USA > Arizona > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 36
USA > New Mexico > History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, Volume XVII > Part 36
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22 They were Howland, Baker, and Rosenburg. The latter was killed in resisting recapture, and the others were executed later. This is called mur- der by Kendall, but the act seems to have been justifiable.
23 These were Capt. Lewis, Van Ness, Howard, Fitzgerald, and Kendall. The Spanish account makes the number 6.
323
FATE OF THE TEXANS.
the property taken from the Texans, made a bonfire in the plaza of Lamar's proclamations, sent off Cooke and his fellow-prisoners under a guard of 200 men for Mexico, and sent out explorers to find the rest of the invaders. These, under McLeod, about 200 in num- ber, finally surrendered to Archuleta, at a place called Laguna Colorada, on the 5th of October; on the 16th Armijo was given a public and most enthusiastic re- ception at the capital, and next day the last of the prisoners left San Miguel on their tedious march to Mexico, where they arrived in several divisions at the beginning of 1842. A few were released in April, or earlier, at the intercession of foreign ministers, on the plea that they were not Texans, and had joined the expedition without knowing its real objects. The rest, after confinement at different Mexican prisons, some of them being compelled to work in chains on the roads, were finally released by President Santa Anna on his saint's day, the 13th of June. The only excep- tion was in the case of Navarro, who was at one time condemned to death, but finally escaped and returned to Texas. 24
24 The best narrative of these events, from a Mexican stand-point, is that in Bustamante, Gabinete Mexicano, ii. 216-25, entitled 'Espedicion de los Te- janos rendida á las fuerzas del General Don Mannel Armijo en 5 de Octubre de 1841,' or ' una memoria que se me ha remitido de Santa Fé de Nuevo- México de la que he copiado lo siguiente.' The writer closes his narrative with an extract from an address of John Quincy Adams, in which he denounced this invasion of adventurers, or pirates, from the U. S., rejoicing at their failure, and ridienling their pretensions as traders and travellers. In the Arch. Sta Fé, MS., is a fragmentary diary of Lieut .- col Archuleta's operations from Sept. 30th to Oct. 9th, including the capture of McLeod's party. In Bustamante, Diario, MS., xliii. 253-5, 327, is an account of the celebration of the news in Mex. on Nov. 16th, including an extra of the Fanal, and letters from García Conde at Chihuahua. The Diario del Gob., Feb. 20, 1842, has a translation of an article in a N. Orleans paper, ridiculing the idea that the Texans had been captured by the New Mexicans. In Mex., Mem. Guerra, 1844, p. 37-8, is a brief notice of the affair; and in Id., Mem. Rel., 1844, doc. i .- xl., appears the diplomatic correspondence in Mex. on the case of Kendall and others, who claimed the protection of the U. S. See also Ce- ballos, Vindic. Mej., 69-72.
On the other side, the leading authority is the Narrative of the Tecan Santa Fé Expedition, comprising a description of a tour through Texas and across the great south-western prairies, the Camanche and Caygia hunting-grounds, with an account of the sufferings from want of food, losses from hostile Indians, and final capture of the Texans, and their march as prisoners to the city of Mexico. With illustrations and a map. By Geo. Wilkins Kendall. N. Y., 1844, 12mo, 2
324
A MEXICAN TERRITORY.
There can be no doubt that Governor Armijo was fully justified in seizing the Texan invaders, disarming them, confiscating their property, and sending them to Mexico as prisoners of war. He and his officers are accused, however, of having induced their victims to surrender by false assurances of friendship and false promises of welcome as traders, the giving-up of their
vols; also later editions. The author was one of the editors of the New Orleans Picayune, in quest of adventure and material for a book, both of which he found. He was one of those who claimed to have joined the expedi- tion in ignorance of its filibustering purpose, and after much correspondence he was liberated at the request of U. S. representatives. His narrative is a most fascinating one, and is full of valuable information respecting the coun- tries through which he passed. No effort is made to conceal his intensely bitter hatred of the New Mexicans, though he speaks well of the women and of a few men who were kind to the Texans in their misfortunes. Gov. Armijo is described not only as a tyrant, but as an inhuman and bloodthirsty wretch, an unprincipled libertine, and a boastful coward, whose fortune was founded on early success as a sheep-thief, and whose only good quality was a fine personal appearance. Captain Salazar and other officers are described as worthy followers of such a chief. The author's views of Armijo are supported to a considerable extent by Gregg and other Americans who knew the gov- ernor, and they have been adopted more or less fully by later writers. Ken- dall narrates minutely the capture and treatment of his own little party, and he gives particular attention to Capt. Lewis, who had lived in Spanish-Ameri- can provinces, knew the language, and was implicitly trusted by the Texans. Lewis is accused of having betrayed his comrades, revealed all their plans, and induced Cooke and McLeod to surrender, by false assurances of kind treatment and false representations of the enemy's force. Of course, the sub- ject of Lewis' treachery and that of Kendall's wrongs, real or pretended, as an innocent citizen of the U. S., have very little importance as part of the annals of N. Mex.
Franklin Combs, another of the prisoners, wrote a Narrative, which was published in the newspapers, and may be consulted with other matter, includ- ing a list of the members of the expedition in Mexico in 1842, p. 232-50. An account of some parts of the affair by Lieut. Lubbock is quoted by Kendall and others. Thomas Falconer, an Englishman, who was set at liberty imme- diately on reaching Mexico, wrote Notes of a Journey through Texas and New Mexico in the years 1841 and 1842, published in the Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., xiii. 199-226. His notes are chiefly devoted to a description of the country. He claims to have joined the expedition without any knowledge of its real character. Of McLeod's capture he says: 'A surrender was agreed upon, and the terms, securing to the party the treatment of prisoners of war, were signed by the officers on both sides;' but he confirms Kendall's statement that on the march several men were shot and their ears cut off. In U. S. Govt Doc., 27th cong. 2d sess., Sen. Ex. Doc. 325, H. Ex. Doc. 266, is found the hulky correspondence between the Mex. and U. S. representatives, as above referred to in Spanish. See also same sess. House Jour., 183, 234, 1480; and Cong. Globe, 1841-2, p. 131, 977-8. Waddy Thompson, U. S. ınin- ister in Mex., in his Recollections, 5, 50, 92-3, 155-6, mentions this affair, and states, what indeed is practically admitted by all, that the prisoners were well enough treated in Mexico. Gregg, Com. Prairies, i. 227-32, relates some instances of outrages on Amer. residents in 1841. See also many articles and items in Niles' Reg., lxi .- ii., as per index; Prince's Hist. Sk., 236-9; Dewees' Letters, 238-41; Wilson's Amer. Hist., 665-7; Young's Hist. Mex., 285-6, andl most works relating to the annals of Texas.
325
ALLEGED OUTRAGES BY MEXICANS.
arms being represented as a mere formality imposed on all visitors to Santa Fé. Their arms once secured, it is said the lives of one party were saved only by the intervention and protest of Gregorio Vigil, and of another by a majority of one in a vote on the propo- sition to shoot them. And after their surrender, par- ticularly on the march to El Paso, it is claimed they were starved and otherwise inhumanly maltreated, some five or six of their number, because of their ill- ness and inability to keep up, having been deliber- ately shot down, and their ears cut off, to be carried to Chihuahua as proof that they had not escaped. There is, of course, nothing to be said in justification of such acts, if the charges are true. My knowledge of Ar- mijo does not lead me to say in his defence much more than that he was certainly not so bad a man as he is represented; nor am I prepared to say that Salazar was not a brute, or that some barbarous acts may not have been committed by irresponsible and unmanage- able subordinates. The Mexicans claim to have offered but life as a condition of surrender, and to have treated their captives with all the courtesy due to prisoners of war. It is well to consider the ex parte nature of the evidence against them, and the evident bias, amounting to hatred, of Kendall and other witnesses, leading to many obvious exaggera- tions. The Texans, if technically but soldiers of a belligerent nation, were in Mexican eyes rebel des- peradoes, entering a peaceful province under false pre- tences, to stir up bloody strife. Let it be remembered that the capture and transportation of 300 Texan fili- busters by the miserably organized soldiery of New Mexico was no slight undertaking, and small wonder if in such a struggle some of the kid-glove niceties of regu- lar warfare were not observed; moreover, the march to Mexico was necessarily attended with much hardship and suffering, and some doubt is thrown on the charges of murder by the statement of Powhatan Ellis to Web- ster, that one, involving the shooting of three pris-
326
A MEXICAN TERRITORY.
oners, was a 'fabrication ' transferred from a northern newspaper to the colunms of the Siglo Diez y Nueve. Again, if the promises alleged to have been broken were given in good faith to the Texans as peaceful traders, Armijo was fully justified in breaking them on learning, through Lewis' treachery and Lamar's proclamation, how he had been deceived; if, on the contrary, the Mexicans, knowing the real character of the expedition, made the promises, intending to break them, as a device to get possession of the ene- my's weapons, the trick was at the least not more dis- honorable than that attempted by McLeod and Cooke. The Texan adventurers were, at becs, engaged in a risky invasion of an enemy's territory; fortune was against them, and disaster resulted, for which they deserve but little sympathy. Armijo and his men, on the contrary, had the most wonderful good luck in defending their country, and merit but little of the obloquy that has been heaped upon them.25
Naturally, the Texans were grievously disappointed at the utter failure of their grand filibustering expedi- tion, and loud in their threats of vengeance for what they chose to regard as the treachery and barbarity of the New Mexicans. Active preparations began as soon as the captives of 1841 had returned. The retali- atory enterprise, as talked about in advance through the press and otherwise, had a wide scope. Not only was New Mexico to be invaded and brought under Texan sway, but probably the banner of freedom would be unfurled in Chihuahua, and all of Northern Mexico revolutionized; and at the very least, Armijo and Salazar, with the traitor Lewis, were to be taken, dead or alive. For these purposes a force of 500 or
25 There is a notable similarity in several respects between the rule of Ar- mijo in N. Mex. and that of Alvarado in Cal .- see Hist. Cal., iii., iv .- the revolts against centralism in 1836-8, and the following troubles with for- eigners in 1841, as represented by the Texan expedition and the Graham affair. Both rulers were grossly abused by foreign critics, Kendall's ravings bearing a marked resemblance to those of Farnham. Charges against Alva- rado were for the most part false; of Armijo and his acts much less is known.
327
TEXAN RAIDS OF 1843.
800 men, under Colonel Jacob Snively, was to be raised, the only difficulty being to keep the number down, such was the popular enthusiasm at home and across the line in the United States. The project was made known by traders at Santa Fé-American spies, the Texans called them-and considerable alarm was felt in Mexico, especially because of the belief that the movement was to be in reality under the auspices of the northern republic. Accordingly, a large force was sent north from Chihuahua, under General José M. Monterde, to support Armijo, who, as the result proved, had little need of reënforcements.
This grand scheme of vengeance, invasion, and revo- lution reduced itself in the execution to a raid for plunder on the Santa Fé caravans; for this trade, of which much more is said in this chapter, was now to a considerable extent in the hands of Mexicans. First, John McDaniel, a Texan captain, or calling himself so, enlisted in Missouri fifteen vagabonds, and with them in April 1843 attacked and plundered the cara- van of José Antonio Chavez on the Little Arkansas, in United States territory. Seven of the number, with their share of the booty, at once started back for the Missouri settlements; and the other eight did likewise, after murdering Chavez for the gold about his person. This outrage was a little more than even the Texan sympathy or anti-Mexican prejudice of the south-western frontier could justify; ten of the party were captured and condemned to death or imprison- ment, according as their crime was murder or simply robbery. About the same time, Colonel Warfield, with a similar party of twenty-four adventurers, at- tempted a raid on the little New Mexican settlement of Mora. By a surprise he killed five Mexicans of a party of hunters, and took a few horses, which he pres- ently lost, with all his own, when the foe turned on him, and he was forced to retreat on foot. Warfield, with a few of the fugitives, succeeded in joining Snively; another party disbanded and found their
328
A MEXICAN TERRITORY.
way northward; while still another of five men was captured and apparently taken to Santa Fé.
Meanwhile, Colonel Snively, with his grand army of not 800 or 500, but about 180 men, reached the Arkansas late in May, to lie in wait for the traders. The caravan of the year, composed of both Mexicans and Americans, bound to Santa Fé from Indepen- dence, was approaching, escorted by two companies of United States dragoons under Captain Cook; and Governor Armijo, with 500 men or more, marched out of his capital on May 1st to meet the caravan at the Arkansas. On June 19th the Texans succeeded in cutting off an advance party of Armijo's force, about 100 militiamen and Indians under Ventura Lobato, killing some twenty, and making prisoners of the rest, except one or two who escaped to the governor's camp.26 Ten days later, as the force was deemed too small to attack Armijo, and as it was thought the caravan might have turned back through fear, about 80 of the Texans started homeward; but Captain Cook soon came up, and forced one detachment of the rest, greatly to their disgust, to give up their arms, claim- ing that they were on United States soil. About 50 now started for Missouri, while the remainder-part of whom, under Captain Chandler, had been absent at the disarming, and another part are said to have de- ceived Cook by giving up only captured Mexican weapons, concealing their own rifles-could not agree on any course of action until the caravan had crossed the river and gone on their way unmolested. Then the renowned 'Texian Invincibles' went home, losing some men in fights with the Indians on the way.
In July and August the Mexican minister com- plained to Waddy Thompson that the United States government was responsible for the so-called Texan
26 Bustamante's statement that Snively 'a todos los pasó á cuchillas deis pues de rendidas las armas' is probably unfounded. Some other authorites say that the prisoners were released. The Texans and Americans state that Armijo, on learning of the disaster, retreated in great hastc, without waiting for the caravan.
329
THE SANTA FE TRADE.
invasion ; but the reply denied such responsibility, even if there had been any invasion, which was declared doubtful. Meanwhile, General Monterde marched northward to New Mexico with some 700 men; and he and Armijo flattered themselves that they had saved their country. Good luck and a broad desert frontier had done more to defeat Texan schemes than the zeal of Mexican patriots.27
We have noted the adventurous beginnings before 1822 of the trade between Santa Fe and the Missouri River. With the end of Spanish rule ceased all oppo- sition to the traffic on the part of Mexican authorities, and a profitable market was assured for goods from the United States. The eastern rendezvous was Franklin, Missouri, down to 1831, and later Indepen- dence. From this point in May of each year set out the trains, or caravans, of pack-animals in 1823, but subsequently of wagons, drawn at first by horses and mules, but later by mules or oxen, four pairs usually to each wagon, but sometimes five or six pairs, with
27 In the Arch. Sta Fé, MS., is Armijo's Libro de Ordenes, showing something of his operations from May 1st to July Ist, including the capture of 5 Texaus on June 6th or 7th. Niles' Reg., lxiv. 195, 210, 280, 290, 323, 327, 354, and especially 234-5, 406, contains a large amount of information on details of the affair. Bustamante, Apuntes Hist. Santa Anna, 206-9, tells us of the 'nueva invasion de Nuevo-Mexico por los Anglo-Americanos.' The diplomatic cor- respondence in Mex. is given in Mex., Mem. Rel., 1844, doc. Ixiii .- ix., and the affair is also noted in Id., Mem. Guerra, 1844, p. 37-8, where we are told that on June 17, 1843, the Mex. govt had been obliged to decree death to all foreigners entering the country as bandits, or fighting under a flag not recog- mized by Mex. The Toto de Sonora of Sept. 14, 1843, contains a report of Armijo, forwarded by Monterde Aug. 9th, on the successful effect of de- fensive measures. M. was about to return, leaving 300 men under Lieut .- col Mauricio Ugarte. Gregg, Com. Prairies, ii. 166-77, gives an excellent account of the expedition, and though his sympathies are not wholly against the Texans he shows that they acted very unwisely, even from their own point of view, in killing Chavez, whose family was not friendly to Armijo, and whose brother and sister-in-law did much in 1841 to aid the Texan prisoners; in planning to attack a caravan which contained many Americans, who could not honorably desert their Mex. friends; in attacking Mora, whose inhabitants had always been friendly to foreigners; and in butchering the pueblo Indians of Armijo's vanguard, who had always been bitter against the governor, aud who were now incensed beyond measure at Taos, forcing several naturalized. foreigners to flee for their lives. Scenes in the Rocky Mts, 244-70, also contains a good narrative; and Beadle's Western Wilds, 60-80, a fantastic oue, purporting to be by one of Warfield's men, and evidently founded on fact in the earlier parts.
330
A MEXICAN TERRITORY.
a load of 5,000 pounds. Cotton goods were the staple article of traffic, but there was also carried a miscel- laneous assortment of dry goods and hardware. The route of over 800 miles lay in an almost direct line west-south-west to San Miguel del Vado, and thence north-west to Santa Fé; but this route, with some of the most common variations, is best shown by the map. Midway of the journey was the crossing of the Arkansas, the boundary between United States and Mexican territory ; and the route corresponds nearly, in a general way, with that of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad of later times. The arrival was generally in July, and the return departure in August. The selling price of goods was on an aver- age about double the cost, and at this rate was, for a time, sufficiently low to control the market as against foreign goods imported by way of Vera Cruz or Chi- huahua; and indeed, a large proportion of the Missouri goods were sent from Santa Fé to the south by the regular autumn caravans. Dutics, after an 'under- standing' with custom-house officers-for very slight attention was paid to the national arancel de derechos -were from 25 to 50 per cent of cost, and the trad- ers' net profit was as a rule from 20 to 40 per cent, though some cargoes were sold at a loss. The goods were paid for mainly in gold and silver coin, though a considerable quantity of furs and blankets was taken, and the wagons were sometimes partly laden with wool, there being no duty on exported products.28 I
28 The tax on exports was remitted in favor of N. Mex. by a decree of July 19, 1823, for 7 years; and the privilege was renewed in 1830, 1838, and 1845. Arrillaga, Recop., 1829-30, p. 100; 1830, p. 131; 1838, p. 143; 1845-6, p. 95-6; also other collections of laws. The receipts of the N. Mex. custom-house, as reported to the Mex. govt, were as follows, according to Prieto, Rentas, 204, doc. 3-the sums in parentheses being from the govt memorias, and differing somewhat: 1825, 8 months, $2,053 (12 mo., $3,595); 1826, 10 mo., $10,391; 1826-7, $8,607; 1827-8, $5,938; 1828-9, $27,008 ($27,907); 1829-30, $12,691; 1830-1, $10,581 ($31,882); 1831-2, $31,314; 1833-4, 829,297; 1836-7, $21,219; 1841, ($1,195); 1842, ($27,921); 1843, (881,400). Gregg mentions a custom, said to prevail, of dividing the legal duties into three equal parts, one for the officers, one for the trader, and one for the govt. He also says that of the $50,000 to $80,000 annually collected, nearly half has been embezzled. It was believed at first that the N. Mex. authorities were collecting much more than the Mex. law permitted; but such was not the case. There was a prohibitory duty of $4 per pound on tobacco.
331
ROUTE OF THE SANTA FE CARAVANS.
101
Kansas
i-Independence
-----
5
Jefferson"
City
R
A
D
Arkansas
Trait
marron
Taos/
Sta
S
SantaFe
Canadi
Alburquerque
R
Vorte
Nº
E
R
ed
del
A
Gran
Rio Pecos
Rio
Dona Ana
El Paso
THE SANTA FE TRAIL.
N
D
Arkansas
Ţ
Y
ER
T
souri
R
S
332
A MEXICAN TERRITORY.
make no attempt here to picture the pleasures and perils connected with this 'commerce of the prairies,' or to present details of commercial methods, referring the reader for such matter, to the standard and often- cited work of Gregg, from which, however, before proceeding to notice the Santa Fé trade in some of its chronologic aspects, I append a table showing the growth of the trade from year to year.29 It should
29 Table showing approximate amounts of merchandise, number of wagons, hired men, proprietors, and the amount of goods sent south, chiefly to Chihuahua.
Year.
Mdse.
Wagons.
Men.
Traders.
To Chih.
1822
$15,000
. .
70
60
1823
12,000
.
50
30
1824
35,000
26
100
80
$3,000
1825
65,000
37
130
90
5,000
1826.
90,000
60
100
70
7,000
1827
85,000
55
90
50
8,000
1828
150,000
100
20
80
20,000
1829
60,000
30
50
20
5,000
1830.
120,000
70
140
60
20,000
1831
250,000
130
320
80
80,000
1832
140,000
70
150
40
50,000
1833
180,000
105
185
60
80,000
1834
150,000
SO
160
50
70,000
1835
140,000
75
140
40
70,000
1836
130,000
70
135
35
60,000
1837
150,000
80
160
35
80,000
1838
90,000
50
100
20
40,000
1839
250,000
130
250
40
100,000
1840
50,000
30
60
5
10,000
1841
150,000
60
100
12
80,000
1842
160,000
70
120
15
90,000
1843
450,000
230
350
30
300,000
In Farnham's Mex., 33, is given the estimate of David Waldo, 30 years in the trade, of the business of 1846, as follows: cost of goods, $937,500; cost of outfit, insurance, wages, etc., $414,750; profit, $400,000. There were 375 wagons, 1,700 mules, 2,000 oxen, and 500 men.
Commerce of the Prairies; or the journal of a Santa Fe trader, during eight expeditions across the great western prairies, and a residence of nearly nine years in. Northern Mexico. Illustrated with maps and engravings. By Josiah Gregg. N. Y., 1844. 12mo, 2 vol. I have also the 4th edition of Phil., 1850; and that of Phil., 1857, under the title, Scenes and Incidents in the Western Prairies. Gregg made his first trip with the caravan of 1831. His work is the princi- pal source of all that has been or can be written about the Sta Fé trade down to 1843; and it also contains an excellent description of the country, people, and customs of the northeru states of Mexico, with many historic items of value. After Gregg's work I have found the extracts and correspondence in Niles' Register, from year to year, the most useful source of information. I may also refer to Prince's Hist. Sk., 266-84; Ritch's Aztlan, 247; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, ii. 364; Harper's Mag., July 1880, p. 187-90; Nouv. Ann. Toy., xciii. 308-13; Escudero, in Pino, Noticias, 75-9; Barreiro, Ojeada, 24-5; Ban-
333
COMMERCE OF THE PRAIRIES.
also be noted that before many years had passed Santa Fé merchants of Spanish race fitted out regular caravans and controlled a large portion of the trade.
Freight was carried by pack-animals till 1824, when wagons were introduced as an experiment, and making the trip without difficulty were used exclu- sively after 1825. These first wagons seem to have taken the Taos route.30 By the success of this experi- ment was attracted the attention of wealthier men than any that had previously engaged in the trade; and these men lost no time in bringing the matter before the government. Memorials were sent to con- gress by the people and authorities of Missouri, de- manding protection for the new industry, by treaties with Indian tribes, the marking-out of a road, estab- lishing of a fort on the Arkansas, and the appointment of agents at Santa Fé and Chihuahua to prevent extortion in the collection of duties. Senator Benton took up the project with his customary zeal, and laid before the senate the statement of Augustus Storrs on the history and prospects of the prairie commerce. Finally, in January 1825, a bill was passed, authorizing the marking-out of a road, and appropriating $30,000 for this purpose and that of obtaining the Indians' consent to the road and its unmolested use.31 The
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