 
 and Quero. The rangers arrived at Victoria at sunset on the 
 8th. Learning here the destruction of Linnville, they contin- 
 ued their march until midnight, and encamped on the Casa 
 Blanca. Proceeding down that stream, they discovered the 
 enemy just before noon on the 9th, and had a skirmish with 
 
 * “Texas Sentinel,” September 19, 1840. 
 
 f William H. Watts to the Editor of the “Gazette,” August, 1840. 
 
802 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 them, in which the whites had one killed, and the Indians four 
 or five. The latter retreated northward, pursuing the trail by 
 which they had come down. The Camanches were all well 
 mounted on fresh horses, while those of the Texans were worn 
 down and exhausted by constant riding and excessive fatigue. 
 As the Indians declined a fight, it was impossible to force it 
 on them. However, the rangers continued the pursuit, being 
 further reinforced by Captain Owen’s company from Texana. 
 On the morning of the 10th, they again came up with the Ca- 
 manches, and found them drawn up in order of battle on the 
 top of a ridge. The Texans advanced, but the Indians fled, 
 and, the better to avoid a conflict, they commenced scattering 
 on the way the plunder they had gathered : and, as the large 
 number of their horses impeded their retreat, they killed many 
 of them. As it was evident that the Indians would not fight 
 until forced into it, Captain McCulloch was despatched to the 
 settlements on the Colorado, in order to raise a force to inter- 
 cept the savages in the neighborhood of Plum creek. This 
 stream, a tributary of the St. Mark, was somewhat beyond the 
 settlement, and it was believed that the Indians would there 
 make a halt. The duty of raising the intercepting force was 
 performed with wonderful celerity. Those who had been in 
 pursuit of the Camanches, having followed them to McClure’s 
 hill, turned in to Gonzales to refresh their exhausted horses. 
 
 The news of the inroad of the Camanches had spread rapidly 
 through the settlements, and the volunteers w r ere soon on their 
 way, by forced marches, to the point of interception. Captain 
 Caldwell with thirty-seven men, Captain Ward with twenty- 
 two men, and Captain Bird with thirty-five more, reached there 
 on the 1 1 th of August. General Felix Huston arrived on the 
 same evening, and took the command. On the morning of the 
 12th, the spies reported that the Camanches were approach- 
 
BATTLE WITH TnE CAMANCHES. 
 
 303 
 
 ing. About the same time, Colonel Burleson came up with a 
 hundred men under Captains Jones, Wallace, and Hardiman.* 
 General Huston immediately formed for battle. The Indians, 
 seeing the Texans in their front, likewise prepared for action. 
 Their right occupied a piece of woods, while their line extend- 
 ed on the left a quarter of a mile into the prairie. General 
 Huston dismounted his men, and a random fire was commenced. 
 The Indian chiefs, arrayed in all the splendor of savage war- 
 riors, and finely mounted, bounded over the space between the 
 hostile lines, exhibiting feats of horsemanship and daring which 
 none but a Camanche, who is said to live on horseback, could 
 perform. But, notwithstanding the rapidity with which they 
 rode, several of them were seen to fall. As the fighting pro- 
 gressed, the Texans advanced ; and the enemy being disposed 
 to keep at a distance, General Huston ordered Burleson, with 
 the right wing, to move around the point of the woods occu- 
 pied by a large body of the Camanches : at the same time, he 
 directed Caldwell, with the left wing, to charge into the woods. 
 These movements were executed in gallant style. The Indians 
 fled at all points, and scattered in every direction, abandoning 
 all their plunder and stolen horses. A most animated pursuit 
 was kept up for fifteen miles. About an hour after the action 
 commenced, the recruited forces from Gonzales came up. The 
 rout of the enemy was thus complete. Their killed, number- 
 ing from fifty to eighty, were scattered from Plum creek to the 
 St. Mark, and as high up as the San Antonio road. Several 
 hundred horses and mules, with packs and baggage, fell into 
 the hands of the victors. The captive Mrs. Watts was retaken 
 and returned to her friends. Her husband, the collector at 
 Linnville, had been killed there, on the 8th, by the savages. 
 Thus did the Camanches fail in their revenge for their slain 
 
 * Felix Huston’s official report, August 12, 1840. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 chiefs at San Antonio. It is probable that they were directed 
 in this incursion by the Mexicans at Matamoras. It was well 
 known there that large quantities of goods had been brought 
 to the two points attacked, for the purpose of trade with the 
 federalists on the Rio Grande. The centralists thought it a 
 good move thus to break up these depots. 
 
 The Texan government was determined still to pursue these 
 Camanches, and give them yet another proof of its ability to 
 chastise them. Accordingly, in September, Colonel John H. 
 Moore had orders to raise a volunteer force in Fayette county, 
 and march up the Colorado in pursuit of those that escaped at 
 Plum creek. On the 5th of October, he set out with ninety 
 Texans and twelve Lipan Indians.* After passing the head- 
 waters of the San Gabriel, he proceeded to the San Saba, and 
 up that stream. Continuing his march for two days up the 
 latter river without finding the enemy, he diverged to the Con- 
 cho, and thence to the Red fork of the Colorado, passing over 
 a country of surpassing richness and beauty. On reaching the 
 Red fork, Colonel Moore came upon the trail, leading up the 
 river ; this he followed until the signs indicated that the In- 
 dians were at no great distance. He halted, and sent out two 
 of his Lipan spies. They returned in the evening of the 23d 
 of October, and reported that they had discovered the Ca- 
 mauclie village. The troops were ordered to get their sup- 
 pers, and be ready to march. f At half-past five o’clock in the 
 afternoon, they set out, and proceeded ten miles due north, 
 when they reached the river. Continuing about four miles far- 
 ther up the stream, the beef-cattle were herded in a mosquite- 
 thicket, and four miles still onward the troops were ordered to 
 dismount. This was at midnight. Spies were again sent for- 
 
 * “ Texas Sentinel,” November 14, 1840. 
 
 f John H. Moore’s official report, November 7 , 1840. 
 
MASSACRE OF THE CAMANCHES. 
 
 305 
 
 ward, to discover the force and position of the enemy. The 
 scouts returned at three o’clock, and reported the village as 
 situated on the south bank of the river, and, from its appear- 
 ance, they judged it to contain sixty families and one hundred 
 and twenty-five warriors. 
 
 At daybreak on the 24th, the Texans, leaving their pack- 
 mules, proceeded to the village. It seems they were not dis- 
 covered till they ascended the hill two hundred yards from the 
 village. A charge was instantly made, and the Camanches 
 fled to the river, which bent round the village like a half-moon. 
 A murderous fire was opened and continued upon the flying 
 enemy. Passing through the village, the Texans dismounted 
 and continued the fire. Some of the Indians were killed be- 
 fore reaching the river ; others were shot or drowned in the 
 stream. A portion succeeded in crossing and reaching the 
 prairie on the opposite bank ; but Lieutenant Owen, who had 
 been ordered, with fifteen men, to cross over and cut off their 
 retreat, succeeded admirably in this business. As this was a 
 war of extermination, the bodies of men, women, and children, 
 were seen on every hand, dead, wounded, and dying. The 
 fight around the village lasted about half an hour, and the pur- 
 suit extended some four miles. 
 
 The work was done : the butcheries of Victoria and Linn- 
 ville were avenged. There were forty-eight of the Camanches 
 killed in the village, and eighty more either shot or drowned 
 at the river ; and thirty-four prisoners remained in the hands 
 of the victors. The latter had only two men wounded. The 
 village was then utterly destroyed by fire ; and Colonel Moore 
 collected a caballada of five hundred horses, taken from tho 
 enemy, and returned to the capital of Texas, where he arrived 
 with all his forces (except one man who had died on the way 
 out) on the 7th of November. This, the severest chastisement 
 
 Vol. II. — 20 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 which the Camanches had received, was inflicted on them in 
 their distant home, at least three hundred miles from Austin. 
 
 The fifth Congress assembled at Austin on the 2d of Novem- 
 ber. The message of President Lamar was not lengthy. He 
 spoke favorably of the progress made by the republic in her 
 domestic and foreign affairs. General James Hamilton, one 
 of the loan-commissioners, had been empowered, previous to 
 his departure for Europe, to establish diplomatic relations with 
 the nations of that continent ; and the importance of such rela- 
 tions with Spain was referred to, on account of the extent of 
 the trade with Cuba. Mr. Treat, the private agent of Texas 
 in Mexico, had been so far listened to, that he was permitted 
 to submit his propositions ; but the president entertained slight 
 hopes of success. On the subject of the finances, he observed 
 that, “ so long as we have to depend, for our daily moneyed 
 operations, upon the promises of the government to pay at a 
 future day, no matter in what form they may be issued , those 
 issues must and will depreciate.” — “This depreciation of pa- 
 per, he continues, “ not founded upon a specie basis, or its 
 equivalent, is inevitable, and to the extent of the depreciation 
 is the loss of the government that is compelled to resort to 
 such issues. It is, therefore, of the utmost importance to our 
 financial prosperity that we should effect a loan, as it probably 
 is, at present, the only means which can be resorted to, for 
 keeping our currency at par. ,, Such reflections are whole- 
 some, and doubtless grew out of the painful experience of the 
 president in the management of the Texan currency. Yet it 
 was most fortunate for Texas that she did not secure the loan. 
 At that time, and under the then-existing circumstances, it 
 would have been expended in a year or two, leaving the repub- 
 lic still more deeply involved. The want of credit prevents 
 nations as well as individuals from going into debt. Texas, 
 
BOUNDARY DISPUTES — THE TEXAN NAVY. 
 
 307 
 
 being out of credit, soon learned the important but necessary 
 lesson of living within her means. That lesson has done her 
 more good than three such loans. 
 
 The long-disputed boundary-line between Texas and the 
 United States was not yet run. St. Denis and Governor San- 
 doval had quarrelled' about it ; so had France and Spain ; then 
 Spain and the United States ; then the latter and Mexico. Fi- 
 nally, when Texas was recognised, she made a treaty with the 
 United States for running the boundary-line; but when the 
 commissioners, Messrs. Hunt and Overton, met at the mouth 
 of the Sabine, instead of running the line according to the 
 treaty which their respective governments thought was plain 
 enough, they disagreed, and opened the old sore, by a diplo- 
 matic discussion, which continued until the Texan appropria- 
 tion was exhausted.* 
 
 The Congress of 1839-’40 had provided that the navy should 
 be laid up in ordinary, unless the safety of the coast should 
 require it to remain in active service. A report having been 
 circulated that Mexico was equipping a squadron with which 
 to attack Texas and her commerce, the navy was continued in 
 active service. There was another consideration in favor of 
 this course. The states of Yucatan and Tobasco had declared 
 their independence of Mexico ; and it was deemed advisable 
 to make a demonstration of the naval power of Texas on the 
 coast of these new governments, and to ascertain whether their 
 secession from the Mexican confederacy would cause them to 
 cease hostilities against Texas. 
 
 * This correspondence extends from the 22d of February, 1840, to the 16th 
 of March following. It was carried on near the mouth of the Sabine, on its 
 western bank. It is a recapitulation of the old discussion between John Quincy 
 Adams and Don Luis de Onis in 1818. The immediate question between the 
 commissioners was, whether Sabine lake was the “ Sabine river” named in the 
 treaty. If so, the line should run on its western bank; if not, General Hunt 
 contended that it should run along the middle of the lake. 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Perhaps one of the best evidences of the progress of a nation 
 is to be found in its newspaper department. In 1836, Texas 
 had but one weekly newspaper ; in 1840, she had over a dozen, 
 one or two of which were semi-weekly.* These papers were 
 brought out in a creditable style, and their columns well edited. 
 If they supported their respective views with zeal, they did so 
 with dignity, and seldom ran into those excesses so discredita- 
 ble to the partisan organs of the parent-country. True, there 
 were exceptions, but they were mostly attributable to new ed- 
 itors, who, in coming to Texas, had brought with them more 
 of the spirit of personal controversy than was common in the 
 new country. 
 
 The fifth Congress met with a determination to do something 
 for the credit of the republic. The great difficulty was, to de- 
 termine what should be done. While complaints were made 
 of heavy direct taxes, and of a burdensome tariff on articles of 
 prime necessity, it was still indispensable to have a revenue to 
 carry on the government. The most sensible conclusion was, 
 therefore, to reduce the appropriations. Congress digested 
 and passed an actf greatly reducing the number of officers of 
 the government ; placed all the public vessels in ordinary, ex- 
 cept a schooner ; declined making an appropriation for the reg- 
 ular army ; and enacted some other provisions in regard to the 
 revenue, by means of all which the appropriations were reduced 
 
 * These papers were — 
 
 In Austin, the Gazette and the Sentinel. 
 
 In Houston, the Telegraph , the Times , and the Morning Star. 
 
 In Galveston, the Civilian and the Courier. 
 
 In San Augustine, the Journal. 
 
 In Brasoria, the Brasoria Courier. 
 
 In San Luis, the Advocate. 
 
 In Matagorda, the Colorado Gazette. 
 
 In Richmond, the Telescope ; and, 
 
 In Washington, the Emigrant. 
 f An act to abolish certain offices, <fcc., January 18, 1841. 
 
IMPORTANCE OF TEXAS ABROAD — MONROE EDWARDS. 309 
 
 nearly sixty-six per centum, and the means to meet them in- 
 creased. This effort on the part of Texas to meet her expenses 
 helped her credit. The two houses did nothing with the cur- 
 rency — perhaps they could not. It was diseased ; and nothing 
 but money would give it relief. It was therefore permitted to 
 languish another year — some hoping for a loan, others that 
 time would effect a cure, and others, again, that it would alto- 
 gether cease its functions. 
 
 The year 1840 did not pass away without further evidence 
 of the growing consequence of the republic. England, Hol- 
 land, and Belgium, acknowledged her independence, and the 
 former country sent J. T. Crawford as charge d’affaires to rep- 
 resent her near the government of Texas. France was already 
 represented by M. De Saligny, with the same diplomatic rank. 
 Texas was indebted to General James Hamilton for the trea- 
 ties of recognition with England, Holland, and Belgium. The 
 objections on the part of England, on account of the slavery 
 question, had been to some extent removed by the published 
 writings of William Kennedy and Jonathan Ikan, both Eng- 
 lishmen, who had visited Texas, and given an impartial and 
 interesting account of her progress. In connection with this 
 question of slavery, we find, in 1840, the name of Monroe Ed- 
 wards. He had turned up as a man of enterprise in Texas, 
 and entered upon a scheme for the importation of slaves. He 
 met with a man in Mississippi by the name of Dart, with whom 
 he entered into a partnership. Dart was to furnish the funds, 
 and did furnish him thirty thousand dollars, with which he 
 went to Cuba, to purchase negroes.* It appears that a slaver 
 had been captured by a British cruiser, and brought into Ha- 
 vana, where the negroes were apprenticed for a term of years. 
 Edwards purchased a large number of these negroes and intro- 
 
 * Edwards says the negroes were purchased by John Edwin Sumner as agent 
 
310 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 duccd them into Texas. It was understood, between him and 
 Dart, that they were to be sent through Texas to Louisiana. 
 But Edwards commenced selling them out in Texas, and ap- 
 propriated the proceeds to his own use. Dart, on learning 
 these facts, sequestered the remaining negroes ; but, on the 
 trial, Edwards gave, in evidence, a full receipt from Dart for 
 the money originally advanced. Upon a close examination of 
 this paper, it was found that Edwards had extracted all the 
 writing on a letter from Dart to him, except the signature, and 
 had written the receipt above it. Edwards was forthwith 
 prosecuted for forgery. He gave bail, and fled to the United 
 States. In 1840, he wrote to President Lamar, and also to 
 General Houston, and perhaps other distinguished persons in 
 Texas, representing the facts in part, but stating that he had 
 been defrauded in the purchase of the negroes, believing them 
 to be slaves ; that, by treaty stipulations, both England and 
 Spain were bound for the restoration of the negroes to free- 
 dom ; that the British government had been fully advised of 
 all the facts, with a descriptive list of the negroes ; that he 
 was then on his way to London, with letters from Mr. Adams, 
 General Wilson, Mr. Fox, Dr. Channing, and twenty other gen- 
 tlemen of high standing here and in Europe, to press the liber- 
 ation of the negroes ; and was advised that the Texan govern- 
 ment would be held responsible for them. He further stated 
 that he had high authority for saying that, the moment the 
 question was agitated in London, the successful negotiation of 
 the Texan loan was at an end ; and concluded by advising that 
 the negroes be safely kept, to abide the issue to be made by 
 the British government.* 
 
 The object of Edwards in writing thus is not so easily ascer- 
 tained ; but he proceeded to London, and, by the plausibility 
 
 * Edwards’s letter, November 1, 1840. 
 
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE IN 1840. 
 
 311 
 
 of his story, and his apparent sympathy for these negroes, he 
 attracted so much attention, and acquired such influence with 
 the ministry, that it became necessary for General Hamilton to 
 interpose, and expose him as a criminal who had fled from jus- 
 tice in Texas.* This interposition had the desired effect, and 
 Edwards turned his attention to other enterprises. 
 
 To the friends of Texas it was gratifying to see the growth 
 of her commerce, and the interest felt therein by foreign na- 
 tions. During the first quarter of 1840, ninety-two vessels 
 arrived at the port of Galveston. There was a corresponding 
 increase of arrivals at Velasco, Matagorda, and other points. 
 Many of these vessels were from Europe, and brought merchan- 
 dise to exchange for cotton. This increase of trade, though 
 rapid, was natural, and did not exceed the increase of popula- 
 tion induced by a constant stream of immigration. The town 
 of Houston, situated at the head of Buffalo bayou, a river navi- 
 gable at all times, had already become the centre of a consid- 
 
 * As proof of the extent of Edwards’s operations, we give General Hamilton’s 
 letter to him : — 
 
 “ No. 15 Cockspur Street, London, November 23, 1840. 
 
 “Sir: I have just been informed by Mr. Stevenson that you have presented 
 to him a letter of introduction, asking his good offices, from the secretary of 
 state of the United States, and that you have a similar letter to General Cass, 
 the Americau minister at Paris. I beg leave to inform you that I have apprized 
 Mr. Stevenson that you are a fugitive from the public justice of Texas, charged 
 with the commission of an infamous crime. I shall feel it my duty to make a 
 similar communication to General Cass. 
 
 “I likewise understand that you propose making an application to Lord Pal- 
 merston for the aid of her majesty’s government for the purpose of subserving 
 some alleged objects of public justice in Texas. As the representative of the 
 republic of Texas in Great Britain, I shall not fail to advise Lord Palmerston 
 of the facts which I have communicated to the representatives of the United 
 States at Paris and London. 
 
 “ I hope you will spare me the pain and necessity of a more detailed and pub- 
 lic statement of your recent history in Texas. 
 
 “ I remain your obedient servant, 
 
 “ J. HAMILTON, Envoy of the Republic of Texas. 
 
 “ Monroe Edwards, Esquire.” 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 erable trade with the interior. This trade had extended up 
 the Brasos, the Trinity, and even the Colorado ; for it was 
 found to he a cheap market for purchases, and transportation 
 thence to the state capital was not higher than from Linnville. 
 At that time, freight between the two places could be had at 
 eighteen or twenty dollars per hundred weight, payable in 
 promissory-notes, the latter being worth from fifteen to eigh- 
 teen cents on the dollar.* An extensive and quite an increas- 
 ing trade was carried on through the outlet of Red river ; and 
 this traffic was the more profitable, because the importers were 
 not so particular about paying the duties. At first, Texas 
 bought much and sold but little, and the balance of trade was 
 against her ; but, in looking at the comparative tables of her 
 commerce for the years from 1838 to 1841, both inclusive, we 
 find that her necessities induced her to purchase less and to 
 sell more. For example, in 1838, she imported thirty-five 
 thousand bushels of corn; in 1841, not two thousand bushels, 
 because she had found it necessary to raise it. In 1838, she 
 imported fifty-six thousand pounds of butter; in 1841, but lit- 
 tle over half that quantity. The fluctuations in her currency 
 had its effect during these years, but aside from this the ten- 
 dency of trade was favorable, and evinced more industry and 
 economy on the part of the population. 
 
 Among other improvements, the republic was engaged in the 
 construction of a military road from Red river to the presidio 
 crossing of the Nueces ; and it was proposed to add to this a 
 like road from the town of Austin to Santa Fe, a distance of 
 six hundred miles. The motives for this are set forth in the 
 report of the secretary of war. Santa Fe, situated about twelve 
 miles east of the upper Rio Grande, or, as it is called up there, 
 the Rio del Norte, was included within the statutory limits of 
 
 * “Telegraph,” June 24 and July 15, 1840. 
 
SANTA FE — ITS INLAND TRADE. 
 
 313 
 
 the republic of Texas. The place was settled entirely by Mex- 
 icans, and, never having been conquered by Texas, was still 
 under the government of Mexico. The country between the 
 Texan capital and this point was wholly unoccupied, except 
 by hordes of savages that roamed over it. For many years 
 the adventurous traders of the United States had carried on a 
 successful inland commerce with Santa Fe, of the annual value 
 of four or five millions of dollars.* Santa Fe was not alto- 
 gether the consumer, but rather the depot for these importa- 
 tions, which were distributed thence to Chihuahua and other 
 portions of northern Mexico. This trade was conducted prin- 
 cipally through St. Louis, in Missouri ; and it was believed 
 that, by diverting it through Texas, the distance of land-trans- 
 portation would be shortened three or four hundred miles, and 
 that republic be made the recipient of the vast profits realized. 
 Another object was to be attained : that portion of the Texan 
 territory would thus be conciliated, and the two sections, al- 
 though separated by so wide a desert, bound together by the 
 interests of commerce. The secretary of war proposed, as a 
 preparatory step, the construction of a military road from Aus- 
 tin to Santa Fe. President Lamar seemed to feel a deep inter- 
 est in the affairs of New Mexico, and as early as April 14, 1840, 
 had addressed a letter to the authorities and people of that 
 province. 
 
 The president’s health had been for some time very bad ; 
 and, getting no better, he obtained from the Congress a leave 
 of absence, and about the middle of December retired from his 
 official duties, leaving them to be discharged by the vice-presi- 
 dent. 
 
 * Report of the Secretary of War, September 30, 1840. 
 
314 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The year 1841 opened with prospects gloomy enough. The 
 imports into Texas during the past fiscal year had exceeded 
 one and a third millions of dollars, while the exports amounted 
 to but little over two hundred thousand dollars, which exhib- 
 ited an increase of indebtedness for that year of more than a 
 million. From this, however, should be deducted a difference 
 in valuations, and the amount of moneys brought into the coun- 
 try by immigrants ; still, it would leave a large balance against 
 the people of the republic. To this add the increase in the 
 public debt ; and also the utter want of means and credit of 
 the government ; and we may form an idea of the prospect be- 
 fore them. That the condition of affairs did not meet the pub- 
 lic approbation is manifest from the fact that very few of the 
 old members were returned to the fifth Congress. Under the 
 circumstances, all eyes were turned to the able negotiations of 
 General Hamilton. The propositions made in Great Britain, 
 France, and Belgium, were infinite. To grve Texas credit in 
 Europe, and raise means to pay her debts, was a problem which 
 General Hamilton had undertaken to solve. He was a man 
 of financial genius, with the organ of hope largely developed, 
 and possessed ot a most untiring zeal. He was, however, 
 greatly mistaken in supposing that he could easily change the 
 views of the chief ministers of those ancient courts. That he 
 
GENERAL HAMILTON’S FINANCIAL EFFORTS. 315 
 
 labored honestly for Texas, there can be no doubt ; but, at the 
 present time, it is equally clear that the republic was benefited 
 by his want of success. Among the plans for a loan was one 
 set forth in the prospectus of Messrs. Lafitte and Company, 
 bankers in Paris. After much negotiation, General Hamilton 
 thought the affair concluded, and so wrote on the 4th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1841.* The news was received with great joy, not only 
 in Texas, but in the United States, for she had many friends 
 there who were interested in her success. The treasury notes 
 and bonds, that had been down to twelve or fifteen cents in 
 the dollar, suddenly rose one or two hundred per cent.f This 
 French loan was to extend to thirty-five millions of francs, and 
 was to be raised by subscriptions, the bonds to be reimbursed 
 in lands, duties, or cash, at the option of the subscriber. Gen- 
 eral Hamilton, previous to the consummation of the arrange- 
 ment, had assured himself, as he supposed, of the favorable 
 disposition and protection of the French government for the 
 negotiation of the loan. This assurance he had in writing from 
 M. Guizot, the prime minister, and verbally from the king. No 
 sooner, however, had the negotiator left for London, and the 
 prospectus for the loan was issued, than an article appeared 
 in the “Debats” the government organ, opposing it. The 
 bankers, seeing this, postponed opening the books for subscrip- 
 
 * “ Pabis, February 4, 1841. 
 
 “ To the Editor of the New York Times and Star : — 
 
 “ Sir : As the commissioners of loans of the republic of Texas were instructed 
 by his excellency President Lamar, in the event of their effecting a negotiation 
 of the loan for that republic, to make a public announcement of the fact, that 
 meritorious holders of the securities of government, who may have aided the 
 country in the hour of its necessity, may not be the victims of the speculation of 
 those acting under secret information, I will thank you to state in your paper 
 that I have this day concluded in this city a contract with the bank of Messrs. 
 
 J. Lafitte and Company, for the Texan loan 
 
 “ I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 “J. Hamilton.’* 
 
 f Letter to B. E. Bee, April 18, 1841. 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tious.* General Hamilton did not yet despair ; but there were 
 difficulties in his way in Texas, of which he was not then ad- 
 vised. In February, 1841, there was pending before the Texan 
 Congress a bill providing for the incorporation of a French 
 company, which by its terms was authorized to introduce eight 
 thousand French immigrants, to whom were to be granted three 
 millions of acres of land along the frontiers of the republic, 
 from Red river to the Rio Grande. This measure, which M. 
 Do Saligny, the French charge d'affaires , had much at heart, 
 passed the house of representatives, but was lost in the senate ; 
 and much unnecessary prejudice was excited against the French 
 in consequence. There was also another matter in which the 
 French charge was personally interested.! 
 
 It seems that a difference occurred between a servant of M. 
 De Saligny and Mr. Bullock, in which the servant was beaten 
 by the latter. Saligny made his complaint to the government, 
 and Bullock was arrested, and bound over to answer at the 
 next term of the district court. In the meantime, the latter, 
 who kept a hotel, finding Saligny on his premises, ordered him 
 away. Complaint was also made of this outrage, and Bullock 
 again bound over. These violations of diplomatic privilege 
 exasperated the French minister, and a correspondence fol- 
 lowed ; but the Texan government failing to give satisfaction, 
 the former left his post.J Saligny was a brother-in-law of M. 
 
 * Letter of .General Hamilton, May 18, 1841. 
 
 f “Fiscal History of Texas,” p. 110. Mr. Gouge says he “had been on the 
 spot, and inquired into the particulars. M. De Saligny had a number of horses, 
 which were fed with corn. Mr. Bullock’s pigs intruded into the stables to pick 
 up the corn the horses suffered to fall to the ground. One of M. De Saligny ’s 
 servants killed some of the pigs. Mr. Bullock whipped the servant.” 
 
 % It was understood that a French fleet was coming to the gulf of Mexico to 
 settle this affair; and the Texan charge at Washington mentioned the subject to 
 the American secretary of state, and to the British minister in that city, both 
 of whom promised to send their respective squadrons around there to look after 
 the French. But when Houston came again into office, a kind letter was sent 
 
FINANCIAL SCHEMES — NATIONAL BANK PROJECTED. 317 
 
 Human, the French minister of finance ; hence he was found 
 the first to oppose the loan, and so gave notice in the u Mes- 
 Sager” and “ Moniteur ” his organs. 
 
 Still, General Hamilton thought that Lafitte and Company 
 could carry the loan through without the aid of the French 
 government, or at least that these differences could be adjust- 
 ed : so he wrote, and continued to inspire the Texans with 
 hope. In the meantime, gigantic projects were hewn out in 
 Texas. A bank, with a large capital, was to be established. 
 General Hamilton had procured John Horseley Palmer, late 
 governor of the bank of England, to lay down a plan for it, 
 and, it was said, was making efforts to secure the services of 
 Samuel Jaudon, late agent of the United States bank, as presi- 
 dent of this financial organ of the Texan government. But 
 General Hamilton failed in Paris. His success was no better 
 among the Dutch, for they also were borrowing. Still, the 
 hope of a loan did not suddenly expire ; the prospect, with 
 alternations of brightness and gloom, afforded facilities for 
 gambling in the sale and purchase of the notes and bonds of 
 the republic. She was manifestly living on that hope : for her 
 revenues in 1840, though nominally four hundred and fifty- 
 eight thousand dollars, were in fact but little over ninety thou- 
 sand dollars ; and her expenses during that year were upward 
 of four times that amount. 
 
 Texas had employed all the means in her power to secure 
 her independence, and to induce Mexico to acknowledge it. 
 She had formed a convention with Great Britain, by which she 
 had promised to assume five millions of dollars of the debt due 
 by Mexico to British subjects, if that government would pro- 
 cure from Mexico an acknowledgment of her independence. 
 
 to France, which satisfied her wounded honor, and M. De Saligny returned to 
 his post. — Jones's Letters on Annexation, p. 10. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 She had sent Mr. Treat as a private agent to treat with the 
 latter power ; then Mr. Bee ; and subsequently, in the spring 
 of 1841, she had despatched Mr. Webb, with instructions to 
 open and conduct negotiations for peace, under the influence 
 of the mediation promised by Great Britain.* But the latter 
 agent was not received, and immediately returned. This was 
 followed by a report that the Mexicans were preparing to in- 
 vade Texas. Thus was the republic overwhelmed with debts 
 at home, and threatened with war from abroad. But the 
 Texan Congress and executive were equally ready to meet the 
 enemy. “ Texas proper,” says President Burnet, “ is bounded 
 by the Rio Grande : Texas, as defined by the sword, may com- 
 prehend the Sierra del Madre. Let the sword do its proper 
 w 7 ork.” But the means were not to be had. It is believed 
 that, had General Hamilton negotiated the loan, an army of at 
 least ten thousand men would have marched into Mexico in 
 1841. They may possibly have thus won a peace, but the loan 
 would have been exhausted. Mexico, on her part, was ear- 
 nestly preparing for an invasion of Texas. She had succeeded 
 in effecting a loan of three millions of dollars, with a portion 
 of which fund she had engaged the building of two vessels-of- 
 war at New York. These vessels were built, and delivered to 
 her at Vera Cruz. But, while she was preparing, she found 
 employment for her troops at home. Yucatan, having declared 
 her independence, proceeded, on the 16th of May, 1841, to 
 proclaim a republican constitution at the capitol in Merida, 
 and despatched Colonel Martin Francisco Peraza as envoy to 
 Texas. He arrived at Austin on the 11th of September, and 
 entered into a speedy arrangement with the executive, the sub- 
 stance of which was, that Texas should furnish certain naval 
 oid, and Yucatan engaged to pay its expenses in part whilo 
 
 * Anson Jones’s Letters on Annexation, p. 16. 
 
FREEBOOTERS ON THE RIO GRANDE. 
 
 319 
 
 operating against the common enemy. The business was soon 
 done, and Peraza embarked with the naval force destined for 
 the coast of Yucatan. Mexico had yet other troubles. On 
 the 6th of October, Santa Anna, at the head of ten thousand 
 men, marched into the capital of the nation, deposed Busta- 
 mente, seated himself in the chair of state, and assembled a 
 Congress of his own selection to confirm his authority. Thus 
 was Mexico engaged at home. 
 
 The freebooters on her frontiers found time, however, to 
 make occasional excursions across the Rio Grande. Some- 
 times they would capture the property of the citizens, and even 
 the citizens themselves. Captain Philip Dimit, long distin- 
 guished as a pioneer and gallant defender of Texas, became 
 their victim. He was engaged, with some workmen, on the 
 4th of July, 1841, in erecting a mercantile establishment on 
 Corpus Christi bay, about fifteen miles below the present town 
 of Corpus Christi (but then known as the ranche of Aubrey 
 and Kinney), when the place was visited by Captain Sanchez, 
 aide-de-camp to General Ampudia, with a party of fifteen cav- 
 alry, who took Dimit and his men prisoners, and, after plunder- 
 ing the establishment, conducted them to Matamoras.* From 
 this point, they, with others, were taken to Monterey, and de- 
 livered over to Arista. By his order they were ironed, and 
 started into the interior, under a guard commanded by Captain 
 Chaffind. That officer, a humane man, had their irons taken 
 off after the first day’s march. On the third day they arrived 
 at Saltillo. Here their anticipations of a long imprisonment 
 and horrid treatment were such, that they resolved to attempt 
 their escape. They proposed to procure a quantity of muscal , 
 well drugged with morphine, and give it to the guard, and, 
 while they were affected by it, to escape. Two physicians, 
 
 * Deposition of William Thompson, July 10, 1861. 
 
320 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 who were among the prisoners, were charged with this duty. 
 Their gourds being supplied with this mixture, they arrived at 
 the Hacienda de Agua Nueva , where they were quartered for 
 the night. The Mexican guard were abundantly helped to the 
 liquor in the gourds, and in the night the signal was given to 
 make the attack. By some means, however, the morphine 
 proved to be inefficient, and the muscal alone had served to 
 keep the guard awake, and to stimulate their courage. There 
 were only nineteen of the Texans, armed with but a few guns 
 which they had picked up, and a guard of ten times their num- 
 ber. The Texans had got off some distance, when daylight 
 appearing, Captain Chaffind sent for them, and said that, if 
 they would return, they should be forgiven ; if not, he would 
 have Limit shot. This was repeated in hearing of the latter, 
 who, fearing that Chaffind would put his threat into execution, 
 and not wishing to be shot like a felon, took a large dose of 
 morphine which he had with him. Having taken the opiate, 
 he wrote a letter to his wife, made a disposition of his prop- 
 erty, and then calmly lay down on his blanket, requesting his 
 friends around him to make known his death, and solicit the 
 Texans to throw the mantle of charity over the act. “ I do 
 not fear death,” said he, “ but dread the idea of ending my 
 life in a loathsome dungeon. Tell them I prefer a Roman’s 
 death to the ignominy of perpetual imprisonment, and that my 
 last wish is for my country’s welfare.” Soon after, he sunk 
 into a sleep, from which he never awoke. Thus fell a noble 
 spirit, by whom the first “ Lone-Star” banner was unfurled on 
 the heights of La Bahia.* 
 
 One of these bands of Mexicans, under Ignacio Garcia, was 
 met on the 7th of April, about ten miles from Laredo, by Cap- 
 tain John C. Hays, in command of a company of twenty-five 
 
 * Journal of Captain Thomas Pratt 
 
PROPOSED EXPEDITION TO SANTA FE. 
 
 321 
 
 spies. After a sjiort contest, the enemy retreated, leaving 
 three killed and three wounded. Hays pursued the fugitives 
 so closely, that he took twenty-five of them prisoners, without 
 the loss of any of his command.* These scouts under Captain 
 Hays were very useful and efficient in protecting the western 
 frontier from Mexican and Indian incursions. 
 
 In the latter, part of the spring of 1841, extensive prepara- 
 tions were being made in Texas for an armed visit to Santa 
 Fe. The Congress having failed to make an appropriation for 
 the army, it was disbanded, and consequently there were many 
 men thrown out of employment, who were anxious for such an 
 adventure. The objects and motives of the expedition must 
 be explained. It has already been stated that the secretary 
 of war had warmly recommended it in his report. President 
 Lamar had spoken on the subject in the message of 1839. The 
 friends of the measure had brought it up in each house of Con- 
 gress, by the introduction of bills authorizing an expedition to 
 Santa Fe, providing only for a small outfit ; but both bills were 
 rejected.! The object of the expedition was, to endeavor to 
 prevail upon the people of New Mexico, residing within the 
 statutory limits of Texas, to submit quietly and peaceably to 
 an incorporation with the other citizens of the republic, and to 
 acknowledge the right of Texas to complete jurisdiction over 
 them. This being done, the revenue-laws were to be put into 
 operation, and a small military force retained there for the 
 purpose of repelling any sudden attack of Mexicans or Indians. 
 A commissioner was also to reside at Santa Fe, as the agent 
 of the government, with special instructions for his guidance. 
 No further alterations were to be made in the laws or form of 
 
 * Captain Hays’s official report, April 14, 1841. 
 
 f Report of the Select Committee on the Santa F6 Expedition, December 6, 
 1841. 
 
 VOL. II. — 21 
 
322 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 government of the people than were absolutely necessary in 
 the change of their allegiance.* It was stated in an official 
 paper that the expedition had been solicited by some of the 
 citizens of Santa Fe, and the commander was instructed by 
 President Lamar not to attempt a subjugation of the people by 
 arms, should it be found that they were unwilling to submit to 
 the Texan laws ; and that the men were only permitted to go 
 as an armed body, to defend themselves, and the articles of 
 traffic taken with them, against the hordes of savages which 
 they might encounter on the way.f 
 
 The members of the expedition rendezvoused at an encamp- 
 ment on Brushy creek, about twenty miles from Austin. The 
 military, under the command of brevet Brigadier-General Hugh 
 M‘Leod, consisted of five companies of mounted infantry and 
 one of artillery. Accompanying these went a caravan of mer- 
 chants, with goods, suited to the market, drawn in wagons ; 
 also some adventurers, who were neither soldiers nor mer- 
 chants, but who went along for pleasure ; and, finally, Messrs. 
 William G. Cooke, R. F. Brenhan, and J. A. Navarro, the com- 
 missioners, who were charged by the president with the exe- 
 cution of his instructions. J 
 
 Difficulties were raised in fitting out the expedition. There 
 was no law making any appropriation for such an object, and 
 each branch of the Congress had rejected a proposition for 
 such an appropriation. The president, however, gave orders 
 to the quartermaster and commissary generals of the militia to 
 contract for the necessary provisions and munitions of war for 
 the expedition. Having endorsed the orders himself, he di- 
 rected the proper officers to audit and pay them. The control- 
 
 * Secretary of State of Texas to B. E. Bee, June 21, 1841. 
 
 f James Reilly, Texan Charge , to American Secretary of State, March 21, 1842. 
 
 X Secretary of State to B. E. Bee, June 21, 1841. 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE SANTA FE EXPEDITION. 
 
 323 
 
 ler having refused to allow these accounts, was ordered by the 
 president, through the secretary of the treasury, to do so.* 
 The gordian knot being thus untied, the expedition set out 
 from Brushy creek on the 20th of June, 1841. The president 
 had spent the previous night in the camp, and, after taking 
 leave of the “ pioneers,” returned to the capital. 
 
 This expedition was unfortunate — in wanting the sanction 
 of law, in its consequences, and especially in the time of its 
 departure ; for, on the 22d of June, the commissioners sent by 
 Arista, to treat of an armistice, arrived in Austin. A more 
 favorable feeling was beginning to appear ; a brisk trade was 
 springing up between Texas and the Rio Grande, encouraged 
 by both parties ; and it was understood that Arista was willing 
 to unite with the Texan authorities in the overthrow of the 
 robbers that infested the plains of that river. So soon, how- 
 ever, as the Commissioners learned the departure of the Santa 
 Fe expedition, they returned to Mexico, and the abduction of 
 Captain Dimit and others followed. f 
 
 The number of volunteers doing duty under the orders of 
 General M‘Leod was two hundred and seventy. The remain- 
 der of those connected with the expedition, consisting of the 
 
 * The following is the president’s order: — 
 
 “Executive Department, March 24, 1841. 
 "Hon. John G. Chalmers , Secretary of the Treasury: — 
 
 “Sir: You will instruct the controller to open upon his books an appropria- 
 tion for fitting out an expedition to Santa Fe ; also an appropriation, subject to 
 my order, for disbanding the regular army; also an appropriation, subject to 
 your order, for extra clerk-hire in the treasury department 
 
 “ Mirabeau B. Lamar.” 
 
 "To J. B. Shaw, Esq., Controller: — 
 
 “Sir: You will comply with the above orders of the president 
 
 “ J. G. Chalmers, Secretary of the Treasury .” 
 
 On this order, something over eighty-nine thousand dollars were drawn from 
 the treasury and applied to the Santa F6 expedition. — Report of Select Commit- 
 tee, <Scc., December 6, 1841. 
 
 f “ Telegraph,” June 23 and 30, 1841. 
 
324 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 staff, the commissioners, merchants, tourists, and servants, num- 
 bered about fifty. “ The long train of wagons moving heavily 
 forward, with the different companies of volunteers, all well 
 mounted and well armed, and riding in double file, presented 
 an imposing as well as an animating spectacle, causing every 
 heart to beat high with the anticipation of exciting incidents 
 on the boundless prairies.”* After innumerable adventures — 
 such as buffalo-hunts, Indian skirmishes, and mustang-chases 
 — and much privation, with a loss of some few of the party — 
 they arrived, on the 11th of August, within seventy or eighty 
 miles (as they supposed) of San Miguel. During the most of 
 this time they had been lost among the mountains of the Red 
 and Wachita rivers. From this point they sent forward Messrs. 
 Howland, Baker, and Rosenberry, to procure provisions, and 
 ascertain how the expedition would be received. f The main 
 body continued their wandering journey through a broken, bar- 
 ren country, until the 10th of September, when they came to 
 something like an old cart-road, but it was soon lost in the 
 sandy waste. The party were nearly driven to desperation by 
 hunger. “ Every tortoise and snake, every living and creep- 
 ing thing, was seized upon and swallowed by the famishing 
 men with a rapacity that nothing but the direst hunger could 
 induce.” J A few days afterward they came up with some 
 Mexicans, on their return from a trading-excursion among the 
 Indians ; but the latter could give them nothing to eat, nor any 
 information, except that San Miguel was still some seventy or 
 eighty miles distant, but that there were settlements and flocks 
 of sheep, where they could procure food, at the village of An- 
 ton Chico. The advance, which had first encountered the 
 
 * “Santa Fe Expedition,” vol. i., p. 72. We are indebted to George Wilkins 
 Kendall for a lively and romantic account of the expedition, 
 f lb., vol. i., p. 162. 
 
 % lb., p. 250. 
 
SANTA FE EXPEDITION — ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 325 
 
 Mexicans, sent back three of them to guide the main body by 
 a shorter route, while they set out for the settlements. Arri- 
 ving at a fine camping-ground on the Rio Gallinas, where the 
 shepherds kept their flocks, “ a scene of feasting ensued which 
 beggars description.” 
 
 The next morning it was determined by the advance party 
 to send W. P. Lewis, captain of the artillery, and George Van 
 Ness, secretary to the commissioners, directly to San Miguel. 
 Messrs. Howard, Fitzgerald, and Kendall, accompanied them. 
 They took a letter to the alcalde , informing him that a large 
 trading-party from Texas was approaching ; that their views 
 were in every way pacific, and that they desired to purchase a 
 considerable quantity of provisions to send back to the main 
 body. They also took with them a number of President La- 
 mar’s proclamation, stating the object of the expedition, and 
 that if the inhabitants of New Mexico were not disposed peace- 
 ably to join the Texan standard, the expedition would forth- 
 with return. Accordingly, Captain Lewis and his party left 
 the Rio Gallinas on the 14th of September for San Miguel.* 
 The shepherds at the Gallinas had informed the advance that 
 the country was in arms against the Texans, and that Howland 
 and his companions, who had been sent in advance on the 11th 
 of August, were prisoners at Santa Fe. Here, it would seem, 
 a courier should have been despatched to General M‘Leod with 
 the information, so that, whether true or false, he could have 
 been on his guard. Howland was, in fact, in prison, and at- 
 tempted to make his escape, to give notice to the Texan com- 
 mander ; but he was retaken, and for that offence afterward 
 shot in San Miguel. 
 
 Captain Lewis and his party, about two o’clock in the after- 
 noon of the 14th, came up with two muleteers. From them 
 
 * Santa F6 Expedition, vol. L, p. 270. 
 
326 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 they learned that Howland’s party were prisoners at Santa 
 Fe, and that a great stir and excitement existed in the country 
 in consequence of Governor Armijo having informed the people 
 that it was the intention of the Texans to burn, slay, and de- 
 stroy, as they went. Here, again, it seems that this informa- 
 tion should have been conveyed back to the main body. It 
 was transmitted to the party left at the Rio Gallinas, but not 
 to M‘Leod. That night, Lewis and his companions slept at 
 Anton Chico , where they received an intimation that they 
 would be arrested and shot the next day. Disregarding this 
 warning, they proceeded toward San Miguel ; but on the way 
 they were surrounded, disarmed, and dismounted, in the po- 
 litest manner possible, by a company of Mexicans under the 
 command of Don Salezar, and started on foot for the point of 
 their destination. Shortly afterward they set out on the march 
 for Santa Fe, but on the road met Governor Armijo, on his way 
 to attack the Texan invaders of New Mexico. In addition to 
 the fatigue of the march, the captives were tied together ; and 
 in this condition, about sunset, they met Armijo. The governor 
 saluted them as friends, stated that he had heard of their cap- 
 ture, and asked them who they were. Captain Lewis replied 
 that they were merchants from the United States. Here Van 
 Ness interrupted him, and said that, with the exception of 
 Kendall, they were all Texans. Armijo, seeing the lone star 
 and the word “ Texas” on Lewis’s coat, took him by the col- 
 lar, and said : “ What does this mean ? I can read — ‘ Texas /’ 
 .... You need not think to deceive me,” continued the gov- 
 ernor ; “ no merchant from the United States ever travels with 
 a Texan military jacket !”* 
 
 Lewis, being well versed in Spanish, was taken as the gov- 
 ernor’s interpreter, and mounted on a mule. His oOmpanions 
 
 * Santa F6 Expedition, vol. i., p. 295. 
 
SANTA FE EXPEDITION — TREACHERY. 
 
 327 
 
 were compelled to retrace their steps on foot toward San Mi- 
 guel, where they arrived on the following morning, and saw 
 Howland and Baker, two of the Texans, shot. Armijo next 
 proceeded against Colonel Cooke, who was left at the Rio Gal- 
 linas with the advance of the expedition, consisting of ninety- 
 four men. The day after Lewis and his party had left Colonel 
 Cooke, the latter set out with his force, and encamped near 
 Anton Chico. He sent four of his men to the village to buy 
 provisions, where they were arrested, but afterward released. 
 Cooke asked Salezar what had become of Lewis and his party. 
 He answered that, being satisfied with their good intentions, he 
 had sent them on to the governor. On the 17th of September, 
 when Cooke was about to set out for Santa Fe, Salezar sent 
 him word that Armijo would be there in a few hours. With 
 professions of great friendship on the part of Salezar, Cooke 
 soon found himself pretty well surrounded by four or five hun- 
 dred men. He was about to commence an engagement, when 
 some one said Captain Lewis was at the head of the Mexicau 
 forces. Very soon, Lewis, in company with the governor’s 
 nephew, advanced. The former told Cooke that the people of 
 New Mexico were exasperated against the Texans, and were 
 in arms ; that, in addition to the six hundred troops before 
 them, he had seen four thousand more, well equipped, who 
 would be on the ground in a few hours ; that there were five 
 thousand more on the march from Chihuahua, but Governor 
 Armijo had commissioned him to say that, if the Texans would 
 give up their arms, they could have permission to come in and 
 trade, and that at the end of eight days they would be returned 
 to them. Lewis-further stated that such was the custom of the 
 St. Louis traders when they came to Santa Fe, that no harm 
 could result from such a course, and for the truth of these state- 
 ments he pledged his honor. The Texans believed Lewis — 
 
328 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 gave up their arms — were betrayed, arrested, and plundered. 
 William P. Lewis was a traitor .* One is here reminded of 
 the promises made to Fannin and Ward. Cooke had better 
 have acted like Jordan at Saltillo. 
 
 The following day, Governor Armijo arrived, and ordered 
 the prisoners to be all tied, and started them on to Mexico, 
 without permitting them to see their friends who had been pre- 
 viously taken, after which he immediately set out to meet the 
 main body of the Texans under General M‘Leod. The latter, 
 after receiving the message sent by the Mexicans at the Rio 
 Gallinas, proceeded on his march ; but the constant annoyance 
 of the Indians, and, above all, starvation, rendered his move- 
 ments slow, and wore out his command. He had reached the 
 Laguna Colorado, some thirty or forty miles from the Rio Gal- 
 linas, when he was met by Armijo. Having but few men fit 
 for service, their horses having nearly all perished or run 
 away, and many of the men having thrown aside their arms to 
 relieve themselves of the burden, the Texans, upon the promise 
 of good treatment, and that their personal effects should be 
 returned to them, surrendered. This being done, they were 
 searched, plundered, bound, and marched off to San Miguel, 
 where the last of them arrived on the 12th of October. 
 
 Kendall assigns the following as causes of the failure of the 
 expedition : “ In the first place, the expedition began its march 
 too late in the season by at least six weeks. Had it left Aus- 
 tin on the first of May, the grass would have been much better, 
 and we should have had little difficulty in finding good water 
 
 * Extract of a letter from Armijo to Garcia Cond6, governor of Chihuahua, 
 and published in "La Luna:" — 
 
 “In consideration of the great services rendered by Captain W P. Lewis, m 
 assisting me to capture these Texans, I have given him his liberty and his goods, 
 and earnestly recommend him to the notice of the central government.” — Santa 
 Fe Expedition^ vol. i., p. 846. 
 
SANTA FE EXPEDITION — CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE. 329 
 
 for both ourselves and our cattle. In the second place, we were 
 disappointed in obtaining a party of Lipan Indians as guides, 
 and were consequently obliged to take a route some three hun- 
 dred miles out of the way, and in many places extremely diffi- 
 cult of travel. Thirdly, the government of Texas did not fur- 
 nish wagons and oxen enough to transport the goods of the 
 merchants, and this, as a matter of course, caused serious de- 
 lays. Fourthly, cattle enough on the hoof were not provided, 
 even with the second supply sent for by the commissioners from 
 Little river. Again, the distance was vastly greater than we 
 had anticipated in our widest and wildest calculations, owing 
 to which circumstance, and an improvident waste of provisions 
 while in the buffalo-range, we found ourselves upon half allow- 
 ance in the very middle of our long journey — a privation which 
 weakened, dispirited, and rendered the men unfit for duty. 
 The Indians also annoyed us much by their harassing and con- 
 tinual attempts to cut off our small parties and steal our horses. 
 Finally, the character of the governor of New Mexico was far 
 from being understood, and his power was underrated by all. 
 General Lamar’s estimate of the views and feelings of the peo- 
 ple of Santa Fe and the vicinity was perfectly correct. Not a 
 doubt can exist that they all were, and are, anxious to throw 
 off the oppressive yoke of Armijo, and come under the liberal 
 institutions of Texas : but the governor found us divided into 
 small parties ; broken down by long marches and want of food ; 
 discovered, too, a traitor among us ; and, taking advantage of 
 these circumstances, his course was plain, and his conquest 
 easy.”* 
 
 It would seem that when the advance reached the Gallinas, 
 
 * “The wild-goose campaign to Santa F6 was an ill-judged affair; and their 
 surrender without the fire of a gun has lessened the prowess of the Texans iu 
 the minds of the Mexicans, and it will take another San Jacinto affair to restore 
 their character.” — General Jackson to General Houston, May 25, 1842. 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and had an intimation of a hostile feeling, they should have 
 notified General M‘Leod of that fact; and, as the sheep-folds 
 furnished an abundance of meat, they should have sent back a 
 supply to his famishing soldiers ; and, above all, remained there 
 till he came up and recruited his men. They would then have 
 been able to present an undivided front to the enemy. Yet, 
 after all, those engaged in the expedition may have adopted 
 the best course. At all events, they were paraded in bonds 
 on the plaza of San Miguel, on the morning of the 17th of Oc- 
 tober, and marched to Mexico by way of Santa Fe. Armijo, 
 the governor, is fully described by Kendall ; and he seems to 
 have obtained in New Mexico a very consistent account of him. 
 He began his career about Albuquerque, the place of his na- 
 tivity, by sheep-stealing. At this business he was very expert. 
 Even after he became governor, he boasted of having stolen 
 and sold to the owner thereof the same ewe fourteen times ! 
 As he grew up, he turned his attention to monte , at which he 
 was very successful. He took the lead in the revolt against 
 centralism in 1837, but secretly remaining at his hacienda. 
 Upon the overthrow of the federal party in Santa Fe, he man- 
 aged to get himself appointed governor. In that exalted sta- 
 tion he was controlled by no law but his own will, nor did his 
 desires extend beyond the accumulation of wealth. His char- 
 acter was as bad as it could be, and his actions were consistent 
 with it. 
 
 Previous to leaving San Miguel, the goods of the Texan mer- 
 chants were brought to the square, and disposed of according 
 to the wishes of Governor Armijo. Captain William P. Lewis 
 obtained a good share of them, as did also the governor. The 
 prisoners were placed under the control and charge of Salezar, 
 a brute in feeling, and a precious scoundrel in his business- 
 relations. It is doubtless a clear principle that a people who 
 
SANTA FE EXPEDITION — IN MEXICAN PRISONS. 
 
 331 
 
 will submit to the guidance of such men as Armijo and Salezar 
 are unfit for liberal government, and it seems to be no viola- 
 tion of human or Divine justice that such a country should pass 
 into better hands.* To illustrate the conduct of Salezar : early 
 on the second morning after leaving San Miguel, the prisoners, 
 weary, and chilled with the cold, were ordered to rise and con- 
 tinue the march. The only food offered to one hundred and 
 eighty-seven half-starved men consisted of fifty small cakes ! 
 Calling the prisoners around him, Salezar would toss a cake 
 into the air, to enjoy the scramble made by the poor fellows 
 for the little morsel. 
 
 Without giving a detail of a march so long and painful, and 
 under treatment so cruel, it is enough to say that, in the first 
 days of February, 1842, the Texan captives, being separated, 
 were safely confined in the prisons of Santiago, Puebla, and 
 Perote. Here we leave them to the tender mercies of Santa 
 Anna, and return to the stirring events in Texas. 
 
 The term of service of President Lamar would expire in De- 
 cember, 1841, and a new chief magistrate was to be elected on 
 the first Monday in September. The names of David G. Bur- 
 net, the vice-president, and Sam Houston, were presented to 
 the people of Texas for this high office. During the canvass, 
 there was much excitement. The newspapers entered into it 
 with spirit and feeling. In fact, the strife was only surpassed 
 by that witnessed the year before in the United States, in the 
 contest between William H. Harrison and Martin Van Buren. 
 
 * “These Mexicans have shown themselves incapable of observing the rules 
 and practice of honorable war between civilized nations. Their savage course 
 will not fail to draw down upon them the retribution they deserve. Ought it 
 not to be so? Why should a land, abounding in many of Nature’s favors, be 
 occupied by men who appear incapable of either moral or political advance- 
 ment? We will not be disappointed if this proves, too, but the prelude to the 
 occupation of that country [New Mexico] by the Anglo-Saxon race — New Or- 
 leans Bulletin , January 8, 1 842. 
 
332 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The result was, the election of Sam Houston by three fourths 
 of the suffrages. This was deemed an affirmance of his hu- 
 mane policy toward the Indians, of a more rigid economy in 
 the administration of the public expenditures, and of a more 
 pacific conduct toward Mexico. In the existing condition of 
 Texas, it became important that her conduct should be such as 
 to meet the approbation of the United States, of France, and 
 of England, the three great nations that had acknowledged her 
 independence, and were extending to her the relations of amity 
 and commerce ; for their sakes, as well as her own, it was im- 
 portant that she should act on the defensive, and abstain from 
 all acts of robbery and plunder. By this course, the contrast 
 would be more manifest when compared with the barbarous 
 conduct of her enemy, and she could appeal with a better grace 
 to the governments that had introduced her into the family of 
 nations. Edward Burleson was elected vice-president. 
 
 Treaties had been made with the European powers, but not 
 with the United States ; it was therefore an important object 
 with President Lamar to enter into a suitable commercial ar- 
 rangement with that power. The treaty of 1831, between the 
 United States and Mexico, by which their commercial relations 
 were governed, was altogether unsuitable. The boundary-line 
 between Texas and the United States had been run, and in- 
 cluded within the limits of the former a wealthy and consider- 
 able settlement on Red river, before then considered as in 
 Miller county, Arkansas. For the benefit of this and other 
 Texan settlements in the Red-river valley, it was important to 
 provide by treaty for an entrepot on the Mississippi. A fur- 
 ther and more definite treaty was necessary in regard to the 
 Indians residing near the borders of the respective republics. 
 To procure the formation of a treaty, covering these objects, oc- 
 cupied the last days of the administration of President Lamar. 
 
MEETING OF CONGRESS — FINANCIAL REPORT. 
 
 333 
 
 But the engagements of Mr. Secretary Webster, in adjusting 
 the differences of the United States with Great Britain, pre- 
 vented its consummation. 
 
 The Texan minister at Washington, desirous of extending 
 the trade of the republic, addressed a note on the 27th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1841, to Sehor D’Argaiz, the Spanish embassador in 
 that city, suggesting the acknowledgment of the independence 
 of Texas by Spain, and proposing that some commercial ar- 
 rangement be made in regard to the trade between Texas and 
 Cuba. D’Argaiz answered the note with much politeness, and 
 promised to transmit a copy of it to Madrid, and also one to 
 the captain-general of Cuba. He did so; but his letter to 
 Madrid was lost on the ill-fated steamer “ President .” After 
 some delay, he sent another copy, and received in reply the 
 declaration that the captain-general of Cuba was authorized to 
 make a commercial arrangement. This answer was verbally 
 communicated to the Texan charge at Washington.* 
 
 The sixth Congress assembled at Austin on the 1st of No- 
 vember, 1841. The- expenditures for the year had been one 
 million, one hundred and seventy-six thousand, two hundred 
 and eighty-eight dollars ; while the receipts were only four 
 hundred and forty-two thousand, six hundred and four dollars, 
 and these almost entirely in government paper. The amount 
 of the public debt was unknown ; in fact, it had increased so 
 enormously, that it could only be estimated.! In the papers 
 of that time, and even in official documents, the estimate varied 
 from seven to twelve millions of dollars ! The national debt 
 counted against the republic as so many dollars, while her daily 
 receipts and expenditures were effected through the medium 
 of her own paper, at a rate varying from ten to twenty cents 
 
 * Sefior D’Argaiz to B. E. Bee, March 3, 1841. 
 
 f Fiscal History of Texas, p. 118. 
 
334 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 on the dollar. It was manifest that some different course must 
 be pursued. The paper was becoming every day more worth- 
 less, and the government itself could not long survive the use 
 of it. 
 
 While her expenditures were so much greater than her re- 
 ceipts, it was very clear that Texas was not paying her debt : 
 nay, the question arose, whether she could live at that rate ; 
 and, to men of reflection, it became palpably evident that she 
 could not. Estimating the annual expenses at two hundred 
 thousand dollars, and the interest on her debt at four hundred 
 thousand dollars, the amount wanted each year would be six 
 hundred thousand dollars. To meet this, would require a tax 
 of fifty dollars to be paid annually by each of her twelve thou- 
 sand voters — a thing impossible. The government was bound 
 to live. Bread is the first thing — in affluence Or poverty, bread 
 is indispensable. Of the debt (which we will estimate at ten 
 millions of dollars), a portion of it, say three millions, had 
 been paid out by the government, not at its face value, but at 
 its market value, varying between ten and fifty cents in the 
 dollar. On the subject of its redemption, the secretary of the 
 treasury, in his report, says : “ While public faith, which should 
 be held sacred, if possible, at all times, would seem to require 
 the payment of our engagements to the uttermost farthing, still 
 it should be borne in mind that we have not received full con- 
 sideration for our liabilities ; and if, under the imperious cir- 
 cumstances of our situation, we can only afford a liberal reim- 
 bursement to our creditors of their investment, strict justice 
 will have been obtained.” On this observation of the secre- 
 tary, a late writer, in behalf of the creditors, is very severe 
 upon Texas. “ There is little hope,” says Mr. Gouge, “ that 
 the rights of creditors will be much respected when those 
 rights come in collision with the interests and necessities of 
 
PUBLIC DEBT — SANTA FE PRISONERS. 
 
 335 
 
 government and he speaks farther of such being the “ pub- 
 lic mind” in Texas. This able writer is aware of the fact that 
 these notes and bonds were not money , and that they were not 
 paid out as such ; but by the law of the land they were paid 
 out in equivalents , at their supposed value. Many of them were 
 finally sold in the streets at three and five cents on the dollar ! 
 A bill calling for one hundred dollars, thus sold, would nomi- 
 nally bear eight or ten per cent, interest. The fortunate holder 
 who, upon his investment of five dollars, should receive back 
 one hundred dollars in money, and interest on the amount, 
 would be more lucky than the finder of a gold-mine. That 
 portion of the debt contracted, not by equivalents , but to the 
 amount called for on the face of the notes or bonds, stood on a 
 very different footing ; and the same good faith that required 
 Texas to pay the value she received in the one case, required 
 her to pay the entire obligation in the other : such, at least, 
 was her feeling and wish at that trying moment. It is very 
 true that this debt need not have been so large, and that its 
 augmentation was unwise and ruinous ; yet the fact was so, 
 and the Congress of November, 1841, could not undo what 
 had been done. Nor did the Texans choose to follow the ex- 
 ample of their fatherland in regard to the continental currency 
 — let it go. Mr. Gouge knew nothing of the “ public mind in 
 Texas.” If he had examined the history of her struggle, as 
 he did the books of her treasury, he might have learned some- 
 what of the public mind. 
 
 At the very time Mr. Secretary Chalmers was penning the 
 report so offensive to the “ rights of creditors,” a scene was 
 transpiring on the right bank of the Rio Grande, which, if Mr. 
 
 * Fiscal History of Texas, p. 114. The United States set a bad example, in 
 refusing to redeem her “ continental” paper. She should have redeemed it for 
 her own sake — for the word of a state is sacred. The same may be said of 
 Texas. 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Gouge had read, as Texas read it, would have shed some light 
 upon the subject of the public mind. The Texan prisoners, 
 hungry, barefooted, and worn out, are driven before the Mexi- 
 can guard. We will give the affair in the language of an eye- 
 witness : “ On being driven from the cart, McAllister declared 
 his inability to proceed on foot. Salezar drew his sword, and 
 peremptorily ordered him to hurry on, and this when Salezar 
 had half a dozen led mules, upon either of which he could have 
 placed the unfortunate man. Again M‘ Allister, pointing to his 
 swollen and inflamed ankle, declared himself unable to walk. 
 Some half a dozen of his comrades were standing around him, 
 with feelings painfully wrought up, waiting the denouement of 
 an affair which, from the angry appearance of Salezar, they 
 now feared would be tragical. Once more the bloodthirsty 
 savage, pointing to the main body of the prisoners, ordered the 
 cripple to hurry forward and overtake them. He could not. 
 
 ‘ Forward !’ said Salezar, now wrought up to a pitch of frenzy ; 
 ‘forward, or I’ll shoot you on the spot!’ — ‘ Then shoot!’ re- 
 plied M‘ Allister, throwing off his blanket, and exposing his 
 manly breast, ‘ and the quicker the better !’ Salezar took him 
 at his word, and a single ball sent as brave a man as ever trod 
 the earth to eternity. His ears were then cut off, his shirt and 
 pantaloons stripped from him, and his body thrown by the road- 
 side as food for wolves.' 5 * 
 
 President Houston having entered upon the discharge of his 
 official duties on the 13th of December, sent in his message to 
 Congress on the 20th. On the subject of the war with Mexico, 
 he stated that, after the unsuccessful advances already made 
 by Texas for peace, no further effort should be made on her 
 part ; that kindness should be extended toward the people of 
 
 * Kendall’s “Santa F6 Expedition,” vol. L, p. 893. The ears were taken 
 along as a receipt, showing the disposition made of the prisoner. 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON’S MESSAGE — SYNOPSIS. 
 
 337 
 
 Mexico, and the commerce between the two countries encour- 
 aged ; that any interference in the civil wars in Mexico was 
 incompatible with the dignity and interests of Texas, and cal- 
 culated to exasperate the former, while it only weakened the 
 resources of the latter. This portion of his message indicated 
 his course in regard to Yucatan. His views on this subject 
 were given more explicitly in a letter dated October 26, 1841, 
 before the naval force sailed for the coast of that peninsula. 
 “We have no interest,” says he, “ in forming alliances with 
 foreign countries, if the laws even authorized the president to 
 do so. Those who joined the federalists were betrayed. The 
 result will be, that the people of Yucatan will reunite with the 
 central government, and our navy will be betrayed.” 
 
 On the subject of Indian relations, President Houston de- 
 clared his policy to be totally different from that lately pur- 
 sued. He recommended that trading-posts be established 
 along the frontier, that traders be permitted to traffic with the 
 Indians at these posts, and that a force - of some twenty-five 
 men be stationed at each. He further recommended the ma- 
 king of treaties with the Indian tribes ; declaring that when 
 the latter found that Texas was disposed to treat them kindly, 
 confidence would be restored, and the interests of trade would 
 keep them quiet ; that millions of dollars had been expended 
 in the attempt to exterminate them, but it had served only to 
 irritate, and war and theft were the result. With an amount 
 less than one fourth of former appropriations he firmly believed 
 he could procure and maintain peace with all the tribes on the 
 Texan borders. 
 
 On the subject of the finances and the condition of the treas- 
 ury, the president stated that the government was in a condi- 
 tion more deplorable than at the period of its commencement. 
 “ There is not,” he observed, “ a dollar in the treasury. The 
 Vol. II. — 22 
 
338 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 nation is involved from ten to fifteen millions. The precise 
 
 amount of its liabilities has not been ascertained We 
 
 are not only without money, but without credit, and, for want 
 of punctuality, without character. At our first commencement 
 we were not without credit; nor had a want of punctuality 
 then impaired our character abroad or confidence at home. 
 Patriotism, industry, and enterprise, are now our only re- 
 sources — apart from our public domain, and the precarious 
 revenues of the country. These remain our only hope, and 
 must be improved, husbanded, and properly employed.” 
 
 The president then proceeded to recommend some definite 
 course or means of keeping the government from falling to 
 pieces. He says : “ I will not hesitate in recommending the 
 only plan which, to my mind, appears practicable and efficient. 
 View it as we may, it will at least find justification in neces- 
 sity. We have no money — we can not redeem our liabilities. 
 These facts are known, and we had as well avow them by our 
 legislation as demonstrate them by every day’s experience. I 
 would therefore recommend to the honorable Congress a total 
 suspension of the redemption of our liabilities, to a period suffi- 
 ciently remote to enable the government to redeem in good 
 faith such as it ought to redeem. It is known to the execu- 
 tive that, to a considerable amount, they have been justly in- 
 curred, while he has reason to believe that many will be brought 
 forward not by any means entitled to governmental considera- 
 tion. To attempt a redemption of our present liabilities by 
 taxing our population to the amount necessary, would be to 
 them ruinous. Much as we might have deprecated this course 
 of policy, we have now no other remedy left. The evil is upon 
 us. While many just claims are thus deferred, we can only 
 refer our creditors to our inability to pay our debts.” 
 
 To sustain the government, the president recommended that 
 
A tl REFORM CONGRESS” — PROPOSED BELGIAN LOAN. 339 
 
 the taxes be reduced, and that the same as well as the customs 
 be paid in par funds. He also recommended the issuance of 
 exchequer bills , not exceeding three hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars in amount, to take the place of the promissory-notes. 
 He also advised a loan of three hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 These were the chief points in Houston’s message. The 
 sixth Congress, which might well be termed the “ Reform Con- 
 gress,” went zealously to work, not only to reform abuses, but 
 to inquire into the causes of those that had already occurred. 
 A select committee of the house of representatives took to task 
 the late president and vice-president for moneys drawn from 
 the treasury without authority of law, and on the 6th of Decem- 
 ber, 1841, made a strong report on the facts. Yet, as these 
 moneys were applied partly to the payment of the disbanded 
 army and partly to the Santa Fe expedition, and the intentions 
 of those high officers were believed to be good and patriotic, 
 the matter was passed over. 
 
 To return to the movements of the Texan financial negotiator 
 in Europe. After dismissing the business of Lafitte and Com- 
 pany in Paris, General Hamilton repaired to Brussels, and en- 
 tered into a quasi agreement with the Belgian government ; 
 and, returning to London, he addressed President Houston a 
 note, apprizing him that he would be in Texas between the 
 middle of January and the first of February, 1842, with a com- 
 missioner of that government, who was coming out to see if the 
 arrangement could be concluded.* It proposed that Belgium 
 should specifically endorse a loan to Texas of seven millions 
 of dollars, at six per cent, interest, redeemable by a sinking- 
 fund within twenty years, upon a pledge of the public faith, 
 the taxes and resources of the country, a general pledge of the 
 
 * Hamilton to the President, November 18, 1841. 
 
340 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 whole of the public lands, and a special pledge of five millions 
 of acres — together with a pledge of one half the amount bor- 
 rowed, which was to remain in the Belgian treasury, at four 
 per cent, interest, until Texas paid up the other half with the 
 interest: which amounted to a joint-loan, Texas paying two 
 per cent, on the half borrowed by Belgium, to obtain her as a 
 partner. In addition to this, Texas was to admit Belgian man- 
 ufactures of cotton, iron, woollen, and linen, at half the duties 
 imposed on those of other nations ; and her arms and munitions 
 of war were to enter free of duty, while the same articles from 
 other countries should pay a duty of one hundred per cent. 
 Besides, Belgian vessels were to have the same privileges in 
 the coastwise trade of Texas, and pay only the rate of tonnage 
 paid by vessels of the republic. In addition to all this, Bel- 
 gium was to send out a commissioner to look into matters in 
 Texas, and report upon them to his government.* President 
 Houston submitted the projet , without comment, to Congress ; 
 but that body did not adopt it.f On the contrary, it had pre- 
 viously repealed all laws and parts of laws authorizing the five- 
 million loan.J 
 
 Thus ended a fantasy which Texas had pursued for years, 
 to the great prejudice of her finances and true interests. Honor 
 to the noble resolves of the sixth Congress* which had pro- 
 claimed in Texas the true doctrine that a nation is not enriched 
 by borrowing, and that the Palmers and Jaudons of finance 
 were not the true fountains of a people’s wealth ! This body 
 went still further: the two houses enacted a law abolishing 
 many offices, and reducing the salaries of those retained ;|| and 
 
 * General Hamilton’s projet , Brussels, October 20, 1841. 
 
 f Special Message, February 22, 1842. 
 
 % Act of January 12, 1842. 
 
 | Act of December 11, 1841. “A comparative statement of the officers em- 
 ployed at the seat of government, their grade and pay, during the years 1840, 
 
FINANCIAL MEASURES OF CONGRESS. 
 
 341 
 
 while they declined making a proposition for a loan, even for 
 the small amount of three hundred thousand dollars — for they 
 knew of no one that would take it — they authorized the issu- 
 ance of exchequer bills to an amount not exceeding two hun- 
 dred thousand dollars. The law further provided that nothing 
 but gold and silver, and such bills, should be received for du- 
 ties, or for direct or license taxes ; that collectors of revenue 
 should redeem them, when presented, with any money which 
 they might have on hand ; that the bills should be paid out for 
 no other purpose than those specified in the appropriation laws, 
 and when returned into the treasury they were to be cancelled.* 
 But, ten days afterward, Congress went still further, and passed 
 a law directing that a joint committee of the two houses should 
 call on the secretary of the treasury, and receive from him ev- 
 ery species of notes, star-paper, eight or ten per cent, bonds or 
 notes, treasury warrants, drafts, or change-bills (which had 
 been redeemed or paid in), “ and the same set fire to, burn up, 
 and wholly destroy.”! And the same thing was to be repeat- 
 ed on the first day of every month, by commissioners to be ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. These were favorable signs. 
 
 On the 18th day of January, 1842, the first authentic infor- 
 mation of the capture of the Santa Fe expedition was received 
 in the Texan capital. It came through Senor Alvarez, the 
 American consul at Santa Fe, and with a wonderful accuracy 
 of detail. It filled the people of the republic with profound 
 sorrow. They had seen a well-appointed force of noble spirits 
 set out from the valley of the Brushy on the 21st of June, pro- 
 
 1841, and 1842,” made out by James B. Shaw, controller, on the 16th of Decem- 
 ber, 1842, is now before me, and shows the amount of salaries as follows: — 
 
 1840 
 
 1841 
 
 1842 
 
 * Act of January 19, 1842. 
 
 $174,200 
 
 178,606 
 
 82,800 
 
 f Act of January 29, 1842. 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ceeding as they supposed to an easy and peaceful conquest. 
 During the long march through the wilderness, they heard 
 nothing from them ; and it was indeed astounding to learn, for 
 the first time, seven months afterward, that the entire expedi- 
 tion, with all the arms, horses, and goods, had been taken — 
 without firing a gun — the property appropriated by the cap- 
 tors, and the prisoners bound and on the march to the city of 
 Mexico ! 
 
 On the receipt of the first report of the capture, the Texan 
 representative at Washington laid the matter before the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, and urged its kind offices in be- 
 half of the prisoners. As many of them were citizens of that 
 republic, and had gone out in no hostile attitude, but only as 
 travellers and adventurers, this fact was also strongly urged.* 
 Mr. Secretary Webster immediately sent special instructions 
 to Mr. Ellis, the American minister at Mexico, to procure the 
 release of the citizens of the United States so captured ; and, 
 in relation to the Texan prisoners, he charged him to say to 
 the Mexican authorities that summary, sanguinary, or undue 
 punishment, of the Texans in their custody, would be more apt 
 to defeat the object of that punishment than if the offenders 
 were to have a fair trial : that it would excite and foment in 
 the United States a bitterness of feeling prejudicial to Mexico : 
 therefore, in a friendly manner, regular judicial proceedings 
 and mild punishments were recommended. 
 
 Texas, not satisfied with this step, urged the appointment of 
 a special envoy from the United States to Mexico ; and, as the 
 captives had many friends about Washington, a memorial was 
 strongly signed and presented for that purpose. Other memo- 
 rials also came in from a distance. These wefe followed by 
 resolutions from the legislature of Kentucky, and then by reso- 
 
 * N. Amory to the Secretary of State of Texas, January 4, 1842. 
 
SANTA FE PRISONERS — EFFORTS FOR THEIR RELEASE. 343 
 
 lutions of inquiry from the national house of representatives. 
 Mr. Amory, the Texan charge d'affaires, called upon Senator 
 Preston, of South Carolina, for advice. Mr. Preston suggested 
 that General Waddy Thompson, of his own state, be sent as 
 minister to Mexico, with full instructions on the subject ; and 
 immediately waited on Mr. Webster, and urged his appoint- 
 ment. The latter approved of the proposition, and promised 
 to lay it before President Tyler.* General Thompson was ap- 
 pointed, and took out with him further instructions to demand 
 positively the release of the prisoners who were citizens of the 
 United States, and also requiring that the Texans who were in 
 captivity should be treated with humanity, and not abused or 
 put to slavish or degrading labor. f 
 
 The Texan Congress, upon receipt of the intelligence of the 
 capture of the party sent to Santa Fe, passed an act extending 
 the boundaries of the republic, so as to include portions of the 
 states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Durango, and Sinaloa, and the 
 whole of Chihuahua, Sonora, New Mexico, and the two Califor- 
 nias — embracing a country of greater extent than the Ameri- 
 can Union at that time, and including two thirds of the terri- 
 tory of Mexico, with two millions of her inhabitants ! President 
 Houston vetoed the bill, upon several grounds. He stated that 
 other nations would view it as a legislative jest, inasmuch as it 
 was the assumption of a right utterly impossible to exercise. 
 He took occasion also, in his veto-message, to give a view of 
 his pacific policy 4 “ I need not assure your honorable body,” 
 
 lie observes, “ of the ardent desire I entertain for peace and 
 friendly intercourse with all nations. So long as we are not 
 on amicable terms with Mexico, so long will we suffer hindrance 
 
 * N. Amory to the Secretary of State of Texas, January 14, 1842. 
 
 f James Reilly to Anson Jones, Secretary of State, March 25, 1842. Daniel 
 Webster to Waddy Thompson, April 25, 1842. 
 
 \ "Veto-Message, February 1, 1842. 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 to our prosperity. The constant cry of invasion will he sound- 
 ed, not only throughout Texas, but throughout all nations to 
 whom we are known ; and while this is the case, we may feel 
 confident that immigration will be impeded, if not entirely pre- 
 vented. From this source we are to draw both population and 
 wealth ; and no matter how desirable our soil and climate might 
 be to foreigners, nor how great their anxiety to make our coun- 
 try their home, it certainly would be no additional inducement 
 to families that Texas should remain in hostile relations with 
 Mexico, which might, and would, at all times, render their sit- 
 uation one of unpleasant excitement, if not of danger 
 
 Texas only requires peace to make her truly prosperous and 
 respectable. Peace will bring with it every advantage.” He 
 further argued that the bill for taking so much of their terri- 
 tory would arouse and unite the Mexicans, and excite them to 
 a powerful effort against Texas, which would at least annoy 
 the latter, and withdraw her citizens from the pursuits of in- 
 dustry. He further stated that the mediation of Great Britain 
 had been invoked, and its exercise only delayed to await the 
 ratification of certain treaties ; that should this extension of 
 boundary, however, be enacted, it would form a barrier to any 
 successful negotiation, and suspend all diplomatic action on the 
 part of the British government. The president, in conclusion, 
 stated that the moment selected for bringing forward such a 
 measure was most unfortunate, as the Santa Fe prisoners were 
 then in the hands of the enemy, and he was using his best 
 efforts for their release ; that the news of this claim set up by 
 Texas to so much of Mexico, arriving in the capital of the lat- 
 ter country, would render abortive all his efforts for their lib- 
 eration, and perhaps cause their destruction. The fact of the 
 passage of the bill by Congress, notwithstanding the presiden- 
 tial veto, had an unhappy effect upon the diplomatic relations 
 
ANNEXATION TO THE UNITED STATES PROPOSED. 345 
 
 of Texas. Mr. Webster, the American secretary of state, men- 
 tioned it to the Texan charge d’affaires , and said “ it looked 
 as if Texas was too grasping, and might excite the jealousy of 
 other nations.”* 
 
 The unanimous vote of the people of Texas in favor of an- 
 nexation to the United States will be remembered, as also the 
 diplomatic correspondence between Mr. Forsyth and Mr. Hunt, 
 in 1837, on that subject. The administration of Martin Van 
 Buren being opposed to it, the proposition was formally with- 
 drawn by Texas on the 12th of October, 1838, f and not re- 
 vived again until 1842. On the 26th of January of the latter 
 year, Mr. Reilly, the Texan charge d affaires at Washington, 
 was instructed to direct his attention to the subject, and ob- 
 serve whether there was any disposition on the part of the gov- 
 ernment of the United States to assent to or offer a proposal 
 of that kind, and whether the American Congress and the peo- 
 ple of that country manifested a like disposition. If so, he was 
 directed to report the facts for further instructions. Mr. Reilly, 
 after making the necessary inquiries, reported to his govern- 
 ment that the administration of President Tyler was decidedly 
 in favor of the annexation policy, that it was popular with the 
 Congress, and that Texas was rapidly increasing in reputation 
 and character in the United States 4 The position of Presi- 
 dent Tyler before the people of the American Union was pecu- 
 liar. A reference to a few facts will illustrate this. In the 
 contest between the two political parties in 1840, the whigs 
 advocated a United States bank, and the democrats the inde- 
 pendent treasury. William H. Harrison, as the exponent of 
 the former party, was their candidate for president ; and, to 
 
 * James Reilly to the Texan Secretary of State, March 11, 1842. 
 
 f Anson Jones to Aaron Yail, October 12, 1838. 
 
 \ James Reilly to the Texau Secretary of State, April 15, 1842. 
 
346 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 enable them to succeed in the election, they had added to the 
 ticket the name of John Tyler for vice-president. The antece- 
 dents of the latter had shown him to be a democrat, and op- 
 posed to a national bank ; yet, as they would have the presi- 
 dent on their side, the whigs were willing to wink at these 
 heresies of their vice-president, provided they could thus draw 
 over enough of the democratic element to succeed. Mr. Tyler 
 also waived the subject as much as possible, in order to obtain 
 the office. The plan was laid with great skill, advocated with 
 unusual zeal, and crowned with triumphant success. On the 
 4th of March, 1841, these distinguished persons were duly in- 
 stalled into office, and an extra session of Congress called to 
 meet on the last day of the following May, to put the bank into 
 operation. But, on the 4th day of April, just one month after 
 his installation, President Harrison died, and John Tyler was, 
 by the constitution, invested with the executive functions. The 
 Congress met, and the triumphant party very soon chartered a 
 bank, which, to satisfy the supposed scruples of President Tyler, 
 they called the “ fiscal bank.” He received the bill on the 6th 
 of August, and vetoed it on the 16th. As this veto was not 
 included in the programme of 1840, the Congress got up an- 
 other bill, which, in further compliance with his conscientious 
 scruples, was denominated the “ fiscal corporation.” This bill 
 was sent to him on the 3d of September, and he returned it 
 with his veto on the 9th. The whig party, which had thus far 
 sustained him, could stand it no longer, but nearly all deserted. 
 With the exception of Daniel Webster, the secretary of state, 
 who had foresight enough to discover that a national bank was 
 “ an obsolete idea,” the entire cabinet resigned. Mr. Tyler, 
 having estranged himself from his ancient friends the demo- 
 crats, could not count on their aid : so the administration pre- 
 sented the anomaly of a government without friends. However, 
 
ANNEXATION A QUESTION OF TIME MERELY. 347 
 
 the president had patronage, and some discretion, and soon 
 gathered around him what was known in that day as a “ cor- 
 poral’s guard,” and so the federal government went on. 
 
 Since the battle of San Jacinto, the annexation of Texas had 
 been more or less discussed by the people and press of the Uni- 
 ted States, and all men of discernment saw that it must take 
 place, and that its consummation was only a question of time. 
 The vast emigration to Texas, following the achievement of her 
 independence, excited and hurried on this feeling in the popu- 
 lar mind. Mr. Tyler saw it, and had too much penetration, 
 and was too much in need of friends, to permit the performance 
 of an act so glorious to pass into other hands. He spoke freely 
 to the Texan minister on the subject. “ I am anxious for it,” 
 said he, “ and wish most sincerely I could conclude it at once.” 
 — “ The president would act in a moment,” wrote Mr. Reilly, 
 “ if the senate would assent.”* But, as matters then stood, it 
 was deemed best to mediate with Mexico. Accordingly, in- 
 structions were sent out to Waddy Thompson to use his best 
 efforts to bring about a peace between Texas and Mexico. 
 
 * James Reilly to Anson Jones, Secretary of State, July 11, 1842. 
 
348 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 It is said to be easier to raise spirits than to put them down. 
 The spirit of economy had been called up in Texas ; and the 
 sixth Congress, being fully pledged to it, doubtless went too 
 far. It is true that the appropriations of the two houses ex- 
 ceeded the revenue ; but they took no measures to increase the 
 latter. The president had recommended that the taxes be re- 
 duced one half, but paid in par funds. This would, in fact, 
 have increased them two hundred and fifty per cent. ; but it 
 was not done, and the amount of direct taxes collected, scarcely 
 paid the expenses of the operation.* The result was, that the 
 issue of exchequer bills, though small, was entirely dependent 
 upon the duties on imports for redemption. The large frontier 
 of the republic, contiguous to the United States, afforded such 
 abundant facilities for smuggling, that the amount of these du- 
 ties was greatly reduced. Hence the exchequer issue was not 
 worth, in June, 1842, more than fifty cents in the dollar. Texas 
 was in a state of torpor, and her people, occupied with their 
 private affairs, seemed to take little interest in the national 
 credit or in public business. 
 
 But they were soon aroused from this state of torpidity by 
 the appearance of an invading army from Mexico. This army 
 was not intended or expected to resubjugate Texas. That 
 
 * Houston’s Message, June 27, 1842. 
 
MEXICAN CAPTURE OF SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 349 
 
 idea had not entered into the head of Santa Anna since he 
 kissed the hand of Sylvester, on the 22d of April, 1836. The 
 subject of annexation had been freely discussed in the United 
 States. In all those discussions, the principle, as laid down 
 by Secretary Forsyth in 1837, was admitted to be correct ; 
 “ but,” said the advocates of annexation, “ the war between 
 Mexico and Texas has terminated ; no hostile army of the for- 
 mer has invaded the territory of the latter for six years, and, 
 though there has been no formal recognition by Mexico, the 
 war is in fact ended, and there is no legal impediment to an- 
 nexation.” It was in reply to these discussions that a thou- 
 sand Mexican troops were despatched to Texas early in 1842. 
 Texan spies had given short notice of their advance upon Re- 
 fugio, Goliad, and San Antonio. The enemy, under the com- 
 mand of General Rafael Vasquez, amounting to about seven 
 hundred men, of which only about one hundred were infantry, 
 appeared before San Antonio early on the 5th of March, and 
 sent in Colonel Corasco to demand a surrender of the place, 
 promising complete protection and immunity to such as should 
 not contend in arms. At that time, the Texan force in the 
 town consisted of only a little over one hundred men, mostly 
 from Gonzales, under the command of Colonel John C. Hays. 
 A consultation was held, when it was determined to despatch 
 Messrs. Van Ness and Morris to the Mexican general, and in- 
 form him that the Texans would decide by two o’clock in the 
 afternoon what they would do. The commissioners repaired 
 to the enemy’s headquarters, and made known this fact. In 
 the meantime, the Texans concluded to evacuate the place, 
 which they did, and retired upon the Guadalupe. The com- 
 missioners remained with Vasquez until night, were treated 
 with great hospitality, and then escorted out of the enemy’s 
 lines. The Mexicans, in taking possession of the town, hoisted 
 
350 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the national flag, appointed an alcalde , and declared the Mexi- 
 can laws to be in force. They behaved with great propriety 
 at first, and placed sentinels over private property for its pro- 
 tection. They brought with them and scattered over the place 
 Arista’s proclamations of the 9th of January preceding. The 
 American population, with very few exceptions, left with the 
 Texans troops. Tbe enemy remained in the town only two 
 days, and departed on the morning of the 7th. They took 
 with them all the valuables they could carry, for which pur- 
 pose they collected what wagons and carts they could find. 
 In other respects they behaved as well as could be expected 
 of a public enemy. A considerable number of the Mexicans of 
 San Antonio went with them.* It is also to be observed that 
 the plunder taken was not by order of the enemy’s officers, but 
 by the soldiers privately, and by the Mexican citizens, who car- 
 ried it off with them as their own.f 
 
 On the -day the enemy took San Antonio, a small force en- 
 tered Refugio. They conducted themselves with like propriety 
 at that point, paying for what was furnished them.J On the 
 evening of the 3d of March, a party of forty Mexicans appeared 
 at Goliad. They found few people there, nor were they so 
 civil to them, but took two or three of the men prisoners, and 
 drove off some beeves. || They, however, soon retreated, as 
 did those from Refugio. 
 
 The news of this invasion was* sent from each point of con- 
 tact with wonderful despatch to every part of Texas, and loud 
 calls were made for a turn out en masse to repel the invaders. 
 The summons was immediately obeyed ; but the distance from 
 these points to the settlements was considerable. However, 
 
 * Letters of W. D. Miller, March 9 and 13, 1842. 
 
 f Letter of General Terrill, March 16, 1842. 
 
 % Letter of W. J. E. Heard, March 6, 1842. 
 
 { Letter of James D. Owen, March 4, 1842. 
 
APPREHENDED ATTACK ON AUSTIN. 351 
 
 General Burleson reached San Antonio on the evening of the 
 15th of March with two or three hundred men, and other forces 
 from the lower settlements on the Guadalupe and Colorado 
 soon arrived. The panic, nevertheless, induced many families 
 on the frontier to fly from their homes. The report had pre- 
 ceded them that the enemy were many thousand strong. Offi- 
 cial calls were made upon the militia to turn out and repair to 
 the point of danger ; and Brigadier-General A. Somervell, of 
 the first brigade, being the senior officer of the militia, was 
 directed to take the command.* It was understood and ex- 
 pected that Austin, the capital, would be attacked. This 
 was a most important point to Texas ; for all her records, and 
 especially the papers of the land-office, upon which every land- 
 title in the republic depended, were there kept. While most 
 of the inhabitants retired farther within the settlements, a force 
 of some two hundred men remained behind to guard the town. 
 The chests containing many of the records were, for greater 
 safety, buried in the ground. 
 
 By the 15th of March, the number of Texans in camp, and 
 on the march, was at least thirty-five hundred ;f but they had 
 turned out without preparation, and only for a campaign of a 
 few weeks. A consultation was held on that day by the offi- 
 cers at San Antonio, when it was concluded that the Mexicans 
 had already crossed the Rio Grande ; and, as the order of the 
 secretary of war did not authorize a march across the Texan 
 boundary, it was decided to halt until General Burleson could 
 ascertain the views of the president on the subject of marching 
 into the enemy’s country. But, on the day before, the execu- 
 tive had issued an order, directing the troops to be organized, 
 and to await further orders. 
 
 * Order, March 10, 1842. Executive Record, p. 47. 
 f Order, March 14, 1842. Executive Record, p. 61. 
 
352 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Having determined, if practicable, to commence offensive 
 war against Mexico, it became necessary to obtain aid from the 
 friends of Texas in the United States. To carry the Texan 
 banner successfully into the enemy’s territory, “ would require 
 all the munitions of an invading army ; a military chest would 
 also be necessary to effect the object and insure success the 
 troops should be landed at a designated point, and subject to 
 the orders of the executive ; each soldier should be supplied 
 with six months’ clothing ; the recompense of the troops should 
 consist of the property they obtained by conquest upon princi- 
 ples of honorable warfare.* These were the views made pub- 
 lic by the president on the 16th of March ; and agents were 
 despatched to the United States to see what could be done. 
 W. H. Dangerfield was appointed commissioner, under an old 
 unrepealed law of 1839, authorizing a loan of a million of dol- 
 lars, to ascertain what could be effected in that way.f He 
 was also instructed to act as an agent, as were others, and 
 directed to use every exertion to procure pecuniary aid from 
 abroad 4 Iu regard to the volunteer troops that were invited 
 from the United States, special orders were given to the agents 
 that none were to come except such as were armed and “ clothed 
 and provisioned for six months.” This was absolutely neces- 
 sary, for Texas had neither money nor credit with which to do 
 these things. It was estimated that five thousand troops would 
 be required for a successful invasion, and that two millions of 
 dollars would be needed. When we look at the force and 
 means employed subsequently by the United States for the 
 same purpose, the estimate was low enough. 
 
 * Letter to H. H. Washington and others. 
 
 Houston to Dangerfield, May 17, 1842. Executive Record, p. 92. 
 
 X lb., Executive Record, p. 81. Letter to H. R. A. Wigginton, May IS, 1842. 
 Letter to John Darrington, May 12, 1842. Letter to Walter Smith, May 12, 1842. 
 Letter to Barry Gillespie, April 30, 1842. 
 
PROPOSED INVASION OF MEXICO. 
 
 353 
 
 The president again wrote to General Somervell, on the 18th 
 of March, reminding him of the important preparations neces- 
 sary for an offensive war. As many of the troops were anx- 
 ious to proceed at once across the Rio Grande, without any 
 preparation, order, union, or discipline, he referred to this 
 point, and to the fate of Grant, Johnson, and, in fact, all the 
 disasters of the spring of 1836, and warned them against dis- 
 obedience of orders. Making an estimate of the time necessary 
 to collect means and troops from the friends of Texas in the 
 United States, the president informed General Somervell that 
 the army would not be ready to move from the rendezvous un- 
 der four months, or until the 20th of July. 
 
 In the meantime, great excitement had arisen among those 
 volunteers who expressed a wish to advance immediately. In 
 fact, it was reported that an army would be raised and march 
 into Mexico on its own account ; and that, for this purpose, 
 agents, other than those appointed by the government, were 
 collecting troops and means in the United States. To coun- 
 teract these lawless proceedings, President Houston issued his 
 proclamation on the 25tK of April, declaring such agents as 
 acting without the authority of the republic ; that the war with 
 Mexico was national, and would be conducted by the nation ; 
 and that such conduct on the part of such pretended agents 
 was calculated to embarrass the republic. 
 
 This excitement and party strife had been greatly increased 
 by proceedings in the Texan camp at Bexar. General Somer- 
 vell arrived in camp on the 18th of March, but the troops re- 
 fused to obey the president’s order. General Somervell then 
 retired, leaving General Burleson in command, but without 
 orders. On the 31st of March, General Burleson addressed 
 him a note, saying that if he would repair to headquarters the 
 
 next day, he would again cheerfully yield the command to him. 
 
 Vol. II. — 23 
 
354 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 This General Somervell declined, as the troops claimed the 
 right of electing their commander. On the 2d of April, Gen- 
 eral Burleson disbanded them. This was followed by a publi- 
 cation from that officer on the 6th of April, in which he says : 
 “ I feel no hesitation in believing that if my orders had per- 
 mitted me to cross the Rio Grande, and retaliate upon our ene- 
 my his oft-repeated outrages, by this time five thousand brave 
 men would have been west of said river, inflicting a chastise- 
 ment upon him which would result in an honorable peace. But 
 President Houston’s order of the 22d of March — in which he 
 says that ‘ one hundred and twenty days will be necessary be- 
 fore we can make a move against the enemy’ — was a finishing 
 stroke to all our present prospects of redress.” The vice- 
 president may have been right in his view of the matter, for he 
 was a man of daring spirit and military sagacity ; but experi- 
 ence has since shown that it required from the United States 
 an army of twenty thousand men, and an expenditure of sev- 
 enty millions of dollars, to procure from Mexico an honorable 
 peace. 
 
 In the meantime, the president advised the Texan agents in 
 the United States to send all emigrants to Corpus Christi, and 
 not to permit them to come without arms, clothing, and provis- 
 ions, for Texas was absolutely unable to furnish these things. 
 Notwithstanding these directions, the volunteers came over the 
 gulf, and landed at Galveston, without having any of the re- 
 quisites named in the positive and repeated orders of the exec- 
 utive. The government therefore pressed into its service a 
 vessel to take them to the rendezvous, where they were com- 
 pelled to subsist as best they could — and they could bbtain 
 nothing but beef. 
 
 To obtain means, and a legal sanction to an invasive war, 
 the president convened the Congress, to meet on the 27th day 
 
OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 355 
 
 of June. It was summoned to meet at Houston.* The Mexi- 
 cans having procured two vessels-of-war from England, in ad- 
 dition to the two purchased at New York, it was expected that 
 they would appear on the Texan coast ; and preparations were 
 made at Galveston for their reception. The Texan navy hav- 
 ing sailed to the coast of Yucatan in the fall of 1841, in pur- 
 suance of the treaty concluded with Peraza, was not available, 
 although its return was expected. In the meantime, a coast- 
 guard, under the command of Captain John Clark, was organ- 
 ized and despatched to Aransas bay, and elsewhere along the 
 coast, to look out for any vessels freighted for the enemy.j- A 
 number of volunteers from the United States being collected at 
 Corpus Christi, the adjutant-general, James Davis, was ordered 
 on the 5th of May to repair to that point and take the com- 
 mand.:): He was directed to organize and discipline the troops ; 
 
 * The constitution provided (section 3, general provisions) that the president 
 and heads of departments should keep their offices at the seat of government, 
 unless removed by permission of Congress, or unless in cases of emergency in time 
 of war the public interest may require their removal. On receipt of the news 
 of the Mexican invasion, the president issued an order (March 10, 1842) for the 
 removal of the archives of the republic to the city of Houston. The citizens of 
 Austin held a meeting, and appointed a committee to organize resistance to this 
 order. They notified Colonel Ward, commissioner of the general land-office, 
 that they were ready to assist in the removal of the land-office papers, but that 
 it must be to such place as they might select, and not the president. The affair 
 created considerable excitement at the time, and the more because local inter- 
 ests were involved as well as the safety of the records. The following order 
 from the officer acting under the authority of those who had resolved to resist 
 the executive order, will give an idea of the matter: — 
 
 “ Regimental Orders, Bastrop, March 19, 184B. 
 
 “ Mr. George Noessel : — 
 
 “Sih: In pursuance with orders from headquarters, dated 18th inst, you are 
 hereby ordered to stop any wagon running down the river, except those under 
 a French passport [De Saligny was removing his archives]. 
 
 “ You will exumine all trunks, unless the teamster will swear that he saw the 
 same loaded, or the contents of the same, <fcc. 
 
 “ W. S. Wallace, Lieutenant- Colonel 4th Regiment Texas Militia .” 
 
 f Order, March 12, 1842. Executive Record, p. 61. 
 
 $ Executive Record, p. 87. 
 
356 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 and they were by no means to advance toward the frontier 
 without the orders of the executive, and any attempt to do so 
 without orders was to be suppressed. “ The greatest and ev- 
 ery curse,” says the order, “ which has befallen Texas, and 
 every disaster and massacre, have resulted from a foolish pas- 
 sion to take Matamoras without means. When there are means 
 for a successful attack, it shall be taken ; and, until then, any 
 attempt would be destructive to Texas.” 
 
 General Davis, on reaching the troops, found them on the 
 Nueces, greatly disorganized, and without anything to eat. He 
 appointed a quartermaster, but he could procure nothing but 
 beef, and that he obtained from the few settlers without remu- 
 neration ; for, as has already been stated, the government had 
 neither money nor credit. The citizens of Refugio county com- 
 plained bitterly to the president of the consumption of their 
 property. “ Not only have all our beeves been taken,” say 
 they in their petition, “ but our cows and young calves are im- 
 pressed, and many of our families left without beef, the princi- 
 pal means of our support.”* Unhappy Texas! — too poor to 
 provide provisions for a few troops, and too much out of credit 
 to borrow ! Nevertheless, it was perhaps best for the cause of 
 humanity and civil liberty that both Texas and Mexico were 
 unable to raise the means for prosecuting offensive war. The 
 want of men and munitions gave opportunity for reflection ; 
 and the time required to procure these served also to calm the 
 passions aroused and to heal the wounds inflicted by past op- 
 pression. The poverty of Mexico had another good effect : it 
 induced her to release the Santa Fe prisoners. Some few of 
 them were discharged in April, 1842, and the others not long 
 afterwardf — with the exception, however, of Jose Antonio 
 
 * Petition of Michael Reilly and others, May 13, 1842. 
 
 f “ I have just returned from Mexico, where I had the means of knowing 
 
SANTA ANNA’S VIRTUOUS INDIGNATION AROUSED. 357 
 
 Navarro, one of the commissioners sent out by President La- 
 mar. He remained in prison some two years longer. 
 
 The solemn assurances voluntarily given by Santa Anna, 
 while in Texas, of his favorable disposition in regard to her 
 independence, did not accord with his conduct in sending the 
 force under Vasqucz to San Antonio. In addition to this 
 fact, he had written letters to Messrs. Bee and Hamilton, full 
 of the high pretensions of Mexico. General Hamilton had 
 written him a letter, proposing an indemnity of five millions 
 of dollars to Mexico in consideration of a treaty of peace and 
 limits, and two hundred thousand dollars for contingencies 
 and secret service. Santa Anna became indignantly virtuous 
 on the receipt of this letter, and, although it was marked “ con- 
 fidential,” caused it to be published in the newspapers of the 
 city of Mexico on the 18th of February, 1842, with his reply, 
 
 pretty well what disposition would probably be made of the Texan prisoners. 
 The government have kept them so long, and at so great expense, that they 
 would willingly get rid of them under any conditions. It was supposed by 
 their excellencies, General Thompson and Mr. Pakenham, that they wonld all 
 be released in a short time; and, with this expectation, the former wrote me, on 
 the 30th of April, to request the ‘Texas government and their friends at home 
 to put him in funds to take care of them.’ They will require at least two thou- 
 sand dollars to take them from their several places of confinement to Vera 
 Cruz.” — Letter of F. Perin, May 26, 1842. 
 
 “Two drafts, one for 1163.66 dollars, and another for 6090.10 dollars — both 
 in favor of L. S. Hargous, Esq., American consul at Vera Cruz — have been laid 
 before me. I can not describe my regret at not having it in my power to meet 
 the demands. The government has not one dollar of the funds described, nor 
 has the executive the means to obtain them for any purpose. The situation of 
 the Santa Fc prisoners has been known to the honorable Congress for the last 
 two sessions, and its attention called to their condition, but no law was passed 
 for their relief. There is not one dollar left at the disposition of the president, 
 except to meet special appropriations made for the present year. The president 
 sympathizes most feelingly with the Santa F6 prisoners, and rejoices at their 
 return to their country and friends. If his private means would enable him to 
 do so. he would most certainly relieve all their wants, and contribute to their 
 comforts ; but he is as destitute of means as the government of Texas. 
 
 “ I am your obedient servant, “ Sam Hotwrow. 
 
 “ AugvM 24, 1842.” 
 
 Executive Record, d. 189. 
 
358 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 in which he denounced the offer as impudent and audacious.* 
 This conduct of Santa Anna was presented to the notice of the 
 president of Texas, and, after the incursion of Vasquez, he 
 deemed it proper to reply to these pretensions of the Mexican 
 dictator. This he did on the 21st of March, by a reference to 
 past transactions, and in a manner so appropriate as to attract 
 the attention of other powers. The letter was extensively cir- 
 culated in America and Europe ; it was also published in Yu- 
 catan in the Spanish language, and thence circulated to some 
 extent in other parts of Mexico. f 
 
 In accordance with the executive call, the Texan Congress 
 assembled at Houston on the 27th of June ; and on the same 
 day the president sent in his message. After referring to the 
 late incursion of the enemy under Yasquez, and the pompous 
 declaration of Santa Anna, threatening the resubjugation of 
 Texas, he said : “ Our citizens have been, and are still, liable 
 to continual annoyance from the enemy. No formidable inva- 
 sion, it is true, has been attempted since 1836, nor do I believe 
 they will ever be able to effect its accomplishment ; but, though 
 this is my firm conviction, I am nevertheless equally satisfied 
 that they will interpose every impediment to the peace, pros- 
 perity, and settlement, of our frontier.” He therefore advised 
 that measures be taken to counteract the enemy’s designs. He 
 further stated that, under the conviction that an immediate in- 
 vasion had been intended by the Mexicans, he had felt himself 
 authorized, by virtue of existing laws, to invite immigrants 
 from the United States, to assist in giving protection to tho 
 advanced settlements. Under that invitation, immigration to 
 some extent had taken place ; and, for want of means on the 
 
 * Those facts are taken from a Spanish copy of General Hamilton’s reply of 
 March 21, 1842, published in Merida de Yucatan, 
 f Executive Record, p. 56. See Appendix No. YIIL 
 
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE — ACTION OF CONGRESS. 
 
 359 
 
 part of the government, the immigrants had been sustained 
 almost entirely by private contributions. They could not, how- 
 ever, be longer supported in that way. The president there- 
 fore asked the Congress for an immediate decision of the ques- 
 tion of invasion. He then referred to the finances of the repub- 
 lic — reminding the two houses of former recommendations, and 
 the consequences which had resulted from their failure to pro- 
 vide a revenue. Among other things, he stated that, for want 
 of appropriations, the transportation of the mails had entirely 
 ceased. This had greatly embarrassed the executive, “ for ho 
 had not one dollar at his disposition for the employment of ex- 
 presses, even under the most urgent circumstances.” These 
 matters, together with a recommendation that an appropriation 
 be made for the support of the navy — lately returned from the 
 coast of Yucatan — closed the more important points of the 
 message. 
 
 The two houses, during their session, called upon the presi- 
 dent for information in regard to the immigrant volunteers. 
 He replied on the 18th of July, informing them that a spirit 
 of insubordination and mutiny openly prevailed among them, 
 destroying every hope of usefulness and harmony : that he 
 despaired of their reformation, and suggested that it would be 
 more politic for Texas to rely upon her own militia, and to 
 discharge the foreign volunteers.* 
 
 The Congress at length passed a bill authorizing offensive 
 war against Mexico. It provided that the president should 
 call for volunteers for that purpose, and, should the number 
 responding to such call be insufficient, then he was required to 
 order out not exceeding one third of the militia of the republic, 
 including those that volunteered. The executive was author- 
 ized to take command of the army in person ; and suitable 
 * Executive Record, p. 120. 
 
360 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 agents were to be appointed to receive, in and out of the re- 
 public, contributions of land, money, provisions, and equip- 
 ments, necessary for the prosecution of an offensive war ; and 
 the president was authorized to hypothecate or sell not exceed- 
 ing ten millions of acres of the public lands for the purpose of 
 raising a war-fund. 
 
 It was very clear that, to prosecute an offensive war, with 
 the hope of making even an impression on the eastern prov- 
 inces of Mexico, less than five thousand troops would not be 
 sufficient. It was equally clear that they must have a military 
 chest. So large a body of men could not march and subsist 
 on the proceeds of the chase, or the few cattle on the route 
 east of the Rio Grande. The Congress had appropriated ten 
 millions of acres of the public lands ; yet, at that time, under 
 existing contracts, persons emigrating to Texas could obtain 
 lands by settling on them ; and land-scrip representing thou- 
 sands of acres was in the markets of the United States, and 
 could be purchased at the rate of twenty-five dollars per sec- 
 tion. At this rate, if the whole ten millions of acres could 
 have been immediately sold, it would have realized only four 
 hundred thousand dollars. This amount would scarcely have 
 equipped the army. As to the donations, the government had 
 not even the means to start out its agents. The people of 
 Texas were too poor to give to any extent, and the zeal of her 
 friends in the United States had greatly abated since they had 
 received the news of the retreat of Yasquez from San Antonio. 
 Colonel Dangerfield, who had proceeded to New Orleans to 
 procure the million loan, did not obtain a dollar. For these, 
 and other reasons presented, the president vetoed the bill.* 
 
 * Veto-Message, July 22, 1842. Executive Record, p. 126. General Jackson, 
 in a letter to President Houston, dated August 17, 1842, says : “ If you had not 
 vetoed this bill, it would have led to the destruction of your country, and the 
 
ACTION ON THE NUECES. 
 
 361 
 
 The Mexicans embodied on the west bank of the Rio Grande 
 were constantly advised, through the traders to Corpus Christi, 
 of the situation and numbers of the Texan force on the frontier. 
 The volunteers under General Davis, on the Nueces, by the 
 last of June had been reduced by desertions and other causes 
 to one hundred and ninety- two men. The enemy, being in- 
 formed of this, determined to attack them. Accordingly, on 
 the evening of the 6th of July, General Davis received intelli- 
 gence that he would be assailed the next morning by a con- 
 siderable force under Canales, the old federalist chief. He re- 
 moved his camp from the open prairie about two hundred yards 
 nearer to a ravine, for the better security of his troops against 
 the Mexican cavalry, having his right protected by the river 
 and a slight skirt of timber. At daylight on the 7th, the ene- 
 my, about seven hundred strong, of whom five hundred were 
 cavalry, with one piece of artillery, attacked the camps, or tents 
 of brush, which the Texans had left the evening before. After 
 making a charge, they discovered that the Texans were not 
 there, but, discerning their new position, they advanced upon 
 them in a very careless and disorderly manner. A few of the 
 enemy, being in advance of their main force, were permitted 
 to approach near the Texan lines, when they were fired upon 
 with some effect. This checked them, and they fell back to 
 
 disgrace of all concerned in the invasion of Mexico — as the attempt in your 
 present situation must inevitably have failed, and placed you in a condition that 
 you could not successfully defend Texas from being reconquered by the power 
 of Mexico. Your true policy is to act upon the defensive, and husband all your 
 means for this purpose, and be at all times prepared to meet and destroy any 
 invading or marauding party of Mexicans.” 
 
 “ I have always thought,” says Joel R. Poinsett, in a letter dated May 26, 
 1842, “that the true policy of Texas consisted in maintaining a defensive atti- 
 tude, strengthening itself as much as possible at home and abroad, and suffering 
 Mexico to forget its existence, which, with their usual apathy, if unmolested, 
 they would soon do. Every year would render invasion by Mexico less proba- 
 ble, as well as much less likely to succeed, should such an unprofitable and ex- 
 travagant measure be resolved upon by the pride and folly of that government” 
 
362 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the main body, who opened a fire upon the Texans, but the 
 distance was too great to produce any result. When the enemy 
 had got out of reach, the Texans ceased to fire, but remained 
 in their position. In a short time, fifty of the Mexican cavalry, 
 with the piece of artillery, took a position about two hundred 
 and fifty yards to the Texan left, with a view to rake their 
 line. At this moment, a Texan soldier, named Ferguson, by 
 a lucky shot with a large rifle, inflicted a mortal wound on the 
 officer commanding the detachment with the cannon ; where- 
 upon the whole force under Canales retreated. They carried 
 off with them, however, a stand of colors belonging to the Gal- 
 veston company, which had been accidentally left at the former 
 camp. In this affair, the Texans had only one man slightly 
 wounded ; the enemy’s loss was not ascertained.* Soon after 
 this, the volunteers under General Davis disbanded. 
 
 The veto of the war-bill produced considerable excitement 
 against the president, yet he was firm to his purpose. It is not 
 improbable that information received from the Texan charge 
 d'affaires at Washington! had some influence on the mind of 
 the executive ; for just before the war-bill passed the Congress, 
 he received notice that the government of the United States 
 intended to represent to that of Mexico the folly of a further 
 continuation of the war, and to offer its services as mediator. 
 Accordingly, Mr. Webster addressed to the American minister 
 at Mexico an admirable letter on that subject. He referred to 
 the facts that the language, customs, and habits, of the Texans, 
 were different from those of the people of Mexico ; the great 
 distance of Texas from the Mexican capital ; the long period 
 during which they had been separated ; the recognition of the 
 independence of Texas by so many great states ; the treaties 
 
 * General Davis’s report, July 7, 1842. 
 
 ■j- James Reilly to the President, June 10, 1842. 
 
AMERICAN MEDIATION DECLINED BY MEXICO. 363 
 
 and commercial relations entered into with her ; and the addi- 
 tional but important fact that the ultimate reannexation of 
 Texas to Mexico “ was among the things most to be doubted.”* 
 For these reasons, the United States looked upon the war as 
 useless, and quite annoying to the commerce on the gulf ; and, 
 while she could not interfere, if the parties were determined to 
 continue the contest, she could not look at it with indifference, 
 and would cheerfully accept the office of mediator if desired. 
 Mexico, however, having rejected the mediation of Great Brit- 
 ain,! also rejected that of the United States, and prepared, not 
 for another invasion, but for a marauding expedition similar to 
 that which she had sent out in the spring. 
 
 At daybreak, on the 11th of September, 1842, a force of 
 about twelve hundred Mexicans, under the command of Gen- 
 eral Adrian Woll, entered San Antonio. At that time, the 
 district court for Bexar county was in session, and the appear- 
 ance of the enemy being unexpected, the citizens were but little 
 prepared for defence.^ After a slight resistance, by wdiich a 
 few of the invaders were killed and wounded, a capitulation 
 was agreed upon ; and the citizens, having assurances that they 
 would be treated as prisoners-of-war, surrendered. The enemy 
 thus acquired fifty-three prisoners, including Judge Hutchinson, 
 presiding in the court, and the lawyers in attendance. They 
 conducted themselves with the same propriety as in their incur- 
 sion of the previous spring. No authorized plunder or robbery 
 occurred. The object of the expedition was doubtless the same 
 as that of the former — that is, to contradict the argument ad- 
 vanced by the annexationists in the United States, that the war 
 was in fact at an end. 
 
 * Daniel Webster to Waddy Thompson, June 22, 1842. 
 f Ashbel Smith to President Houston, May 31, 1842. 
 
 \ Report of the Secretary of War and Marine, November 12, 1842. 
 
364 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 General Woll still lingered in San Antonio ; and news of the 
 incursion reaching the Texan executive, orders were issued to 
 the militia west of the Brasos to repair to the point of attack, 
 and to the militia east of that river to hold themselves in readi- 
 ness. Brigadier-General Somervell, the senior officer of the 
 western militia, was ordered to repair to the frontier and take 
 the command.* His instructions were to assume the charge 
 of all the troops who would submit to his orders. The secre- 
 tary of war had previously issued an order, directing those 
 who had turned out on the first alarm to report to the govern- 
 ment : but no report was made. General Somervell was there- 
 fore ordered to report regularly, as the government would look 
 to him for official news. 
 
 The report of the enemy’s arrival at San Antonio reached 
 Gonzales the same day, when the citizens, to the number of 
 eighty men, under the command of Captain Matthew Caldwell, 
 set out to m^et him. They arrived at Seguin on the 13th of 
 September.! Having advanced to the Salado, a creek six 
 miles east of San Antonio, Captain John C. Hays was de- 
 spatched with about fifty men to draw out the Mexicans. In 
 this he succeeded well ; for General Woll, with two hundred 
 cavalry and six hundred infantry, sallied from the town in pur- 
 suit, while Hays fell back on the Salado. Caldwell had here 
 a force of about two hundred and twenty men, well posted be- 
 hind the bank of the creek, some two miles above the crossing. 
 About eleven o’clock in the morning, he was attacked on two 
 sides by Woll’s entire force of eight hundred men. The action 
 continued till near sunset, when the enemy fell back, badly cut 
 up, with a loss of sixty killed, and perhaps as many wounded. J 
 
 * President Houston to Somervell, October 3, 1842. Executive Record, p. 149. 
 f Quartermaster Bennett’s letter, September 27, 1842, 
 
 \ Caldwell’s first report of this engagement is as follows: — 
 
 “ Sunday. September 17 , 7 o'clock, P. M. 
 
 “At the Salado, two miles above the old crossing, we commenced fighting at 
 
BATTLE OF THE SALADO. 
 
 865 
 
 The Texans had but one killed (Jett), and nine wounded. But 
 just as the fight ceased between Caldwell and the Mexicans, a 
 fearful tragedy occurred. Captain Dawson, with fifty-three 
 men, from La Grange, in attempting to join Caldwell, were 
 discovered and surrounded by the enemy. Dawson found a 
 grove of mosquite-bushes, in which he rallied his men and com- 
 menced his defence ; but the Mexicans withdrew from the range 
 of his rifles, and poured in upon his unprotected company a 
 shower of grape-shot. Dawson sent out a white flag, but it 
 was fired on. Thirty-two of his men were killed, two or three 
 escaped, fifteen were taken prisoners, and the remainder cut 
 down after they had surrendered. Among those that escaped 
 was Woods, who, in the act of delivering up his arms, received 
 a cut from a sword. He seized a lance in the hands of one 
 of the enemy, killed the lancer, mounted his horse, and reached 
 the position of Caldwell in safety.* 
 
 Many of the Mexicans of San Antonio and its vicinity were 
 engaged on the side of the enemy. Among them were Colonel 
 John M. Seguin and Cordova. Seguin, up to the beginning of 
 1842, had been the steady friend of Texas : he had a small 
 company of rancher os at the battle of San Jacinto, where he 
 behaved handsomely ; and after that event, he had been con- 
 tinued in command on the western frontier.! But he left the 
 
 eleven o’clock to-day. A hot fire was kept up till about one hour by sun, when 
 the enemy retreated, bearing off their dead on the ground, and very many dead 
 and wounded were taken from the field by their friends. We have a glorious 
 band of Texan patriots, among whom ten only were wounded, and not one 
 killed. The enemy are all round me, on every side ; but I fear them not I 
 will hold my position till I hear from reinforcements. Come and help me — it 
 is the most favorable opportunity I have ever seen. There are eleven hundred 
 of the enemy. I can whip them on my own ground without any help, but I 
 can not take prisoners. Why don’t you come? — Huzza ! huzza for Texas! 
 
 “ Matthew Caldwell, Colonel commanding .” 
 
 * Thomas William Ward’s letter, September 28, 1842. 
 f Letter of Colonel John C. Hays, September, 1842. 
 
366 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texans at a time ■when he was not much needed, and when he 
 could have little hope of anything but disgrace in the abandon- 
 ment of the lone-star banner. Cordova, who had figured so 
 conspicuously about Nacogdoches in 1838, had little to lose 
 except his life ; and it is said he was killed at the Salado, on 
 the 17th * 
 
 The enemy hurried back to San Antonio, and sent off their 
 baggage on the same night after the action. At daybreak on 
 the 18th, their forces set out on. the retreat, taking with them 
 such of the Mexicans of Texas as adhered to them. The lat- 
 ter, in departing, made another forcible requisition upon the 
 unhappy town for plunder, and carried off what they could. 
 Colonel Caldwell, having his force now increased to four or 
 five hundred men, went in pursuit of the Mexicans. Twice he 
 came up with them, but feared to attack them, as he supposed 
 they would be reinforced. This expected reinforcement was 
 said to be a body of fifteen hundred men under General Ampu- 
 dia, who had marched to Goliad. The supposition proved to 
 be incorrect, but it saved the enemy from a handsome defeat. 
 After a pursuit of some thirty or forty miles, the Texans re- 
 turned. 
 
 At the first news of the advance of the Mexicans, the town 
 of Austin was thrown into commotion, from an expectation that 
 they would visit that place. This excitement was increased 
 from the fact that, on the 4th of September, five men on Brushy 
 road, two miles from Austin, were attacked by the Indians, and 
 two of them killed. The records of the land-office were still 
 there, and their safety jeoparded. Colonel Ward, the commis- 
 sioner, closed the land-office by proclamation.! As the danger 
 
 * It was said that Cordova was killed by Jett, at the beginning of the action. 
 — Letter of T. W. Ward, September 28, 1842. 
 f Proclamation, September 28, 1842. 
 
ANOTHER APPREHENDED ATTACK ON AUSTIN. 
 
 367 
 
 of having the records destroyed was imminent, the committee 
 of the citizens who had controlled them since the invasion of 
 the previous spring, felt the necessity of their removal, and 
 proposed to the commissioner to take them to such point as 
 they should deem safe from the encroachments of the enemy. 
 A conference was held, and it was proposed that the commis- 
 sioner should remove them to such point as he should deem 
 proper, the wagons to continue hauling until they had trans- 
 ported such of the records as the committee thought valuable. 
 This the commissioner declined, but proposed to remove them 
 eastward as far as Brushy creek. This was conceded on the 
 part of the committee, but the wagoners refused to remove 
 them.* Thus they remained there, and, by the retreat of the 
 enemy, were left unmolested. 
 
 As a considerable number of troops were marching west- 
 ward, a further and special order was issued to General Som- 
 ervell on the 13th of October, directing him to select an eligi- 
 ble point for a rendezvous, and proceed to the organization and 
 drill of all such volunteers as should report to him with a “ firm 
 resolve” to be obedient to orders, and, if required, to cross the 
 Rio Grande. He was instructed to receive no others into the 
 service. He was further directed to establish his camp at 
 some distance from San Antonio, that the Mexicans might not 
 be informed of his designs. “ When the force shall have as- 
 sembled,” continued the order, “ if their strength and condi- 
 
 * Letter of the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, September 28, 1842. 
 
 “Austin, September 23, 1842. 
 
 “ Thomas William Ward, Esq. : — 
 
 “ Sir : The committee of safety, having prepared wagons to take the archives 
 of the government to a place which they deei.. safe from the encroachments of 
 the enemy, should it approach this city, are now ready to commence the removal 
 of them to that place. “Tour obedient servants, 
 
 “SAMUEL WHITING, Chairman, 
 “James Webb, “Joseph Lee, “Eugene C. Keltt, 
 
 “A. D. Coombs, “William L. Cazneau.” 
 
368 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion will warrant a movement upon the enemy, it is desirable 
 that it should be executed with promptness and efficiency.”* 
 From the time of the first assembling of the troops until their 
 departure, there was much confusion, arising out of a want of 
 provisions and ammunition, but, above all, from the insubor- 
 dination and ambitious pretensions of various persons in the 
 army, who, feeling themselves competent to assume the direc- 
 tion of the entire force, and march them to victory over the 
 whole of Mexico, were surprised and indignant that the com- 
 mand was not conferred on them. The result was, that many 
 of the volunteers returned home from Bexar. However, about 
 the 18th of November, General Somervell set out from the 
 Medina with some seven hundred and fifty men, and, after a 
 rather unpleasant march, reached Laredo, on the Texan side 
 of the Bio Grande, on the morning of the 8th of December.! 
 About one hundred Mexican troops, who had evacuated the 
 town on the approach of the Texans, retired across the river. 
 General Somervell marched three or four miles down the left 
 bank of the stream, where he encamped. The next day (the 
 9th) a portion of the troops visited Laredo and plundered it. 
 This conduct was in direct violation of the orders of the execu- 
 
 * M. C. Hamilton, Secretary of War, to A. Somervell, October 13, 1842. Gen- 
 eral Alexander Somervell was a native of Maryland, and was about fifty years 
 old at the time of this campaign. In 1817, he removed to Louisiana, where he 
 established a farm. Failing in this business, he proceeded in 1824 to Missouri, 
 where he followed the business of a merchant. In 1833, he was induced by the 
 late James F. Perry to remove with his vocation to San Felipe, in Texas. When 
 the Texan Revolution broke out, he took part in it, and, with the rank of major, 
 participated in the operations and battles around San Antonio in 1885. §uch 
 was his popularity, that, in the reorganization of the army early in 1836, he 
 was elected lieutenant-colonel. In this office he was among those distinguished 
 at San Jacinto. He served in the Texan Congress as a senator in 1836-7 ; was 
 in the Indian campaign of 1889, under Colonel J. C. Neill; and was afterward 
 elected to the command of the first brigade of Texas militi'a. He was accident- 
 ally drowned in January, 1854. He was a man of fine social qualities, sincere 
 attachments, and a welcome guest — Colonel John Henry Browns Notes. 
 
 ■j- Letter of General Memucan Hunt, January 8, 1842. 
 
MOVEMENTS OF TEXAN TROOPS ON THE RIO GRANDE. 369 
 
 tive and of General Somervell. So soon as the commander 
 discovered what was transpiring, he gave orders to the senti- 
 nels on duty to arrest every straggler as he came within the 
 lines of the encampment, that he might be conducted to the 
 quarters of the guard and examined. The result was, that the 
 spoils, consisting of a little of everything in the town, were 
 thrown into a pile, and the alcalde sent for, and directed to 
 return the articles to the owners.* 
 
 On the 10th of December, it seems that, by consent of Gen- 
 eral Somervell, those of the troops that desired to do so were 
 permitted to return to their homes. Some two hundred availed 
 themselves of this permission, and returned, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel J. L. Bennett. The remainder of the army, 
 moving down the river, arrived opposite Guerrero on the 14th. 
 On that day and the next, the Texans crossed the stream, and 
 encamped within a mile of the town, which submitted without 
 a contest, and filled the requisition made upon it for supplies. 
 On the 16th, General Somervell ordered the troops to recross 
 the river, which was effected on that day and the succeeding. 
 On their first passage they had crossed in canoes : their return 
 was greatly facilitated by the use of four large flat-boats found 
 in the Rio Salado, which empties into the Rio Grande near 
 Guerrero. General Somervell had made a requisition upon 
 the town for a hundred horses, but, as they were not supplied, 
 he sent Major John C. Hays with seventy men to demand five 
 thousand dollars in lieu of the horses. The alcalde came into 
 the Texan camp with seven hundred dollars, declaring it was 
 all that could be raised, and that the horses could not be pro- 
 cured, as they had been driven off by the rancheros , who had 
 retreated from the town on the appearance of the Texans. An 
 
 * Letter of General M. Hunt, January 8, 1842. Statement of William B. Mid- 
 dleton. 
 
 Vol. II.— 24 
 
370 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 order had been published, assuring the troops that there should 
 be an equal division of the spoils. “ In some instances,” says 
 General Hunt,* “ captains of companies would allow their men 
 to detach themselves in small numbers, and acquire for their 
 purposes any number of horses and mules they could find ; 
 other officers denied their men this privilege, saying that all 
 property thus acquired should be procured by regular details 
 of men, and equally divided between officers and men. But, 
 when we commenced this second retreat, General Somervell 
 failed altogether to conform to his pledge. Consequently, the 
 captains who had been most particular in requiring and enfor- 
 cing discipline and subordination from their men, in not allow- 
 ing parties to leave camp, acquired no horses or mules to sup- 
 ply those of their companies whose horses were unfit for ser- 
 vice. This produced great dissatisfaction, and increased the 
 prejudice and contempt almost universally entertained and 
 openly expressed by the officers and men toward General Som- 
 ervell. In fact, I heard many of the officers and men declare 
 their determination not to be commanded by, and conducted 
 on their march home, by an officer incompetent as he had 
 proved himself to be. Consequently, on the morning of the 
 19th, when General Somervell issued an order of march, f Cap- 
 
 * This quotation from General Hunt is made with the more confidence, be- 
 cause lie was present, and reduced the facts to writing immediately on his re- 
 turn. 
 
 f The following is the order of the 19th of December 1842: — 
 
 “Order No. 64. 
 
 “ Headquarters, Camp opposite the Mouth of the Salado, } 
 
 “ East Bank ok Rio Grande. ) 
 
 “ The troops belonging to the Southwestern Army will march at ten o’clock 
 this morning for the junction of the Rio Frio and the Nueces, thence to Gonzales, 
 where they will be disbanded. By order of Brigadier-General Somervell, com- 
 manding the Southwestern Army. 
 
 “John Hemphill, Acting Adjutant- General” 
 
 General Somervell states as his reason for issuing the above order, that, “hav- 
 ing been eleven days on the river, and knowing the various positions of the 
 
DISRUPTION OF THE TEXAN TROOPS. 
 
 371 
 
 tains Fisher, Cameron, Eastland, Ryan, and Pierson, refused 
 obedience, together with most of the men under their command, 
 and a large number of officers and privates of other companies. 
 The result was, another division of our forces, which were then 
 reduced to about five hundred men. About two hundred offi- 
 cers and men accompanied General Somervell, and three hun- 
 dred accompanied the five captains above mentioned. The five 
 captains who separated from General Somervell declared their 
 intention to proceed down the river far enough to procure 
 horses to remount those of their commands who were on foot, 
 or whose horses were unable to carry them, and a necessary 
 supply of food to take them into the settlements, when they 
 would return home.” 
 
 Before the two parties finally separated, it was proposed to 
 depose General Somervell, and elect another commander, but 
 the proposition was not acceded to. Somervell then set out 
 on his return, marching slowly the first two or three days, to 
 enable his men to get a supply of beef. The march was then 
 more rapid ; and the troops finally reached Bexar during the 
 last days of January, 1843, having suffered much for want of 
 provisions and winter clothing. 
 
 The companies who had separated themselves from Somer- 
 vell marched four miles down the Rio Grande on the 19th of 
 December, where they encamped for the night. The next 
 morning they elected Captain William S. Fisher to the com- 
 mand, and resumed their march down the river. Four or five 
 fiat-boats were used in the descent, to transport baggage, pro- 
 visions, and a portion of the troops. On the 21st, they arrived 
 and encamped opposite the town of Mier, which is situated 
 
 enemy’s troops, I was satisfied that they were concentrating in such numbers as 
 to render a lunger stay an act of imprudence .” — Report to the Secretary of War 
 (without date). 
 
372 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 about six miles distant from the right bank of the Rio Grande. 
 On the following day they crossed the river and marched into 
 the town, where they made a requisition upon the alcalde for 
 provisions and clothing.* He promised that the articles called 
 for should be delivered the next day at the river, but below 
 the Texan camp. The troops then returned to their camp on 
 the east side of the river, bringing the alcalde with them as a 
 surety for the performance of his promise. On the morning 
 of the 23d, the Texan camp was moved down opposite to the 
 point where the articles were to be delivered.! That day and 
 the next passed away, however, but still the requisition was 
 not filled. The Texan spies, who had been kept on the west 
 side of the river, on the morning of the 25th captured a Mexi- 
 can, who reported that General Ampudia had arrived at Mier 
 with troops, and prevented the fulfilment of the alcalde’s prom- 
 ise. The Texans determined to pass the river and give them 
 battle. By four o’clock in the evening they had all crossed 
 over, and were on their march to the town. Captain Baker 
 with the spies, being in the advance, first met the enemy, who 
 had sallied out from Mier. On the approach of the Texans, 
 Ampudia retreated to the town. At dark, the invaders found 
 themselves on an eminence to the eastward of the town, with 
 the Alcantra (a small, rapid stream) between them and the 
 enemy. The latter had succeeded in capturing five Texans, 
 from whom they derived such information as the prisoners 
 chose to give them. 
 
 After some difficulty in finding a crossing, the Texans at 
 length passed the Alcantra in the dark (a constant fire being 
 kept up between Baker’s spies and the Mexican cavalry), and 
 stumbled upon a small picket of the enemy. Giving them a 
 
 * Statement of Messrs. Watson and Hensley. 
 
 f “Mier Expedition,” p. 78. 
 
BATTLE AT MIER, ON THE ALCANTRA. 373 
 
 fire, the assailants advanced to a street leading directly to the 
 square, the entrance of which was protected by artillery. The 
 Texans would take their position in the street, fire upon the 
 artillery, and then turn the corner to reload, while the enemy’s 
 grape-shot passed harmlessly by. Thus the night wore on, a 
 light rain falling during the action. The Texans, in order to 
 protect themselves from the weather, and get nearer the square, 
 commenced opening passages through the stone houses, until 
 they got within fifty yards of the artillery. Opening portholes, 
 they now poured a destructive fire upon the Mexicans. When 
 daylight appeared so that they could see the artillerymen, they 
 silenced the enemy’s pieces with their unerring rifles. The 
 Mexicans then occupied the housetops, and the fight continued 
 till noon on the 26th. Ahout this time, the small Texan guard 
 that had been left the previous night on the east side of the 
 Alcantra, attacked about sixty of the enemy’s cavalry, and 
 routed them. A large body of Mexicans then advanced to 
 overwhelm this guard. The latter resolved to break through 
 their ranks, and, if possible, join their comrades in the town. 
 They made the attempt, fired with good effect, and started for 
 the Alcantra. The distance was three hundred yards. It was 
 a fearful feat, and in its accomplishment four were killed, three 
 were made prisoners, and two only succeeded. 
 
 Shortly after this, Colonel Fisher, in repelling a charge of 
 the enemy, received a wound, which, though not very severe, 
 was sufficiently so to produce vomiting. During the confusion 
 caused by this event, the Mexicans sent in a white flag by Dr. 
 Sinnickson, one of the Texan prisoners they had taken, with a 
 proposition from General Ampudia for the Texans to surren- 
 der, declaring that they should be treated with all the consid- 
 eration due to prisoners-of-war ; that they should not be sent 
 to Mexico, but kept upon the frontier until peace was made, 
 
374 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 or an exchange effected ;* and that, if these terms were not 
 accepted, they should be allowed no quarter. The Texans, 
 having a considerable list of wounded, and their commander 
 believing that they could not reach their position east of the 
 Rio Grande without a loss of two thirds of their number, sur- 
 rendered upon the terms proposed. But the articles of capitu- 
 lation, not being drawn up until after the surrender, were 
 altered to suit the views of the victors. f The enemy had en- 
 gaged in this contest over two thousand men ; the Texans two 
 hundred and sixty-one !$ The loss of the latter was sixteen 
 killed and mortally wounded, and twenty or thirty more or less 
 seriously wounded. The Mexican loss was not ascertained, 
 but was doubtless four or five hundred. 
 
 On the last day of December, General Ampudia set out with 
 the prisoners for Mexico, leaving those of them that were 
 wounded at Mier, in charge of Dr. Sinnickson. On the 9th of 
 January, 1843, the captives reached Matamoras, where they 
 remained until the 14th, when tney again set out, guarded by 
 a troop of cavalry under the command of Colonel Savriego. 
 They arrived at Monterey on the 29th, where they remained 
 till the 2d of February, and, having changed their commander, 
 they proceeded to Saltillo, where they found a half-dozen of 
 the Texans who had been taken by Woll on his recent visit to 
 San Antonio. At Saltillo, Colonel Barragan took charge of 
 the prisoners, and proceeded with them to the Hacienda Sa- 
 lado , a hundred miles farther on, where they arrived on the 
 
 * This is the way GreeD states it (“ Mier Expedition,” p. 96), but Dr. Sinniok- 
 son, who carried the message, and whose statement Green has furnished (lb., 
 p. 474, Appendix IV.), says that Ampudia promised “to use his influence with 
 the supreme government to prevent their being marched to the city of Mexico, 
 but to have them retained east of the mountains,” Ac. 
 
 f Mier Expedition, p. 82, et seq. 
 
 \ The Texans had left a guard of forty-two men on the east side of the Rio 
 Grande, who, after the battle, returned home. 
 
ESCAPE OF THE MIER PRISONERS. 
 
 375 
 
 10th. The captives had for some time determined to overcome 
 the guard, and attempt their escape out of the country. 
 
 Just at sunrise on the 11th of February, when the word was 
 given by Captain Cameron, he seized and disarmed one of the 
 sentinels at the door of the prison, and Samuel H. Walker 
 (afterward so distinguished iu the Mexican war) disarmed the 
 other. The prisoners rushed out into the outer court of the 
 building, where were one hundred and fifty infantry guarding 
 the arms and cartridge-boxes.* Some of these fled, and the 
 others surrendered, while the Texans were arming themselves, 
 and securing ammunition. There was another company sta- 
 tioned at the gate of the outer court ; the cavalry had likewise 
 formed. The Texans, being armed, rushed out at this gate, 
 and forced the cavalry to retreat ; the infantry stationed there 
 also surrendered. The conflict was soon over, and the victory 
 won : the Texans had five killed and several wounded ; the 
 loss of the enemy was considerably more. One of the articles 
 of the capitulation provided that the wounded of the Texans, 
 who were to be left behind, should be cared for. 
 
 At ten o’clock in the forenoon, the Texans set out for home. 
 After a march of fifty-three miles, they halted at midnight and 
 fed their horses. They then proceeded twelve miles farther, 
 and .slept two hours. The next morning early, leaving the 
 Saltillo road, they continued the march, proposing to leave 
 that city on their right. On the 13th, they struck the road 
 leading from Saltillo to Monclova ; but the ensuing night they 
 unfortunately abandoned it, and took to the mountains on the 
 left. The 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, were spent in try- 
 ing to make their way through those barren mountains, during 
 which time they suffered intolerably for want of food and wa- 
 ter. They killed and ate their horses, and many of them, be- 
 
 * Mier Expedition, p. 164 
 
376 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 coming exhausted and deranged through hunger and thirst, 
 wandered off, or fell down among the ravines. At one o’clock 
 in the afternoon they discovered a smoke, but, on approaching 
 it, they found a troop of Mexican cavalry. Many of the fugi- 
 tives had thrown away their arms, and the remainder were too 
 much worn down and dispirited to make a defence. They 
 accordingly surrendered, but on the positive promise that they 
 were to be treated as prisoners-of-war. Here they were tied 
 in pairs, and remained till the 22d to recruit. The Mexicans 
 brought in such of the prisoners as they could find scattered in 
 the mountains ; but, of the one hundred and ninety-three who 
 left the Salado on the morning of the 11th, five died of starva- 
 tion in the mountains, four more effected their escape and re- 
 turned to Texas, and three others were never heard of, but 
 were supposed to have died in that barren waste. 
 
 On the 22d, the prisoners were marched back, stragglers 
 being constantly found and brought up to the main body. On 
 the 27th, the number being increased to one hundred and sixty, 
 they were all ironed. On the 24th of March, they reached 
 the Salado, the scene of their late victory, where they received 
 news of the order of Santa Anna that every tenth man should 
 be shot. They were all securely bound in irons, and well 
 guarded. They were then drawn up to a wall, behind which 
 the officer stood with the fatal pitcher containing one hundred 
 and fifty-nine white beans and seventeen black ones. The 
 pitcher was held up so that those drawing could not look into 
 it. As their names were called, they advanced and drew each 
 one a bean. This solemn business was performed by the pris- 
 oners without a change of countenance, but with that self- 
 respect which they felt they should display. The irons were 
 taken off from the unfortunate, and that evening (the 25th of 
 March) they were led to the place of execution, bound together 
 
MIER PRISONERS SHOT — DEATH OF CAMERON. 377 
 
 with cords, and their eyes bandaged. They asked the privi- 
 lege of being shot in front, but it was refused. They were 
 made to sit down upon a log near the wall, with their backs to 
 their executioners, where, just before dark, they were repeat- 
 edly shot till life was extinct.* Thus, for this courageous and 
 praiseworthy attempt to escape from a captivity so cruel, were 
 these men barbarously put to death. 
 
 The survivors were marched thence to the city of Mexico. 
 Arriving at Huehuetoca, within eighteen miles of the capital, 
 they were met by an order from Santa Anna directing Captain 
 Ewing Cameron to be shot. The command was promptly exe- 
 cuted the next morning ; and Cameron, in dying, left to the 
 world an example of heroic fortitude in the manner in which 
 he met his fate.f He had passed the ordeal on the 25th of 
 March, and drew a white bean. After thus trifling with his 
 life, it seemed to be a refinement of cruelty to order his exe- 
 cution, almost within sight of the capital of a nation that would 
 at least wish the world to believe it civilized ! The warrant 
 for his death was procured through the influence of Canales. 
 When the federal army was encamped on the Nueces, previous 
 to the campaign of 1840, Cameron lost his horse, but afterward 
 found him in the possession of a Mexican. The former seized 
 his property, and the Mexican resisted, calling upon his coun- 
 trymen to assist him. Canales, hearing the altercation, ordered 
 Cameron to deliver up the horse, which he refused to do, and. 
 
 List of those who drew the black bean, and were shot, at the Hacienda Sa- 
 
 lado, on the 25th of March, 1843: — 
 
 L. L. Cash, 
 
 James D. Cocke, 
 Robert Dunham, 
 William M. Eastland, 
 Edward Este, 
 
 Robert Harris. 
 
 Thomas L. Jones, 
 Patrick Mahan, 
 James Ogden, 
 Charles Roberts, 
 William Rowan, 
 J. L. Sheppard, 
 
 J. M. N. Thompson, 
 James N. Torrey, 
 
 James Turnbull, 
 
 Henry Whaling, 
 
 M. C. Wing. 
 
 Mier Expedition , p. 444. 
 
 f lb., p. 284. 
 
378 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 drawing his pistol, declared in broad Scotch that he would 
 shoot the first man who laid hands on his property. Shortly 
 afterward, Canales had him tried by a court-martial (of which 
 Captain Thomas Pratt was judge-advocate), for disobedience 
 of orders. The court, looking upon the affair as an attempt 
 of Canales and the Mexican to rob the prisoner, acquitted him. 
 From that moment the vengeance of Canales pursued him ; and 
 in 1843, when the one had got into favor with Santa Anna, and 
 the other was a captive in chains, the order for his execution 
 was solicited and obtained.* 
 
 The remainder of the prisoners were conducted to the city 
 of Mexico, where, in heavy irons, and subjected to the most 
 servile labors, we will for the present leave them ; promising, 
 however, to render an account of their escape from the dun- 
 geons of the capital. 
 
 The result of the expeditions to Santa Fe and Mier was a 
 practical proof of the general principle that Texas was not pre- 
 pared for an offensive war against Mexico. The last-named 
 expedition proved also that the Texans, though never wanting 
 in prowess, were not in 1842 under the same discipline, and as 
 obedient to orders, as the men of 1836. General Somervell’s 
 instructions were to receive none under his command but such 
 as promised obedience to his orders. These instructions were 
 made known to the volunteers, and they gave the promise. It 
 was left to his discretion to cross the Rio Grande or not. For 
 reasons given in his report, he issued the order of the 19th of 
 December for the troops to march to Gonzales, to be disbanded. 
 Whether he was right or wrong in giving this order, he was in 
 command. It was disobeyed ; and the consequence was, a fear- 
 ful sacrifice of many noble men, and a long and gloomy captivity 
 of others. 
 
 * Captain Pratt’s Journal, MS. 
 
MEETING OF CONGRESS — PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Congress at the called session had changed the time of 
 its regular sessions to the first Monday in December ;* but cir- 
 cumstances, in the opinion of the president, required its earlier 
 convention. It was accordingly summoned to meet at Wash- 
 ington, on the 14th of November, 1842. The executive and 
 heads of the departments had removed to that place on the 
 20th of the preceding September.! President Houston, in his 
 message, presented the public affairs as in a gloomy condition 
 — the country without credit, without means, and millions of 
 dollars in debt. In regard to the late, troubles on. the frontier, 
 he complained of a want of concert of action, and a disposition 
 to proceed without means or orders. As to the currency, the 
 exchequer bills had at one period fallen to twenty-five cents in 
 the dollar, although at the time not more than one hundred and 
 twenty-five thousand dollars were in circulation. The amount 
 in circulation at the date of the message did not exceed thirty 
 thousand dollars ; yet, for want of a revenue to support these 
 bills, they were under par. As an important remedy for these 
 evils, he recommended the collection of revenue, the suppres- 
 sion of individual and corporation notes issued for circulation, 
 as also the notes of foreign banks. He further recommended 
 some provision for carrying the mails. He likewise gave an 
 
 * Act of July 23, 1842. \ Executive Record, p. 148. 
 
380 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 account of the trouble in regard to the archives, and the resist- 
 ance opposed to their removal ; and also in regard to the steps 
 that had been taken to conciliate the Indian tribes.* A favor- 
 able commercial treaty, which had been made on the 30th of 
 July, 1842, between the United States and Texas, was pre- 
 sented to the senate. f The alliance with Yucatan was dis- 
 couraged, and an opinion expressed that the revolted province 
 would reunite with Mexico. J 
 
 On the subject of the navy, in connection with the Yucatan 
 alliance, the president, on the 22d of December, sent a secret 
 message to Congress. He had not referred to it in his annual 
 message, not wishing the world to know the deplorable condi- 
 tion of that arm of the public service. The vessels of the navy 
 had returned from Yucatan early in May, 1842, and were or- 
 dered to repair to New Orleans and Mobile to refit, prepara- 
 tory to the enforcement of the blockade of the ports of Mexico. 
 This blockade had been proclaimed by Texas in the confident 
 belief, as expressed by Commodore Moore, that, with the aid 
 of the friends of the republic in the United States, the squad- 
 ron would be ready for sea in a few weeks. But, up to July, 
 it was not ready. In that month, application was made for the 
 balance of the naval appropriation, amounting to nearly nine- 
 teen thousand dollars, Texas currency ; and it was advanced, 
 upon the representation that by its use four vessels could be 
 got to sea. This also failed, and the navy was ordered to re- 
 port at Galveston for further instructions. || This order to 
 
 * Message, December 1, 1842. f lb., December 19, 1842. 
 
 X lb., December 14, 1842. 
 
 |] Order of October 29, 1842. This order was repeated on the 5th and again 
 on the 16th of November, 1842. Not beiog obeyed, Captain Moore was, on the 2d 
 of December, commanded to repair to Washington, on the Brasos, and report 
 in person to the department of war and marine. This last order was repeated 
 on the 2d of January, 1843; and, not being obeyed, he was, on the 22d of that 
 month, peremptorily ordered to turn over the command to the senior officer in 
 
SECRET MESSAGE TO CONGRESS — STATE OF THE NAVY. 381 
 
 repair to Galveston was repeated two or three times, and, being 
 disobeyed, Captain Moore was ordered, on the very day the 
 secret message was sent to Congress, to turn over the command 
 to the senior officer present, and report in person to the depart- 
 ment of war and marine. The blockade not being enforced by 
 Texas, other nations complained of its existence, and asked that 
 it be discontinued. The San Antonio had been despatched to 
 Yucatan in August, 1842, without the knowledge of the Texan 
 government, and was lost in a storm. The estimates made for 
 the support of the navy for the current year amounted to over 
 two hundred thousand dollars, which Texas could not meet. 
 Under all these circumstances, the president recommended the 
 sale of the vessels. A large portion of the public debt had 
 been incurred in their purchase ; they were still unpaid for ; 
 and he believed that the person from whom they had been pur- 
 chased could be induced to take them again. 
 
 In accordance with this representation, the Texan Congress 
 passed a secret act, authorizing the president to sell the war- 
 vessels ;* and, in compliance with this act, he appointed com- 
 missioners to dispose of them. They repaired to New Orleans, 
 and made known their business to Captain Moore. It appears, 
 from an unofficial letter of one of the commissioners, dated the 
 10th of March, 1843, that Captain Moore had large claims 
 against the navy for moneys expended for its use, and that he 
 was inclined to hold on to the vessels ; that he was not bound 
 to obey any orders from the navy department emanating from 
 
 the navy, and report to the department in person. On the 10th of March, 1843, 
 Captain Moore replied that “it is, of course, unnecessary for me to proceed to 
 the seat of government;” and “I expect to get to sea in a few days, and keep at 
 sea until the determination of our difficulties with Mexico, without any expense 
 to the government of Texas.” — G. W. Hill , Secretary of War and Marine , to 
 Captain Moore , July 19, 1843. 
 
 * Act of January 16, 1843 : not published in the la we. This secret act was 
 repealed by the act of February 5, 1844. 
 
382 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 a law not promulgated ; and that the secretary of war and ma- 
 rine was bound to send him a certified copy of that secret act 
 before he was under obligations to comply with it. It further 
 appears that Colonel Zavala, of Yucatan, was at New Orleans, 
 urging Captain Moore to sail down the gulf-coast and capture 
 the Mexican fleet. The latter declared that he would take it, 
 blockade the whole coast, and levy contributions to the amount 
 of eight hundred thousand dollars, half of which he would de- 
 posite in the treasury of Texas.* 
 
 Under these circumstances, the president, having before him 
 the act for the sale of the vessels, and his orders being diso- 
 beyed, issued further and peremptory instructions to the com- 
 missioners, dated March 22, 1843, requiring them to proceed 
 to New Orleans and get the vessels into their possession, if 
 practicable, and hold them subject to the orders of the govern- 
 ment ; and, should resistance be made, they were instructed to 
 call upon the proper authorities of the United States for aid. 
 The instructions, referring to the previous orders issued to 
 Captain Moore, declared that he had no authority to enter into 
 any arrangement with Yucatan, or to do anything but to sail 
 to the port of Galveston, and report in person to the depart- 
 ment, as he had been ordered to do. The commissioners were 
 further instructed, should Captain Moore fail to render obedi- 
 ence to former orders, to publish a proclamation which the 
 president sent them. This proclamation, referring to former 
 orders, and the fact that they were disobeyed, gave notice of 
 Captain Moore’s suspension from his command, required him to 
 return home and report, disavowed all his acts, and requested 
 all nations in amity with Texas to seize and bring in the ves- 
 sels to the port of Galveston. 
 
 The commissioners, on arriving at New Orleans, presented 
 
 * Letter of Colonel James Morgan, March 10, 1848. 
 
CAPTAIN MOORE AND THE NAVY-COMMISSIONERS. 383 
 
 their authority, and placed the proclamation in the hands of 
 Captain Moore. It seems that the latter acknowledged the 
 authority of the commissioners, and promptly consented to sail 
 for Galveston. Accordingly, they departed ; Colonel Morgan, 
 one of the commissioners, being on board. Arriving at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, they learned that the Mexican war- 
 steamship Montezuma "was at Telchak, distant from the other 
 vessels of the Mexican navy, and that it could probably be 
 taken. They sailed to that point, but arrived at Telchak after 
 the steamship had left. Captain Moore then proceeded down 
 the coast with the Austin and Wharton , and had two impor- 
 tant engagements with the vessels of the enemy, in which the 
 Texans fought gallantly, and gained some advantages. 
 
 In the meantime, the president, finding that his commission- 
 ers as well as Captain Moore had disobeyed his orders, and 
 that one of them had actually gone out with the navy, and was 
 advising and directing its operations — and that new arrange- 
 ments had been entered into with Yucatan, without his orders 
 — and also ascertaining that his proclamation had been disre- 
 garded, and not published — took immediate steps to publish 
 it himself. It reached the public eye, and in due time the 
 coast of Yucatan, and brought the wandering commissioner and 
 captain in command of the navy to the part of Galveston, where 
 they arrived in July. 
 
 It seems, from the newspapers of that day, that this cruise 
 had been got up in New Orleans ; and that the management of 
 the navy h*d effectually been taken out of the hands of the 
 Texan government, and was controlled by others. The New 
 Orleans papers, ignorant of the existence of the secret act of 
 Congress, denounced President Houston in such terms as would 
 have satisfied the world that the navy was under their control, 
 and subject to their orders, and that the government of Texas 
 
384 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 had nothing to do with it but to pay for the vessels.* The 
 position of the Texan post-captain at Xew Orleans, according 
 to his own showing, seems to have been this : if he attempted 
 to obey the first orders given him, he could not obtain the 
 means to take the vessels to Galveston ; but, to go on a cruise 
 to the coast of Mexico, the government of Yucatan and certain 
 friends in Xew Orleans would furnish the means. Of course, 
 Yucatan and the Xew Orleans friends would expect to be ben- 
 efited thereby. How ? In the prizes taken ; for there was no 
 other means of remuneration. 
 
 After the return of the vessels of the navy to Galveston, 
 they were placed in ordinary, and, for want of funds to equip 
 and man them, they so remained. 
 
 The seventh Congress, which adjourned its regular session 
 on the 16th of January, 1843, passed but few laws of a general 
 character. The policy of treating with the Indians had so far 
 proved successful, that but ten thousand dollars were appropri- 
 ated for intercourse with them ;f and provision was made for 
 trading-houses, interpreters, the restoration of stolen property, 
 and for prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits among them . J It 
 was also declared murder for a white man to kill an Indian in 
 time of peace within the settlements. Another law was passed 
 for the better collection of license-taxes, which was important, 
 as under former laws but few paid such taxes, and they were 
 greatly needed. The most important act of the session was 
 one for the protection of the western frontier. It provided for 
 the election of a major-general, and required him to call into 
 immediate service on the western frontier six companies. It 
 further provided that, “ should the major-general of the militia 
 
 * Expose of Colonel James Morgan, July 16, 1843. Letter to the People of 
 Texas, by Edwin Ward Moore, — Telegraph, July 16, 1843. 
 
 f Act of January 6, 1843. t Act of January 16, 1843. 
 
LAWYER ROBINSON — HIS LETTER TO SANTA ANNA. 385 
 
 deem it expedient, he may at any time take the field, and com- 
 mand in his official capacity any number of troops.” Fifty 
 thousand dollars were appropriated to this service. The presi- 
 dent disapproved of this bill, because it created a military gov- 
 ernment, and, though the constitution made the executive com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army and navy, yet by this law the major- 
 general was rendered independent of the government. The 
 two houses, however, passed the bill by a two-thirds majority ; 
 but they elected Thomas J. Rusk to the high office so created, 
 by whom the laws were respected.* 
 
 As the year 1843 witnessed the first diplomatic movement, 
 in which Mexico was a party, for a termination of the war, it 
 will be necessary to give some account of its rise and progress. 
 It seems to have had its origin in the castle of Perote, in the 
 brain of J. W. Robinson — commonly called “ Lawyer Robin- 
 son” — one of the prisoners captured and taken to Mexico by 
 General Woll, in September, 1842. Robinson, taking lessons 
 from his illustrious correspondent General Santa Anna, who, 
 when a prisoner, was willing to treat on any terms, addressed 
 a letter to the Mexican president on the 9th of January, 1843. 
 In this communication he set forth that he was an old Texan — 
 a colonist — and had never been wanting in loyalty to Mexico ; 
 that when Woll entered San Antonio, although he thought his 
 band was a pillaging-party, he did not make use of his arms, 
 but laid them down as soon as he knew they were the troops 
 of Santa Anna — an error which made him appear a rebel, f 
 The writer then proceeded to give in his adhesion to Mexico, 
 and thought himself capable (as he was a lawyer) of commu- 
 nicating to Santa Anna some rare information ; that on his way 
 
 * Act passed by a constitutional majority, January 16, 1843. 
 
 f Robinson committed another error, of whioh he did not inform Santa Anna: 
 he was at the battle of San Jacinto 1 
 
 Vol. II.— 25 
 
386 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 through the Mexican republic, he had been thinking of a plan, 
 the details of which could better be given in a personal inter- 
 view : and that the Texans, after seven and a half years of war, 
 were anxious for peace, and would gladly accept it on terms 
 having for their basis the reunion of the republic with that of 
 Mexico. Robinson, wishing to get some others of his fellow- 
 prisoners released, said a portion of them were of the same 
 opinion with himself, and that, if they could be charged with a 
 mission to Texas, they would exert a powerful influence in re- 
 uniting her with the Mexican confederacy. He suggested to 
 Santa Anna that peace could not be made without an armistice ; 
 the people would then be committed to a discussion of the sub- 
 ject.* He then proceeded to set forth generally the terms on 
 which a reunion might take place ; and proposed that Santa 
 Anna would name commissioners, and unite with them one or 
 two of the prisoners who were of the writer’s opinion, that they 
 might proceed immediately to Texas to enter upon their duties. 
 Robinson closed his letter in diplomatic style, by “ taking ad- 
 vantage of the occasion to tender to his excellency his high 
 consideration and respect.” 
 
 Santa Anna, then at Manga de Clavo , transmitted the letter 
 to Tornel, the minister of war and marine, suggesting that Rob- 
 inson’s object might simply be to obtain his liberty ; “ but if it 
 should not be so,” said he, “ and he should act in good faith, 
 nothing can be lost on hearing him, and some favorable result 
 may be obtained.” He requested Tornel to lay the letter be- 
 fore the “ substitute president,” and, if that functionary should 
 think proper, he (Santa Anna) would hear what Robinson had 
 to say, it being understood that he would make no concessions 
 
 * This letter, which was by Santa Anna published in the “ Siglo Diez Neuve ” 
 of the city of Mexico, was wretchedly mutilated. The conditions of the reunion 
 are wholly omitted. 
 
RELEASE OF ROBINSON — HIS MISSION. 
 
 387 
 
 to the latter that would compromit the nation ; and, lest the 
 opportunity might slip, the dictator was in as great a hurry 
 about the matter as Robinson.* The government gave to Santa 
 Anna a speedy and full power to arrange the negotiation with 
 Robinson as he might think proper.f 
 
 Santa Anna immediately sent for Robinson, who came to 
 Manga de Clavo , and, after long conferences, the latter satis- 
 fied him that he would make a good commissioner. “ He was 
 immediately set at liberty, that he might, without loss of time, 
 proceed in the fulfilment of his offices.”:): At the same time, 
 
 the bases of the reincorporation of Texas with Mexico were 
 drawn up, signed by Santa Anna,|| ratified by the “ substitute 
 president, Ӥ and delivered over to the envoy Robinson, who 
 set out for Texas. 
 
 Robinson, having reached Washington, on the Brasos, laid 
 before the president of Texas all that had transpired between 
 him and Santa Anna. Houston saw at once, in these proceed- 
 ings, a probable mode of releasing the Texan prisoners in Mex- 
 ico, and likewise a foundation for a peace. It is a principle 
 of human nature that, when those who are hostile, stop to rea- 
 son upon their differences, the feeling of hostility declines as 
 the discussion progresses ; and especially was it applicable to 
 Mexico and Texas, who were both exhausted by a long war. 
 It would have been a poor compliment to Houston to believe 
 for a moment that Santa Anna could obtain the advantage of 
 him in diplomacy. His acquaintance with human nature, and 
 particularly with the Mexican dictator, was admitted to be 
 profound. In this discussion he had every superiority. Rob- 
 
 * Santa Anna to Tornel, February 6, 1843. 
 
 f Tornel to Santa Anna, February 11, 1848. 
 
 \ Santa Anna to Tornel, February 18, 1843. 
 
 || Santa Anna’s propositions, February 18, 1843. 
 
 § Tornel to Santa Anna, February 23, 1843. 
 
888 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 inson was the emissary of the enemy, but in favor of Texas. 
 The correspondence was between Santa Anna and Robinson, 
 and Houston had the control of it. The latter therefore dic- 
 tated to Robinson the following confidential letter to Santa 
 Anna, dated the 10th of April, 1843 : — 
 
 “ When I arrived at Galveston, it was soon understood that 
 I had important news from you to the people of Texas, and 
 there was a great stir to see what it was. Knowing it would 
 meet your views, I published the substance of the propositions 
 in the newspapers, accompanied by remarks of my own, recom- 
 mending them to the favorable consideration of the people of 
 Texas. When I did this, I thought it would have a great effect 
 at once ; but it did not produce as much excitement as I ex- 
 pected. 
 
 “From Galveston I proceeded to Houston, and remained 
 there some days, with the expectation that I would see some 
 clear manifestation of the feelings of the people on the subject 
 of the propositions. I have the honor to enclose your excel- 
 lency the ‘ Houston Telegraph’ of the 5th of April, in which 
 you will see, among other items, the publication which I made 
 over my signature, and that I presented the propositions to the 
 people in the most favorable light. I have also the honor of 
 enclosing your excellency a newspaper published at Washing- 
 ton, by which you will perceive that I arrived there on the 6th 
 instant, and laid your communication before General Houston. 
 The paper contains various items of interesting news, which I 
 have marked for your excellency’s attention. 
 
 “ On nly way to Washington from Houston, I passed through 
 the most thickly-settled and wealthy sections of the Brasos. 
 The news of my arrival had spread with great rapidity, and, 
 of course, there was much anxiety among the people. The 
 first question usually asked me was, ‘Are all the prisoners 
 
robinson’s letter to santa anna. 389 
 
 released ?’ On answering in the negative, they asked me if I 
 thought they would be released. I expressed the belief that 
 your excellency would release them, if you had not already 
 done so. The next inquiry was, whether I had not brought 
 terms proposing peace. To which I said, ‘ 1 think so.’ They 
 then asked me if your excellency had proclaimed an armistice 
 between Mexico and Texas. I told them you had not ; but 
 that I looked upon it as in effect so, until the wishes of the 
 people could be known upon the subject of your propositions. 
 I found the people much engaged in the cultivation of their 
 farms, except those who are very anxious for an invasion of 
 Mexico ; and many who are in favor of an invasion are improv- 
 ing their farms and planting their crops, so as to be ready for 
 any action the government of this country might think it neces- 
 sary for this country to take. 
 
 “ When I laid your communication before General Houston, 
 he read it, and asked me if I thought the translation correct. 
 On my replying that I did, he evinced no excitement, but ob- 
 served that, since the commencement of the Revolution in 1835, 
 the affairs of Texas and Mexico had become much more com- 
 plicated than they had once been ; that, since that time, Texas 
 had been recognised by foreign powers as independent of all 
 governments, and had formed treaties ; and that, for Texas to 
 act independently of the consideration of those powers, would, 
 in his opinion, be treating them with disrespect. I endeavored 
 to find out from him what course would be adopted in refer- 
 ence to your excellency’s propositions, but I could not ascer- 
 tain what his purposes were — if he had any. 
 
 “ I find that your excellency and myself were mistaken when 
 we suspected that Texas was torn to pieces by factions. It is 
 not so. The price of produce this year has been low ; money 
 is scarce in the country, and there is some discontent ; but that 
 
390 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 discontent, I am assured, does not arise from the acts of the 
 government. There are some factious men in Texas, and they 
 have some papers at their command. These papers, however, 
 are supported by the contributions of the faction, or party, 
 that wishes to annoy the executive. They are not encouraged 
 by popular sentiment, but are used to create one, if possible, 
 against the government. It will be impossible for them to 
 succeed. The whole number of men, of any prominence of 
 character, engaged in this opposition, would not exceed some 
 thirty or thirty-five in the republic. 
 
 “ I would most respectfully beg leave to submit to your ex- 
 cellency, in gratitude for your kindness to me, a few sugges- 
 tions, which your excellency can take into your distinguished 
 consideration. 
 
 “ The first is, that if your excellency had thought proper to 
 have released all the Texan prisoners and let them return to 
 their homes, and declared an armistice for some months, until 
 the people in Texas could have had time to think of your prop- 
 ositions, if the president had submitted them to their consider- 
 ation and action, it would have had a good effect upon the peo- 
 ple. They would then have been freed from passion and ex- 
 citement ; but when almost every neighborhood has an acquaint- 
 ance or friend a prisoner, the people can not act on these sub- 
 jects without much feeling ; and there are many persons here 
 ready to excite them in favor of a war beyond the Rio Grande. 
 
 “ The last Congress passed a law favorable to what war- 
 spirit there is in Texas ; and the president has authority to 
 accept the services of forty thousand volunteers, which he 
 would be authorized to land at any point of the coast of*Texas, 
 entirely beyond its settlements, and on the borders of the Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 “You will see, from the papers, that General Rusk was 
 
robinson’s letter to santa anna. 391 
 
 raising a very large expedition, to march across the Rio 
 Grande ; but it is possible it may be delayed a while, although 
 the preparations will go on. 
 
 “ If I were to judge from what I have heard since my return, 
 and what I knew before I was taken prisoner at Bexar, I would 
 think that Houston would prefer peace, if it could be had on 
 terms he thought perfectly honorable to Texas. He has al- 
 ways been opposed to an irregular warfare between the two 
 countries ; but he has now succeeded in making peace with the 
 Indians, and, as that will relieve the northwestern frontier of 
 much embarrassment, it is possible he may unite all the influ- 
 ence he may have with those in favor of prosecuting the inva- 
 sion of Mexico. If this should be the case, and Texas applies 
 all its energies to war, I think she would be easily able to raise 
 from her own citizens an army of ten thousand men, besides 
 volunteer immigrants, as they are called ; and that they would 
 take care to land within one or two days’ march of the Mexi- 
 can frontier. I will not be so presumptuous as to advise your 
 excellency about anything ; but, as things have changed since 
 I communicated with your excellency in relation to the affairs 
 of Texas, I feel bound to inform you of such facts as result 
 from my observations. 
 
 “ If your excellency should wish to send me any instructions, 
 or make any further communication, you can have it directed 
 to the care of Major James H. Cocke, customhouse, Galveston, 
 who will forward it to me wherever I may be. I will endeavor 
 so to manage as to get my despatches to your excellency through 
 some safe channel. Your excellency will be aware of the dis- 
 cretion with which I will have to act, from the character of the 
 communication I have made in the papers.”* 
 
 * Extract of a letter from General Houston to Joseph Eve, United States chargi 
 d'affaires to Texas, dated April 22, 1843 : “ Touching the communication of Santa 
 
392 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The perusal of this first and last despatch of his excellency 
 the Mexican president’s minister shows that two points are 
 recommended — the armistice, and the release of the prisoners. 
 On those points the document is very clear. On the subject 
 of an invasion of Mexico by Texas, the matter is left in a very 
 threatening aspect. As to everything else, Santa Anna is left 
 in a very thick fog. This letter reached him in due time, and 
 offered much food for reflection. Previous to this correspond- 
 ence, however, the Texan government had applied to the three 
 powers — France, Great Britain, and the United States — ask- 
 ing them to make a joint offer of mediation between Texas and 
 Mexico. France and the United States would doubtless have 
 been willing to do this ; but Great Britain, never sincerely in- 
 terested in the success of Texas, further than it appertained to 
 her own interests, had a desire to exclude slavery from the 
 new republic. She supposed that, by mediating separately, 
 obtaining an influence in the Texan government, and throwing 
 into its territory a large emigration of her own people, she 
 could procure the recognition of Texan independence by Mex- 
 ico, on condition of the abolition of slavery. This she imagined 
 Mexico would the more readily do, because the latter power, 
 as well as herself, was anxious to offer every barrier to the 
 growth and advancement of the United States. In fact, the 
 
 Anna, I have this to remark — that it is an anomaly, in both statesmanship and 
 diplomacy. From it I deduce the fact that some of the powers have touched 
 him in a tender part, and this I regard as a wincing. I take pleasure in enclo- 
 sing you a copy of the translation of his propositions, from which you will per- 
 ceive (for I am told it is pretty correct) that General Santa Anna could not have 
 expected any direct action by this government His not addressing it to any 
 authority in the country, as you say, manifests its absurdity. It is impossible 
 for a community to speak, unless through some organ, and in his communication 
 he recognises none. If he expects to make capital out of it, he certainly will not 
 find it in Texas; for his sine qua non would place Texas, bound hand and foot, 
 at the mercy of his will. Take it all in all, it is a curious piece of workmanship, 
 and will do very well to file away as a curiosity for after-times ; and that is 
 about as much as can well be made of it.” 
 
TRIPLE MEDIATION PROPOSED — WEBSTER’S INSTRUCTIONS. 393 
 
 influence of the British government over that of Mexico was 
 such, that when it chose to exert that influence, it could have 
 had the independence of Texas acknowledged at any time — 
 and we will shortly see evidence of this fact. Therefore, upon 
 the proposition of Texas for a triple mediation, Lord Aberdeen 
 said that “ it would be better, on all accounts, that each party 
 should act separately, but similarly in tone, in point of time 
 and argument, in urging the Mexican government to reconsider 
 the subject dispassionately and impartially, and to lose no time 
 in coming to an accommodation with Texas, on the basis of a 
 recognition of the independence of that country.”* In this 
 view the other powers concurred. Lord Aberdeen then, made 
 out his instructions to the British minister at Mexico, and sent 
 a copy of them to Lord Cowley, embassador at Paris, to be 
 shown to the French government. M. Guizot copied them, 
 and transmitted them to the French minister at Mexico. On 
 the part of the United States, Mr. Webster instructed the Amer- 
 ican minister at Mexico to remonstrate in strong but kind and 
 friendly language with the Mexican government against the 
 marauding mode of warfare canned on against Texas ; that if 
 the war was continued, it must be conducted openly, honora- 
 bly, and according to the rules recognised by all civilized and 
 Christian states in modern times. Mr. Webster said further 
 that the United States owed the duty of seeing this done — they 
 owed it to the parties themselves, to the interest and character 
 of this continent, and to the cause of civilization and human 
 improvement ; and it was a duty they would discharge with 
 impartiality and firmness. | The American secretary further 
 
 * Aberdeen to Elliot, November 3, 1842. 
 
 \ The French charge d'affaires , De Cramayel, places the separate mediation 
 upon the ground of the absence of good feelings between the United States and 
 Mexico : “ Le gouvernement de S. M. B., se fondant d’une part sur le non sneers 
 des desmarches d6ja faites par lui dans ce meme but, et, d’une autre part, sur 
 
394 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 stated that, unless Mexico, in a short time, made peace with 
 Texas, or showed a disposition and an ability to prosecute the 
 war with a respectable force, the United States government 
 had it in contemplation, at no distant period, to remonstrate 
 in a more formal manner. 
 
 But all these promising hopes were dimmed by the news 
 from Texas. The effect, among those powers friendly to that 
 country, and who were able to aid her, was most blighting. 
 The Mier expedition, the movements of the navy, the resist- 
 ance to the collection of duties on Red river, and the denunci- 
 atory meetings held, which were encouraged by the press, all 
 combined to injure the character of the republic. Let us refer 
 to the facts. It will be remembered that Mr. Reilly, on the 
 part of Texas, concluded an admirable commercial treaty with 
 the United States, which was duly ratified by the government 
 of the former. It was, however, in the most important partic- 
 ulars, rejected by the United States senate. A committee had 
 reported favorably on the treaty, and, had the vote then been 
 taken, all would have been well ; “ but,” says the Texan charge 
 d’affaires at Washington,* “ the day after the report was made, 
 the news of our internal commotions, our dissensions and civil 
 discords, coupled with our disasters, reached here, in all their 
 glowing and exaggerated enormities, and, like a withering 
 8irocco, blasted every effort of our friends, and paralyzed every 
 
 movement in behalf of our treaty 4 Texas is rent and 
 
 torn,’ said the senators in discussing the treaty, ‘ by her own 
 internal discords ; she is without a dollar in her treasury ; her 
 numbers are small ; her laws are set at defiance by her citizens ; 
 
 l’inconvenient qu’il pouvait y avoir d’associer les Etats Unis a la mediation, dans 
 un moment on leur relations avec le Mexique paraissaient sur un pied peu ami- 
 cal, n’a pas cru devoir acc&ler & cette detnande.” — De Cramayel to Anson Jones, 
 January 28, 1843. 
 
 * Letter of Isaac Van Zandt, March 4, 1843. 
 
THE MIER EXPEDITION — REMONSTRANCES. 
 
 395 
 
 her officers, both civil and military, can not have their orders 
 executed or obeyed ; Mexico is now threatening to invade her 
 with a large land and naval force ; she can not long stand un- 
 der such circumstances ; the chances are against her. She will 
 either have to submit to Mexico, or come under some other 
 power. If, then, we should extend to her these privileges by 
 treaty, might not such power to whom she became attached 
 claim like privileges V ” These arguments induced the rejec- 
 tion of all that was valuable to Texas in the treaty. The 
 baneful influence of this news extended also to England and 
 France. 
 
 In regard to the Mier expedition, the fact that the party of 
 Texans had crossed the Rio Grande in the face of General 
 Somervell’s order to march home, had been published to the 
 world before that officer’s return. The United States and 
 Great Britain both complained of it, as being the same charac- 
 ter of warfare for which they had reprehended Mexico. “ I 
 am instructed,” says Mr. Eve, the American charge d'affaires, 
 “ to remonstrate in strong language against Texas carrying on 
 the war for retaliation, or otherwise, by marauding parties ; 
 but that, if she makes war, let it be open, manly, and accord- 
 ing to the strict rules of modern warfare. Texas owes this to 
 herself, and to the character of the Anglo-Saxon race.”* — 
 “If, sir,” said Mr. Webster to Mr. Van Zandt, “you can get 
 your people to unite at home, and lay aside that factious spirit 
 which is lately so often shown, we would secure you peace in 
 less than six months.”! 
 
 As it was useless to deny the facts, for they had gone forth 
 over the world, and as Texas could not lose her great friends, 
 and ought not to lose them, she undertook to make apologies. 
 
 * Letter of Joseph Eve, April 11, 1S43. 
 
 \ Letter of Isaac Van Zandt, March 4, 1843. 
 
396 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Besides, she needed their friendly aid in getting her citizens, 
 who were imprisoned in Mexico, restored to their liberties and 
 homes. In an interview between Mr. Webster and Mr. Van 
 Zandt, in March, 1843, the American secretary informed the 
 latter that “ the late movements of the forces of Texas, having 
 exhibited an apparent inconsistency with the principles which 
 the government of Texas had avowed should govern its action, 
 and partaking of that character of warfare against which it had 
 protested, and which the interposition of the United States had 
 been invoked to arrest ; that therefore his government would 
 necessarily be constrained to suspend the measures which it 
 had designed to take, and which it would have deemed proper 
 to adopt toward the contending parties.”* 
 
 In answer to this, Mr. Van Zandt, being furnished with a 
 copy of the orders issued to General Somervell, alleged that 
 the government of Texas had not departed from the rule laid 
 down. In reference to those of the troops that disobeyed the 
 order to return home, Mr. Van Zandt said that, ‘‘as citizens, 
 they were liable to strong excitements ; and, driven to desire 
 vengeance and retaliation upon an enemy with whom that coun- 
 try is at war, and from whose soldiery the most wanton, fla- 
 grant, and cruel injuries have been long received and endured, 
 and whose inhuman acts have been sanctioned by the govern- 
 ment of Mexico, it is but natural to suppose that some irregu- 
 larities will occur, and that attempts will be made at retalia- 
 tion by individuals suffering from the consequences of such 
 wrongs and injuries. These acts of individuals, though in a 
 great degree excusable under such peculiar circumstances, 
 should not be imputed to their government.”! 
 
 In the same despatch, Mr. Van Zandt further says : “ From 
 
 * Letter of Isaac Van Zandt, March, 1843. 
 
 f Mr. Van Zandt to Mr. Webster, March 23, 1843. 
 
THE MIER PRISONERS — FOREIGN INTERPOSITION ASKED. 397 
 
 the inhuman treatment heretofore inflicted upon our prisoners, 
 it is much to be feared that General Santa Anna, or those act- 
 ing by his influence or orders, will sacrifice the lives of these 
 unfortunate men, under the pretext that they were not acting 
 at the time under the orders of the Texan government, or some 
 other plea. It will be observed, however, that, although the 
 men may be all murdered who were taken prisoners under 
 Colonel Fisher, yet some few have escaped, who can establish 
 the fact beyond a doubt that articles of capitulation were 
 signed, and that the men were promised kind treatment, and 
 all the rights of prisoners-of-war. This being the case, it can 
 not be material to the question which may be brought to an 
 issue between them and the government of Mexico, whether 
 they were acting under the immediate and legal orders of the 
 government of Texas or not.” 
 
 Immediately upon the receipt of the news of the capitulation 
 of the Mier prisoners, the Texan government sent despatches 
 also to its ministers in France and England, asking their inter- 
 position ; but, as time might thus be lost, the president applied 
 to Mr. Elliot, the British charge d'affaires in Texas, to use his 
 good offices, and, in answer to the remonstrances of his govern- 
 ment, observed : “ Admitting that they went without orders, 
 and that so far as that was concerned the government of Texas 
 was not responsible, and the men were thereby placed out of 
 the protection of the rules of war — yet the Mexican officers, 
 by proposing terms of capitulation to the men, relieved them 
 from the responsibility which they had incurred.; and the mo- 
 ment the men surrendered in accordance with the proposals of 
 capitulation, they became prisoners-of-war, and were entitled 
 
 to all immunities as such Upon this 
 
 view of the case,” continued the president, “ I base my hopes 
 of their salvation, if it should be speedily presented, through 
 
398 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the agency of her majesty’s minister, to the Mexican govern- 
 ment.”* 
 
 On receiving intelligence of the battle of the Salado, and of 
 the recapture of the Texan prisoners, Santa Anna had ordered 
 them to be shot ; but, upon the interposition of the American 
 and British ministers, the sentence was changed to a decima- 
 tion. The harsh treatment toward the Mier captives was said 
 by Santa Anna, at one time, to result from the murder of the 
 guard at the Salado ;f at another it was attributed to the plun- 
 dering of Laredo. :£ 
 
 Thus much on the Texan prisoners in Mexico, the view taken 
 of the matter by other nations, and the defence made by the 
 Texan government. But still these captives were kept in con- 
 finement, and the most of them at servile labor. “ They were 
 hitched to a wagon,” says William B. Middleton, “ twenty-five 
 in a team, and compelled to haul rocks from the mountain to 
 
 * Houston to Elliot, January 25, 1843. Mr. Elliot, on seeing in the opposition 
 papers the charge against the president that he had endeavored to produce a 
 prejudice against the prisoners in the eyes of Santa Anna, wrote him as follows: 
 “I forwarded to Mr. Pakcuham, in a private letter, what you said to me on the 
 subject. In my understanding, your position was, that these prisoners were en- 
 titled to the benefit of their capitulation, though you could not, of course, deny 
 that the movement across the Rio Grande had been made on their own respon- 
 sibility ; and I concluded your purpose in saying this was, to free yourself from 
 the imputation of using the language of aversion to an irregular and incursion- 
 ary character of warfare in your communications to foreign governments, and 
 of sanctioning it in your orders to the officers of the republic. It appears very 
 probable that Mr. Pakenham conferred with General Thompson in the interest 
 of these prisoners; but it must be quite unnecessary to say .to you that he never 
 could have given the least room for all this most unjust and injurious imputation 
 that you desired to prejudice your unhappy countrymen in the sight of General 
 Santa Anna. It is also quite possible that Mr. Pakenham and General Thompson 
 may have thought that no good would come out of any appeal to General Santa 
 Anna upon the subject at that time; but I am quite convinced that Mr. Paken- 
 ham never misconstrued your kind wishes about the prisoners, and I am equally 
 sure that he was cordially disposed to second them .” — Elliot to Houston , June 
 10, 1843. 
 
 f Santa Anna to Wilson Shannon, September 5, 1844. 
 
 $ Same to Mr. Pakenham. 
 
MIER PRISONERS — BUOYANT SPIRITS. 
 
 399 
 
 the castle of Perote* The prisoners, however, at no time lost 
 their buoyant spirits ; nor did they ever lose an opportunity 
 for fun. M‘Fall, a large, powerful man, was put in the lead, 
 and was always ready, at the word, to get scared and run 
 away with the wagon. This was often done, and the corners 
 of the adobe houses always suffered in such cases. The Mexi- 
 can officers would laugh, and the owners of the houses would 
 swear in bad Spanish. Sometimes the team would stop in the 
 street, doff the harness, and half of them go into a drinking- 
 house on the right, and the other half to another house on the 
 left. When they were driven out of one house, they would 
 run over to the other. Thus the overseers were kept busy. 
 They had the power of using the lash, but did not do it very 
 often, as the Texans made it their business, at the peril of their 
 lives, to return such civilities with ample vengeance.”* 
 
 In 1842, information was transmitted to Texas, through a 
 gentleman in Missouri, that a rich caravan of Mexicans, hav- 
 ing a large number of mules and a hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars in specie, had passed from Santa Fe to Independence, 
 and would thence proceed to the eastern cities to convert their 
 specie into merchandise, setting out on their return to Santa 
 Fe in the spring of 1843. As they would on the route pass 
 through the territory of Texas, many of the Texans were desi- 
 rous to capture them. Accordingly, on the 28th of January, 
 1843, Colonel Jacob Snivcly made application to the Texan 
 government for authority to raise men to proceed to the northern 
 portion of the republic, and capture the caravan. On the 16th 
 of February, the permission was granted by the war depart- 
 
 * One of the overseers struck the prisoner William B. Middleton while he was 
 stooping down to receive a bag of sand. Middleton immediately knocked him 
 down with a stone. The guards ran up; but a Mexican officer present, seeing 
 the whole affair, protected the prisoner. The overseers were not soldiers, but 
 convicts. 
 
400 
 
 IIISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 ment, and he was authorized to organize such force, not ex- 
 ceeding three hundred men. The expedition was to be strictly 
 partisan, the troops to mount, arm, equip, and provision them- 
 selves, and to have half the spoil — but this was to be taken 
 only in honorable warfare. They were authorized to operate 
 above the line of settlements between the Rio del Norte and 
 the United States boundary, but were to be careful not to in- 
 fringe upon the territory of that government.* Such were 
 Colonel Snively’s instructions, and such his authority. 
 
 The troops rendezvoused at Georgetown, six miles from Cof- 
 fee’s station, and the then extreme frontier. On the 24th of 
 April, a sufficient force having arrived, the orders of the sec- 
 retary of war were exhibited. Colonel Snively was unani- 
 mously chosen to the command ; but so much of the order of 
 the war department as provided that one half of the spoil 
 should be paid over to the government “ was unanimously re- 
 jected by vote.”f The volunteers adopted a set of by-laws, 
 and decided that the army regulations should govern them, 
 when not in conflict with the by-laws. 
 
 On the 25th of April, having about one hundred and seventy- 
 five in the command, they set out on the march. The general 
 course of travel was west, on the dividing ridge between the 
 waters of Trinity and Red rivers, on the old Chihuahua trail. 
 They had occasional accessions to their ranks, and learned on 
 the first of May that the news of the expedition had been pub- 
 lished in the Missouri papers. At length, after various adven- 
 tures amid the splendid scenery of the prairies and the Wa- 
 chita mountains, on the 27th of May, to their great joy, they 
 reached the Arkansas river, and encamped on its right bank, 
 
 * G. W. Hill, Secretary of War, to Jacob Snively, February 16, 1843. 
 
 f I quote from the admirable manuscript journal of the expedition furnished 
 me by Colonel Stewart A. Miller. 
 
SNIVELY’s EXPEDITION — ITS PROGRESS. 
 
 401 
 
 about forty miles below the crossing of the Santa Fe trail. At 
 this time they had a scanty supply of provisions, and were in 
 want of a proper knowledge of the country they were in, and 
 of the distance to their place of destination. Some of them 
 were sick, and borne on litters ; others, whose horses had been 
 lost or died, were on foot. Yet they were cheered by the sight 
 of the river. On the following day they sent spies across the 
 stream to search for the Santa Fe road, who returned and re- 
 ported it to be eight miles distant, on the opposite side. Fresh 
 signs of extensive travel were seen on the road, but it was un- 
 known whether they had been made by the Mexicans or by 
 Bent’s people, who had a station one hundred and fifty miles 
 higher up. Near the Arkansas crossing they met some of 
 Bent’s men, who informed them that the Mexican caravan was 
 expected to pass, on its way to Santa Fe, in about eighteen 
 days. They were also informed that the caravan was guarded 
 by five hundred Mexican soldiers as far as the United States 
 boundary-line, and that those troops were in that vicinity, wait- 
 ing the return of their merchants. On the 2d of June, a part- 
 nership was proposed by the Bents. They offered to “ put in” 
 forty men at that time, and forty more shortly afterward ; and 
 were to have a pro-rata share of the spoil : but, in a few days 
 afterward, the Bents sent word that they could not comply. 
 The Texan spies, who had gone out to look after the enemy, 
 reported six hundred. The advance of the latter took one of 
 the Texans prisoner ; but he passed himself off for one of Bent’s 
 men, and they released him. The Texans remained in the val- 
 ley of the Arkansas some time, recruiting, drilling, and hunting 
 for the enemy. On the 9th of June, they took a Mexican pris- 
 oner, from whom they learned that an express went from Texas 
 to Council Grove, and informed the traders of the advance of 
 Snively’s expedition ; but that the former, having procured 
 Vol. II. — 26 
 
402 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 two hundred United States dragoons to guard them across the 
 boundary, would pass on. 
 
 On the 17th of June, the Texans received news of the cara- 
 van. It was advancing, “ composed of sixty wagons, and sev- 
 enty-five hundred weight of merchandise.” About fifteen of 
 the wagons belonged to Americans, and the whole was guarded 
 by three hundred United States dragoons, under the command 
 of Captain Philip St. George Cooke. On the 20th, while the 
 Texans were awaiting the arrival of the rich prize they had 
 come to find, they met with a detachment of the enemy. The 
 latter secured a good ravine, the only one for miles around in 
 the prairie. The Texans immediately charged them, each one 
 advancing according to the speed of his horse. Some of the 
 Mexicans fled ; the others, after discharging their pieces, sur- 
 rendered. Those who fled were pursued, and three of them 
 killed. The victory showed an aggregate of seventeen killed, 
 and eighty prisoners, eighteen of whom were wounded. The 
 Texans sustained no injury whatever, and from the spoils sup- 
 plied themselves with horses, saddles, and arms, in abundance. 
 
 The Texans marched with their prisoners to a good “ water- 
 hole,” where they remained until the 24th of June. On that 
 day, about three hundred mounted Indians rushed into their 
 camp at full speed, and one of the picket-guards fired at them, 
 but they proved to be friendly. About this time the Texans 
 began to be dissatisfied, and desired to return to their homes. 
 This dissatisfaction continued ; and on the 28th, when the spies 
 came in, and brought no news of the caravan, it was greatly 
 increased. About seventy of the men withdrew from the com- 
 mand, and elected Captain Chandler to lead them home. Three 
 more of the wounded prisoners having died, the others were 
 furnished with arms to keep them in meat, the wounded with 
 mules to ride, and the whole of them set at liberty. 
 
SNIVEL Y’S EXPEDITION CHECKMATED. 
 
 403 
 
 Captain Chandler with his party set out for home on the 29th 
 of June, and Colonel Snively with the remainder proceeded up 
 the Arkansas, to hunt game, and await the caravan. On the 
 30th, a party of Snively’s men crossed to the left bank of the 
 river, to kill buffaloes. They were discovered and run in by 
 the advance of Captain Cooke’s dragoons. That officer soon 
 came up with his entire force, consisting of one hundred and 
 ninety-six men, well mounted and equipped, and two pieces of 
 artillery. He sent for Snively to visit him, and asked to see 
 his papers, which were shown to him ; whereupon he said to 
 Snively that he believed the Texans were encamped on the ter- 
 ritory of the United States.* Cooke then consulted with his 
 officers, and they were of the same opinion. He then informed 
 Snively that the Texans must be disarmed. Snively protested, 
 and gave his reasons why the Texans were on their own terri- 
 tory. Cooke replied that “ he had made his terms, and to 
 them the Texans must submit.” He further said that, “ if one 
 of Snively’s men attempted to escape, he would throw his shells 
 into their encampment, and send his dragoons across the river 
 to cut the command to pieces.” 
 
 Captain Cooke then crossed over the Arkansas with Colonel 
 Snively, and with his dragoons surrounded the Texan camp, 
 lighted his port-fires, and ordered the Texans to stack their 
 arms, which they did, asking to be received as prisoners-of- 
 war. Cooke told them he had made his terms, and they must 
 submit to them, or they should receive worse. This he said 
 to them after they were disarmed. Cooke then recrossed the 
 river, leaving with Snively’s command of a hundred and seven 
 men only ten muskets ! The Texans were thus left, surrounded 
 by Mexicans and Indians, six hundred miles from home, though 
 on the soil of Texas, the easy victims of the first-comer. After 
 
 * Snively’s report to tbe Secretary of War, July 9, 1843. 
 
404 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 a night’s reflection, Cooke saw that such inhumanity would not 
 do, and, on the morning of the 1st of July, he sent for the men, 
 and offered to escort as many of them as wished to go to Inde- 
 pendence, Missouri. Some fifty of the Texans took this route, 
 and received three of the ten muskets left with the entire com- 
 mand. The balance refused an escort, unless they were guarded 
 home. Cooke then ordered the Texans to leave the territory 
 of the United States as soon as possible, and departed. 
 
 Colonel Snively now sent an express to Captain Chandler, 
 and set out for Elm creek, about eight miles distant, and joined 
 the latter on the 2d of July. Spies were sent off to look after 
 the caravan, as the Texans did not care to give up the main 
 object of the expedition. On the 4th, the Indians stampeded 
 their horses, and took off sixty head. The Texans pursued 
 the savages, and killed ten or fifteen of them, having one of 
 their own men killed, and another wounded. On the 8th, the 
 spies brought news that the caravan had crossed the Arkansas, 
 and was on its way to Santa Fe. Snively, finding nearly all 
 the men that had set out for home under Chandler unwilling 
 to pursue it, resigned his command on the 9th of July. Chan- 
 dler and his party set out for home. It is proper here to state 
 that, by a previous understanding, the fifty men who went with 
 Cooke were to return and join their comrades. They started, 
 but, meeting some other Texans, they all returned to Cooke’s 
 command except fourteen. 
 
 The Texans now made a trial for volunteers to go after the 
 caravan. They raised eighty-two men, elected Captain War- 
 field to the command, readopted the Georgetown by-laws, and 
 set out on their march. Seventeen of them faltered, and re- 
 turned with Chandler ; the balance proceeded after the cara- 
 van. On the 13th, they struck a fresh trail, believed to be of 
 a large body of Mexicans, under Governor Armijo, who were 
 
CLOSE OF THE SNIYELY EXPEDITION. 
 
 405 
 
 escorting the merchants. The Texans, fearing that they would 
 be overpowered, abandoned the further pursuit, and started for 
 home. On the following day, Captain Warfield resigned, and 
 Colonel Snively was re-elected to the command. On the 20th 
 of July, the Texans had a skirmish with the Camanches ; and, 
 on the 6th of August, after great privation and suffering, they 
 reached Bird’s fort, on the Trinity. Thus closed the Snively 
 expedition.* 
 
 Having now pretty much concluded our accounts of the war- 
 like expeditions in which Texas was interested, we turn to her 
 diplomacy and domestic proceedings. It is proper to state, 
 however, that since the last incursion of the Mexicans into San 
 Antonio, the republic had kept an efficient company of rangers, 
 under the command of Captain John C. Hays, between the 
 western frontier settlements and the Rio Grande, and that its 
 services had been very important. The Indians, being kindly 
 treated, had assumed a more peaceful life ; and, under the pro- 
 tection of the government, the trading-houses kept them sup- 
 plied with the very few articles which they needed. The un- 
 favorable influences of the Santa Fe and Mier expeditions have 
 already been referred to ; nor did that of Snively add anything 
 
 * The Texan government made an earnest complaint against this violation of 
 its territory by Captain Cooke, and the president of the United States ordered a 
 court of inquiry to investigate the matter. That tribunal assembled at Fort 
 Leavenworth, and decided that Captain Cooke had acted within the line of his 
 duty, and that he had disarmed the Texans within the territory of the United 
 States. Notwithstanding this decision of the court, however, it turned out that 
 Captain Cooke had invaded the territory of Texas, and had there disarmed the 
 Texans. The Congress of the United States subsequently acknowledged the ille- 
 gality of Captain Cooke’s proceedings, and made a trifling appropriation to the 
 Texans engaged in the expedition. — General Order , U. S. Army , No. 19, April 
 24, 1844. 
 
 In reference to the surrender of the Texan rifles, Snively’s party would cer- 
 tainly have perished had they not taken the precaution to secrete some of their 
 good rifles, and deliver over the escopetas which they had taken from the Mexi- 
 cans. This will account for their ability to pursue the caravan, and to pass 
 through the country of the Camanches. — S. A. Miller Journal: MS. 
 
406 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 to the glory of the Texan arms. “ The first step,” observes 
 General Jackson to President Houston, in a letter dated Au- 
 gust 31, 1843, “ that led to the injury of the fame of Texas, was 
 that foolish campaign to Santa Fe ; the next the foolish attempt 
 to invade Mexico, without means and men sufficient for the 
 occasion. The fate of this rashness to those concerned will, I 
 hope, put a stop to these disorders, and ‘control the Texans 
 within the bounds of your orders. The Texans now on the 
 Santa Fe road from the United States can only be viewed by 
 Mexico as a band of robbers — unless there by your orders — 
 and, if taken, will every one be put to death.” 
 
 In proportion as the Texan sky was overcast by these un- 
 lucky campaigns, that of Mexico was the more brightened. A 
 member of the United States Congress, deeply interested in 
 behalf of Texas, and intimate with Almonte, the Mexican min- 
 ister, approached him upon these matters. “At one time,” 
 said Almonte, “ we did not suppose that we could reconquer 
 Texas ; yet no man could have sustained himself in Mexico 
 who would have declared otherwise, or who would have ad- 
 vocated the acknowledgment of Texan independence : but now 
 the scene has partly changed, and we entertain strong hopes 
 that Texas will soon be so reduced as to offer but little resist- 
 ance.”* Such was the result of insubordination in Texas, and 
 such the hopes of Mexico. 
 
 But there was an influence at work that was destined to do 
 much for Texas : it was a feeling of jealousy between the Uni- 
 ted States and Great Britain. It has been already intimated 
 that the latter had made no serious attempt to produce peace 
 between Mexico and Texas. It was only when she learned 
 that President Tyler and his cabinet were favorable to annexa- 
 tion, that she began to put forth her power. Although the 
 
 * LetUr of Isaac Van Zandt, March 4, 1843. 
 
THE ANNEXATION QUESTION AGAIN AGITATED. 407 
 
 proposition for a union of the two republics had been formally 
 withdrawn by the Texan government, yet Mr. Van Zandt, with- 
 out instructions to treat, held informal conversations with the 
 members of the American government upon the subject. He 
 found the president and cabinet anxious for the success of the 
 measure, but fearful that it would not meet the sanction of the 
 senate. To stimulate President Tyler, the members of Con- 
 gress friendly to Texas called upon him individually, and urged 
 him to act, suggesting the designs of the British government. 
 General Jackson was solicited to address a communication to 
 President Tyler upon the subject, which he did ; and, at the 
 same time, he wrote to Texas, “ I see you are negotiating with 
 Mexico, but be careful of the designing English. ,, 
 
 As early as the 10th of February, 1843, the Texan charge 
 d’affaires at Washington was notified by his government that 
 the rejection by the United States of the annexation proposi- 
 tions of 1837 placed Texas in an attitude which would render 
 it improper in her to take the first step toward a renewal of 
 those propositions. He was therefore authorized to say ver- 
 bally, should the matter be brought up, that it would be neces- 
 sary for the United States to make an advance so decided as 
 to “ open wide the door of negotiation to Texas.” Should that 
 be done, then he was instructed to say that Texas renewed the 
 proposal for annexation. 
 
 Santa Anna’s propositions, through the medium of Robineon, 
 “ were everywhere met, by the people to whom they were ad- 
 dressed, with indignation and contempt.”* Yet they satisfied 
 the people of Texas, and of other nations, that the Mexican 
 chief desired to treat ; and that, so far as he could venture on 
 his popularity at home, he would do so. The British charge 
 d affaires in Mexico, taking advantage of this pacific disposi- 
 
 * Ansou Jones, Texan Secretary of State, to Isaac Van Zandt, May 8, 1843. 
 
408 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion, under instructions from his government, urged upon Santa 
 Anna the importance of an effort to settle the difference by 
 commissioners to be appointed by each party. He further 
 stated to the dictator that it would be useless to send commis- 
 sioners to treat, on any terms, so long as the present warfare 
 was carried on. 
 
 Santa Anna then authorized Mr. Percy Doyle, the British 
 charge d'affaires, to inform President Houston, through Mr. 
 Elliot, that he would agree to an armistice ; and stated that he 
 would at once give orders for a total cessation of hostilities on 
 his part, and requested that General Houston would despatch 
 similar orders to the officers commanding the Texan forces. 
 Should this be done, “ he was ready to receive any commis- 
 sioners which might be sent from Texas to treat on the terms 
 proposed by him.”* This communication was immediately 
 despatched by an express brought by her Britannic majesty’s 
 sloop Scylla , and transmitted to the Texan government at Gal- 
 veston. f The “ terms proposed” by Santa Anna may have 
 been those sent by Robinson, or those transmitted to Mr. Doyle 
 — for the Texan government was only furnished with an extract 
 from Mr. Doyle’s letter. It was accompanied, however, by an 
 official and an unofficial letter from Mr. Elliot, expressing the 
 belief that the negotiations, once commenced, would “ end in 
 an honorable and desirable peace.” In this view the vicompte 
 De Cramayel fully concurred, and joined in urging the armistice. 
 
 The president of Texas, on the receipt of these communica- 
 tions, though he had little faith in the result, felt that it would 
 be advantageous to the republic to negotiate, thus allaying for 
 a time the ravages of war. Besides, it would encourage the 
 friends of annexation in the United States, promote immigra- 
 
 * Percy Doyle to Charles Elliot, May 27, 1843. 
 
 f Charles Elliot to Anson Jones, June 10, 1843. 
 
AN ARMISTICE PROCLAIMED. 
 
 409 
 
 tion, and give time to Texas to improve her finances, still in 
 a wretched condition. The armistice was accepted and pro- 
 claimed on the 15th of June, to continue pending negotiations 
 for peace, “ and until due notice of an intention to resume hos- 
 tilities (should such intention thereafter be entertained by either 
 party) should be formally announced through her Britannic 
 majesty’s charges d'affaires at the respective governments.” At 
 the same time, Captain Elliot was informed of the acceptance 
 of the armistice, and requested to obtain the sanction of Mex- 
 ico to the time of its duration, as set forth in the proclamation, 
 previous to the appointment of commissioners. A despatch was 
 also immediately forwarded to the Texan charge d affaires at 
 Washington, enclosing copies of all these transactions.* The 
 sloop S cylla carried back to Mexico the acceptance of the ar- 
 mistice, and the proclamation of President Houston. 
 
 These diplomatic movements, executed with secrecy and de- 
 spatch, produced the most intense curiosity and interest in the 
 public mind ; and when, a few we'eks afterward, a despatch 
 was transmitted from the Texan government to its charge at 
 Washington, saying that, inasmuch as the United States had 
 taken no definite action on the subject of annexation, and there 
 being a prospect of an adjustment of the difficulties with Mex- 
 ico, the president of Texas deemed it advisable to take no fur- 
 ther action in the matter at that timef — when this information 
 was imparted to the American government — the public anxiety 
 was greatly increased. Texas saw the feeling of jealousy be- 
 tween the United States and Great Britain, and took no pains 
 to dissipate it She saw that the contest was for the mastery 
 of the gulf of Mexico — involving the Monroe doctrine ; and 
 
 * Anson Jones to Charles Elliot, June 15, 1843. Anson Jones to Isaac Van 
 Zandt, June 15, 1843. 
 
 f Anson Jones to Isaac Van Zandt, July 6, 1843. 
 
410 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that, in the final issue, she had in her own hand3 the disposal 
 of this great inland sea, with all its potent commercial and mar- 
 itime influences. A dispassionate observer, acquainted with 
 her antecedents, might well conclude that Texas would never 
 fall into the lap of England. A thousand glorious associations 
 connected with the fatherland forbade it ; but the politics of 
 the contending powers were not guided by such observers. 
 Their passions, feelings, and pride, were all involved, and the 
 44 pear was ripening” more rapidly than the conservative school 
 imagined, or even desired. Texas loved the parent-country, 
 and felt that she was excusable in the use of such coyness of 
 conduct as would cause that love to be reciprocated. The 
 giant soul of the American Union could only be aroused by 
 that jealousy which the mysterious diplomacy of Texas pro- 
 duced : and, as the plot thickened, the mystery increased, and 
 with it the jealousy of the United States, until “ Texas’’ be- 
 came the battle-cry through mountains and valleys ; and such 
 standard-bearers as Benton, who were waiting for the pear to 
 ripen , were overwhelmed, and the victory won ! 
 
 The president of Texas seemed to enjoy this contest for su- 
 premacy between the great powers. To Captain Elliot, the 
 British charge d'affaires , he thus writes : 44 I know you will 
 be amused at various matters with which 4 Capricorn’ of the 
 ‘ Tropic’ has been regaling the public at our expense. If we 
 were butterflies, and lived but a day, we might be teased by 
 such tilings. Pray, don’t let them affect your serenity. I am 
 as cool as a shoemaker’s lapstone in an open shop at Christ- 
 mas. I deny nothing ; but as I see a piece, on the subject of 
 your correspondence wuth Santa Anna, in the 4 Farmer,’ I will 
 send it to you.”* To Judge Eve, the American charge , he 
 writes as follows : 44 1 find, as news reaches me from both the 
 
 * Houston to Elliot, May 7, 1843. 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON ON ANNEXATION. 411 
 
 United States and Texas, that the subject of annexation is one 
 that has claimed much attention, and is well received. I find 
 that even the oldest settlers, even some of the original three 
 hundred, are as anxious for the event to take place as any that 
 I meet with. How the project is to ultimate, it is impossible 
 to divine. The democracy of the United States is in favor of 
 the measure ; and if it should become a political lever, both of 
 the -political parties will grasp at the handle. But of these 
 matters you can judge better than it is possible for me to do ; 
 you have more sources of information than I can have.”* 
 
 Thus passed the first half of the year 1843. The publication 
 of the armistice dispersed the warlike preparations of Texas. 
 The people were pleased with the change : ignorant of the 
 moving causes, they saw a prospect of peace. The country 
 never witnessed a more abundant harvest. Immigration was 
 anticipated to a large extent. Fine farms were beginning to 
 dot the face of the country ; cattle were multiplying ; and hope 
 seemed at last to revel in a clear sky. The president was pre- 
 paring for a visit to a grand Indian council of all the tribes in 
 Texas, in which the United States were also to be represented. 
 
 * Houston to Eve, February 7, 1843. 
 
412 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 On the 24th of July, 1843, Captain Elliot sent another de- 
 spatch to the Texan government, transmitting the information, 
 derived from the British charge d'affaires in Mexico, that the 
 duration of the armistice should be determined by the military 
 authorities of the two countries, and referring Texas to General 
 Adrian Woll, then in command at Matamoras. The despatch 
 further proceeded to state that the commissioners to treat could 
 come by land or sea ; but that Santa Anna trusted they would 
 be sent with full powers to negotiate upon the terms brought 
 out by Robinson. Captain Elliot adds : “ Under these circum- 
 stances, it will be for the government of Texas to determine 
 what course to pursue. By admitting the nominal concession 
 required of them, peace would be immediately secured ; and, 
 with peace, commerce and agriculture would flourish, and the 
 foundations of daily-increasing wealth and power would be 
 laid.” This extract shows that the influence of the abolition- 
 ists and the Mexican bondholders in London controlled British 
 politics on the Texan question. At the same time that there 
 was perhaps not a single white man in Texas who would for a 
 moment have submitted to even the nominal supremacy of Mex- 
 ico, it was desirable to push forward the negotiations for an 
 armistice, and establish it upon a solid basis. This could be 
 done without touching the questions that would arise in the 
 
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS — PRELIMINARY ACTION. 
 
 413 
 
 subsequent treaty negotiations. The Texan secretary of state, 
 therefore, in his reply, informed Captain Elliot that his gov- 
 ernment would accept Santa Anna’s proposition to send com- 
 missioners to treat with General Woll concerning the terms of 
 the armistice ; and, should these be satisfactorily adjusted, then 
 commissioners would be despatched to Mexico, to treat for a 
 permanent peace.* 
 
 On the 26th of July, Lieutenant Galan, of the Mexican army, 
 arrived at Washington, on the Brasos, with a letter from Gen- 
 eral Woll, proposing to make public the armistice so soon as 
 the Texan government recalled the forces under Snively. He 
 also proposed Laredo as a suitable place for the commissioners 
 on the armistice to meet. Woll’s letter was addressed to 
 “ General Houston.” The latter referred it to the secretary 
 of war, who replied as though it had been directed to the presi- 
 dent of Texas, and informed General Woll that the commis- 
 sioners would meet at Laredo about the 25th of September; 
 and also that orders had been issued to call in the Snively ex- 
 pedition as soon as it could be reached.! 
 
 It is proper likewise to mention that the Texan secretary of 
 state, in his letter to Captain Elliot of the 30th of July, said 
 that if Mexico were sincerely desirous to remove all obstacles 
 to a successful and happy termination of existing difficulties, 
 she should at once release the Texans she held in captivity ; 
 for, so long as they were detained, accounts of their sufferings 
 ■would reach their friends and countrymen in Texas, and keep* 
 alive a hostile feeling. Captain Elliot was requested to pre- 
 sent this matter, through the British minister in Mexico, to 
 Santa Anna. To this application an answer was shortly re- 
 
 * Charles Elliot to Anson Jones, July 24, 1843. Anson Jones to Charles Elliot, 
 July 30, 1843. 
 
 f Adrian Woll to General Houston, July 16, 1843. George W. Hill to Adrian 
 Woll, July 29, 1843. 
 
414 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 turned, through the same channel, to the effect that, so soon 
 as the Texan government delivered all the Mexican prisoners 
 in its hands — some of whom had been detained since the battle 
 of San Jacinto — at the headquarters of General Woll, then 
 Santa Anna would release all the Texan captives held by him, 
 though they amounted to more than the Texans held of the 
 Mexicans.* To this Mr. Jones replied that Texas retained no 
 Mexican prisoners ; that those of San Jacinto had all been re- 
 leased in 1837 ; and, if any of them still remained in the coun- 
 try, it was of their own choice : nevertheless, the president of 
 Texas had issued his proclamation, calling upon all that were 
 in the republic, and who chose to return, to report themselves 
 to Colonel John C. Hays, at Bexar, by the 10th of October, 
 when they would be sent to General Woll free of charge, f 
 On the 26th of September, George W. Hockley and Samuel 
 M. Williams were appointed, on the part of the Texan govern- 
 ment, commissioners to meet those of General Woll, at some 
 point on or near the Rio Grande, to agree upon the terms of 
 the armistice. Their instructions were as follows : “ To en- 
 deavor to establish a general armistice between Texas and 
 Mexico, to continue during the pendency of negotiations with 
 Mexico for a permanent peace, and adjustment of the difficul- 
 ties between the two countries, and for such further period as 
 they could agree upon, requiring due notice to be given by 
 either party disposed to resume hostilities, to the other, through 
 the minister of Great Britain resident at the corresponding 
 court, six months previous to any act of hostility ; to agree 
 that the government of Texas should appoint commissioners, 
 clothed with full powers, to meet at the capital of Mexico, to 
 
 * Charles Elliot to Anson Jones, August 28, 1848. 
 
 t Anson Jones to Charles Elliot, September 4, 1848. Houston’s Proclamation, 
 September 4, 1848. 
 
THE ARMISTICE — RUMORS — GENERAL MURPHY. 415 
 
 negotiate for the adjustment of all existing difficulties between 
 the two countries, and the establishment of a permanent peace 
 between Texas and Mexico ; to require safe conduct by sea or 
 land, to and from the city of Mexico, for the commissioners 
 which might be appointed by the government, as also protec- 
 tion during their stay in Mexico, and for all persons charged 
 with despatches from Texas for the commissioners, and from 
 them to Texas, as is usual among nations in such cases.” 
 These, together with some further provisions, prohibiting Mexi- 
 can soldiers from crossing the Rio Grande, and in relation to 
 the punishment of persons violating the armistice, constituted 
 the instructions to Messrs. Hockley and Williams.* 
 
 The rumors put in circulation in regard to these matters 
 were infinite ; though they would have passed unnoticed, had 
 not the name of General W. S. Murphy, the successor of Judge 
 Eve as charge d'affaires from the United States, been associ- 
 ated with them.f A correspondence ensued, and the rumors 
 were found to be disconnected with General Murphy. Still, 
 the fact was manifest that the jealousy of the United States 
 •was greatly excited by this passing and repassing of the Brit- 
 ish sloop-of-war Scylla from Yera Cruz to Galveston, and the 
 consequent armistice. The interest taken by the American 
 government in bringing about a peace between the belligerent 
 countries became the more lively. General Thompson was in- 
 structed to protest and remonstrate in the most solemn manner 
 against a recent order of Santa Anna, directing all foreigners 
 taken in arms to be immediately put to death, and to declare 
 
 * Instructions of G. W. Hill, Secretary of War, September 26, 1843. 
 f Mr. Yan Zandt, writing from Washington, under date of November 7, 1843, 
 says: “I think it" may be safely set down as true that General Murphy, among 
 other things, thinks that there is an undue intimacy existing between the presi- 
 dent of Texas and Captain Elliot” Mr. Yan Zandt did not see the despatches, 
 but gathered this much from a conversation with President Tyler. 
 
416 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 that the United States viewed that order as inhuman and bar- 
 barous, and could not see its execution with indifference. He 
 was further instructed to say that his government viewed the 
 war between Mexico and Texas as having lost its high charac- 
 ter, and that it could be called only a war of plunder, pillage, 
 and robbery ; that the United States deprecated its further 
 continuance ; and, while they did not dispute the right of Mex- 
 ico to resubjugate Texas if she could, they questioned her right 
 to keep the subject open, and expressed the decided opinion 
 that the war should be at once ended, either by negotiations or 
 by arms. These, with some other very strong observations, 
 constituted the new instructions to the American minister in 
 Mexico, from the pen of Mr. Upshur, the successor of Mr. 
 Webster as secretary of state.* 
 
 In the beginning of October, and while affairs were thus pro- 
 gressing, some difficulties occurred between the governments 
 of Great Britain and Mexico, and of such a character as to 
 cause Mr. Doyle, the British charge d'affaires , to suspend his 
 diplomatic functions. This necessarily cut off the channel of 
 communication between Texas and Mexico. Yet the Texan 
 government was assured that the differences were only tempo- 
 rary.! 
 
 * Isaac Yan Zandt to Anson Jones, August 10. 1843. 
 
 f Letter of Charles Elliot, November 27, 1843. It appears that, at an anni- 
 versary ball given by Santa Anna, at which the different foreign ministers were 
 in attendance, there was a display of flags taken in battle. Among them was a 
 British standard taken from an English sailor at the battle of Mier. Mr. Doyle, 
 the British minister, requested that it might be removed, and was assured that 
 it should be done the next day. Time passed on until the 27th of September, 
 when another ball was given. Mr. Doyle, on attending, saw the English union 
 jack still hanging in the salon de reception. After some strong diplomatic notes, 
 Mr. Doyle suspended his functions. There were also some other differences in 
 regard to certain claims due to British subjects, which, being brought into the 
 discussion, influenced the minister in the course he took. Mr. Doyle, previous 
 to the suspension of his functions, had transmitted to Santa Anna what Houston 
 had said about the Mexican prisoners in Texas, and his proclamation for the re- 
 
MEETING OF CONGRESS — PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE. 417 
 
 In the meantime, the Texan government, to strengthen its 
 hold upon the western frontier, encouraged a trade between 
 the people of the two countries at Corpus Christi, and urged 
 the United States and Great Britain to appoint consuls for 
 that port. 
 
 The eighth Texan Congress assembled at Washington on the 
 4th of December, 1843. The message of President Houston 
 did not appear until the 12th. In that paper he referred with 
 pleasure to the prosperous condition of the republic, her grow- 
 ing commerce, and the good results of the pacific policy pur- 
 sued toward the Indian tribes, with all of whom, except two, 
 treaties had been made. He referred also to the pending ne- 
 gotiations for an armistice with Mexico, and stated that the 
 two individuals appointed by Texas had set out on their mis- 
 sion. For the kind offices of the three great powers in bring- 
 ing about these negotiations he presented the thanks of the 
 country. The efforts of the British government were particu- 
 larly named as flowing from a sincere and “ disinterested” de- 
 sire to bring about a result honorable to the republic. 
 
 But the message of the Texan chief magistrate was soon for- 
 gotten in the excitement produced by that of John Tyler, presi- 
 dent of the United States, delivered to the federal Congress on 
 the 5th of December, 1843. The Mexican government, antici- 
 pating some action in the American Congress on the subject of 
 annexation, had forestalled the result by threatening the Uni- 
 ted States with a declaration of war if such annexation took 
 place. President Tyler referred to this threat as idle ; and, 
 after speaking of the predatory character of the war which had 
 been waged by Mexico for eight years, declared that “ the 
 
 leaee of any that might remain ; but, by the breaking off of his official intercourse, 
 the former was prevented from pursuing the matter of the release of the Texau 
 prisoners in Mexico any further. 
 
 Vol. II. — 27 
 
418 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Creator of the universe had given man the earth for his resting- 
 place, and its fruits for his subsistence. Whatever, therefore, 
 should make the first, or any part of it, a scene of desolation, af- 
 fected injuriously his heritage, and might be regarded as a general 
 calamity. Wars might sometimes be necessary, but all nations 
 had a common interest in bringing them speedily to a close.” 
 All this was sound philosophy ; and President Tyler, in its 
 practical application, declared that the “ United States had an 
 immediate interest in seeing an end put to the state of hostili- 
 ties existing between Mexico and Texas.” Among other rea- 
 sons given why the American Union could not be indifferent, 
 he affirmed that “ a warfare, such as was waged between those 
 two nations, was calculated to weaken both powers, and finally 
 to render them — and especially the weaker of the two — the 
 subjects of interference on the part of stronger and more pow- 
 erful nations, which, intent only on advancing their own pecu- 
 liar views, may sooner or later attempt to bring about a com- 
 pliance with terms, as the condition of their interposition, alike 
 derogatory to the nation granting them, and detrimental to the 
 interests of the United States.” President Tyler then gave 
 many cogent reasons why the United States could not quietly 
 submit to such interference, and declared that they were bound 
 by interest and sympathy to see that Texas was left free to act, 
 “ especially in regard to her domestic affairs, unawed by force, 
 and unrestrained by the policy or views of other countries.” 
 This message reached the British and French representatives 
 to the Texan government at New Orleans. They were “ won- 
 der-struck.” — “When Texas,” said they, “ has arrived at a 
 state of truce with Mexico, with no help from the United States, 
 and has good hope of a permanent peace, out comes the gov- 
 ernment of the United States with a declaration that Mexico 
 is not to be suffered to make war against her. Why, she is 
 
ANGLO-FRENCH VIEWS OF MR. TYLER’S TEXAN MESSAGE. 419 
 
 not making war against her ; and this notice would have been, 
 more kindly timed in December, 1842, when there was good 
 reason to believe that Mexico did meditate an incursion into 
 Texas. But at that time the United States were negotiating 
 their .claim-convention with Mexico, and then it did not suit 
 them to irritate the Mexican government. ‘ Pay us the money, 
 and you may do what you like with Texas,’ was the music of 
 December, 1842 ; but, now that there is a hope of settlement, 
 the United States do what they can to prevent it. That Mr. 
 Tyler should have said so much concerning the settlement of 
 the affairs of Texas, without one syllable of notice of the wishes 
 or feelings of the government and people of Texas, is certainly 
 the most barefaced piece of political impudence on record. 
 And when Mr. Tyler speaks of the geographical line of divis- 
 ion, and of the opinions of some people that the territory actu- 
 ally belongs to the United States, he is a gigantic joker. Such 
 drollery beats the world. 
 
 “ When he arrives at the point of deciding that the United 
 States will not suffer Texas to entertain any project respecting 
 the abolition of slavery — for that is meant broadly enough — 
 he really seems to be intending something very little short of 
 the enslaving of the government and people of Texas. What- 
 ever may be the decision of the government and people of Texas 
 on that, or any other subject of internal interest, it is surely 
 their unquestionable right to entertain or reject any proposition 
 made to them by powers in alliance with them, without asking 
 the good leave of Mr. Tyler — and upon grounds which they 
 may judge best suited to their own interests and honor. 
 
 “ If Texas admits these lofty pretensions of the United States, 
 there is reason to fear that other powers will think she is al- 
 ready swallowed up , or that Mr. Tyler’s geographical line is 
 rubbed out.” 
 
420 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Such were the feelings and language of the great European 
 powers on reading President Tyler’s message ; and, while they 
 were charging him with dictatorial assumptions, they were act- 
 ually dictating to Texas the course she should pursue, if she 
 desired a continuance of their smiles. But President Houston 
 “ was as cool as a shoemaker’s lapstone on Christmas-day,” 
 and thought the republic very happy in having so many good 
 friends. As for the people of Texas, they were duly advised 
 of the proceedings at Exeter hall, and of the influence exerted 
 by the Mexican bondholders in London, and were not so patient 
 as their chief magistrate. In their reminiscences, they went 
 behind the period of December, 1842, to the times when they 
 so much needed “aid and comfort” in men and money — and 
 were not disappointed — to the time when, in the hour of their 
 infancy and helplessness, they were told by Lord Palmerston 
 that “ her majesty’s government would be justifiable in sending 
 out a ship-of-war to Texas,” to demand the payment of certain 
 claims against the republic.* 
 
 Let us recur for a moment to the efforts actually made by 
 Great Britain in behalf of Texas, and the interest which she 
 fancied she had in effecting a peace : — 
 
 1. By the Hamilton convention of November 14, 1840, Great 
 Britain offered her mediation between the belligerent states, 
 for the consideration that, if successful, Texas “ would take 
 upon herself a portion amounting to one million pounds ster- 
 ling of the capital of the foreign debt contracted by Mexico, 
 prior to the first day of February, 1835.” This tender of the 
 mediation of Great Britain was rejected by Mexico, of which 
 Texas had due notice. 
 
 2. In 1842, Texas applied to the three great powers — the 
 United States, Great Britain, and France — to interpose jointly 
 
 * Palmerston to Henderson, November 12, 1839. 
 
THE ARMISTICE NEGOTIATION. 
 
 421 
 
 in her behalf, for the termination of the war. To this proposi- 
 tion France and the United States were willing to accede, but 
 Great Britain preferred that each power should act separately. 
 In the spring of 1843, Texas learned that these efforts were 
 hopeless. 
 
 3. At the same time, Texas was informed that Mr. Doyle, 
 the British charge d’affaires q had been instructed to propose 
 to Mexico a settlement of her difficulties with Texas, based 
 upon the abolition of slavery in the latter. We are not advised 
 what were the representations made by Mr. Doyle to Santa 
 Anna, that brought about the proposition for a truce ; but, con- 
 sequent upon the truce, Messrs. Hockley and Williams had been 
 sent to the Rio Grande, to negotiate an armistice. Pending 
 this negotiation, Great Britain invited France to join her in 
 the mediation. The United States were doubtless excluded 
 on account of the slavery question, as also from the desire of 
 those two powers to prevent the American Union from acqui- 
 ring further territory and influence upon the gulf of Mexico.* 
 
 The commissioners to negotiate the armistice proceeded to 
 Sabinas, on the west side of the Rio Grande, where they met 
 Seilors Landeras and Jaunequi, commissioners appointed by 
 General Woll, in pursuance of orders from Santa Anna, and 
 the negotiation commenced. The first propositions presented 
 by the Texan commissioners were fully in accordance with 
 their instructions. The object of the government of Texas in 
 this negotiation was, to procure an armistice of as great dura- 
 
 * Messrs. Henderson and Van Zandt to Mr. Calhoun, April 22, 1844. Nor do 
 we know whether Mr. Doyle stated, in his note to Captain Elliot, that Santa 
 Anna’s propositions were based on the paper sent to Texas by Robinson. One 
 thing is certain, however — that, in the extract from Mr. Doyle’s note furnished 
 the Texan government by Captain Elliot, the Robinson propositions were neither 
 named nor hinted at; nor were they referred to in Captain Elliot’s letters. The 
 latter had been informed that the Robinson propositions were wholly inadmis- 
 sible. 
 
422 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion as possible, and not to enter into a discussion, of any of the 
 questions to be afterward settled by commissioners to treat of 
 peace. The instructions furnished General W oil by Santa Anna 
 were of a general nature ; but both governments required the 
 agreement, when made, to be submitted for ratification or rejec- 
 tion. After some difficulties, the negotiation was cut short by 
 information of proceedings in the United States and Texas in 
 regard to annexation. The intelligence of these movements 
 so exasperated the Mexicans, that the commissioners from 
 Texas scarcely felt safe under the pledges of protection given. 
 The latter signed the armistice on the 18th of February, 1844, 
 and returned home. It was promptly rejected on the part of 
 Texas, because it referred to her as a department of Mexico . 
 “ I did not deem it necessary,” says President Houston, “ to 
 take any action upon the agreement signed by our commission- 
 ers, further than to reject it silently. I supposed that Santa 
 Anna would calculate, as a matter of course, that some action 
 would take place under it, and consequently that we would 
 gain time by silence.”* 
 
 To return to the causes that disturbed the negotiations for 
 an armistice. It is scarcely necessary to inquire who first pro- 
 posed the question of annexation. We have already seen that 
 it was predicted in general terms by the Spanish minister of 
 foreign affairs, immediately after the American Revolution ; 
 and that it was alluded to more definitely by Captain Pike, in 
 1806 ; also that it was named by General Houston, directly 
 after the battle of San Jacinto, and formally presented by the 
 government of Texas in 1837. Afterward, in 1842, it was offi- 
 cially intimated as a question having vitality. But on the 6th 
 of July, 1843, the subject was suspended by order of the Texan 
 government. On the 18th of September following, that gov- 
 
 * Houston to Yan Zandt and Henderson, May JO, 1844. 
 
ANNEXATION — INITIATORY PROPOSITION. 
 
 423 
 
 eminent was notified, through its charge d’affaires at Wash- 
 ington, that Mr. Secretary Upshur brought up the subject in 
 all his official interviews, stating that “ it was the great meas- 
 ure of the administration, and that he was actively engaged, 
 under the instructions of President Tyler, in preparing the 
 minds of the people for it, and in learning the views of sena- 
 tors on the subject.” He further informed Mr. Van Zandt that 
 President Tyler contemplated early action upon the subject ; 
 and requested Mr. Van Zandt to make the same known to his 
 government, in order that, if Texas desired to treat on that 
 subject, she might clothe her representative with suitable pow- 
 ers. On the 16th of October, Mr. Upshur made a formal propo- 
 sition to treat on the question ; and Mr. Van Zandt transmitted 
 it to Texas, asking the advice of his government.* At this 
 time, the young republic was most delicately situated. Many 
 of her citizens were prisoners in Mexico, and it was desirable 
 not to irritate that country until they were released. Vague 
 propositions for peace were passing through the channel of the 
 British ministers ; and Texas thought she could treat for an- 
 nexation on better terms if she could have her independence 
 first acknowledged by Mexico. In addition to these considera- 
 tions, should she enter into negotiations with the United States, 
 and the treaty fail in the senate, she would lose the friendship 
 of Great Britain and France, exasperate Mexico, and, what was 
 worse than all, compromise her own dignity and self-respect. 
 For these reasons, the Texan executive was wary, and sus- 
 pended his action upon the propositions advanced by President 
 
 * Mr. Van Zandt to Mr. Jones, October 16, 1843. It would appear, from 
 these facts, that President Tyler has the credit of having initiated the proposi- 
 tion on the part of the United States. But a very distinguished and reliable 
 authority said (January 17, 1844): “ General Jackson has done much to arouse 
 up this administration to make the proposition. He, more than any man, is the 
 basis of whatever has been proposed to your government.” — Letter of A. V. 
 Brovin, 
 
424 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 Tyler. The discussions on the subject among the people of the 
 United States were daily growing in interest ; and the back- 
 wardness of Texas in closing in with Mr. Upshur’s proposals, 
 only increased the excitement. What could President Hous- 
 ton mean ? The public mind in both countries was on tiptoe ; 
 and the curiosity to look into the diplomatic notes that were 
 supposed to be passing to and from the Texan government was 
 hardly restrained within the bounds of good manners. 
 
 On the 18th of December, 1848, a resolution was adopted in 
 the Texan senate of an extraordinary character. After refer- 
 ring in the preamble to the existing excitement, it proceeded 
 to set forth that, “ whereas, it is now understood that a spe- 
 cial messenger has been despatched this morning to the gov- 
 ernment of the United States, charged with important matters 
 connected with said negotiations, the same being secret from 
 the representatives of the people ; and, whereas, it is the espe- 
 cial duty of the members of this Congress to inquire into all 
 matters in which their constituents are supposed to be deeply 
 interested, and particularly in regard to those which have pro- 
 duced great excitement in the public mind : Be it therefore 
 resolved , That the president be requested to recall said special 
 messenger, and delay his departure, until the matters to be 
 communicated through him shall have been made known to 
 this Congress, and such action shall be had thereon as shall 
 be deemed advisable.” The president, in a very pointed mes- 
 sage, refused to comply with this resolution.* On the 22d of 
 December, the representative branch of the Congress made an- 
 other call; this also he declined.! Unable to get anything 
 
 * Message to the Senate, December 20, 1843. Executive Record, p. 281. 
 
 f- Message to the House, January 1, 1844. Executive Record, p. 294. Gen- 
 eral Jackson was very severe upon the Texan Congress for these calls. He says: 
 “I have 6een the impudent call upon you for all the correspondence between 
 Great Britain and Texas, Mexico and Texas, and the United States and Texas; 
 
ANNEXATION — ITS PROSPECTS. 
 
 425 
 
 from their president, they applied to General Murphy, the Uni- 
 ted States charge d'affaires in Texas, for copies of the corre- 
 spondence ; but this he flatly refused. The president informed 
 the house of representatives, in reply to its call, that, although 
 it would not be proper to publish the correspondence, yet the 
 speaker and the committee on foreign affairs, by calling at the 
 state department, could read and examine it. They did so, 
 and were so far satisfied. But what had already been done, 
 had become public : the prospect of a favorable armistice with 
 Mexico was blighted ; the release of the Texan prisoners was 
 postponed ; Great Britain was aroused to ask for explanations ; 
 and the peace of the republic was jeoparded. 
 
 Before responding to the proposition of Mr. Upshur, the ex- 
 ecutive of Texas wished to assure himself of two things : first, 
 that the treaty, when made, would be ratified by the United 
 States senate — lest Texas should be humbled and made cheap 
 by a failure ; second, that Texas should be protected by the 
 United States against her enemy, pending negotiations. On 
 the first point, he was assured by the most intelligent and influ- 
 ential men in the United States that the treaty would be rati- 
 fied. “ I think I can lay my finger on forty senators,” says 
 one, “ who would vote for it, while, you know, thirty-five would 
 be sufficient.” — “ I have no doubt,” observed another, to whom 
 for nearly a third of a century he had looked for advice* — “ I 
 
 and I have gloried in your firmness and wisdom in withholding it, under your 
 present and existing circumstances. I now say to you, as I said to the organ 
 of President Tyler, when he informed me that the president had thought 
 of naming the subject of the annexation of Texas to the United States in his 
 message — that this business should be transacted under the greatest secrecy ; 
 and the first public notice of this act should be when the treaty was concluded 
 and laid before the senate for ratification ; and then kept secret, if that were 
 possible, till ratified.” — Jackson to Houston , January 23, 1844. 
 
 * The intimate acquaintance of General Houston w’ith General Jackson com- 
 menced in 1816, when the former was introduced by Colonel Thomas S. Jesup 
 into the military family of the latter. Colonel Robert Butler, the adjutant- 
 
426 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 have no doubt but the treaty will be ratified by the senate as, 
 our friends write me that thirty-nine senators will vote for its 
 ratification, while thirty-five are two thirds.” 
 
 On the second point, Mr. Tan Zandt inquired of Mr. Upshur, 
 confidentially, whether, after the treaty was signed, and before 
 it was ratified, the president of the United States would order 
 a military and naval force to the proper points on the gulf of 
 Mexico sufficient to protect Texas from foreign aggression.* 
 In reply, he was directed to assure the government of Texas 
 that, the moment the treaty was signed, President Tyler would 
 send a naval squadron upon the gulf, and a military force to 
 the Texan borders, to act as circumstances should require ; 
 and, furthermore, the United States would then say to Mexico, 
 “ You must in nowise disturb or molest Texas.”! 
 
 In anticipation of a satisfactory solution of these points, 
 President Houston, on the 20th of January, 1844, sent to the 
 Congress of Texas his secret annexation message.! As the 
 proper assurances had not then been received from President 
 Tyler, it was carefully guarded. He suggested to the Con- 
 gress that, “ if they evinced too much anxiety, it would be 
 
 general of Jackson’s division, was desirous of obtaining an assistant in liis office, 
 and wrote to Colonel Jesup on the subject. The answer of the latter will show 
 how this intimacy first commenced : — 
 
 *• Headquaetees, Baton Rouge, November 1, 1816, 
 
 “ Dear Sir : I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 18th ult Lieu- 
 tenant Rodgers has just reported to me that he has declined a situation in your 
 office. Lieutenant Houston, who is now at Maryville on furlough, would in all 
 probability accept the situation were it offered to him. I am not acquainted 
 with him, but I am told he is well qualified. 
 
 “ I have the honor to be, <tc., 
 
 “ Thomas S. Jesup, Colonel commanding 8 th Military Department. 
 
 “ P. S. — Croghan spoke of him in the highest terms when he turned over the 
 command to me. “T. S. J. 
 
 “To Colonel Robert Butler, Adjutant- General, Nashville, Tennessee .” 
 
 * Mr. Van Zandt to Mr. Upshur, January 17, 1844. 
 f Mr. Tan Zandt to Mr. Jones, January 23, 1844. 
 
 \ Executive Record, p. 307. 
 
ANNEXATION — TREATY NEGOTIATIONS. 
 
 427 
 
 regarded as importunity, and the voice of supplication, in such 
 cases, seldom commanded great respect.” The object of the mes- 
 sage was an appropriation to cover the expenses of an addition- 
 al agent to the United States, should certain contingencies hap- 
 pen. The appropriation was made ; and, in the meantime, the 
 assurances of protection came to hand. Having all things 
 ready, and, as he supposed, the points well secured, President 
 Houston wrote to General Henderson — the person he had ap- 
 pointed to co-operate with Mr. Van Zandt in forming' a treaty 
 — to come immediately to Washington on the Brasos, on his 
 way to the United States.* The commission was soon assem- 
 bled at Washington city, and the business of forming a treaty 
 immediately began. 
 
 In the meantime, Captain Elliot, the astonished witness of 
 all that was made public, and one well qualified to conjecture 
 what was secret, asked for explanations from the Texan govern- 
 ment. The president and secretary of state both answered him 
 very kindly ; and it happened that they had some very cogent 
 reasons to offer in justification of the course pursued. While 
 they expressed the greatest confidence in the good will of her 
 majesty’s government, they reminded Captain Elliot that the 
 armistice had failed, that the Texan prisoners were still held 
 in bondage at Perote, that the British minister at Mexico had 
 suspended his functions, and consequently the influence of Great 
 Britain as a mediator had become paralyzed ; that the nations 
 to whom Texas had appealed had given no pledge that Santa 
 Anna should not invade her frontiers ; that her situation was 
 critical, and she had been worn down by ceaseless watching 
 and anxiety ; and, finally, that the proposition for annexation 
 had been made by the government of the United States, and 
 the required pledges given for the protection of Texas against 
 
 * Houston to Henderson, February 10, 1844. 
 
428 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 her enemy, and, for the sake of peace and future security, the 
 republic had accepted them.* 
 
 The instructions of Messrs. Henderson and Van Zandt were 
 of a general character, referring to those given to General Hunt 
 by Stephen F. Austin, secretary of state, in 1836. Two addi- 
 tional points, however, were named: they were to provide in 
 the treaty that the territory of Texas might thereafter be di- 
 vided into four states ; and also, in regard to the Texan navy, 
 that the national vessels should become the property of the 
 United States, the latter paying the builders thereof the price 
 agreed to be paid by Texas for them.f They were further 
 instructed to regard the boundary of Texas as defined by her 
 statute.:): 
 
 While these things were passing, the French and British 
 governments united in a protest against the annexation of the 
 young republic to the American Union. || Nevertheless, Texas, 
 having embarked in the matter, was in earnest about it ; and 
 her commissioners, and all her friends who could use any influ- 
 ence, were engaged. The treaty was at length completed, on 
 the 12th of April, 1844, signed by the Texan commissioners 
 and Mr. Calhoun (who succeeded to the state department after 
 
 * Captain Elliot to the President of Texas, March 8 and 22, 1844. President 
 of Texas to Captain Elliot, March — , 1844. 
 
 f Mr. Jones to Messrs. Henderson and Van Zandt, February 25, 1844. 
 t President Houston, in pursuance of the secret act authorizing the sale of the 
 Texan navy, had ordered the disposal of it at Galveston, in the latter part of 
 1843, but it was forcibly resisted by certain persons there. When, afterward, 
 the annexation propositions of President Tyler were entertained, the prospect 
 of including the navy and the debt due for it in the treaty, induced the Texan 
 executive to recommend a repeal of the secret act authorizing its sale, which 
 was done. 
 
 || Ashbel Smith to Anson Jones, February 29, 1844. This protest, which had 
 been drawn up by the ministers of England and France, was countermanded — 
 the protestants fearing that it might increase the excitement of the people of the 
 United States, and unite them on the subject of annexation. — Ashbel Smith to 
 President Houston , August 31, 1844. 
 
CLAY AND VAN BUREN ON ANNEXATION. 
 
 429 
 
 the untimely death of Mr. Upshur), and sent by President Tyler 
 to the American senate for ratification. 
 
 At the time this treaty was presented to the senate, there is 
 little doubt but a majority of the people of the United States 
 — and a large majority — were in favor of its ratification ; but 
 the senate, generally deliberate, grave, and just in its conclu- 
 sions and advice, was at that time greatly agitated by the ap- 
 proaching presidential election. The popular voice in the 
 United States, though slow in finding utterance, will always in 
 the end be heard. This voice was more potent for annexation 
 than the grave senators believed it to be. Of the two parties 
 into which the people of the Union were divided, Henry Clay 
 was the idol of the whigs, and the embodiment of their princi- 
 ples. Martin Van Buren was the favorite of the democrats; 
 and it was confidently expected that they would each be nomi- 
 nated by their respective parties at the approaching conven- 
 tions — that of the whigs to be held at Baltimore, on the 1st 
 of May ; and that of the democrats at the same place, on the 
 27th of the same month. They were both called upon for their 
 views on the subject of annexation. Mr. Clay made public his 
 opposition to the measure in a letter dated at Raleigh, North 
 Carolina, on the 17th of April. Mr. Van Buren soon followed, 
 taking the same position. So soon as these letters were pub- 
 lished, those acquainted with the party ties which bound sena- 
 tors and citizens to their political chieftains were satisfied that 
 the treaty would be rejected in the senate. Yet in the discus- 
 sion in that grave body the influence of the public voice was 
 manifest ; for those whose party relations urged them in oppo- 
 sition, took that ground with a saving' clause : they were in 
 favor of annexation in the abstract, but the way, the form in 
 which it had been brought up, did not suit them. 
 
 The whig convention nominated Mr. Clay on the 1st day of 
 
430 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS^ 
 
 May, as uie candidate of that party for the presidency. This 
 gave a party sanction to his Raleigh letter, and his leading 
 friends took ground against the admission of Texas. A public 
 functionary of the republic, then at Baltimore, and unacquaint- 
 ed with such scenes as he there witnessed, says : “ In the im- 
 mense concourse of persons assembled here during this week 
 from the various parts of the Union, there was not one to be 
 found to raise his voice in our behalf ; and I declare to you 
 that such a thing as sympathy for us as a nation, however pres- 
 sing our difficulties, is totally unknown among this people : and 
 whatever might be our fate, it would receive more derision 
 than regret. The opinion very generally prevails that we are 
 a nation of scoundrels, speculators, and adventurers, unworthy 
 to occupy a place in this party-cursed country, and we are 
 treated in accordance with this notion.” 
 
 Between the 1st and the 27th of May, the democratic lead- 
 ers had time to look over the ground, and take advantage of 
 the response that came up from distant states. As calls had 
 been made upon other public men for their views on this an- 
 nexation question, and many had answered favorably, politi- 
 cians of foresight were surveying this list in search of a friend 
 to Texas who would do for a standard-bearer in the contest of 
 November. However, no agreement was made before the as- 
 sembling of the convention. Mr. Van Buren had been endeared 
 to the democratic party by his earnest efforts to establish a con- 
 stitutional treasury, free from the control of bank-corporations. 
 When the convention met, however, and the pledges of dele- 
 gates had been redeemed by casting their votes for Mr. Van 
 Buren, and the untrammelled question was presented between 
 that gentleman and annexation, he was rejected, and the nom- 
 ination conferred on James^K. Polk, of Tennessee, a civilian 
 of considerable political talent, and of unexceptionable charac- 
 
ANNEXATION TREATY REJECTED BY THE SENATE. 431 
 
 ter, who had already come out in favor of the annexation policy. 
 George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, having similar views, was 
 nominated for vice-president. Thenceforth the cry of “ Polk, 
 Dallas, Texas, and Oregon,”* electrified the masses of the Un- 
 ion. It was the political sirocco , sweeping over the country, 
 and winding up the public history of proud statesmen and con- 
 servative patriots. 
 
 To return to the proceedings of the American senate. That 
 body discussed the treaty of annexation until the 8th of June. 
 It was then rejected by a vote of sixteen to thirty-five. Mr. 
 Benton was particularly severe upon President Tyler, and de- 
 clared that this Texas question had been sprung on the eve of 
 the Baltimore convention, to give second-rate politicians time 
 to amend their answers. Yet, beneath all the political bitter- 
 ness of that day, there was a strong current which Mr. Tyler, 
 through wisdom or good fortune, discovered. He followed it 
 up, and, though he had no party to raise him a second time to 
 the presidency, he had the high honor to connect his name with 
 one of the most important steps taken by the United States 
 since their confederation. For this the pen of impartial his- 
 tory will do him justice. 
 
 The receipt of the news of the rejection of the treaty pro- 
 duced a painful sensation in the public mind in Texas. The 
 people felt that they had been twice spurned by their natural 
 parent, and that their heroic sufferings had all been lost upon 
 
 * Among other proceedings of the Baltimore convention of May 27, 1844, they 
 resolved that “the reoccupation of Oregon and the reannexation of Texas, at the 
 earliest practicable period, are great American measures, which this convention 
 recommends to the cordial support of the democracy of the Union.” — The States- 
 man's Manual, vol. ii., p. 1426. The word “reannexation” was a great favorite 
 with General Jackson. He used it in his letters. The idea was as old as the 
 treaty with De Onis. The day after Houston left the convention at Washington 
 on the Brasos, to take command of the array, he wrote back to Collingsworth, 
 chairman of the military committee, advising that “ Texas be declared a portion 
 of Louisiana.” 
 
432 
 
 HISTORY OP TEXAS. 
 
 her. There were few men in the republic who had not at the 
 moment resolved to banish for ever all affection for her, arid 
 seek among strangers and foreign nations a more congenial 
 friendship and protection. For the sake of the mother-country 
 Texas had turned the cold shoulder to Great Britain and France, 
 and greatly exasperated Mexico ; and yet, for all this, to be de- 
 nounced by the political orators of the Union as a country of 
 “ scoundrels, speculators, and adventurers,” and have her char- 
 acter and dignity made the football of factions, was too bad ! 
 Texas felt humbled : not that she had not done her duty, and 
 acted in good faith with all nations, but because she had been 
 deceived. She could not cast any blame upon her great friends, 
 who had so earnestly and sincerely besought her to accept the 
 propositions of President Tyler ; but she did blame those in 
 high places who withheld their hands to welcome her into the 
 federal Union ; and she rejoiced that their opposition to her 
 had brought down upon them an avalanche, under which they 
 were crushed ! 
 
 General Murphy, the American charge d'affaires in Texas, 
 announced the result to the latter government in a few words. 
 “ The treaty,” said he, “ is rejected, and so is my nomination : 
 the tail went with the hide !”* The feelings and hopes of the 
 friends of Texas in the United States are fully expressed in 
 the following view taken of the matter by General Jackson: 
 “The rejection of the treaty filled me with regret; but the 
 effect of this movement brings the subject directly to the atten- 
 tion of the people ; and we shall, in the course of a few months, 
 be enabled to understand wdiat their verdict will be. There is 
 every reason now to believe that discussion and reflection are 
 strengthening the views of the politicians who favor annexa- 
 tion ; and that Mr. Clay, weakened by his position on this sub- 
 
 * W. S. Murphy to the President of Texas, July 3, 1844. 
 
ANNEXATION — POSITION OF TEXAS. 
 
 433 
 
 ject, will be defeated by a large majority. So confident am I 
 that this will be the case, that I am anxious you should be 
 prepared for it, and not take any course for Texas which may 
 create new embarrassment in the negotiation or legislation 
 which will be necessary to carry into effect the measure of an- 
 nexation.”* 
 
 The public feeling in Texas at that time was perhaps well 
 expressed in General Houston’s reply to the above communi- 
 cation : “ The moment I received your last letters, 1 did not 
 respond to them, because I wished to await the further devel- 
 opments which have since taken place. I announce to you 
 with pleasure that Texas is free from all involvements and 
 pledges ; and her future course, I trust, will be marked by a 
 proper regard for her true interests. My decided opinion is, 
 that she should maintain her present position, and act aside 
 from every consideration but that of her own nationality. It 
 is now the duty of the United States to make an advance that 
 can not be equivocal in its character ; and when she opens the 
 door, and removes all impediments, it might be well for Texas 
 to accept the invitation.”! 
 
 Texas, now finding herself alone — abandoned by the land 
 of her origin — turned to the “ lone star,” the beacon of former 
 victories, and, with a proud though wounded spirit, determined 
 to make it respectable. There was one consideration, however, 
 that still withheld her arm : she was well advised that the voice 
 of the American senate was not the voice of the people. Every 
 state in that Union was represented by citizens in Texas ; and 
 from Maine to Louisiana their friends assured them that Polk 
 would be elected, and all would be well. 
 
 Mexico received with pleasure the news of the rejection of 
 
 * Jackson to Houston, July 19, 1844. 
 f Houston to Jackson, December 18, 1844. 
 
 Vol. II. — 28 
 
434 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 the treaty of annexation, and Santa Anna made preparations 
 for another marauding incursion to San Antonio ; but domestic 
 troubles changed the face of things, and induced him to coun- 
 termand the order. By the terms of the armistice, if it had 
 been ratified, it was to expire on the 1st of May, 1844, unless 
 there was a prospect of a treaty of peace being made. The 
 Mexican government waited until June, in order to receive 
 further information from Texas, but, obtaining none, General 
 Woll, on the 19th of that month, sent a notice to “ General 
 Houston” that “ hostilities were renewed, and declared to exist 
 from the 11th instant.” He took occasion to state further, by 
 order of Santa Anna, that his government “ was highly indig- 
 nant at the perfidious conduct of the said inhabitants of Texas 
 toward Mexico” in regard to the armistice. To this note the 
 president despatched to Santa Anna a suitable reply.* 
 
 The Texan government inquired of President Tyler whether, 
 since the rejection of the treaty, the American forces in the 
 gulf of Mexico and on the borders of Texas would be with- 
 drawn. The answer was, that they would still remain as they 
 were ; only, that they would correspond with the United States 
 charge d'affaires in Texas instead of the president of the re- 
 public. The naval squadron under Captain Conner, and the 
 military force under General Taylor, although they would have 
 had no power to act had Mexico invaded Texas, served never- 
 theless to overawe the former government. However, as has 
 been already stated, Mexico had troubles at home, which pre- 
 vented her from executing the bloody threats of General Woll. 
 
 The European governments, rejoiced that the senate of the 
 United States had so far co-operated with them in preventing 
 annexation, determined on a new effort to place the question 
 on such ground as would for ever prevent its consummation. 
 
 * Houston to Santa Anna, July 29, 1844. 
 
INTERNAL CONDITION OF TEXAS. 
 
 435 
 
 The difference between Great Britain and Mexico about the 
 flag was hastily patched up, and a new minister sent to the lat- 
 ter. Great Britain and France, in order to prevent the United 
 States from obtaining Texas, were willing to waive the ques- 
 tion of slavery, and united their efforts to procure from Mexico 
 the recognition of the independence of Texas, provided the 
 latter would agree to maintain her independent position. In 
 this effort, they proposed to secure the United States as a joint 
 guarantor. In the meantime, after the treaty had been made 
 with President Tyler, General Henderson was recalled from 
 Washington ; and, after its rejection, Mr. Van Zandt was per- 
 mitted to resign, and the relations of Texas with the American 
 government were left in the hands of the secretary of legation.* 
 The internal affairs of Texas were now comparatively pros- 
 perous. The increase in the revenue from customs had kept 
 the government from starving. That from direct taxation had 
 been badly managed — principally, however, for want of laws 
 to enforce its collection. For the year 1843, of the sum of 
 forty-nine thousand dollars assessed, only thirteen thousand 
 dollars had been collected and paid in. The Texan tariff 
 amounted to an average of twenty-four per cent. The Con- 
 gress, in February, 1844, had passed a bill to reduce it to sev- 
 enteen per cent. ; but the president, in order to sustain the 
 government, vetoed the act. Had it been approved, it would 
 have reduced the annual income thirty thousand dollars. This 
 indirect revenue, though exceedingly onerous to the western 
 section of the country, was absolutely necessary to supply the 
 wants of the government. It was more heavily felt in western 
 Texas, because the facilities for smuggling along the line of the 
 Sabine and Red rivers were such, that the eastern portion of 
 the republic paid but a small amount of duties. 
 
 * Anson Jones to Isaac Yan Zandt, July 13, 1844. 
 
436 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 The effects of immigration and improvement were visible 
 over the whole country. The pacific policy of the administra- 
 tion had given comparative security to the frontiers, and immi- 
 grants were opening farms and laying out settlements high up 
 in the valleys of the Texan rivers. Among the means em- 
 ployed by the government for hastening the settlement of its 
 waste lands was that of colony contracts. In pursuance of an 
 act of Congress, President Lamar entered into a contract, on 
 the 30th of August, 1841, with W. S. Peters and others, for 
 the introduction of six hundred families into Texas within three 
 years.* Afterward, two supplemental contracts were made, 
 the time extended, and the number of families to be introduced 
 increased to eight hundred.f Again, on the 20th of January, 
 1843, another contract was made with C. F. Mercer and others, 
 as assignees of Peters and others. A year afterward, another 
 contract was entered into with Mercer and his associates. | On 
 the 15th of February, 1842, a contract was made with Henri 
 Castro and John Jassaud for the introduction of six hundred 
 families within three years. || On the 7th of June, 1842, a con- 
 tract was concluded with Henry F. Fisher and Burchard Mil- 
 ler, to introduce a like number of families within the same time. 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that, in all these contracts, with 
 the exception of those of Castro and Jassaud, and Fisher and 
 Miller, the government was badly treated. The contractors 
 generally incurred no expense, and put themselves to little 
 trouble, further than to give notice, which the government 
 could have done with more effect. Yet the announcements 
 thus made public, that lands would be given to colonists who 
 
 * Act of January 4, 1841, section 4. 
 
 f Supplemental contracts of November 20, 1841, and July 26, 1842. 
 
 \ January 29, 1844. 
 
 | By joint resolution, January 27, 1845, two years more were given for the 
 preformance of the contract. 
 
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION — MIER PRISONERS RELEASED. 437 
 
 should settle them, brought many immigrants to the Texan 
 frontiers. Being unaided and unprotected by the contractors, 
 who seemed only to be interested in their premium lands, the 
 colonists did the best they could. The result of these con- 
 tracts, upon the whole, has been unfavorable to Texas, espe- 
 cially since the act of annexation, as new immigrants have 
 found the country encumbered with these old claims. 
 
 The election for president and vice-president of Texas was 
 held, under the constitution, on the first Monday in September, 
 1844. The candidates before the people for the first office 
 were Dr. Anson Jones, secretary of state under Houston’s ad- 
 ministration, and General Edward Burleson, the vice-president. 
 Dr. Jones was elected. Colonel K. L. Anderson was chosen 
 vice-president, with only a nominal opposition. The result was 
 considered as a popular approval of the pacific policy of the 
 pending administration, as that was made a question. 
 
 The Texan prisoners taken at Mier had been still suffering 
 at Perote. Occasionally, one or two were released, at the spe- 
 cial request of some one ; but on the 16th of September, 1844, 
 the remainder, one hundred and four in number, were liberated 
 by Santa Anna. He had recently lost his wife," and obtained 
 permission from the Mexican Congress to retire for a while to 
 Manga de Clavo, to mourn over his bereavement. He left the 
 capital on the 12th of September ; and it is probable that, on 
 the way, his reflections upon the late severe visitation of his 
 hearthstone inspired him with this act of mercy. The released 
 captives returned to their homes, where they were joyfully re- 
 ceived. 
 
 The republic of Texas, from a state of disorder and turmoil, 
 had become peaceable and prosperous. The invasion by the 
 Mexicans, so long threatened, had become a bugbear at which 
 no one was alarmed. To the orderly disposition of the country, 
 
438 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 however, there was one exception — the war of the “ Regular 
 tors” and “ Moderators Of the long list of worthies who had 
 occupied the neutral ground, there was still a remnant left, liv- 
 ing mostly in the county of Shelby and the adjoining territory 
 of Louisiana. Their ranks had been increased by refugees 
 from the United States, driven thence by the bankrupt-law of 
 1841, and by events connected with the presidential campaign 
 of the previous year. After the opening of the Texan land- 
 office in 1838, the profits arising from the sale of head-right 
 certificates suggested the idea of their manufacture on a large 
 scale. The board of land-commissioners for Shelby county 
 were found suitable instruments for this business. It was not, 
 however, confined to this county, but the focus of their opera- 
 tions was here. These operations were not limited to the sale 
 of forged head-rights, but included the free circulation of coun- 
 terfeit money, and depredations upon the property of other 
 people. The first open outbreak occurred in 1842. Charles 
 W. Jackson, formerly of Kentucky, who had been running a 
 steamboat on the Mississippi and lower Red rivers, for some 
 crime had disappeared from his business, and set up a mercan- 
 tile house at Shreveport, Louisiana. A party of men, seeing a 
 reward offered for Jackson, arrested him, and placed him on a 
 vessel bound for New Orleans. He, however, made his escape 
 and returned to Shreveport before his captors, where he gath- 
 ered his friends around him, and, when the former returned, a 
 battle was fought between the parties, in which Jackson suc- 
 ceeded in killing some of his enemies and driving the others 
 out of the place. To avoid further trouble, Jackson fled to 
 Shelby county, in Texas, where he ran as a candidate for rep- 
 resentative to Congress, but was defeated, as he declared, by 
 the makers of the head-right certificates. He gave notice to 
 the land-office at Austin of their dealings ; in consequence of 
 
THE REGULATORS AND MODERATORS. 
 
 439 
 
 which he received a letter from Joseph Goodbread, notifying 
 him that, if he did not desist from meddling with what did not 
 concern him, he w r ould be killed ; and that, if no one else would 
 do it, the writer would. Shortly afterward, Jackson presented 
 the letter to Goodbread in the town of Shelbyville, and in a 
 moment after shot him down. Jackson was called to answer 
 for this offence, but moved the trial to the adjoining county of 
 Harrison. As the cause produced great excitement, a large 
 number of armed men attended the court, but mostly on Jack- 
 son’s side. On the second day of the term, Judge Hansford, 
 whose duty it was to try the cause, failed to make his appear- 
 ance ; in fact, he had abandoned the court, leaving Jackson 
 and his party masters of the field.* The latter proceeded with 
 his friends, and arrested the chief-justice of Panola county and 
 some others, and sent them to Louisiana, to be tried for some 
 offence committed there. After some other acts of this char- 
 acter in that section of the country, the law became only a 
 passive looker-on, while men followed with impunity their own 
 passions and appetites. Captain Jackson and his party had 
 now associated together to regulate society, and to punish steal- 
 ing, robbery, and like offences. But the offenders were men 
 of genius : for their own protection, many of them joined the 
 regulators ; and, as new converts are distinguished by their 
 zeal, many honest men thus lost their property and their lives. 
 To counteract the bad effect of these operations, a company of 
 moderators was organized, and such of the desperadoes as had 
 not joined the regulators fell into their ranks. Thus, in a short 
 time, Shelby county, and portions of surrounding counties, to- 
 gether with a part of Louisiana, were arrayed against each 
 other. The strife had gradually become more exciting for four 
 years, when, in the summer and fall of 1844, it became neces- 
 
 * Memoranda of Captain Ephraim Doggett 
 
440 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 sary for the government to interpose, to prevent civil war. 
 President Houston accordingly ordered General Smith to raise 
 a portion of the militia, and repair to the scene of anarchy. 
 Some five hundred of the government forces assembled there ; 
 and, by a prudent and firm course of conduct, the belligerents 
 were induced to lay down their arms and submit to the laws.* 
 
 The presidential election in the United States resulted in the 
 success of Polk and Dallas by a majority in the electoral col- 
 lege of sixty-five votes. This was to the world an assurance 
 of the incorporation of Texas into the American Union. Ac- 
 cordingly, joint resolutions for the annexation of Texas to the 
 United States passed the house of representatives on the 25th 
 of February, 1845, by a vote of one hundred and twenty to 
 ninety-eight. On the 1st of March, they passed the senate, by 
 a vote of twenty-seven to twenty-five ; and, on the same day, 
 President Tyler had the high honor of giving them his official 
 sanction, f 
 
 The result of this act on the part of the federal Congress had 
 a happy effect on the public mind. Those who had opposed 
 the measure began now to look at it with other eyes, and all 
 
 * Wat Moorman was captain of the regulators, and John M. Bradley of the 
 moderators. Moorman killed Bradley at the church-door in San Augustine, just 
 at the close of divine service, one evening in the summer of 1844, and retired to 
 Shelby county. A writ for his arrest was placed in the hands of the sheriff of 
 that county. Moorman resisted, and was sustained by the regulators ; the mod- 
 erators rallied around the sheriff to aid in his capture. Thus the two parties, 
 numbering about one hundred and 6eventy-five on each side, were arrayed 
 against each other. They fortified, and for some weeks were under arms, during 
 which period there were about fifty persons killed and wounded. The militia, 
 being ordered out, captured Moorman, and dispersed the combatants. Moorman 
 was killed by Dr. Burns, two or three years afterward, as he was crossing the 
 Sabine. — Notes of Captain William M. Simpson. 
 
 f Statesman’s Manual, vol. ii., p. 1427. This was the first vote in the house. 
 The resolutions were amended in the senate, and when returned to the house 
 the amendment was concurred in on the 28th of February, 1845, by a vote of 
 one hundred and thirty-two to seventy-six — C. U. Raymond to E '. Allen, Feb- 
 ruarg 18, 1845. 
 
ANNEXATION — LETTER OF GENERAL JACKSON. 
 
 441 
 
 agreed that the United States could not do without Texas. 
 Among those most rejoiced was the venerable ex-president 
 Jackson. He had watched the struggle of the infant republic 
 since 1835 with an earnest solicitude ; and when the question 
 of annexation came up, he viewed the act as necessary to carry 
 out the “ Monroe doctrine,” and prevent foreign intermeddling 
 with the affairs of this continent. When he received the news 
 of the final passage of the resolutions, he thus wrote to General 
 Houston : 44 I congratulate you, I congratulate Texas and the 
 United States, on this glorious result, on which depended the 
 safety and prosperity of both Texas and the United States. 
 The Congress of the United States (with the president) has 
 reannexed Texas to our glorious Union as far as she could 
 without the consent of Texas, which all the democracy of this 
 Union believe will be speedily yielded by the people of Texas, 
 through her constituted authorities. I now behold the great 
 American eagle, with her stars and stripes, hovering over the 
 lone star of Texas, with cheering voice welcoming it into our 
 glorious Union, and proclaiming to Mexico and all foreign gov- 
 ernments, 4 You must not attempt to tread upon Texas !’ — that 
 4 the united stars and stripes now defend her.’ Glorious re- 
 sult ! in which you, general, have acted a noble part; and your 
 name is now recorded among the heroes, the patriots, and phi- 
 lanthropists. 
 
 44 You have yet more to do : you have now to lay the basis, 
 by proper legislation, and remodelling your constitution, for the 
 future greatness, wealth, and prosperity, of your state — and 
 first, by proper legislation, to guard and protect the morals of 
 your people. Keep us from temptation! — this is the text. 
 To this end, you must shut the door against all foreign grants 
 for land, guarding all grants issued by the constituted authori- 
 ties of Texas : all others to be barred by positive law. You 
 
442 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 must with care husband your vacant land to meet your national 
 debt ; and, after that is paid, provide for the prosperity of your 
 state by funds for education and the improvement of the coun- 
 try. By guarding your unappropriated lands against all frauds 
 — by issuing scrip, bearing interest at three per cent., to the 
 amount of your debt, it will soon be paid ; by placing a mini- 
 mum price on your lands, and granting, with proper guards and 
 limitations, pre-emption rights to actual settlers, you will soon 
 pay off your public debt, and have more wealth left than any 
 state in our Union. 
 
 “ But, to protect your morals, and to cap the climax of your 
 prosperity, and protect the labor of your country, you must pro- 
 vide in your constitution, by a positive provision , that your 
 legislature never shall establish a bank, or any corporation 
 whatever, with a power to issue paper ; that no banks shall be 
 established by the legislature except on a specie basis, and then 
 only with the powers of receiving deposites, and exchange. 
 There never was nor ever could be use for any other kind, ex- 
 cept for speculators and gamblers in stocks, and this to the 
 utter ruin of the labor and morals of a country. A specie cur- 
 rency gives life and action to the producing classes, on which 
 the prosperity of all is founded.”* 
 
 The people of Texas were not ungrateful to General Jackson 
 for the interest he took in their welfare. By a joint resolution, 
 approved on the 21st of June, 1845, the Texan Congress ten- 
 dered him “ the unfeigned gratitude of a nation.” At that time, 
 however, their illustrious friend had ceased to live.f 
 
 * Jackson to Houston, March 12, 1845. 
 
 f At the close of the letter above quoted, General Jackson expressed a feeble 
 hope of seeing General Houston and family at the Hermitage in the summer. The 
 following letter to President Polk will explain the result : — 
 
 "Hermitage, June 8, 1845 — 12 o'clock at night. 
 
 “ My Dear Sir: In deep sorrow I address you this hasty note. At six o’clock 
 this evening, General Jackson departed this life. He retained his faculties to the 
 
ANNEXATION — A NEW MOVE TO PREVENT IT. 
 
 44S 
 
 President Jones was inaugurated on the 9th day of Decem- 
 ber, 1844. Neither the president, nor the ninth Texan Con- 
 gress, which adjourned its session on the 3d of February, 1845, 
 said anything on the subject of annexation. Both parties prob- 
 ably believed it was in as good a condition as they could desire 
 it. In the meantime, another change had occurred in Mexico, 
 and General Herrera, who belonged to the federal and peace 
 party, came to the presidency. He released Colonel Navarro, 
 the only remaining Texan prisoner in the republic, and gave 
 other indications of his desire for peace. At length, the Mexi- 
 can Congress authorized Herrera to open negotiations and con- 
 clude a peace with Texas, on condition that she would not be 
 annexed to the United States. This arrangement was brought 
 about through the agency of the British and French govern- 
 ments ; and, on the 19th of May, the preliminary articles were 
 signed by the Mexican government, transmitted through the 
 French minister in Mexico to Captain Elliot, the British charge 
 d’affaires in Texas, and by him laid before the Texan govern- 
 ment on the 2d day of June. On the 4th, President Jones pre- 
 sented these facts to the people by his proclamation, at the 
 
 very last hour. I lament that I was denied the satisfaction of seeing him in his 
 last moments. I was unfortunately delayed in ascending the Mississippi, so that 
 I did not reach Nashville till half-past six this evening. I immediately procured 
 a conveyance, and came out with my family — having understood that the gen- 
 eral’s health was exceedingly precarious, and being anxious to administer, if I 
 could, some comfort in the closing scene of his eventful life. On my way, a few 
 miles from the city, I met the family physician, who informed me that the gen- 
 eral was no more. 
 
 “About three hours before his departure, he conversed for some time with his 
 family, and took an affectionate leave of them, as also of his domestics. His 
 physician represented the scene as most affecting, and remarked that he departed 
 with perfect serenity, and with full faith in the promises of salvation through 
 the Redeemer. 
 
 “ I have seen the corse since my arrival: the visage is much as it was in life. 
 His funeral will take place on Tuesday, at eleven o’clock, A. M. A nation will 
 feel his loss, as a nation has received the fruits of his toils during the best years 
 of his life. Very truly your friend, “Sam Houston.” 
 
444 
 
 HISTORY OF TEXAS. 
 
 same time declaring a cessation of hostilities between the two 
 countries. On the 15th of May previous, he had called a con- 
 vention of sixty-one delegates, to meet on the 4th of July ensu- 
 ing, to consider the propositions for annexation ; also an extra 
 session of the ninth Congress, to meet on the 16th of June, in 
 order to give the consent of the republic to the anticipated con- 
 vention. The Congress, by a joint resolution, approved June 
 23, 1845, gave its consent to the joint resolutions of the Ameri- 
 can Congress ; also to the convention, as called by President 
 Jones. The latter body assembled, ratified the act of annexa- 
 tion, formed a constitution as a state of the Union, and sub- 
 mitted the whole to the Texan people. It was approved by 
 them ; and the lone star of Texas, after a struggle of ten years, 
 was gathered under the folds of the glorious banner of the 
 Union. 
 
 Here our labors end. Texas came into the Union for the 
 love she bore it. While it prospers, Texas will prosper : their 
 wars, their hopes, and their glory, are henceforth the same. 
 And it is the ardent wish and prayer of every good man that 
 the same God, who guided the young republic through so many 
 trials, will continue to bless that Union of which she now forms 
 a part. 
 
APPENDIX NO. I. 
 
 OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE 
 
 or THE 
 
 COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE TEXAN ARMY, IN 1835-’6, 
 
 [The following is not an entire collection of the official correspondence of the 
 commander-in-chief during the winter and spring of 1835-6, but only of so much 
 of it as is deemed most important, and which is not set out in the notes to this 
 history.] 
 
 INDEX TO THE LETTERS, ETC. 
 
 No, 1. To Captain Wylie Martin 
 
 2. To the General Council. . 
 
 3. To Thomas Hughes 
 
 4. To the Public 
 
 6. To Governor Smith 
 
 6. Proclamation 
 
 7. To Governor Smith 
 
 8. To Colonel James Bowie. 
 
 9. To Governor Smith 
 
 10. To Colonel Powers 
 
 11. To Governor Smith 
 
 12. To Governor Smith 
 
 13. To Captain Cook 
 
 14. To Governor Smith 
 
 15. To Major R C. Morris. . . . 
 
 16. To Governor Smith 
 
 17. Army Orders 
 
 18. To Colonel J. W. Fannin. 
 
 19. Order to Colonel Fannin. 
 
 20. To Captain Dimit 
 
 San Felipe, November 24, 1835. 
 
 u 44 
 
 <4 44 
 
 December 4, 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 
 December 5, 
 
 44 
 
 .Washington, December 12, 
 
 
 .San Felipe, 
 
 U it 
 
 “ 17, 
 
 44 44 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 .Washington, December 26, 
 
 44 
 
 “ 
 
 “ 28, 
 
 4< 
 
 » “ 
 
 “ 80, 
 
 44 
 
 “ 
 
 January 6, 1836. 
 
 .Goliad, 
 
 <4 
 
 “ 17, 
 
 44 
 
 .Refugio, 
 
 “ 20, 
 
 
 .Washington, “ 30, 
 
 
 44 
 
 March 2, 
 
 44 
 
 . Gonzales, 
 
 44 
 
 “ 11. 
 
 M 44 
 
 44 
 
 <( 
 
 “ 12, 
 
 44 
 
446 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 21. To James Collingsworth Gonzales, March 13, 1836. 
 
 22. 
 
 To the same 
 
 
 a 
 
 15, 
 
 44 
 
 23. 
 
 To the same 
 
 
 a 
 
 17, 
 
 44 
 
 24. 
 
 To Colonel Fannin 
 
 
 a 
 
 H 
 
 44 
 
 25. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk 
 
 
 u 
 
 21, 
 
 44 
 
 26. 
 
 To the same 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 23, 
 
 « 
 
 27. 
 
 To the same 
 
 44 
 
 « 
 
 <4 
 
 44 
 
 28. 
 
 To B. J. White 
 
 il 
 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 29. 
 
 To R. R. Royal 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 24, 
 
 44 
 
 30. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk 
 
 
 a 
 
 29, 
 
 44 
 
 31. 
 
 To Colonel William Christy 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 44 
 
 « 
 
 32. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk 
 
 
 a 
 
 31, 
 
 44 
 
 83. 
 
 To the same 
 
 
 April 1, 
 
 44 
 
 34. 
 
 To the same 
 
 cc 
 
 it 
 
 3, 
 
 <4 
 
 35. 
 
 To the same 
 
 “ 
 
 a 
 
 4, 
 
 44 
 
 36. 
 
 To Captain Mosely Baker 
 
 if 
 
 a 
 
 5, 
 
 44 
 
 37. 
 
 To David Thomas 
 
 44 
 
 a 
 
 6, 
 
 44 
 
 38. 
 
 To Captain J. N. Allen 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 8, 
 
 44 
 
 39. 
 
 To David Thomas 
 
 44 
 
 a 
 
 9, 
 
 44 
 
 40. 
 
 To the same 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 11, 
 
 44 
 
 41. 
 
 To the Citizens of Texas 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 13, 
 
 44 
 
 42. 
 
 To David Thomas 
 
 
 a 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 43. 
 
 To Colonel Nathaniel Robbins . . . . 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 44 
 
 44 
 
 44. 
 
 To Colonel Henry Raguet 
 
 
 u 
 
 19, 
 
 44 
 
 45. 
 
 To President Burnet 
 
 
 a 
 
 25, 
 
 44 
 
 46. 
 
 Secretary Rusk’s Report of the Battle of the 21st of April, 
 
 a 
 
 22, 
 
 “ 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 To Captain Wylie Martin. 
 
 San Felipe de Austin, November 24, 1835. 
 
 My Dear Sir : In accordance with our last conversation, I take 
 pleasure in explaining my views, if they can, in any possible event, 
 be of service to our country or countrymen. 
 
 If, in the range of human occurrences, it shall be proper or even 
 necessary for the army of the people before Bexar to fall back, be- 
 cause of the men not being prepared with proper clothing for winter, 
 and the want of necessary artillery and munitions of war, I would 
 suggest to you the advantage of retiring in good order, and sending 
 the cannon, baggage, and sick, in advance, so that they can at least 
 reach the Cibolo under conduct of a strong guard, and a vigilant offi- 
 cer to command it, before the enemy takes up his line of march. It 
 would seem, then, that the army should be formed in two divisions, 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 447 
 
 one to pursue the route to La Bahia, and the other that of Gonzales 
 There ought to be a sufficient force left at La Bahia to make a firm 
 defence at that place, and all possible means used for that purpose. 
 
 Gonzales being, in my opinion, the most important interior key to 
 Texas (proper), should also be placed in a condition for defence 
 with a force of from one to two hundred placed there, under a firm 
 and prudent commander, who will at once establish discipline and or- 
 ganization ; and, using the greatest vigilance, retaining a few horses 
 to keep out scouts. This, it seems to me, must be a rallying-point 
 for Texas Your friend, 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 To the President and Members of the General Council of Texas. 
 
 Headquarters, San Felipe de Austin, December 4, 1835. 
 
 Gentlemen : I have the honor very respectfully to call your at- 
 tention to the first article of the organic law of Texas, which pro- 
 vides for a military force for the defence of Texas, to wit : “ There 
 shall be a regular army for the protection of Texas during the pres- 
 ent war.” The provisional government will at once perceive the 
 impracticability of my discharging the duties devolving upon me, as 
 the commander-in-chief of the army, until the officers of the several 
 corps of the army are appointed, the bounty of the men established, 
 and the volunteers placed on such footing as will inspire them with 
 confidence in the cause of Texas. 
 
 I deem it of importance to the existence of the provisional gov- 
 ernment, as well as to the cause of Texas, that an immediate organi- 
 zation of the army should take place. Some time since, I had the 
 honor to address the governor of Texas on the subject of a procla- 
 mation, which may be of importance to our internal as well as our 
 auxiliary relations. 
 
 So soon as the army is organized by the council, I will delay no 
 time in raising an army, and meet the enemy on the earliest day 
 possible. Munitions of war, with provisions and supplies for the 
 army to be organized, are not yet contracted for 
 
 With great respect, I have the honor to be 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 Commander-in-Chicf of the Forces of Texas . 
 
448 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 To Mr. Thomas Hughes. 
 
 Headquarters, San Felipe de Austin, December 4, 1835. 
 
 Sir : . . . By the first of March next, or earlier if possible, I 
 would, in behalf of the provisional government of Texas, be happy 
 to accept the services of at least three thousand five hundred volun- 
 teers for during the war, or even for a less period. 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 Commander-in- Chief y Sfc. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 To the Public. 
 
 San Felipe de Austin, December 5, 1835. 
 
 I regret to learn that a report is on the road between this place 
 and Nacogdoches, to the effect that there is no need of troops in the 
 army at this time. Troops are and will be wanted at San Antonio, 
 and on the frontiers, until the army can be filled, so as to open the 
 
 campaign at the earliest day possible 
 
 I hope San Antonio is already taken. If so, volunteers will be 
 needed to keep it ; as also to strengthen La Bahia. It will be well 
 for the men to bring clothing with them. 
 
 It was also reported that provisions were not plenty in camp. 
 This may have been true ; but there are large quantities in the 
 vicinity of San Antonio, of which our army has the control. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 To His Excellency Henry Smith , Governor of Texas. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor respectfully to call your attention to the 
 subject of a speedy organization of the regular army. The organic 
 law has provided for the immediate raising of such force, and the 
 general council has said what corps shall compose the same. It is 
 required of me to raise the regular army without delay. I feel the 
 responsibility of my situation, at a time when every effort should be 
 exerted and means used to accomplish an object so necessary to the 
 defence, and, I apprehend, the salvation of Texas. I must remain 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 449 
 
 under the conviction, however, that all essential power to meet the 
 requisitions of the organic law is withheld from me. 
 
 It is true the officers of the infantry regiment have been appointed 
 by the general council, but the field-officers proper to command and 
 superintend the several recruiting-stations have not been appointed. 
 
 The regiment of artillery, so necessary for the defence of our sea- 
 coast, as well as for field-service, has no basis on which it can be 
 raised. No officers are appointed, and it will be impossible for me 
 ever to enlist the' rank and file until that is done. An army never 
 has been raised for regular service until the officers have been ap- 
 pointed. The regiments of the United States army were all com- 
 pletely officered before a man was enlisted in the ranks. It can not 
 be objected that merit will be forestalled by filling the several corps 
 at this time. It must have been contemplated by the framers of the 
 organic law that the army would be immediately organized out of 
 the materials then in Texas. 
 
 Unless the officers are appointed at an early day, it will be impos- 
 sible to have an army at the opening of the campaign — which, in 
 my opinion, can not be delayed, with safety to the country, longer 
 than the 20th of February, or 1st of March, at farthest. 
 
 If only a portion of the officers should be appointed, I appre- 
 hend the organization of the army will be incomplete, and the 
 intention of the law unanswered. The necessities of the coun- 
 try seem to require a complete organization. We must have an 
 army, or abandon all hope of defending the country. The letters 
 from Santa Anna and the functionaries of the central government, 
 recently intercepted, are calculated to arouse every generous heart 
 in Texas to active and obstinate resistance. An army of the enemy, 
 amounting to ten thousand men, with suitable munitions of war, must 
 be met and vanquished, or Texas will be overwhelmed for years to 
 come. Union and confidence among ourselves, and a generous sup- 
 port of the army, will achieve everything that is desirable to free- 
 men. Until a full complement of officers is appointed for the regu- 
 lar army, it is impossible that one can be raised. 
 
 I take pleasure in assuring your excellency that I will at all times 
 hold myself accountable for the means placed at my disposal for the 
 defences of the country, and the result of our cause. But it must 
 be obvious to all that in the same ratio in which the necessary and 
 proper means are withheld from me, so must my responsibility be 
 diminished. 
 
 Vol. II. — 29 
 
450 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Permit me to implore you most earnestly to give your attention 
 to the subjects herein very respectfully submitted. 
 
 I have the honor to be your obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 Proclamation of Sam Houston , Commander -in- Chief of the 
 Army of Texas. 
 
 Headquarters, Washington, Texas, December 12, 1836. 
 
 Citizens of Texas: Your situation is peculiarly calculated to 
 call forth all your manly energies. Under the republican constitu- 
 tion of Mexico, you were invited to Texas, then a wilderness. You 
 have reclaimed and rendered it a cultivated country. You solemnly 
 swore to support the constitution and its laws. Your oaths are yet 
 inviolate. In accordance therewith you have fought with the liber- 
 als against those who sought to overthrow the constitution in 1832, 
 when the present usurper was the champion of liberal principles in 
 Mexico. Your obedience has manifested your integrity. You have 
 witnessed with pain the convulsions of the interior, and a succession 
 of usurpations. You have experienced in silent grief, the expulsion 
 of your members elect from the state Congress. 
 
 You have realized the horrors of anarchy and the dictation of 
 military rule. The promises made to you have not been fulfilled. 
 Your memorials for the redress of grievances have been disregarded ; 
 and the agents you have sent to Mexico have been imprisoned for 
 years, without enjoying the rights of trial agreeably to law. Your 
 constitutional executive has been deposed by the bayonets of a 
 mercenary soldiery, while your Congress has been dissolved by vio- 
 lence, and its members, either fled, or were arrested by the military 
 force of the country. The federation has been dissolved, the consti- 
 tution declared at an end, and centralism has been established. Amid 
 all these trying vicissitudes, you remained loyal to the duty of citi- 
 zens, with a hope that liberty would not perish in the republic of Mex- 
 ico. But while you were fondly cherishing this hope, the dictator 
 required the surrender of the arms of the civic militia, that he might 
 be enabled to establish on the ruins of the constitution, a system of 
 policy which would for ever enslave the people of Mexico. Zaca- 
 tecas, unwilling to yield her sovereignty to the demand which struck 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 451 
 
 at the root of all liberty, refused to disarm her citizens of their pri- 
 vate arms. Ill-fated state ! Her power, as well as her wealth 
 aroused the ambition of Santa Anna, and excited his cupidity. Her 
 citizens became the first victims of his cruelty, while her wealth was 
 sacrificed in payment for the butchery of her citizens. The success 
 of the usurper determined him in exacting from the people of Texas 
 snbmission to the central form of government ; and, to enforce his 
 plan of despotism, he despatched a military force to invade the col- 
 onies, and exact the arms of the inhabitants. The citizens refused 
 the demand, and the invading force was increased. The question 
 then was, “ Shall we resist the oppression and live free, or violate 
 our oaths, and bear a despot’s stripes V* The citizens of Texas ral- 
 lied to the defence of their rights. They have met four to one, and, 
 by their chivalry and courage, have vanquished the enemy with a 
 gallantry and spirit which is characteristic of the justice of our cause. 
 
 The army of the people is now before Bexar, besieging the cen- 
 tral army within its wall. Though called together at the moment, 
 the citizens of Texas, unprovided as they were in the necessary 
 munitions of war and supplies for an army, have maintained a siege 
 for months. Always patient and untiring in their patriotism and 
 zeal in the cause of liberty, they have borne every vicissitude of sea- 
 son and every incident of the soldier, with a contempt of peril which 
 reflects immortal honor on the members of the army of the people. 
 
 Since our army has been in the field, a consultation of the people, 
 by their representatives, has met, and established a provisional gov- 
 ernment. This course has grown out of the emergencies of the 
 country ; the army has claimed its peculiar care. We are without 
 law, and without a constitutional head. The provisional executive 
 and the general council of Texas are earnestly engaged in the dis- 
 charge of their respective duties, preparing for every exigency of the 
 country ; and I am satisfied, from their zeal, ability, and patriotism, 
 that Texas will have everything to hope, from their exertions in 
 behalf of the principles which we have avowed. 
 
 A regular army has been created, and liberal encouragement has 
 been given by the government. To all who will enlist for two 
 years, or during the war, a bounty of twenty-four dollars and eight 
 hundred acres of land will be given. Provision has also been made 
 for raising an auxiliary volunteer corps, to constitute part of the 
 army of Texas, which will be placed under the command, and sub- 
 ject to the orders of the commander-m-ehief. The field for promo- 
 
452 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion will be open. The terms of service will be various. To those 
 who tender their services for, or during the war, will be given a 
 bounty of six hundred and forty acres of land ; an equal bounty will 
 be given to those who volunteer their services for two years ; if for 
 one year, a bounty of three hundred and twenty acres ; and to 
 those who may volunteer for a shorter period, no bounty of land will 
 be given, but the same liberal pay, rations, &c., will be allowed 
 them as other members of the army. The rights of citizenship are 
 extended to all who will unite with us in defending the republican 
 principles of the constitution of 1824. 
 
 Citizens of Texas, your rights must be defended. The oppres- 
 sors must be driven from our soil. Submission to the laws and 
 union among ourselves will render us invincible ; subordination and 
 discipline in our army will guaranty to us victory and renown. Our 
 invader has sworn to exterminate us, or sweep us from the soil of 
 Texas. He is vigilant in his work of oppression, and has ordered 
 to Texas ten thousand men to enforce the unhallowed purposes of 
 his ambition. His letters to his subalterns in Texas have been in- 
 tercepted, and his plans for our destruction are disclosed. Depart- 
 ing from the chivalric principles of civilized warfare, he has ordered 
 arms to be distributed to a portion of our population , for the purpose 
 of creating in the midst of us a servile war. The hopes of the 
 usurper were inspired by a belief that the citizens of Texas were 
 disunited and divided in opinion ; that alone has been the cause of 
 the present invasion of our rights. He shall realize the fallacy of 
 his hopes, in the union of her citizens, and their eternal resist- 
 ance to his plans against constitutional liberty. We will enjoy our 
 birthright, or perish in its defence. 
 
 The services of five thousand volunteers will be accepted. By 
 the first of March next, we must meet the enemy with an army 
 worthy of our cause, and which will reflect honor upon freemen. 
 Our habitations must be defended ; the sanctity of our hearths and 
 firesides must be preserved from pollution. Liberal Mexicans will 
 unite with us. Our countrymen in the field have presented an ex- 
 ample worthy of imitation. Generous and brave hearts from a land 
 of freedom have joined our standard before Bexar. They have, by 
 their heroism and valor, called forth the admiration of their com- 
 rades in arms, and have reflected additional honor on the land of 
 their birth. Let the brave rally to our standard. 
 
 Sam Houston, Commander-in-Chief of the Army. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 453 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 To Governor Henry Smith. 
 
 Headquarters, San Felipe de Austin, December 17, 1835. 
 
 Sir : On yesterday I had the honor to receive your order, direct- 
 ing the establishment of the headquarters of the army at Washing- 
 ton. It will give me pleasure to obey the order at the earliest 
 possible moment. 
 
 In the meantime, I do most earnestly solicit the attention of your 
 excellency to the subject of an appropriation to cover the recruiting 
 contingencies of the army. And I would beg leave to suggest the 
 necessity of establishing a system of accountability in all its disbur- 
 sing departments ; requiring ample security of all the officers, who 
 may be intrusted with funds, agreeably to the system established 
 in the United States, if the provisions of the organic law are not 
 sufficient. 
 
 More than a month has now elapsed since the adjournment of the 
 consultation, and the army is not yet organized ; and, though I have 
 ordered some officers on the recruiting service, it has been on my 
 own responsibility. 
 
 It is extremely painful to me to feel what I am compelled to ex- 
 perience, and believe to exist. I have never failed to render any 
 information, when called on by the chairman of the military com- 
 mittee, and to furnish such books as he wished for his instruction. 
 Yet, I am constrained to believe that he has interposed every possi- 
 ble obstacle to the organization of the army ; and, so far as I am 
 identified with it, to delay the placing of Texas in a proper state of 
 defence. 
 
 To arrive at this conclusion, it is only necessary to advert to a 
 report which he made on the subject of the speedy organization of 
 the army. In the report, he took the liberty (though entirely un- 
 necessary) of using remarks of a personal character toward myself. 
 The honorable the general council deemed them so indecorous that 
 they were stricken out of the report. To account for this course on 
 the part of the chairman is not necessary. 
 
 I am careless of whatever individual feelings may be entertained 
 toward me : but as a functionary of the government, placed in the 
 most responsible situation, and so necessary to the salvation of the 
 country, I am constrained to invoke and to hope for the necessary 
 
454 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 co-operation in discharge of the duties which I owe to the country 
 and its laws. I am ready to make any and every sacrifice which 
 my relations to the country may require of me. 
 
 This communication is induced by no other feeling than a sincere 
 desire to point out the difficulties which are thrown in the way of 
 all my exertions to promote the cause of the country ; and, at the 
 same time, to vindicate myself against the charge of neglect of duty, 
 or any want of the most devoted, zeal in behalf of Texas. 
 
 I have the honor to be, with great consideration, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 Commander -in- Chief, fyc. 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 To Colonel James Bowie. 
 
 [Array Orders.] Headquarters, San Felipe, December 17, 1835. 
 
 Sir : In obedience to the order of his excellency Henry Smith, 
 governor of Texas, of this date, I have the honor to direct that, in 
 the event you can obtain the services of a sufficient number of men 
 for the purpose, you will forthwith proceed on the route to Matamo- 
 ras, and, if possible, reduce the place and retain possession until fur- 
 ther orders. Should you not find it within your power to attain an 
 object so desirable as the reduction of Matamoras, you will, by all 
 possible means, conformably to the rules of civilized warfare, annoy 
 the troops of the central army ; and reduce and keep possession of 
 the most eligible position on the frontier, using the precaution which 
 characterizes your mode of warfare. You will conduct the cam- 
 paign. Much is referred to your discretion. Should you commence 
 the campaign, you will, from time to time, keep the government 
 advised of your operations, through the commander-in-chief of the 
 army. Under any circumstances, the port of Copano is important. 
 
 If any officers or men, who have, at any time, been released on 
 parole, should be taken in arms, they will be proper subjects for the 
 consideration of a court-martial. Great caution is necessary in the 
 country of an enemy. 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 Commander-in- Chief. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 455 
 
 No. 9. 
 
 To Governor Smith. 
 
 Headquarters, Washington, December 26, 1835. 
 
 To Your Excellency : I have the honor of reporting my arri- 
 val here on yesterday, and my finding here Captain Wyatt, with a 
 company or detachment, consisting of less than fifty-six men, from 
 Huntsville, Alabama ; also Captain King, with about eighteen men, 
 from Paducah, Kentucky, with rifles — Captain Wyatt having fifty 
 first-rate United States muskets. Under the restrictions of the law, 
 I find myself under the most painful difficulties in accepting the ser- 
 vices of these volunteers. I will do the best I can for the country, 
 while I render justice to them. I found in the ranks great discon- 
 tent, and a disposition to abandon our cause. To-day I have spent 
 much time in explaining all matters to them. I hope they are sat- 
 isfied 
 
 To-day there has been an arrival in six days from San Antonio, 
 which reports all quiet, but no discipline. Ere this I hope my order 
 has reached them, and will have a proper effect with the command. 
 It is said that Bowie will be here to-morrow. Should he come to 
 San Felipe, I hope your excellency will be kind enough to order 
 him to this point, as I can furnish him with a copy of the order 
 which I forwarded to him by your excellency’s order. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston, Commander , Sfc . 
 
 No. 10. 
 
 To Colonel Powers. 
 
 Washington, Texas, December 28, 1835. 
 
 Dear Colonel : Colonel Wyatt, with two detachments of aux- 
 iliary volunteers, is on his way to the vicinity of Copano, for the 
 purpose of protecting that point, so essential to the present posture 
 of our affairs. I hope that you will afford him all possible intelli- 
 gence, and render to him all necessary aid. 
 
 Colonel Wyatt will relieve Captain Allen, who will re- 
 pair to New Orleans, and return by the first of March. Say to our 
 
 friends that, by the rise of grass, we will be on the march 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
456 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. It. 
 
 To Governor Henry Smith. 
 
 Headquarters, Washington, December 30 , 1835 . 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to enclose to you a muster-roll of Captain 
 P. S. Wyatt, and one also from Captain King. Both the company 
 and detachment are under the command and subject to the orders 
 of Captain Wyatt. I have had much difficulty in getting them to 
 volunteer for any definite period. But the ordinance left a discre- 
 tion with me to accept their services for such time as I “ might think 
 the good of the service required.” I did think it necessary to spe- 
 cify some certain time, and that time, I conceived, ought not to be 
 less than three months ; if so, it would be burdensome to the coun- 
 try, without any corresponding benefit. I think they will eventu- 
 ally all volunteer for during the war. They are all on the march 
 for Copano, where I design they shall be stationed until further or- 
 ders. To-day I sent despatches to Velasco and Matagorda, with 
 orders to Lieutenant Eaton to act as assistant quartermaster-general, 
 to furnish supplies to alt troops landing on the gulf, on their way to 
 Copano. I have herewith enclosed to your excellency a copy of 
 the order, having sent a special order to Lieutenant Eaton of prior 
 date. 
 
 I beg leave to remark that, by the time I can hold an Indian 
 talk, and arrange matters for safety in the rear of the army, and 
 return to this point, and spend a few days here, leaving a capable 
 officer in command at this place, as also at other points, I will be 
 ready, should there be the slightest necessity for my presence at 
 Copano or on the frontier, to repair instantly to the point where I 
 may be needed. 
 
 In the meantime, I pray that your excellency will not permit the 
 suggestions of those who neither know nor can appreciate my duties 
 (or the necessity of my occupying, until the campaign opens, a cen- 
 tral position), to induce your excellency to believe that I can be 
 necessary, and ought to be, where a subordinate can discharge every 
 duty. 
 
 You may rely on it that a subaltern, whom I would leave in com- 
 mand at this point, would have more important duties devolving 
 upon him than those which would be confided, at an outpost, to the 
 major-general ; while the general and the governor would be held 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 457 
 
 responsible to the country for any and every failure or delinquency 
 which might occur to the detriment of the army, or the defence of 
 the country. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
 P. S. — From news received to-day from the mouth of the Brasos 
 (unofficial), I will be ready, on my return from the treaty , to set out 
 with the staff of the army (with your excellency’s order), in three 
 days, for Copano, or Matamoras. 
 
 No. 12. 
 
 To Governor Henry Smith. 
 
 Headquarters, Washington, January 6, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to enclose to your excellency the report 
 of Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Neill, of the artillery ; and most respect- 
 fully request that you will render to the cause of Texas and hu- 
 manity the justice of bestowing upon it your serious attention, and 
 referring it to the general council of the provisional government, in 
 secret session. These, I may be permitted to hope, you will attend 
 in person, that all the essential functionaries of the government may 
 deliberate, and adopt some course that will redeem our country from 
 a state of deplorable anarchy. Manly and bold decision alone can 
 save us from ruin. I only require orders, and they shall be obeyed. 
 If the government now yields to the unholy dictation of speculators 
 and marauders upon human rights, it were better that we had yielded 
 to the despotism of a single man, whose ambition might have been 
 satisfied by our unconditional submission to his authority, and a pro- 
 nouncement, for which we were asked, in favor of his power. 
 
 In the present instance, the people of Texas have not even been 
 consulted. The brave men who have been wounded in the battles 
 of Texas, and the sick from exposure in her cause, without blankets 
 or supplies, are left neglected in her hospitals ; while the needful 
 stores and supplies are diverted from them, without authority and 
 by self-created officers, who do not acknowledge the only govern- 
 ment known to Texas and the world. 
 
 Within thirty hours I shall set out for the army, and repair there 
 with all possible despatch. I pray that a confidential express may 
 meet me at Goliad ; and, if I shall have left, that it may pursue me 
 wherever I may be. 
 
458 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No language can express my anguish of soul. Oh, save our poor 
 country! — send supplies to the wounded, the sick, the naked, and 
 the hungry, for God’s sake ! What will the world think of the au- 
 thorities of Texas 1 Prompt, decided, and honest independence, is 
 all that can save them, and redeem our country. I do not fear — I 
 will do my duty. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 13. 
 
 To Captain Cook , of the San Antonio Grays. 
 
 Headquarters, Goliad, January 17, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the pleasure to acknowledge the tender of your ser- 
 vices, and those of your company, to Texas, for the term of three 
 months. The same are accepted, in behalf of Texas, with pleasure, 
 
 for the term of three months 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 14. 
 
 To Governor Henry Smith. 
 
 Headquarters, Goliad, January 17, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to send, for your information, the enclosed 
 from Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Neill, under date of the 14th instant. 
 Colonel Bowie will leave here in a few hours for Bexar, with a de- 
 tachment of from twenty to fifty men. Captain Patton’s company, 
 it is believed, is now there. I have ordered the fortifications in 
 the town of Bexar to be demolished ; and, if you should think well 
 of it, I will remove all the cannon and other munitions of war to 
 Gonzales and Copano, blow up the Alamo, and abandon the place, 
 as it will be impossible to keep up the station with the volunteers. 
 The sooner I can be so authorized, the better it will be for the 
 country. In an hour I will take up the line of march for Refugio 
 mission, with a force of about two hundred and nine effective men, 
 where I will await orders from your excellency. I do not believe 
 that the army, of such a small force, should advance upon Matamo- 
 ras, with a hope or belief that the Mexicans will co-operate with us. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 459 
 
 I have no confidence in them : the disaster at Tampico should teach 
 us a lesson to be noted in our future operations. 
 
 I have learned that Colonel Gonzales is somewhere on the Nueces 
 with one hundred and seventy men, but accounts vary as to their 
 actual number. I am told they are to co-operate in the eastern 
 confederacy. 
 
 I will leave Captain Wyatt in command at this post, until I can 
 relieve him with thirty-five regulars now at Refugio. I pray your 
 excellency to cause all the regulars now enlisted to be formed into 
 companies, and marched to headquarters. It will be impossible to 
 keep up garrisons with volunteers. Do forward the regulars. Cap- 
 tain Smith had been relieved, and I met him on his way home. To- 
 day, Captain Patton will return to the Lavaca country, and bring 
 on a company as soon as possible. I have sent to Captain Dimit 
 to raise one hundred or more men, and march to Bexar forthwith — 
 if it should be invested ; if not, to repair to headquarters with his 
 command. Captain Patton will do likewise. I would myself have 
 marched with a force to Bexar, but the Matamoras fever rages so 
 high, that I must see Colonel Ward’s men. You can have no idea 
 of the difficulties I have encountered. Patton has told you of the 
 men that make the trouble. Better materials never were in ranks. 
 The government and all its officers had been misrepresented to the 
 army. 
 
 I pray you send me copies of Austin’s letters, or rather extracts. 
 If the council are in session, I do wish they would say something 
 about the confederacy. Please send me frequent expresses, and 
 advise me of your pleasure. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 15. 
 
 To Major R. C. Morris. 
 
 Headquarters, Refugio, January 20, 1836. 
 General Houston will be happy to see Major R. C. Morris, at 
 Captain Westover’s, whenever it will suit his convenience, as he 
 wishes to make some communications, through him, to the volun- 
 teers at this post. 
 
460 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 16. 
 
 To Governor Henry Smith. 
 
 Municipality of Washington, January 30, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to report to you that, in obedience to your 
 order under date of the 6th inst., I left Washington on the 8th, and 
 reached Goliad on the night of the 14th. On the morning of that 
 day I met Captain Diinit, on his return home with his command, 
 who reported to me the fact that his citballada of horses (the most 
 of them private property) had been pressed by Dr. Grant, who 
 styled himself acting commander-in-chief of the federal army, and 
 that he had under his command about two hundred men. Captain 
 Dimit had been relieved by Captain P. S. Wyatt, of the volunteers, 
 from Huntsville, Alabama. I was also informed by Major R. C. 
 Morris that breadstuff was wanted in camp ; and he suggested his 
 wish to remove the volunteers farther west. By express, I had ad- 
 vised the stay of the troops at Goliad until I could reach that point. 
 
 On my arrival at that post, I found them destitute of many sup- 
 plies necessary to their comfort on a campaign. An express reached 
 me from Lieutenant-Colonel Neill, of Bexar, of an expected attack 
 from the enemy in force. I immediately requested Colonel James 
 Bowie to march with a detachment of volunteers to his relief. He 
 met the request with his usual promptitude and manliness. This 
 intelligence I forwarded to your excellency, for the action of gov- 
 ernment. With a hope that supplies had or would immediately 
 reach the port of Copano, I ordered the troops, through Major R. C. 
 Morris, to proceed to Refugio mission, where it was reported there 
 would be an abundance of beef — leaving Captain Wyatt and his 
 command, for the present, in possession of Goliad, or until he could 
 be relieved by a detachment of regulars under the command of 
 Lieutenant Thornton, and some recruits that had been enlisted by 
 Captain Ira Westover. On the arrival of the troops at Refugio, I 
 ascertained that no breadstuflfs could be obtained, nor was there any 
 intelligence of supplies reaching Copano, agreeably to my expecta- 
 tions, and in accordance with my orders of the 30th of December 
 and 6th of January inst. directing the landing and concentrating all 
 the volunteers at Copano. I had also advised Colonel A. Huston, 
 the quartermaster-general, to forward the supplies he might obtain 
 at New Orleans to the same point. Not meeting the command of 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 461 
 
 Major Ward, as I had hoped from the early advice I had sent him 
 by Major George W. Poe, I determined to await his arrival and the 
 command of Captain Wyatt. With a view to he in a state of readi- 
 ness to march to the scene of active operations at the first moment 
 that my force, and the supplies necessary, could reach me, I ordered 
 Lieutenant Thornton with his comnjand (total twenty-nine) to Goliad, 
 to relieve Captain Wyatt ; at the same time ordering the latter to 
 join the volunteers at Refugio. I found much difficulty in prevail- 
 ing on the regulars to march until they had received either money 
 or clothing ; and their situation was truly destitute. Had I not suc- 
 ceeded, the station at Goliad must have been left without any de- 
 fence, and abandoned to the enemy, whatever importance its occu- 
 pation may he to the security of the frontier. Should Bexar remain 
 a military post, Goliad must be maintained, or the former will be cut 
 off from all supplies arriving by sea at the port of Copano. 
 
 On the evening of the 20th, F. W. Johnson, Esq., arrived at Re- 
 fugio, and it was understood that he was empowered, by the general 
 council of Texas, to interfere in my command. On the 21st, and 
 previous to receiving notice of his arrival, I issued an order to 
 organize the troops so soon as they might arrive at that place, 
 agreeably to the “ ordinance for raising an auxiliary corps” to the 
 army. A copy of the order I have the honor to enclose herewith. 
 Mr. Johnson then called on me, previous to the circulation of the 
 order, and showed me the resolutions of the general council, dated 
 14th of January, a copy of which I forward for the perusal of your 
 excellency. 
 
 So soon as I was made acquainted with the nature of his mission, 
 and the powers granted to J. W. Fannin, jr., I could not remain 
 mistaken as to the object of the council, or the wishes of individuals. 
 I had but one course left for me to pursue (the report of your being 
 deposed had also reached me), which was, to return, And report my- 
 self to you in person — inasmuch as the objects intended by your 
 order were, by the extraordinary conduct of the council, rendered 
 useless to the country : and, by remaining with the army, the coun- 
 cil would have had the pleasure of ascribing to me the evils which 
 their own conduct and acts will, in all probability, produce. I do 
 consider the acts of the council calculated to protract the war for 
 years to come ; and the field which they have opened to insubordi- 
 nation, and to agencies without limit (unknown to military usage), 
 will cost the country more useless expenditure than the necessary 
 
462 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 expense of the whole war would have been had they not transcended 
 their proper duties. Without integrity of purpose, and well-devised 
 measures, our whole frontier must be exposed to the enemy. All 
 the available resources of Texas are directed, through special as well 
 as general agencies , against Matamoras ; and must, in all probability, 
 prove as unavailing to the interest as they will to the honor of Texas. 
 The regulars at Goliad can not long be detained at that station, un- 
 less they should get supplies ; and now all the resources of Texas 
 are placed in the hands of agents unknown to the government in its 
 formation, and existing by the mere will of the council ; and will 
 leave all other objects, necessary for the defence of the country, 
 neglected, for the want of means, until the meeting of the conven- 
 tion in March next. 
 
 It was my wish, if it had been possible, to avoid for the present 
 the expression of any opinion which might be suppressed in the 
 present crisis. But since I reported to your excellency, having had 
 leisure to peruse all the documents of a controversial nature growing 
 out of the relative duties of yourself and the general council to the 
 people of Texas, a resolution of the council, requiring of me an act 
 of insubordination and disobedience to your orders, demands of me 
 that I should inquire into the nature of that authority which would 
 stimulate me to an act of treason, or an attempt to subvert the gov- 
 ernment which I have sworn to support. The only constitution 
 which Texas has is the “ organic law.” Then any violation of that 
 law, which would destroy the basis of government, must be treason. 
 Has treason been committed ? if so, by whom, and for what pur- 
 pose ? The history of the last few weeks will be the best answer 
 that can be rendered. 
 
 After the capitulation of Bexar, it was understood at headquarters 
 that there was much discontent with the troops then at that point, 
 and that it might be necessary to employ them in some active en- 
 terprise, or the force would dissolve. "With this information was 
 suggested the expediency of an attack on Matamoras. For the pur- 
 pose of improving whatever advantages might have been gained at 
 Bexar, I applied to your excellency for orders, which I obtained, 
 directing the adoption of such measures as might be deemed best for 
 the protection of the frontier and the reduction of Matamoras. This 
 order was dated 17tli of December ; and on the same date I wrote 
 to Colonel James Bowie, directing him, in the event he could obtain 
 a sufficient number of volunteers for the purpose, to make a descent 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 463 
 
 on Matamoras ; and, if his force would not justify that measure, he 
 was directed to occupy the most advanced post, so as to check the 
 enemy, and by all means to place himself in a situation to command 
 Copano. Colonel Bowie did not receive the order : having left Go- 
 liad for Bexar, he was not apprized of it until his arrival at Sail 
 Felipe, about the first of January instant. My reason for ordering 
 Colonel Bowie on the service was, his familiar acquaintance with 
 the country, as well as the nature of the population through which 
 the troops must pass, as also their resources ; and to this I freely 
 add that there is no man on whose forecast, prudence, and valor, I 
 place a higher estimate than Colonel Bowie. 
 
 Previous to this time, the general council had adopted a resolution 
 requiring the governor to direct the removal of the headquarters of 
 the army, and I had been ordered to Washington, for their estab- 
 lishment, until further orders. I had been detained, awaiting copies 
 of the ordinances relative to the army. Their design was manifest, 
 nor could their objects be misapprehended, though the extent to 
 which they were then carrying them was not known. Messrs. 
 Hanks and Clements were engaged in writing letters to individuals 
 at Bexar, urging and authorizing a campaign against Matamoras ; 
 and, that their recommendation might bear the stamp of authority, 
 and mislead those who were unwilling to embark in an expedition 
 not sanctioned by government, and led by private individuals, they 
 took the liberty of signing themselves members of the military com- 
 mittee ; thereby deceiving the volunteers, and assuming a character 
 which they could only use or employ in the general council, in pro- 
 posing business for the action of that body. They could not be 
 altogether ignorant of the impropriety of such conduct, but doubt- 
 less could easily find a solid justification in the bullion of their pa- 
 triotism and the ore of their integrity. Be their motive whatever 
 it might, many brave and honorable men were deluded by it, and 
 the campaign was commenced upon Matamoras, under Dr. Grant, 
 as “ acting” commander-in-chief of the volunteer army — a title and 
 designation unknown to the world. But the general council, in their 
 address to the people of Texas, dated January 11th, state that “ they 
 never recognised in Dr. Grant any authority whatever as an officer 
 of the government, or army, at the time.” They will not, I pre- 
 sume, deny that they did acknowledge a draft, or order, drawn by 
 him, as acting commander -in-chief amounting to seven hundred and 
 fifty dollars. But this they will doubtless justify, on the ground 
 
464 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 that your excellency commissioned General Burleson, and, of course, 
 the appointment of Dr. Grant, as his aide-de-camp, would authorize 
 him to act in the absence of General Burleson. It is an established 
 principle in all armies that a staff-officer can claim no command in 
 the line of the army, nor exercise any command in the absence of 
 the general, unless he holds a commission in the line. In the ab- 
 sence of General Burleson, the senior colonel — or, in the absence 
 of the colonel, the major — or, in his absence, the senior captain — 
 would have the command ; but in no event can the aide , or staff- 
 officer, unless he holds a commission in the line of the army, have 
 any command ; and his existence must cease, unless he should be 
 continued or reappointed by the officer of the line who succeeds to 
 the command, in the absence of his superior. When General Burle- 
 son left the army, his aide had no command, but the field-officer next 
 in rank to himself. Then, who is Dr. Grant ? Is he not a Scotch- 
 man, who has resided in Mexico for the last ten years ? does he 
 not own large possessions in the interior? has he ever taken the 
 oath to support the organic law? is he not deeply interested in the 
 hundred-league claims of land which hang like a murky cloud over 
 the people of Texas ? is he not the man who impressed the property 
 of the people of Bexar ? is he not the man who took from Bexar, 
 without authority, or knowledge of the government, cannon and 
 other munitions of war, together with supplies necessary for the 
 troops at that station, leaving the wounded and the sick destitute 
 of needful comforts ? Yet this is the man whose outrages and op- 
 pressions upon the rights of the people of Texas are sustained and 
 justified by the acts and conduct of the general council ! 
 
 Several members of that body are aware that the interests and 
 feelings of Dr. Grant are opposed to the independence and true in- 
 terests of the people of Texas. While every facility has been 
 afforded to the meditated campaign against Matamoras, no aid has 
 been rendered for raising a regular force for the defence of the 
 country, nor one cent advanced to an officer or soldier of the regu- 
 lar army, but every hinderance thrown in the way. The council 
 had no right to project a campaign against any point or place. It 
 was the province of the governor, by his proper officers, to do so. 
 The council had the right of consenting or objecting, but not of pro- 
 jecting. The means ought to be placed at the disposition of the 
 governor ; and if he, by himself, or his officers, failed in their appli- 
 cation, while he would be responsible for the success of the armies 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 465 
 
 of Texas, he could be held responsible to the government, and pun- 
 ishable : but what recourse has the country upon agents who have 
 taken no oath, and given no bonds to comply with the powers 
 granted by the council ? 
 
 The organic law declares, in article third, that “ the governor and 
 general council have power to organize, reduce, or increase, the reg- 
 ular forces but it delegates no power to create army-agents, to 
 supersede the commander-in-chief, as will be seen by reference to 
 the second article of the “ military” basis of that law. After de- 
 claring that there shall be a regular army for the protection of Texas 
 during the present war, in the first article, it proceeds in the second 
 to state the constituents of that arm} : “ The regular army of Texas 
 shall consist of one major-general, who shall be commander-in-chief 
 of all the forces called into public service during the war.” This, it 
 will be remembered, is a law from which the council derive their 
 powers ; and, of course, all troops in service since the adoption of 
 this law, and all that have been accepted, or to be accepted during 
 my continuance in office, are under my command. Consequently, 
 the council could not create an agency that could assume any com- 
 mand of troops, so as to supersede my powers, without a plain and 
 palpable violation of their oaths. New names given could not 
 change the nature of their obligations : they had violated the “ or- 
 ganic law.” 
 
 I will now advert to an ordinance of their own body, entitled “ an 
 ordinance and decree to organize and establish an auxiliary volun- 
 teer corps of the army of Texas,” &c., passed December 5 , 1835 . 
 The ordinance throughout recognises the competency of the gov- 
 ernor and commander-in-chief as the only persons authorized to ac- 
 cept the services of the volunteers, and makes it their especial duty 
 to do so. It also gives the discretion to the commander-in-chief to 
 accept the services of the volunteers for such term as “ he shall 
 think the defence of the country and the good of the service re- 
 quire.” It is specified that muster-rolls shall accompany the reports 
 of volunteers, and, when reported by the commander-in-chief to the 
 governor, that commissions shall issue accordingly. Where elec- 
 tions take place in the volunteer corps, the ordinance declares that 
 they shall be certified to the commander-in-chief, and by him for- 
 warded to the governor. The third section of the law declares that 
 when controversies arise in relation to the rank of officers of the 
 same grade, they shall be determined “ by drawing numbers, which 
 VOL. II.— 30 
 
466 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 shall be done by order of the commander-in-cliief of the army.*' 
 This law was enacted by the general council, and they can not 
 allege that any misconstruction could arise out of it ; for it plainly 
 points out the duties of the governor and commander-in chief, as de- 
 fined by themselves. Yet, without the repeal of this law, they have 
 proceeded to appoint agents to exercise the very powers declared 
 by them to belong to the governor and commander-in-chief ! This 
 they have done, under the impression that a change of names would 
 enable them to put down the governor and the commander-in-chief, 
 not subject to them for their places, but created by the consultation, 
 and both of whom are as independent of the council as the council 
 is of them — the commander-in-chief being subject to the organic 
 law, and all laws conformable thereto, under the orders of the gov- 
 ernor. I have obeyed the orders of your excellency as promptly 
 as they have met my knowledge ; and had not the council, by acts 
 as outrageous to my feelings as they are manifestly against law, 
 adopted a course that must destroy all hopes of an army, I should 
 yet have been on the frontier, and, by all possible means, I would 
 at least have sought to place it in a state of defence. 
 
 It now becomes my duty to advert to the subject of the powers 
 granted by the general council to J. W. Fannin, jr., on the 7th of 
 January, 1836 ; and at a time when two members of the military 
 committee, and other members of the council, were advised that I 
 had received orders from your excellency to repair forthwith to the 
 frontier of Texas, and to concentrate the troops for the very purpose 
 avowed in the resolutions referred to. The powers are as clearly 
 illegal as they were unnecessary. By reference to the resolutions, 
 it will be perceived that the powers given to J. W. F annin, jr., are 
 as comprehensive in their nature, and as much at variance with the 
 organic law and the decrees of the general council, as the decrees 
 of the general Congress of Mexico are at variance with the federal 
 constitution of 1824, and really delegate to J. W. Fannin, jr., as ex- 
 tensive powers as those conferred by the Congress on General Santa 
 Anna. Yet the cant is kept up, even by J. W. Fannin, jr., against 
 the danger of a regular army ; while he is exercising powers which 
 he must be satisfied are in open violation of the organic law. J. W. 
 Fannin, jr., is a colonel in the regular army, and was sworn in and 
 received his commission on the very day that the resolutions were 
 adopted by the council. By his oath he was subject to the orders 
 of the commander-in-chief, and, as a subaltern, could not, without 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 467 
 
 an act of mutiny, interfere with the general command of the forces 
 of Texas ; yet I find, in the “ Telegraph” of the 9th inst., a procla- 
 mation of his, dated on the 8th, addressed, “Attention, volunteers,” 
 and requiring them to rendezvous at San Patricio. No official char- 
 acter is pretended by him, as his signature is private. This he did 
 with a knowledge that I had ordered the troops from the mouth of 
 the Brasos to Copana, and had repaired to that point to concentrate 
 them. On the 10th inst., F. W. Johnson issued a similar proclama- 
 tion, announcing Matamoras as the point of attack. The powers of 
 both these gentlemen were derived, if derived at all, from the gen- 
 eral council, in’opposition to the will of J;he governor; because cer- 
 tain purposes were to be answered, or the safety and harmony of 
 Texas should be destroyed. 
 
 Colonel Fannin, in a letter addressed to the general council, dated 
 on the 21st of January, at Velasco, and to which he subscribes himself, 
 “ J. W. Fannin, jr., agent provisional government,” when speaking 
 of anticipated difficulties with the commander-in-chief, allays the fears 
 of the council, by assuring them that, “ I shall never make any my- 
 self and he then adds, “The object in view will be the governing 
 principle, and should General Houston be ready and willing to take 
 command, and march direct ahead, and execute your orders, and the 
 volunteers to submit to it, or a reasonable part of them, I shall not 
 say nay, but will do all in my power to produce harmony.” How 
 was I to become acquainted with the orders of the council? Was 
 it through my subaltern? It must have been so designed — as the 
 council have not, up to the present moment, given me any official 
 notice of the orders to which Colonel Fannin refers. This modesty 
 and subordination on his part, is truly commendable in a subaltern, 
 and would imply that he had the right to “ say nay.” If he has 
 this power, whence is it derived? Not from any law, — and con- 
 trary to his sworn duty as my subaltern, whose duty is obedience to 
 my lawful commands, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the 
 United States army, adopted by the consultation of all Texas. If 
 he accepted any appointment incompatible with his obligation as a 
 colonel in the regular army, it certainly increases his moral respon- 
 sibilities to an extent which is truly to be regretted. 
 
 In another paragraph of his letter, states : “ You will allow that 
 we have too much division, and one cause of complaint is this very 
 expedition, and that it is intended to remove General Houston.” 
 He then assures the council that no blame shall attach to him, but 
 
468 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 most dutifully says to them, “ I will go where you have sent me, 
 and will do what you have ordered me, if possible.” The order of 
 the council, as set forth in the resolutions appointing Colonel Fannin 
 agent, and authorizing him to appoint as many agents as he might 
 think proper, did most certainly place him above the governor and 
 the commander-in-chief of the army — nor is he responsible to the 
 council, or the people of Texas. He is required to report, but he is 
 not required to obey the council. His powers are as unlimited and 
 absolute as Cromwell’s ever were. I regard the expedition, as now 
 ordered, an individual, and not a national measure. The resolutions 
 passed in favor of J. W. Fannin, jr. and F. W. Johnson, and their 
 proclamations, with its original start — Doctor Grant — absolve the 
 country from all responsibility for its consequences. If I had any 
 doubt on the subject, previous to having seen, at Goliad, a procla- 
 mation of J. W. Fannin, jr., sent by him to the volunteers, I could 
 no longer entertain one, as to the campaign, so far as certain per- 
 sons are interested in forwarding it. After appealing to the volun- 
 teers, he concluded with the assurance that “ the troops should he 
 paid out of the first spoils taken from the enemy” This, in my 
 opinion, connected with the extraordinary powers granted to him, 
 by the council, divests the campaign of any character save that of 
 a piratical or predatory war. 
 
 The* people of Texas have declared to the world, that the war in 
 which they are now engaged, is a war of principle, in defence of 
 their civil and political rights. What effect will the declaration 
 above referred to have on the civilized world, when they learn that 
 the individual who made it has since been clothed with absolute 
 powers by the general council of Texas ; and that, because you 
 refused to ratify their acts, they have declared you no longer the 
 governor of Texas ? It was stated by way of inducement to 
 the advance on Matamoras, that the citizens of that place were 
 friendly to the advance of the troops of Texas upon that city. 
 They, no doubt, ere this, have J. W. Fannin’s proclamation (though 
 it was in manuscript), and if originally true, what will now be their 
 feelings toward men who “ are to be paid out of the first spoils taken 
 from the enemy”? The idea which must present itself to the ene- 
 my, will be, if the city is taken it will be given up to pillage ; and 
 when the spoils are collected, a division will take place. In war, 
 when spoil is the object, friends and enemies share one common 
 destiny. This rule will govern the citizens of Matamoras in their 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 469 
 
 conclusions, and render their resistance desperate. A city contain- 
 ing twelve thousand souls will not be taken by a handful of men 
 who have marched twenty-two days without bread-stuffs, or neces- 
 sary supplies for an army. If there ever was a time when Mata- 
 moras could have been taken by a few men, that time has passed 
 by. The people of that place are not aware of the high-minded and 
 honorable men who fill the ranks of the Texan army. They will 
 look upon them as they would look upon Mexican mercenaries, and 
 resist them as such. They too will hear of the impressment of the 
 property of the citizens of Bexar, as reported to your excellency, by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Neill, when Doctor Grant left that place for 
 Matamoras, in command of the volunteer army. 
 
 If the troops advance upon Matamoras, there ought to be a co- 
 operation by sea, with the land forces, or all will be lost ; and the 
 brave men who have come to toil with us in our marches, and min- 
 gle in our battles for liberty, will fall a sacrifice to the selfishness 
 of some who have individual purposes to answer, and whose influ- 
 ence with the council has been such as to impose upon the honest 
 part of its members ; while those who were otherwise, availed them- 
 selves of every artifice which they could devise, to shield themselves 
 from detection. 
 
 The evil is now done, and I trust sincerely, that the first of March 
 may establish a government on some permanent foundation, where 
 honest functionaries will regard and execute the known and estab- 
 lished laws of the country, agreeably to their oaths. If this state 
 of things can not be achieved, the country must be lost. I feel, in 
 the station which I hold, that every effort of the council has been 
 to moitify me individually, and, if possible to compel me to do some 
 act which would enable them to pursue the same measures toward 
 me, which they have illegally done toward your excellency, and 
 thereb}' remove another obstacle to the accomplishment of their 
 plans. In their attempts to embarrass me, they were reckless of all 
 prejudice which might result to the public service from their lawless 
 course. 
 
 While the council was passing resolutions affecting the army of 
 Texas, and transferring to J. W. Fannin, jr. and F. W. Johnson the 
 whole control of the army and resources of Texas, they could order 
 them to be furnished with copies of the several resolutions passed 
 by that body, but did not think proper even to notify the major- 
 general of the firmy of their adoption ; nor have they yet caused 
 
4T0 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 him to be furnished with the acts of the council relative to the army. 
 Time it is, that they passed a resolution to that effect, but it never 
 was complied with. Their object must have been to conceal, and 
 not to promulgate their acts. “ They have loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds are evil.” 
 
 I do not consider the council as a constitutional body, nor their 
 acts lawful. They have no quorum agreeably to the organic law, 
 and therefore I am compelled to regard all their acts as void. The 
 body has been composed of seventeen members, and I perceive that 
 the act of “suspension,” passed against your excellency, was by 
 only ten members present ; the president pro tem. having no vote. 
 Only ten members remain, when less than twelve members could 
 not form . a quorum agreeably to the organic law, which required 
 two thirds of the whole body. I am not prepared to violate either 
 my duty or my oath, by yielding obedience to an act manifestly un- 
 lawful, as it is, in my opinion, prejudicial to the welfare of Texas. 
 
 The lieutenant-governor, and several members of the council, I 
 believe to be patriotic and just men ; but there have been, and 
 when I left San Felipe there were, others in that body on whose 
 honesty and integrity the foregoing facts will be the best commen- 
 tary. They must also abide the judgment of the people. 
 
 I have the honor to be, your excellency’s 
 
 Obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 Commandtr-in- Chief of the Army. 
 
 No. 17 . 
 
 Army Orders. 
 
 Convention Hall, Washington, March 2, 1836. 
 
 War is raging on the frontiers. Bexar is besieged by two thou- 
 sand of the enemy, under the command of General Sesma. Rein- 
 forcements are on their march to unite with the besieging army. 
 By the last report, our force in Bexar was only one hundred and 
 fifty men. The citizens of Texas must rally to the aid of our army, 
 or it will perish. Let the citizens of the east march to the combat. 
 The enemy must be driven from our soil, or desolation will accom- 
 pany their march upon us. Independence is declared ; it must be 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 471 
 
 maintained. Immediate action united with valor, can alone achieve 
 the great work. The services of all are forthwith required in the 
 field. Sam Houston, 
 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army. 
 
 P. S. It is rumored that the enemy are on their march to Gon- 
 zales, and that they have entered the colonies. The fate of Bexar 
 is unknown. The country must and shall be defended. The patri- 
 ots of Texas are appealed to in behalf of their bleeding country. 
 
 No. 18. 
 
 To Colonel J. W. Fannin , commanding at Goliad. 
 
 Headquarters, Gonzales, March 11, 1836. 
 
 Sir : On my arrival here this afternoon, the following intelligence 
 was received through a Mexican, supposed to be friendly, though 
 his account has been contradicted in some parts by another, who 
 arrived with him. It is therefore only given to you as rumor, though 
 I fear a melancholy portion of it will be found true. 
 
 Anselmo Borgara states that he left the Alamo on Sunday, the 
 6th inst. ; and is three days from Arroche’s rancho: that the Alamo 
 was attacked on Sunday morning at the dawn of day, by about two 
 thousand three hundred men, and carried a short time before sun- 
 rise, with a loss of five hundred and twenty-one Mexicans killed, 
 and as many wounded. Colonel Travis had only one hundred and 
 fifty effective men out of his entire force of one hundred and eighty- 
 seven. After the fort was carried, seven men surrendered, and called 
 for Santa? Anna and for quarter. They were murdered by his order. 
 Colonel Bowie was sick in bed, and also murdered. The enemy 
 expect a reinforcement of fifteen hundred men under General Con- 
 delle, and a reserve of fifteen hundred to follow them. He also in- 
 forms us that Ugartachea had arrived with two millions of specie 
 for payment of the troops. The bodies of the Americans were 
 burnt after the massacre. Alternate layers of wood and bodies 
 were laid together and set on fire. Lieutenant Dickinson, who had 
 a wife and child in the fort, after having fought with desperate 
 courage, tied his child to his back and leaped from the top of a two 
 story building. Both were killed by the fall. 
 
 I have little doubt but that the Alamo has fallen — whether the 
 
472 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 above particulars are all true may be questionable. You are there- 
 fore referred to the enclosed order. 
 
 I am, sir, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
 In corroboration of the truth of the fall of the Alamo, I have as- 
 certained that Colonel Travis intended firing signal guns at three 
 different periods each day until succor should arrive. No signal 
 guns have been heard since Sunday, though a scouting party have 
 just returned who approached within twelve miles of it, and re- 
 mained there forty-eight hours. 
 
 No. 19. 
 
 [order referred to above] 
 
 To Colonel J. W. Fannin , commanding at Goliad. 
 
 Headquarters, Gonzales, March 11, 1836. 
 
 Sir : You will, as soon as practicable after the receipt of this 
 order, fall hack upon Guadalupe Victoria, with your command, and 
 such artillery as can be brought with expedition. The remainder 
 will be sunk in the liver. You will take the necessary measures for 
 the defence of Victoria, and forward one third the number of your 
 effective men to this point, and remain in command until further 
 orders. 
 
 Every facility is to be afforded to women and children who may 
 be desirous of leaving that place. Previous to abandoning Goliad, 
 you will take the necessary measures to blow up that fortress ; and 
 do so before leaving its vicinity. The immediate advance of the 
 enemy may be confidently expected, as well as a rise of water. 
 Prompt movements are therefore highly important. 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army. 
 
 No. 20. 
 
 To Captain Philip Dimit. 
 
 Headquarters, Texas, March 12, 1836. 
 Sir : You are ordered with your command to this place — bring 
 all your disposable force — and, should there be any companies, or 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 4T3 
 
 troops, at Victoria, whose services are not indispensable to the 
 present emergencies of that section of the frontier, you will notify 
 them that it is my order that they forthwith repair to this point. 
 Colonel J. W. Fannin is ordered to fall back on Victoria, after blow- 
 ing up La Bahia. You will send expresses to headquarters as 
 often as practicable. 
 
 I am, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 21. 
 
 To James Collingsworth , Chairman of the Military Committee. 
 
 Headquarters, Gonzales, March 13, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to report to you my arrival at this place, 
 on the 1 1th inst., at about four o'clock, P. M. I found upward of 
 three hundred men in camp, without organization, and who had ral- 
 lied on the first impulse. Since then the force has increased to more 
 than four hundred. I have ordered their organization at ten o’clock 
 this morning ; and hope to complete it, and prepare to meet the 
 enemy. 
 
 The enclosed statement, which came here a few moments after 
 my arrival, has induced me to adopt a course very different from 
 that which I intended before the information was received. The 
 enclosed order to Colonel Fannin will indicate to you my convic- 
 tions, that, with our small, unorganized force, we can not maintain 
 sieges in fortresses, in the country of the enemy. Troops pent up 
 in forts are rendered useless ; nor is it possible that we can ever 
 maintain our cause by such policy. The want of supplies and men, 
 will insure the success of our enemies. 
 
 The conduct of our brave men in the Alamo was only equalled 
 by Spartan valor. 
 
 I am informed that Colonel Fannin had about seven hundred men 
 under his command ; and, at one time, had taken up the line of 
 march for the Alamo, but the breaking down of a wagon induced 
 him to fall back, and abandon the idea of marching to the relief of 
 our last hope in Bexar. Since then, he has written letters here, in- 
 dicating a design to march upon San Patricio, and also the occupa- 
 tion of Copano. So that I am at a loss to know where my express 
 will find him. From the Colorado I forwarded, by this place, an ex- 
 
474 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 press to him to meet me, with all his disposable force, on the west side 
 of the Cibolo, with a view to relieve Bexar. The news of the fall 
 of Bexar, corroborated by so many circumstances, compelled me to 
 change my plan, as the enclosed order will indicate. On seeing the 
 various communications of Colonel Fannin at this point, I could not 
 rely on any co-operation from him. The force under my command 
 here was such as to preclude the idea of my meeting the enemy — 
 supposing their force not to exceed the lowest estimate which has 
 ever been made of it. My reason for delaying my despatch until 
 the present, was, the assurance of Captain Seguin, that two men had 
 been sent by him to his rancho , and would return on last night. 
 They have not returned ; and the belief is, that they have been 
 taken by the enemy, or deserted. I am using all my endeavors to 
 get a company to send in view of the Alamo ; and, if possible, ar- 
 rive at the certainty of what all believe — its fall. The scarcity of 
 horses, and the repulse of a party of twenty-eight men, the other 
 day, within eighteen miles of Bexar, will, I apprehend, prevent the 
 expedition. 
 
 This moment, Deaf Smith and Henry Kearnes have assured me, 
 that they will proceed in sight of Bexar ; and return within three 
 days. The persons, whose statement is enclosed for your informa- 
 tion, are in custody ; and I will detain them, for the present, as spies. 
 
 I beg leave to suggest the great importance of fortifications on 
 Live-Oak point and Copano, and the defence of Matagorda and 
 Lavaca bays. 
 
 You may rest assured that I shall adopt and pursue such course 
 of conduct as the present emergencies of the country require, and as 
 the means placed at my disposal may enable me to do, for the de- 
 fence of the country and the protection of its inhabitants. 
 
 The projected expedition to Matamoras, under the agency of the 
 council has already cost us over two hundred and thirty-seven lives ; 
 and where the effects are to end, none can foresee. Doctor Grant’s 
 party, as well as Colonel Johnson’s, have been murdered. Major 
 Morris, as reported, was struck down with a lance, while gallantly 
 fighting. Doctor Grant surrendered, and was tied by the enemy. 
 Be pleased to send all possible aids to the army ; and keep an eye 
 to the coast. 
 
 Intelligence from the seat of government, if favorable, has a most 
 happy effect upon the spirits of the men. Frequent expresses sent 
 to me, may be highly beneficial to the army. I will, as often as 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 475 
 
 possible, report by express the movements of the enemy, and the 
 army. I fear La Bahia (Goliad) is in siege. 
 
 I have the honor, & c., Sam Houston. 
 
 P. S. I have this moment learned that Captain Byrd’s company, 
 from the Brasos, consisting of one hundred men, will join me 
 to-morrow. 
 
 No. 22 . 
 
 To James Collingsworth , Chairman of Military Committee. 
 
 Camp at Navidad, March 15 , 1836 . 
 
 Sir : Since I had the honor to address you from Gonzales, the 
 lady of Lieutenant Dickinson, who fell at the Alamo, has arrived, 
 and confirms the fall of that place, and the circumstances, pretty 
 much as my express detailed them. She returned in company with 
 two negroes — one the servant of Colonel Travis, the other a ser- 
 vant of Colonel Almonte. They both corroborate the statement 
 first made and forwarded to you. Other important intelligence ar- 
 rived at Gonzales — that the army of Santa Anna had encamped at 
 the Cibolo on the night of the lltli inst., after a march of twenty- 
 four miles that day. The army was to encamp on the 12th at 
 Sandy, and proceed direct to Gonzales. The number of the enemy 
 could not be ascertained, but was represented as exceeding two 
 thousand infantry. Upon this statement of facts, I deemed it proper 
 to fall back and take post on the Colorado, near Burnham’s, which 
 is fifteen miles distant from this point. My morning report, on my 
 arrival in camp, showed three hundred and seventy-four effective 
 men, without two days’ provisions, many without arms, and others 
 without any ammunition. We could have met the enemy, and 
 avenged some of our wrongs ; but, detached as we were, without 
 supplies for the men in camp, of either provisions, ammunition, or 
 artillery, and remote from succor, it would have been madness to 
 hazard a contest. I had been in camp two days only, and had suc- 
 ceeded in organizing the troops. But they had not been taught the 
 first principles of the drill. If starved out, and the camp once bro- 
 ken up, there was no hope for the future. By falling back, Texas 
 can rally, and defeat any force that can come against her. 
 
 I received the intelligence of the enemy’s advance between eight 
 and nine o’clock at night ; and, before twelve, we were on the march 
 
476 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 in good order, leaving behind a number of spies, who remained and 
 were reinforced next morning by a number of volunteers and brave 
 spirits from Peach creek. H. Karnes, R. E. Handy, and Captain 
 Chenowith, have been very active. Only about twenty persons de- 
 serted the camp (from the first sensation produced by the intelli- 
 gence) up to this time. I intend desertion shall not be frequent ; 
 and I regret to say that I am compelled to regard as deserters all 
 who have left camp without leave ; to demand their apprehension ; 
 and that, whenever arrested, they be sent to me at headquarters for 
 trial. They have disseminated throughout the frontier such exag- 
 gerated reports, that they have produced dismay and consternation 
 among the people to a most distressing extent. 
 
 I do not apprehend the immediate approach of the enemy upon 
 the present settlements ; I mean those on the Colorado, for the coun- 
 try west of it is an uninhabited waste. This season the grass refuses 
 to grow on the prairies. 
 
 When the approach of the enemy was known, there were but two 
 public wagons and two yoke of oxen in camp, and the few horses 
 we had were very poor. I hope to reach the Colorado on to-mor- 
 row, and collect an army in a short time. I sent my aide-de-camp, 
 Major William T. Austin, to Columbia this morning, for munitions 
 and supplies, to be sent me immediately ; and to order the troops 
 now at Velasco to join me, provided they had not been previously 
 ordered by you to fortify Copano and Dimit’s landing. I am fear- 
 ful Goliad is besieged by the enemy. My order to Colonel Fannin, 
 directing the place to be blown up, the cannon to be sunk in the 
 river, and to fall back on Victoria, would reach him before the ene- 
 my could advance. That they have advanced upon the place in 
 strong force, I have no doubt ; and when I heard of the fall of the 
 Alamo, and the number of the enemy, I knew it must be the case. 
 
 Our forces must not be shut up in forts, where they can neither 
 be supplied with men nor provisions. Long aware of this fact, I 
 directed, on the 16th of January last, that the artillery should be 
 removed, and the Alamo blown up ; but it was prevented by the 
 expedition upon Matamoras, the author of all our misfortunes. 
 
 I hope that our cruisers on the gulf will be active, and that Haw- 
 kins and may meet the notice of the government. Let the 
 
 men of Texas rally to the Colorado ! 
 
 Enclosed you will receive the address of General Santa Anna, 
 sent by a negro to the citizens. It is in Almonte’s handwriting. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 477 
 
 Santa Anna was in Bexar when the Alamo was taken. His force 
 in all, in Texas, is, I think, only five or six thousand men — though 
 some say thirty thousand ! This can not be true. Encourage vol- 
 unteers from the United States — but I am satisfied we can save 
 the country. Had it not been for the council, we would have had 
 no reverses. We must have the friendship of the Camanches and 
 other Indians. 
 
 Gonzales is reduced to ashes ! 
 
 I have the honor, &c„ 
 
 Sam Houston, Commanding General. 
 
 No. 23. 
 
 To James Collingsworth, Chairman of Military Committee. 
 
 Burnham’s, Colorado, March 17, 1836. 
 
 Sir : To-day, at half-past four in the afternoon, I reached this 
 point with about six hundred men, including my rear-guard, which 
 is a few miles behind with the families, which were not known to be 
 on the route as the army marched, and for which the guard were 
 sent back. 
 
 It pains my heart that such consternation should have been spread 
 by the deserters from camp. We are here ; and, if only three hun- 
 dred men remain on this side of the Brasos, I will die with them, or 
 conquer our enemies. I would most respectfully suggest the assem- 
 blage of the troops at this point. It covers more of the country 
 than any other known to me. When they are assembled, I will 
 detach suitable numbers to each point as I may deem best. The 
 Mexican army will not leave us in the rear. If they do, and find 
 San Felipe in ashes, it will astound them. I am assured that the 
 mules and horses of their army are miserably poor ; and that there 
 are several hundred women and children with the army, with a view 
 to colonize Texas. If La Bahia was blown up, previous to their 
 march upon it, I should be satisfied. 
 
 As to the state of the seaboard — keep the navy busy. To it we 
 must look for essential aid. Would it not be well to send a special 
 active agent to the United States — one who will act efficiently and 
 promptly ? Appeal to them in the holy names of liberty and hu- 
 manity ! 
 
 Our own people, if they would act, are onough to expel every 
 
478 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mexican from Texas. Do let it be known that, on close examina- 
 tion, and upon reflection, the force of Santa Anna has been greatly 
 overrated. He must have lost one thousand, or perhaps more, at 
 the Alamo. It is said the officers have to whip and slash the sol- 
 diers on the march. And, if they should advance to the Colorado, 
 it will be some time, as there is such scanty subsistence for animals. 
 I have had the impression that the advance upon the Cibolo was to 
 prevent our co-operation with Fannin, and hold us in check. 
 
 If you can by any means soothe the people, and get them to re- 
 main, they shall have notice, if I deem it necessary. Let them 
 entertain no fears for the present. We can raise three thousand 
 men in Texas, and fifteen hundred can defeat all that Santa Anna 
 can send to the Colorado. We would then fight on our own ground, 
 and the enemy would lose all confidence from our annoyance. Let 
 the men from the east of the Trinity rush to us ! let all the dispo- 
 sable force of Texas fly to arms ! If the United States intend to 
 aid us, let them do it now ! 
 
 I shall raise a company of spies to-morrow, to range the country 
 from this to Gonzales. Send all the good horses you can get for 
 the army. If possible, let it be done speedily ; and send ammuni- 
 tion for fifteen hundred men : but first send eight hundred men. I 
 will do everything in my power for Texas. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 P. S. — It is reported that General Woll, an Englishman, is to 
 head the army into the colonies. I entertain a belief that Santa 
 Anna has returned to Mexico, but it will not be known to the troops. 
 In the attack upon the Alamo, the ramparts were swept twice, and 
 the enemy as often repulsed ; but Santa Anna was by, and urged 
 the troops. He was not in danger. There was not a man in the 
 Alamo but what, in his death, honored the proud name of an Ameri- 
 can. Let the men of Texas avenge their deaths ! Rouse the Red- 
 landers to battle ! Ratify the Indian treaty ; and let the Camanchea 
 be approached, and their friendship secured. A campaign from St. 
 Louis, by way of Santa Fe, might be set on foot against Chihuahua. 
 Remember Coxe’s point, Dimit’s landing, and Copano. They are 
 important. 
 
 I know the government will do all in its power for the army. 
 We want arms, and need stationary. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 479 
 
 No. 24. 
 
 To Colonel J. W. Fannin. 
 
 [Army Orders.] Headquarters, Colorado River, March 17, 1836. 
 
 Colonel J. W. Fannin, jr, will take a position on the bay of 
 Lavaca, or any other point best calculated for the protection of the 
 provisions, ammunition, &c., at Coxe’s point and Dimit’s landing. 
 The army now near Burnham’s, on the Colorado, will remain for a 
 time, and, according to circumstances, fall down the river. Colonel 
 Fannin will therefore hold himself in constant readiness to join the 
 commander-in-chief. The Redlanders axe already in motion, and 
 will join the army as soon as possible. Regulars and volunteers are 
 also on their march to headquarters. 
 
 If Colonel Fannin can not maintain his position, he will fall back 
 on the main army — the object of the movement now ordered being 
 only for the protection of the arms, ammunition, &c. The present 
 force on the Colorado numbers four hundred and twenty effective 
 men. 
 
 Should a permanent fortification be necessary on the bay of La- 
 vaca, or other point, for the protection of the stores, &c., Colonel 
 Fannin will judge of the expediency (with the command under him) 
 of erecting them. The commanding general, not having a detailed 
 report of his force, can only order that such measures shall be taken 
 as will be best for the good of the service and the protection of the 
 country. 
 
 Stock of all descriptions will be driven to the east side of the 
 Colorado. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 25. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp near Beason’s, March 21, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I am ordered by the commander-in-chief to acknowledge the 
 receipt of your letters dated 16th and 17th inst., and to inform you 
 of the movement of the army to this place. I have also the pleas- 
 ure to add that, on yesterday, a detachment of our spies, under Cap- 
 tain Karnes, fell in with a reconnoitring-party of the enemy at 
 Rocky creek, about twenty miles from this place, consisting of 
 
480 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 twelve men. They were immediately pursued, one man killed, one 
 taken prisoner, and three horses, with some arms, captured ; also a 
 pair of saddle-bags, containing a small portion of clothing, of some 
 one murdered in the Alamo. Captain Karnes had with him, at the 
 time, but five men. The prisoner states that one thousand men are 
 on their march to this point, and will probably be near us to-night 
 A detachment of the army of the enemy has also marched from San 
 Antonio to attack Goliad. Our army are in fine spirits and good 
 health, not having one on our sick-list. They are eager to meet the 
 enemy. To check their impetuosity is all that will be required. 
 The enemy have three light pieces of artillery with them. 
 
 The commander-in-chief directs me to assure you of the vigilance 
 and caution which will be used, and of his entire confidence in the 
 army, and in its ability to render a good account of the enemy. 
 Our spies are active and vigilant, and the enemy can gain no advan- 
 tage over us. I am also directed to inform you of the pleasure he 
 feels in reporting the complete subordination of the troops : it has 
 never been surpassed by any army of like description in any coun- 
 try. Their anxiety to retrieve the misfortunes of the past is heard 
 and witnessed throughout the camp. A detachment of a hundred 
 men are now crossing the river to meet the enemy’s advance, and 
 every confidence may be placed in their entire success. Enclosed 
 you will find Colonel Fannin’s letter to me of inst. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 G. W. Hockley, 
 
 Inspector-General of the Army. 
 
 P. S. — The prisoner reports that General Santa Anna has left 
 San Antonio for Mexico. 
 
 No. 26. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters of toe Army, Camp near Beason’s, March 23, 1836. 
 
 Sir : The commander-in-chief of the army directs me to acknowl- 
 edge the receipt of your letter of the 19th inst., and inform you that 
 he still maintains the position at this place, commanding the crossing 
 of the Colorado at Mosely's, above Beason’s, and Atasco sito below, 
 and that he intends to remain stationary, unless offensive operations 
 shall be justified by circumstances or reinforcements. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 481 
 
 Captain Teal, of the regulars, with his command, arrived here 
 yesterday ; and a small detachment of volunteers, reinforcements, 
 and supplies, are hourly expected. The party of spies, named in 
 the communication to the war department, have been constantly on 
 the alert. The company stationed at Mosely’s have captured three 
 of the enemy, who are now on their way to camp. 
 
 The enemy are undoubtedly near to the opposite bank, and will 
 probably soon attempt crossing the Colorado ; but, from our present 
 position, we can effectually command any point at which he may 
 attempt it. A detachment of two hundred men are now at Mosely’s 
 crossing. The camp will be reformed in a thick wood on the bank 
 of the river, and in a position highly favorable for observation and 
 defence, its present flanks and front being well protected by felled 
 trees, brush, and timber. 
 
 The general further directs me to state the good order and disci- 
 pline which have been observed since the formation of this encamp- 
 ment. The strict silence at night, the obedience and discipline now 
 maintained, are unexampled in any troops of like description, and 
 highly creditable to the officers and men. We have now upward 
 of seven hundred men, and not one of them on the sick-list, but all 
 in high spirits, and anxious to meet the foe. One wagon, with arms, 
 ammunition, &c„ has just arrived, which has increased their anxiety 
 and confidence, as they now find the promised supplies. 
 
 The army are much in need of good horses ; and, if sabres and 
 pistols could be forwarded, we could furnish the material for an effi- 
 cient corps of cavalry. 
 
 Since writing the above, two of the prisoners mentioned therein 
 have been examined separately. They agree very nearly in their 
 statements, an outline of which is as follows : — 
 
 “ That General Sesma is on the opposite side of the river, about 
 three miles from our encampment, with five or six hundred men — a 
 hundred and fifty cavalry — and two small pieces of artillery. His 
 troops are badly clad, and the state of the weather such as to render 
 them almost ineffectual from cold. They are building a boat, and 
 intend crossing near us.” 
 
 They are evidently checked by the skirmish with our spies (named 
 in a previous letter). The prisoners say that General Sesma halted 
 the next day to rest. With our reinforcements, we shall be able to 
 anticipate any the enemy may receive. 
 
 24/ h. — General Gregory, of North Carolina, Colonel Nibbs, and 
 Vol. II.— 81 
 
482 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 some other gentlemen from Washington, have this moment arrived 
 in camp with Major Poe. They report about two hundred men on 
 their march, who will join to-morrow. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 G. W. Hockley, 
 
 Inspect or- General of the Army. 
 
 No. 27. 
 
 [not official.] 
 
 To Colonel Thomas J. Rusk . 
 
 Camp near Beason’s, March. 23, 1836. 
 
 Dear Colonel : To-day I had the pleasure to receive your two 
 letters by Mr. Walker. I thank you for them, and snatch a moment 
 from the press of business to say a few things in compliance with 
 your request, as well as to gratify my personal feelings I have 
 had no aid or assistance but my friend Hockley, who now fills your 
 former station. By-the-by, I offer you my gratulations on your ad- 
 vancement. I trust you will find in me a worthy subaltern. You 
 know I am not easily depressed, but, before my God, since we parted, 
 I have found the darkest hours of my past life ! My excitement 
 has been so great, that, for forty-eight hours, I have not eaten an 
 ounce, nor have I slept. I was in constant apprehension of a rout ; 
 a constant panic existed in the lines : yet I managed so well, or 
 such was my good luck, that not a gun was fired in or near the 
 camp, or on the march (except to kill beef), from the Guadalupe to 
 the Colorado. All would have been well, and all at peace on this 
 side of the Colorado, if I could only have had a moment to start an 
 express in advance of the deserters ; but they went first, and, being 
 panic-struck, it was contagious, and all who saw them breathed the 
 poison and fled. It was a poor compliment to me to suppose that 
 I would not advise the convention of any necessity which might 
 Arise for their removal. I sent word and advices, the first moment 
 of leisure, to the convention ; and all was calm in my communica- 
 tions to Mr. Collingsworth. I had to advise troops and persons of 
 my falling back, and had to send one guard thirty miles for a poor 
 blind widow (and six children), whose husband was killed in the 
 Alamo. The families are now all on this side of the Guadalupe. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 483 
 
 These things pained me infinitely, and, with the responsibility of 
 my command, weighed upon me to an agonizing extent. 
 
 This moment an express has arrived, and states that Fannin took 
 up his retreat on Saturday last (19th), and, a few miles from La 
 Bahia, he was attacked by the Mexican army and surrounded about 
 an hour and a half before sundown. The battle continued in the 
 night, and the result is not known. The express states that Colo- 
 nel Ward 8 command had not returned. I am at a loss to know 
 how matters stand. I will try and make a good report for the 
 future. The Matamoras policy, I hope, is now run out ; and the 
 evils, growing out of the conduct of the council, ended. 
 
 Changing this from a familiar to an official character, I must say 
 that, if we are to meet an accession of force, which must be the case 
 if Fannin is cut off, we must have the strength of the country. Arms 
 and ammunition have just reached camp, and I hope what men we 
 have will be well armed and supplied with fighting-materials. 
 
 Two spies have been taken to-day, and they report the force of 
 the enemy in this quarter less than I had before heard it. Let the 
 Mexican force be what it may, if the country will turn out, we can 
 beat them. The retreat of the government will have a bad effect 
 on the troops, and I am half-provoked at it myself. The Mexicans 
 
 can not fight us upon anything like fair terms I will get any 
 
 advantage I can if I fight. If what I have heard from Fannin be 
 true, I deplore it, and can only attribute the ill luck to his attempt- 
 ing to retreat in daylight in the face of a superior force. He is an 
 ill-fated man. 
 
 Do all you can. The troops are in fine spirits, but how this news 
 will affect them I know not. Our spies have taken two of the ene- 
 my to-day, but I have not yet had time to examine them. I will 
 in a few moments. 
 
 24 th. — I have examined the spies, and they represent the enemy 
 much Aveaker than all former reports. They say Sesma has not 
 more than seven hundred men, and one says six hundred. 
 
 I truly hope you will appoint Major Lewis agent for the Chero- 
 kees, and do it directly Why do you keep more than a ser- 
 
 geant’s or lieutenant’s guard at Washington? Men are flocking to 
 camp, and I expect, in a day or two, to receive two hundred volun- 
 teers and regulars. Forty-eight muskets and a supply of ammuni- 
 tion came opportunely last night. In a few days my force will be 
 highly respectable. I am writing in the open air. I have no tent, 
 
484 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 and am not looking out for the luxuries of life. I am only looking 
 out to be useful to my country and the cause of liberty. Do devise 
 some plan to send back the rascals who have gone from the army 
 and service of the country with guns. Oh, why did the cabinet 
 leave Washington ? 
 
 I wish you would send A. M'Laughlin to the United States. 
 Write to the board, and ratify the treaty. We must act now, and 
 with great promptness. The country must be saved. Oh, curse 
 the consternation which has seized the people ! I must make many 
 appointments for the present — all special 1 will refer to you. I am 
 so busy, I must close. May God bless you ! This morning I hear 
 of men from the mouth of the river: they are on the march — you 
 will hear from us. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 28. 
 
 To Captain B. J. White . 
 
 Camp at Beason’s Ferry, March 23, 1836. 
 
 Sm : If men can be obtained, you are ordered to repair to Coxe’s 
 point, or Dimit’s landing, and remove or secure the supplies at those 
 places. You are ordered to use and command all the means of the 
 country in securing supplies, and removing the families, and placing 
 them on the east side of the Colorado. You have much discretion 
 left with you, and I hope you will employ it to the best advantage 
 for the preservation of the country. 
 
 Of the army at this point, and in the neighborhood, Mr. Noble 
 can tell you. The enemy are about fifteen miles from us. Their 
 force is supposed to be only about a thousand. 
 
 Reinforcements are arriving daily, and more on the march. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Sam Houston, 
 
 I am informed that Colonel Wharton has sailed for Coxe’s point, 
 with some one hundred and fifty or two hundred men. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 485 
 
 No. 29. 
 
 To R. R. Royal , Chairman of the Committee at Matagorda . 
 
 Camp near Beason’s, March 24, 1836. 
 
 Sir : Your letter, under date of March 18th, is received. All the 
 means you can command ought to be employed for the protection 
 of the country, and families. Anything that can he done to this 
 effect will meet my approbation. 
 
 All the troops that can be raised I wish placed at my disposal, as 
 on the Colorado I make my stand, and it is deemed necessary to 
 concentrate all the effective force at this point for the present. 
 
 Having the greatest confidence that, with the means you can con- 
 trol, you can defend that point, even in case of an attack, 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 30. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Camp near Mill Creek, March 29, 1836. 
 
 Sir : On my arrival on the Brasos, had I consulted the wishes of 
 all, I should have been like the ass between two stacks of hay. 
 Many wished me to go below, others above. I consulted none — I 
 held no councils-of-war. If I err, the blame is mine. I find Colo- 
 nel Hockley, of my staff, a sage counsellor and true friend. My 
 staff are all worthy, and merit well of me. 
 
 There was on yesterday, as I understood, much discontent in the 
 lines, because I would not fall down the river. If it should be wise 
 for me to do so, I can cross over at any time, and fall down to 
 greater advantage and safety. I apprehend, in consequence of my 
 falling back, that the enemy may change their route to Matagorda. 
 I ordered all the men residing on the coast, and those arriving from 
 the United States at or south of Velasco, to remain and fortify at 
 some safe point; and, on yesterday, I sent Colonel Harcourt, as 
 principal engineer of the army, down to the coast, to erect fortifica- 
 tions at the most eligible point of defence. I placed at his disposal 
 the resources of the lower country for its defence and protection. 
 
 I pray God that you would get aid, speedy aid, from the United 
 States ; or, after all inducements, we must suffer. I hope to-day to 
 
486 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 receive ninety men from the Red-lands. I can not now tell my 
 force, hut will soon be able. The enemy must be crippled by the 
 fights they have had with our men. I have ordered D. C. Barrett 
 and E. Gritton to be arrested and held subject to the future order 
 of the government. I do think they ought to be detained and tried 
 as traitors and spies. 
 
 For Heaven’s sake, do not drop back again with the seat of gov- 
 ernment ! Youj* removal to Harrisburg has done more to increase 
 the panic in the country than anything else that has occurred in 
 Texas, except the fall of the Alamo. Send fifty agents, if need be, 
 to the United States. Wharton writes me, from Nashville, that the 
 ladies of that place have fitted out, at their own expense, no less 
 than two hundered men 
 
 If matters press upon us, for God’s sake let the troops land at 
 Galveston bay, and by land reach the Brasos ! Let no troops march 
 with baggage-wagons, or wagons of any kind. 
 
 Truly, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
 To-day I send Captain Smith to you, agreeably to your order. 
 Great prosperity to you and the country, &c. 
 
 No: 31. 
 
 To Colonel William Christy, New Orleans. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp Mill Creek, March 29, 1836. 
 
 Dear Sir : I have ordered Captain David N. Burke and Edward 
 Conrad to New Orleans, to procure men for the army of Texas. 
 The present is probably the most important moment we have to ex- 
 perience. We now stand before the world as a nation, and stand 
 almost alone. But for the assistance upon which we confidently 
 rely from our brethren in the United States, we shall not be enabled 
 to maintain the position we have assumed. With equal confidence 
 I look to you for the immediate use of all the influence in your power 
 to sustain our cause. I look to you as the most efficient and zealous 
 agent of our country. Do exert all the talent and means you can 
 command, for now is the time of need. Captain Burke and Mr. Con- 
 rad will bear this letter to you, with my orders : be good enough to 
 render them all the assistance in your power. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 48T 
 
 No. 32. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Camt west of Brasos, March 31, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to report to you my arrival at this point, 
 with a view to receive reinforcements and supplies. It is the best 
 and nearest route to Harrisburg, or the Bay, at which I could have 
 struck the Brasos, and it will prevent the whole country passing the 
 Trinity. The force of the enemy has been greatly exaggerated, I 
 have no doubt. But the deserters have spread universal alarm 
 throughout the country. 
 
 I wish you to send flour, sugar, and coffee, on pack-horses, to thie 
 point, as soon as possible. Don’t send by wagons ; and let the pack- 
 horses be well hoppled at night. My horses and baggage-wagona 
 in camp give me all the care I have, except my general solicitude. 
 One of my spies has just returned from a scout, and reports that he 
 went ten miles beyond St. Bernard, on the road to Beason’s, and 
 saw nothing of the enemy. Two others went on, and said they 
 would see the enemy if they had to cross the Colorado. Mr. E. 
 Smith (Deaf) is out, and, if living, I will hear the truth and all im- 
 portant news. 
 
 For Heaven’s sake, do allay the fever and chill which prevails in 
 the country, and let the people from the east march to the camp ! 
 Supplies are needed on the route from Nacogdoches to this point. 
 The enemy would have been beaten at the Colorado. My intention 
 was, to have attacked him on the second night after tho day on 
 which the news of Fannin’s destruction was reported by Kerr — but 
 for that news, and the march of strong reinforcements, probably arri- 
 ving that night, to the enemy. Previous to that, the troops were in 
 fine spirits, and keen for action. 
 
 The reinforcements promised to our army never arriving, has kept 
 us in a mood not so enviable as could be wished for. Send daily 
 expresses to me, and do let me know what to rely upon. I must 
 let the camp know something, and I want everything promised to 
 be realized by them. I hope I can keep them together ; I have, 
 thus far, succeeded beyond my hopes. I will do the best I can ; 
 but, be assured, the fame of Jackson could never compensate me. 
 for my anxiety and mental pain. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
488 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 P- S. — I have somewhere between seven and eight hundred 
 effective men. Two nights since, when it was reported that the 
 enemy were on this side of the Colorado, the citizens of San Felipe 
 reduced it to ashes. There was no order from me for it.* I am 
 glad of it, should the enemy march there. Our troops have suffered 
 much from heavy rains and dreadful roads. 
 
 No. 33. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camt on Brasos, April 1, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I am directed by the commander-in-chief to inform you of 
 the movement of the army to this place since the last communica- 
 tion to the department of war. From the detention in crossing Mill 
 creek, the army did not reach this encampment until last evening. 
 It is now, however, in a secure and effective position, with excellent 
 water from a lake immediately ahead, and a most beautiful spot of 
 the Brasos timber, about three fourths of a mile ahead, on the road 
 leading to Groce’s ferry. The weather for the last few days has 
 been wet ; from that circumstance, and the fact that the roads are 
 in many places impassable for our wagons, the men have undergone 
 great fatigue. 
 
 So soon as they can wash their clothing, and arrange their arms, 
 &c., an entire organization of camp duty and discipline will be es- 
 tablished, and the encampment reformed in order of battle, and camp 
 rule and duty performed. This, in some degree, has been omitted 
 since our march, as it has been in several instances a forced one. It 
 has, however, been conducted, under the circumstances of the case, 
 with much credit to the exertions of the officers and obedience of 
 the men. 
 
 The steamboat Yellowstone, Captain , is at Groce’s land- 
 
 ing, taking in cotton. The commander-in-chief directed her to be 
 taken in charge for the use of the army, in case it should be neces- 
 sary rapidly to descend the river to act upon the enemy. Major 
 Cook and a sufficient guard are now on board, and she will be de- 
 tained until her services can safely be dispensed with. She is nearly 
 loaded with cotton. 
 
 * “It has been said you ordered the burning of San Felipe. I have contra- 
 dicted it. I would like to be fully satisfied on the subject” — David Thomas 
 Acting Secretary of War , to General Houston, April 8, 1836. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 489 
 
 Last evening the commander-in-chief received information from 
 Captain Mosely Baker, who has command at San Felipe, of the ar- 
 rival of two of his spies, who report that the enemy have crossed 
 the Colorado river at Atasco sito crossing, and were then in order 
 of march. This information roused the army to an enthusiasm, 
 which showed with what feeling they would meet his approach. 
 But, late last night, other spies arrived at this encampment, who 
 were also near that point ; and, from their report, the major-general 
 is led to believe that some mistake lias occurred as to the persons 
 seen being the enemy. Should the report prove to be correct, he 
 can not reach this point, if such is his intention, for some days, be- 
 cause of the situation of the roads and starved condition of his horses 
 and cattle. He has undoubtedly crossed the Colorado. About eighty 
 men from the Red-lands are all that have arrived, and what hope to 
 entertain of aid from that quarter it is impossible to say. The effect- 
 ive force now here is seven hundred and fifty to eight hundred men. 
 One death only has occurred — caused by great exposure to wet and 
 cold when crossing Mill creek. The troops are in good health. 
 
 From information received the evening after leaving San Felipe, 
 the commander-in-chief ordered Peter Kerr — the individual who 
 brought the intelligence of the defeat of Colonel Fannin into camp 
 on the Colorada — to be taken. A guard was sent to San Felipe, 
 and he was brought into camp next morning. A further communi- 
 cation from the major-general on this subject will accompany this. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 G. W. Hockley, 
 
 Inspector- General. 
 
 A few cases of measles have been reported. A hospital has been 
 established the other side of the Brasos, and the men sent over to it. 
 
 No. 34. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp West of Brasos, April 3, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I arrived at this place on the first instant, and pitched my 
 encampment in a secure position, in hopes that I should receive sup- 
 plies, and more so, that I would be enabled to meet the enemy at 
 any time, and under any circumstances which propriety might dic- 
 tate. Since my location, rains have fallen ; and it is possible the 
 
490 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 water may invade my encampment, and compel me to remove, either 
 back to the prairie, or to pass over the river to the east side. If I 
 do pass, it will only be to make my camp on a healthy site, secure 
 from water, and to defend our horses from the enemy ; for I find 
 that no care whatever will be taken of horses, and if they fall into 
 the enemy’s hands it would add to his facilities. 
 
 My spies return and report the enemy only about one thousand 
 strong on the Colorado, without pickets, and only a small camp- 
 ground. My opinion is, that a detachment I sent to reconnoitre the 
 enemy, will attack him to-night. The detachment was twenty in 
 number, under the command of Major Patton, my aid-de-camp. 
 They are among the best hearts of the army. 
 
 If I should pass the river, my design will be, should I quit a po- 
 sition opposite to this point, to drop down opposite Fort Bend, or 
 some point below. The enemy would not have it in their power to 
 pass the river for at least a month to come ; and we could only 
 cross with the aid of a steamboat, which I have pressed, and will 
 retain till I can dispense with it. 
 
 If I should pass the river, I will leave my most effective cavalry 
 on this side. 1 send you, in charge of Mr. Este, two prisoners, Peter 
 Kerr, and Beregardo, a Mexican. I have nothing pointed against 
 them ; but suspicion has fallen upon them, and they are to be 
 secured. You may rest easy at Harrisburg; the enemy will never 
 cross the Brasos, and I hope the panic will soon subside. People 
 are planting com on the east side of this river. 
 
 Mr. Zavala has arrived and reported for duty. I am glad of it. 
 He informed me that I should have the pleasure of seeing you ; and 
 indeed it would give me pleasure to do so. I have ordered the 
 troops below to occupy some defensible positions below on the river, 
 or coast, and check the enemy. Rumors from the Mexican interior 
 of wars, or difficulty in passing the Colorado, have caused them to de- 
 lay ; and at this time it is almost impossible for them to pass the 
 prairies, owing to the rains that have fallen since we passed — then 
 it was only possible for us to pass with our wagons. If they come, 
 their artillery must come. They must raft it over the Colorado, 
 which is very high, as I am informed. It must be out of its banks. 
 
 I have looked for an express from you for several days. Eighty 
 Redlanders have arrived, and are on the opposite bank. The arri- 
 val of others is daily expected. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 491 
 
 No. 35. 
 
 To Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp West ok Brasos, April 4, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to inform you that, by an express which 
 reached me last night, I received intelligence that Colonel Fannin 
 and his command had been attacked by a large body of Mexican 
 cavalry and infantry, in the prairie, about eight miles east of San 
 Antonio river, on his march from La Bahia to Victoria. The enemy 
 were several times repulsed ; the battle lasting until in the night. 
 On the next morning the enemy fired several cannon-shots and 
 hoisted a flag of truce, which was met by a corresponding signal 
 from Colonel Fannin. The commanders met, and stipulated that 
 the Americans, on condition of a surrender, should be treated as pris- 
 oners-of-war, and in eight days sent to New Orleans on parole. On 
 the eighth day the prisoners were marched out under a guard (after 
 having been kept in cldse confinement), a file of soldiers on each 
 side of the prisoners. The guard then doubled files on the right of 
 the prisoners, killing all but one, who make his escape. The enemy 
 are said to have lost a thousand men in the action 
 
 Will not our friends rush to the conflict, and at once avenge the 
 wrongs which have been inflicted on our dauntless comrades ? The 
 day of just retribution ought not to be deferred. Send expresses 
 to the coast and to the United States. The army is just organizing, 
 and will soon be prepared. The last advices report that the enemy 
 can not cross the Colorado — except a part of it — on account of 
 high waters. Their delay is said, by others, to be owing to some 
 difficulties in the interior, and a want of supplies. 
 
 San Felipe was reduced to ashes, but not by my order. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 P. S. It was reported in camp, that you were coming to the army. 
 As it is so reported, you had best come if possible. It will inspirit 
 the troops. No express has reached me for some five days from 
 Harrisburg. The army is in good spirits. 
 
492 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 36. 
 
 To Captain Mosely Baker. 
 
 Headquarters of the Army, Camp West ok Brasos, April 5, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have heard, with extreme regret, complaints from various 
 sources, of the destruction and waste of goods, stores, and public 
 property, at San Felipe, and under your command. They may, 
 perhaps, have been exaggerated ; but every means in your power 
 should have been used to preserve and protect the stores, until such 
 were ordered to be destroyed ; as it was totally impossible to send 
 back the wagons across Mill creek. Captains Kimbrough and Bry- 
 ant have been ordered to co-operate with you ; and the utmost har- 
 mony of action, subordination, and discipline, must be observed. 
 The safety of the country requires it, and the commanding general 
 orders a rigid adherence to it. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 37. 
 
 To David Thomas , acting Secretary of War. 
 
 Camp West of Brasos, April C, 1836. 
 
 Sir : Your letters of the 4th and 5th instant have this moment 
 been received by express. Colonel Rusk arrived in camp on the 
 evening of the 4th instant, and will probably remain for a few days 
 longer. I am pleased to learn of the supplies being forwarded for 
 the use of the army. They will be particularly acceptable. The 
 present position of the army is one of strength and security, and 
 from which the movements of the enemy can be vigilantly watched. 
 My spies are remarkably active and intelligent, and shall be kept 
 in constant action. They are much in want of good horses. 
 
 A deserter from the enemy was brought into camp last night. He 
 confirms the report previously received, of the miserable condition 
 of their troops ; and adds, that much dissatisfaction prevails in their 
 ranks, from the severity of treatment and deprivation of the neces- 
 saries of life. He shall be closely looked to, and the first favorable 
 moment seized with avidity to effect his total defeat. 
 
 Intercepted documents received last winter, showed that Edward 
 Gritton was a spy of Santa Anna, but that he had lost their confi- 
 dence in part. These papers were seen by me after their seizure 
 and translation. I have the honor, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 493 
 
 No. 38. 
 
 To Captain J. N. Allen . 
 
 Camp West of Bras os, April 8, 1836. 
 
 Sir : Your communication under date of 4th instant is received. 
 I am pleased to find you are on your march to join the army ; and 
 wish you to use all possible expedition in reinforcing us with your 
 command and the cannon. 
 
 Assure the inhabitants generally that the army will not cross the 
 Brasos, unless to act with more effect against the enemy ; and that 
 the most certain way of securing their property and families, is to 
 repair to the army and drive the invader from the soil. Those who 
 refuse to join us will have their property confiscated, and be regarded 
 as deserters from our cause. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 39. 
 
 To David Thomas , acting Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp West of Brasos, April 9, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to inform you that Peter Kerr, who was 
 sent to Harrisburg some days since, had in his possession a letter 
 from on board the Montezuma, written by a lieutenant, recommend- 
 ing said Kerr to general favor of Mexican officers ; and stating that 
 Kerr had befriended the Mexicans, but did not set forth particulars. 
 These facts were known to many present in camp at the time, but 
 never reached me until this moment. I do hope that all prisoners 
 sent by me may be carefully kept, and, at least, prevented from 
 mischief. It is unfortunate for us that the waters are so high as to 
 prevent us from that activity which would be desirable. Tho 
 enemy are not in such great force as was expected. Our numbers 
 increase ; and I hope you will hear well of us. 
 
 The enemy are firing at San Felipe to-day. I reinforced the 
 post by forty-five men. They will now have at least one hundred 
 and fifty men ; and in the Brasos bottom they can not be driven 
 back. The enemy have no idea of our force there, and can not 
 suppose it to exceed, at that point, fifty men. To-day I send out a 
 sm all party well versed in the use of the horse ; and I hope to hear 
 well of them. 
 
494 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Colonel Rusk is still here, and will, probably, remain during the 
 crisis. To-day I am in good spirits, and hope to be in better. I 
 have now organized two regiments, and doubt not but a brigade will 
 be formed under orders of the secretary of war. I look for the wa- 
 ters to fall in the course of a day or so. The camp is healthy. 
 The enemy is confident ; and, I hope, so much the better for us. 
 Wells, a spy, returned to-day; and after examining the signs, pa- 
 rade-ground, and every indication possible, reports the number of 
 the enemy at six or seven hundred men. 
 
 Tell our people never again to give way to a 'panic ; but to do 
 their duty. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 P. S. Keep all the prisoners safe. 
 
 No. 40. 
 
 To David Thomas , acting' Secretary of War* 
 
 Camp West of Brasos, April 11, 1836. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to send you a Mr. Powell, and I have 
 given him a letter of introduction. This I did from policy. You 
 will find him a panic-maker, and, in my opinion, a spy. I hope you 
 will send him to Colonel Morgan, and let him be watched so closely 
 that he can do no harm, if he should be so disposed. I assure your 
 excellency that we must manage to keep suspicious persons safe. 
 From them, in my opinion, and none else, we may apprehend all 
 danger. I pray you not to think me too rigorous in these matters. 
 I consult the secretary of war, who has a knowledge of facts, as well 
 as myself ; and my course is in accordance with his views. Major 
 Wyley Martin wrote to me about this same man, and said his state- 
 ments were “ lies” For the sake of Texas, have him kept safe ; 
 and it might be best to send him to Colonel Morgan, where he can 
 be watched without suspecting it. Lynn and Kerr ought to be well 
 watched. I pray you be vigilant. I have ordered spies every- 
 where. Though Powell says Urrea (general) is on his way to the 
 lower country, how could Powell pass by the enemy, as he has 
 done, unless he has some assurance of their favor ? I think Powell 
 is sent to scare us, while the enemy are pretty badly scared tliem- 
 
 * TLis letter was probably directed to President Burnet. See No. 42. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 495 
 
 selves. I hope they will soon be as much hurt. The high waters 
 have interrupted us much. May Heaven prosper you and the 
 country. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., Sam Houston. 
 
 I do not deem it necessary to make formal charges. Policy will, 
 at least, justify his detention. Words of the accused are cheap — 
 bear this in mind, I pray you. 
 
 No. 41. 
 
 To the Citizens of Texas. 
 
 Headquarters of the Army, Camp on Brasos, April 13, 1836. 
 
 You have suffered panic to seize you, and idle rumor to guide 
 you. You will now be told that the enemy have crossed the Brasos, 
 and that Texas is conquered. Reflect, reason with yourselves, and 
 you can not believe a part of it. The enemy have crossed the Bra- 
 sos, but they are treading the soil on which they are to be con- 
 quered. That he has not been already beaten, has been caused by 
 the tardiness of some, and the apathy of others. The force of the 
 enemy does not exceed nine hundred men. With a semblance of 
 force sufficient to meet him, his fate is certain. If, then, you wish 
 your country saved, join her standard. Protect your wives, your 
 children, and your homes, by repairing to the field, where alone, by 
 discipline and concert of action, you can be effective. The presence 
 of the small force now in the field has divided his army. Our spies 
 have once checked his career. Then march forward ; and with the 
 confidence of men determined to conquer, join the troops now in the 
 field, and your enemy is certainly in your power. Twenty men in 
 number checked the force of the enemy in crossing the Brasos at 
 Fort Bend. The rumor that is circulated about the Mexicans being 
 on the Trinity, was reported at the falls of the Brasos three weeks 
 ago. A gentleman is in camp who says no enemy had passed there : 
 so, like other reports, it must be unfounded. Come and free your 
 country at once ; and be men / 
 
 Let those who are on the march, advance to the army. Those 
 who do not aid Texas in her present struggle, but flee and forfeit 
 all the rights of citizens, will deserve their fate. 
 
 Sam Houston, Commander -m- Chief. 
 
496 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 IVo. 42. 
 
 To David Thomas , acting Secretary of War. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp at Groce’s, April 13, 1836. 
 
 Sir : This moment yours of yesterday has reached me. I have 
 the honor to remark, that taunts and suggestions have been gratui- 
 tously tendered to me ; and I have submitted to them without any 
 disposition to retort either nnkindness or imputation. What has 
 been my situation ? At Gonzales I had three hundred and seventy- 
 four efficient men, without supplies, even powder, balls, or arms. At 
 Colorado with seven hundred men, without discipline or time to or- 
 ganize the army. Two days since, my effective force in camp was 
 five hundred and twenty-three men (aggregate). I had authorized 
 Captain Martin to detain a force there of at least two hundred men. 
 I had sent to the bottom opposite San Felipe one hundred and fifty 
 men : and had reason to expect the attack would be made, and an 
 effort made to cross the river at San Felipe, or at the point at which 
 I was, as the prairie, at the latter point, approached nearer to the 
 river, and the bottom was better than at any other point on the 
 river. The cannonade was kept up at San Felipe until yesterday 
 morning ; and as the river was very high, and it was reported to 
 me that the enemy were preparing rafts at that point, I had every 
 reason to suppose that they intended to cross there, if possible. 
 
 On the previous night, in consultation with the secretary of war, 
 we concluded to pass the river to this side. At ten o clock, A. M., 
 yesterday, I commenced crossing the river, and from that time till 
 the present (noon) the steamboat and yawl (having no ferry-boat) 
 have been engaged. We have eight or ten wagons, ox-teams, 
 and about two hundred horses, belonging to the army ; and these 
 have to pass on board the steamboat, besides the troops, baggage, 
 &c. This requires time ; but I hope in one hour to be enabled to 
 be in preparation. I had sent an express evening before last to all 
 the troops of Washington and above this point to meet me here by 
 a rapid march. On yesterday morning I ordered all the command 
 below to unite with the main body, so as to act promptly and effi- 
 ciently when most necessary. It was impossible to guard all river 
 passes for one hundred miles, and at once concentrate the force so 
 as to guard any one point effectually, unless where the main body 
 might be stationed. An invading army marches with everything 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 497 
 
 necessary to conquest. I would at once have fallen back on Har- 
 risburg, but a wish to allay the panic that prevailed, induced me to 
 stop at the Brasos, contrary to my views of military operations. I 
 had assurances of reinforcements by remaining on the Brasos — of 
 which I will say nothing at present. 
 
 When I assured the department that the enemy should not pass 
 the Brasos, I did not intend to convey the idea that either the army 
 or myself possessed powers of ubiquity ; but, that they should not 
 pass through my encampment. I do hope that my last envelope to 
 his excellency the president, will show you on whom, to rely, and on 
 whom , for a while, the burden must rest. 
 
 I beg leave to assure you that I will omit no opportunity to serve 
 the country, and to serve it for the love of it, without ambition, or 
 ulterior views into which selfishness can enter. I have, under the 
 most disadvantageous circumstances, kept an army together, and 
 where there has not been even murmuring or insubordination ; but 
 I can not perform impossibilities. These remarks are not in an- 
 ger, nor are they intended to be in the least personal to you, but 
 arise out of the pressure of difficulties which you can not appreciate, 
 because they are unexplained to you. Again I beg leave to as- 
 sure you, that I have for you the most high and friendly considera- 
 tion, and will regard with pleasure every manifestation of public 
 confidence arising from a proper estimate of your worth. I write in 
 much haste, pressed by business, and engaged in the contemplation 
 of matters, I hope, not distant. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 l¥o. 43. 
 
 To Colonel Nathaniel Robbins. 
 
 Headquarters, Camp at Groce’s, April 13, 1836. 
 
 Sir : You are hereby ordered and commanded to seize all arms 
 and guns, and such weapons of war as may be useful to the army, 
 or necessary to the defence of Texas, giving receipts for the same, 
 and holding them subject to tbe orders of the government. 
 
 You will arrest all deserters from the army, and pass them over to 
 commands on their march to the army. All persons who have not 
 furnished substitutes, and have left the army without furloughs or 
 VOL. II. — 32 
 
498 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 discharges, or whose furloughs have expired, are deserters, and as 
 such must be registered and reported to the government, if not ap- 
 prehended and sent back. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
 No. 44. 
 
 To Colonel Henry Raguet , of Nacogdoches. 
 
 Camp at Harrisburg, April 19 , 1836 . 
 
 Sir : This morning we are in preparation to meet Santa Anna. It 
 is the only chance of saving Texas. From time to time I have looked 
 for reinforcements in vain. The convention adjourning to Harris- 
 burg struck panic throughout the country. Texas could have started 
 at least, four thousand men. We will only have about seven hun- 
 dred to march with, besides the camp-guard. We go to conquer. 
 It is wisdom growing out of necessity to meet the enemy now ; every 
 consideration enforces it. No previous occasion would justify it. 
 The troops are in fine spirits, and now is the time for action. 
 
 Adjutant-General Wharton, Inspector-General Hockley, Aide-de- 
 Camp Horton ; Aides-de-Camp W. H. Patton, Collingsworth ; Vol- 
 unteer Aides Perry, Perry ; Major Cook, assistant inspector-general 
 — will be with me. 
 
 We shall use our best efforts to fight the enemy to such advan- 
 tage as will insure victory, though the odds are greatly against us. 
 I leave the result in the hands of a wise God, and rely upon his 
 providence. 
 
 My country will do justice to those who serve her. The rights 
 for which we fight will be secured, and Texas free. 
 
 Sam Houston, Commander , fyc. 
 
 P. S. — Colonel Rusk is in the field. 
 
 No. 44. 
 
 To David G. Burnet , President of the Republic of Texas . 
 
 Headquarters of the Army, San Jacinto, April 26 , 1836 . 
 Sir : I regret extremely that my situation, since the battle of the 
 21st, has been such as to prevent my rendering you my official re- 
 port of the same previous to this time. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 499 
 
 I have the honor to inform you that, on the evening of tue 18th 
 inst., after a forced march of fifty-five miles, which was effected in 
 two days and a half, the army arrived opposite Harrisburg. That 
 evening a courier of the enemy was taken, from whom I learned 
 that General Santa Anna, with one division of his choice troops, had 
 marched in the direction of Lynch's ferry, on the San Jacinto — 
 burning Harrisburg as he passed down. 
 
 The army was ordered to be in readiness to march early on the 
 next morning. The main body effected a crossing over Buffalo 
 bayou, below Harrisburg, on the morning of the 19th, having left 
 the baggage, the sick, and a sufficient camp-guard, in the rear. We 
 continued to march throughout the night, making but one halt in 
 the prairie for a short time, and without refreshments. At daylight 
 we resumed the line of march, and in a short distance our scouts en- 
 countered those of the enemy, and we received information that 
 General Santa Anna was at New Washington, and would that day 
 take up the line of march for Anahuac, crossing at Lynch’s ferry. 
 The Texan army halted within half a mile of the ferry, in some 
 timber, and were engaged in slaughtering beeves, when the army 
 of Santa Anna was discovered to be approaching in battle array, 
 having been encamped at Clopper's point, eight miles below. Dis- 
 position was immediately made of our forces, and preparation for his 
 reception. He took a position with his infantry, and artillery in the 
 centre, occupying an island of timber, his cavalry covering the left 
 flank. The artillery, consisting of one double-fortified medium brass 
 twelve-pounder, then opened on our encampment. The infantry, in 
 column, advanced with the design of charging our lines, but were 
 repulsed by a discharge of grape and canister from our artillery, 
 consisting of two six-pounders. The enemy had occupied a piece 
 of timber within rifle-shot of the left wing of our army, from which 
 an occasional interchange of small-arms took place between the 
 troops, until the enemy withdrew to a position on the bank of the 
 San Jacinto, about three quarters of a mile from our encampment, 
 and commenced fortification. 
 
 A short time before sunset, our mounted men, about eighty-five 
 in number, under the special command of Colonel Sherman, marched 
 out for the purpose of reconnoitring the enemy. While advancing, 
 they received a volley from the left of the enemy’s infantry, and, 
 after a sharp rencounter with their cavalry, in which ours acted ex- 
 tremely well, and performed some feats of daring chivalry, they 
 
500 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 retired in good order, having had two men severely wounded, and 
 several horses killed. In the meantime, the infantry under the com- 
 mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Millard, and Colonel Burleson’s regi- 
 ment, with the artillery, had marched out for the purpose of cover- 
 ing the retreat of the cavalry,* if neeessary. All then fell back in 
 good order to our encampment about sunset, and remained without 
 ostensible action until the 21st, at half-past three o’clock, taking the 
 first refreshment which they had enjoyed for two days. The enemy 
 in the meantime extended the right flank of their infantry., so as to 
 occupy the extreme point of a skirt of timber on the bank of the 
 San Jacinto, and secured their left by a fortification about five feet 
 high, constructed of packs and baggage, leaving an opening in the 
 centre of the breastwork, in which their artillery was placed, their 
 cavalry upon their left wing. 
 
 About nine o’clock on the morning of the 21st, the enemy were re- 
 inforced by five hundred choice troops, under the command of Gen- 
 eral Cos, increasing their effective force to upward of fifteen hundred 
 men, while our aggregate force for the field numbered seven hun- 
 dred and eighty-three. At half-past three o’clock in the evening, I 
 ordered the officers of the Texan army to parade their respective 
 commands, having in the meantime ordered the bridge on the only 
 road communicating with the Brasos, distant eight miles from our 
 encampment, to be destroyed — thus cutting off all possibility of 
 escape. Our troops paraded with alacrity and spirit, and were anx- 
 ious for the contest. Their conscious disparity in numbers seemed 
 only to increase their enthusiasm and confidence, and heightened 
 their anxiety for the conflict. Our situation afforded me an oppor- 
 tunity of making the arrangements preparatory to the attack with- 
 out exposing our designs to the enemy. The first regiment, com- 
 manded by Colonel Burleson, was assigned to the centre. The 
 second regiment, under the command of Colonel Sherman, formed 
 the left wing of the army. The artillery, under the special com- 
 mand of Colonel George W. Hockley, inspector-general, was placed 
 on the right of the first regiment ; and four companies of infantry, 
 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Millard, sustained 
 the artillery upon the right. Our cavalry, sixty-one in number, 
 commanded by Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar (whose gallant and dar- 
 ing conduct on the previous day had attracted the admiration of his 
 comrades, and called him to that station), placed on our extreme 
 right, completed our line. Our cavalry was first despatched to the 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 501 
 
 front of the enemy’s left, for the purpose of attracting their notice, 
 while an extensive island of timber afforded us an opportunity of 
 concentrating our forces, and deploying from that point, agreeably 
 to the previous design of the troops. Every evolution was per- 
 formed with alacrity, the whole advancing rapidly in line, through 
 an open prairie, without any protection whatever for our men. The 
 artillery advanced and took station within two hundred yards of the 
 enemy’s breastwork, and commenced an effective fire with grape 
 and canister. 
 
 Colonel Sherman, w r ith his regiment, having commenced the action 
 upon our left w r ing, the whole line, at the centre and on the right, 
 advancing in double quick time, raised the war-cry, “ Remember the 
 Alamo!” received the enemy’s fire, and advanced within point- 
 blank shot, before a piece was discharged from our lines. Our line 
 advanced without a halt, until they were in possession of the wood- 
 land and the enemy’s breastwork — the right wing of Burleson’s and 
 the left of Millard’s taking possession of the breastwork ; our artil- 
 lery having gallantly charged up within seventy yards of the ene- 
 my’s cannon, when it w r as taken by our troops. 
 
 The conflict lasted about eighteen minutes from the time of close 
 action until we were in possession of the enemy’s encampment, taking 
 one piece of cannon (loaded), four stand of colors, all their camp- 
 equipage, stores, and baggage. Our cavalry had charged and routed 
 that of the enemy upon the right, and given pursuit to the fugitives, 
 which did not cease until they arrived at the bridge which I have 
 mentioned before — Captain Karnes, always among the foremost in 
 danger, commanding the pursuers. The conflict in the breastwork 
 lasted but a few moments ; many of the troops encountered hand to 
 hand, and, not having the advantage of bayonets on our side, our 
 riflemen used their pieces as war-clubs, breaking many of them off 
 at the breech. The rout commenced at half-past four, and the pur- 
 suit by the main army continued until twilight. A guard was then 
 left in charge of the enemy’s encampment, and our army returned 
 with their killed and wounded. In the battle, our loss was two 
 killed and twenty-three wounded, six of them mortally. The ene- 
 my’s loss was six hundred and thirty killed, among whom was one 
 general officer, four colonels, two lieutenant-colonels, five captains, 
 twelve lieutenants ; wounded two hundred and eight, of which were 
 five colonels, three lieutenant-colonels, two second lieutenant-colo- 
 nels, seven captains, one cadet ; prisoners seven hundred and thirty 
 
502 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 — President-General Santa Anna, General Cos, four colonels, aides 
 to General Santa Anna, and the colonel of the Guerrero battalion, 
 are included in the number. General Santa Anna was not taken 
 until the 22d, and General Cos yesterday, very few having escaped. 
 About six hundred muskets, three hundred sabres, and two hundred 
 pistols, have been collected since the action. Several hundred 
 mules and horses were taken, and nearly twelve thousand dollars in 
 specie. 
 
 For several days previous to the action, our troops were engaged 
 in forced marches, exposed to excessive rains, and the additional 
 inconvenience of extremely bad roads, badly supplied with rations 
 and clothing ; yet, amid every difficulty, they bore up with cheer- 
 fulness and fortitude, and performed their marches with spirit and 
 alacrity — there was no murmuring. 
 
 Previous to and during the action, my staff evinced every dispo- 
 sition to be useful, and were actively engaged in their duties. In 
 the conflict I am assured that they demeaned themselves in such a 
 manner as proved them worthy members of the army of San Ja- 
 cinto. Colonel T. J. Rusk, secretary of war, was on the field. For 
 weeks his services had been highly beneficial to the army. In the 
 battle, he was on the left wing, where Colonel Sherman’s command 
 first encountered and drove in the enemy : he bore himself gallantly, 
 and continued his efforts and activity, remaining with the pursuers 
 until resistance ceased. 
 
 I have the honor of transmitting herewith a list of all the officers 
 and men who were engaged in the action, which I respectfully re- 
 quest may be published, as an act of justice to the individuals. For 
 the commanding general to attempt discrimination as to the conduct 
 of those who commanded in the action, or those who were command- 
 ed, would be impossible. Our success in the action is conclusive 
 proof of their daring intrepidity and courage ; every officer and man 
 proved himself worthy of the cause in which he battled, while the 
 triumph received a lustre from the humanity which characterized 
 their conduct after victory, and richly entitles them to the admira- 
 tion and gratitude of their general. Nor should we withhold the 
 tribute of our grateful thanks from that Being who rules the desti- 
 nies of nations, and has, in the time of greatest need, enabled us to 
 arrest a powerful invader while devastating our country. 
 
 I have the honor, &c., 
 
 Sam Houston, Commander-in- Chief. 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 503 
 
 No. 46. 
 
 Report of Thomas J. Rusk , Secretary of War. 
 
 [This report of the closing scene of the Texan campaign is added here as an 
 important historical document, throwing much light upon the action of the 21st 
 of April.] 
 
 War Department, Headquarters, Army of Texas, ) 
 
 San Jacinto River, April 22, 1836. J 
 
 To His Excellency David G. Burnet, President of Texas. 
 
 Sir : I have the honor to communicate to your excellency a brief 
 account of a general engagement with the army of Santa Anna, at 
 this place on the 21st instant. 
 
 Our army, under the command of General Houston, arrived here 
 on the 20th instant. The enemy, a few miles off at New Washing- 
 ton, apprized of our arrival, committed some depredations upon pri- 
 vate property, and commenced their line of march to this point. 
 They were unconscious of our approach until our standard was 
 planted on the banks of the San Jacinto. Our position was a fa- 
 vorable one for battle. On the noon of the 20th, the appearance 
 of our foe was hailed by our soldiers with enthusiasm. The enemy 
 marched in good order, took a position in front of our encampment, 
 on an eminence, within cannon-shot, where they planted their only 
 piece of artillery, a brass nine-pounder ; and then arrayed their cav- 
 alry and infantry a short distance on the right, under the shelter of 
 a skirt of woods. In a short time, they commenced firing upon us ; 
 their cannon in front, their infantry on our left, and their cavalry 
 changing their position on the right. A charge was made on the 
 left of our camp by their infantry, which was promptly repelled by 
 a few shots from our artillery, which forced them to retire. I have 
 the satisfaction of stating that only two of our men were wounded, 
 one very slightly, the other (Colonel Neill, of the artillery) not fa- 
 tally. 
 
 The attack ceased ; the enemy retired and formed in two skirts 
 of timber, and remained in that position, occasionally opening their 
 cannon upon us, until just before sunset, when they attempted to 
 draw off their forces. Their artillery and cavalry were removed to 
 other points. Colonel Sherman, with sixty of our cavalry, charged 
 upon theirs, consisting upward of one hundred, killing and wounding 
 several. Their infantry came to the assistance of their cavalry, and 
 opened upon us an incessant fire for ten or fifteen minutes, which 
 
504 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 our men sustained with surprising firmness. Too much praise can 
 not be bestowed upon those wdio were engaged in this charge, for 
 never was one of equal peril made with more courage, and termi- 
 nated with less loss. Two of our men were severely wounded, hut 
 none killed. This terminated the movements of the day. 
 
 Early next morning, about nine o’clock, the enemy received a 
 reinforcement of five hundred men, under the command of General 
 Martin Prefecto de Cos, which increased their strength to fourteen 
 or fifteen hundred men. It was supposed that an attack upon our 
 encampment would now be made ; and, having a good position, we 
 stationed our artillery, and disposed of the forces, so as to receive 
 the enemy to the best advantage. At three o’clock, however, the 
 foe, instead of showing signs of attack, was evidently engaged in 
 fortifying. We determined, therefore, immediately to assail him; 
 and, in half an hour, we were formed in four divisions : the first, 
 intended as our right wing, composed of the regulars under Colonel 
 Millard, and the second division, under command of Colonel Sydney 
 Sherman, formed our left wing. A division, commanded by Colonel 
 Burleson, formed our centre. Our two six-pounders, under the com- 
 mand of Colonel Hockley, Captains Isaac N. Moreland and Still- 
 well, were drawn up on the right of the centre division. The cav- 
 alry, under command of Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar, formed upon 
 the right. At the command to move forward, all the divisions ad- 
 vanced in good order and high spirits. On arriving within reach of 
 the enemy, a heavy fire was opened, first with their artillery on our 
 cavalry. A general conflict now ensued. Orders were given to 
 charge. Colonel Sherman’s division moved up, and drove the ene- 
 my from the woods occupied by them on their right wing. At the 
 same moment, Colonel Burleson’s division, together with the regu- 
 lars, charged upon and mounted the breastwork of the enemy, and 
 drove them from their cannon ; our artillery, the meanwhile, charging 
 up and firing upon them with great effect. The cavalry, under Colo- 
 nel Lamar, at the same time fell on them with great fury and great 
 slaughter. Major-General Houston acted with great gallantry, en- 
 couraging his men to the attack, and heroically charged, in front of 
 the infantry, within a few yards of the enemy, receiving at the same 
 time a wound in his leg. The enemy soon took to flight, officers and 
 all, some on foot and some on horseback. In ten minutes after the firing 
 of the first gun, we were charging through the camp, and driving 
 hem before us. They fled in confusion and dismay down the river, 
 
OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 505 
 
 followed closely by our troops for four miles. Some of them took 
 the prairie, and were pursued by our cavalry ; others were shot in 
 attempting to swim the river ; and in a short period the sanguinary 
 conflict was terminated by the surrender of nearly all who were not 
 slain in the combat. One half of their army perished ; the other 
 half are prisoner^, among whom are General Santa Anna himself, 
 Colonel Almonte, and many other prominent officers of their army. 
 The loss of the enemy is computed at over six hundred slain, and 
 above six hundred prisoners ; together with a caballada of several 
 hundred mules taken, with much valuable baggage. Our loss, in 
 point of numbers, is small, it being seven slain and fifteen wounded. 
 
 This glorious achievement is attributed, not to superior force, but 
 to the valor of our soldiers and the sanctity of our cause. Our army 
 consisted of seven hundred and fifty effective men. This brave band 
 achieved a victory as glorious as any on the records of history, and 
 the happy cousequences will be felt in Texas by succeeding gener- 
 ations. It has saved the country from the yoke of bondage ; and 
 all who mingled in it are entitled to the special munificence of gov- 
 ernment, and the heartfelt gratitude of every lover of liberty. The 
 sun was sinking in the horizon as the battle commenced, but, at the 
 close of the conflict, the sun of liberty and independence rose in 
 Texas, never, it is to be hoped, to be obscured by the clouds of des- 
 potism. We have read of deeds of chivalry, and perused with ardor 
 the annals of war ; we have contemplated, with the highest emotions 
 of sublimity, the loud-roaring thunder, the desolating tornado, and 
 the withering simoom of the desert ; but neither of these, nor all, 
 inspired us with emotions like those felt on this occasion ! The offi- 
 cers and men seemed to be actuated by a like enthusiasm. There 
 was a general cry which pervaded the ranks — “ Remember the Ala- 
 mo / remember La Bahia !” These words electrified all. “ On- 
 ward !” was the cry. The unerring aim and irresistible energy of 
 the Texan army could not be withstood. It was freemen fighting 
 against the minions of tyranny, and the result proved the inequality 
 of such a contest. 
 
 In a battle where every individual performed his duty, it might 
 seem invidious to draw distinctions ; but, while I do justice to all in 
 expressing my high admiration of the bravery and gallant conduct 
 of both officers and men, I hope I may be indulged in the expression 
 of my highest approbation of the chivalrous conduct of Major James 
 Collingsworth in almost every part of the engagement. Colonel 
 
506 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Hockley, with his command of artillery, Colonel Wharton, the adju- 
 tant-general, Major Cook, and, in fact, all the staff-officers ; Colonel 
 Burleson and Colonel Somervell on the right, Colonel Millard in the 
 centre, and Colonel Sherman, Colonel Bennett, and Major Wells, on 
 the left, and Colonel Lamar on the extreme right with the cavalry — 
 led on the charge and followed in the pursuit with dauntless bravery. 
 All have my highest approbation. With such men, sustained as we 
 shall be by the patriots and lovers of liberty in our mother-country, 
 hateful Despotism can not find a resting-place for the sole of her 
 foot on the beautiful plains of Texas ! A volume would not contain 
 the deeds of individual daring and bravery. Each captain has been 
 required to make report, and I hope justice will be done to all the 
 brave spirits who mingled in the glorious achievement of yesterday. 
 My aide-de-camp, Dr. Motley, of Kentucky, fell near me, mortally 
 wounded, and soon after his spirit took its flight to join the immortal 
 Milam and others in a better world. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, yours, 
 
 Thomas J. Rusk, Secretary of War 
 
 P. S. — Since writing the above, General Cos has been brought 
 in a prisoner by our cavalry. T. J. Rusk. 
 
APPENDIX NO. II. 
 
 DOCUMENTS 
 
 IN RELATION TO 
 
 THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE TEXAN ARMY. 
 
 GENERAL CONSULTATION. 
 
 “San Felipe de Austin, November 13, 1835. 
 
 “OF THE MILITARY. 
 
 “Article 2. The regular army of Texas shall consist of one 
 major-general, who shall be commander-in-chief of all the forces 
 called into public service during the war. 
 
 “Article 3. The commander-in-chief of the regular army of 
 Texas shall be appointed by the convention, and commissioned by 
 the governor.” — Journal , p. 48. 
 
 “ The house met at the expiration of the time for which it ad- 
 journed — 
 
 “ When, on motion by Mr. Everitt, they went into an election for 
 major-general. 
 
 “ The rule in this case being suspended — 
 
 “ On motion of M. W. Smith, S. Houston was elected major- 
 general of the armies of Texas.” — Journal , p. 36. 
 
 “ To Sam Houston , Esquire : — 
 
 “ In the name of the people of Texas, free and sovereign : We, 
 reposing special trust and confidence in your patriotism, valor, con- 
 
508 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 duct, and fidelity, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you 
 to be major-general and commander-in-chief of the army of Texas, 
 and of all the forces now raised or to be raised by it, and of all 
 others who shall voluntarily offer their service and join the said 
 army, for the defence of the constitution and liberty, and for repel- 
 ling every hostile invasion thereof ; and you are hereby vested with 
 full power and authority to act as you shall think for the good and 
 welfare of the service. 
 
 “And we do hereby strictly charge and require all officers and 
 soldiers under your command to be obedient to your orders, and 
 diligent in the exercise of their several duties. 
 
 “And we do also enjoin and require you to be careful in execu- 
 ting the great trust reposed in you, by causing strict discipline and 
 order to be observed in the army, and that the soldiers be duly ex- 
 ercised, and provided with all convenient necessaries. 
 
 “And you are to regulate your conduct in eveiy respect by the 
 rules and discipline of war adopted by the United States of North 
 America, or such as may hereafter be adopted by this government ; 
 and punctually to observe and follow such orders and directions, 
 from time to time, as you shall receive from this or a future govern- 
 ment of Texas. 
 
 “ This commission to continue in force until revoked by this or a 
 future government. 
 
 “ Done at San Felipe de Austin, on the fourteenth day of Novem- 
 ber, eighteen hundred and thirty-five. 
 
 “HENRY SMITH, Governor. 
 
 “ P. B. Dexter, Secretary of 'Provisional Government." 
 
 “Council-Hall, San Felipe, January 3, 1836. 
 
 “ The president [of the council] submitted a communication from 
 F. W. Johnson, for himself and other volunteers, for authority to 
 proceed to Matamoras ; which was read, and referred to the com- 
 mittee on military affairs, with instructions to report this afternoon 
 at three o’clock.” — Journal , p. 247. 
 
 “Council-Hall, San Felipe, January 6, 1836. 
 “James Bowie exhibited to the council orders from the com- 
 mand er-in-chief of the army, to proceed against Matamoras, and 
 took leave of the council for his departure.” — Journal , p. 2G5. 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 509 
 
 “ Council-Hall, January 6, 1836, 3 o'clock , P. M. 
 
 “ Mr. Hanks, from the select committee appointed to wait on 
 James Bowie, to obtain a copy of his orders,* reported and presented 
 a copy of the same, which was ordered to be filed.” — Journal ', p. 266. 
 
 “Council-Hall, January 7, 1836, 9 o'clock , A. M. 
 
 “ Section 1. Be it resolved , by the general council of the provis- 
 ional government of Texas, That J. W. Fannin be and he is hereby 
 appointed and empowered as an agent, for and in behalf of the pro- 
 visional government of Texas, to raise, collect, and concentrate, at 
 or near the port of Copano, as convenience and safety will admit, 
 all volunteer troops willing to enter into an expedition against Mat- 
 amoras, wherever they may be found, at the mouth of the Brasos, 
 city of Bexar, or elsewhere, whether in Texas or arriving in Texas ; 
 and, when thus collected and concentrated, to report either to the 
 commanding general, or to the governor or council , as he may prefer, 
 agreeably to the seventh section of an ordinance and decree, passed 
 the 5tli of December, 1835, for raising an auxiliary corps to the reg- 
 ular army ; and to continue to report, from time to time, as the ex- 
 pedition may progress.” 
 
 “ Section 6. Be it further resolved, fyc., That the aforesaid agent, 
 J. W. Fannin, shall be authorized and empowered to appoint such 
 special agent or agents under him as he shall deem necessary to carry 
 into effect the object of these resolutions.” — Journal, pp. 273, 274. 
 
 Extract from the Message of Governor Henry Smith to the President and 
 Members of the Council , January 11, 1836. 
 
 “ If the appointment of general agents with latitudinarian powers, 
 with the power of substitution, and many other things equally in- 
 consistent and ridiculous, which have been engendered in and .ema- 
 nated from your caucusing, intriguing body recently, does not show 
 a want of respect for my department, and a total neglect of the 
 sacred oaths and pledges solemnly made by you, I must admit I 
 am no judge.” — Journal, p. 292. 
 
 “Executive Department of Texas, San Felipe, January 28, 1836. 
 
 “ Sir : You are hereby furloughed until the 1st day of March 
 next, for the purpose of adjusting your private business, preparatory 
 
 * See Appendix I., No. 8, p. 464. 
 
510 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 to your necessary absence, hereafter, from home, in the country’s 
 service. 
 
 “ Your absence is permitted in part by the illegal acts of the coun- 
 cil in superseding you, by the unauthorized appointment of agents 
 to organize and control the army, contrary to the organic law, and 
 the ordinances of their own body. 
 
 “ In the meantime, you will conform to your instructions, and 
 treat with the Indians. 
 
 “ Respectfully yours, &c., 
 
 “ HENRY SMITH, Governor , fyc. 
 
 “ To General Sam Houston, Commander-in- C hi f of the Army .” 
 
 “In Convention, Friday Morning, 9 o'clock, March 4, 1836. 
 
 “ The convention met pursuant to adjournment, and was called 
 to order by the president. 
 
 “ Mr. Collingsworth introduced the following resolution : — 
 
 “ Whereas , we are now in a state of revolution, and threatened by 
 a large invading army from the central government of Mexico ; and 
 whereas , our present situation, and the emergency of the present 
 crisis, render it indispensably necessary that we should have an 
 army in the field ; and whereas , it is also necessary that there should 
 be one superior head, or commander-in-chief, and a due degree of 
 subordination defined, established, and strictly observed ; therefore, 
 
 “ Be it resolved , That General Sam Houston be appointed major- 
 general, to be commander-in-chief of the land-forces of the Texan 
 army, both regulars, volunteers, and militia (while in actual service), 
 and endowed with all the rights, privileges, and powers, due to a 
 commander-in-chief in the United States of America ; and that he 
 forthwith proceed to take command, establish headquarters, and or- 
 ganize the army accordingly — 
 
 “And that General Sam Houston retain such command until the 
 election of a chief magistrate ; and continue in such office, unless 
 suspended by order of the government de facto , until the general 
 organization agreeably to the constitution, being always amenable 
 to the laws and civil authorities of the country. 
 
 “ Which was read, approved, and adopted, in convention, at Wash- 
 ington, on the 4th day of March, A. D. 1836, and second day of the 
 Independence of Texas. 
 
 “RICHARD ELLIS, President 
 
 “ Test., H. S. Kemble, Secretary of the Convention .” 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 511 
 
 “Washington, March 6, 1836. 
 
 “ Major-General Sam Houston: — 
 
 “ Sir : As commander-in-chief of the Texan army, you are or- 
 dered forthwith to repair to such place on the frontier as you may 
 deem advisable. You will proceed to establish headquarters, and 
 organize the army. You will require all officers of the army, of 
 whatever grade, to report to you. And, as it is impossible, at this 
 time, to determine any particular point of concentration, you will act 
 according to the emergencies of the occasion and the best dictates 
 of your own judgment, for the purpose of protecting our frontier, 
 and advancing the best interests of our country. 
 
 “ You will, as often as you may deem advisable, inform this body, 
 or such other authority as they may establish, of both your acts and 
 the situation of the army. 
 
 “James Collingsworth, 
 
 “ Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. 
 “Richard Ellis, 
 
 “ President of the Convention .” 
 
APPENDIX NO. Ill 
 
 NAMES, AGE, PLACE OF BIRTH, AND FORMER RESIDENCE, 
 
 OF THE SIGNERS OF THE 
 
 TEXAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 MARCH 2, 1836. 
 
 NAMES. 
 
 AOE. 
 
 PLACE OF BIRTH. 
 
 FORMER RESIDENCE. 
 
 Richard Rllis 
 
 54 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 C B. Stewart 
 
 30 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 James Collingsworth... 
 
 30 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Rdwin Waller 
 
 35 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 Ah« Rrigham 
 
 46 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 ,T S T). Ryrom 
 
 38 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Florida. 
 
 Fras. Ruis 
 
 64 
 
 Bexar, Texas 
 
 
 j Ant, 0 Navsto 
 
 41 
 
 Bexar, Texas 
 
 
 J. B. Badgett .. . . 
 
 29 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Arkansas Territory. 
 
 W T>. Lacy 
 
 28 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 William Menifee 
 
 40 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 John Fisher 
 
 36 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Virginia. 
 
 M. Cold well 
 
 38 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 W Motley 
 
 24 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 
 
 
 fi. D Zavala 
 
 47 
 
 Yucatan 
 
 Mexico. 
 
 George W. Smyth 
 
 33 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 S. H. F.veritt 
 
 29 
 
 New York 
 
 New York. 
 
 R. Stapp 
 
 63 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 Cl a®. Went 
 
 36 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 W. B. Seates 
 
 30 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 M. B. Menard 
 
 31 
 
 Canada 
 
 Illinois. 
 
 A B. Hardin 
 
 38 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 J. W. Bunton 
 
 28 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Thomas G. Gazeley .... 
 
 35 
 
 New York 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 R. M. Coleman. ....... 
 
 37 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 S. C. Robertson* 
 
 60 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 George C. Childress*. . . 
 
 32 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 B. Hardiman 
 
 41 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 R. Potter 
 
 86 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 North Carolina. 
 
SIGNERS OF TEXAN DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 513 
 
 NAMES. 
 
 Thomas J. Rusk 
 
 Charles S. Taylor. . . . 
 John S. Roberts 
 
 R. Hamilton 
 
 C. M ‘Kinney 
 
 A. H. Lattimer 
 
 James Power 
 
 Sam Houston 
 
 David Thomas 
 
 E. Conrad 
 
 Martin Parmer 
 
 E. O. Legrand 
 
 S. W. Blount 
 
 James Gaines 
 
 W. Clark, jr 
 
 S. 0. Pennington . . . . 
 
 W. C. Crawford 
 
 John Turner 
 
 B. B. Goodrich 
 
 G. W. Barnett 
 
 J. G. Swisher 
 
 Jesse Grimes 
 
 S. Rhoads Fisher* . . . 
 Samuel A. Maverick* 
 John White Bower* . 
 James B. Woods*. . . . 
 Andrew Briscoe*. . . . 
 
 John W. Moore* 
 
 Thomas Barnett 
 
 AGE. 
 
 PLACE OF BIRTH. 
 
 | FORMER RESIDENCE. 
 
 29 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Georgia. 
 New York. 
 
 28 
 
 England 
 
 40 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 53 
 
 Scotland 
 
 North Carolina. 
 
 70 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 27 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 48 
 
 Ireland 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 43 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 35 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 26 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 58 
 
 Virginia 
 
 33 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 28 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Georgia. 
 
 Louisiana. 
 
 60 
 
 Virginia 
 
 37 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Georgia. 
 
 Arkansas Territory. 
 Alabama. 
 
 27 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 31 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 34 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 37 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 43 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Mississippi. 
 
 Tennessee. 
 
 41 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 48 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Alabama. 
 
 41 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Pennsylvania. 
 South Carolina. 
 
 29 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 27 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Arkansas Territory. 
 Kentucky. 
 
 34 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The above is from a statement furnished in the convention, to Dr. B. B. Goodrich, by the mem- 
 bers themselves. 
 
 * Not present at the signing. 
 
 Vol. II. — 33 
 
APPENDIX NO. IV. 
 
 DOCUMENTS 
 
 IN RELATION TO THE 
 
 MASSACRE OF COLONEL FANNIN AND HIS COMMAND, ON SUNDAY 
 MORNING, MARCH 27, 1836, AT GOLIAD. 
 
 Extracts from the Diary of General TJrrea * 
 
 “ March 20 The instant the fire was opened, and the move- 
 
 ment I had ordered was taking place, the enemy, without offering 
 any resistance, raised the white flag. I immediately ordered the 
 firing to cease, and despatched Lieutenant-Colonel Holzinger, and 
 my adjutant Don Jose Gonzales, to learn the enemy’s intention. 
 The former soon returned, stating that they proposed to capitulate. 
 My reply simply was, that I could accede to nothing else than an 
 unconditional surrender, and Senors Morales and Salas hastened to 
 communicate the same to the enemy’s commissioners, who had 
 already come forth from their entrenchments. Some communica- 
 tions passed ; but desirous to terminate the affair as promptly as 
 possible, I repaired to the spot, and repeated to the head of the dep- 
 utation the impossibility on my part, to accede to any other thing 
 than a surrender on the terms I had already proposed, feeling 
 obliged to refuse subscribing the capitulation in three articles, for 
 which they asked.” 
 
 * The translations of Urrea's Diary , and Santa Anna's Manifesto , as furnished 
 by the Democratic Review of 1838, are used in this appendix. 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 5l5 
 
 The Articles. 
 
 “Article 1 . The Mexican troops having planted their artillery at 
 the distance of one hundred and seventy paces, and having opened 
 their tire, we raised the white flag, and instantly there came Colonels 
 Morales and Holzinger, and to them we proposed to surrender at 
 discretion, on the terms they should judge suitable. 
 
 “Article 2. That the wounded, and that the commander, Fan- 
 nin, be treated with all possible consideration, it being proposed 
 that we should lay down our arms. 
 
 “Article 3. That all the detachment shall be treated as prison- 
 ers-of-war, and placed at the disposal of the supreme government. 
 
 “ The plain on the Coleta river, Between Victoria and La Bahia, 
 March 20, 1836. 
 
 “B. C. Wallace, Major, 
 
 “ J. M. Chadwick, 
 
 “Approved, J. W. F annin, Commander.” 
 
 [Added by General Urrea.] “When the enemy raised the white 
 flag, I sent to inform their leader that I could admit of no other 
 terms than those of surrendering at discretion, without any modifi- 
 cation whatever, as agreed upon through the medium of those gen- 
 tlemen, leaders of the party, therein named ; nor can the other re- 
 quests made by the subscribers to that surrender be received. Such 
 was the declaration I before made, which must be complied with, 
 since neither can I, nor ought I to grant any other thing. 
 
 “Jose Urrea.” 
 
 “ Then turning to Fannin and his companion, in presence of Se- 
 iiors Morales, Salas, Holzinger, and others, I definitely replied : ‘ If 
 you are willing to surrender at discretion, the thing is concluded ; if 
 otherwise, I will return to my post, and the attack shall continue.’ 
 Painful to me as was this reply, and desirous as I might have felt 
 to offer them the guaranties which humanity might have prescribed, 
 it was not within the limit of my powers ; had it been so, I should 
 have guarantied their lives at least, on the spot. Fannin was a re- 
 spectable man, and a man of courage, a quality reciprocally prized 
 by soldiers in the field. His manners conciliated my esteem, and 
 had it been in my power to save him, as well as his companions, I 
 should have felt gratified in so doing. All the assurance I could 
 
516 
 
 . APPENDIX. 
 
 make him was, that I would interpose in his behalf with the general- 
 in-chief, which I accordingly did, in a letter from Victoria. 
 
 “ After my ultimatum, the leaders of the enemy’s forces conferred 
 together, and the result of their deliberations was to surrender upon 
 the terms proposed. They at the same time gave orders to those 
 under their command to come forth and pile their arms. Nine 
 pieces of artillery, three standards, more than a thousand muskets, 
 a quantity of pistols, rifles, and dirks, of superior quality, a number 
 of wagons, and a considerable quantity of provisions, together with 
 about four hundred prisoners, remained in the hands of the army, 
 among whom were ninety-seven wounded, Fannin and others of the 
 leading men being among the number. I gave orders that the whole 
 of them, with their baggage, should march to Goliad, guarded by 
 two hundred infantry, and that such of the wounded as were unable 
 to proceed, should be conveyed in carts, wagons, and other vehicles 
 found in the enemy’s camp. Twenty-seven of their dead, of the 
 day previous, were interred, together with eleven of our own. We 
 had forty-nine soldiers wounded, and five officers, among whom was 
 Captain Ballasteros, severely.” 
 
 “ March 21. — At daybreak I continued my march, and at seven 
 o’clock took possession of Victoria. 
 
 “ March 22. — I marched, with two hundred foot and fifty horse, 
 to a mountain pass called Las Juntas. Here I met with four men 
 from Ward’s company, who were in search of provisions, and from 
 them I learned that the whole band was in ambush in a neighboring 
 wood. I immediately surrounded it, and sent in one of the prison- 
 ers to announce to his leader and companions, that unless they 
 surrendered at discretion they would be cut to pieces. Mr. Ward, 
 known under the title of their colonel, desired to speak with me ; 
 and after a few minutes’ conversation, he with his troop of one hun- 
 dred men surrendered at discretion. 
 
 “ March 23. — In this place I received advice that eighty-two of 
 the enemy had surrendered in Copano, with all their arpis, ammuni- 
 tion, and provisions.” 
 
 “ To General Urrea , Commander, SfC . : — 
 
 [Official.] “ In respect to the prisoners of whom you speak in 
 your last communication, you must not fail to bear in mind the cir- 
 cular of the supreme government, in which it is decreed, that * for- 
 eigners invading the republic, and taken with arms in their hands, 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 517 
 
 shall be judged and treated as pirates and as, in my view of the 
 matter, every Mexican guilty of the crime of joining these adventur- 
 ers loses the rights of a citizen by his unnatural conduct, the five 
 Mexican prisoners whom you have taken ought also to suffer as 
 traitors.” 
 
 [Unofficial.] “In regard to foreigners who make war, and those 
 unnatural Mexicans who have joined their cause, you will remark 
 that what I have stated to you officially is in accordance with the 
 former provisions of the supreme government. An example is ne- 
 cessary, in order that those adventurers may be duly warned, and 
 the nation be delivered from the ills she is daily doomed to suffer. 
 
 “Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 
 
 “General Quarters, Bejar, March 3, 1836.” 
 
 “ To General Urrea , fyc — 
 
 “ Under date of the present, I have stated to the commandant of 
 the post of Goliad, as follows : — 
 
 “ ‘ By a communication made to me by Colonel D. F. Garay, of 
 that place, I am informed that there have been sent to you by Gen- 
 eral Urrea, two hundred and thirty -four prisoners, taken in the ac 
 tion of Encinal del Perdido (Coleta), on the 19th and 20th of the 
 present month ; and as the supreme government has ordered that 
 all foreigners taken with arms in their hands, making war upon the 
 nation, shall be treated as pirates, I have been surprised that the 
 circular of the said supreme government nas not been fully complied 
 with in this particular ; I therefore order , that you should give imme- 
 diate effect to the said ordinance in respect to all those foreigners who 
 have yielded to the force of arms, having had the audacity to come 
 and insult the republic, to devastate with fire and sword, as has 
 been the case in Goliad, causing vast detriment to our citizens ; in 
 a word, shedding the precious blood of Mexican citizens, whose only 
 crime has been their fidelity to their country. I trust that, in reply 
 to this, you will inform me that public vengeance has been satisfied 
 by the punishment of such detestable delinquents. I transcribe the 
 said decree of the government for your guidance, and that you may 
 strictly fulfil the same, in the zealous hope that, for the future, the 
 provisions of the supreme government may not, for a moment, be 
 infringed.’ 
 
 “Headquarters, Bejar, March 23, 1836. 
 
 “Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.” 
 
513 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 From the Commandant at Goliad to General Urrea. 
 
 u In compliance with the definitive orders of his excellency the 
 general-in-chief, which I received direct, at four o’clock to-morrow 
 morning the prisoners sent by you to this fortress will be shot. I 
 have not ventured to execute the same sentence on those who sur- 
 rendered to Colonel Yara, at Copano, being unacquainted with the 
 particular circumstances of their surrender ; and I trust you will be 
 pleased to take upon yourself to save my responsibility in this re- 
 gard, by informing me what I am to do with them. 
 
 “ J. N. DE PORTILLA. 
 
 “Goliad, March 26, 1836.“ 
 
 Further from the Diary of General Urrea. 
 
 “ March 24-27. — These days were passed in necessary regula- 
 tions, in refitting the troops, and in the care of the sick and wounded. 
 On the 25th I sent Ward and his companions to Goliad. On the 
 27th, between nine and ten o’clock in the morning, I received a 
 communication from Lieutenant-Colonel Portilla, military command- 
 ant of Goliad, informing me that he had received an order from his 
 excellency the commander-in-chief, to shoot all the prisoners there, 
 and that he had resolved to comply with the same. The order in 
 question was received by Portilla at seven o’clock on the evening 
 of the 26th ; he communicated it to me the same date, but necessa- 
 rily it only came to my knowledge after the execution had taken 
 place. Every soldier in my division was confounded at the news ; 
 all wax amazement and consternation. I was no less struck to the 
 heart than my companions in arms, who stood there the witnesses of 
 my sorrow ; let one of those present at that painful moment deny tLe 
 fact. More than a hundred and fifty of those who fortunately re- 
 mained with me, escaped this catastrophe, consisting of those who 
 had surrendered at Copano, together with the surgeons and young 
 men whom I had placed, to tend on the hospitals, whose services, 
 as well as those of many of the prisoners, were very important to 
 the army. 
 
 « The melancholy event of which I here speak has caused a more 
 than ordinary sensation, not only among my own countrymen, but 
 among strangers the most distant from us. Nor have those been. 
 wantiDg who would fix the fearful responsibility on me, although 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 519 
 
 nothing could be more clear and unequivocal than my conduct in 
 regard to this horrid transaction. 
 
 “Nothing could be more painful to me than the idea of sacri- 
 ficing so many gallant men, and particularly the amiable, spirited, 
 and soldier-like Fannin. They certainly surrendered in the full 
 confidence that Mexican generosity would not be sterile in their 
 regard ; they assuredly did so, or otherwise they would have 
 resisted to the last, and sold their lives as dearly as possible. 
 
 “ Should an attempt be made to convict me in another quarter, 
 by asking why I did not guaranty the lives of those unhappy men, 
 when it was in my power, by granting them a capitulation when 
 they surrendered to me at Coleta, my reply would be, that it was 
 not within the scope of my powers to do so, nor would it have been 
 honorable to the arms of the nation, or to myself. Again, I should 
 have rendered myself liable to a court-martial for so doing, inasmuch 
 as having, on that day, the advantage of the enemy, in both num- 
 bers and position, I could admit of no other proposition than that of 
 surrendering at discretion, or trying the fortune of the field. I feel 
 conscious of having acted, in this affair, in such manner as duty de- 
 manded, and of which the result was not in my power. As to those 
 who have presumed to say that I offered guaranties to the party 
 surrendering to me, they have said so without any knowledge of the 
 facts.” 
 
 Extract from the Diary of Lieutenant- Colonel Portilla , Com- 
 mandant at Goliad. 
 
 “ March 26, 1836. — At seven o’clock in the evening arrived a 
 courier extraordinary from Bexar, from his excellency General Santa 
 Anna, notifying me that the whole of the prisoners who had surren- 
 dered by force of arms were immediately to be shot, with regulations 
 as to the manner in which it was to be executed. I deferred it, for 
 both myself and Colonel Gary to whom I communicated it, thought 
 of nothing less than such a thing. At eight the same evening came 
 a courier extraordinary from Victoria, from General Urrea, who said 
 to me, among other things, ‘ Treat the prisoners with consideration, 
 and particularly their leader, Fannin. Let them be employed in 
 repairing the houses, and erecting quarters, and serve out to them a 
 portion of the rations which you will receive from the mission of 
 Refugio.’ How cruel is my state of uncertainty, my mind vacilla- 
 
520 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ting between these conflicting orders ! I passed the whole night 
 restless and uneasy in mind. 
 
 “March 27. — At daybreak I came to a determination to fofil the 
 orders of his excellency the commander-in-cliief, considering him as 
 the superior I ought to obey. I gave orders for the whole garrison 
 to form, and awaken the prisoners (four hundred and forty-five in 
 number), who were still asleep. (I ordered the eighty of the class 
 who had come from Copana, to be separated from the rest, inas- 
 much as their fate demanded consideration, because, when invading 
 our territory, they were not taken with arms in their hands.) We 
 formed our: elves into three divisions — the firs: under the triers of 
 the first adjutant Don Augustin Alcerrica ; the second under those 
 of Captain Luis Balderas ; and the third, of Captain Antonio Rami- 
 rez. To these officers I intrusted the execution of the order of the 
 supreme government, and of the general-in-chief. It teas executed. 
 A great struggle of feelings among the officers and soldiers — a pro- 
 found silence ! Sad at heart, I wrote to General Urrea, expressing 
 my regret at having been concerned in so painful an affair. I also 
 sent an official acount of what I had done, to the general-in-chief. 
 The eighty prisoners of Copano are still alive, and I asked for in- 
 structions from the general-in-chief as to what was to be done with 
 them.” 
 
 Commandant at Goliad to General Urrea. 
 
 “ My dear General : I feel much distressed at what has oc- 
 curred here ; a scene enacted in cold blood having passed before 
 my eyes which has filled me with horror. All I can say is, that 
 my duty as a soldier, and what I owe to my country, must be my 
 guaranty. My dear general, by you was I sent here ; you thought 
 proper so to do, and I remain here in entire conformity to your 
 wishes. 1 came, as you know, voluntarily, with these poor Indians, 
 to co-operate, to the best of my humble means, for my country’s good. 
 No man is required to do more than is within the scope of his abili- 
 ties ; and both they and myself have doubtless been placed here as 
 competent to the purposes you had in view. I repeat it, that I am 
 perfectly willing to do anything, save and excepting the work of a 
 public executioner by receiving orders to put more persons to death. 
 And yet, being but a subordinate officer, it is my duty to do what is 
 commanded me, even though repugnant to my feelings. 
 
 “I am, general, your devoted and sincere friend, 
 
 “ J. N. DE La PORTILLA. 
 
 Goliad, March 27, 1836.’ 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 521 
 
 Extract from the Manifesto of Santa Anna. 
 
 “ This last event [the surrender of Fannin and his followers] has 
 been productive of much evil to myself, and it is therefore necessary 
 that I would make a short digression respecting it. To avoid repe- 
 tition, I make this observation once for all — the war of Texas was 
 not only just on the part of Mexico, but imperatively called for by 
 the undisguised character of the hostility which provoked it. It is 
 notorious that the soldiers of Travis in the Alamo, those of Fannin 
 at Coleta, the riflemen of Doctor Grant, and Houston himself and 
 the troops of San Jacinto, with very few exceptions, came from 
 New Orleans and other points of the neighboring republic, exclu- 
 sively to support the rebellion in Texas, having had no previous 
 relation with Ihe colonists or their enterprises. 
 
 “ This country was soon invaded, not by a nation recognised as 
 such, coming to vindicate rights positive or supposed ; nor yet by 
 Mexicans, led away by a political fanaticism to defend or attack the 
 public administration of their country ; no, it was invaded by men 
 hurried on by the lust of conquest, with rights far less apparent and 
 plausible than Cortes and Pizarro. As for those who raised the 
 standard of revolt throughout the immense territory which Mexico 
 possesses from Bexar to the Sabine, what name shall I give them, 
 or how treat them 1 The laws, ever in vigor, and whose strict ob- 
 servance the government earnestly enforces, term them pirates and 
 banditti ; and the nations of the world would never have forgiven 
 Mexico had she treated such men with the respect which is due 
 only to the honorable, the upright, the respecters of the rights 
 of nations. Till then [the massacre at Goliad], I had enjoyed 
 among my fellow-citizens the reputation — preferable in my mind to 
 that of a brave man — the reputation of being humane after victo- 
 ries won. So completely unfortunate was I destined to become, 
 that even the solitary virtue, which my bitterest enemies never de- 
 nied me, is now disputed. I am represented as more ferocious than 
 the tiger ; I, who was ambitious to be distinguished by nothing so 
 much as by my clemency, in a country that yields to no other in 
 humane and generous feeling. The execution of Fannin and his 
 followers, is the ground on which they accuse me of having been 
 barbarous and sanguinary The prisoners at Goliad stood con- 
 
 demned by the law, by a universal law, by the right of self-protec- 
 tion, which every nation and every individual enjoys. They did 
 
522 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 not surrender under the form of capitulation, as General Urrea has 
 shown ; how then could I turn the sword of justice from their heads 
 without directing it against my own ? Let it be said (though I con- 
 fess that such is not my opinion) that the law is unjust ; yet to im- 
 pute the homicide to the mere instrument, and not to the hand that 
 directs it, can there be greater blindness ? The prisoners were in 
 the highest degree embarrassing to the commandant at Goliad ; be- 
 fore taking to flight they had set fire to the place ; and nothing was 
 left us but the church to house the sick and wounded. The sole 
 security of the garrison consisted of perpetual vigilance, being 
 greatly inferior in number to the prisoners; our provisions were 
 barely sufficient for our own people ; we were without cavalry to 
 conduct tjiem as far as Matamoras. All these considerations, urged 
 by the commandant of the place, weighed heavily on my mind, and 
 tended to bias my resolution. 
 
 “ It has been said that a capitulation was made ; and although 
 the conduct of General Urrea contradicts the assertion, I addressed 
 the supreme government on the subject, begging that an inquiry 
 might be instituted, to show that neither officially nor confidentially 
 was any knowledge of the same communicated to me ; that had 
 such been the case, though General Urrea had no power to grant 
 it, I should have been induced, on the score of humanity, to appeal 
 to the sovereign pity of Congress to deliver Fannin and his soldiers 
 from death. With less motive, and taking advantage of their medi- 
 cal skill, several doctors were saved from death, as well as forty 
 prisoners who were employed in the construction of different useful 
 things. In fine, eighty-six men taken in Copano were saved, I 
 having drawn up a statement, that it appeared certain that they 
 never made use of their arms, nor had committed any depredation, 
 though taken with arms in their hands ; and having submitted the 
 same to Congress, I entreated their clemency.” 
 
 From the Notes of Captain John Shackleford. 
 
 “We then raised a white flag, which was responded to by the 
 enemy. Major Wallace was then sent out, together with one or 
 two others who spoke the Mexican language. They shortly re- 
 turned, and reported that the Mexican general could capitulate with 
 the commanding officer only. Colonel Fannin, although quite lame, 
 then went out with the flag. When he was about to leave our lines, 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 523 
 
 the emotions of my mind were intense, and I felt some anxiety to 
 hear the determination of the men. I remarked to him that I would 
 not oppose a surrender, provided we could obtain an honorable ca- 
 pitulation — one on which he could rely ; that, if he could not obtain 
 such, ‘come back — our graves are already dug — let us all be bu- 
 ried together!’ To these remarks the men responded in a firm and 
 determined manner, and the colonel assured us that he never would 
 surrender on any other terms. He returned in a short time there- 
 after, and communicated the substance of an agreement entered into 
 by General Urrea and himself. Colonel Holzinger, a German, and 
 an engineer in the Mexican service, together with several other offi- 
 cers, then came into our lines to consummate the arrangement. The 
 first words Colonel Holzinger uttered, after a very polite bow, were, 
 ‘ Well, gentlemen, in eight days, liberty and home !’ I heard this 
 distinctly. The terms of the capitulation were then written in both 
 the English and Mexican languages, and read two or three times by 
 officers who could speak and read both languages. The instruments 
 which embodied the terms of capitulation as agreed on were then 
 signed and interchanged in the most formal and solemn manner, and 
 were in substance as follows : — 
 
 “ 1. That we should be received and treated as prisoners-of-war, 
 according to the usages of the most civilized nations. 
 
 “ 2. That private property should be respected and restored ; that 
 the side-arms of the officers should be given up. 
 
 “ 3. That the men should be sent to Copano, and thence to the 
 United States in eight days, or so soon thereafter as vessels could 
 be procured to take them. 
 
 “ 4. That the officers should be paroled, and return to the United 
 States in like manner. 
 
 “ I assert most positively that this capitulation was entered into, 
 without which a surrender never would have been made.” 
 
 “ Here let me remark that I have read General Urrea’s pamphlet. 
 
 On this point, as well as his denial of any capitulation, I 
 
 never read a more villanous falsehood from the pen of any man who 
 aspired to the rank of general.” — lb. 
 
 “ On passing from one part of their wounded to another, I made 
 it convenient to see Fannin, and stated to him how badly we were 
 
524 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 treated. He immediately wrote to General Urrea, adverting to the 
 terms of the capitulation, and to our treatment.” — lb., March 23. 
 
 Urrea to Portilla , in answer to the above. 
 
 “ Treat the prisoners with consideration, and particularly their 
 leader Fannin.” — March 26. 
 
 Remarks on the foregoing. 
 
 The character of Dr. John Shackleford for truth and integrity is 
 unquestionable. He is sustained by the statements of others, who 
 survived that transaction ; he is also sustained by the circumstances 
 themselves. From a careful view of all the facts and documents, 
 we are led to the following conclusions : — 
 
 1 . Santa Anna is responsible for the several assassinations of pris- 
 oners, from the taking of San Patricio on the 27th of February, 1836. 
 He is also responsible for the decree of the Mexican Congress to 
 that effect ; for it was notorious, in and out of Mexico, that he dic- 
 tated and violated the laws at pleasure. 
 
 2. The order of the 3d of March, to Urrea, advised him fully of 
 his duty as public executioner. He asked for no further orders as 
 to the prisoners taken at Agua Dulce, Refugio, or elsewhere. He 
 kept no prisoners ! 
 
 3. Urrea’s diary exhibits so many falsehoods, that it utterly dis- 
 credits him. For instance, as to the number of his killed and 
 wounded at the Coleta, and as to the number of prisoners by him 
 there taken. 
 
 4. Urrea agreed to the capitulation with Fannin, intending at the 
 time to violate it, for which reason his intercourse was with Fannin 
 himself. His force was five times that of Fannin, and he feared a 
 court-martial if he adhered to the capitulation ; and he feared the 
 result of a renewal of the battle if he did not agree to it. Hence 
 treachery was resorted to. 
 
 5. The Indian colonel Portilla knew for what purpose he and his 
 Indian command had been sent to Goliad* and wrote to Urrea as if 
 the latter knew. 
 
 6. The diary of Urrea, that of Portilla, and the manifesto of Santa 
 Anna, were all manufactured after the civilized world had pronounced 
 upon the atrocity of these assassinations. 
 
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GOLIAD MASSACRE. 525 
 
 7. There is very strong circumstantial evidence to show that Santa 
 Anna knew there had been a capitulation before he sent the order 
 to Portilla to execute the prisoners. One circumstance was, the vio- 
 lation of a well-known military rule, in sending the order directly to 
 Portilla, and not to Urrea, on.e of the parties to the capitulation. 
 Another was, the statement of Santa Anna himself that, if he had 
 known it, he would have petitioned the Congress, on the score of 
 humanity, and not of good faith. 
 
APPENDIX NO. V. 
 
 TREATY OF VELASCO, MAY 14, 1836. 
 
 PUBLIC AGREEMENT. 
 
 Articles of Agreement entered into between His Excellency 
 David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas , of 
 the one part , and His Excellency General Antonio Lopez 
 de Santa Anna, President- General-in- Chief of the Mexican 
 Army , of the other part : — 
 
 Article 1 . General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna agrees that 
 he will not take up arms, nor will he exercise his influence to cause 
 them to be taken up, against the people of Texas, during the pres- 
 ent war of independence. 
 
 Article 2. All hostilities between the Mexican and Texan 
 troops will cease immediately, both on land and water. 
 
 Article 3. The Mexican troops will evacuate the territory of 
 Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande del Norte. 
 
 Article 4. The Mexican army, in its retreat, shall not take the 
 property of any person without his consent and just indemnification, 
 using only such articles as may be necessary for its subsistence, in 
 cases where the owners may not be present, and remitting to the 
 commander of the army of Texas, or to the commissioners to be ap- 
 pointed for the adjustment of such matters, an account of the value 
 of the property consumed, the place where taken, and the name of 
 the owner, if it can be ascertained. 
 
TREATY OF VELASCO. 
 
 527 
 
 Article 5. That all private property, including horses, cattle, 
 negro slaves, or indentured persons of whatever denomination, that 
 may have been captured by any portion of the Mexican army, or 
 may have taken refuge in the said army, since the commencement 
 of the late invasion, shall be restored to the commander of the Texan 
 army, or to such other persons as may be appointed by the govern- 
 ment of Texas to receive them. 
 
 Article 6. The troops of both armies will refrain from coming 
 into contact with each other; and, to this end, the commander of 
 the army of Texas will be careful not to approach within a shorter 
 distance of the Mexican army than five leagues * 
 
 Article 7. The Mexican army shall not make any other delay 
 on its march than that which is necessary to take up their hospitals, 
 baggage, &c., and to cross the rivers. Any delay, not necessary to 
 these purposes, to be considered an infraction of this agreement. 
 
 Article 8. By express, to be immediately despatched, this agree- 
 ment shall be sent to General Filisola, and to General T. J. Rusk, 
 commander of the Texan army, in order that they may be apprized 
 of its stipulations ; and, to this end, they will exchange engagements 
 to comply with the same. 
 
 Article 9. That all Texan prisoners now in possession of the 
 Mexican army, or its authorities, be forthwith released, and furnished 
 with free passports to return to their homes; in consideration of 
 which a corresponding number of Mexican prisoners, rank and file, 
 now in possession of the government of Texas, shall be immediately 
 released. The remainder of the Mexican prisoners, that continue 
 in possession of the government of Texas, to be treated with due 
 humanity : any extraordinry comforts that may be furnished them 
 to be at the charge of the government of Mexico. 
 
 Article 10. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna will be sent 
 to Vera Cruz, as soon as it shall be deemed proper. 
 
 The contracting parties sign this instrument for the above-men- 
 tioned purposes, by duplicate, at tbe port of Velasco, this the 14th 
 day of May, 1836. 
 
 DAVID G. BURNET, 
 
 ANT 0 . LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. 
 
 James Collingsworth, Secretary of State. 
 
 Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 P. H. Grayson, Attorney-General. 
 
 Nearly thirteen and one Bixtli miles. 
 
528 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 SECRET AGREEMENT. 
 
 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, General-in-Chief of the Army 
 of Operations, and President of the Republic of Mexico, be- 
 fore the Government established in Texas, solemnly pledges 
 himself to fulfil the Stipulations contained in the following 
 Articles, so far as concerns himself: — 
 
 Article 1 . He will not take up arms, nor cause them to be taken 
 up, against the people of Texas, during the present war for indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 Article 2. He will give his orders that, in the shortest time, the 
 Mexican troops may leave the territory of Texas. 
 
 Article 3. He will so prepare matters in the cabinet of Mexico, 
 that the mission that may be sent thither by the government of 
 Texas may be well received, and that by means of negotiations all 
 differences may be settled, and the independence that has been de- 
 clared by the convention may be acknowledged. 
 
 Article 4. A treaty of commerce, amity, and limits, will be es- 
 tablished between Mexico and Texas, the territory of the latter not 
 to extend beyond the Rio Bravo del Norte. 
 
 Article 5. The present return of General Santa Anna to Vera 
 Cruz being indispensable for the purpose of effecting his solemn en- 
 gagements, the government of Texas will provide for his immediate 
 embarkation for said port. 
 
 Article 6. This instrument, being obligatory on one part as 
 well as on the other, will be signed in duplicate, remaining folded 
 and sealed until the negotiations shall have been concluded, when 
 it will be restored to his excellency General Santa Anna ; no use 
 of it to be made before that time, unless there should be an infrac- 
 tion by either of the contracting parties. 
 
 Port of Velasco, May the 14 th , 1836. 
 
 ANT°. LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA, 
 DAVID G. BURNET. 
 
 James Collingsworth, Secretary of State. 
 
 Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 P. H. Grayson, Attorney-General. 
 
TREATY OF VELASCO. 
 
 529 
 
 Ratification of the Public Agreement by Filisola, in accord- 
 ance with the Provision of the 8 th Article . 
 
 Rivulet of Mugerero. 
 
 On the 26th day of the month of May, of the current year, Ben- 
 jamin F. Smith, colonel in the army of Texas, and Henry Teal, 
 captain of the same, having presented themselves in the tent of his 
 excellency Vicente Filisola, general-in-chief of the Mexican army 
 of operations, and delivered a paper, which was directed, through 
 them, to said General Filisola, by his excellency the president-gen- 
 eral Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna ; and Colonel Smith, at the same 
 time, making known that he came competently authorized (accord- 
 ing to his credentials, which he exhibited for the purpose, signed by 
 his general, Thomas J. Rusk), in order to ratify in his name the ful- 
 filment of the papers referred to, which contain the treaty of armis- 
 tice concluded between General Santa Anna and the government of 
 Texas, on the 14th instant : in consequence, General Filisola, on re- 
 ceiving these documents, named, for their examination and explana- 
 tion with the commissioners, Eugene Tolsa, general of the Mexican 
 army, and Colonel Augustine Amat, who, after having fulfilled their 
 commission in the terms specified, informed his excellency ; and he, 
 after having heard them, agreed on his part religiously to comply, 
 as far as in the ten articles of which it consists, it has reference to the 
 army — in the same manner as the general and army of the Texans 
 are bound on their part. 
 
 Both contracting parties also agreed that some commissioners 
 might be named on the part of General Rusk, who should march, 
 either with or separately from the Mexican army, with the necessary, 
 information, in order that they might make proper remonstrances, 
 conformably to what is expressed in the said treaties, with the un- 
 derstanding that everything belonging to them, that exists in the 
 army of operations, shall be delivered to them. And, for the evi- 
 dence and compliance by both parties, the two belligerent parties 
 agreed to extend in duplicate the present document with the com- 
 missioners. 
 
 Eugene Tolsa, Henry Teal, 
 
 Augustine Amat, Benjamin F. Smith, 
 
 VICENTE FILISOLA. 
 
 Vol. II. — 34 
 
APPENDIX NO. VI. 
 
 GEN. SANTA ANNA TO GEN. SAM HOUSTON 
 
 [translation.] 
 
 Orazimba, November 5, 1836. 
 To His Excellency General Sam Houston : — 
 
 My Esteemed Sir; Through the channel of your commission- 
 ers, and by my conversation with you on the 2d instant, I have 
 manifested to you the importance of my visit to Washington city, to 
 adopt the most effectual mode of terminating the Texan question ; 
 and, as time is passing, without any definite action, when it is most 
 precious, I am desirous that you, who are so deeply interested in 
 the welfare of this country, should expedite the final determination 
 of this question — using, if you should deem it advisable, the follow- 
 ing reasons : — 
 
 When the treaty of the 14th of May was entered into, it was 
 based upon the principle that Texas should form an independent 
 nation, and should acquire a legal existence by means of the ac- 
 knowledgment of Mexico. But, as that basis has been changed by 
 the recent declaration of the people of Texas in favor of annexation 
 to the United States of the North, it appears to me that, by this 
 declaration, the question is much simplified ; because, in future, it 
 will appertain to the cabinet at Washington to regulate this matter, 
 and with whom Mexico will not hesitate to enter into explanations, 
 as a definite treaty is desired. 
 
 The mode of effecting this important object, without loss of time, 
 is what I hope to attain by my conference with the cabinet at Wash- 
 ington, at the same time conciliating all interests. Convinced as I 
 
LETTER FROM SANTA ANNA TO GENERAL HOUSTON. 531 
 
 am that Texas will never reunite with Mexico, I am desirous, on my 
 part, to improve the advantages which may offer, and avoid the sac- 
 rifices which will occur should an imprudent attempt be made to 
 reconquer this country, which has hitherto proved more detrimental 
 than beneficial : consequently reducing the Texan question to this 
 single point — the regulation of the limits between the United States 
 and Mexico ( al arreglo de limites entre los Estados Unidos y Mexico ), 
 which, you are aware, has been pending many years, and may be 
 fixed at the Nueces, del Norte, or any other boundary, as may be 
 decided on at Washington. Thus, disagreeable discussions, which 
 might delay the definite termination of this question, or cause a dif- 
 ference between two friendly nations, will be avoided. 
 
 This, in substance, is a plain, safe, and speedy mode of termina- 
 ting this important matter ; and, as all are interested, it becomes 
 necessary that you facilitate my journey to Washington with the 
 least possible delay. 
 
 In regard to the stipulation in the secret treaty, that my journey 
 should be direct to Vera Cruz, there will be no surprise when the 
 reasons why I first go to Washington city are known : and, should 
 I be sent the latter route, I would like that Messrs. Hockley, Pat- 
 ton, and Bee, should accompany me. Should it meet your appro- 
 bation, you can commission them for that purpose. 
 
 I conclude by repeating to you what I have said, both verbally 
 and in writing — that my name, already known to the world, shall 
 not be tarnished by any unworthy action. Gratitude is my charac- 
 teristic ; so you will have nothing, on your part, to repent. To you 
 I owe my existence, and many favors of which I am deeply im- 
 pressed ; and these I will endeavor to reciprocate as they so justly 
 deserve. 
 
 I have the honor to remain 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 
 
 P. S. — If you have no use for General Jackson’s letter, I will 
 thank you to return it by Major Patton. 
 
 L. de S TA . Anna. 
 
APPENDIX NO. VII. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENT 
 
 RELIGIOUS PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS OF CHRISTIANS 
 
 IN TEXAS. 
 
 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH* 
 
 Prior to the year 1838, no effectual effort seems to have been 
 made by the protestant episcopal church in the United States to 
 introduce and establish her polity and worship in a region so recently 
 gained from the power of popery. True, there had been instances 
 of 'professed clergymen speaking in her name ; but they were hire- 
 lings , whose voice the sheep knew not. No missionary had yet been 
 sent forth with power from her organized agencies to gather and 
 provide spiritually for the scattered sheep of her fold who had found 
 a home in the young republic. Her rulers seem hardly to have 
 awakened to the growing importance of the country. In that year, 
 however, the Rev. Caleb S. Ives, a devoted and faithful preacher 
 and teacher, arrived as a missionary at Matagorda, where he soon 
 gathered a congregation, established a flourishing school, and built 
 a church. He continued his unwearied efforts until 1849, when he 
 died, leaving a large congregation of Christian worshippers as the 
 result of his labors. 
 
 In the fall of 1838, another clergyman, Rev. R. M. Chapman, was 
 
 * From a statement furnished by Peter W. Gray, Esq. 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 533 
 
 stationed at Houston, the seat of government, as a missionary. He, 
 too, was zealous and faithful, but from his youth and inexperience 
 was unequal to the demands of his position. He, however, organ- 
 ized a parish, and officiated for eight or nine months at Houston and 
 neighboring places. Early in 1840 his place was temporarily sup- 
 plied by Rev. Henry B. Goodwin, who, being on a visit to the coun- 
 try, acted as rector of the new parish for several months, and visited 
 the interior as far as Austin. 
 
 In the spring of 1840, the Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk (now of Lou- 
 isiana), then missionary bishop, in company with the Rev. Dr. Page, 
 visited many of the most prominent points between the Trinity and 
 Colorado. He made a favorable report to the church, of the pros- 
 pects of the country, and, in the general convention of 1841, urged 
 the appointment of a bishop for Texas. In January of that year, 
 the Rev. Benjamin Eaton was sent out as a missionary to Galveston 
 and Houston. For some time he officiated alternately at the two 
 places ; but having, in 1842, organized a parish and built a church 
 at the former place, he settled there as rector of that parish. 
 
 In the spring of 1843, the parish at Houston was again supplied 
 by the Rev. Charles Gillette. He had been sent as a missionary, 
 and by his faithful labors soon gathered a strong congregation, and 
 erected a church, of which he became rector. 
 
 In 1844, Bishop Polk again visited the churches in Texas, and in 
 the fall of that year again urged upon the general convention the 
 importance of sending a bishop for the supervision of the interests 
 of the church in Texas, which was increasing in numbers and influ- 
 ence. This measure, which had miscarried in 1841, now met with 
 more favor, and was partially effected by the election and consecra- 
 tion of the Rt. Rev. George W. Freeman as missionary bishop of 
 Arkansas, &c., “ with supervision over the churches in the republic 
 Texas.” Bishop Freeman has, accordingly, visited the churches of 
 Texas annually, and greatly to their advantage, from the time of his 
 appointment. 
 
 During the years 1846, 1847, and 1848, the number of ministers 
 was increased by the appointment of three missionaries for Brazorie 
 Washington, and San Augustine and Nacogdoches. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1849, the several churches and parishes, 
 represented by their ministers and lay-delegates, met in convention 
 at Matagorda, in pursuance of the call of Bishop Freeman, and thore 
 organized a separate diocese under the constitution and canons of 
 
534 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 the protestant episcopal church of the United States. This organi- 
 zation was approved, and the diocese admitted into union with the 
 general convention at its triennial meeting in October, 1850. At 
 the time of this organization there were six clergymen of this church 
 in Texas, six organized parishes, and thi'ee churches built, two only 
 of which supported their ministers without aid from the missionary 
 fund. 
 
 In 1853, there were reported ten clergymen (four more were 
 added in 1854), sixteen parishes, four of which are self-supporting, 
 nine churches, and five hundred communicants. Over fifteen thou- 
 sand dollars were contributed for church purposes (other than min- 
 isters’ salaries) ; and there has been established a diocesan school at 
 Anderson, under the control of the convention of the church, having, 
 by charter, collegiate powers. At this school there were, in 1854, 
 one hundred students. 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH* 
 
 The presbyterian church can hardly be claimed as a pioneer 
 church in the occupation of Texas. About the year 1838, the Rev. 
 Hugh Wilson arrived in the new republic. He was among the first, 
 if not the very first, presbyterian minister upon her soil. He organ- 
 ized a presbyterian church in San Augustine shortly after his arrival, 
 and the year following another church at Independence. He was 
 a single-hearted, laborious, apostolic man ; his usefulness, sacrifices, 
 perseverance, and real worth, place him in an honorable position 
 among the first ministers of the gospel in Texas. 
 
 A few months later the Rev. Daniel Baker landed as a missionary 
 on Galveston island, for which purpose he had, with the approbation 
 of his presbytery, resigned the pastoral care of the church in Tusca- 
 loosa, Alabama. He found in Galveston the Rev. John M‘Culloch, 
 who, under great disadvantages, had been preaching as he had oppor- 
 tunity. At that time the moral foundation of society upon the island 
 was just being laid. A sabbath-school had been organized, and was 
 in successful operation. For some weeks, Dr. Baker preached in the 
 place, and frequently united and conducted public worship at the 
 military station, and among the naval forces of the republic, and had 
 the pleasure to see one of the soldiers make a profession of religion. 
 
 * Old school. — From notes furnished by Rev. William M. Baker. 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 535 
 
 This is believed to have been the first instance of a profession of 
 religion ever made on the island. On the last sabbath of his stay 
 there, the sacrament of the Lord’s supper was administered, it hav- 
 ing been, for the first time, administered two weeks before by a min- 
 ister of another denomination. On this occasion some six or seven 
 professed conversion, two of whom were publicly baptized according 
 to the form of the presbyterian church. These were the first ever 
 baptized in Galveston. Shortly after Dr. Baker’s departure, a church 
 was organized by Rev. John M'Culloch. _ 
 
 From Galveston, Dr. Baker visited and labored in Houston. He 
 had been preceded there by Rev. William Y. Allen, a presbyterian 
 minister, who had been for some time faithfully preaching there, 
 though under great discouragement. From Houston, Dr. Baker vis- 
 ited Columbia and Washington. In the latter place, he found the 
 magistrate holding court on sabbath morning! In the afternoon 
 and at night, however, the place of worship was well attended. It 
 seems that, at that time, there was not a single professor of religion 
 in the town. The Rev. R. Alexander, a most excellent methodist 
 minister, had been preaching there occasionally, but it was with 
 some opposition. The people generally were not at all religiously 
 inclined ; some were exceedingly wicked. In proof of this, “ mock 
 prayer-meetings” were held. At one of these meetings a shocking 
 accident occurred. While the mock-worship was going on, and one 
 half-drunk was mimicking a certain preacher, and the audience 
 laughing immoderately, a pistol was accidentally discharged, which 
 killed one of them — so suddenly that, the features not having time 
 to relax, he presented the appearance of a laughing corpse ! The 
 beautiful churches, now adorning that place, bear witness to the 
 happy change iu Washington. 
 
 From W ashington, Dr. Baker proceeded to Independence. There, 
 at the Chrisman schoolhouse, on the 3d of April, 1840, was organ- 
 ized the presbytery of Brasos — the first presbytery in Texas. It 
 was composed of Rev. Hugh Wilson, presbytery of south Alabama ; 
 Rev. John M‘Culloch, Newton presbytery, New Jersey ; Rev. Wil- 
 liam Y. Allen, presbytery of the western district of Tennessee ; Mr. 
 John M'Farland, ruling elder from the church at Independence ; 
 and Rev. Daniel Baker, present as corresponding member. 
 
 For a time the presbytery remained independent of the general 
 assembly in the United States, but finally united with it. Soon 
 after this the Rev. William C. Blair, Rev. P. H. Fullenwider, Rev. 
 
536 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 J. J. Henderson, and Rev. Francis Rutherford, arrived and united 
 with the presbytery. 
 
 In 1846 the presbytery was received in connection with the synod 
 of Mississippi. In 1850 it was divided into three presbyteries, for 
 the purpose of being organized into a synod of Texas, which met in 
 Austin city in 1851. Since then the growth of the church in the 
 state has been steady. In 1854 the presbytery of central Texas 
 was organized. Churches have been organized and ministers estab- 
 lished in all parts of the state, and the future opens brightly. 
 
 The educational movements of the presbyterian church com- 
 menced early. Previous to 1840, Rev. William L. M'Calla, a min- 
 ister of the church, had travelled extensively over the state, having 
 in view the establishment of a university at Galveston. In 1844 
 an institution of learning at Nacogdoches was taken under the care 
 of the church. In 1846 steps were taken to establish an institution 
 of a high character in western Texas, and Rev. John M'Culloch 
 visited the United States as agent for it. In 1849 Austin college 
 was established at Huntsville, through the instrumentality of Dr. 
 Baker, and is now in a flourishing condition. Earnest efforts are 
 being made to build up another at Goliad. 
 
 In education, as in the organization of churches, the presbyterian 
 interest may seem slow in its operations ; but it is sure. The de- 
 nomination, like the Texas live-oak, gradually, almost impercepti- 
 bly, extends its branches to the light, the air, and the dew ; but 
 it tends to a sturdy magnificent growth, whose evergreen-glory, by 
 the blessing of God, knows no alternation of season. 
 
 THE BAPTIST CHURCH* 
 
 The first Baptist minister who preached in Texas was the Rev. 
 Joseph Bays, who emigrated from Missouri, in company with Joseph 
 Bindley, and preached on Peach creek, on the west side of the Bra- 
 sos, in 1826. In the latter part of 1827 he removed to San Au- 
 gustine, where he continued his labors until he was compelled by 
 the Mexican authorities to leave. 
 
 In 1829, Rev. Thomas Hanks, from Tennessee, preached at Mo- 
 ses Shipman’s, on the west side of the Brasos. Here the wife of 
 James Allcorn, a deacon in the baptist church, made a profession 
 * From a statement furnished by Rev. J. W. D. Creath. 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 537 
 
 of religion. Mr. Hanks yet lives in Houston county — an old pio- 
 neer, who, having gone forth at an early day to scatter the seeds, 
 has lived to see them grow and ripen into an abundant harvest. 
 
 In 1830 and 1831, Elders George Woodruff and Skelton Allphine 
 emigrated to Texas, and immediately commenced preaching the 
 gospel. 
 
 A number of baptists who had emigrated from New York, estab- 
 lished in 1829, at San Felipe, a sabbath-school — the first in Texas. 
 It was taught by T. J. Pilgrim, now of Gonzales, but then inter- 
 preter of the Spanish language in Austin’s colony. The same year 
 a similar school was opened at Matagorda, and the year following 
 on “Old Caney” — all under the auspices of the members of the 
 baptist church. 
 
 After this, baptist ministers and members came in with the con- 
 stantly flowing tide of emigration, and participated with other emi- 
 grants in the joys and privations of a new country. 
 
 At this time (1853) there are eleven associations of missionary 
 baptists, and about one hundred and fifty churches, and a like num- 
 ber of ministers. The anti-mission baptists have three associations, 
 forty churches, and a like number of ministers. The oldest of these 
 associations is the Union , organized in 1840. It now numbers 
 thirty-five churches and one thousand seven hundred and eleven 
 members. The first baptist church organized in Texas was in 1833; 
 the second in lS34-’35. The number of communicants in the baptist 
 church in Texas is between nine and ten thousand. 
 
 A charter was granted for the Baylor university, by the Texas 
 legislature in 1845. It is located at Independence, and is under the 
 control of the baptist church. Its first session opened in July, 1846, 
 with twenty students and one teacher. It has now (1S53) eight 
 professors and one hundred and seventy-five students. I has in- 
 vested in buildings and an endowment fund, between forty and fifty 
 thousand dollars. The Rev. Mr. Burleson is the worthy president 
 of this institution. 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH* 
 
 The first methodist preacher in regular standing that visited and 
 preached in Texas, was the Rev. Henry Stephenson, whose memory 
 
 * From a statement of Rev. Robert Alexander. 
 
533 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 is yet cherished by some of the early settlers. He was a man of 
 deep piety and ardent zeal, and abundant in labors and usefulness 
 in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. He preached in what is now 
 Red river county, but then claimed by the United States, as early 
 as 1818. The Rev. J. P. Sneed, then of Mississippi conference, but 
 now living on the Brasos, fixes the first visit of the Rev. Mr. Ste- 
 phenson to Texas proper in 1822. It is probable he did not visit 
 western Texas until 1824. At that time he preached the first prot- 
 estant sermon west of the Brasos near San Felipe. There were four 
 families present. He also preached about the same time where the 
 town of Washington now stands. 
 
 The first camp-meeting held in Texas was in 1833, ten miles east 
 of San Augustine. James Stephenson, Enoch Talley (of the Mis- 
 sissippi conference), and Sumner Bacon, were the preachers on the 
 occasion. There were about eighty persons present; a few pro- 
 fessed religion, a church was organized, and a leader appointed. 
 This was the first methodist, if not the first protestant church or- 
 ganized in Texas proper. 
 
 In 1834, Rev. Mr. Stephenson was directed to devote one half 
 his time to Texas and the other to Louisiana. This year he held 
 a second camp-meeting in the same place as the first, assisted by 
 J. P. Sneed, Whately, Bacon, English, and one other minister. At 
 this meeting there were twelve tents, some two hundred persons in 
 attendance, and twenty conversions. Colonel M'Mahon was ap- 
 pointed class-leader, which duty he performed with fidelity. Sub- 
 sequently he and his two sons-in-law became ministers of the gospel 
 At this -camp-meeting a whiskey-shanty was set up, but the audi- 
 ence, with great unanimity, drove the owner, with his liquors, away. 
 In the same year (1834) a camp-meeting was held in Austin county, 
 on one of the west branches of Little Caney creek. It commenced 
 on the 3d of September, under the direction of Rev. H. Stephenson 
 and J. W. Kenney, assisted by Rev. Henry Fullenwider and others. 
 There were eight or ten conversions, and eighteen joined the church 
 by letters. There are many yet living who delight in talking of 
 this camp-meeting. Another was held in the same place in 1835, a 
 quarterly conference organized, of which Dr. William P. Smith was 
 secretary, and the methodist episcopal church memorialized to send 
 regular missionaries to Texas. This was published in the New York 
 Christian Advocate, and, no doubt, called the attention of the church 
 to this field of labor. The revolution, however, delayed efficient 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 539 
 
 action ; but in the fall of 1836, a call was made for volunteers. 
 Rev. Dr. M. Ruter was the first to urge the importance of the call, 
 and the first to volunteer. Rev. Littleton Fowler and Rev. Robert 
 Alexander also sent their names to the board of missions. Dr. Ruter 
 had been president of Alleghany college, Littleton Fowler agent for 
 La Grange college, and R. Alexander had occupied Natchez sta- 
 tion. The latter set out early in August, 1837, for Texas, and 
 preached as he went, commencing near Gaines’s ferry. He spent a 
 month in the Redlands, organized a circuit and quarterly confer- 
 ence, and held a camp-meeting in the M'Malion settlement. In 
 this he was assisted by the local preachers English, Crawford, John- 
 son, and Henry Stephenson, jr. The meeting was interesting, the 
 congregation showing an intense desire to hear all the preachers 
 had to say. During the service the rain fell gently for an hour on 
 the unsheltered audience, yet no one left. As an evidence of their 
 eagerness, Mr. Alexander had been invited to preach at Mr. Hale’s, 
 a few miles west of San Augustine. After preaching at some length 
 to a crowded house, he dismissed them, and retired to lie down — 
 for he was in feeble health, and nearly exhausted. In about an 
 hour, to his surprise, he was waited on by Mr. Hale, and informed 
 that the congregation were waiting to hear another sermon. 
 
 From San Augustine, Rev. R. Alexander proceeded to Washing- 
 ton, where he found some who held themselves as methodists and 
 baptists, but the population was recklessly wicked. Thence he 
 went to Little Caney and arranged for a camp-meeting to commence 
 on the 19tli of October. With a few friends he cleared off a place 
 in a handsome grove, made a few rough seats of logs and poles, and 
 a preacher’s stand. They had a cheering meeting ; twenty or thirty 
 professed religion. In the work, Mr. Alexander was assisted by 
 Revs. J. W. M‘Kenney, A. Roark, and A. J. M‘Gown, the two lat- 
 ter of the Cumberland presbyterian church. A few days after this 
 meeting, Mr. Alexander met his colleague, Littleton Fowler, who 
 had been detained by sickness. Mr. Fowler was a bland, affable, 
 and dignified man, and not only did his work efficiently, but gave 
 character and influence to all his plans and operations. He was a 
 man of strong determination, sanguine, fearless, full of faith and 
 zeal ; he was a revivalist. Among his abundant labors he raised a 
 subscription for a methodist church in San Augustine. On the 17th 
 of January, 1S3S, he attended the ceremony of laying the corner- 
 stone of the building. General Thomas J. Rusk delivered an ad- 
 
540 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 dress on the occasion. It was the corner-stone of the first protest- 
 ant church ever erected west of the Sabine. He continued his 
 labors in Texas till the 29th of January, 1846, when he died in 
 great peace, leaving the savor of a good name among the early 
 settlers of Texas. 
 
 Rev. R. Alexander, after preaching through middle Texas, ex- 
 tending his labors into Robertson’s colony, returned to attend the 
 Mississippi conference at Natchez. At Gaines’s ferry he met Dr. 
 Ruter, superintendent of the Texas mission, just entering the repub- 
 lic. Dr. Ruter was a man of fine learning, and had left a pleasant 
 situation to enter on the privations and hardships of the Texas mis- 
 sion. The distant spectator may have fancied something of romance 
 in travelling over the Texan prairies ; but to the itinerant, with 
 fierce northers, swimming creeks, scanty fare, sleeping out of doors, 
 with the necessity of a sharp look-out for one’s horse and scalp, the 
 romance gave place to very solemn reflections. But Dr. Ruter had 
 counted the cost, before offering himself for the Texas work. He 
 made himself at home everywhere, and as he went he preached to 
 congregations, or families. In the short space of five months he 
 had visited the towns and settlements as far as the Colorado. But 
 his labors were too great for him, and he fell a martyr at an early 
 day of his mission. He was buried on a piece of ground in Wash- 
 ington, that he had procured for the purpose of erecting on it a 
 church. The church has since been built by his grave, and bears 
 the name of the venerable missionary. 
 
 Dr. Ruter was well known in the United States, and the melan- 
 choly news of his death aroused a missionary spirit in the methodist 
 church, which brought scores of her ministry to the great field of 
 labor in Texas. Thus the work was so extended as to have preach- 
 ing in every settlement. Among these missionaries was Paul Den- 
 ton, a remarkable man. Left an orphan, and placed in one of the 
 most degraded families in Arkansas, he performed the meanest work 
 of a servant such as cooking, washing, and scouring. Until he was 
 twelve years of age he was a stranger to a hat or shoes. So soon 
 as he got old enough to see his ignorant and wretched condition, he 
 fled from his oppressors, and wrought for himself. At a very early 
 age he married ; and besides the labor of supporting his family, he 
 learned the alphabet, and then to read. He became a licensed 
 preacher. His powers were unknown to himself as well as to the 
 world, until both were astonished alike at his success. He was a 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 541 
 
 man of good personal appearance, agreeable manners, and dignified 
 deportment. In his sermons he rose with his subject : his figures 
 were original, drawn from nature, and always apposite. His selec- 
 tion of words was the very best ; and in his ornate flights he seemed 
 to test the strength of the English language. Mingled with his 
 lofty imagery was a strength of intellect equal to the importance of 
 his subject. Paul Denton’s first efforts were in the Redlands of 
 eastern Texas ; but he subsequently removed to the northern part 
 of the republic. To drive back the savages he raised a company 
 and marched against them. In a battle fought with them he was 
 killed. Texas has honored his name by giving it to one of her 
 northern counties. 
 
 On December, 25th 1839, the Texas conference was organized at 
 Rutersville, Fayette county, Bishop Waugh of Baltimore presiding. 
 In 1844 the Texas conference was divided, and the Eastern Texas 
 conference laid off. The following table will exhibit the numbers, 
 &c., at the periods stated : — 
 
 STATISTICS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN TEXAS. 
 
 Year. 
 
 No. Members. 
 
 Loch] Min- 
 isters. 
 
 Increase of 
 Members. 
 
 Increase of 
 Loc.Min’rs. 
 
 Remarks. 
 
 1840 
 
 1,853 
 
 25 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 1841 
 
 2,759 
 
 36 
 
 906 
 
 11 
 
 
 1842 
 
 3,698 
 
 40 
 
 939 
 
 4 
 
 
 1843 
 
 4,970 
 
 55 
 
 1,272 
 
 15 
 
 
 1844 
 
 6,090 
 
 64 
 
 1,120 
 
 9 
 
 Conference divided. 
 
 1845 
 
 6,624 
 
 68 
 
 534 
 
 4 
 
 
 1846 
 
 6,989 
 
 93 
 
 365 
 
 25 
 
 
 1847 
 
 8,150 
 
 125 
 
 1,161 
 
 32 
 
 
 1848 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 No report from Con- 
 
 1849 
 
 12,154 
 
 173 
 
 4,004 
 
 48 
 
 ference of Eastern 
 
 1850 
 
 12,614 
 
 188 
 
 460 
 
 15 
 
 Texaa 
 
 1851 
 
 13,356 
 
 217 
 
 742 
 
 29 
 
 
 1852 
 
 14,573 
 
 217 
 
 1,217 
 
 
 
 
 1853 
 
 18,316 
 
 243 
 
 3,743 
 
 26 
 
 
 In the above table the travelling preachers are not given. In 
 1840 they were about twenty in number : in 1853, about one hun- 
 dred and thirty-five. Total members in 1853, eighteen thousand 
 six hundred and ninety-four. 
 
 The metliodist church in Texas have in their charge the follow- 
 ing institutions, of learning : — 
 
 1. Rutersville College, Fayette county. — Wm. Halsey, president. 
 
 2. Chapel Hill Male and Female Institute. — A. Ruter, president. 
 
 3. Andrew Female College, Huntsville. — Dr.Follansbee, president. 
 
542 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 4. Bastrop Male and Female Academy. — Mr. Hancock, principal. 
 
 5 . Fowler Institute, Henderson. 
 
 6. Paine Female Academy, Goliad. 
 
 7. Young Men’s High School, Red River county. — Rev. Mr. 
 M'Kenzie, president. 
 
 8. Cedar Mountain Academy. — Rev. R. Crawford, principal. 
 
 CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH* 
 
 This comparatively modern branch of the church has not been 
 wanting in zeal in the movement toward Texas. As early as 
 1828, Rev. Sumner Bacon penetrated as far as San Felipe. He 
 was a native of Massachusetts, had served his period of enlistment 
 in the United States army, and then became a minister of the gos- 
 pel. In his journeyings through Texas he preached wherever he 
 could. He was a man of scrupulous honesty, of untiring energy, 
 and punctual in all his engagements and promises. Though of a 
 rough exterior, he had a soul of love, and was utterly fearless of all 
 danger. He continued preaching in Texas until 1832, when he ob- 
 tained the appointment of bible agent. He scattered the word of 
 God from San Antonio to the Sabine. On one occasion, in the Tan- 
 ahaw settlement, he was surrounded by a gang of rowdies, who took 
 him, and proposed instantly to put him to death. He asked his cap- 
 tors that they should first join him in prayer. They refused to do 
 this ; but while he alone addressed the throne of grace, they were 
 silent. When he had concluded they went away and left him. On 
 another occasion, while he was distributing the Bible, Colonel James 
 Gaines reported him to Colonel Bean, then acting as commandant 
 at Nacogdoches. Hearing of the charge, he went to see Bean, and 
 admitted it. Bean told him to go on and distribute as many as he 
 chose, so he did not disturb the peace. 
 
 While Bacon and others were preparing to hold a meeting, not 
 far from San Augustine, it was understood that certain persons 
 would break it up. Colonel Bowie, hearing of it, went to the place 
 where the meeting was to be held, and making a sign of the cross 
 on the ground, informed them that he was captain in those parts, 
 and that the meeting should be held. They knew Bowie, and the 
 meeting proceeded quietly. 
 
 * From notes furnished by Rev. A J. M*Gown. 
 
PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS IN TEXAS. 
 
 543 
 
 About the year 1833, Rev. Milton Estill came to Texas, and es- 
 tablished the first church of this order, in Red River county — then 
 supposed to be Miller county, Arkansas. In 1836 Bacon organized 
 another church, in San Augustine county. In the fall of that year 
 he repaired to the Mississippi synod of the Cumberland presbyte- 
 rian church, and applied for and obtained an order to organize a 
 presbytery in Texas, so soon as three of their ministers were pres- 
 ent. On his return he organized several churches in eastern Texas. 
 
 In the spring of 1837, Revs. Amos Roark and Mitchell Smith 
 came to Texas. In the winter of that year the first presbytery was 
 organized, five miles east of San Augustine. In 1838, Revs. James 
 M'Donald, Milton Moore, and Samuel W. Frazier, came to Texas. 
 The latter, who was chaplain to the Texan Congress, died that win- 
 ter. Between 1838 and 1841, a number of other churches were 
 organized. In the last-named year three presbyteries were formed 
 out of Texas presbytery. They were called Texas , Red River, and 
 Colorado. 
 
 In the fall of 1842, a synod was organized near Nacogdoches, at 
 which Rev. Sumner Bacon presided. Shortly afterward this good 
 man died. By the year 1849, there were six presbyteries in Texas. 
 This induced the church during that year to organize the Brasos 
 synod. In 1853, Brasos synod was divided into Brasos and Colo- 
 rado synods. 
 
 At present (1854) there are three synods, ten presbyteries, over 
 a hundred ministers, and over four thousand communicants. 
 
 This church has under its patronage Chapel Hill college, in Titus 
 county, of which Rev. William E. Beason is president, Seguin high 
 school, lately purchased, and some other schools of minor character. 
 
APPENDIX NO, VIII. 
 
 LETTER FROM HOUSTON TO SANTA ANNA. 
 
 Executive Department, City of Houston, March 21, 1842. 
 To His Excellency Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, President of Mexico : 
 
 Most Excellent Sir : Your communications to Mr. Bee and 
 General Hamilton, dated at the palace of the government of Mexico, 
 have been recently presented to my notice. At the first convenient 
 leisure, I have not failed to appropriate my attention to the subjects 
 embraced within the scope of your remarks. 
 
 They would have met a more ready attention had It not been for 
 a marauding incursion made by a Mexican force upon the defence- 
 less town of San Antonio, on the inhabited frontier of Texas. Ap- 
 prehending that the force had some other character than that of 
 bandits and plunderers — commanded, as it was by regular officers 
 — it produced a momentary excitement, and claimed the attention 
 of the executive ; but, as the bandits have withdrawn, characterizing 
 their retreat by pillage and plunder, as has been usual with Mexi- 
 cans, I am left at leisure to resume in tranquillity the duties of my 
 station. 
 
 In reference to your correspondence with Mr. Bee and General 
 Hamilton, I have no remark to make in reference to the communi- 
 cations which those gentlemen assumed the individual responsibility 
 of making to you. The very nature of the correspondence mani- 
 fests the fact that it was not done under the sanction of this govern- 
 ment, but rests solely upon their action as individuals. Had your 
 response regarded them in the light in which they were presented 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 545 
 
 to you, it would have superseded the necessity of any notice from 
 me ; but, as you have thought proper to laud my conduct as an indi- 
 vidual, and refer to transactions connected with this country with 
 which I had official identity — and which I also at this time possess 
 — and as you have taken the liberty, to an unwarrantable extent, 
 to animadvert upon circumstances connected with Texas as a nation, 
 I feel myself impelled by a sense of duty to refute a portion of the 
 calumnies which you have presented to the world, under the sanc- 
 tion of your official averment. 
 
 You appear to have seized upon the flimsy pretext of confidential 
 communications, unknown to the officers of this government, and un- 
 known to the world, until divulged by you, for the purpose of man- 
 ufacturing a capital of popularity at home, and which you have sub- 
 mitted to the world as a manifesto in behalf of what you are pleased 
 to term the rights of a great nation, “ by so many titles respectable.” 
 
 Whatever opinions you may have entertained in relation to the 
 difficulties existing between Mexico and Texas, can not materially 
 vary the facts and principles involved, nor will they materially in- 
 fluence the decision of mankind upon the justice of our cause. 
 
 Decency and self-respect, at least, should have induced on your 
 part the pursuit of a course different from that which you have 
 adopted. The abuse and ribald epithets which you have applied 
 to the citizens of this country, as well as those of the Mississippi 
 valley of the United States, are doubtless characteristic of the indi- 
 vidual who gave them utterance. So far as the people of this coun- 
 try are concerned, I shall refer mankind to a history of facts and 
 circumstances connected with the settlement of the country. I shall 
 pass, with slight notice, your remarks relative to the people of the 
 United States. So far as our origin is connected with them, and a 
 unity of sympathy exists, we are proud to hail them as our kindred 
 — kindred in blood, kindred in laws, kindred in all the ennobling 
 attributes of humanity. They will hear your idle taunts of defiance 
 with the same contempt and derision that Texans regard your silly 
 gasconade. If they have heretofore sympathized with us in our 
 struggle for liberty and independence, it was from a knowledge of 
 the fact that we had been deceived and oppressed by Mexico, and 
 that the cause in which we were engaged was that of humanity 
 struggling against usurpation and despotism. 
 
 The people of Texas were invited to immigrate to this country 
 for the purpose of enjoying equal rights and constitutional liberty. 
 VOL. II. — 35 
 
546 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 They were promised the shield of the constitution of 1824, adopted 
 by Mexico. Confiding in this pledge, they removed to the country 
 to encounter all the privations of a wilderness, under the alluring 
 promise of free institutions. Other reasons operated also. Citizens 
 of the United States had engaged in the revolution of Mexico in 
 1812. They fought gallantly in the achievement of Mexican inde- 
 pendence ; and many of them survive, and to this day occupy the 
 soil which their privations and valor assisted in achieving. On their 
 removal here, they brought with them no aspirations or projects but 
 such as were loyal to the constitution of Mexico. They repelled 
 the Indian savages, they encountered every discomfort, they sub- 
 dued the wilderness, and converted into cultivated fields the idle 
 waste of this now-prolific territory. Their courage and enterprise 
 achieved that which the imbecility of your countrymen had either 
 neglected or left for centuries unaccomplished. Their situation was 
 not, however, disregarded by Mexico ; though she did not, as might 
 have been expected, extend to them a protecting and fostering care, 
 but viewed them as objects of cupidity, and at last of jealousy. 
 
 The Texans, enduring the annoyances and oppressions inflicted 
 upon them, remained faithful to the constitution of Mexico. In 
 1832, when an attempt was made to destroy that constitution, and 
 when you, sir, threw yourself forward as its avowed champion, you 
 were sustained with all the fidelity and valor that freemen could 
 contribute. On the avowal of your principles, and in accordance 
 with them, the citizens put down the serviles of despotism at Ana- 
 huac, Velasco, and Nacogdoches. They treated the captives of that 
 struggle with humanity, and sent them to Mexico, subject to your 
 orders. They regarded you as the friend of liberty and free insti- 
 tutions ; they hailed you as the benefactor of mankind. Your name 
 and your actions were lauded, and the manifestations you had given 
 in behalf of the nation were themes of satisfaction and delight to 
 the Texan patriots. 
 
 You can well imagine the transition of feeling which ensued on 
 your accession to power. Your subversion of the constitution of 
 1824, your establishment of centralism, your conquest of Zacatecas, 
 characterized by every act of violence, cruelty, and rapine, inflicted 
 upon us the deepest astonishment. We realized all the uncertainty 
 of men awaking to reality from the unconsciousness of delirium. In 
 succession came your order for the Texans to surrender their private 
 arms. The mask was thrown aside, and the monster of despotism 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 547 
 
 displayed in all the habiliments of loathsome detestation. Then 
 was presented to Texans the alternative of tamely crouching to the 
 tyrant’s lash, or exalting themselves to the attributes of freemen. 
 They chose the latter. To chastise them for their presumption, in- 
 duced your advance upon Texas with your boasted veteran army, 
 a force in number nearly equal to the whole population of the coun- 
 try at that time. You besieged and took the Alamo — but under 
 what circumstances ? Not those, surely, which should characterize 
 a general of the nineteenth century. You assailed one hundred and 
 fifty men, destitute of every supply requisite for the defence of the 
 place. Its brave defenders, worn down by vigilance and duty be- 
 yond the power of human nature to sustain, were at length over- 
 whelmed by a force of nine thousand men, and the place taken. I 
 ask you, sir, what scenes followed? Were they such as should 
 characterize an able general, a magnanimous warrior, and the presi- 
 dent of a great nation, numbering eight millions of souls? No! — 
 manliness and generosity would sicken at the recital of the scenes 
 incident to your success ; and Humanity herself would blush to class 
 you among the chivalric spirits of the age of vandalism ! This you 
 have been pleased to class in the “succession of your victories” — 
 and, I presume, you would next include the massacre at Goliad. 
 Your triumph there, if such you are pleased to term it, was not the 
 triumph of arms : it was the success of perfidy ! Fannin and his 
 brave companions had beaten back and defied your veteran soldiers. 
 Although outnumbered more than seven to one, their valiant, hearty, 
 and indomitable courage, with holy devotion to the cause of freedom, 
 foiled every effort directed by your general to insure his success by 
 arms. He had recourse to a flag of truce ; and, when the surrender 
 of the little patriot-band was secured by the most solemn treaty 
 stipulations, what were the tragic scenes that ensued to Mexican 
 perfidy ? The conditions of their surrender were submitted to you, 
 and — though you have denied the facts — instead of restoring them 
 to liberty, according to the conditions of the capitulation, you ordered 
 them to be executed, contrary to every pledge given them, contrary 
 to the rules of war, and contrary to every principle of humanity ! 
 Yet, at this day, you have the effrontery to animadvert upon the 
 conduct of Texans relative to your captivity after the battle of San 
 Jacinto ! 
 
 You have presumed to arraign the conduct of the then existing 
 cabinet, and to charge it with bad faith ; and, though you are pleased 
 
548 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 to commend the conduct of the illustrious Stephen F. Austin, the 
 father of Texas, and myself, for acts of generosity exercised toward 
 you, you take much care to insinuate that we only were capable of 
 appreciating your proper merits. That you may no longer be in- 
 duced to misconstrue acts of generosity and appropriate them to 
 the gratification of your self-complacent disposition, I will inform 
 you that they were acts of magnanimity characteristic of the nation 
 to which we belong. They had nothing to do with your merits or 
 demerits. The perfidy and cruelty which had been exercised tow- 
 ard our companions-in-arms did not enter into our calculation. Your 
 sacrifice would not restore to our gallant companions their lives, nor 
 to our country their services. Although the laws of war would have 
 justified retaliation by your execution, yet it would have character- 
 ized the acts of the nation as influenced by passion and revenge ; 
 and would have evinced to the world that individuals, who had an 
 influence on the destinies of a people, were subject to the capricious 
 impulses of vengeance, of which you had so recently set an example. 
 So far as I was concerned in preserving your life, and in your sub- 
 sequent liberation, I was only influenced by considerations of mercy, 
 humanity, and the establishment of a national character. Humanity 
 was gratified by your preservation ; the magnanimous of all nations 
 would have justified your release, had they known how little your 
 influence was dreaded by the Texans. If, upon your return to 
 Mexico, you should have power and a disposition to redeem the 
 pledges you had voluntarily made to myself, as well as this govern- 
 ment, of an earnest disposition to see the independence of Texas 
 recognised by Mexico, I believed it would have a tendency to restore 
 peace to the two nations, diminish the aggregate sufferings of their 
 citizens, and promote the prosperity of both countries. In the event 
 you were not disposed to redeem the pledges thus given, but to urge 
 the prosecution of the war by Mexico against us, I wished to evince 
 to mankind that Texans had magnanimity, resources, ana confidence, 
 sufficient to sustain them against all your influence in favor of their 
 subjugation. 
 
 Your liberation was induced by principles such as these ; and, 
 though you tendered pledges, doubtless to facilitate and procure 
 your release, they were received, but not accepted as a condition. 
 I believed that pledges made in duress were not obligatory upon 
 the individual making them ; and if you intended to exercise the 
 influence which you declared you would do, that unconditional 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 549 
 
 liberty extended to you would interpose no obstacle to their fulfil- 
 ment. 
 
 Without any advertence to any treaty stipulations which you had 
 made with the cabinet of Texas, I gave you your entire liberty, and 
 safe conduct to the city of Washington. 
 
 You have asserted to the world that you have given no pledge 
 whatever to the Texan government of your disposition in favor of 
 its separation from Mexico. That the tribunal to which you have 
 appealed may judge of the validity of your assertion, I shall submit, 
 with this communication, a letter of yours addressed to me at Colum- 
 bia, dated the 5th of November, 1836,* after my determination to 
 give you your liberty bad been communicated. I shall present it in 
 the original, accompanied with its translation into English. I will 
 also give publicity to a veto which I communicated to the senate, in 
 consequence of a resolution of that honorable body respecting your 
 detention as a prisoner. 
 
 You have spoken of events subsequent to the battle of San Ja- 
 cinto, and endeavor to convey the idea that promises had been 
 extorted from you “ under the rifles of a tumultuous soldiery.” I 
 am at a loss to comprehend your meaning in this reference. When 
 you were brought into the encampment as a prisoner, the day after 
 the battle, you were conducted to the presence of the commander- 
 in-chief — not amid noise and tumult, nor did any exist. When the 
 character of the prisoner was known to the army, much curiosity 
 was excited ; but there was no menace used, or violence offered. 
 You were treated with calmness, and every courtesy extended to you 
 that our situation would afford. Had you been a private gentleman 
 and friend, you could have received no greater facilities than those 
 that were extended to you. As you desired, you were placed near 
 my person, and not sent with the balance of the prisoners. You 
 were informed that you could have your camp-bed and marquee 
 brought to my quarters, where I lay confined with my wound. You 
 were permitted to command the services of your attendants ; you 
 were informed also that your baggage should be selected from the 
 spoils taken by the army on the field, which was accordingly done, 
 and never inspected. These privileges were granted by my order. 
 Your aide-de-camp, Colonel Almonte, and your private secretary, 
 were permitted to remain with you in your marquee. A guard was 
 detailed for the purpose of allaying any apprehensions you might 
 
 * See a translation of this letter in Appendix No. VI., p. 630, of this volume 
 
550 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 have for your personal safety, and every liberty extended to you 
 except your absolute release. 
 
 You submitted propositions to me, embracing the questions of the 
 recognition of Texan independence and the termination of our strug- 
 gle. I unequivocally refused the acceptance of any offer upon the 
 subject of a treaty — alleging, as reasons, that we had a constitu- 
 tional government, and the subject would properly come before the 
 cabinet of Texas, the members of which would be present in camp 
 within a few days. You urged the further consideration of your 
 propositions upon me, declaring that you would rather enter into 
 stipulations with a general of the army than with the civil authori- 
 ties of the country. I positively declined taking any further action 
 upon them ; and they were referred to the cabinet, on its arrival. 
 Declining the consideration of your proposals myself, I required you 
 to issue orders forthwith, to the general next in command, to evacu- 
 ate Texas with the troops composing the Mexican army, and to fall 
 back with them to Monterey. Orders to this effect were issued by 
 you to General Filisola, and despatched by an express, which could 
 not, however, overtake him until he had reached the Colorado, on 
 his retreat, conducted in the greatest panic and confusion. Owing 
 to his precipitate flight, and your execution of my orders, the Mexi- 
 cans were permitted to leave Texas without further molestation. 
 
 In the meantime, General Adrian Woll, of the Mexican army, 
 came into the encampment at San Jacinto, without my knowledge, 
 and not “upon my word of honor;” nor was I apprized of his pres- 
 ence until I learned that he, together with his aide, had been trav- 
 ersing our lines. So soon as I was advised of this fact, I ordered 
 them to my presence, and had them instructed that such conduct 
 would not be tolerated, and caused them to be placed under vigi- 
 lance. This reason I deemed sufficient to detain General Woll as a 
 prisoner of war. His subsequent conduct to Captain Dimit was such 
 as to justify any unfavorable opinion which I had formed of his 
 character. He had rendered himself so obnoxious to the army, that, 
 from a desire for his personal security, I did not permit his release 
 until he could go in perfect safety. In no respect had the prisoners 
 taken on that occasion reason of complaint. Their lives were all 
 forfeited to the laws of war, conformably to the precedent which you 
 had exhibited. General Cos, who had surrendered, in 1835, a pris- 
 oner of war at San Antonio — where one hundred and ninety-five 
 Texans stormed and took the Alamo, with the town, when it was 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 551 
 
 defended by seventeen hundred regular troops of Mexico — was 
 again taken prisoner at San Jacinto, after he had violated his pa- 
 role of honor, by which he had forfeited his life to the law of arms. 
 Yet, such was the lenity of the Texans, that even he was spared, 
 thereby interposing mercy to prevent reclamation being made for 
 the brave Texans perfidiousty massacred. 
 
 From the 5th of May (1836), I had no connection with the en- 
 campment, nor with the treatment which the prisoners received, 
 until the month of October, when I was inducted into the office of 
 chief magistrate of the nation. It is true that you were chained to 
 an iron bar \ but not until an attempt had been made to release you, 
 with your knowledge and assent. A vessel had arrived at Orazimba, 
 on the Brasos, where you were confined. In possession of its cap- 
 tain were found wines and other liquors mixed with poison, for the 
 purpose of poisoning the officers and guard in whose charge you 
 were, thereby insuring your escape. In consequence of the sensa- 
 tion produced by this circumstance, you were confined and treated 
 in the manner you have so pathetically portrayed. 
 
 While confined by my wound in San Augustine, I learned that it 
 was the intention of the army to take you to the theatre of Fannin’s 
 massacre, and there to have had you executed. Upon the adver- 
 tisement of this fact, I immediately sent an express to the army, 
 solemnly protesting against any such act, and interposing every 
 possible obstacle against your further molestation, or any action 
 which might not recognise you as a prisoner of war. 
 
 Your recent communications have necessarily awakened adver- 
 tency to these facts ; otherwise they would have remained unre- 
 cited by me. Any part which I bore in these transactions is not 
 related in the egotistical style of your communication : it is done 
 alone for the purpose of presenting the lights of history. You have 
 sought to darken its shades, and appeal to the sympathies, an<J would 
 command the admiration of mankind, and have even invoked the 
 “ prismatic tints of romance.” 
 
 Now, the tribunal to which you have appealed will have an op- 
 portunity of contrasting the treatment which you and the prisoners 
 taken at San Jacinto received, -with that of those who have fallen 
 within your power, and particularly those perfidiously betrayed on 
 a recent trading-excursion to Santa Fe. You have endeavored to 
 give that explanation the complexion of an invading movement upon 
 the rights of Mexico. To believe you serious in the idle display of 
 
552 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 words made on this occasion, would be presenting an absurdity to 
 the common sense of the age. Your fears may have given it a char- 
 acter different from that to which it was entitled. Examine the cir- 
 cumstances accompanying it. It was not an act of Texas ; Congress 
 had refused to sanction any enterprise of the kind. A number of 
 individuals were anxious to open a lucrative trade — as they believed 
 it would be — with Santa Fe. Such a commerce has been carried 
 on for years by the citizens of the United States, from Missouri ; 
 and the preparations, connected wdth. the fact that the citizens took 
 with them a considerable amount of merchandise, show that their 
 enterprise was not one of conquest or invasion. You may allege 
 that it had connection with the government, from the fact that the 
 president identified himself with it, by furnishing arms to those con- 
 nected with the project. This may have induced you to character- 
 ize the expedition as you have in your tirade against Texas. What- 
 ever part the president bore in this transaction was contrary to law 
 and in violation of his duty. A large portion of the people of Texas 
 were not apprized of the existence of such an enterprise. You 
 doubtless would insist that it had means of offence against Mexico. 
 So far as their preparation could give character to the undertaking 
 by carrying with them artillery and other munitions of war, it can 
 be accounted for most readily. They had to pass through a wilder- 
 ness six hundred miles from the frontier of Texas before they could 
 reach Santa Fe. It was reasonable to suppose they would encoun- 
 ter many hostile tribes of Indians ; and it was proper and necessary 
 that they should be in a situation to repel any attack made upon 
 them ; and, as their objects were pacific, they were justified in re- 
 sisting aggression from any quarter. The instructions given to 
 them by the president did not contemplate hostilities, but that the 
 enterprise would terminate without bloodshed or violence. Scientific 
 gentlemen from Europe and the United States accompanied them, 
 not for warlike purposes, but for the purpose of adding rich stores to 
 the treasury of science. It had likewise been communicated to the 
 people of Texas, that all the inhabitants east of the Rio Grande 
 were anxious to enjoy the benefits of our institutions. You can not 
 allege that you ’were not willing to admit the justice of our claims 
 to the Rio Grande, or that you w^re not anxious to facilitate the 
 object. Your communication to me on that subject is conclusive ; 
 Texans were apprized of it from your repeated declarations to that 
 effect, w’hile in this country, and on your way to Washington city. 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 553 
 
 At the time the expedition started, no hostilities were earned on 
 between this country and Mexico. Commissioners from General 
 Arista were at Austin at the time the party started from Santa Fe. 
 They were kindly received, and made the most sincere professions 
 of amity and reconciliation with this government. They were 
 treated with kindness, and corresponding commissioners appointed 
 to General Arista To them every civility was extended, and they 
 were permitted to return without molestation. This was the atti- 
 tude of the two countries at that time. Will you allege that this 
 was not sanctioned by your government? — or will you insist that it 
 was a trick of diplomacy ? For myself, I would not have been de- 
 luded by any professions which might have been tendered to Texas 
 by Mexico, when a departure from the most solemn pledges would 
 result in injury to the former, and benefit to the latter. That the 
 ministers of General Arista played their parts with fidelity to their 
 instructions, I have no doubt ; and that all the information which 
 could be derived, in relation to the trading company, was faithfully 
 transmitted to the government of Mexico. Nor do I doubt but that 
 the population of the northern parts of your country, so soon as the 
 intelligence was received, were thrown into the utmost consternation ; 
 and a nation numbering eight millions of people, inhabiting “ val- 
 leys, mountains, towns, and large cities,” “ by so many titles re- 
 spectable,” was convulsed at the apprehended approach of three hun- 
 dred Texan traders. But what has been the sequel of this expedi- 
 tion ? On their approach to the settlements of the Rio Grande, they 
 obtained supplies from the inhabitants, not as a hostile and maraud- 
 ing party, but paid a valuable consideration for every supply which 
 they obtained. They were met by the Mexican authorities with 
 overtures of peace, assurances of friendship, and pledges of security, 
 provided they would give up their arms, for the purpose of tranquil- 
 lizing the Mexican population. Detached, as the company was, into 
 parties remote from each other, and deluded by pledges, they acqui- 
 esced in the wishes of the authorities of the country ; thereby evin- 
 cing to them, that they had no disposition to disturb the tranquillity 
 of the inhabitants, and that their objects were pacific. But no sooner 
 were they in the power of the authorities, than they were stripped 
 of their clothing, deprived of everything valuable, treated in the 
 most barbarous manner, and marched like convicts to the capital of 
 Mexico. On their route every act of inhumanity, cruelty, and 
 hatred, was evinced. When their sick and helpless condition re- 
 
554 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 quired the assistance of Christian charity and humanity, it was 
 denied them. They were barbarously shot, their bodies mangled, 
 and their corpses left unburied. The butchery of M'Allister, Gal- 
 phin, Yates, and others, appeals to Heaven and this nation for retri- 
 bution on the heads of their inhuman murderers. You may allege 
 that you did not authorize the perpetration of these outrages, com- 
 mitted upon men who had violated no rule of law known to this civ- 
 ilized age. This will he no excuse for you ; your sanction to these 
 acts is as culpable as their perpetration was degrading to their 
 authors. Their detention, by you, as prisoners, may gratify the 
 malignity of little minds; but the just, the cbivalric, the brave 
 and generous of all nations, may pity, but must despise your 
 conduct. 
 
 Had it not been for the faithless professions tendered to them, and 
 their two credent belief, they could haVe maintained their position 
 against all the forces of northern Mexico ; and, if necessary, could 
 have made good their retreat to their homes, defying the “generous 
 effort of the people of New Mexico.” Your conduct on this occa- 
 sion will present your humanity and sense of propriety in very awk- 
 ward contrast with the treatment extended to you and your follow- 
 ers after the victory of San Jacinto — being, not as you suppose, 
 one of the “ freaks of fortune,” but one of the accompaniments of 
 that destiny which will mark the course of Texas until the difficul- 
 ties between the two countries shall be satisfactorily adjusted. 
 
 But you declare that you will not relax your exertions until you 
 have subjugated Texas ; that you have “weighed its possible value,” 
 and that you are perfectly aware of the magnitude of the task you 
 have undertaken ; that you “ will not permit a colossus within the 
 limits of Mexico;” that our title is that of “theft and usurpation;” 
 and that the “ honor of the Mexican nation demands of you the rec- 
 lamation of Texas;” that, “if it were an unproductive waste, use- 
 less, sterile, yielding nothing desirable, and abounding only in thorns 
 to wound the feet of the traveller,” you would not permit it to exist 
 as an independent government, in derision of your national charac- 
 ter, your hearths, and your individuality. Allow me to assure you 
 that our title to Texas has a high sanction; that of purchase — 
 because we have performed our conditions; that of conquest — be- 
 cause we have been victorious. It is ours, because you can not sub- 
 due us ; it has been consecrated ours, by the blood of martyred 
 patriots ; it is ours, by the claims of patriotism, superior intelligence, 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 555 
 
 and unsubduable courage. It is not a sterile waste, or a desert ; it 
 is the home of freemen ; it is the land of promise ; it is the garden 
 of America. 
 
 Every citizen of Texas was born a freeman, and he would be a 
 recreant to the principles imbibed from his ancestry, if he would not 
 freely peril his life in defence of his home, his liberty, and his coun- 
 try. Although you are pleased to characterize our occupation of 
 Texas and defence of our imprescriptable right, as the “ most scan- 
 dalous robbery of the present age,” it is not one fourth of a century 
 since Mexico perpetrated a similar robbery upon the rights of the 
 crown of Spain. The magnitude of the theft may give dignity to 
 the robbery ; in that you have the advantage. That you should 
 thus have characterized a whole nation, I can readily account. 
 Heretofore you entertained the opinion that Mexico could never 
 conquer Texas ; that if it were possible for her to drive every Texan 
 from the soil, Mexico could not maintain her position on the Sabine ; 
 and the retreat of her army would be the signal for the return of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, who would re-occupy their homes, and pur- 
 sue the Mexicans as far as the Rio Grande ; and that Mexico, in 
 preservation of the integrity of the territory she then possessed, 
 would gain an advantage by abandoning all hope of conquering 
 Texas, and directing her attention to the improvement of her inter- 
 nal condition. Your recent opinions, as declared by you, appear to 
 be at variance with these speculations ; and are most vehemently 
 avowed. It is an attribute of wisdom to change opinions upon con- 
 viction of error, and perhaps, for it you are justifiable — at least, I 
 discover you have one attribute of a new convert ; you are quite 
 zealous and wordy in the promulgation of the doctrine you have 
 espoused. 
 
 Sir, from your lenity and power Texas expects nothing — from 
 your humanity less ; and when you invade Texas you will not find 
 thorns to wound the foot of the traveller ; but you will find opposed 
 to Mexican breasts, arms wielded by freemen, of unerring certainty, 
 and directed for a purpose not to be eluded. Texans war not for 
 gewgaws and titles. They battle not to sustain dictators or despots. 
 They do not march to the field unwillingly : nor are they dragged 
 to the army in chains, with the mock title of volunteers. For a 
 while they lay by the implements of husbandry, and seize their rifles. 
 They rally in defence of their rights, and when victory has been 
 achieved, they return to the cultivation of the soil. They have 
 
556 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 laws to protect their rights; their property is their own. They do 
 not bow to the will of a despot ; but they bow to the majesty of the 
 constitution and laws. They are freemen indeed. It is not so with 
 your nation; from the alcalde to the dictator, all are tyrants in 
 Mexico ; and the community is held in bondage, subject, not to the 
 law, but the will of a superior, and confined in hopeless subjection 
 to usurpation. 
 
 In an individual so intelligent as yourself, it does seem to me that 
 you have evinced very bad taste in adverting to the subject of 
 slavery in the internal affairs of this country. Your opinions, while 
 here, on this subject, were freely and frankly avowed. You then 
 believed that it would be of great advantage to Mexico to introduce 
 slave-labor into that country ; that it would develop her resources, 
 by enabling her to produce cotton, sugar, and coffee, for purposes 
 of exportation ; and that, without it, she would be seriously retarded 
 in her march to greatness and prosperity. Your sympathy and 
 commiseration, at present expressed, are no doubt very sincere ; and 
 I only regret that they partake so little of consistency. You boast 
 that Mexico gave the noble and illustrious example of emancipating 
 her slaves. The fact that she has the name of having done so, has 
 enabled you to add another flourish to your rhetoric ; but the ex- 
 amination of facts, for one moment, will disclose the truth. The 
 slaves of Mexico, you say, were emancipated : Did you elevate 
 them to the condition of freemen? No, you did not — you gave 
 them the name of freemen, but you reduced the common people 
 to the condition of slaves. It is not uncommon in Mexico for one 
 dignitary, upon his hacienda, to control from one hundred to ten 
 thousand human beings in a state of bondage more abject and intol- 
 erable than the negroes on any cotton plantation in this country. 
 If any individual in Mexico owes but twenty -five cents, the creditor, 
 by application to an alcalde, can have him, with his family, decreed 
 to his service, and remain in that state of slavery until he is able to 
 pay the debt from the wages accruing from his labor — after being 
 compelled to subsist his dependent family. This you call freedom; 
 and graciously bestow your sympathy upon the African race. The 
 abolitionists of the present day will not feel that they are indebted 
 to you for your support of their cause. Had some one else than 
 the dictator of Mexico, the self-styled “Napoleon of the West,” 
 the subverter of the constitution of 1824, the projector of cen- 
 tralism, and the man who endeavors to reduce a nation to slavery, 
 
PRESIDENT HOUSTON TO PRESIDENT SANTA ANNA. 557 
 
 become their advocate, they might have been more sensible of 
 their obligation. So far as its increase can be prevented, our con- 
 stitution and laws have presented every obstacle. They will be 
 maintained to the letter; and, on account of slavery, Texas will 
 incur no reproach. 
 
 You touchingly invite “ Texas to cover herself anew with the Mex- 
 ican flag.” You certainly intend this as a mockery. You denied 
 us the enjoyment of the laws under which we came to the country. 
 Her flag was never raised in our behalf ; nor has it been seen in 
 Texas except when displayed in an attempt at our subjugation. 
 We know your lenity — we know your mercy — we are ready again 
 to test your powers. You have threatened to plant your banner 
 on the banks of the Sabine. Is this done to intimidate us ? Is it 
 done to alarm us ? Or do you deem it the most successful mode 
 of conquest? If the latter, it may do to amuse the people sur- 
 rounding you. If to alarm us, it will amuse those conversant with 
 the history of your last campaign. If to intimidate us, the threat 
 is idle. We have desired peace — you have annoyed our frontier; 
 you have harassed our citizens ; you have incarcerated our traders, 
 after your commissioners had been kindly received, and your citi- 
 zens allowed the privileges of commerce in Texas without moles- 
 tation. You continue aggression ; you will not accord us peace. 
 
 We will have it. You threaten to conquer Texas ; we will war 
 with Mexico. You pretensions with ours you have referred to the 
 social world, and to the God of battles. We refer our cause to the 
 same tribunals — the issue involves the fate of nations. Destiny 
 must determine — its event is only known to the tribunal of 
 Heaven. If experience of the past will authorize speculations of 
 the future, the attitude of Mexico is more “problematical” than 
 that of Texas. 
 
 In the war which will be conducted by Texas against Mexico, 
 our incentive will not be a love of conquest ; it will be to disarm 
 tyranny of its power. We will make no war upon Mexicans, or 
 their religion. Our efforts shall be made in behalf of the liberties 
 of the people ; and directed against the authorities of the country, 
 and against your principles. We will exalt the condition of the 
 people to representative freedom. They shall choose their own 
 rulers — they shall possess their property in peace ; and it shall not 
 be taken from them to support an armed soldiery for purposes of 
 oppression. 
 
558 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 With these principles we will march across the Rio Grande, and 
 — believe me, sir — ere the banner of Mexico shall triumphantly 
 float on the banks of the Sabine, the Texan standard of the Single 
 Star, borne by the Anglo-Saxon race, shall display its bright folds, 
 in Liberty’s triumph, on the isthmus of Darien. 
 
 With the most appropriate consideration, I have the honor to 
 present you my salutations. 
 
 Sam Houston. 
 
APPENDIX NO. IX. 
 
 LIST OF THE GOVERNORS OF TEXAS. 
 
 [This list is not given as perfect. Many of those acting as governors, in the 
 early history of the country, were the commandants of the Presidio of Bexar, 
 and officiating ad interim .] 
 
 I. — FRENCH DOMINATION. 
 
 Robert Cavalier, the Sieur de la Salle 1686 
 
 The Sieur Barbier 1687 
 
 II. — SPANISH DOMINATION. 
 
 Domingo Teran de los Rios (Coahuila and Texas until 1726) 1691 
 
 Don Martin D’Alarconne 1718 
 
 Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo 1720 
 
 Fernando Perez de Alraazan 1723 
 
 Melchior de Mediavilla y Arcona (Texas alone until 1824) 1725 
 
 Juan Antonio Bustillos y Cevallos 1731 
 
 Manuel de Sandoval 1734 
 
 Carlos de Franquis 1736 
 
 Prudencio de Oribio de Basterra 1788 
 
 Justo Boneo 1740 
 
 Jacinto de Barrios y Jaurequi 1756 
 
 Antonio de Martos y Navarrete 1762 
 
 Juan Maria Baron de Ripperda 1770 
 
 Domingo Cabello 1778 
 
 Rafael Pacheco 1789 
 
 Manuel Munoz . „ 1790 
 
 Juan Bautista Elguezabal 1803 
 
 Antonio Cordero 1806 
 
 Manuel de Salcedo 1810 
 
560 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Juan Bautista Casas assumed the command of the Province, and was con- 
 firmed in the same by General Matias Ximenes, one of Hidalgo’s Lieu- 
 tenants, January 22 1811 
 
 A Spanish Provisional Junta, under the Presidency of the Sub-Deacon Juan 
 Manuel Zambrano, overthrew Governor Casas, and reinstated Manuel 
 
 de Salcedo 1811 
 
 Salcedo killed by the Republican General Bernardo Gutierres, in 1813, and 
 Texas in a disorganized condition until after the Battle of Medina. 
 
 Christoval Dominguez 1813 
 
 Antonio Martinez 1818 
 
 III. MEXICAN DOMINATION. 
 
 Trespalacios 1822 
 
 By the Decree of the Sovereign Junta of January, 1822, Texas came under 
 the Government of the Eastern Captaincy-General, in which position 
 it remained until the State of “ Coahuila and Texas” was organized 
 under the Constitution of 1824. 
 
 Don Lwciana Garcia (acting) 1823 
 
 Rafael Gonzales {ad interim — Coahuila and Texas united until 1835) .... 1824 
 
 Victor Blanco 1826 
 
 Jos6 Maria Viesca 1828 
 
 Jos6 Maria Letona 1831 
 
 Francisco Vidauri y Villasenor (acting) 1834 
 
 A Civil War broke out in the State of Coahuila and Texas. — Saltillo pro- 
 nounced, and, on the 19th of July, 1834, appointed Jos6 Maria Goribar 
 as Governor. — On the 30th of August, 1834, the Party of Monclova 
 appointed Juan Jos4> Elguezabal Governor. — The matter was referred 
 to Santa Anna, who ordered a new Election. 
 
 Augustin Viesca 1835 
 
 Revolutionary Councils until November 13 1835 
 
 Henry Smith, Provisional Governor until March 17 1836 
 
 IV. — independent domination. 
 
 David G. Burnet, President {ad interim) 1836 
 
 Sam Houston, ** (constitutional) 1836 
 
 Mirabeau B. Lamar, “ “ 1838 
 
 Sam Houston, “ “ 1841 
 
 Anson Jones, “ “ 1844 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Abduction of Captain Dimit, vol. it, p. 
 319. 
 
 Adaea Mission of, i., 50 ; discontinued, 
 
 1., 94 ; further History, i., 109 ; Span- 
 iards driven from, i., 181. 
 
 Agua Dulce, Battle of, ii., 84. 
 
 Aguayo, Marquis de, Governor of Coa- 
 huila and Texas, i., 67 ; recommends 
 Colonists, i., 74. 
 
 Ahumada, Col. Mateo, marches against 
 the Fredonians, i., 249. 
 
 Alamo, History of the, i., 107 ; Siege of, 
 
 11., 76, 211 ; Notes on the, i., 468. 
 Albuquerque, Scene at, in 1806, i., 139. 
 Almont6, Juan N., visits Texas, i., 827 ; 
 
 his View of the War, ii., 82; a Pris- 
 oner at San Jacinto, ii., 145. 
 Anahnac, Affair at, i., 290. 
 
 Anastase Douay, attends La Salle, i., 40. 
 Andrews, Richard, killed at Concepcion, 
 
 1., 375. 
 
 Anglo-American Colonies, Progress of, 
 
 1., 98. 
 
 Annexation discussed, ii., 208 ; Instruc- 
 tions to Texan Charge in regard to, 
 
 11., 345 ; brought forward by United 
 States, ii., 423 ; Treaty of, ii., 428 ; 
 rejected by the United States Senate, 
 
 ii., 431 ; Effect of it, ii., 431 ; Resolu- 
 tions of, passed United States Con- 
 gress, ii., 440. 
 
 Apaches, i., 78. 
 
 Apodaca, the Viceroy, Policy of, L, 216. 
 Archer, Branch T., in the Convention 
 of 1838, i., 311 ; President of the Con- 
 sultation, ii., 12; one of the Commis- 
 sioners to the United States, ii., 13. 
 Archives, Public, Removal o£ ii., 866. 
 Arkokisa, Spanish Troops at, L, 128. 
 
 Vol. II.— 36 
 
 Armijo, Governor, his Conduct, ii., 326. 
 
 Armistice between the Parties of Mon- 
 clova and Saltillo, i., 323 ; proposed 
 bv Santa Anna to Texas, ii., 408 ; pro- 
 claimed by President Houston, ii., 409; 
 Correspondence relating to, ii., 413; 
 Instructions on, ii., 414; signed by 
 Texan Commissioners, ii., 422 ; reject- 
 ed by the President of Texas, ii., 422. 
 
 Army, Texan, occupies Head of San An- 
 tonio River, ii., 14 ; Regular proposed, 
 
 ii., 241 ; strange Letter from, to Presi- 
 dent Burnet, ii., 172; Disorders in, 
 
 ii., 183; Condition in August, 1836, 
 
 ii., 191 ; at the Close of 1836, ii., 206 ; 
 furloughed, ii., 215; Mexican, at the 
 Close of 1836, ii., 206. 
 
 Arredondo, General, commands at the 
 Battle of Medina, i., 174. 
 
 Artillery, first seen in Texas, i., 22; the 
 “Twin-Sisters,” ii., 123. 
 
 Atasco Sito Road, i., 128. 
 
 Aury, Don Luis, occupies Galveston Is- 
 land, i., 180 ; Sketch of him, i., 181 ; 
 sails to Soto la Marina, i., 185 ; puts 
 in at Matagorda Bay, i., 193 ; sails to 
 Amelia Island, i., 194. 
 
 Austin, City of, selected as the Capital, 
 iL, 273. 
 
 Austin, John, defeats Ugartachea at Ve- 
 lasco, i., 294; dies of Cholera, i., 314. 
 
 Austin, Moses, Sketch of, i., 209 ; ob- 
 tains first Colony Contract, ii., 210. 
 
 Austin, Stephen F., explores Texas, L, 
 212; Visit to Mexico, i., 214 ; Return 
 to the Colony, i., 227 ; Regard for his 
 Colony, i., 309; in the Convention 
 of 1833, L, 311 ; first Interview with 
 Houston, i., 809 ; sent with the Me- 
 
562 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 morial to the Supreme Government, 
 
 i., 312; Ill's Advice to the Texans, i., 
 314 ; in Prison in Mexico, i., 315 ; re- 
 leased from the Prison of the Inqui- 
 sition, i., 324; View of Santa Anna’s 
 Policy, i., 826; returns from Mexico, 
 
 i., 357 ; elected to the Command of 
 the Texan Army, i., 368; invites the 
 Consultation to repair to the Army, 
 
 1., 370; Interview with Houston at 
 the Salado, i., 372; one of the Com- 
 missioners to the United States, ii., 
 14 ; holds a Council of War at Sau 
 Antonio, ii., 16 ; resigns the Com- 
 mand, ii., 18; his Advice, ii., 67; 
 Success in the United States, ii., 176 ; 
 Return to Texas, ii., 181 ; Death of, 
 
 11., 202. 
 
 Austin, William T., aids in the Descent 
 on San Antonio, ii., 14; despatched 
 for Artillery, ii., 108, 110. 
 
 Baker, Mosely, Disorganizing Movement 
 of, December 19, 1835, i., 40 ; ordered 
 to defend the Pass of San Felipe, ii., 
 115; reinforced, ii., 118. 
 
 Barbier, the Sieur, left in Command at 
 St. Bernard, i., 37. 
 
 Barradaa, General, invades Mexico, i., 
 269. 
 
 Barragan, Defeat of, ii., 375. 
 
 Barrataria, Sketch of, i., 187 ; Bucca- 
 neers driven from, i., 188. 
 
 Barrett, D. C., Commissioner to General 
 Cos, i., 341 ; Attempt to make him 
 Judge- Advocate-General, ii., 44. 
 
 Battle of Nolan’s River, March 22, 1801, 
 
 1., 114; at Salitre Prairie, i., 153 ; of 
 Rosalia, March 28, 1813, i., 166; of 
 the Alazan, i., 171; of the Medina, 
 1813, i., 174; of the “Three Trees,” 
 
 i., 197 ; near San Saba in 1831, i., 282; 
 of Guadalupe Zacatecas, i., 333 ; of 
 Gonzales, October 2, 1835, i., 363 ; 
 of Concepcion, October 28, 1835, i., 
 373; called the “Grass-Fight,” No- 
 vember 26, 1835, ii., 18; over House’s 
 Body, November 8, 1835, ii., 19 ; of 
 Refugio, March 14, 1836, ii., 88; of 
 the Coleta, March 19, 1836, ii., 92; 
 of San Jacinto, ii., 142 ; with the In- 
 dians, November 10, 1837, ii., 228; 
 at Jos6 Maria Village, October 25, 
 1838, ii., 247; at Kickapoo Village, 
 October 16, 1838, ii., 247; with Flo- 
 res, May 14, 1838, ii., 259; with Cor- 
 dova, March 26, 1839, ii., 261 ; with 
 the Camanches, February 15, 1839, 
 ii 261 ; with the Indians above Bas- 
 
 trop, February, 1839, ii., 262 ; on Lit- 
 tle River, May 27, 1839, ii., 262; with 
 the Cherokees, July 16, 1839, ii., 268 ; 
 with the same, July 16, 1839, ii., 269; 
 of Alcantro, October 3, 1839, ii., 275 ; 
 of Morales, March 15, 1840, ii., 289; 
 of Saltillo, October 23, 1840, ii., 293; 
 of Plum Creek, August 12, 1840, ii., 
 302; of the Red Fork of the Colorado, 
 October 24, 1840, ii., 304 ; near Lare- 
 do, April 7, 1841, ii., 320; of Lipan- 
 titlan, July 7, 1842, ii., 361 ; of the 
 Salado, September 17, 1842, ii., 364; 
 of Mier, December 25 and 26, 1842, 
 
 11., 362 ; of the Hacienda Salado, Feb- 
 ruary 11, 1843, ii., 374; by Snively 
 on the Plains, June 20, 1843, ii., 402; 
 Bird’s Fight, ii., 262. 
 
 Beales and Grant, Colony of, i., 317. 
 
 Bean, Ellis P., Expedition to Texas, 1800, 
 
 1., Ill; imprisoned at Chihuahua, i., 
 166; at Acapulco, i., 158; Attempt 
 to escape, i., 160; in Command in 
 the Patriot Army, i., 161 ; Connection 
 with Lafitte, i., 191 ; History after 
 leaving Mexico, i., 236 ; takes part 
 against the Fredonians, i., 250; In- 
 dian Agent in Texas, i., 272 ; a Colo- 
 nel in Mexico, i., 327 ; Influence over 
 the Indians, i., 358 ; Memoir of, writ- 
 ten by Himself, i., 404 ; arrested, ii, 
 130. 
 
 Beaujeau, Captain, accompanies La Salle, 
 
 i., 16; they quarrel, i., 17. 
 
 Bee, Barnard E., accompanies Santa An- 
 na to Washington City, ii., 204 ; sent 
 to Mexico, ii., 256. 
 
 Belisle, Wanderings of, i., 70. 
 
 Bexar, selected by Governor Viesca as 
 the Seat of Government, i., 335 ; Tex- 
 ans march upon, i., 368; Old Record 
 of, i., 382; Works at ordered to be 
 demolished, January 17, 1836, ii., 58. 
 
 Bird, Captain John, Fight with the In- 
 dians, ii., 262. 
 
 Blanco, Governor Victor, annuls Ed- 
 wards’s Grant, i., 243; opposes the 
 Texan Memorial of 1833, i., 825. 
 
 Bolivar Point, occupied by General 
 Long, i., 202. 
 
 Boneo, Doc Justo, Governor of Texas, 
 
 i., 83. 
 
 Bonham, J. B., enters the Alamo during 
 the Siege, ii., 79. 
 
 Boundary between Spain and Great 
 Britaiu by the Treaty of 1763, i., 93 ; 
 Western of Texas, i.,77 ; ii., 156, 343 ; 
 j Eastern of Texas, L, 80, 102 ; in 1837, 
 
 | ii., 217, 307, 332. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 563 
 
 Bowie, Colonel James, Sketch of, i., 
 270; Battle near San Saba, i., 282; 
 at the Battle of Nacogdoches, i., 298 ; 
 commands at Concepcion, i., 873 ; in 
 advance at the “ Grass-Fight,” ii., 18; 
 ordered west, ii., 46 ; ordered to Bex- 
 ar, January 17, 1836; killed in the 
 Alamo, ii., 81. 
 
 Bradburn, Colonel, Quarrels of at Ana- 
 liuac, i., 290, 272. 
 
 Bradley, Captain John M., of the “Mod- 
 erators,” ii., 440. 
 
 Brasos, Indian Name of, i., 27. 
 
 Breeze, Captain of the New Orleans 
 Grays, ii., 33. 
 
 Brenham, R. F., Commissioner to Santa 
 F6, ii., 322. 
 
 Brown, Captain Henry S., Campaign 
 against the Indians, i., 260. 
 
 Buccaneers, i., 34. 
 
 Bullock, Colonel James W., commands 
 at Nacogdoches, i., 298. 
 
 Burleson, Colonel Edward, elected to 
 the Command at San Antonio, ii., 18 ; 
 Efforts to aid Travis, ii., 104; sent to 
 watch the Retreat of Filisola, ii., 164; 
 Fight with Cordova, ii., 261; defeats the 
 Indians above Bastrop, ii.,262 ; march 
 against the Cherokees, ii., 267 ; Affair 
 with the Cherokees on the Colorado, 
 
 ii., 283 ; elected Vice-President, ii., 
 331 ; in command at San Antonio, 
 
 ii., 363. 
 
 Barnet, David G M Empresario, i., 262 ; 
 in Convention of 1833, i., 311 ; draws 
 up the Memorial, i., 312 ; writes the 
 Liberty Address, i., 371 ; Memorial 
 to Mexico, i., 469 ; elected President 
 ad interim , ii., 71; Appeal to the 
 People, ii., Ill; Narrow Escape of, 
 
 ii., 136 ; Order to- Houston to retreat 
 to Galveston, ii., 153 ; requested to 
 repair to the Camp at San Jacinto, 
 
 ii., 153; Negotiations with Santa An- 
 na, ii., 154 ; Affair with the Army, 
 
 ii., 171; elected Vice-President, ii., 
 245. 
 
 Burnham, Captain, Fight with the Ca- 
 raukawaes, i., 226. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, his Expedition, i., 144. 
 
 Burton, Major Isaac W., Success in cap- 
 turing Vessels, ii., 180. 
 
 Bustamente, General, declares against 
 Guerrero, i., 270; prohibits Colonists 
 from the United States, i., 270 ; forced 
 by Santa Anna to resigD, i., 293 ; they 
 make peace, i., 303 ; return from Exile 
 in France, and elected President of 
 Mexico, 1837, ii., 204. 
 
 Cadena, Royalist General in Mexico, i., 
 150. 
 
 I Calhoun, John C., concludes Treaty of 
 Annexation, ii., 428. 
 
 Calleja, Royalist General in Mexico, i., 
 150. 
 
 Camanches, i., 78 ; Insolence of, in 1785, 
 
 i., 107 ; Massacre of, ii., 298; Descent 
 of, on Victoria and Linnville, ii., 300; 
 defeated at Plum Creek, ii., 302; on 
 Red Fork of the Colorado, ii., 305. 
 
 Cameron, Captain, leads in the Battle 
 of the Hacienda Salado, ii., 376 ; shot 
 — Cause of it, ii., 377. 
 
 Campaign, Federal, of 1839, ii., 274; of 
 1840, ii., 290. 
 
 Cam peachy, Lafitte’s Town of, on Gal- 
 veston Island, i., 197. 
 
 Canales, General L. Antonio, commands 
 in the Federal War, ii., 274, 288 ; 
 Treachery of, ii., 297. 
 
 Candelle, Col. Nicholas, at Goliad, i.,365. 
 
 Capital of Texas, Selection of, ii., 273. 
 
 Caraukawaes, Battle with, i., 197 ; fur- 
 ther Battles with, i., 221 ; peace with, 
 
 i., 226. 
 
 Carson, Samuel P., Letter from, ii., 118. 
 
 Casa de Contractacion, i., 96. 
 
 Casa Fuerte, Viceroy of Mexico, i., 80. 
 
 Castenado, Captain, defeated at Gonza- 
 les, i., 361. 
 
 Cession of Louisiana to Spain in 1762, 
 
 i., 92; receded in 1800, i., 116 ; ceded 
 to the United States in 1803, i., 119. 
 
 Cevallos, Governor of Texas, i., 80. 
 
 Chambers, Thomas J., Sketch of, i., 274; 
 appointed Judge, i., 321 ; Address to 
 the People of Texas, i., 324 ; Power 
 to raise an Army of Reserve, ii., 67. 
 
 Charles IV. of Spain, i., 146. 
 
 Charles V., Decree of, i., 63. 
 
 Cherokees, in Mexico, i., 215; Declara- 
 tion in Favor of, ii., 62 ; their Threat- 
 ening Attitude, ii., 127 ; War with, ii., 
 263 ; Defeat of, ii., 269. 
 
 Chihuahua, Settlement of, i., 26. 
 
 Christy, Colonel William, Efforts for 
 Texas, ii., 22; aids in procuring a 
 Loan, ii., 62. 
 
 Claiborne, Governor, calls out the Mili- 
 tia, i., 132; Proclamation of, against 
 the Barratarians, i., 188. 
 
 Clay, Henry, against Annexation, ii., 
 429 ; Defeat of, ii., 429. 
 
 Clergy of New Spain, i., 62 ; Influence 
 in Mexico, i., 818. 
 
 Coaliuila, first settled, i., 26 , Population 
 of, in 1806, i., 141 ; Limits of, in 1744, 
 i, 77. 
 
564 
 
 GENITAL INDEX. 
 
 Coahuila and Texas, State o£ L, 231 ; 
 its Poverty, i., 258; Civil War in, L, 
 
 316 ; Legislature of, its Corruption 
 and End, i., 325. 
 
 Cooke, William G., Commissioner to 
 Santa Fe, ii., 322. 
 
 Coleta, Battle of the, ii., 92. 
 
 Coldwell, Colonel Matthew, commands 
 at the Salado, ii., 364. 
 
 Colonists, recommended by De Aguayo, 
 
 1., 174; from Canary Islands, L, 77 ; ! 
 Tlascala, i., 79; first Anglo-Saxon, i., 
 212; their Privations, L, 229; Laws j 
 favoring the, L, 262 ; forbidden from j 
 the Lnited States, L, 270. 
 
 Colonization Law, General, i., 216; of 
 Coahuila and Texas, i., 233. 
 
 Colony, brought to Texas by La Salle, 
 L, 19; Fate of it, i., 42; Contract 
 first L, 210; of Beales and Grant L, 
 
 317 ; Contracts, Texan, ii., 436. 
 Collingsworth, Capt, takes Goliad, 1,367. 
 Collingsworth, James, Commissioner to 
 
 the United States, ii., 176 ; Death of, 
 
 11., 250. 
 
 Colorado River, Indian Name o£ L, 27. 
 Columbia, Meeting of August 15, 1835, 
 L, 354. 
 
 Commerce of Texas in 1806, L, 140; in 
 1834, L, 327. 
 
 Commercial Policy, exclusive, of Spain, 
 
 L, 95. 
 
 Commissioners to Cos, i., 341. 
 
 Committee of Safety, first in Texas, i., 
 337. 
 
 Common Law, Provision for its Intro- 
 duction, ii., 74, 287. 
 
 Company of the Indies, i., 66. 
 Concepcion, Mission of, founded, L, 79; 
 Battle of, i., 373. 
 
 Congress, Mexican Constituent i., 219; i 
 first Texan, ii., 199; Reform Congress, 
 ii., 340; Extra Session of June, 1842, 
 ii., 354 ; passes a Secret Act to sell the 
 Navy, ii., 381; Attempt to obtain the j 
 Correspondence of Government ii, 
 424; Mexican, dismissed by Santa i 
 Anna, i., 318. 
 
 Constitution of 1824, i., 200; ita Char- ! 
 acter, i, 230; of Coahuila and Texas, 
 
 L, 252; of 1824, reinstated by Santa 1 
 Anna in 1832, i., 393 ; of the Republic 
 of Texas, ii., 73. 
 
 Consultation, General, Origin ofj i., 354 ; 
 met October 16, 1835, and adjourned, j 
 
 i, 370 ; reassembled at San Felipe, 
 November 1, 1835, iL, 11 ; adjourned, ' 
 to meet at Washington, March 1, 1836, j 
 
 ii, 13. 
 
 Convention of 1832, at San Felipe, L, 
 302; of 1833, i., 311 ; at Washington, 
 on the Brasos, 1836, ii., 71 ; Delegates 
 to, ii., Appendix No. IIL, p. 512. 
 
 Convents of Queretaro and Zacatecas, 
 L, 54. 
 
 Cordero. Governor Antonio, i., 127, 129. 
 
 Correo Mexicans, Capture of the, L, 356. 
 
 Correspondence of the Commander-in- 
 Chief of the Texan Army, in 1835- 
 ’36, ii. Appendix No. L, p. 445. 
 
 Cos, General Martin P, takes part in 
 the Civil War at Monclova, L, 331 ; 
 disperses the Legislature, i, 334 ; Let- 
 ter of to Political Chief of Brasos, L, 
 343; advance into Texas, i, 361 ; de- 
 feated at San Antonio, iL, 30 ; rein- 
 forces Santa Anna, ii, 140; captured 
 at San Jacinto, ii, 142; Commission- 
 ers to, L, 341. 
 
 Council of the Indies, i, 61 ; jealous of 
 the French, L, 74. 
 
 Council, Permanent, first in Texas, L, 
 367 ; of the Provisional Government, 
 iL, 14 ; Usurpation of, iL, 50 ; Quarrel 
 with Governor Smith, iL, 43, 53 ; they 
 depose him, iL, 54, 67 ; of War at San 
 Antonio, iL, 16 ; of War held by Fan- 
 nin, iL, 78; of War held by Santa 
 Anna, iL, 79 ; of War held by Hous- 
 ton on the 21st of April, iL, 140. 
 
 Counties, Creation of, ii., 74. 
 
 Creek Indians attempt to settle in Tex- 
 as, i., 328. 
 
 Crockett, David, arrives at Nacogdo- 
 ches, iL, 70; killed in the Alam o, iL, 8L 
 
 Crozat, Grant to, by Louis XI V., L, 47 ; 
 Surrender of it, L, 66. 
 
 Cuernavaca, Plan of i., 318. 
 
 Customhouses in Texas, i., 272. 
 
 IVAlareonne, Governor of Texas, L, 68. 
 
 Dangerfield, W. EL, Commissioner to 
 the United States, iL, 352. 
 
 Davenport, Samuel, Spanish Indian 
 Agent, L, 153. 
 
 Davis, Adju tan t- General James, in com- 
 mand on the Nueces, ii., 355 ; at the 
 Battle of Lipantitlan iL, 361. 
 
 Dawson, Captain and Company, killed 
 at the Salado, iL, 365. 
 
 Dawson, Frederick, Contract with for 
 Navy, iL, 243. 
 
 De Ay Hon, Voyage o£ L, 31. 
 
 Debt, Puhlie, iL, 197, 218, 249, 281, 333. 
 
 Declaration of Adherence to the Con- 
 stitution of 1824, iL, 12 ; of Indepen- 
 dence, at Goliad, iL, 47 ; by the Con 
 vention of March, 1836, iL, 7L 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 565 
 
 De Leon, Captain Alonzo, Expedition to 
 Texas, i., 44. 
 
 De Leon, Martin, Empresario, i., 234. 
 
 De Leon, Voyage of, i., 31. 
 
 Delgado, Colonel, executed at San An- 
 tonio, i., 151; Vengeance taken by 
 his Son, i., 168. 
 
 De Narvaez, Voyage of, i., 31. 
 
 De Nava, Don Pedro, secularizes the 
 Missions, i., 108. 
 
 Do Onis, Bad Faith in the Discussion 
 with J. Q Adams, i., 86. 
 
 Descent upon San Antonio, ii., 24. 
 
 De Soto, Voyage of, i., 31. 
 
 Despotism organized by Santa Anna, i., 
 850. 
 
 De Tonti, in 'Search of La Salle, i., 43. 
 
 De Ulloa, Governor of Louisiana, In- 
 structions to, i., 96. 
 
 De Witt, Green, Empresario, i., 234. 
 
 Dickinson, Mrs., saved in theAlarao,ii,81. 
 
 Dimit, Captain Philip, in command at 
 Goliad, ii., 12; ordered to raise Men 
 for Bexar, ii., 59; his Capture and 
 Death, ii., 319. 
 
 Diplomacy, Mysterious, ir Texas, ii., 409. 
 
 Disaffected Persons on the Coast, ii., 132. 
 
 Disarming the Inhabitants, Decree for, 
 L, 330. 
 
 Documents in Relation to the Appoint- 
 ment of Commander-in-Chief, ii., Ap- 
 pendix No. II., p. 507. 
 
 Douglas, Brigadier-General, commands 
 in the Cherokee War, ii., 268. 
 
 Duhaut, Mutinous, r., 36 ; kills La Salle, 
 
 i., 40 ; is killed by Heins, i, 41. 
 
 Eastern Texas, Condition of, in April, 
 1836, ii., 108. 
 
 Eaton, Lieutenant William, Assistant- 
 Quartermaster-General, ii., 48. 
 
 Education in Texas, i., 267. 
 
 Edwards, Benjamin W., commands in 
 the Fredonian War, i., 244. 
 
 Edwards, Hayden, arrives in Mexico, 
 i, 215: Empresario, i., 234; Dispute 
 with the Political Chief, i., 237 ; Con- 
 tract with Mexico, i., 462 ; Difficulties 
 in his Colony, i f . 236; Grant to an- 
 nulled, i., 243. 
 
 Edwards, Monroe, imprisoned at Ana- 
 huac, i., 291; in the Slave-Trade, ii, 
 809. 
 
 EJguezabal, Juan Jos6, qua»i Governor, 
 
 i., 328. 
 
 Elisondo, Don Y., betrays Hidalgo, L, 
 160; defeated at the Alazan, i, 171. 
 
 Elliot, Captain Charjes, on the Armis- 
 tioe, ii., 412; Explanation* to, ii, 427. 
 
 Ellis, Richard, President of the Conven- 
 tion of 1836, ii., 71. 
 
 Empresarios, Provisions for, i., 217. 
 
 Enemy, Attempt to draw him out, ii., 
 112; Position of the, on the 15th of 
 April, 1836, ii., 112. 
 
 English, Captain George, commands a 
 Company from Eastern Texas, ii., 24. 
 
 Evans, Major, Master of Ordnance, shot 
 in the Alamo, ii., 81. 
 
 Exchequer-Bills, Worth of, ii., 348, 379. 
 
 Expedition of Lieutenant Pike, i., 125; 
 to Santa F6, ii., 231 ; to Mier, ii., 370 ; 
 of Colonel Snively, ii., 399. 
 
 Falcon, Miguel, appointed Governor by 
 Santa Anna, i, 338. 
 
 Fannin and Bowie, ordered to examine 
 the Missions, i., 871. 
 
 Fannin, J. W., appointed to raise Sup- 
 plies, ii., 42; ordered to Velasco, iL, 
 49; appointed “Agent” to march on 
 Matamoras, ii., 51 ; Proclamation of, 
 
 ii., 60 ; Attempt to aid Travis, ii., 78 ; 
 repairs Fort Defiance, at Goliad, ii, 
 85; his Orders from Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Robinson, ii, 86 ; ordered by 
 Houston to fall back, ii., 84 ; sets out 
 on his Retreat, ii., 91 ; surrenders at 
 the Coleta, ii., 96; shot at Goliad, ii, 
 98; Effect of his Defeat on the Texan 
 Army, ii., 112. 
 
 Farias, Gomez, Conduct of, i, 315. 
 
 Farnese, Charles Compt6, Propositions 
 of, ii., 224. 
 
 Federal War, ii, 274, 290. 
 
 Ferdinand VI., Decree of, against the 
 Monks, i., 63. 
 
 Filisola, General Vicente, opposes Santa 
 Anna’s Views, ii., 108; approves San- 
 ta Anna’s Public Treaty, ii., 165. 
 
 Fisher, Captain William S., arrives with 
 his Company, ii, 114; in the Federal 
 War of 1840, ii., 290; commands the 
 Mier Expedition, ii., 371. 
 
 Fisher S. Rhoads, in the Affair of the 
 “ William Robbins,” ii, 89. 
 
 Fletcher, Joshua, first Treasurer of Tex- 
 as, ii., 84. 
 
 Flores, Gaspar, Commissioner to grant 
 Titles; i, 266. 
 
 Flores, Mauuei, Mexican Agent among 
 the Indians, U., 258; his De4th, ii, 
 260. 
 
 Florida, Spam concludes to cede to the 
 United States, i, 194. 
 
 Florida, West, Convention of, at Baton 
 Rouge, i, 177 ; annexed to the United 
 States, i, 177. 
 
566 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Forbes, Major John, despatched to Ve- 
 lasco for Troops, ii., 110, 114; ap- 
 pointed Indian Commissioner, ii., 50. 
 
 Franciscans, Notice of the Order, i., 54. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin C., first Texas Judge, 
 
 11., 199. 
 
 Franks, Colonel Midland, aids in the De- 
 scent. on San Antonio, ii., 26. 
 
 Franquis, Carlos de, Governor of Texas, 
 
 1., 82 ; Tyranny of, i., 83. 
 
 Fredonians, i., 247 : Treaty with the In- 
 dians, i., 247 ; Battle with Norris, i., 
 249. 
 
 Freeman, Colonel, arrested by the Span- 
 iards, i., 124. 
 
 French blockade Mexican Ports, ii., 242. 
 
 French of Louisiana, Movement of, i., 47. 
 
 Frontenac aids La Salle, i., 15 
 
 Gael) u pin War, Plan of, i., 153 ; Prog- 
 ress of, i. f 163. 
 
 Gaines, Captain James, aids the Patri- 
 ots in 1812, i. r 165; at the Battle of 
 Rosalia, i., 166 ; of the Alazan, i., 172; 
 visits Lafitte, i., 200. 
 
 Gaines, General Edmund P., Instruc- 
 tions from the United States, i., 167 ; 
 Correspondence with Houston, ii., 
 182 ; Letter as to the Disposal of San- 
 ta Anna, ii., 195. 
 
 Galleons, Spanish, i., 96. 
 
 Galveston Island, first occupied by Don 
 Luis Aury, in 1816, i., 180 ; D6pdt for 
 Prizes and Slaves, i., 183 ; occupied 
 by Lafitte in 1817, i., 190; flourish- 
 ing, i., 196 ; Pirates broken up by the 
 United States, i., 203; again unoccu- 
 pied, i., 208 ; Register of Proceedings 
 at, in 1817, i., 454; in 1836, ii., 198. 
 
 Galveston, Town of, ii., 241 ; Growing 
 Commerce of, ii., 311. 
 
 Galvez, Don Jos4, Governor of Louisi- 
 ana, i., 101; Death o£ i., 110. 
 
 Gardoqui, Don Diego, Spanish Minister 
 to the United States, i., 103. 
 
 Garita at San Antonio, ii., 16. 
 
 Gil y Barbo, Commandant at Nacogdo- 
 ches, i., 100. 
 
 Goliad, Name of La Bahia changed to, 
 
 i., 234; Capture of, i., 369; Massacre 
 at, March 27, 1836, ii:, 98; Declara- 
 tion of Independence at, ii., 47. 
 
 Gonzales, Colonel Jose Maria, takes part 
 with Texas, ii., 38; in the Federal 
 War, ii., 274. 
 
 Gonzales, Don Jos6, Lieutenant of Gov- 
 ernor Sandoval, i., 81. 
 
 Gonzales, Eusign, at Adaes in 1806, i., 
 128. 
 
 Gonzales, Rafael, first Governor of Co- 
 ahuila and Texas, i., 234. 
 
 Gonzales, Town of, Dispute about the 
 Cannon there, i., 361 ; Battle of, i. f 
 363 ; Texan Troops at, March, 1836, 
 
 ii., 104; Effect there of the News of 
 the Fall of the Alamo, ii., 105. 
 
 Goribar, Jos6 Maria, appointed Govern- 
 or by a Faction, i., 322. 
 
 Gorostiza, Mexican Minister at Wash- 
 ington, Interview with President 
 Jackson, ii., 169. 
 
 Government, Seat of, Retreat to Harris- 
 burg, ii., 113; to Galveston, it, 162; 
 to Velasco, ii., 155; to Columbia, ii., 
 197 ; to Houston, ii., 913 ; Permanent 
 Selection of, ii., 273. 
 
 Governor and Council, Dispute between, 
 
 ii., 43. 
 
 Governors of Texas, List of, ii., Appen- 
 dix No. IX., p. 559. 
 
 Grant, Dr. James, urges the Descent on 
 Matamoras, ii., 21 ; aids in taking San 
 Antonio, ii., 26 ; his Motive in carry- 
 ing on the War, ii., 44; his March to 
 Matamoras, ii., 56 ; his Capture and 
 Death, ii., 84. 
 
 Grass-Fight, ii., 18. 
 
 Grays, New Orleans, Sketch of, ii., 22. 
 
 Grayson, Peter W., Commissioner to the 
 United States, ii., 176; his Death, it, 
 245. 
 
 Green, General T. J., resists the Return 
 of Santa Anna, ii., 171. 
 
 Gritton, Edward, Commissioner to Gen- 
 eral Cos, i., 341 ; returns for further 
 Powers, i., 347 ; Attempt to make him 
 Collector for Copano, ii., 44. 
 
 Guerrero, Republican Chieftain, i., 205; 
 Death of, i., 270. 
 
 Hall, Sims, Army Contractor, i., 379. 
 
 Hamilton, General James, invited to 
 the Command of the Texan Army, ii., 
 205 ; Loan-Agent for Texas, ii., 282; 
 Letter to Monroe Edwards, ii., 811; 
 Efforts to obtain a Loan, ii., 314; in 
 Brussels, ii., 339 ; Correspondence 
 with Santa Anna, ii., 357. 
 
 Handy, R. E., despatched to Bexar, ii., 
 106. 
 
 Hanks, Wyatt, Report of, in Favor of 
 Matamoras Expedition, ii., 60. 
 
 Hannah Elizabeth, the, captured by the 
 Bravo, ii., 89. 
 
 Harcourt, Colonrel Edward, ordered to 
 'Velasco, ii., 114. 
 
 Hardiman, Bailey, Secretary of the 
 Treasury, ii., 74. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 567 
 
 Harrisburg, Retreat of the Government 
 co, ii., 113. 
 
 Hawkins, Captain Charles, Sketch of, 
 
 ii., 37. 
 
 Hays, Captain J. C., defeats Garcia near 
 Laredo, ii., 320 ; in command at San 
 Antonio, ii., 349; at the Battle of the 
 Salado, ii., 364. 
 
 Heins kills Duhaut, i., 41. 
 
 Henderson, J. P., Commercial Arrange- 
 ment through, with Great Britain and 
 France, ii., 272; aids in making the 
 Treaty of Annexation, ii., 427. 
 
 Herrera, Governor of New Leon, i., 129. 
 
 Herrera, Manuel, Commissioner to the 
 United States, i., 178. 
 
 Hidalgo, the Curate of Dolores, i., 148; 
 executed, i., 160. 
 
 Hockley, G. W., of Houston’s Staff, ii., 
 75; accompanies Santa Anna to Wash- 
 ington City, ii., 203; Commissioner to 
 arrange the Armistice, ii,, 414. 
 
 Holzinger, Colonel, had charge of Colo- 
 nel Fannin at Goliad, ii., 97. 
 
 Horton, A. C., comes to the Aid of Fan- 
 nin, ii., 90; at the Coleta, ii., 92. 
 
 “Horse-Marines,” Success of, ii., 180. 
 
 Houston, Fort, Indian Murders at, ii., 
 213. 
 
 Houston, Sam, arrives in Texas, i., 305; 
 Sketch of him, i., 305 ; in the Conven- 
 tion of 1833, i., 31 1 ; appointed Com- 
 missioner to prevent the Creeks from 
 settling in Texas, i., 328; Resolutions 
 at San Augustine, i., 350 ; nominated 
 to command the Troops of Eastern 
 Texas, i., 367 ; Interview with Austin 
 at the Salado, i., 372; Letter to Presi- 
 dent Jackson in 1833, i., 465; to the 
 Indian Commissioners in 1833, i., 467 ; 
 elected Commander-in-Chief by the 
 Consultation, ii., 13 ; Reply to Mosely 
 Baker at the Meeting of December 
 19, 1835, ii., 41 ; Proposed Demon- 
 stration on Matamoras or Copano, ii., 
 46 ; Headquarters removed to Wash- 
 ington, ii., 49 ; Order of December 30 
 to Fannin, ii., 49 ; appointed to treat 
 with the Cherokees, ii., 50; ordered 
 to proceed to the Frontier, ii., 54; at 
 Goliad, January 16, 1836, ii., 58; di- 
 rects Colonel Neill to demolish the 
 Works at Bexar, and bring off the 
 Artillery, ii., 68; at Refugio, ii., 61; 
 returned to Washington, and report- 
 ed to Governor Smith, ii., 62; fur- 
 loughed till the 1st of March, ii., 63; 
 elected Commander-in-Chief by the 
 Convention, March 4, 1836, ii., 72; Ap- 
 
 pendix No. II., p. 508 ; Official Corre- 
 spondence as Commarfder-in-Chief, it, 
 Appendix No., I., p. 445 ; Delegate to 
 the Convention, ii., 74; sets out for 
 the Army, March 6, ii., 75; orders 
 Fannin to fall back, ii., 84 ; reaches 
 Gonzales, March 11, ii., 104; Retreat 
 from Gonzales, ii., 104; letter, to from 
 the President of the Convention, ii., 
 110; Defences on the Colorado, ii., 
 112; on the Brasos, opposite Groce’s, 
 
 ii., 115; crosses the Brasos, April 12, 
 
 ii., 120; confers with Secretary Rusk, 
 
 ii., 131 ; March from Donoho’s to Har- 
 risburg, ii., 132 ; crosses Buffalo Bayou 
 on the 19th, ii., 136; wounded on the 
 21st, ii., 144 ; Interview with Santa 
 Anna, ii., 147 ; President’s Order to 
 retreat to Galveston, ii., 153; Projet 
 of a Treaty with Santa Anna, ii., 154 ; 
 surrenders the Command of the Army 
 to Rusk, May 5, ii., 165 ; Correspond- 
 ence with General Gaines, ii., 182 ; 
 opposes an Attack on Matamoras, ii., 
 190; View of, as to the Disposal of 
 Santa Anna, ii., 195; installed as 
 President of Texas, ii., 198; releases 
 Santa Anna, ii., 203 ; elected the Sec- 
 ond Time to the Presidency, ii., 331 ; 
 Policy toward Mexico, ii., 336 ; Policy 
 toward the Indians, ii., 337 ; recom- 
 mends Exchequer-Bills, ii., 339 ; Ef- 
 forts in behalf of Prisoners in Mexico, 
 
 ii., 342 ; Efforts to invade Mexico, ii., 
 352; Le.tter of March 21, 1842, to 
 Santa Anna, ii., 358 ; Message to Con- 
 gress, ii., 352; vetoes the War-Bill, 
 
 ii., 360 ; Proclamation as to the Texan 
 Navy, ii., 383 ; dictates Robinson's 
 Letter to Santa Anna, ii., 388; pro- 
 claims an Armistice, ii., 409 ; Corre- 
 spondence with General Murphy, ii., 
 415; rejects the Armistice agreed on 
 by Commissioners, ii., 442 ; Secret 
 Annexation Message, ii., 426 ; Reply 
 to Jackson on the Rejection of the 
 Treaty, ii., 433; Letter to Santa An- 
 na, ii., Appendix No. VIII., p. 544. 
 
 Houston, Town of, ii., 196 ; Growth of, 
 
 ii., 311. 
 
 Hunt, General Memucan, Commissioner 
 to run Boundary-Line, ii., 307. 
 
 Hunter, John Dunn, Sketch of, i., 236 ; 
 Treaty for the Indians made by, i., 
 248 ; Death of, i., 250. 
 
 Hurd, Captain, commands the “William 
 Robbins,” ii., 39. 
 
 Huston, Colonel A., Agent to New Or* 
 leans, ii., 36 ; Quartermaster-General, 
 
568 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 iL. 48 ; ordered to remove Stores from 
 Coxe’s Point, iL, 115. 
 
 Hnston, General Felix, Account of La- 
 mar’s Reception as Commander-iu- 
 Chief, ii., 183 ; commands at the Bat- 
 tle of Plum Creek, ii., 302. 
 
 Immigrants, first European, to Texas, 
 L, 13; Landing of, L, 19. 
 
 Immigration, ii, 436. 
 
 "Independence” Schooner taken, ii.,212. 
 
 Independence, Texan Declaration of, ii., 
 71 ; List of the Signers to, ii., Appen- 
 dix No. III., p. 512; Prospect of its 
 Acknowledgment, ii., 176; acknowl- 
 edged by the United States, ii., 207 ; 
 by France, ii., 273 ; by Great Britain, 
 Holland, and Belgium, ii., 309. 
 
 Indians, first Hostility of, i., 30 ; in Tex- 
 as in 1685, i., 27 ; Names of Tribes, 
 
 i., 27 ; Cenis, i., 27 ; Hospitality of 
 the, i., 36; Wars o£ L, 42; Nasson- 
 ites, i., 36 ; Servitude of the, i., 61 ; 
 Difficulty of Christianizing, i., 59; 
 Strength of, in 1730, i., 78; Caman- 
 ches and Apaches, i., 78 ; Proposal to 
 treat with them in 1835, i., 350; Ex- 
 pedition against, in 1835, i., 352 ; 
 Mention of their Rights, i., 358, 377 ; 
 Declaration of Consultation in Favor 
 of. ii., 62 ; Messenger from Groce’s to 
 the Cooshatties, iL, 132; seduced by 
 the Mexicans, ii., 227. 
 
 Inhabitants, Flight of, ii., 106; Panic 
 of. East of the Trinity, iL, 108. 
 
 Insubordination, Effect of, ii., 394. 
 
 Invasion of Texas by Vasquez, March, 
 1842, ii., 348 ; by Woll, September, 
 1842, ii., 363. 
 
 Iturbide, his Pronunciamento, i., 206 ; 
 his Victories, i., 206; Treaty with 
 O’Donoju, L, 207 ; declares himself 
 Emperor, L, 216 ; quarrels with San- 
 ta Anna, i., 218; abdicates, i., 219. 
 
 Iturigaray, Viceroy of Mexico, L, 147. 
 
 Jack, Patrick H., Imprisonment at An- 
 ahuac, i., 291. 
 
 Jackson, President, Letter to Houston 
 in 1829, i., 307 ; Interview with Go- 
 rostiza, ii., 169; View of, as to the 
 Disposal of Santa Anna, ii., 195; An- 
 swer to Santa Anna’s Letter, ii., 200 ; 
 Letter on the Rejection of the Texas 
 Treaty of Annexation, iL, 432; re- 
 joices at Annexation, ii., 441 ; his 
 Death, ii., 442. 
 
 Jealousy between the United States and 
 Great Britain, iL, 406, 409. 
 
 Jesuits, i., 63. 
 
 Johnson, Colonel F. W., marches to the 
 Relief of the Texans at Anahuac, L, 
 291 ; commands a Division in the De- 
 scent on San Antonio, iL, 26; elected 
 to the Chief Command on the Death 
 of Milam, ii., 31 ; applies to the Coun- 
 cil for Leave to march on Matamoras, 
 
 ii., 51 ; his Proclamation, ii., 60. 
 
 Johnson, General A. S., appointed to the 
 Command of the Texan Army, ii., 207. 
 
 Jones, Captain Randal, his Expedition 
 against the Caraukawaes, i., 224. 
 
 Jones, Dr. Anson, elected President of 
 Texas, ii., 437. 
 
 Jones, John Rice, first Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral, ii., 33. 
 
 Jordan, Colonel, in the Federal War, 
 
 11., 274. 
 
 Joutel accompanies La Salle to Texas, 
 
 1., 15; left in command at Fort St. 
 Louis, L, 21, 33; returns to France, 
 
 i., 42. 
 
 Jury, Trial by, instituted, ii., 321. 
 
 Karnes, Captain Henry, Sketch of, i., 
 373 ; at the Siege of San Antonio, ii., 
 28 ; despatched to Bexar, iL, 106 ; 
 Affair with the Enemy at Rocky 
 Creek, iL, 111 ; Pursuit of the Enemy 
 at San Jacinto, ii., 143. 
 
 Kemper, Major, commands in the Ga- 
 chupin War of 1812, i., 165; returns 
 home, i., 168. 
 
 Kerr, James, presides at the Navidad 
 Meeting, i., 342. 
 
 Kerr, Peter, taken in the “ Hannah 
 Elizabeth,” ii., 39. 
 
 Kimball, H. S., Secretary of the Con- 
 vention, ii., 71. 
 
 King, Captain, sent to Refugio, ii., 86; 
 Attempt of Major Ward to relieve 
 him, ii., 87 ; King and his Command 
 taken and shot, ii., 90. 
 
 Kuykendall, Colonel A, his Campaign 
 against the Indians, L, 260. 
 
 La Bahia, Mission o£ i., 74. 
 
 Labranche, Alcee, Charge cT Affaires 
 from the United States, iL, 208. 
 
 Lafitte, Sketch of, i., 186; occupies Gal- 
 veston, i., 190; his Operations there, 
 
 i., 195 ; Battle with the Caraukawaes, 
 
 i., 197 ; declines aiding General Long, 
 L, 200; appointed Governor of Gal 
 ves^on Island, i., 202 ; driven from 
 Galveston, i., 203 ; his Death, in Yu- 
 catan, i., 204. 
 
 Laguna, Marquis o£ i., 44. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 569 
 
 La Harpe, i., fi8 ; Correspondence with 
 D’Alarconne, i., 68 ; in command at 
 Matagorda Bay, i., *73. 
 
 Lallemand, General, settles in Texas, i., 
 195. 
 
 Lamar, Mirabeau B., distinguished in 
 the Affair of the 20th of April, ii., 
 139; appointed Commander-in-Chief, 
 
 11., 183 ; elected President of the Re- 
 public, ii., 245 ; Message, ii., 252 ; In- 
 dian Policy, ii., 280. 
 
 Land-Certificates, Fraudulent, ii., 283. 
 
 Lands, Law for Sale ofj i., 320; Frauds 
 in, i., 321, 330. 
 
 Land-Office, Effort to open, ii., 228 ; 
 Frauds, ii., 228; closed in 1842, ii., 366. 
 
 Land-Titles, Order of Ugartachea, sus- 
 pending Issuance of, i., 359 ; Sketch 
 of, ii., 230. 
 
 Laredo, Settlement of, ii., 60 ; Plunder 
 of, ii., 368. 
 
 Larrison, Captain, despatched from Gon- 
 zales for Ammunition, ii., 105. 
 
 La Salle brings first Colony to Texas, i., 
 13; his Troubles, i., 22; his Neigh- 
 bors, i., 27 ; Journey to the Interior 
 of Texas, i., 33 ; Tragic Death, i., 40. 
 
 Law, John, i., 66. 
 
 Leftwich, Robert, Empresario, i., 234. 
 
 Legislature of Coahuila and Texas, de- 
 clares for Santa Anna, i., 322 ; Cor- 
 ruption of, i., 321, 330, 335 ; Members 
 of, from Saltillo, retire, i., 821 ; resists 
 Santa Anna, i., 333 ; Final Sitting, i., 
 333 ; its Decrees annulled by Mexican 
 Congress, i., 336. 
 
 Legislatures of the Mexican States abol- 
 ished, i., 366. 
 
 Les Veches, River, named by the French, 
 
 1., 23. 
 
 Letona, Jos6 Maria, Governor of Coahu- 
 ila and Texas, i., 270. 
 
 Lewis, Captain William P., Treachery 
 of, ii., 828. 
 
 Liberty, Settlement of, i., 266 ; Munici- 
 pality of, i., 276 ; Ayuntiamento of, op- 
 poses the War-Party, i., 339; comes 
 over to the War-Party, i., 370. 
 
 Lipantitlan, Battles of, ii., 19, 861. 
 
 Loan proposed, ii., 314; its Failure, ii., 
 316; Gigantic Projects, ii., 317; Effort 
 to make one in Brussels, ii., 339 ; Loan 
 Laws repealed, ii., 340; Revolutiona- 
 ry obtained by Texas Commissioners, 
 
 11., 62. 
 
 Long, David, killed on the Trinity, in 
 1819, i., 201. 
 
 Long, General, invades Texas, i., 199; 
 driven out, i., 202; his Death, i., 207. 
 
 Louisiana, ceded to Spain in 1 762, i., 92 ; 
 ceded to France, in October, 1800, i., 
 116 ; ceded to the United States, April 
 30, 1803, i., 119; Discussions of 1806 
 as to its Boundaries, i., 123. 
 
 M'Allister, Shooting of, ii., 336. 
 
 M‘Culloch, Colonel Ben, Sketch of, ii., 
 300. 
 
 M'Donald, Lieutenant William, at the 
 Siege of San Antonio, ii., 28. 
 
 M'Farland, John, Spanish Indian Agent, 
 
 i., 153. 
 
 M‘Kinney, Thomas F., Loan-Agent, L, 
 379. 
 
 M‘Leod, Brigadier-General Hugh, com- 
 mands Santa Fe Expedition, ii., 322. 
 
 M‘Mullen and M‘Gloin, Empresarios, i., 
 266. 
 
 M‘Nutt, Major, left with the Sick, ii., 
 134. 
 
 Madero, Commissioner to grant Land- 
 Titles, arrested by Teran, i., 275. 
 
 Madison, Captain, observing the Move- 
 ments of Lafitte, i., 203. 
 
 Magee, Augustus W., in command of an 
 Escort, i., 152; elected Colonel of the 
 Patriots, i., 162; his Death, i., 165. 
 
 Mail, Mexican, broken open at San Fe- 
 lipe, i., 338. 
 
 Major-General, -Law creating, ii., 384. 
 
 Manchaca takes part in the Gachupin 
 War, i., 173. 
 
 Manuel Godoy, Spanish Minister, i., 106, 
 124, 146. 
 
 Marin, Bishop of New Leon, visits Texas, 
 
 1., 129. 
 
 Marquette, Exploration of the Mississip- 
 pi by, i., 14. 
 
 Martin, Wylie, Chairman of the Revo- 
 lutionary Meeting at San Felipe, L, 
 341 ; Political Chief pro tein., i., 344; 
 presides at the Meeting of December 
 19, 1835, ii., 40. 
 
 Massacre at Goliad, ii., 98; Burial of 
 their Remains, ii., 177 ; Documents 
 in Relation to, ii., Appendix No. IV., 
 p. 514 ; at Fort Parker, May, 1836, 
 
 11., 170; of Camanches at San Anto- 
 nio, ii., 298. 
 
 Matagorda Bay, first Settlement in Tex- 
 as, i., 13; Belisle occupies it for the 
 French, i., 73. 
 
 Matamoras, projected Enterprise against, 
 
 ii., 21, 23; Fever at Goliad, January 
 16, 1836, ii., 58; its Origin, ii., 60 
 Proposal to attack, July, 1836, ii., 190. 
 
 Medina, Ancient Western Boundary of 
 Texas, i., 77 ; Battle of, i., 174. 
 
570 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Meeting, Revolutionary, of Ji^y 17,1 835, 
 L, 340; on theNavidad, July 19, 1835, 
 
 1., 342. 
 
 Memorial of T833, to Mexico, L, 469. 
 
 Message of President Tyler in 1843, iL, 
 417 ; Effect olj iL, 418; Annexation, 
 iL, 426. 
 
 Mexia, General, supports Santa Anna in 
 1832, L, 295; fails in the Descent on 
 Tampico, |L, 36; aided by the Coun- 
 cil of Texas, iL, 42; Governor Smith’s 
 Opinion of him, iL, 43 ; his Death, ii., 
 256. 
 
 Mexicans advance on the Colorado, ii., 
 109 ; concentrate west of the Brasos, 
 
 11., 162 ; their Sufferings, iL, 162 ; Re- 
 treat oL ii., 163. 
 
 Mexico, Independence of, L, 207 ; Gua- 
 dalupe Victoria first President of, L, 
 255 ; Pedraza, second, L, 265 ; Vincent 
 Guerrero installed, i., 265 ; Discus- 
 sions with the United States as to the 
 Boundary, L, 276 ; Plan of Vera Cruz 
 adopted by, L, 293 ; Santa Anna elect- 
 ed President, i., 310; what she re- 
 quired of Texas L, 350 ; Despotism 
 established in by Santa Anna, L, 351 ; 
 State Legislatures abolished, L, 366 ; 
 Population and Resources o£ in Jan- 
 uary, 1836, ii., 63; Generals of, with 
 Santa Anna in Texas, ii., 66 ; Com- 
 plaints of, to the United States, iL, 
 158 ; Instructions of the Government . 
 of, to Filisola, iL, 166; Differences 
 with the United States, iL, 200; Ef- ! 
 forts to excite the Indians, ii., 227, 
 257 ; Differences with France, ii., 242; 
 Reference of Differences with the Uni- ’ 
 ted States, iL, 242 ; Civil W ar in, 1840, 
 iL, 287 ; Earnest Preparation for inva- 
 ding Texas, 1841, ii., 318; Suspension 
 of Diplomatic Relations with Great 
 Britain, iL, 416 ; Beginning of the 
 Revolution in, L, 147. ] 
 
 Mier, Expedition, Origin o£ iL, 370; 
 Battle of, iL, 372; Texans surrender, ] 
 iL, 374 ; escape at the Hacienda Sala- 
 do, ii., 374; retaken, ii., 376; deci- 
 mated, iL, 376; Effect of, in other ] 
 Countries, iL, 395 ; their Treatment, 3 
 iL, 398 ; released, iL, 437. 1 
 
 Milam, Benjamin R., leads the Assault' 
 on San Antonio, iL, 25 ; killed during 
 the Battle, iL, 28. 
 
 Millard, Henry, Chairman of Committee 3 
 on the Provisional Government, iL, 
 
 12 . 
 
 Miller, Dr. James H. C., Letter from, L, 
 844. 
 
 Miller, Major, captured with his Com- 
 mand at Copano, iL, 97. 
 
 Miles, Lieutenant, killed in an Indian 
 Battle, ii., 228. 
 
 Mina, Xavier, Sketeh of, i., 182; arrives 
 at Galveston, L, 183 ; sails for Mexico, 
 i., 185 ; captured and shot, L, 186. 
 
 Miranda, History and Expedition of, L, 
 143. 
 
 Missionaries, first to Texas, L, 16, 53; 
 Duties of, L, 58 ; Correspondence o£ 
 i., 88 ; Protestant, iL, 220. 
 
 Missions, Year o£ L, 50; Catholic, L, 60; 
 of Concepcion, San Juan, and La Es- 
 pada, ii., 231 ; San Jose, ii., 234. 
 
 Mississippi River, Discovery of the 
 Mouth of, L, 13 ; Free Navigation of 
 i., 103. 
 
 Mobile, Dispute about, L, 123. 
 
 Moderators, War with the Regulators, 
 iL, 440. 
 
 Monasterio, Jos6 Maria Ortis, Letter to 
 Santa Anna, ii., 82. 
 
 Monclova, in 1744, L, 87 ; Seat of Gov- 
 ernment of Coahuila and Texas, L, 
 262 ; appoints a Governor, L, 323. 
 
 Moore, Colonel John H, commands Ex- 
 pedition against Indians in 1835, L, 
 352 ; in command at Gonzales, i., 363 ; 
 defeats the Camanches, ii.., 261 ; also 
 on Red Fork of the Colorado, iL, 304. 
 
 Moore, Commodore, Orders to, iL, 380. 
 
 Moorman, Captain Wat, of the Regula- 
 tors, iL, 440. 
 
 Morelos the Priest, his Victories, L, 156; 
 Further Efforts for Independence, L, 
 178. 
 
 Morfit, Henry M., sent by the United 
 States to examine the Condition of 
 Texas, ii., 191. 
 
 Morgan, Colonel James, ordered to the 
 Defence of Galveston, iL, 115; Com- 
 missioner to sell the Navy, iL, 383. 
 
 Morehouse, Captain, removing Families 
 east of the Brasos, iL, 119. 
 
 Morris, Captain Robert, of the New Or- 
 leans Grays, iL, 23 ; in the Descent 
 on San Antonio, iL, 25. 
 
 Muldoon, Father, L, 268. 
 
 Municipalities, Law creating, L, 304. 
 
 Murphy, General W. S., Charge from the 
 United States to Texas, iL, 415 ; an- 
 nounces the Rejection of the Treaty 
 of Annexation, iL, 432. 
 
 Mustang Horses, Catching of, L, 112. 
 
 Nacogdoches, Rise of, L, 99 ; in 1806, L, 
 137 ; taken in 1812, L, 155; by Gen- 
 eral Long in 1819, L, 199 ; Return of 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 571 
 
 the Citizens in 1821, i., 221 ; Trouble 
 at, in 1826, i., 238 ; Battle at, in 1832, 
 i, 298; Proceedings and Alarm there 
 in April, 1836, ii., 128 ; Revolt of Mex- 
 icans at, ii., 245. 
 
 Natchez, Spanish Settlement at, i., 106; 
 
 Surrender of to Americans, i., 116. 
 Natchitoches, Post established at by the 
 French, i., 48. 
 
 Naturalization, Spanish, i., 211. 
 Navarro, J. A., Commissioner to Santa 
 FA ii., 322. 
 
 Navidad, Meeting of July 19, i835, at, 
 
 1., 342. 
 
 Navy, Mexican, in November, 1835, ii., 
 38. 
 
 Navy, Texan, in April, 1836, ii., 124; 
 captures the Montezuma and Pocket, 
 
 11., 124; Condition of in August, 1836, 
 ii., 192; Losses, ii., 212; takes the 
 Alispa, Telegraph, and Eliza Russell, 
 ii., 213; Battle off Galveston Harbor, 
 ii., 216; Contract with Dawson for, 
 
 11., 243 ; Delivery of Vessels, ii., 271 ; 
 placed in Ordinary, ii., 308 ; Secret 
 Message concerning, ii., 380; Com- 
 missioners to sell, ii., 381 ; Proclama- 
 tion in regard to, it., 383. 
 
 Neill, Colonel J. C., Efforts to aid Tra- 
 vis, ii., 104; ordered to demolish 
 Works at Bexar, and bring off the 
 Artillery, ii., 58; aids in the Descent 
 on San Antonio, ii., 26 ; ordered to 
 the Command at Bexar, ii., 49. 
 Neutral Ground, Origin of the, i., 133; 
 Character of its Occupants in 1812, 
 
 1., 151. 
 
 New Mexico, first Settled, L, 26 ; Trade 
 with, i., 264. 
 
 New Orleans, Port of, i., 118. 
 
 New Philippines, i., 50. 
 
 New Spain, Clergy of, i., 62. 
 Newspapers in Texas, ii., 196, 308. 
 Nolan, Philip, Expedition to Texas, i., 
 Ill ; his Death, i., 114. 
 
 Norris, Alcalde at Nacogdoches, i., 243. 
 
 O’Donoju, General, Spanish Commis- 
 sioner, arrives at Vera Cruz, i., 206; 
 Treaty with Iturbide, i., 207. 
 Orquizaco, Mission of, i, 49 ; discontin- 
 ued, i., 94. 
 
 Padilla, Juan Antonio, Commissioner- 
 General to Texas, i., 274. 
 
 Parker, Fort, Massacre at, May 19, 1836, 
 it, 170. 
 
 Parmer, Colonel Martin, Commander of 
 Frcdoninns, Sketch of, i., 247. 
 
 Parties in Texas, January, 1836, ii., 55. 
 
 Paso del Norte, first settled, 26 ; Con- 
 dition of, in 1806, i., 141. 
 
 Patriots take Nacogdoches in 1812, i., 
 155 ; their Progress, L, 162; take La 
 Bahia, November 14, 1812 i., 163. 
 
 Patton, William H., accompanies Santa 
 Anna to Washington City, ii., 204. 
 
 Peacock, Captain, in command of Mis- 
 sissippi Volunteers, ii., 24. 
 
 Pease, Elisha M., Secretary to the Coun- 
 cil, ii., 34. 
 
 Pedraza, second President of Mexioo, i., 
 265. 
 
 Peonage, i., 262. 
 
 Peraza, Colonel Martin F., Envoy from 
 Yucatan to Texas, ii., 318. 
 
 Perez, Colonel, expels General Long 
 from Texas, i., 202. 
 
 Perier, Governor of Louisiana, i., 76. 
 
 Perry, Colonel, at the Battle of the Ala- 
 zan, i., 171 ; of Medina, L, 175; rallies 
 a Force at Galveston, i., 180; at the 
 Capture of Soto la Marina, i., 186 ; 
 killed at La Bahia, i., 186. 
 
 Piedras, Colonel, Commandant at Nac- 
 ogdoches, i., 272; marches to the Re- 
 lief of Bradburn, i., 29 1 ; defeated and 
 captured, i., 297 ; Death of, ii., 255. 
 
 Pike, Lieutenant Zebulon M., Expedi- 
 tion of, L, 125, 134. 
 
 Pilar, Nuestra, Sefiora del, Mission of, 
 i, 67. 
 
 Plaza of the Constitucion in San Anto- 
 nio, ii., 15; Military Plaza, i., 107. 
 
 Poinsett, Joel R., Minister to Mexico* 
 
 i., 256 ; organizes Masonry in Mexico, 
 
 1., 256. 
 
 Polk, James K., in Favor of Annexation, 
 
 11., 431 ; nominated for President of 
 the United States, ii., 430; elected, ii., 
 440. 
 
 Population of Texas, in 1744, i., 87 ; in 
 1766, i., 97 ; in 1806, i.. 137 ; in 1831, 
 
 1., 274; in 1834, i., 327 ; in September, 
 1836, ii., 192. 
 
 Porter, Major, at Natchitoches, in 1806, 
 
 i., 127 ; corresponds with Governor 
 Cordero, i., 131. 
 
 Portilla, Colonel, executes the Prisoners 
 at Goliad, ii., 98. 
 
 Potter, Robert* Secretary of the Texan 
 Navy, ii., 74. 
 
 Powers, James, Empresario, i., 266. 
 
 Prairie, Great Western, ii., 60. 
 
 “ Prince of Peace,” Main-spring of Span- 
 ish Politics, i., 106. 
 
 Printing-Press, established by Baker 
 and Borden, L, 378. 
 
572 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Prisoners in Mexico released, ii., 437. 
 
 Proscribed in Texas, List of, i., 360. 
 
 Protestant Christians, Rise and Progress 
 in Texas, ii., Appendix No. VII., p.532. 
 
 Provisional Government established, ii., 
 13 . 
 
 Raguet, Colonel Henry, Letter to, from 
 Houston, ii., 134. 
 
 Ramon, Don, i., 48 ; visits Natchitoches, 
 
 1., 60. 
 
 Red-Lands, organized, i., 360. 
 
 Red River, Early Settlements on, i., 126. 
 
 Refugio, Mission of, i., 109. 
 
 Regulators, War with the Moderators, 
 
 11., 438. 
 
 Religion, Roman Catholic, i., 213 ; in 
 Texas, ii., 219; Meeting of Ministers 
 of the Gospel, ii., 223 ; Propositions 
 of Count Farnese, ii., 224 ; Protestant, 
 its Rise and Progress, ii.. Appendix 
 No. VII., p., 632. 
 
 '* Republic of the Rio Grande” organ- 
 ized, ii., 288. 
 
 Retreat of the Army from Gonzales, ii., 
 107 ; of the Government to Harris- 
 burg, ii., 113 ; of the Army from Gon- 
 zales, ii., 114 ; of the Enemy from the- 
 Brasos, ii., 163. 
 
 Revolutionary Meeting in Texas, first, 
 
 1., 329. 
 
 Rice, Lieutenant James O., attacks and 
 kills Flores, ii., 259. 
 
 Rio Bravo, ) Origin of these Names, 
 
 Rio del Norte, > i., 46 ; Prairie situ- 
 
 Rio Grande, ) ated on, ii., 60. 
 
 Robberies on the “ Neutral Grouud,” i., 
 151. 
 
 “Robbins, William,” the, commanded 
 by Captain Hurd, ii., 39. 
 
 Robinson, Lawyer, Letter to Santa An- 
 na, ii., 385 ; second Letter, ii., 388. 
 
 Robinson, Lieutenant-Governor James 
 W., ii., 13. 
 
 Roman, Captain Richard, arrives with 
 his Company, ii., 114. 
 
 Rosalia, Battle of, i., 166. 
 
 Ross, Colonel Reuben, in the Federal 
 War, ii., 274. 
 
 Ross, Major, leaves the Patriot Army, 
 
 i., 168. 
 
 Royall, R. R., Chairman of first Perma- 
 nent Council, i., 367. 
 
 Rueg, Henry, Political Chief of Naoog- 
 doehes, i., 343; his Circular, i., 350. 
 
 Rusk, Thomas J., at the Siege of San 
 Antonio, ii., 17; appointed to raise 
 Supplies, ii., 42 ; called to Headquar- 
 ters, ii., 55 ; elected Secretary of War, 
 
 ii., 74 ; Energy in forwarding Arms 
 and Supplies, ii, 111; joins the Army, 
 
 11., 117 ; confers with Houston, ii., 181; 
 Address of April 19, 1836, ii., 186; 
 invites President Burnet to San Ja- 
 cinto, ii., 163; appointed to the Tem- 
 porary Command of the Army, ii., 
 156 ; buries the Remains of the Slain 
 at Goliad, ii., 177 ; in Houston’s Cabi« 
 net, ii., 205; active in defeating a Re- 
 volt at Nacogdoches, ii., 246; Battles 
 of, with the Indians, ii., 247 ; disarms 
 the Caddoes, ii., 260; takes part in 
 the Cherokee War, ii., 268 ; appointed 
 Major-General, ii., 885. 
 
 Rutel, lost in 1682, i., 38. 
 
 i , p ~ v- o 
 
 SL Denis, Huchean, Expedition of, to 
 Mexico, i., 48 ; second Expedition, i., 
 65 ; invades Texas i., 67 ; in Confi- 
 dence with the Indians, i., 75; defeats 
 the Natchez, i., 79. 
 
 Salado, Hacienda, Battle of, ii., 874. 
 
 Salcedo, Governor of Texas, Defenee 
 against the Patriots, i., 155 ; defeated 
 by the Patriots, i., 163 ; Capture and 
 Death of, i., 168. 
 
 Salezar, Barbarity of, ii., 331. 
 
 Saligny, M. De, French Charge , offended, 
 ii, 316. 
 
 Salitre Prairie, Battle of, June, 1812, i., 
 154. 
 
 Saltillo, Seat of Government of Coahuila 
 and Texas, i., 231 ; pronounces, and 
 appoints Goribar Governor, i, 322; 
 Battle of, ii., 293. 
 
 San Antonio, Fort and Mission of, i., 49; 
 in 1806, i., 137; taken by the Patriots, 
 L, 168; Return of Exiles to, i., 221 ; 
 Description of, ii, 15; Assault on, by 
 Milam, ii., 26 ; Surrender of, ii., 30. 
 
 San Augustine nominates Houston to 
 command the Eastern Troops, L. 367. 
 
 Sandoval, Lieutenant-Colonel, captured 
 at Goliad, i., 369; proposes to join the 
 Texans, ii., 38. 
 
 Sandoval, Manuel de, Governor of Texas, 
 
 1., 80; Quarrel with St. Denis, i M 80; 
 End of his Lawsuit, i., 84, 85. 
 
 San Felipe de Austin laid out in 1828, 
 i, 227 ; Convention at, in 1832 and 
 1833, i., 302 ; Revolutionary Meeting 
 at, July 17, 1835, i., 340. 
 
 “San Felipe,” the, captures the Correo 
 Mexicana, i., 356. 
 
 San Fernando de Bexar founded, i. r 79. 
 
 San Francisco, Mission of, first in Texas, 
 i„ 45. 
 
 San Juciuto, Buttle of, ii., 142, 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 573 
 
 San Juan Bautista, Mission of, i., 46. 
 
 San Patricio, Colony of, ii., 61. 
 
 San Saba, Mission of, i., 87 ; Destruction 
 of, i., 88; Battle near, in 1831, i., 
 282. 
 
 Santa Anua, his first Appearance, i., 
 218 ; pronounces in Favor of Guerre- 
 ro, L, 266 ; overthrows Bustamente, 
 
 1., 293 ; makes Peace with him, i., 303; 
 elected President in 1833, i., 312; dis- 
 misses the Mexican Congress, i., 318; 
 Decision on the Texan Memorial, i., 
 325 ; Decision between Saltillo and 
 Monclova, i., 326 ; decrees the Dis- 
 arming of the , Inhabitants i., 330; 
 temporizes with Texas, i., 332; de- 
 feats the Zacatecans, L, 334 ; Plan of 
 subjugating Texas, i., 361 ; abolishes 
 the State Legislatures, i., 366; reaches 
 the Rio Grande with Six Thousand 
 Men, February 12, 1836, ii., 64; Plan 
 for disposing of Texas, ii., 64 ; reaches 
 the Alazan on the 23d of February, 
 
 11., 66 ; enters San Antonio, ii., 76 ; be- 
 sieges the Alamo, ii., 76 ; storms it, ii., 
 80 ; his Views after taking it, ii., 82 ; 
 orders Prisoners at Goliad to be shot, 
 
 ii., 98 ; Orders to his Generals after 
 the Battle of Coleta, ii., 102; changes 
 his Orders, ii., 103 ; marches in ad- 
 vance of his Army, ii., 117; crosses 
 the Brasos on the 12th of April, ii., 
 121 ; reinforced by Cos, ii., 140 ; Ex- 
 ouse for his Defeat on the 2l6t, ii., 
 142; captured on the 22d, ii., 146; 
 Interview with Houston, ii.,- 147 ; Or- 
 der to Filisola to retreat, ii., 149 ; ne- 
 gotiates with the Texan Government, 
 
 ii., 164; Treaty with Texas, ii., 165; 
 Attempt of President Burnet to send 
 him home, ii., 171; Farewell to the 
 Texan Army, ii., 172; his Value as a 
 Prisoner, ii., 177 ; Letters of, to Aus- 
 tin and Jackson, ii., 181 : removed to 
 Oraziraba, ii., 192; Attempt to release 
 him, it, 192; Attempt to take him to 
 the Army, ii., 194; released and sent 
 to Washington City, ii., 203 ; lost his 
 Leg at Vera Cruz, il, 256; Corre- 
 spondence with General Hamilton, 
 iL, 357 ; Interview with Lawyer Rob- 
 inson, ii., 887 ; releases him and sends 
 him to Texas, ii., 887 ; proposes an 
 Armistice, ii., 408 ; Letter to Houston, 
 it, Appendix No. VI., p. 630. 
 
 Banta F6, first settled, i., 26 ; Road to, 
 proposed, ii., 312; Expedition to, ii., 
 281 ; Treatment of Prisoners there, 
 iL, 824. 
 
 Saucedo, Jos6 Antonio, first Political 
 Chief of Texas, i., 232; Steps against 
 the Fredonians, i., 249. 
 
 Schools in Texas, i., 267. 
 
 Seguin, Colonel John N., Treachery of, 
 
 ii., 366. 
 
 Seguin, Don Erasmo, a Friend of Aus- 
 tin, i., 212. 
 
 Sesma, General, joins Cos at Laredo, ii., 
 46. 
 
 Settlements in Texas, first, i., 51 ; first 
 American, i., 136; at Gonzales, i., 
 251. 
 
 Shackleford, Captain John, at the Bat- 
 tle of the Coleta, ii., 92 ; saved from 
 the Massacre at Goliad, ii., 98. 
 Sherman, Colonel, Charge of, April 20, 
 
 11., 138 ; Affair on the Evening of the 
 20th, ii., 139. 
 
 Siege of San Antonio, ii., 25. 
 
 Signers of the Texan Declaration of In- 
 dependence, if., Appendix No. III., 
 
 p. 612. 
 
 Slaves, Abduction of, by the Spaniards, 
 
 1., 124; captured from the Spaniards, 
 and brought into Galveston, i., 183 ; 
 in Texas, i., 264; abolished in Mexico, 
 
 1., 269 ; Importation of, forbidden by 
 the Convention of 1833, i., 312. 
 
 Smith, Captain John W., takes a Rein- 
 forcement to Travis, ii., 78. 
 
 Smith, Colonel Benjamin F., i., 368 ; sent 
 with Santa Anna’s Treaty to Filisola; 
 
 11., 165. 
 
 Smith, Deaf, Sketch of, i., 258 ; reports 
 Ugartachea, ii., 18; wounded at the 
 Siege of San Antonio, ii., 27 ; de- 
 spatched to Bexar, ii., 106; sent out to 
 reconnoitre at Harrisburg, and takes 
 the Mexican Mail; sent to cut down 
 Vince’s Bridge, ii., 1 11 ; Conduct in 
 the Battle, ii., 144; sent with Santa 
 Anna’s Order to Filisola, ii., 150; 
 Skirmish near Laredo, ii., 210. 
 
 Smith, Governor Henry, ii., 13; Mes- 
 sage to the Council, ii., 83 ; Quarrel 
 with the Council, ii., 63 ; deposed by 
 it, ii., 54 ; gives Houston a Furlough, 
 
 ii., 63. 
 
 Smuggling, i., 50, 76. 
 
 Snively’s Expedition, ii., 399 ; disarmed 
 by Captain Cooke, ii., 403. 
 
 Somervell, General, commands Texans 
 at San Antonio in 1842, ii., 351 ; Vol- 
 unteers refuse to obey him, ii., 353 ; 
 ordered on a second Campaign, ii., 
 
 367 ; March to the Rio Grande, ii., 
 
 368 ; Order to the Troops to return, 
 ii 0 370. 
 
574 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Spain, Rise and Decline of, i., 31 ; Dis- 
 pute with France, i., 32 ; Grant to by 
 the Popes, i., 63 ; joins Great Britain 
 ogainet France, i., 105; hostile to the 
 United States in 1805, i., 127 ; with 
 the Bonapartes, i., 147 ; overshadowed 
 by Napoleon, i., 177 ; passes again in- 
 to the Hands of the Bourbons, i., 178 ; 
 Negotiations with, as to Bouudary, i., 
 197 ; Revolution in, i., 206; Attempt 
 of Texas to open Relations with, ii., 
 338. 
 
 Spaniards march upon the Sabine, i., 
 132; Expulsion of, from Mexico, i., 
 258. 
 
 Spanish Bluff, or Trinidad, i., 128. 
 
 Spanish Regulations, i., 61 ; Expedition 
 to Missouri, i., 71. 
 
 State of Coahuila and Texas, i., 231. 
 
 Sterne, Adolphus, aids in raising the 
 New Orleans Grays, ii., 23. 
 
 Stewart, Charles B., Secretary of Meet- 
 ing at San Felipe, i., 341 ; Secretary 
 to Governor. Smith, ii., 34. 
 
 Sylvester, James A., captures Santa An- 
 -na, ii., 146. 
 
 Tampico, Failure in the Descent on, ii., 
 36. 
 
 Teal, Captain Henry, Commissioner to 
 Filisola with Santa Anna’s Treatv, ii., 
 165. 
 
 Telegraph, Newspaper, ii., 196, 878. 
 
 Tenorio, Captain, driven from Anahuao, 
 i., 337. 
 
 Teran, Don Domingo, Governor, i., 45. 
 
 Teran, General, Commandant of the 
 Eastern States, i., 272; arrests Made- 
 ro, the Land-Commissioner, i., 275; 
 kills himself, i., 300. 
 
 Texas, first Population, i., 25; first Im- 
 migrants, i., 13 ; Name of, i., 50 ; Ori- 
 ginal Ownership of, i., 29 ; Spanish 
 Order for the Reduction of, L, 45 ; 
 Indian Town of, i., 62, 74; Eastern 
 Boundary of, i., 80; Commerce of, in 
 1763, i., 95; Trade with Natchez, i., 
 106 ; flourishes in 1806, i., 136 ; Pop- 
 ulation in 1806, i., 138; Condition of, 
 in 1816, i., 183 ; surrendered to Spain 
 in 1819, i., 198; Department of, i., 
 232; United States tries to purchase, 
 i., 266; first opposition to Mexican 
 Troops, i., 281 ; Department of, di- 
 vided, i., 282 ; takes sides with Santa 
 Anna in 1832, i., 293; complains of 
 her Union with Coahuila, i., 301 ; 
 first Revolutionary Meeting in, i., 
 329 ; Santa Anna’s Plan for subjuga- 
 
 ting, i., 351 ; resists the Collection of 
 Taxes, i., 337 ; Memorial of, in 1833, 
 i., 369 ; Lethargy in, ii., 66 ; Improve- 
 ments in, ii., 193; Treaty with Yuca- 
 tan, ii., 318; applies to the three 
 Powers to mediate, ii., 392; List of 
 the Governors of, ii., Appendix No. 
 IX., p. 559. 
 
 Thomas, David, Letter of, ii., 125; At- 
 torney-General, ii., 74. 
 
 Thompson, Captain, captured and sent 
 to New Orleans, i., 356. 
 
 Thompson, General Waddy, despatched 
 as Special Minister to Mexico by Pres- 
 ident Tyler, ii., 348. 
 
 “ Three Trees,” Battle of, i., 197 ; second 
 Battle of, i., 222. 
 
 Tiascalan Colonists, i., 79. 
 
 Toledo, Don Jos6 Alvarez, Sketch of, i., 
 173 ; defeated at the Medina, i., 174; 
 further Efforts to raise Troops, i., 178; 
 deserts the Republicans, i., 182. 
 
 Toluca, Plan of, i., 352. 
 
 Tornel, Order to Cos, i., 347. 
 
 Travis William B., imprisoned at Ana- 
 huac, i., 291 ; Letter to James Bowie, 
 i., 343 ; captures a Caballada at San 
 Antonio, ii., 18; ordered to San Fe- 
 lipe, ii., 49 ; sent by Governor Smith 
 to Bexar — there killed, ii., 80; Letter 
 of, from the Alamo, ii., 76; Letter tc 
 Fannin, ii., 78; Letter to the Presi 
 dent of the Convention, ii., 79. 
 
 Treasury-Notes, ii., 217, 244, 286, 334. 
 
 Treat, Mr., Private Agent of Texas in 
 Mexico, ii., 306. 
 
 Treaty of Utrectht, in 1713, i., 90; of 
 Vienna, in 1731, i., 91 ; of Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, in 1748, i., 92; of Paris, in 1763, 
 i., 92 ; of Paris, in 1783, i., 102 ; secret, 
 transferring Louisiana to France, i., 
 116; of Amiens, in 1802, i., 117; of 
 Purchase of Louisiana, i., 118; of Cor- 
 dova, in 1821, L, 207; with the Ca- 
 raukawaes, i., 226; of Boundary be- 
 tween the United States and Mexico, 
 in 1828, i., 266; Commercial with the 
 United States, rejected, ii., 894 ; of 
 Velasco, May 14, 1836, with Santa 
 Anna, ii., Appendix No. V., p. 626; 
 of Annexation, April 12, 1844, reject- 
 ed, ii., 428, 431. 
 
 Trinidad, a Military Station in 1812, i., 
 155. 
 
 Troops, Spanish, in Texas, i., 7 6 ; among 
 the Missionaries, i., 76; Mexican Reg- 
 ular, destined for Texas, i., 254, 272; 
 ordered to Texas, i., 838; opposed, 
 i., 842. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 575 
 
 Turner, Captain Amasa, arrives with 
 his Company, ii., 114. 
 
 “Twin-Sisters,” the, ii., 123. 
 
 Tyler, President, his Position, ii., 346; 
 his strong Texas Message, ii., 417 ; 
 Care for Texas, ii., 434 ; approves of 
 Joint Resolution of Annexation, ii., 
 440. 
 
 Ugartachea, Colonel Dominic, commands 
 at Velasco, i., 272 ; defeated there, i., 
 338; replies to the Meeting of July 
 17, 1835, i., 341 ; orders the arrest of 
 the Texan Leaders, i., 345 ; writes to 
 Austin after the Battle of Gonzales, 
 
 1., 365 ; despatched by Cos to Mata- 
 moras for Aid, ii., 16; reinforces Cos, 
 
 11., 31. 
 
 United States, Controversy with Spain 
 as to Boundary, i., 1 02 ; claims the 
 Navigation of the Mississippi, i., 103 ; 
 Negotiations with Spain as to Bound- 
 ary, i., 197 ; Designs of, feared by 
 Mexico, i., 276 ; Texan Convention 
 appeals to the People of, for Aid, ii., 
 73 ; Sympathy there for Texas, ii., 
 158 ; Instructions to General Gaines, 
 
 ii., 167 ; Differences with Mexico, ii., 
 200 ; Troops of, at Nacogdoches, ii., 
 201 ; Efforts in Behalf of Santa F6 
 Prisoners, ii., 342 ; jealous of Great 
 Britain, ii., 406 ; deep Interest in Tex- 
 as, ii., 415. 
 
 Upshur, Abel P., negotiating Treaty of 
 Annexation, ii., 425. 
 
 Urrea, General Jos6, arrives at Mata- 
 moras, ih, 65 ; captures San Patricio, 
 
 ii., 84; defeats Grant at Agua Dulce, 
 
 11., 84 ; enters Refugio, ii., 90 ; Agree- 
 ment with Fannin, ii., 96; in advance 
 on the Retreat to Matamoras, ii., 163 ; 
 removed from the Command of the 
 Army, ii., 202. 
 
 Van Buren, Martin, Views on Annexa- 
 tion, ii., 429. 
 
 Van Zandt, Isaac, Discussions with the 
 United States, ii., 395 ; negotiates the 
 Treaty of Annexation, ii., 426. 
 
 Vedoya, Attorney-General of Mexico, 
 
 1., 84. 
 
 Vehlin, Joseph, Empresario, i., 252. 
 
 Velasco, Treaty of, ii.> Appendix No. 
 V., p. 626 ; Battle of, i., 294. 
 
 Vera Cruz captured by the French, ii., 
 263. 
 
 Viceroy of Mexico fakes Steps to occupy 
 Texas, i., 44 ; Casa Fuerte, i., 80 ; Itur- 
 igaruy, L, 147 ; Venegas, i., 148. 
 
 Victoria, Settlement of, i., 252. 
 
 Viesca, Governor, attempts to unite the 
 People, i., 331 ; his Flight from Mon- 
 clova, i., 336; arrives at Nacogdoches, 
 
 11., 70. 
 
 Villescas, Commandant of the Presidio 
 de Rio Grande, i., 48 ; Father-in-law 
 of St. Denis. 
 
 Volunteers encouraged by the Conven- 
 tion, ii., 72; Arrival of, after the Bat- 
 tle of the 21st of April, 1837, ii., 157 ; 
 Order in 1837, in regard to, ii., 209. 
 Vuavis, Lieutenant, deserts from the 
 Enemy, ii., 26. 
 
 War declared by France against Spain, 
 
 1., 67 ; of the Succession, in Europe, 
 
 1., 90; in the American Colonies, in 
 1755, i., 92; Gachupin, Plan of, i., 
 153; Progress of, i., 163; End of, i., 
 175 ; Party for, in Texas, i., 339 ; what 
 excited them, i., 349 ; Council of, ii., 1 6. 
 
 War-Bill, Veto of, ii., 360. 
 
 Walker, Robert J., Efforts in Behalf of 
 Texas, ii., 208. 
 
 Ward, Major William, arrives at San 
 Felipe with one hundred and twelve 
 Men, ii., 49 ; sent to Refugio, ii., 87 ; 
 surrendered, ii., 89. 
 
 Webb, James, Commissioner to Mexico, 
 
 11., 318. 
 
 Westover, Captain, commands at Lipan- 
 titlan, ii., 19. 
 
 Wharton, John A., Letter to Houston, 
 in 1829, i., 808 ; moves for a Call of 
 a General Council, i., 341 ; Chairman 
 of the Committee on the Declaration, 
 
 11., 12; Agent to New Orleans, ii., 36; 
 Attempt to release his Brother, im- 
 prisoned at Matamoras, ii., 216; his 
 Death, ii., 250. 
 
 Wharton, William H., Commissioner to 
 the United States, ii., 14; President 
 of the Convention of 1833, i., 308 ; 
 captured, ii., 212. 
 
 Wilkinson, General James, March upon 
 the Sabine, i., 133. 
 
 Williams, John A., takes part against 
 Texas, i., 340. 
 
 Williams, Samuel M., Commissioner to 
 purchase Vessels, ii., 243 ; sent to ar- 
 range the Armistice, ii., 414. 
 Williamson, R. M., his stirring Address, 
 
 1., 339. 
 
 Woll, General Adrian, comes within the 
 Texan Lines, after the Battle of San 
 Jacinto, and is detained, ii., 164; an- 
 nounces the Resumption of Hostili- 
 ties, ii., 434. 
 
576 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 Wyatt, Colonel, arrives with two Com- 
 panies, il, 49. 
 
 " Yellowstone,” Steamer, pressed into 
 Service, ii., 195. 
 
 Yucatan declares her Independence of 
 Mexico iL, 318 ; Texas treats with her, 
 ii., 318. 
 
 Zacatecas, State of, refuses to acknow- i 
 
 ledge the Plan of Cuernavaca, i., 329 ; 
 her Troops defeated by Santa Anna, 
 in 1833, i., 334. 
 
 Zavala, Lorenzo D., 4., 813; arrives in 
 Texas, i., 344 ; pursued by Santa An- 
 na, i, 334 ; suggests a General Con- 
 sultation, i., 354 ; elected Vice-Presi- 
 dent ad interim, ii., 74; joins the 
 Texan Army, ii., 116 ; his Death, il, 
 202 . 
 
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DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 386 
 
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 Bapst Library 
 
 Boston College 
 Chestnut Hill, Mass. 02167